eighth blackbird: winter 2010-11
The ultimate ambassador for new music, eighth blackbird has become the go-to ensemble for living composers at the top of their game. This winter, the group issues its second recording of the season to feature a new commission from a recent Pulitzer Prize-winner: September saw eighth blackbird’s Nonesuch release of Steve Reich’s Double Sextet, winner of last year’s Pulitzer, and in the new year the sextet helps launch the Atlanta Symphony’s brand new CD label – ASO Media – with On a Wire, a concerto by this year’s Pulitzer Prize-winner, Jennifer Higdon. Both commissions – like a wealth of other important new works – were written for and premiered by eighth blackbird. The Grammy Award-winning sextet is moreover the first choice of new-music festivals looking for inspired and visionary curators. Following its success at California’s Ojai Music Festival, eighth blackbird has now been invited to curate and perform at the “Tune-In” festival at New York City’s Park Avenue Armory in February. Meanwhile the group’s intensive touring schedule continues apace; besides performing On a Wire with the Toronto, Vermont, and Akron Symphonies, eighth blackbird looks forward to recitals in venues including the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.
eighth blackbird’s recording of Higdon’s On a Wire is centerpiece of first ASO Media CD (Feb 22)
One of the most prolific and frequently performed American composers alive today, Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962) is having a momentous year; in February her Percussion Concerto was awarded the Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and two months later she won the Pulitzer Prize for her Violin Concerto; as the New York Times observed, she has become “a hot commodity.” With the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and its music director, Robert Spano, eighth blackbird gave her new concerto, On a Wire, its world premiere last season. The work impressed the San Francisco Chronicle as an “exuberantly beautiful and inventive group concerto which left the audience exhilarated,” and the group’s performance, as the Mercury News bore witness, was “dispatched with dazzling flair,” making it “hard to imagine another sextet playing it with such energy and precision.”
It is this premiere performance that headlines the first release – due out on February 22, 2011 – on the Atlanta Symphony’s new CD label, ASO Media. The orchestra has already amassed an impressive 27 Grammy Awards in its 32-year recording history, so the new label promises to make its mark – not least with eighth blackbird’s contribution on this first, major release. Although On a Wire marks Higdon’s first concerto for eighth blackbird, it is not the first piece she has written for the sextet. Two previous commissions are critic- and crowd-pleasers: strange imaginary animals, the album that won the group two Grammy Awards, features the premiere recording of her piece Zaka (2003), which was also nominated for a Grammy, and Zango Bandango is a popular eighth blackbird encore.
On a Wire is a staple of eighth blackbird’s current season, with upcoming winter performances at the Vermont and Akron Symphonies (Dec 4 & Jan 14 respectively), followed by the Canadian premiere with the Toronto Symphony directed by Peter Oundjian (March 10). Additional spring dates culminate in a high-profile collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst in May.
Sextet curates and plays “Tune-In” festival at NYC’s Park Avenue Armory (Feb 16-20)
After the success of eighth blackbird’s collective curatorship of the 2009 Ojai Music Festival, the sextet has been selected to curate the Park Avenue Armory’s “Tune-In” contemporary music festival in New York City. Comprising five days of new music from February 16-20, “Tune-In” brings together an array of leading new-music groups, including San Diego-based percussion lab red fish blue fish; New York City’s Argento Chamber Ensemble; “potent, composer-led” (New Yorker) Newspeak; and Sympho, with conductor Paul Haas. Part palace, part industrial shed, the Armory fills a critical void in the cultural ecology of New York by enabling artists to create – and the public to experience – unconventional work that could not otherwise be mounted in traditional performance halls and museums. With its soaring 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall, reminiscent of 19th-century European train stations, the Armory boasts cathedral-like acoustics and an informal ambience that offers an escape from the confines and formalities of traditional concert halls. The festival also offers open rehearsals and artist talks in the Armory’s constellation of spectacular period rooms.
Closing the festival is the New York (and indoor) premiere of John Luther Adams’s Inuksuit (2009), which features more than 70 percussionists moving throughout the expansive hall during the performance. “Tune-In” also presents the world premiere of a new work, ARCO, commissioned by the Armory and co-created by Paul Haas, Paul Fowler, and Bora Yoon, which will be performed by Sympho. Other highlights include eighth blackbird and friends playing special versions of the group’s new, politically-charged, two-part program – “PowerFUL/less” – addressing Stravinsky’s provocative statement questioning the meaning and power of art. Part one, “Powerful”, presents music freighted with passionate political beliefs: Frederic Rzewski’s intense musical grenade Coming Together (1972) and works by Cage, Andriessen, Rob Davidson, David Little, and Matt Marks. Part two, “Powerless”, celebrates the rich and multifaceted world of “absolute” music that seeks no meaning beyond its own internal structures: Reich’s seminal Music for 18 Musicians (1974-76), marking the composer’s 75th birthday in 2011; Bach’s timeless Chaconne; Kurt Schwitters’s UrSonate for solo speaker (1922-32); and in vain, scored for 24 musicians, by Georg Friedrich Haas (2000). Festival program details are below.
