Composers Concordance: Cycles & Songs
$20 in advance, $30 at the door
- Melanie Mitrano, voice
- Michelle Shocked, voice
- Maria Tegzes, voice
- Adriana Valdés, voice
- Geoffrey Burleson, piano
- Kathleen Supové, piano
- Christopher Vassiliades, piano
- Steve Sandberg, piano
Gene Pritsker — Poet's Songs
Geoffrey Burleson / Maria Tegzes — Come in from the Edge
Charles Coleman — Searching for Solace
Christopher Vassiliades — Evangeline – A Tale of Acadie (Prelude)
Dan Cooper — Selected works
Steve Sandberg — Selected works
Michelle Shocked — Selected works
Kathleen Supové — Selected works
On Saturday, November 11th, 2023 at The Tenri Cultural Institute, Composers Concordance presents "Cycles & Songs," a concert featuring four new song cycles and five new piano solos, performed by vocalists Michelle Shocked, Melanie Mitrano, Maria Tegzes, and Adriana Valdes; and pianists Geoffrey Burleson, Steve Sandberg, Kathleen Supové, and Christopher Vassiliades.
Featured song cycles include Melanie Mitrano's Adverse Childhood Experiences, Poet's Songs by Gene Pritsker, and Come in from the Edge by Maria Tegzes and Geoffrey Burleson. Searching for Solace by Charles Coleman and the Prélude to Evangeline – A Tale of Acadie by Christopher Vassiliades are the featured piano solos.
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 Melanie Mitrano, voice
About Michelle Shocked, voice
About Maria Tegzes, voice
About Adriana Valdés, voice
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 Geoffrey Burleson, piano
Geoffrey Burleson has performed to wide acclaim throughout Europe and North America, and is equally active as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and jazz performer. The New York Times has hailed his solo performances as “vibrant” and “compelling,” and has praised his “command, projection of rhapsodic qualities without loss of rhythmic vigor, and appropriate sense of spontaneity and fetching colors.” The Boston Globe refers to Mr. Burleson as a “remarkable pianist” and “a first-class instrumental presence” whose performances are “outright thrilling.”
https://geoffreyburleson.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/About Steve Sandberg, piano
Three-time Emmy-nominated pianist/composer/raconteur Steve Sandberg plays classical masterpieces as well as original music that masterfully blends classical, global music traditions, and jazz with the excitement of virtuosic improvisation.
Mr. Sandberg began playing the piano at the age of four and has studied with the legendary pianist/teacher Seymour Bernstein. While getting his classical music degree at Yale University, he fell under the spell of Latin rhythms and it changed his life. Deeply drawn to these rhythms, he moved back to New York after graduating to immerse himself in the world of jazz and Afro-Caribbean music. His mentor was multi-instrumentalist Mario Rivera, a member of the Dizzie Gillespie, Tito Puente, and George Coleman ensembles. Mr. Sandberg was pianist, composer and arranger for Rivera's Salsa Refugee group, and also performed with Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, and Ruben Blades. A highlight of this period was an appearance in Rio and São Paolo in a duo with vocalist Bebel Gilberto.
Steve has toured with David Byrne ("Rei Momo") as keyboardist and vocalist, and was musical director for Lincoln Center's summer Brazilfest series. He has conducted and arranged for Broadway (Chronicle of a Death Foretold) and for many regional and off-Broadway theatres, including the New York Shakespeare Festival. He was lead composer and musical director for Nickelodeon's landmark children's programs Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go!
In 2017, Mr. Sandberg founded the Steve Sandberg Quartet, featuring the violinist Zach Brock (critically acclaimed as "the pre-eminent improvising violinist of his generation"), bassist Michael O’Brien, and drummer Mauricio Zottarelli. Their first CD, Alaya, was released on ArtistShare. Dan Bilawsky of All About Jazz called this CD "... a breathtaking composite of world music, jazz, and classical expressions ... personal and precise in its direction, yet universal in its language and ability to connect." The quartet has performed at Birdland, the DiMenna Center, Sidedoor Jazz, the Allentown Symphony Jazz Upstairs series and many other venues.
In August of 2021, Mr. Sandberg and Mr. Brock performed a duo concert at New York’s Bargemusic series and in October, 2022, gave a series of concerts and taught several masterclasses in Egypt, sponsored by the American University of Cairo and the U.S. Embassy.
In 2019, Mr. Sandberg was commissioned by Kelly Hall-Tompkins' Music Kitchen project, which presents classical music at New York City homeless shelters, to write an original song for tenor and string quartet. The song, setting lyrics by former Music Kitchen clients to music, was presented at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in April, 2022.