My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama MEETS Bodies Electric | Two Guitar Quartets Meet – Wes Montgomery Centennial
$30 advance; $40 at the door
- Bruce Arnold, guitar
- Greg Baker, guitar
- Jane Getter, guitar
- Gene Pritsker, guitar
- William Anderson, guitar
- John Chang, guitar
- Kyle Miller, guitar
- Bart Platteau, flute
- Dan Cooper, percussion
- Charles Coleman (AKA Das Krooner), conductor
Bruce Arnold — Selected works
Greg Baker — Selected works
Frank Brickle — Selected works
Jane Getter — Evanesce
Kyle Miller — Selected works
Alba Lucía Potes Cortés — Selected works
Amanda Sedgwick — Selected works
Frank Zappa — Selected works
"I never practice my guitar. From time to time I just open the case & throw in a piece of raw meat." – Wes Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968)
On February 27th at 7pm, Composers Concordance brings together two exceptional guitar quartets to premiere new compositions and to celebrate the centennial of the iconic guitarist Wes Montgomery. Featured on the program are the ensembles My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama: Bruce Arnold, Greg Baker, Jane Getter, and Gene Pritsker, guitars; and Bodies Electric: William Anderson, John Chang, Adam Negrin, and Kyle Miller, guitars.
Newly commissioned by Composers Concordance, with the support of a grant from New York State Council on the Arts: Evanesce by composer Jane Getter will be premiered. Send-ups to Wes Montgomery and Frank Zappa, by Bruce Arnold and Gene Pritsker, will also be featured, plus compositions by Willam Anderson, Greg Baker, Frank Brickle, Dan Cooper, Kyle Miller, Alba Potes, and Amanda Sedgwick.
This performance will be presented in person at LOFT393 in TriBeCa; it will also be livestreamed free on the Composers Concordance Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ComposersConcordance/
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, guitar
About Greg Baker, guitar
About Jane Getter, 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 Gene Pritsker, 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/About William Anderson, guitar
About John Chang, guitar
Guitarist and composer John Chang was born in Seoul, raised in Montreal, and is now based in New York City. As a guitarist, he has performed in venues ranging from CBGBs to Carnegie Hall. He has worked closely with eminent composers including William Anderson, Frank Brickle, Georg Frederic Haas, David Lang, John McLachlan, and Charles Wuorinen. He is a founding member of Bodies Electric, an electric guitar choir based in New York City that is dedicated to the performance of new music by living composers. As a composer, he has written and produced music for various indie films and dance productions. His music can be heard on labels such as Digitalis, Furious Artisans, Hobo Cult, and Los Discos Enfantasmes. As an educator, he has been on the guitar faculty of Concordia Conservatory since 2011 and is a faculty for its Pre-College Academy Division where he teaches Music Theory, and coaches Chamber Music and Performance Classes.