Morning Tale from Metropolis Ensemble on Vimeo.
Encore performance of Jakub Ciupinski’s Morning Tale (2009), performed on September 16, 2009 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. Featuring Jenny Lin on piano and electronics. Presented by the Metropolis Ensemble led by conductor Andrew Cyr. Video by Gareth Paul Cox, Kyrié Cox, and Jim Larson; sound by Ryan Streber.
Debussy: Clair de Lune and Massenet: Meditation from Thais from Metropolis Ensemble on Vimeo.
Claude Debussy: Clair de Lune, featuring Sean Lee on violin and Edvinas Minkstimas on piano; Jules Massenet: Meditation from Thais, featuring Sean Lee on violin and Bridget Kibbey on harp. 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.
Metropolis Ensemble is thrilled to present the inaugural concert of our new Resident Artists Series- concerts, musical events, and social gatherings that feature our core ensemble artists as solo instrumentalists in creative collaborations with composers from all genres. Metropolis Ensemble’s founding harpist Bridget Kibbey kicks-off this new initiative with a concert presentation entitled Music Box, featuring the world-premieres of six newly commissioned works for solo harp. Music Box gathers music by composers born in other countries who now call the United States home. Moved by both their individual stories and their music, Bridget solicited new work whose inspiration is based in folk idioms from each composer’s country of origin as well as from their own personal narratives. The harp is an instrument emblematic of storytelling and folklore. Music Box will allow the harp to carry this tradition forward into the 21st century, giving expression to the diverse voices that make up contemporary American culture. I would especially like to thank June Wu for her extraordinary leadership and commitment to our performing artists and composers and to all those who contributed so generously to The June Wu Artist Fund to make this series possible. I would also like to thank the good people at (Le) Poisson Rouge, David Handler, Justin Cantor, and Ronen Givony as well as the able staff at LPR for being such important advocates and supporters of our community of emerging musicians and composers. Special thanks as well to Jessica Healy and Buffalo Trace, Jakub Ciupinski, Zipora Fried, Kristin Lee, Candice Madey, Jennifer McCrae, Andrew Schorr, Jonathan Schorr, Sara Menker, Jennifer Salomon, Richard Salomon and Laura Landro, Roy and Diana Vagelos, and tonight’s host committee for their efforts to broaden our community of fans, friends, and supporters. At these concerts, we are an orchestra of one, yet in Bridget’s hands (and feet), she will sound like many!
Bruce: Caja de Musica and Capulet: A l'espangol from Metropolis Ensemble on Vimeo.
David Bruce: Caja de Musica; Andre Capulet: A l'espangol, both featuring Bridget Kibbey on harp. 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.
“With each new reel or change in the music, the locals instinctively changed their steps to a new regional dance. I was in shock.”
Discover the origin story that led to an ongoing collaboration between The Roots and Metropolis, and their new studio album, Undun.
The remainder of undun speaks through the instrumentals, where innocent pianos and violins turn into reckless percussions that fade into searing strings suggesting Redford has died.
The album has an instrumental coda… an elegiac string quartet and a last dissonant piano chord, an unpeaceful final rest.
Undun is also a mirror held up to present-day America, where ambitions are more likely to die than prosper. It's a downer, but timely and affecting, with moments of beauty.
A gorgeous neo-classical suite closes the album… If an album can be both chilling and beautiful at once, "Undun" is it.
“All told, the story undun tells is sometimes chilling, often thrilling, and always illuminating.”
“The Roots’ 13th release is a concept album with a bravura twist: It narrates the story of a bootstrapping hustler in reverse, from death to birth.“
“The Roots' 13th album, which includes a brief, four-part orchestral suite that builds off a Sufjan Stevens piece, is definitely their most downbeat.“
We are pleased to hear that Metropolis artist Avi Avital will be signed in an exclusive recording agreement with Deutsche Grammophon as the first mandolinist to be signed by the label. The complete press release follows below.
Recognized by the New York Times for his “exquisitely sensitive playing” and “stunning agility”, Grammy®-nominated mandolinist Avi Avital is one of the most exciting young musicians on today’s scene — deeply committed to building a fresh legacy for the mandolin through virtuosic performance and refreshing new repertoire.
