Summer Festival X - "Beethoven and Friends"
2021-08-03 19:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago)
Brightmusic returns to Live Concerts with ‘Beethoven and Friends’ – Summer Festival concert series mixes old and new. Join the four days of concerts. See each date and time in the program below:

Program:

Concert No. 1 – Tuesday, August 3, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT
Concert No. 2 – Thursday, August 5, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT

Jennifer Higdon (a BandQuest and ChoralQuest composer), Piano Trio

​Concert No. 3 – Saturday, August 7, 2021 at 4 PM CT (reception to follow) The Mae Ruth Swanson Memorial Concert
Concert No. 4 – Tuesday, August 10, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT

Libby Larsen (ACF’s co-founder and a BandQuest composer), Slang for Clarinet, Violin and Piano

Musicians
Gregory Lee, Violin
Katrin Stamatis, Violin
Shaohong “Betty” Yuan, Viola
Jonathan Ruck, Cello
Parthena Owens, Flute
Lisa Harvey-Reed, Oboe
Chad Burrow, Clarinet
Kate Pritchett, Horn
Rodney Ackmann, Bassoon
Amy I-Lin Cheng, Piano
Heather Conner, Piano
Jill Jantzen, Piano

Admission:

$20 per concert (students and active-duty military free with ID)

$50 for a Summer Festival Pass to all concerts – festival passes are not required for 2019-20 subscribers
Learn more and get tickets here.

Jupiter String Quartet presented by Bowdoin International Music Festival on Livestream Concert
2021-08-02 18:30 - 19:30
The Jupiter String Quartet (Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violinists; Liz Freivogel, viola; and Daniel McDonough, cello) returns to the Bowdoin International Music Festival as a faculty ensemble, performing concerts on July 19 and August 2 in Studzinski Recital Hall. The Bowdoin International Music Festival is set to return to Brunswick this summer, gathering world-renowned musicians and students for an intensive schedule of chamber music study and performance. Only Festival students will be permitted inside the recital hall for live concerts, due to campus COVID policies. However, concerts will be livestreamed online from Studzinski Hall, free to community members and viewers around the world. Individuals are encouraged to RSVP in advance at www.bowdoinfestival.org/rsvp, and will receive day-of concert reminder emails with direct viewing links.
On Monday, August 2, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET, the Jupiter Quartet presents a recently premiered work written for them by Stephen Andrew Taylor, Chaconne/Labyrinth, along with selections from Florence Price’s Five Folksongs in Counterpoint and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80.
Of his new work, Chaconne/Labyrinth, Taylor explains, “‘Chaconne’ is an old-fashioned word for a repeating chord progression, like the 12-bar blues. Here the wonderful Jupiter Quartet plays a chaconne, but at the same time they are lost in a labyrinth. The chords keep returning, only to point in new directions. This is how I’ve felt the past year: stuck in a loop, but at the same time lost in a maze, desperately seeking the way out. At the center of this maze, like the Minotaur of Greek myth, lies a depiction of the coronavirus that has so profoundly changed our world. After this encounter—marked by strange, percussive sounds—the quartet traces their way, like following Ariadne’s thread, back through the labyrinth.” Chaconne/Labyrinth was commissioned by Arizona Friends of Chamber Music.
Register and learn more here.

American Roots
2021-07-31 19:30 - 21:30
American Roots is the Lakes Area Music Festivals grand opening event of the season that celebrates the American Spirit. Mason Bates‘ kaleidoscopic orchestral fanfare is followed by Jessie Montgomery‘s rhapsody of patriotic anthems, including the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ and ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing.’ Peruvian-American composer Jimmy Lopes completes this trilogy of contemporary voices with a musical fiesta! Complementing these works by great younger composers will be Antonin Dvorak’s venerable “New World” Symphony, including the soulful Largo, ‘Going Home.”
Date & Time: Saturday July 31, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT
Learn more here.

