PRESS RELEASE
June 22, 2023
Metropolis Ensemble Nominated for 2023 Opus Klassik Awards for Tyondai Braxton’s Telekinesis
Opus Klassik, Germany’s prestigious juried classical music prize, announced nominees for the 2023 awards, with two nominations for Metropolis Ensemble’s 2022 studio album, Telekinesis, including Tyondai Braxton (Composer of the Year) and Tyondai Braxton / Brooklyn Youth Chorus / Metropolis Ensemble / Andrew Cyr / The Crossing (New Classic Award).
Berlin, Germany— On October 8, 2023, the Association for the Promotion of Classical Music will award the OPUS KLASSIK, the prize for exceptional musical achievements in the field of classical music.
Metropolis Ensemble’s 2022 studio album, Tyondai Braxton’s Telekinesis, received two nominations:
Composer of the Year Prize: Tyondai Braxton (Telekinesis)
New Classic / Neo Classic Prize: Telekinesis (Braxton, Tyondai / Metropolis Ensemble / Cyr, Andrew / Brooklyn Youth Chorus / The Crossing)
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The first studio recording of Telekinesis — an eighty-seven-piece work for electric guitars, orchestra, choir and electronics— was released on November 11, 2022 on New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records. The album features Metropolis Ensemble (conducted by Andrew Cyr), the Brooklyn Youth Chorus (conducted by Dianne Berkun Menaker), and chamber choir The Crossing (conducted by Donald Nally).
Seth Colter Walls from The New York Times praised Telekinesis as a joy: “Fans of this electronic and orchestral specialist have been waiting for the next big statement. And here it is... Tyondai Braxton in full command of his art.”
Pwyll ap Siôn from Gramophone raved: “Entering Telekinesis’ sound world, one feels like an explorer discovering a planet located at the far reaches of a distant galaxy… a journey that is at once exhilarating, terrifying and alienating.”
OPUS KLASSIK, with 26 categories, recognizes outstanding recordings from a diverse pool of artists from around the world. Previous recipients include celebrated artists such as Lang Lang, John Williams, Berliner Philharmoniker, and Joyce DiDonato. This year’s awards ceremony will be held on October 8, 2023 at Konzerthaus Berlin.
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Since 2010, Metropolis Ensemble collaborated on numerous albums, including the Grammy-nominated Avner Dorman’s Concertos (2010) and the Juno Award-winning Vivian Fung’s Dreamscapes (2012). Each recording brings together innovative studios and genre-defying independent expert musicians to employ an ambitious and highly-technical approach to studio production that is rare in an industry that favors swift release of live recordings.
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More about Tyondai Braxton’s Telekinesis:
metropolisensemble.org/albums/tyondai-braxton-telekinesis
Metropolis Ensemble’s discography:
metropolisensemble.org/albums
About Tyondai Braxton
Tyondai Braxton, who Vice says “reminds us that the roots of today's experimental music can be located in part in the wrenching reaction to the 20th century classical canon,” has been writing and performing music under his own name and collaboratively, under various group titles, since the mid-1990s. He is the former front man of experimental rock band Battles.
About Andrew Cyr
Grammy-nominated conductor and artistic director, Andrew Cyr, founded Metropolis in 2006 to create new platforms for outstanding composers and performing artists. He has led premieres at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Celebrate Brooklyn!, Radio City Music Hall, Kimmel Center Verizon Hall, Sounds from a Safe Harbour, New Victory Theatre, Cité de la Music, Paris, Hamer Hall, Melbourne, and The Tonight Show.
About Metropolis Ensemble
New York-based Metropolis Ensemble is a Grammy-nominated non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning and producing ambitious projects in contemporary music, and expanding opportunities for emerging professional musical creators and performers to collaborate and inspire new audiences. Metropolis has commissioned hundreds of new works and site-specific projects, gathering independent expert musicians in premiere performances at renowned venues such as Hollywood Bowl, BAM, Lincoln Center, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About Brooklyn Youth Chorus
Brooklyn Youth Chorus is a Grammy Award-winning ensemble that has collaborated with a range of artists including the New York Philharmonic and International Contemporary Ensemble and has served over 10,000 students in its after-school and public-school programs. It has performed on a number of Nonesuch recordings, including Cecile McLorin Salvant’s Ghost Song (2022) and John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls (2004), and the New Amsterdam / Nonesuch release with Metropolis Ensemble of William Brittelle’s Spiritual America (2019).
About The Crossing
The Crossing is a professional chamber choir conducted by Donald Nally and dedicated to new music. It is committed to working with creative teams to make and record new, substantial works for choir that explore and expand ways of writing for choir, singing in choir, and listening to music for choir. With a commitment to recording its commissions, The Crossing has issued twenty-five releases, receiving two Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance (2018, 2019) and seven Grammy nominations.
Press Contacts
Armistead Booker, Metropolis Ensemble
press@metropolisensemble.org
(757) 870-4591
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