Sound artist and composer Nina Young talks about the intersection of electronic and acoustic music.
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Concerts
Robin McClellan, director of ComposerCraft, introduces six middle schooler composers collaborating on our Multiphonics concert.
What happened when opera singer Majel Connery threw away most of the traditional technique?
A 21st century re-imaginging of the bassoon classic, Mozart K191, for bassoon and electronics.
“How about a Cleopatra-inspired cantata with obbligato bassoon? Sounds awesome to me.”
“It’s exciting to premiere five new works that feature the bassoon on a single evening – it’s a rare occurrence.”
Jonah Reider is the culinary half of the duo behind “Brownstone,” a food- and music-based pop-up billed as “an experiential treasure-hunt of sound, taste and color.”
Du Yun: The Ocean Within
World premiere of Du Yun’s The Ocean Within, featuring harpist Bridget Kibbey, performed on January 11 & 15, 2012 at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City. This is Metropolis Ensemble’s inaugural concert for its new Resident Artists Series. Video by Aleksandr Sasha Popov. Audio by Ryan Streber.
In the Upper East Side townhouse that the American Irish Historical Society calls home, a violinist ambled down the stairs while tuning her instrument and a harpist improvised with electronic sounds that came from the walls.
“With its performers dispersed throughout the Olin Arts Center at Bates College, Metropolis presents the innovative site-specific piece Brownstone.”
Andrew Cyr and David Bruce talk over the score on stage for “The Firework Maker’s Daughter.”
Get an insider’s view of performances that are now in full swing for David Bruce’s “The Firework Maker’s Daughter” at The New Victory Theater.
[caption id=“attachment_1142” align=“alignnone” width=“500”] Khmer Arts Ensemble performing “A Bend in the River.” Photo by John Shapiro.[/caption]
Metropolis Ensemble is pleased to announce a co-commissioning partnership with Cambodian Living Arts as part of Season of Cambodia to develop a new work by Cambodian composer Him Sophy. Nearly four decades after the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge, no major symphonic work has emerged in Cambodia to address the traumas of the late 1970s. Cambodian composer and Khmer Rouge survivor Him Sophy is composing music for Paṃsukūla that combines a Western symphony orchestra and chorus with Khmer instrumentalists and vocalists. The libretto of this new requiem is structured on a Cambodian Buddhist liturgy for healing the sick and offering merit to the dead, known in Pali as pamsukula (pronounced in Khmer as bangsokol) and is written by Buddhist scholar, Trent Walker.
On April 15, 16, and 17, as part of Season of Cambodia, Metropolis Ensemble will bring together six Cambodian instrumentalists and singers to develop methods for uniting traditional Cambodian musical and ceremonial forms with a Western chamber orchestra and chorus. An invitation-only work-in-progress presentation will take place on April 17. Kindly RSVP by April 8 (support@seasonofcambodia.org or 855-762-2013).
Go behind-the-scenes with Andrew Cyr, artistic director of Metropolis Ensemble, John Burt, co-founder of Cambodian Living Arts, and Cambodian composer Him Sophy.
[caption id=“attachment_1138” align=“alignright” width=“200”] Composer Him Sophy[/caption]
Him Sophy is professor of music at the Royal University of Fine Arts and the Royal Academy of Cambodia, and an instructor at the Northbridge School. Born into a musical family in Prey Veng province, Cambodia, Sophy has studied in Phnom Penh and Moscow and was a visiting artist in the United States during 2001-02. He has written many compositions for chamber, orchestral, film, and musical settings, including the acclaimed rock opera Where Elephants Weep, premiere 2008. His most recent commissions include a premiere in March 2011 at the Auckland Arts Festival and the score for Khmer Arts new dance production “A Bend in the River” at the Joyce Theater, April 2013 as part of Season of Cambodia.
Sophy’s new work, Paṃsukūla, adopts the Western tradition of a Christian requiem mass for the predominantly Buddhist Cambodian context. The libretto of this new requiem is structured on a Cambodian Buddhist liturgy for healing the sick and offering merit to the dead, known in Pali as paṃsukūla. This ritual is rich in symbolic meaning and is performed at Cambodian healing ceremonies, funerals, and memorial services. Given the enduring importance of performing arts in Cambodian culture, music is a singularly powerful vehicle for this healing.
Season of Cambodia lights up New York City’s cultural landscape in April and May 2013, with more than 125 artists from Cambodia for a major celebration of Cambodian arts, culture, and humanities. Distinctive works from master and emerging artists and scholars — in ritual, music, visual arts, performance, dance, shadow puppetry, film, and academic forums — will be presented by 30 of New York’s most renowned arts and educational institutions, marking an unprecedented city-wide partnership initiative to celebrate one of the world’s most vibrant and evocative cultures. Season of Cambodia is an initiative of Cambodian Living Arts.
Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) is a Phnom Penh-based NGO with non-profit status in the United States, founded in 1998 by artist and Khmer Rouge survivor Arn Chorn-Pond to preserve Cambodia’s traditional art forms. CLA began a new commissions program in 2003 to inspire a new generation of artists, composers, playwrights and choreographers to create new work.
Metropolis Ensemble is a professional chamber orchestra and ensemble dedicated to making classical music in its most contemporary forms. Led by Grammy-nominated conductor Andrew Cyr, Metropolis Ensemble gathers today’s most outstanding emerging composers and young artists to produce unique, innovative concert experiences. Founded in 2006, Metropolis Ensemble has commissioned over 85 works of music from a dynamic mix of emerging composers and has been presented by The Wordless Music Series, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, (Le) Poisson Rouge, and Celebrate Brooklyn!, BAM, and The New Victory Theater. Learn more…
Generous support for Metropolis Ensemble is provided by the American Chai Trust and Michael Cohn. Lead institutional support for Season of Cambodia comes from Ford Foundation, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation.
Metropolis Ensemble, led by Grammy-nominated conductor Andrew Cyr, is delighted to announce its collaboration with The Opera Group and Opera North: “The Firework Maker’s Daughter” a new opera by David Bruce and Glyn Maxwell based on the enchanting novel by acclaimed author Philip Pullman. The family-friendly production will be presented May 3-12, 2013 at The New Victory Theater in New York City. This captivating opera tells the story of one girl’s quest to become a firework maker. Determined to master Crackle Dragons, Leaping Monkeys and Golden Sneezes, Lila tests her talents and gambles her good fortune as she parlays with pirates, grapples with ghosts and faces off with a ferocious fire-fiend. “The Firework Maker’s Daughter” features an internationally-inspired score by David Bruce and a witty libretto by Glyn Maxwell and a cast of five artists who enliven shadow puppets from Cambridge, England’s Indefinite Articles. Metropolis artists, including nine players, will perform this chamber opera in two acts, set in a fantastical land where animals talk, goddesses reign and imps dwell. Philip Pullman is the author of several best-selling books, most notably the fantasy trilogy “His Dark Materials,” including Northern Lights which was adapted for film in 2007 as “The Golden Compass” starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. He published “The Firework Maker’s Daughter” in 1996, incorporating his love for the inventive names of pyrotechnics like incandescent fountain and scarlet volcano. In an interview with Scholastic, he said the idea for the book “came from my childhood when we used to have fireworks every year on Guy Fawkes Night… And I’d never lost that love of fireworks, so I thought it would be nice to do a story all about them.” Mr. Pullman suggests that theater is most valuable to us because it invites us to pretend together and that, by joining in, we make the journey something we share. The author provides audiences one undeniably adventuresome opportunity to do so, as his novel jumps from page to stage in this full-blown puppet opera. From aspiring adolescent firework makers who contend with pirate crews to an entrepreneurial albino elephant, nothing is too much for the imagination and it’s all a delectable dose of exactly what Mr. Pullman prescribes:
“Children need to go to the theater as much as they need to run about in the fresh air. They need to hear real music played by real musicians on real instruments as much as they need food and drink. They need to read and listen to proper stories as much as they need to be loved and cared for… If you deprive them of art and music and story and theater, they perish on the inside.”
Composer David Bruce is a native of Stamford, Connecticut who grew up in England and has a growing reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. Metropolis Ensemble has collaborated on multiple projects with Mr. Bruce, including
and most recently
He received his third Carnegie Hall commission
Steampunk
last year, and new commissions from The Silk Road Ensemble and the London Philharmonic in 2012. Mr. Bruce recalls his own connection to the stage and the creation of this new opera:
“Since my own childhood I have thought of the theatre as a colourful place of magic and fantasy and as I’ve grown older I am still attracted to those same aspects - for me there is not really a difference between children’s theatre and adult theatre - as I see it, it’s all ‘play’ and we are all children… In the theatre we allow ourselves to wonder - to question 'what if’ - and the question can sometimes be absurd or comical in nature, but other times be something much more profound. In a largely secular society, the theatre is one of the few places where we can still ask ourselves the big questions, and still feel wonder in all its aspects. My instinct as an artist is to set those big questions in a context that allows us to laugh, smile and relax.”
“The Firework Maker’s Daughter” makes its world premiere at Hull Truck in Yorkshire on March 23, 2013 and tours the UK at Linbury Studio and Royal Opera House in April, before coming to America and The New Victory Theater in May. Located in the heart of Times Square and 42nd Street, this historic jewel box theater (the oldest operating in New York City) is tricked out especially for families.
for children 8+ and imaginations of all ages!