American Roots
2021-07-31 19:30 - 21:00
The grand opening event for the Lakes Area Music 2021 season, that celebrates the American Spirit. American Roots features Mason Bates‘ kaleidoscopic orchestral fanfare followed by Jessie Montgomery‘s rhapsody of patriotic anthems, including the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ and ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing.’ Peruvian-American composer Jimmy Lopez completes this trilogy of contemporary voices with a musical fiesta! Complementing these works by great younger composers is Antonin Dvorak‘s venerable “New World” Symphoney, including the soulful Largo, ‘Going Home.’

Date & Time: Saturday, July 31, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT
Learn more here.

Dialogues: Malang Jobarteh
2021-07-31 19:00 - 20:00
Malang Jobarteh is a master of the kora, a 21-stringed West African harp and instrument of choice for griots, storytellers who chronicle the history and traditions of West Africa. The program features original compositions, arrangements of Western classical pieces and traditional West African music in a boundary-defying recital that unifies these seemingly disparate musical traditions.
This concert will be followed by a reception.
Date & Time: Saturday, July 31, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Get tickets here.

Elizabeth Cree
2021-07-30 22:00 - 23:00, 2021-07-25 19:00 - 20:00
Set in a bawdy Victorian music hall, Elizabeth Cree by Kevin Puts (a BandQuest composer and the Director of the MNOrch Composer Institute) is a psychological thriller in which an abused and impoverished woman finally finds a family in a troupe of misfit performers. The action moves with kaleidoscopic energy and wit as the pulitzer- prize winning creators of Silent Night (seen on Great Performances) collaborate again for this intense new opera.
Learn more on West Edge Opera‘s website.
Performance Dates:
Sunday, July 25, 2021 – 7pm CDT | 5pm PDT
Friday, July 30, 2021 – 10pm CDT | 8pm PDT
Saturday, August 7, 2021 – 10pm CDT | 8pm PDT

Pairing other Instruments with the Harp (Session 2 of The Composer's Harp Cohort Masterclass Series)
2021-07-28 12:30 - 13:30
What instruments pair well with the harp? How can composers best approach navigating the different timbral possibilities presented by the harp in chamber contexts? ​
Informed by both her experiences performing on the harp in small ensembles as well as her own compositional successes and learning moments, Amy Nam explores these questions with examples from Debussy, Crumb, Saariaho, and beyond.
Date & Time: Wednesday, July 23, 2021 at 12L30 PM CT | 1:30 PM ET
Learn more and register here.

Yellow Barn Concert with Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate
2021-07-24 19:00 - 20:00
Yellow Barn’s summer festival continues this week with a special focus on Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (a ChoralQuest composer). This concert will include Tate’s cantata “Standing Bear: A Ponca Indian Cantata in Eight Tableaux” performed by baritone William Sharp, as well as a string quintet by Antonin Dvořák, who found inspiration in American Indian music after an extensive visit to the United States in the 1890s.
Date & Time: Saturday, July 24, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Get tickets and learn more here.
Tickets go for $30.

Scores: The Cone Institute Concert
2021-07-24 19:00 - 20:00
Ludovic Morlot conducts the NJSO premieres of dynamic works by the composers of the NJSO Edward T. Cone Composition Institute, a multi-faceted program that promotes new music and emerging composers. The Institute composers will briefly share the inspiration behind their pieces in an evening at NJPAC that will show the vibrant future of orchestral music.
Date & Time: Saturday, July 24, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Tickets are only $15! A ticket purchase is required for entry. Student tickets are $10 and can be reserved in advance!
LUDOVIC MORLOT conductor
STEVEN MACKEY Institute director & host
NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
ELISE ARANCIO (a NextNotes creator) Wake
KEVIN DAY Tango Oscuro
ERIN GRAHAM Increase
JARED MILLER Under Sea, Above Sky
Learn more and get tickets here.

Echoes in Life: Thomas Mesa
2021-07-24 08:00 - 17:00
Cellist Thomas Mesa presents an emotional and timely recital celebrating an emergence from despair to joy. The program opens with Andrea Casarrubios’ SEVEN (2020), commissioned by Mesa and written as tribute to the essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by Elizabeth Start’s Echoes in Life (2015), a ruminative exploration of bi-culturality which combines Native American influenced melodic elements with Western musical developments. The program concludes with Lydia Jane Pugh’s jubilant Caroline’s Jig (2015), and Beethoven’s transformative Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69
This concert will be followed by a reception.
Date & Time: Saturday, July 24, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Get tickets here.

