Here are a few highlights from our concerts in 2009, edited and produced by Gareth Paul Cox. Groanbox on January 28, 2009, featuring the works of David Bruce, Michael Ward-Bergeman, and John Adams. Glimpses on May 6, 2009, featuring the works of Vivian Fung, Jakub Ciupinski, and Cristina Spinei. New Music 101 on September 16, 2009, featuring the interactive works of Jakub Ciupinski. Reverb on November 19-20, 2009, featuring the works of Jakub Ciupinski, Vivian Fung, Erin Gee, and Cristina Spinei.

Looking for more of our best videos from the past four years? Check out this exclusive collection and our complete video archives.

Labels: cristinaspinei, davidbruce, ensemblenews, eringee, groanbox, jakubciupinski, johnadams, michaelwardbergeman, vivianfung

With the start of the new year, we want to pause a moment to reflect on the four years since Metropolis Ensemble's founding, and many of the amazing opportunities that have come our way.

Since 2006, Metropolis Ensemble...

• commissioned 24 world premieres and 5 U.S. premieres


• performed to capacity crowds in partnership with Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Celebrate Brooklyn, Le Poisson Rouge, Wordless Music Series, Smithsonian Magazine, Angel Orensanz Center, Americas Society, Chelsea Art Museum, Scandinavia House, and The Times Center


• introduced a new version of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in front of an audience of 10,000 in Prospect Park


• featured in broadcasts by WNYC and National Public Radio


• recorded its first studio album featuring composer Avner Dorman, produced by Grammy-winner David Frost, and released on NAXOS American Classics


• taught music composition and creativity to hundreds of elementary school students through our Youth Works program at P.S. 11 in Manhattan


• nurtured four young composers through our Wet Ink Emerging Composers program


• collaborated with leading artists, including monologist Mike Daisey, producer David Frost, indie-rock sensation Deerhoof, accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman, international roots-trio Groanbox, vocal stars Hila Plitmann and Kiera Duffy, jazz saxophonist Marty Erhlich, and mandolinist Avi Avital

We've had the privilege of working with several world-renowned composers over the past four years, including John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and David Schiff. It's also worth noting the incredible musicians who have appeared with Metropolis Ensemble thus far. Our roster - both past and present - now occupy leadership roles in orchestras around the world, including Montreal Symphony (concert master), Philadelphia Orchestra (first violin), Cleveland Orchestra (associate concertmaster), and St. Louis Symphony (principal viola). We are honored to share the stage with such bright young performers and composers!

Accolades and statistics aside, the true heart of Metropolis Ensemble lies in each of you: our fans, friends, patrons, volunteers, and music lovers who continue to encourage us with each new concert. Thank you for supporting our mission to breathe life into classical music and inspiring us to reach new heights in the years to come.

Labels: ensemblenews

Metropolis Ensemble welcomes its 2009-10 Youth Works fellow, Brad Balliett. Over the next year, Brad will work with elementary students at PS11 in Manhattan to teach them about composition and music appreciation... which culminates in a concert featuring the students' work. Brad is an accomplished composer, avid bassonnist, and active teaching artist. In addition to his work at PS11, he is part of Carnegie Hall's The Academy, in residency at PS315 in Brooklyn.

Youth Works is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the van Otterloo Foundation.

Labels: bradballiett, ensemblenews, youthworks

We've done a bit of spring cleaning around the Metropolis website in preparation for our 2009-2010 season, and we're excited to announce six upcoming events:

• Glimpses
  May 6, 2009 at Americas Society


• New Music 101: Intro to Electronica
  September 2009 at Le Poisson Rouge


• REVERB
  November 2009 at Le Poisson Rouge


• CD Launch Party and Concert
  January 2010


• I Found It By The Sea
  March 2010


• Home Stretch
  May 2010

Complete details about each program will be unveiled in due time. Be sure to RSVP for Glimpses on May 6 at the stunning Americas Society for an evening of music demonstration and wine tasting sponsored by Miro Cellars!