Ensemble takes “Still Life” to Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (Jan 31)
It is with a popular and more playful program, “Still Life,” that eighth blackbird returns to Carnegie’s Zankel Hall on January 31. This diverse and whimsical selection includes Missy Mazzoli’s Still Life with Avalanche (2008) and Stephen Hartke’s Pulitzer Prize finalist, Meanwhile (2007), alongside Philip Glass’s Music in Similar Motion (1969), Philippe Hurel’s ...à mesure (1996), Pierre Boulez’s otherworldly Dérive 1 (1984), and Catch (1991) by Thomas Adés. It was a similar program performed at the Cabrillo Festival last summer that the San Jose Mercury News praised for “bring[ing] classical music into closer sync with the theatrical and pop-music worlds. But what’s unique to eighth blackbird is its fluid and playful choreography, the way the musicians move about the stage as they perform. It’s not quite ballet, but that’s the idea: to bring out a physical/visual representation of the music.”
A list of eighth blackbird’s winter engagements follows below, and much additional information is available at the group’s web site: www.eighthblackbird.com.
Tune-In festival
Park Avenue Armory
Feb 16 – 20
643 Park Avenue, NYC
http://www.armoryonpark.org/index.php/programs_events/detail/tune-in_music_festival/
Wed, Feb 16:
Paul Haas, Paul Fowler and Bora Yoon: ARCO (world premiere; commissioned by Park Avenue Armory; perf. by Sympho)
Thurs, Feb 17: “Powerful”:
Frederic Rzewski Coming Together (1972) arr. Matt Albert (perf. by eighth blackbird)
music by Rob Davidson, David Little and Matt Marks (perf. by Newspeak)
John Cage Credo in US (1942) for percussion ensemble (perf. by red fish blue fish)
Louis Andriessen Workers Union (1975) for any number of loud-sounding instruments (perf. by eighth blackbird and friends)
Fri, Feb 18: “Powerless”:
Georg Friedrich Haas in vain (2000) for 24 players (perf. by Argento Ensemble)
Kurt Schwitters UrSonate (1922-32) for solo speaker (NY premiere of arrangement; perf. By Steve Schick)
J.S. Bach Chaconne from the Partita in D minor (1717-23) for solo violin arr. Matt Albert (perf. by eighth blackbird and friends)
Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians (1974-76) (perf. by eighth blackbird and friends)
Sun, Feb 20: “Inuksuit”:
John Luther Adams Inuksuit (2009; NY/indoor premiere; perf. by members of eighth blackbird and more than 70 percussionists)
eighth blackbird’s winter engagements:
Dec 4
On a Wire with Vermont Symphony Orchestra
Flynn Center
Burlington, VT
Dec 5
“Still Life”
Flynn Center
Burlington, VT
Jan 9, 2011
Contempo concert
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Jan 13-16
Residency at Akron Symphony Orchestra
Akron, OH
Jan 15
On a Wire with Akron Symphony Orchestra
Akron, OH
Jan 17
“Live from WFMT” performance/radio broadcast
Chicago, IL
Jan 22
“Powerful”
Museum of Contemporary Art
Chicago, IL
Jan 24-28
Residency at University of Richmond
Richmond, VA
Jan 26
“Chamber Music of Arnold Schoenberg”
University of Richmond
Richmond, VA
Jan 31
“Still Life” (acoustic)
Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall
NYC
Feb 5
“Powerless”
Museum of Contemporary Art
Chicago, IL
Feb 16 – 20
“Tune-In” festival: “PowerFUL/less”
Park Avenue Armory
NYC
Feb 22
“Still Life”
Eastman School of Music
Rochester, NY
March 1
Contempo Double Bill
Harris Theater
Chicago, IL
March 3
“Still Life”
California State University, Fullerton
Fullerton, CA
March 5
Slide
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
March 10
On a Wire with Toronto Symphony Orchestra / Oundjian
Toronto, Canada
March 14-18
Residency at University of Richmond
Richmond, VA
March 14
“Powerless”
University of Richmond
Richmond, VA
March 22-23
Residency at University of Texas
Austin, TX
March 23
Slide
University of Texas
Austin, TX
March 26
“Still Life” (amplified)
Ensemble Music Society / Indiana Museum of Art
Indianapolis, IN
www.eighthblackbird.com