A review of Metropolis Ensemble’s August 12, 2011 concert, Martial Arts Trilogy, by Steve Smith for The New York Times.
The Chinese composer Tan Dun… drew an overflow crowd to Damrosch Park on Friday night for a performance of his “Martial Arts Trilogy,” a splashy multimedia event derived from three popular film scores. Performed by the Metropolis Ensemble and presented by Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the project linked quasi-concerto suites from Mr. Tan’s music for “Hero,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “The Banquet” into an evening-length sequence, with scenes from …

Metropolis composer and pianist Timothy Andres plays a live set for Hammered! on WQXR’s online station, Q2, hosted by Metropolis artist Conor Hanick.
“There’s something irresistibly raw and unpredictable about live performance, and when they’re of the caliber we’ll hear this week, few musical experiences can compare. Kicking off the week is a collection of pieces taken from three concerts.
Pianist / composer Timothy Andres pairs one of his own works, Everything Is An Onion, with a movement from Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata in a live performance taken from the Ecstatic Music …

WQXR host Nadia Sirota previews an upcoming Q2 Live Concert at the 2011 MATA Festival.
“The 2011 MATA Festival residency at (Le) Poisson Rouge spans three nights… Metropolis Ensemble closes out the festival on May 12 with works ranging from Brad Balliett and Elliot Cole’s hip-hopera, The Rake, to pieces from Chilean-born, 20-year old Remmy Canedo and New York’s own Ryan Carter.”
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John Heuertz of the Kansas City Star reviews the Kansas City Symphony’s premiere of Metropolis composer Avner Dorman’s Frozen in Time on April 30, 2011 with percussion soloist Martin Grubinger.
“Creation stories formed the backdrop of the Kansas City Symphony’s inventive concert Friday at the Lyric Theatre… Dorman, a rising young Israeli composer, scored this three-movement work for full orchestra and 23 different percussion instruments, principally marimba and vibraphone. All 23 of which Grubinger played with breathtaking mastery… The audience got so wound up it applauded after every movement, and kept …

WNYC’s John Schaefer of Soundcheck sat down with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steve Reich and Metropolis composer Timothy Andres on April 27, 2011, in celebration of Steve’s 75th birthday.
“Pianist/composer Timothy Andres made it to numerous top-10 lists last year with his debut album, Shy and Mighty. He also raised eyebrows with an eclectic list of influences that ranges from Radiohead and LCD Soundsystem to today’s other guest, Steve Reich. We hear Andres’ distinctive musical voice, as he joins us to play live in our studio.”
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Metropolis composer Ryan Francis introduces his new album, Works for Piano on back-to-back broadcasts for Hammered! on WQXR’s online station, Q2, hosted by Metropolis artist Conor Hanick, from April 25-29, 2011.
“On this specially curated week of Hammered! we spotlight a new album of piano music by New York-based composer Ryan Anthony Francis. The record features Bang On A Can pianist Vicky Chow, who, with Francis, joins Hammered! throughout the week with insights on this exquisite new body of piano music.
Among the diverse cast of characters looking over Francis’s compositional shoulder …

Patrick Neas of the Kansas City Star previews Kansas City Symphony’s premiere of Avner Dorman’s Frozen in Time on April 30, 2011.
The Symphony also will perform the U.S. premiere of Avner Dorman’s percussion concerto Frozen in Time. According to Dorman, the work was inspired by Earth’s geology.
“It’s divided into three movements: Indoafrica, Eurasia, and The Americas,” he said. “The percussionist Martin Grubinger asked me to write a concerto for him. He knew my music well and felt that my style was very global, and he thought that reflected our generation’s …

Sequenza 21 featured Metropolis composer Elliot Cole’s new album release on April 21, 2011.
“Some of you might know Elliot Cole as a composer of concert music, Contributing Editor here at Sequenza 21, or as a doctoral student at Princeton. But do you know Cole as a… rapper?
De Rerum, Elliot’s debut EP as a fast-talking MC, under the project moniker Oracle Hysterical, tackles lofty subject matter. According to Cole, “It’s a verse history of the world as I understand it (to c.2000BCE, after which, I discovered, history is mostly redundant), and …

David Peironnet of KCMetropolis interviewed Metropolis composer Avner Dorman ahead of his premiere of Frozen in Time on April 30, 2011 with the Kansas City Symphony.
DP: Frozen in Time is music composed for percussion. That’s always interesting. How do you, as a composer, develop a musical idea when you are essentially limited to banging on things?
AD: Well, listeners will notice that I use both unpitched and pitched percussion instruments. The pitched percussion instruments (marimba, vibraphone, crotales, glockenspiel, etc..) are as melodic as, say, a piano (the piano simply has …

Metropolis composer David Bruce was interviewed in April 2011 for his new commission for Silk Road Project.
“David’s music draws inspiration from folk traditions around the world, and he enjoys collaborating with musicians who have strong connections with both classical and folk or world traditions, which made him a prime candidate for working with the Silk Road Ensemble.”
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