Oneonta Community Concert Band in a “Going Out”
2021-07-22 18:00 - 19:00
Oneonta Community Concert Band plays in a “Going Out” event in Neahwa Park on Thursday, July 22, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 7 PM ET
The band will pay tribute to this year’s winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Music, Tania León (a BandQuest composer), by playing her original composition for band, “Alegre.”
Address to Neahwa Park: 15 James Georgeson Ave, Oneonta, NY 13820
Learn more here.

AACM in Conversation with The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker
2021-07-22 15:00 - 16:00 | Virtual, United States
AACM in Conversation with The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker Moderated by Dameun Strange on Thursday, July 22, 2021 at 3PM CT
Join artist and AACM president Coco Elysses and New Renaissance Artist The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker’s discussion of the work Elizabeth has developed for AACM through our ACF l connect program. We’ll learn about Elizabeth’s inspiration for the electronically driven creation and the process of composing this piece for this iconic Chicago-based ensemble that has worldwide reach – moderated by Dameun Strange.
Learn about our ACF | connect program here.
Register for this event here.
If you require an interpreter, closed-captioning, or any other accommodations to fully engage, please contact Laura Krider (lkrider@composersforum, 612.314.9228) at least 48 hours before the event.
American Composers Forum’s ACF | connect program is made possible with the outstanding generosity of the following individuals: Jane Anfinson, Thomas Arneson, Suzanne Asher, Carol Barnett, Pearl and Bob Bergad, Margee and Will Bracken, Karen Brooks, Richard Cisek and Kay Fredericks, Dee Ann and Kent Crossley, Julia W. Dayton, C. Lee Essrig, Rosemary & David Good Family Foundation, Katherine Goodale, Jeff and Hyun Mee Graves, Mike and Kay McCarthy, Carol Heen, Steve Heitzeg and Gwen Pappas, Kathleen Henschel and John Dewes, Linda and Jack Hoeschler, Leaetta Hough and Bob Muschewske, Sam Hsu and Sally Cheng, Hella Mears Hueg Estate Gift, Thelma Hunter Estate Gift, John and Ruth Huss, George Frederick Jewett Foundation East, Art and Martha Kaemmer, Jon Lewis and Lisa Merklin, Greg McNeely, Alfred and Ann Moore, Louis and Gloria Nuechterlein, John Nuechterlein and Dan Monson, John and Debbie Orenstein, I.A. O’Shaughnessy Foundation in memory of Thelma Hunter, David and Judy Ranheim, Denice Rippentrop, Vanessa Rose, Bill and Susan Sands, Gale Sharpe, Doug and Kathy Skor, Dan and Ellie Thomas, Stephen and Jayne Usery, Kathleen van Bergen, Janika Vandervelde, Jim Wafler, and Margaret and Angus Wurtele.

Jupiter String Quartet presented by Bowdoin International Music Festival on Livestream Concert
2021-07-19 18:30 - 19:30
The Jupiter String Quartet (Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violinists; Liz Freivogel, viola; and Daniel McDonough, cello) returns to the Bowdoin International Music Festival as a faculty ensemble, performing concerts on July 19 and August 2 in Studzinski Recital Hall. The Bowdoin International Music Festival is set to return to Brunswick this summer, gathering world-renowned musicians and students for an intensive schedule of chamber music study and performance. Only Festival students will be permitted inside the recital hall for live concerts, due to campus COVID policies. However, concerts will be livestreamed online from Studzinski Hall, free to community members and viewers around the world. Individuals are encouraged to RSVP in advance at www.bowdoinfestival.org/rsvp, and will receive day-of concert reminder emails with direct viewing links.
On Monday, July 19, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET the Jupiter Quartet joins forces with two members of the Ying Quartet. They will perform Alexander Zemlinsky’s String Quintet in D Minor with violist Phillip Ying and Franz Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major, Op. 163, D. 956 with cellist David Ying.
Learn more and register here.