Co-produced by
and Opera North in association with ROH2 and Watford Palace Theatre. Co-commissioned by The Opera Group and ROH2. Orchestral Partner: Metropolis Ensemble. Art credit for The New Victory Theater: Tom Slaughter
Metropolis Ensemble artists performing on Opening Day (March 7, 2012, 2pm and 3:30pm, at Pier 94) at The Armory Show this week, presenting the U.S. premiere of Icelandic artist Örn Alexander Ámundason’sKreppa. The work is a “symphonic poem” that explores the question: “what does a financial collapse sound like?” Ámundason, who has explored what happens when politics are transformed into music, has identified thirteen main protagonists, given each of them an instrument and transformed their voices into a music score. [caption id=“attachment_840” align=“alignright” width=“250” caption=“Örn Alexander Ámundason”][/caption]The Armory Show is the cornerstone of the art community in New York City, an adventurous contemporary art fair with an international roster of galleries, performances, and programs. This year’s event features a focus on the vibrant art of the Nordic Countries, including a conversation with the artist Björk and select galleries from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. Get directions to the show… Ámundason was born in Reykjavík, Iceland in 1984, and has explored what happens when politics are transformed into music. Some of his works refer to a tense social or political context but even more importantly to the probably irresolvable difficulties of ‘true’ translation. He’s had exhibitions at the Göteborgs International Biennial for Contemporary Art in Sweden, Brandenburgischen Kunstverein in Germany, Sudsudvestur in Iceland, and Galleri F-15 in Norway. Kreppa marks his first commission for orchestra. Ámundason explains the work:
In October 2008 a financial crisis hit Iceland. Three of the major banks went bankrupt and the Icelandic crown lost about half its value. The story of the crisis can be traced back to 1984 when the government issued a fishing quota system, through the privatization of the three major banks in 2000 and finally to the recent financial crash in 2008. It’s a story of greed, revenge, arrogance and poor political decisions. In Kreppa, I transpose words and speeches from politicians, investors, protesters, banks & the media, all involved with the financial crisis into musical notes. I collected material from various medias, radio interviews with politicians, TV shows about the Icelandic investors and so forth. Having no experience of writing musical notes I used a computer program that altered the voices of these people into musical transcripts. Investors are transformed into woodwinds, which have cultural references to the snake charmer that hypnotizes cobras often using a wind instrument, as well as the Pied Piper of Hamelin who lured 130 boys and girls from their hometown. The politicians’ voices became string instruments, a reference to Nero, who is said to have played the fiddle while he watched Rome burn to the ground. Banks and press became brass music, which has a specific role in history, as the world’s first adverts were simply people yelling announcements through a speaking trumpet. Protesters become percussion, which were likely the first musical devices ever created and are often referred to as “the backbone” or “the heartbeat” of a musical ensemble.
Metropolis has a great lineup of musicians appearing in the concert: Double Bass: Doug Balliett Cello: Brook Speltz Viola: Wei-Yang Andy Lin Violin: Emily Smith Ukulele: Matthew Slotkin Clarinet: Carlos Cordeiro Flute: Lance Suzuki Flute: Steven Kim Recorder: Priscilla Smith French Horn: Wei-Ping Chou Tuba: Ibanda Ruhumbika Trombone: Steve Dunn Marimba: Britton Matthews Conductor: Andrew Cyr
Kreppa
is generously sponsored by Stund styrktarsjóður and the Icelandic Art Center. Metropolis Ensemble’s performance is generously sponsored by Robert Bielecki and Fast Orbit.
Harpist Bridget Kibbey had a concept for a concert: to celebrate the diverse and colorful cultures that make up the American musical fabric.
Violinist Sean Lee talks to Metropolis about his critically-acclaimed new release with EMI Classics and The Juilliard School.
Kicking Up Dust from Metropolis Ensemble on Vimeo.
Michael Ward-Bergeman’s Kicking Up Dust, performed on January 28, 2009 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. Featuring Paul Clifford on freedom boot and the Metropolis Ensemble led by conductor Andrew Cyr. Video by Gareth Paul Cox and Kyrié Cox; sound by Ryan Streber.
Bach and Ryan Francis: Sillage from Metropolis Ensemble on Vimeo.
Bach and Ryan Francis: Sillage, featuring Kristin Lee on violin and Conor Hanick on piano. Performed on February 14, 2010 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. This was part of Love Letter to Haiti, a Valentine’s Day benefit concert for Partners in Health, organized by Metropolis Ensemble and artistic director Andrew Cyr. Video by Gareth Paul Cox and Kyrie Cox; sound by Ryan Streber.
Tallis: If Ye Love Me from Metropolis Ensemble on Vimeo.
The world premiere of Thomas Tallis: If Ye Love Me (arranged by David Bruce), featuring Metropolis Ensemble and Friends, Kristin Lee on solo violin. Performed on February 14, 2010 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. This was part of Love Letter to Haiti, a Valentine’s Day benefit concert for Partners in Health, organized by Metropolis Ensemble and artistic director Andrew Cyr. Video by Gareth Paul Cox and Kyrie Cox; sound by Ryan Streber.