Labels: ensemblenews, glimpses

We're pleased to share a new documentary video about Metropolis Ensemble's world premiere of The Rite Remixed, last summer's adventurous collaboration exploding the boundaries of live electro-classical music. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the three concerts and watch exclusive interviews with the performers and composers!

Update: You can also experience the concerts through our highlights page with streaming audio, photo gallery, interviews, and press.

Video produced by Gareth Paul Cox and Kyrié Cox. Audio engineering by Leo Leite.

Labels: andrewcyr, deerhoof, ensemblenews, hilaplitmann, leoleite, ricardoromaneiro, ryanfrancis, therite, three

Metropolis Ensemble welcomes its 2008-09 Youth Works composer, Ray Lustig. Over the next year, Ray will work with elementary students at PS11 in Manhattan to teach them about composition and music appreciation... which culminates in a concert featuring the students' work. Ray is a doctoral student at Julliard; his orchestral composition Unstuck won last year's prestigious Rudolf Nissim Prize from the ASCAP Foundation. Here are a few samples of his recent work:



Youth Works is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the van Otterloo Foundation.

Labels: education, ensemblenews, raylustig, youthworks

Hear the Metropolis Ensemble and Deerhoof perform a concert from the Wordless Music Series, recorded live by WNYC at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY. Listen on NPR.org starting at 7:30pm EST. An hourlong special about the Wordless Music Series begins at 6:30pm. Tonight's webcast is produced by WNYC and hosted by David Garland.

Go to the broadcast now...

Wordless Music Series pairs Metropolis Ensemble led by Artistic Director/Conductor Andrew Cyr and indie sensation Deerhoof for a night of music under the stars. Experience The Rite: Remixed and Two-Part Belief with an expected audience of 10,000 at Celebrate Brooklyn. Featuring soprano Hila Plitmann.

Join us in Prospect Park - either in person or online - for a night of music under the stars!

Labels: andrewcyr, deerhoof, ensemblenews, npr, ricardoromaneiro, therite, wnyc

Artistic Director/Conductor Andrew Cyr and Composer Ricardo Romaneiro will be on WNYC Soundcheck at 2pm EST today to discuss their new composition, The Rite: Remixed and share the secrets of setting Stravinsky's most famous work to keyboards, laptops, brass and drums.

Three ways to listen...

1. Tune into WNYC FM 93.9 Radio
2. Listen on iTunes
   • Click on Radio (top left)
   • Open the "Public" category
   • Click on WNYC-FM
3. Listen Online. Click on the "listen live" box on this page.

UPDATE: You can now listen to the broadcast online or as a podcast.

Labels: andrewcyr, ensemblenews, ricardoromaneiro, therite, wnyc

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers recently featured Avner Dorman in the ASCAP Audio Portraits series. The interview includes excerpts from the forthcoming studio album with Metropolis Ensemble performing the complete chamber orchestra concerti of Avner Dorman (from our Fall 2007 concert, On Record). The new album, produced by Grammy-winning David Frost, will be released this fall.

Listen to the interview...

Labels: avnerdorman, ensemblenews, recordingproject

Metropolis Ensemble is pleased to offer a free download of Sports et Divertissements, recorded live at The Times Center in New York City on April 10, 2008. Erik Satie's twenty-one brilliant thumbnail sketches are presented in a delightful arrangement for chamber orchestra by David Bruce, and featuring our resident funny-man Mike Daisey.

Download Sports et Divertissements
(right-click to download the mp3, ctrl-click on a mac)

David and Mike had the opportunity to sit down and discuss Satie's work ahead of last month's concert. The conversation – ranging from challenges of composing and updating this work, to the serious (and not so serious) business of comedy – is available in the video archive. Be sure to also watch the Tennis excerpt and see conductor Andrew Cyr serve up a surprise finale.

