Composers Concordance: My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama Guitar Quartet
Free
- Bruce Arnold, electric guitar
- Jane Getter, electric guitar
- Greg Baker, electric guitar
- Gene Pritsker, electric guitar
- Robert C. Ford, poetry
Jane Getter — Two Sides (of Sean)
Bruce Arnold — Duellist
Sting — Every Little Thing She Does is Magic (arr. Greg Baker)
On Saturday, November 16th, 2024 at 7pm Eastern, Composers Concordance presents the electric guitar quartet My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama at Harlem's Silvana. Featured compositions include Mama, I Can't Breathe Chorale #1 by Gene Pritsker, with words by Robert C. Ford, who will join the quartet as narrator; Two Sides (of Sean) by Jane Getter, in memory of our dear friend Sean Satin; Bruce Arnold's Duellist; and Greg Baker's arrangement of the classic song by The Police, Every Little Thing She Does is Magic.
My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama Quartet is named after the Frank Zappa song written in 1969. The initial idea for the group came at the 2014 Outreach Festival in Schwaz Austria, where 6 guitarists were asked to come together and perform a set. Gene Pritsker suggested an arrangement of the great Zappa composition for the group and this also become the name of the show. Three of the members from this performance; Jane Getter, Greg Baker, and Gene Pritsker talked about continuing this fun project in New York City and asked Bruce Arnold to join. Besides the Zappa classic, the group performs guitar quartet compositions by the four members and other composers, resulting in an eclectic array of compositional voices and guitar styles.
The in-person event will also be livestreamed on Composers Concordance's Facebook Page.
About Composers Concordance
Staying in rotation for 40 years in NYC is a rare feat. In the case of a new music presenting organization, it requires not only diligence and cognizance of achievements of the past but also an ethic of keeping one's ear to the ground for emerging stylistic and technological developments, as well as talented new composers on the scene.
Composers Concordance, founded in 1984 by Joseph Pehrson and Patrick Hardish, advised by Otto Luening, strives to present contemporary music in innovative ways, with an emphasis on thematic programming. Directors Gene Pritsker and Dan Cooper co-curate the programs and lead the CompCord Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, String Orchestra, and Big Band. Associate Directors are Milica Paranosic, Peter Jarvis, Debra Kaye, and Seth Boustead.
Composers Concordance has also created a Naxos-distributed record label: Composers Concordance Records, co-directed by Peter Jarvis. Composers Concordance's overriding vision is to promote contemporary music, composers, and new works as a rightful and respected part of society. Good music performed and recorded well, pushing the boundaries of sound and composition.
http://www.composersconcordance.comAbout Bruce Arnold, electric guitar
About Jane Getter, electric guitar
NYC-based Jane Getter is a “triple-threat” (Geoff Wilbur)—guitarist, singer, and award-winning composer. Getter’s 6th release, Anomalia, coalesces a lifetime of musical exploration into intricate arrangements, powerful playing, and killer solos.
https://janegetter.com/About Greg Baker, electric guitar
About Gene Pritsker, electric guitar
Composer/musical polymath Gene Pritsker has written over nine hundred compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music and songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles. His compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles, that are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures.
He is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation, an eclectic hip hop-chamber-jazz-rock-etc. ensemble. He also Co-Directs Composers Concordance. Gene's music is performed all over the world at internationally recognized festivals and by highly respected ensembles and performers.
He co-founded the Grammy-nominated Absolute Ensemble with Kristjan Jarvi and has been a composer in residence and guitarist since its creation in 1993. He worked closely with jazz fusion legend Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies, including Cloud Atlas, for which he wrote additional music and composed his Cloud Atlas Symphony. He is also the lead orchestrator for such TV series as Babylon Berlin, Jett, Netflix's Sense8, and Messiah. Gene is the lead orchestrator and has additional music in the 2021 film The Matrix Resurrections.
"My music is extremely eclectic, for me music has no bounds – I view the world of music as one big genre. My motto for my art is ending the segregation of sound vibration."
Gene is also a guitarist/rapper/Di.J./ and producer he incorporates each of these musical attributes to create music that is "not designed for easy listening or to melt into the background. It is insistent. It demands attention and curiosity." (New York Newsday) "Mischief-maker and cultural blender-in-chief, Pritsker is a serious artist, yet much of his work is witty and irreverent. Anyone can draw a mustache on the Mona Lisa, but few musicians draw it as artistically and creatively as Gene Pritsker." (Raymond Tuttle, Fanfare Magazine)
https://www.genepritsker.com/