Israeli-born Avi Avital has won many competitions and received awards including Germany’s Echo Award — and is the first mandolin player to receive a classical Grammy® nomination for “Best Instrumental Soloist Performance” in 2010.
Avital’s debut Deutsche Grammophon recording will be an all-Bach album — including transcriptions of concertos for harpsichord and violin in arrangements for mandolin and orchestra — with Kammerakademie Potsdam.
Michael Lang, President of Deutsche Grammophon, says: “Avi Avital is a remarkable virtuoso, completely at home in his instrument’s traditional repertoire, but also an extraordinarily communicative pioneer of new music. We are very pleased to welcome him to the Deutsche Grammophon family.”
On signing the contract Avi Avital remarked: “I am honored to join a label which has recorded so many legendary instrumentalists — and I look forward to bringing traditional and contemporary music for mandolin to audiences around the world — starting with the greatest traditional-modernist of all, J. S. Bach!”
Grounded in his instrument’s Baroque tradition, Avi Avital’s performances regularly include concertos by Vivaldi, Paisiello, and Bach — as well as works by many contemporary composers, including Avner Dorman, David Bruce, and Josef Bardanashvili. His 2011 concert dates have included appearances in Germany, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA — with dates scheduled in Germany, France, UK, China, and Taiwan.
Avi Avital is internationally regarded for performances at venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Wigmore Hall in London, and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. He has also been featured at the Tanglewood, Lucerne, Spoleto, and Ravenna summer music festivals.
“Avital has the gift of transforming the seemingly impossible into reality. His magical fingers arrange, shape, and twist the melodious phrases so evocatively that they take on a vocal quality, sounding even more vibrant than the music many violinists or cellists coax from their instruments.” (Jesko Schulze-Reimpell, Donaukurier)
“Avital’s playing, which can be defined as ‘everything you never dreamt a mandolin could do’, was truly breathtaking in virtuosity and dedication.” (Noam Ben Ze’ev, Haaretz Daily)
David Patrick Stearns from the Philadelphia Inquirer highlighted Metropolis artist Kristin Lee and her performance with Astral Artists with pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine on November 6, 2011. The glowing review of their concert at Trinity Center for Urban Life in Philadelphia called it a “breakthrough” and “inspiring”:
“No pairing since violinist Soovin Kim and pianist Jeremy Denk has exhibited the kind of synergy with which the two both supported and competed with each other in the best possible way. Often, they seemed bent on topping each other, not with sparkle and brilliance (though such qualities were certainly there) but with specificity of insight and of characterization in a big, varied program of Poulenc, Adams, Ysaye, Messiaen, and Brahms.”
Finally, credits roll over a sublime string quartet, mercifully for Black Thought's black thoughts — at least for a moment, before ?uestlove's meticulously arranged strings are silenced by the chilling, deathly growl of a struck piano.
[caption id=“attachment_724” align=“alignright” width=“300” caption=“Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall”][/caption] Big news: Metropolis Ensemble is releasing two new albums—one for Nonesuch featuring works by Timothy Andres, and the other for Naxos with works by Vivian Fung. Both composers were presented in Metropolis’s latest Renderings concert at the Angel Orensanz Center on September 15. Musicians got together for an intensive week of rehearsals, followed by a weeklong recording marathon at the Tanglewood studios in Massachusetts. Timo played piano for his own pieces: Homestretch (concerto for piano and small orchestra), Paraphrase on Themes by Brian Eno (for chamber orchestra), and Piano Concerto No. 26, “Coronation” (an adaptation of Mozart’s incomplete concerto). Vivian’s pieces—Dreamscapes (for prepared piano and orchestra), Violin Concerto, and Glimpes (for solo prepared piano)—were performed by soloists Conor Hanick on piano, and Kristin Lee on violin. There are some pretty obvious factors that make recording sessions different from rehearsals and performances, but not all in ways that you might expect. Timo explains:
“Most of my job as composer was accomplished during rehearsals, where I talked about interpretation and mood. The recording session was about the fine details: balance, intonation, tempo. One thing that happens when you have different takes is you wind up with different tempos. It requires a level of precision that I find to be great for musicianship.”