And because there should never be lack of razor-sharp wit, Mike Daisey invites you to his latest performance: How Theater Failed America, running through June 22 at the Barrow Street Theatre. Dark, honest and hilarious, Daisey seeks answers to essential and dangerous questions about the art we're making, the legacy we leave to the future, and who it is we believe we're speaking to. An exclusive discount is available for Metropolis Ensemble members and fans!

Sports et Divertissements is commissioned for chamber orchestra by Metropolis Ensemble. Special thanks to audio engineer Ryan Streber, videographer Tim Bakland, and video editor Dan Hayek.

Labels: davidbruce, ensemblenews, eriksatie, loop, mikedaisey

Metropolis Ensemble and composer Ryan Francis are delighted to offer the complete live recording of Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra during its world premiere performance at The Times Center in New York City on April 10, 2008. You can download it here, absolutely free.

Ryan Francis: Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra:

• Movement 1
• Movement 2
• Movement 3
• Movement 4

(right-click to download the mp3s, ctrl-click on a mac)

You can also watch the entire Concerto, featuring pianist Anna Polonsky and the Metropolis Ensemble led by Artistic Director/Conductor Andrew Cyr on the Media Page, along with an extensive archive of performances and behind-the-scenes footage. Watch now...

Looking for more of Ryan Francis? Check out his MySpace, and get ready for this summer's world premiere of The Rite: Remixed. Ricardo Romaneiro joins forces with Ryan Francis and Leo Leite to re-conceptualize the most revolutionary work of the 20th Century, Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, through the lens of the latest sounds and technology from electronica! Three opportunities to experience the revolution (July 16-18)! Complete details...

Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra is co-commission from the Metropolis Ensemble and the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation. Metropolis Ensemble's Wet Ink and Youth Works programs are generously funded by the van Otterloo Foundation. Special thanks to audio engineer Ryan Streber, videographer Tim Bakland, and photographer Vern Kousky.

Labels: education, ensemblenews, loop, ryanfrancis, therite

Metropolis Ensemble will be opening for Deerhoof in Prospect Park on July 18, 2008, as part of the Wordless Music Series and Celebrate Brooklyn.

Metropolis Ensemble led by Artistic Director/Conductor Andrew Cyr and Wordless Music co-commissions The Rite: Remixed, a collaboration between three composers and live electronics producers, explodes the boundaries of live electro-classical music. Ryan Francis, Leo Leite, and Ricardo Romaneiro re-conceptualize the most revolutionary work of the 20th Century, Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, through the lens of the latest sounds and technology from electronica. Combined with acoustic forces consisting of huge percussion and brass ensembles, 2 keyboards / 2 laptops, and electric bass, the remixed version will fuse a futuristic, rhythm-inspired sonic tableaux with a hyper-kinetic visual show.

The Metropolis Ensemble and The Rite: Remixed appears as part of the Wordless Music Series, which puts popular and classical artists together to tear down boundaries between performers and audiences of each. "At the moment, there is no more inventive music series in New York" (Alex Ross, The New Yorker).

The mercurial SF experimentalists Deerhoof, "the most creative band in indie rock today," (LA Weekly) forge a distinctive sound out of sophisticated improvisation, fierce dissonance, and weirdly catchy melodies.

Labels: andrewcyr, deerhoof, ensemblenews, leoleite, ricardoromaneiro, ryanfrancis, therite

World-renowned soprano and leading new music muse Dawn Upshaw, and Meet the Composer Foundation have invited Metropolis Ensemble to perform the newly arranged Three Pieces from Piosenki by composer David Bruce at a gala dinner held in Upshaw's honor at the Manhattan Penthouse in New York City on May 28, 2008. The annual event organized by Meet the Composer honors a prominent American artist. The benefit committee includes Esa-Pekka Salonen, James Levine, Robert Spano, Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, among others.

