Composers Concordance & Joe's Pub Present Vivaldi's Hot House: Sound Liberation Feat. Lara St. John
Free
- Lara St. John, violin
- Adriana Valdés, soprano
- Charles Coleman (AKA Das Krooner), baritone
- David Banks, voice
- Sonya Hensley, voice
- Gene Pritsker, guitar & rap
- Geoffrey Burleson, piano
- Amanda Ruzza, electric bass
- Franz Hackl, trumpet
- John Ferrari, drums
- John Pietaro, poetry
- Imelda O'Reilly, poetry
- Erik T. Johnson, poetry
- Robert C. Ford, poetry
- Kelsea Brunner, poetry
Béla Bartók — Selected works (Béla Bartók – Selected works,)
Gene Pritsker — Bartók's Transylvania
Gene Pritsker — So Very Expressive
Gene Pritsker — Selected works (TBA)
Dan Cooper — Selected works
Frédéric Chopin — Selected works
Antonio Vivaldi — Selected works
Felix Mendelssohn — Selected works
Franz Schubert — Selected works
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Selected works
On March 9th at 7pm, Joe's Pub and Composers Concordance present "Vivaldi's Hot House." A composition of the same name by Gene Pritsker is a starting point for this eclectic event with violin doyenne Lara St. John and Pritsker's ensemble Sound Liberation. The concert will feature a genre-defying repertoire of music inspired by various composers from the past including Mendelssohn, Mozart and Beethoven, reinterpreted with jazz, metal, hip-hop, etc. Featured singers include operatic soprano Adriana Valdés, baritone Charles Coleman, the R&B vocals of David Banks, and the soulful jazz voice of Sonya Hensley. Five poets will also be part of this performance: John Pietaro, Imelda O'Reilly, Erik T. Johnson, Robert C. Ford, and Kelsea Brunner. Pritsker will perform on guitar, and as a rapper, and will be joined by Franz Hackl on trumpet, Geoffrey Burleson on piano, Amanda Ruzza on bass and John Ferrari on drums.
St. John will also be featured on Bartók's Transylvania, inspired by Béla Bartók; and So Very Expressive, based on the second movement of Beethoven's "Spring" Sonata; as well as other music of Gene Pritsker, Dan Cooper, Frédéric Chopin, Antonio Vivaldi, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
This event is co-presented with the contemporary music organization Composers Concordance, now celebrating their 40th season.
The concert 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 Sound Liberation
Sound Liberation, an eclectic chamber ensemble/band, was formed in 1996. The band has gained exposure in the New York city area and has generated a loyal core following playing such notable venues as Joe's Pub, Wetlands, Knitting Factory, The Blue Note, Downtime, New Music Cafe, Cutting Room, Le Poisson Rouge, and many other performing spaces.
Sound Liberation's musical philosophy, developed by band founder Gene Pritsker, is based upon "ending the segregation of sound vibration (i.e. musical Genres)". The group incorporates its philosophy by performing compositions that encompass a diverse range of musical genre, heavily influenced by hip-hop and rock rhythms. This enables one to hear elements from classical music to Jazz to music of various cultures at a Sound Liberation show.
The group performed at the Outreach Festival '06 and '07 and '14 in Schwaz, Austria. In '07 Sound Liberation performed at the Estonian House and presented Gene Pritsker's opera Money at the Players Theatre and Flea Theatre in New York. In May of '08, Money was performed at the Etna music Festival in Catania, Sicily and Sound Liberation played in Ragusa, Sicily. In July '08, they performed at the Blaine jazz Festival in Blaine, Wa. In May of '09, Sound Liberation presented 2 nights at the Flea theater, performing Gene Pritsker's one-hour VRE Suite written for the Sound Liberation Quintet and a concert with B3+ of music from their albums on Col-Legno records. In September 2011, they performed at the Bremen Musik Fest in Germany. In past years the group was part of the Peekaboo Festival of New Music, 21st Century Schizoid at Cornelia Street Cafe and Theater, and toured Newfoundland, Canada in April of '99.
In August of '09 the Song No Truth was featured in the Universal Home Videos motion picture The Wedding Bothers. In the fall of 2010, Human Condition was featured on PBS's Road Trip Nation series. The band played a very publicized concert at New York's Le Poisson Rouge in January '10. The New Yorker wrote: "Pritsker, a rule-breaking composer-guitarist (and rapper) who impresses funk and rock beats onto classical structures, fronts this eclectic jazz-type combo of singers and instrumentalists."
https://noizepunk.wixsite.com/soundlibAbout Lara St. John, violin
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 Charles Coleman (AKA Das Krooner), baritone
https://www.facebook.com/people/Noizepunk-and-Das-Krooner/100080143212768/
About Gene Pritsker, guitar & rap
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 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 Amanda Ruzza, electric bass
About John Ferrari, drums
John Ferrari is active in classical, jazz, pop, Broadway, film, television and dance music, the avant-garde, and multi-media. He performs and gives master classes nationally and abroad, and appears on dozens of recordings as percussionist, drummer, and conductor. He is a founding member of the Naumburg Award winning New Millennium Ensemble, a regular guest artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Chamber Music Northwest, and has been a member of Meridian Arts Ensemble since 1993.
https://www.msmnyc.edu/faculty/john-ferrari/