Hal Leonard Supports the University of Michigan Choral Conducting Symposium
2021-07-19 - 2021-07-21
Redesigned for 2021, this choral conducting workshop will be an abbreviated version of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) Choral Conducting Symposium. Students will participate in daily lessons with SMTD faculty, gain access to daily lessons specific to choral conducting, and gain an introduction to the SMTD Choral Conducting Program.
All sessions will be online, allowing participants to engage with SMTD faculty from the comfort from their own home! Click here for a sample schedule, required repertoire, and more.
Session Dates: July 19 – July 21, 2021
Application Deadline: July 10, 2021
Learn more here.
Program Tuition: $250
Faculty:
Eugene Rogers (ACF’s CQ series editor), Director of Choral Activities, University of Michigan
Julie Skadsem, Associate Professor of Music Education, University of Michigan
Alysia Lee ( past CQ collaborator), Founder / Conductor of the Sister City Girlchoir & Maryland State Department of Education

Jupiter String Quartet Makes Debut with Chamber Music Northwest
2021-07-17 21:30 - 23:30
On Saturday, July 3, 2021 at 9:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM PT & Sunday, July 4, 2021 at 6 PM CT | 4 PM PT, Chamber Music Northwest (CMNW) presents a collaboration between the Jupiter String Quartet and East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), highlighting the quartet in a performance of Jessie Montgomery’s Banner for quartet and orchestra. The performances on July 3 and 4 will take place in person at Reed College’s Kaul Auditorium (3203 SE Woodstock Blvd). These live festival concerts will be professionally recorded and streamed online beginning two weeks later, on Saturday, July 17, 2021 at 9:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM PT, as part of CMNW’s AT-HOME Series, remaining online for ticket holders until August 31, 2021.
Get tickets here.
In addition to the Montgomery, ECCO will perform Barber’s Adagio from the String Quartet in B Minor, Op. 11; Elgar’s Serenade for Strings in E Minor, Op. 20; Hanna Benn’s Where Springs Not Fail; Bartók’s Divertimento for String Orchestra, Sz.113. “Three of the Jupiters are founding members of ECCO, so getting to play together at CMNW will be a happy reunion between musicians that have known each other for more than two decades,” says Jupiter Quartet’s violist Liz Freivogel. “It will be a joyful and celebratory way to kickstart a return to live performances.”
Preceding these performances, the Jupiter Quartet will perform as members of ECCO on July 1 and 2, 2021, opening CMNW’s 2021 festival with performances of Bach’s Cantata 180: “Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele”, BWV 180; Mendelssohn’s; Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Strings in D minor, MWV O4; and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48.

LMQ Show “Kind of Bill - The Musical Life of Bill Evans” Comes to Brix in Stillwater
2021-07-17 19:30 - 22:30
Performance of “Kind of Bill – The Musical Life of Bill Evans” and his associations with Tony Bennett, Scott LaFaro, Paul Motian, Miles Davis, Jim Hall, Eddie Gómez, Eliot Zigmund, Marc Johnson, and Joe LaBarbera.
Date & Time: Saturday, July 17, 2021 at 7:30 PM CT
Location:
Brix Music Café, 423 Main St. S.
Stillwater, MN 55082
(651) 342-0672
https://www.brixmusiccafe.com/
Program:
Larry McDonough (an ACF Showcase composer) Quartet
Larry McDonough, piano and voice
Richard Terrill, saxes and poetry
Greg Stinson, bass,
Dean White, drums
Families and students are welcome.
Learn more here.