Vivian had a much different rehearsal and recording experience than Timo, as she was hearing her pieces for the first time being played by musicians. “We were figuring out the kinks during rehearsal, like the tricky spots, tempo changes, coordination of Kristin’s part with everyone else,” Vivian explains. “It’s hard when you’re rehearsing the piece for the first time to get a handle on what it sounds like. You have to get familiar with the sound world.” During the recording process, Vivian was sitting in the control room making notes on what needed to be worked on, adjustments to the dynamics, marking which takes were best; she even rewrote orchestra parts to make some transitions smoother. Vivian remarks, “It would be different if it were for a performance, but this was going to be etched in a recording forever! I wanted it to sound exactly how I meant for it to be.” The whole process was a unique experience for the musicians to have the composers present for the rehearsals and recording session, offering minute-to-minute feedback and adjusting the piece as they played. Conor, who performed solo piano on Vivian’s
Dreamscapes
and
Glimpses
, commented on the experience:
“While we were rehearsing, Vivian sat next to me and wrote notes and suggestions. You definitely can’t cut any corners when a composer’s sitting next to you! It definitely ups the ante for playing the music as accurately and brilliantly as possible.”
Kristin, who played both the solo part of Vivian’s
Violin Concerto
and the orchestra part in other pieces, had to pace herself during the intense week. She compares her approach to the recording sessions and performance, which took place one week later:
“During the recording session, the priority was clarity of tone, exaggerated dynamics, clean playing—it was very focused on the technical aspects. The performance was more musical. I let loose and had a good time. I didn’t necessarily care if I missed a note, I really went over the top and was much more flexible with my interpretation.”
Despite the stressful rehearsal and recording process, Kristin comes out of it asserting, “It was really more fun than anything.” Conor also agrees that despite the grueling 9-hour recording sessions everyday, the group had an amazing time:
“The group was so positive and supportive that any time the attention span or enthusiasm dipped, there were people that brought us back. This was the smoothest sailing recording I’ve ever experience—it had a lot to do with Andrew Cyr being so organized, calm, levelheaded, and precise about what he wanted.”
The musicians and composers all agree that it was an exhausting, but totally rewarding process; Vivian shares a final reflection on the experience:
“I felt so good about the whole process because everyone was so invested in the project. For me, the pieces took on a life of their own; Conor and Kristin really owned the pieces. It’s like giving birth to a baby—it’s something that’s yours that grows into something that you share with other musicians.”
Be on the lookout for these two new Metropolis albums in 2012!
Recapping the world premiere performances from Metropolis resident composers Timothy Andres, Vivian Fung, and Ray Lustig.
Jennifer Melick from Symphony Now recently sat down with Artistic Director Andrew Cyr to talk about Metropolis’ approach to concerts, education, and fundraising. Among the ideas that Andrew discussed was how Metropolis produces concerts and all the details that go into each project:
“When I started thinking about a career as a conductor, I looked around, and was like, ‘No one my age is going to concerts.’ It was really sad, because this music that I love so much is just not being presented in ways that are relevant to a lot of my friends who work in other fields—even within the creative arts… So I was kind of like, 'Well, maybe we really need to weave in contemporary music more creatively so that we will generate more curiosity.’ I did it as a way to address audience problems, and then I found it was so fascinating to work with living composers: it was awesome! They pour so much of their entire being into these compositions, and they’re trying to achieve so much, it was really inspiring. To be part of the process of creating a new work from start to finish, and imagining it being part of a whole evening that has an arc, that’s not just randomly programmed but that really connects with everything else, that was my intuition about how to do this. More and more, the ensemble turned in that direction. We also do a lot of performances in different types of venues, a little bit more social and more laid-back. I’d say the combination of all those things has really kind of helped us to build an awesome community. I tend to stay away from venues that have fixed seating, but really it depends on the project. As each project develops, the venues and where the project is going to go are part of that early conversation with the composers, and the size of the ensemble. We’re flexible, so we can be one or we can be 50. I might say, this project here is going to be perfect for Le Poisson Rouge because we’ll use their great sound system, for instance. But some projects lend themselves more to a more natural acoustic, so I’ll find a place like Angel Orensanz, or maybe a museum. Some things work really well in small spaces, just to get a really direct audience connection, to get a close kind of circuit.”
“Newly honored with a Grammy Award nomination, Cyr finds himself at the apex of Manhattan’s bustling new-music scene.”
