Friday, October 4, 2019

THE GRADUATE CENTER, CUNY AND MUSIC FROM COPLAND HOUSE LAUNCH NEW CONCERT SERIES

PROGRAMS SHOWCASING AMERICAN MUSICAL CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION, FEATURING WORLD AND NEW YORK PREMIERES 
Photo: Alison Bert
America’s musical past and future meet in a provocative new concert series The Graduate Center of The City University of New York and Copland House will launch this fall. These performances will champion a century of America’s vibrant musical legacy, within the context of broad cultural, historical, and societal currents. The six-concert series ranges widely, from performances of early 20th century masters and an evening of major chamber works by Aaron Copland to musical explorations inspired by identity and assimilation, spiritual journeys, and the intersection of visual art and music.
 
The series begins on November 4, 2019 and extends through June 15, 2020. All events will take place on Monday evenings at 7.30pm at The Graduate Center’s elegant, acoustically outstanding Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall, 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street) in Manhattan. Each program will last an hour, without intermission, followed by a meet-the-artists reception. The concerts will all be filmed live by CUNY-TV for subsequent telecast to its estimated viewership of over 7-million households in metro New York.
 
Highlighting the series are new compositions commissioned by Copland House from Sebastian Currier and Graduate Center Professor John Musto; the first New York performances of works by Kevin Puts, Pierre Jalbert, Flannery Cunningham, and Angel Lam; and the world premieres of six commissioned pieces by the 2020 Fellows of Copland House’s acclaimed CULTIVATE emerging composers institute.
 
"Music opens doors and is an essential instrument for education" said Brian A. Peterson, Interim Vice President of Administration and Finance and the Dean for Academic Initiatives and Strategic Innovation at The Graduate Center. “The arts provide an important catalyst for learning, creativity, and achievement in our communities. This new partnership with Copland House will engage our students and inspire audiences to discover surprising possibilities through these artists performing thrilling works from across America’s vast and vibrant musical spectrum.”
 
All of these concerts will feature the Music from Copland House ensemble (MCH), hailed as “bold,” “adventurous,” and “superb” (The New Yorker). The only American repertory ensemble that journeys widely across 150 years of the U.S. musical landscape, MCH performs at Tanglewood, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Library of Congress, and other major venues; appears on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, the European Broadcasting Union, and Sirius; and records on the Koch, Arabesque, and Copland House Blend labels. The ensemble’s roster of Founding, Principal, and Guest Artists includes some of America’s most celebrated performers, of whom The Chicago Tribune has raved, “Copland would have been proud of all of them.” MCH will also offer several rising-star instrumentalists from The Graduate Center’s Doctoral program the opportunity to perform side-by-side as Guest Artists with the ensemble at a number of these concerts – an important aspect of Copland House’s mission championing next-generation artists.
 
"I’ve played with and written for the excellent musicians of Music from Copland House, and we welcome them enthusiastically,” said composer-pianist John Musto, Coordinator of The Graduate Center’s D.M.A. Performance Program. “It is a privilege to host them here at The Graduate Center in the ensemble’s own series, and we are especially fortunate that they will periodically share the stage with some of the gifted young performers in our D.M.A. program.”
 
“Even in a city like New York,” said Copland House’s Artistic and Executive Director Michael Boriskin, “there is ample room for a dynamic new performance platform to explore and celebrate the vast breadth of a century-and-a-half of American musical invention and imagination. And these concerts will also offer the added excitement of discovering some of The Graduate Center’s richly-gifted instrumentalists.”
 
Individual tickets: $30.
Discounts for CUNY Faculty, Staff, and Students; Friends of Copland House; and seniors over 65: $20.
Subscriptions for any 3 concerts: $81, or $54 with discount.
Subscriptions for all 6 concerts: $153, or $102 with discount.
Find more concert information online, via contact Copland House at (914) 788-4659, via email, or at www.coplandhouse.org.

No comments:

Post a Comment