Upshaw was involved in the original Carnegie Hall commission of Piosenki, and has recently been championing Bruce's music, commissioning an opera from him for her students on the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College, NY and scheduling performances of Piosenki herself in the fall. Other pieces selected for the event are by John Harbison and Tania Leon, both of whom will be in attendance.

More details about the gala...

Listen and learn about Piosenki...

Labels: davidbruce, dawnupshaw, ensemblenews

During the second semester of Youth Works, Metropolis Ensemble's 40-week education program teaching music composition and creativity to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders at PS 11 School, Cristina Spinei has been concentrating our weekly lessons on rhythm. After learning about different rhythms and making our own percussion instruments, she thought it would be fun for the class to have a recording session.

Students performed rhythms that they composed and notated on instruments which they built themselves the week before. They constructed drums, shakers, and mallets out of everyday objects to better understand the various performance possibilities with percussion. One student even turned an ordinary drum into a maraca and added rubber bands to make it a "guitar." Everyone loved hearing their own music and performance on CD. At the end of the percussion solos, you will hear excerpts of The Sound Recyclers performing at their first "recording session."



Stay tuned for news about our year-end concert project this June at Youth Works, where Cristina will create an arrangement of the students' compositions to be premiered in a concert by the Metropolis Ensemble and offered to the entire PS 11 school community.

The Metropolis Ensemble would like to thank the van Otterloo Foundation for generously supporting our education initiatives, Youth Works and Wet Ink.

Labels: cristinaspinei, education, ensemblenews, youthworks

Metropolis Ensemble and Artistic Director/Conductor Andrew Cyr are delighted to announce two new concerts for 2008:

LOOP
Thursday, April 10, 2008 (8pm)
The Times Center (620 8th Avenue at 41st Street)
Tickets: $20 online / $25 at the door
Buy tickets now...

The World Premiere performance of Piano Concerto by Wet Ink Composer Resident Ryan Francis featuring pianist Anna Polonsky. Also on the program, three 20th Century masterpieces: Ravel's Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, Salonen's Five Images from Sappho with soprano Kiera Duffy, and Satie's Sports et Divertissements, arranged by David Bruce. Wine reception during intermission.

Digital Sustain: Six Etudes for Piano by Ryan Francis
Saturday, March 8, 2008 (2pm)
Chelsea Art Museum (556 W 22nd Street)
Tickets: $20 online / at the door
Buy tickets now...

The World Premiere performance of ETUDES for Piano by Ryan Francis featuring pianists Vicky Chow, Michael Shinn, and Daniel Spiegel. Presented in tandem with etudes from Ligeti, Bolcom, Chopin, and Liszt. This special concert is a preview of Ryan Francis' spring concert premiere, Piano Concerto.

Labels: andrewcyr, digitalsustain, ensemblenews, loop, ryanfrancis

To say that Cristina Spinei's experience teaching for Metropolis Ensemble's Youth Works has been successful would be an understatement. Now halfway through this year's program at Public School 11 in Manhattan, Cristina wrote a report to capture some of the amazing progress her students are making.

Teaching at P.S. 11 for one semester has been exciting, challenging, and extremely rewarding. My students are imaginative and open to learning about music that they have had little exposure to. On the first day of class, I asked everyone to name a few composers. The responses I got were "Britney Spears, Jay-Z, Jennifer Lopez, 50 Cent, and Mozart." There was a lot of concern among the students that the music we were learning about would be written by "old dead guys" and would sound "old-fashioned." After the first month of lessons, the students were able to identify the music of Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Mozart, Vivaldi, and Wynton Marsalis.

From Brazilian percussion to Disney's Fantasia, Cristina has found some inventive and exciting ways to bring music and those "old dead guys" to life! At the end of the school year, Metropolis Ensemble will present a concert showcasing the students' work with Cristina. Read the full report (PDF)...

