Composers Concordance: Interpretations of Kostabi Paintings
$20 advance, $30 at the door
- Michelle Shocked, voice
- Adriana Valdés, soprano
- Gene Pritsker, electric guitar
- Kathleen Supové, piano
- Faye-Ellen Silverman, piano
- Jung Hyun "Henny" Kim, piano
- Mark Kostabi, piano
- Seth Boustead, piano
- Debra Kaye, piano
Debra Kaye — Lunch with Aunt Syl
Jung Hyun "Henny" Kim — The Loneliness of Infinity
Mark Kostabi — A Back To The Future
Gene Pritsker — The Visitant
Faye-Ellen Silverman — Goodbye is Not a Word (Embracing the Woman in Red)
Michelle Shocked / Kathleen Supové — Shocking Red
On October 14th at 7pm, at the Chelsea townhouse of renowned artist Mark Kostabi, Composers Concordance brings together composers, poets, and performers to interpret his paintings. Compositions include; A Back To The Future by Mark Kostabi and poet Kelsea Brunner, The Visitant by Gene Pritsker and poet John Pietaro, Goodbye is Not a Word (Embracing the Woman in Red) by Faye-Ellen Silverman and poet Erik T. Johnson, The Loneliness of Infinity by Henny Kim and poet Robert C. Ford, Lunch with Aunt Syl by Debra Kaye and poet Roger Aplon, and Fumbling in Dream by Seth Boustead and poet Imelda O'Reilly.
The event will close with Shocking Red, a narrative song cycle created by Grammy-nominated lyric poet-composer-singer Michelle Shocked and pianist-composer Kathleen Supové, based on twelve of Kostabi's paintings.
Some of this event will be live streamed 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 Michelle Shocked, voice
About Adriana Valdés, soprano
Cuban born Adriana Valdés Santibáñez, studied violin at Manuel Saumell in Cuba, and majored in Voice at the Escuela Superior de Música (Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, INBA) in Mexico City. Adriana has been a Soloist Soprano in Mexico, the United States, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Honduras.
She is the Winner of four National Competition Prizes in Mexico: First Place and The Roberta Peters Prize by Opera de San Miguel, and Second Prize and First Zarzuela Prize by Contest Carlo Morelli in Mexico.
https://www.adrianavaldessoprano.com/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/About Kathleen Supové, piano
In May 2012, Kathleen Supové received the John Cage Award from ASCAP for “the artistry and passion with which she performs, commissions, records, and champions the music of our time.” Kathleen Supové is one of America’s most acclaimed and versatile new music pianists, continually redefining the pianist/keyboardist/performance artist in today’s world. Ms. Supové presents solo concerts under the moniker THE EXPLODING PIANO. A striking presence onstage, she has performed with computers, boxing gloves, robots, and laptop orchestra.
Recent projects include two solo CDs: "The Debussy Effect," on New Focus Recordings (La Barbara-Clark-Marks-Felsenfeld-Woolf-Gosfield-Cooper), the result of a multi-composer commissioning project; and "Eye to Ivory" (Childs-Woolf-Barash-Didkovsky-Naphtali), with vocalizing, extended techniques, Yamaha Disklavier, and noise-based effects.
http://www.supove.com/