Composers Concordance: The Fiddlers
Free
- Daisy Castro, violin
- Jason Kao Hwang, violin
- Dave Soldier, violin
- Mazz Swift, violin
- Gene Pritsker (Noizepunk), guitar
- Laurence Goldman, double bass
- Damien Bassman, drums
- Eoin O'Mara Group
Natasha Bogojevich — Blurred (world premiere)
Daisy Castro — Callisto (world premiere)
Dan Cooper — Selected works
Laurence Goldman — Selected works
Jason Kao Hwang — Selected works
Dave Soldier — Selected works
Mazz Swift — Selected works
On Sunday, April 27th, 2025 at 7pm Eastern at NUBLU, Composers Concordance presents the concert event entitled "The Fiddlers," featuring four great violinists—namely, Daisy Castro, Jason Hwang, Dave Soldier, and Mazz Swift—performing a set of new music together with a bold rhythm section, including Gene Pritsker on guitar, Laurence Goldman on bass, and Damien Bassman on drums.
Featured on the program are the premieres of Witness by Gene Pritsker, Blurred by Natasha Bogojevic, and Callisto by Daisy Castro, plus music by Dan Cooper, Laurence Goldman, Jason Hwang, Dave Soldier, and Mazz Swift. This event is part of Composers Concordance's ongoing "Timbre Tantrum" series, and will also showcase a performance by the Eoin O'Mara Group.
The in-person concert 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 Daisy Castro, violin
With roots firmly planted in the fiery passion of the jazz manouche tradition, Daisy Castro's unique style refreshes and renews with a modern edge and global influence and instrumentation, bridging the distance between Django's generation and her own in a very exciting way.
Daisy has been an active member of the "gypsy jazz" community both in the United States and in Europe since she was quite young. She has played on stages on both continents and beyond with all of the most revered players of this style, earning the respect of these luminaries and their discerning audiences.
With a repertoire encompassing everything from the Django songbook to Salsa to traditional Turkish music to original compositions, along with an occasional addition of effects pedals, a whole new world of musical exploration awaits all who attend a performance.
https://www.daisycastromusic.com/About Jason Kao Hwang, violin
The music of Jason Kao Hwang (composer/violin/viola) explores the vibrations of his history. His most recent releases, Soliloquies, Book of Stories, and The Human Rites Trio, have received critical acclaim. Raised during the "melting pot" era of assimilation, Mr. Hwang did not learn Chinese from his immigrant parents, only English. When his parents spoke in Chinese to each other, he would listen intently to glean meaning from their inflection, rhythm, and timbre. Mr. Hwang imagines this musical experience of the Chinese language as the foundation of his creative instincts. In 2020, 2019, 2018, 2013 and 2012, the El Intruso International Critics Poll voted him #1 for Violin/Viola. The 2012 Downbeat Critics' Poll voted Mr. Hwang as Rising Star for Violin. His chamber opera The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown was one of the Top Ten Opera Recordings of 2005 by Opera News. Mr. Hwang has received support from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Chamber Music America, National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, and others. As violinist, he has worked with William Parker, Henry Threadgill, Reggie Workman, Joëlle Leandre, Taylor Ho Bynum, Tomeka Reid, Anthony Braxton, Patrick Brennan, Steve Swell, Pauline Oliveros, Butch Morris, and others.
https://www.jasonkaohwang.com/About Dave Soldier, violin
Composer/performer Dave Soldier's projects include the Thai Elephant Orchestra (consisting of 14 elephants in northern Thailand), the cult Delta punk band the Kropotkins, The People's Choice (The World's Most Unwanted Music), the Soldier String Quartet, the Brainwave Music Project, and coaching children to compose their own music in Harlem, Brooklyn, and Guatemala. He has performed as violinist, guitarist, and composer/arranger with Bo Diddley, John Cale, Kurt Vonnegut, and many others, appearing on over 100 CDs, including nearly 20 featuring his compositions for classical and jazz musicians.
https://davesoldier.com/About Mazz Swift, violin
Critically acclaimed as one of America's most talented and versatile performers today, Violin/Vox/Freestyle Composition artist Mazz Swift has engaged audiences all over the world with the signature weaving of song, melody and improvisation that they call MazzMuse. As a singer, composer and Juilliard-trained violinist who plays electronic and acoustic instruments, Mazz has performed and recorded with a diverse accumulation of artists including The Silkroad Ensemble, William Parker, Butch Morris, Jason Lindner, James "Blood" Ulmer, Vernon Reid, Valerie June, Whitney Houston, DJ Logic, Kanye West, and D'Angelo. Mx. Swift is a 2021 United States Artist and 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, currently working on a series of compositions that involve conducted improvisation, and that are centered around protest, spirituals, and the Ghanaian concept of "sankofa": looking back to learn how to move forward.
https://www.silkroad.org/artists-mazz-swiftAbout Gene Pritsker (Noizepunk), 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/