Labels: cristinaspinei, education, ensemblenews, youthworks

Metropolis Ensemble's Wet Ink Composer Resident, Ryan Francis, won a competitive commission from the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation for his Piano Concerto. The world premiere will be presented by the Metropolis Ensemble's spring concert, Loop, on April 10, 2008 with pianist Anna Polonsky and conductor Andrew Cyr. Here's the official announcement:

The American Composers Forum announces the results of the 2007 Jerome Composers Commissioning Program (JCCP). JCCP, now in its 28th year and one of only a few national commissioning programs, supports the production of new musical works by emerging composers. It seeks to boost a composer's career by offering composers an early commission and more experienced composers a chance to stretch their current boundaries. Composers apply with an ensemble or presenter and request support to underwrite the commissioning fee. Awards this year ranged from $3,000-8,000. A total of 17 projects were funded from a pool of $90,000.

Jerome Foundation was created by artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill in 1964, and makes grants to support emerging artists across the performing and visual arts, particularly those based in Minnesota and New York.

American Composers Forum is an organization committed to supporting composers and developing new markets for their music. Through grants, commissions, and performance programs, the Forum provides resources for over 1,700 composers around the world.

Congratulations to Ryan for this exciting achievement!

Labels: ensemblenews, loop, ryanfrancis

What happens when you put Vivaldi, bluegrass, and Israeli folk music together? Why is an international cast of top musicians converging on New York City this month? Find out when Metropolis Ensemble conductor Andrew Cyr and featured composer Avner Dorman talk about our fall concert, On Record, with Classical Domain. Read the interview...

Labels: andrewcyr, avnerdorman, ensemblenews, onrecord

In October, Metropolis Ensemble is embarking on our debut studio recording. In the very capable hands of David Frost, 2005's Grammy-winning classical producer of the year, we will produce an exciting new album featuring music from our fall concert, On Record. Each of the four chamber orchestra concertos from composer Avner Dorman will be recorded and scheduled for a late-summer release in 2008. Stay tuned as we continue to share updates about the recording, mastering, and publishing process over the next year!

Labels: ensemblenews, onrecord, recordingproject

Metropolis Ensemble is thrilled to be a featured participant in WNYC's Salute The Arts Initiative. WNYC profiles cultural nonprofit organizations in the New York metro area, and has selected Metropolis Ensemble as its featured participant for the month of September. Listen for our announcements on New York Public Radio, especially as we prepare for our upcoming fall concert, On Record.

Labels: ensemblenews, onrecord

Metropolis Ensemble welcomes its 2007-08 Youth Works composer, Cristina Spinei. A Julliard masters student, Cristina will guide students at Manhattan's PS11 in our exciting composition class, culminating in a concert that showcases the students' work. Meet Cristina...

Labels: cristinaspinei, education, ensemblenews, youthworks

David Bruce, our friend at Composition Today, recently sat down with Andrew Cyr to discuss the beginning of the Metropolis Ensemble, its mission, and plans for the spring concert and beyond. Read the interview...

Labels: andrewcyr, ensemblenews, thereandbackagain

Metropolis Ensemble is pleased to announce a new partnership with Smithsonian Magazine, kicking off our 2007 concerts in New York City. Smithsonian is proud to be supporting Metropolis Ensemble and its emerging composers, musicians and the creation of music as a living art form.

"Smithsonian Magazine readers are avid cultural catalysts, and an overwhelming number of them fulfill their passion for the arts by regularly attending live music performances." —Kerry Bianchi, Smithsonian Publishing Group Publisher

Our spring concert will live up to that expectation, as conductor Andrew Cyr leads an international ensemble in a bluegrass inflected "east-meets-west" Mandolin Concerto by renowned Israeli composer Avner Dorman, complimented by in-vogue Argentinean composer Osvaldo Golijov, and the soaring Chamber Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich.

Learn more about the partnership...

Labels: ensemblenews, thereandbackagain