All-PSNY Concert at the University of Memphis

by Ted Gordon on Oct. 31, 2014, 5:05 p.m.

Kamran Ince, composer and professor of Composition at the University of Memphis, recently led a concert of the U of M's Contemporary Chamber Players at the Rudi E Scheidt School of Music. The program included Ken Ueno's Visible Reminder of Invisible Light, Alex Mincek's Subito: No. 2, Timo Andres' I Found It By The Sea, Adrian Knight's Vain Attempts, and Keeril Makan's Tender Illusions. Check out this playlist of some of Kamran Ince's own compositions below, which were recently performed in a composer portrait concert by Milwaukee's leading new music organization, Present Music. 

Adrian Knight: Performances in New York, Upcoming Long-Form Piano Composition

by Ted Gordon on Oct. 23, 2014, 2:53 p.m.

San Francisco's Mobius Trio, a classical guitar trio composed of Robert Nance, Mason Fish, and Matthew Holmes-Linder, is coming to New York to perform Adrian Knight's Bon Voyage, a work for three guitars that was composed specificaly for these players. The trio will perform this work in three venues: November 5th at Spectrum in Manhattan, November 6th at Shapeshifter Lab in Brooklyn, and November 7th at Van Dyke Park (AKA New Amsterdam Records' space in Brooklyn). Check out a video of them performing this work on some beautiful, vintage guitars: 

Also, be on the lookout for a new, long-form composition for Piano by Adrian Knight, commissioned by pioneering new music pianist R. Andrew Lee. The piece is a result of Lee's commissioning project for new works "of considerable duration" by Knight and Randy Gibson. The new work is set to be performed at the Wayward Music Series in Seattle, WA, in 2015, and will also make its way to the East coast. Lee said he was inspired by Knight's composition Unruhe, from his 2008 Ricky Bruch Album. Check it out here:   

Three Premieres for PSNY Composers

by Ted Gordon on March 26, 2014, 12:35 p.m.

Only a week after announcing the publication of works by Marcos Balter, we're excited to spread the word about his upcoming World Premiere with the American Composers Orchestra on April 4th at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall! Balter's work, Favela, was commissioned by the ACO and draws sonic inspiration from the favelas of Brazil, Balter's home country. Check out Balter himself talking about this piece, his first for a full orchestra:

For those in New York, be sure to check out the Czech Center's 80th birthday celebration for Christian Wolff on March 27th. The program features the American premiere of Alex Mincek's Subito: No. 2, which premeired at the Ostrava Days fesitval last year. Musicians featured in the concert include Mincek himself, Christian Wolff, Philip Glass, Thomas Buckner, and many more. Mincek's Nucleus will also be performed on the second half of the concert. Check out an excerpt of Subito: No. 2 here:

For those in Boston, be sure to attend the Boston Modern Orchestra Project's concert on Friday, March 28th, which includes the American premiere of Lei Liang's Saxophone Concerto "Xiaoxiang", for saxophone and orchestra. The piece is an orchestration of his earlier work, Memories of Xiaoxiang, for saxophone and tape, available here on PSNY. Listen to a recording to be transported to the intersection of the rivers Xiao and Xiang during the cultural revolution, where Liang "search[es] for memories of realities, fragments of the truths in this broken, fractured, and scattered soundscape."

If you happen to be in Texas, Houston's Da Camera hosts Loadbang on April 8 for a performance of Christopher Cerrone's How to Breathe Underwater, Adrian Knight's 20 Maj, as well as works by Hannah Lash, Charles Wuorinen and Andy Akiho.