Pianist Sarah Cahill Performs Rarely-Heard Works by Women Composers presented by Old First Concerts - Hybrid In-Person / Livestream Concert
2021-07-16 22:00 - 23:00
On Friday, July 16, 2021 at 10 PM CT | 8 PM PT, Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, returns to Old First Concerts to perform selections from her project, The Future is Female. This is a hybrid concert – seating is limited to 100 people at Old First Church (1751 Sacramento Street), and general admission is $25. The concert will also be available to watch online as a livestream with a suggested donation of $20.
Get tickets here.
The Future is Female is a curation and performance project featuring more than sixty compositions by women around the globe, ranging from the 18th century to the present day. For this performance, Cahill presents an evening-length version of the project including many rarely-heard works by Baroque composer Anna Bon, Leokadiya Kashperova (best known as Stravinsky’s piano teacher), Ajerbaijani composer Frangiz Ali-Zadeh, American composer and civil rights activist Zenobia Powell Perry, with selections from Madeleine Dring’s Colour Suite and Hannah Kendall’s On the Chequer’d Field Array’d, a musical depiction of a chess game.
Perhaps most notably, Cahill will perform the Piano Sonata by Hungarian composer-pianist Ági Jámbor, who survived a harrowing escape from Nazi-occupied Europe and dedicated this work to the victims of Auschwitz. In preparation for this performance, Cahill has been working closely with Jámbor’s publication editor. Cahill explains, “The score for Ági Jámbor’s Sonata says that it was a gift to John DesMarteau, MD, and he helped with the Sonata’s publication. I figured he would have insights into the Sonata – the score doesn’t even have a date when it was written. I saw that he was on LinkedIn and messaged him, and we set up a Zoom meeting. He lives in Washington DC. He told me the Sonata was written in 1949 – that was also the year her husband died, weakened by their ordeal and escape – and when he knew Jámbor she was already suffering from dementia, but pointed out passages in the music that represented tanks invading Hungary and citizens fleeing from them, and that the second movement is an elegy for victims of the Holocaust. I went through the whole piece with him, asking him about various spots, and he compared the published score with his Finale version (he has the manuscript somewhere, but needs to locate it). We spent an hour and a half together, and it means so much to work with him when he worked on this Sonata with Ági Jámbor!”
Sarah Cahill’s full program on July 16, 2021:
Anna Bon: Sonata No. 6 (1757)
Leokadiya Kashperova: selections from Au sein de la Nature (1910)
Ági Jámbor: Sonata (1949)
Zenobia Powell Perry: Rhapsody (1960)
Madeleine Dring: excerpts from Colour Suite (1963)
Frangiz Ali-Zadeh: Music for Piano (1989/1997)
Hannah Kendall: On the Chequer’d Field Array’d (2013)
With this physical manifestation of her lifetime dedication to supporting the artistic work of women, in The Future is Female Cahill illuminates works by women composers worldwide – Chinese, Azerbaijani, Afro-Cuban, African American, Czech, Lithuanian, Polish, and Venezuelan, among others – some who are alive and prolific and others who have passed but live on through their music. The San Diego Tribune describes Cahill as “a vessel through which musical ideas can pass, a communicator whose technique is put at the service of empathy and understanding.” Other recent and upcoming performances of The Future is Female include North Dakota Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Carlsbad Music Festival, Carolina Performing Arts, the University of Iowa, and the Barbican Centre.

Greater Hartford Jazz Festival
2021-07-16 - 2021-07-18
The Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz will be back in Bushnell Park this summer after being quieted by COVID last year.

The festival, running Friday, July 16, 2021 to Sunday, July 18, 2021 brings back many of the artists slated for the canceled 2020 fest, including Liviu Pop, Kevin Powell, Adam Hawley, Eric Darius, Eric Roberson, McKeyz and the Brubeck Brothers (Chris Brubeck is a BandQuest composer). Given that national acts are only just beginning to tour again, the festival has arranged an exceptional lineup that includes Dennis Edwards Temptations Revue, Hiroshima and the Brubeck Brothers Quartet.
Learn more here.

COINCIDENT: Episode 4 Premiere + Virtual Reception
2021-07-15 19:30 - 20:30
Zeitgeist presents the premiere of COINCIDENT Episode 4 (approximately 10 minutes), followed by a virtual reception (bring your own refreshments!) with Scott L. Miller and members of Zeitgeist.
COINCIDENT is a telematic, multi-episode, audiovisual collaboration between Zeitgeist, composer Scott L. Miller (a McKnight fellow), visual artist Carole Kim, and an evolving list of artists. Each artist performs from their home studio, and they connect to each other through specialized software that facilitates real-time performance with greatly reduced latency issues (lag in time due to internet connection). Because latency is reduced, but not gone, the music embraces a certain amount of asynchronicity; individual events can occur at different times without compromising the musical idea.
If you missed the first three episodes, watch here!
Date & Time: Thursday, July 15, 2021 at 7:30 PM CDT
Free, donations accepted
Join online via Zoom: click here to join!
Details at zeitgeistnewmusic.org/coincident.
Meeting ID: 843 7826 7486
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Click to join

