Composers Concordance: Music & Film @ Westbeth
Free
- Jessica Bowers, mezzo-soprano
- Charles Coleman (AKA Das Krooner), baritone
- Lynn Bechtold, violin
- Christof Knoche, bass clarinet
- Jai Jeffryes, piano
- Troy Rinker, Jr., double bass
- David Cossin, drum set
- Gene Pritsker, conductor
Seth Boustead — Bricks, Beds, and Sheep's Heads
Gene Pritsker — The Seamonster and the Milk Thistle
Lynn Bechtold — Project Imaginaire (Robin)
On March 2nd at 7pm, Composers Concordance presents "Music & Film @ Westbeth," an event combining cutting-edge short films with contemporary music composition.
Performing live to films by Roxana Avila, Imelda O'Reilly, and Cecilia Mandrile is the renowned CompCord Ensemble: Jessica Bowers (mezzo soprano), Charles Coleman (baritone), Lynn Bechtold (violin), Christof Knoche (bass clarinet), Jai Jeffryes (piano), Troy Rinker (double bass), and David Cossin (drum set), conducted by Gene Pritsker.
Featured on the program are the animated Tango opera The Tunnel with music by Carlos José Castro Mora; Bricks, Beds, and Sheep's Heads with music by Seth Boustead; The Seamonster and the Milk Thistle with music by Gene Pritsker; and Project Imaginaire (Robin) with music by Lynn Bechtold.
The concert will also 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 Jessica Bowers, mezzo-soprano
About Charles Coleman (AKA Das Krooner), baritone
https://www.facebook.com/people/Noizepunk-and-Das-Krooner/100080143212768/
About Lynn Bechtold, violin
Violinist/composer Lynn Bechtold, a native of Pittsburgh, has appeared in recital throughout the U.S., Argentina, Canada, France, Holland, Japan, and Switzerland. An advocate of new music, she has worked with composers such as Derek Bermel, Carter Burwell, Gloria Coates, George Crumb, Beatriz Ferreyra, John Harbison, and Morton Subotnick, and has premiered works on the Tribeca New Music Festival and the Princeton Composers' Series. In 2001, she gave the premiere of Violynn, a work for violin and electronics written for her by Alvin Lucier. All About Jazz noted her for her "virtuosity and technical expertise," I CARE IF YOU LISTEN pointed out her "brilliance of sound, technical mastery, and stunning expressivity," San Diego Story called her "unapologetically dominating," and Strings Magazine labeled her "impressive" and "close to the edge."
https://www.violynn.net/About Christof Knoche, bass clarinet
About Jai Jeffryes, piano
About David Cossin, drum set
David Cossin is a specialist in new and experimental music who has worked across a broad spectrum of musical and artistic forms to incorporate new media with percussion. He has recorded and performed internationally with composers and ensembles including Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steve Reich and Musicians, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Meredith Monk, Tan Dun, Cecil Taylor, Talujon Percussion Quartet, and the trio Real Quiet. Numerous theater projects include collaborations with Blue Man Group, Mabou Mines, and director Peter Sellars.
Cossin was featured as the percussion soloist in Tan Dun's Grammy and Oscar-winning score to Ang Lee's film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He joined Sting for the world tour Symphonicities and has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, São Paulo State Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
His ventures into other art forms include sonic installations, which have been presented in New York, Italy, and Germany. He is an active composer and has also invented several new instruments that expand the limits of traditional percussion. David Cossin is the curator for the Sound Res Festival, an experimental music festival in southern Italy, and he also teaches percussion at Queens College in New York City.
https://www.msmnyc.edu/faculty/david-cossin/About Gene Pritsker, conductor
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/