What Do You Hear?
2021-07-14 18:30 - 20:00
For the cellist Rebecca Merblum, music has never been a standalone art. For her, sound and listening have always had topography. Each is connected to experiences and relationships. And then the pandemic emerged, and Merblum’s relationship to performance and music drastically shifted. So began the “Conversations for Duet with Cello.”
Over the past year, Rebecca led evolving virtual conversations with the artist and landscape architect Rebecca Krinke, the museum professional Lesley Kaddish, and her cello. The question they asked was: what happens if the separation between the performer and the audience is broken? If, instead of playing for the audience, Rebecca would have a direct 1×1 conversation with each one of the public? What will we hear then?
This event is the culmination of this year-long conversation. Moderated by the poet Mwatabu Okantah, part performance, part interactive experiment, part discussion panel, it will ask the attendees to engage in a conversation with the presenters and explore the question: what do we hear?
Date & Time: Wednesday, July 14, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT
Register for the zoom event here.

San Francisco Contemporary Music Players at the CROSSROADS series. PostScript to the Future
2021-07-10 22:00 - 23:00
This year’s at the CROSSROADS series reflects an ongoing exploration of music that exists in the innovative realms of cross-genre connectivity. The Contemporary Players join their trans-Atlantic compatriots at Ensemble Intercontemporain by co-commissioning a new work from NYC-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey, whose fluency across stylistic streams has distinguished him as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary music today. Connecting the threads to a figure that Sorey has long considered a key inspiration for his work, we spotlight the life and legacy of composer and longtime Bay Area resident Olly Wilson, a close friend and collaborator of the Contemporary Players for years. Jazz-trained cellist and composer Tomeka Reid (an ACF board member) joins the conversation, along with the premiere of our annual SF Search for Scores winning composition, framing an emerging generation of composers whose work launches out on divergent paths along the same cross-genre trajectories.
PROGRAM 2
Premiere Date & Time: Saturday, July 10, 2021 at 10pm CT | 8pm PT
Program runs from July 10 – Aug 10
runtime: 45 minutes
Tomeka Reid, Prospective Dwellers
for string quartet
Tyshawn Sorey, For Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. (In Memoriam)* co-commission with Ensemble Intercontemporain / *U.S. premiere
Flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, piano, harp, 2 violin, viola, cello, double bass
Olly Wilson, A City Called Heaven
Flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello
Learn more and get tickets here.

San Francisco Contemporary Music Players' 50th Season
2021-07-10 22:00 - 23:00
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players‘ 50th Season Online is in full swing, and at the end of the week, Program 1 will launch with at the CROSSROADS series with the world premiere of Unravel–a new work for solo piano by SF Search for Scores winner Josiah Catalan–alongside Jeff Anderle‘s brilliant performance of Echoes for clarinet and electronics by Contemporary Players’ friend and collaborator Olly Wilson.
Program 1 premieres Saturday, April 10, 2021 at 10pm CT | 8pm PT and is available on demand through MAY 10
Program 2 premieres Saturday, July 10, 2021 at 10pm CT | 8pm PT and is available on demand through AUG 10, 2021.
Learn more and get tickets here.
PROGRAM 1
Josiah Tayaq Catalan, unravel*
Allegra Chapman, piano
*Winner, SF Search for Scores 2020
Olly Wilson, Echoes
for clarinet and electronics
Jeff Anderle, clarinet

PROGRAM 2
Tomeka Reid, Prospective Dwellers
for string quartet
Tyshawn Sorey, For Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. (In Memoriam)* co-commission with Ensemble Intercontemporain / *U.S. premiere
Flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, piano, harp, 2 violin, viola, cello, double bass
Olly Wilson, A City Called Heaven
Flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello

Steven Takasugi's "Sideshow"
2021-07-10 21:00 - 22:00
The 2021 Twin Cities New Music Festival presents “Sideshow” by Steven Takasugi, under the direction of Perry So.
Based on the dark sideshows of Coney Islands amusement parks in the early part of the 20th century, “Sideshow” is a meditation on the virtuosity, freak shows, entertainment, spectacle, business, and the sacrifices one makes to survive in the world. A cycle of aphorisms by the Viennese satirist Karl Kraus runs as a subtext through the work.
Date & Time: Saturday, July 10, 2021 at 9 PM CT
Buy tickets here.
Full Program here.

Distant Voyages: Jeffrey Swann
2021-07-10 19:00 - 20:00
Folklore, mystery, and the natural world collide in this atmospheric program showcasing masterpieces of the western tradition. From the complex interiority of Schumann’s Sonata in F# minor, Op. 11 to Liszt’s evocative Années de Pèlerinage and Debussy’s shimmering l’isle Joyeuse, renowned pianist Jeffrey Swann takes the listener on a thrilling journey through the inner and outer world.
This concert will be followed by a reception.
Date & Time: Saturday, July 10, 2021 at 7 PM CT | 8 PM ET
Get tickets here.

America/Beautiful: Min Kwon, In the Catacombs
2021-07-09 18:30 - 21:00, 2021-07-09 17:00 - 19:30, 2021-07-08 18:30 - 21:00
Last year, as America reckoned with the pandemic, racial protests, and political upheaval, pianist Min Kwon looked at her two daughters — whose birthdays fall on Presidents’ Day and the Fourth of July — and asked herself what kind of a country they would grow up in. Out of that reflection came America/Beautiful, a project where she commissioned more than seventy of the leading composers in the United States to each write a variation on America the Beautiful.
The result is a sonic picture of Kwon’s adopted country, painted in all of its sprawling complexity, which ultimately seeks to find the beauty at the heart of the American experiment, and to realize its credo of e pluribus unum (out of many, one).
Dates & Times:

Thursday, July 8, 2021 at 5 PM CT | 6 PM ET, 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
Friday, July 9, 2021 at 5 PM CT | 6 PM ET, 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET

July 8 features variations by: Bruce Adolphe, Leila Adu-Gilmore, Andrew Bambridge, Victoria Bond, Charles Coleman, Huang Ruo, David Serkin Ludwig, Jessica Meyer, Patricio Molina, John Musto, Qasim Naqvi, Greg Sandow, Juri Seo, Chris Trapani, Trevor Weston, and Wang Jie

July 9 features variations by: Timo Andres, Sebastian Currier, Tyson Davis, Fred Hersch, Vijay Iyer, Tania León, George Lewis, Miya Masaoka, Paul Moravec, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Gity Razaz (a JFund recipient), Robert Sirota, and Melinda Wagner
Learn more and get tickets here.

OUTSIDE VOICES: HALE FARM
2021-07-09 18:30 - 19:30
The Akron Symphony Orchestra presents its Outside Voices Concert Series at Hale Farm & Village on Friday, July 9, 2021 at 6:30 PM CT | 7:30 PM ET
The free concert will feature the Akron Symphony Strings performing works by Clarice Assad (a McKnight Visiting Composer), Julia Perry, Antonín Dvořák and Quinn Mason (a NextNotes creator).
The Outside Voices Concert Series focuses on the music of under-represented composers who are “outside” of the standard repertoire, along with numerous audience favorites. The series presents an opportunity for the ASO to expand its musical offerings and share a diversity of composers with the Northeast Ohio community.
RSVP for tickets here.

World Premiere of Composer Robert Sirota’s Two Variations on America the Beautiful, Commissioned by Min Kwon for her America/Beautiful Project
2021-07-09 17:00 - 20:00
On Friday, July 9, 2021 at 5 PM CT | 6 PM ET, pianist Min Kwon will give the world premiere of composer Robert Sirota’s Two Variations on America the Beautiful, presented by Death of Classical’s Angel’s Share series at Green-Wood Cemetery (500 25th St., Brooklyn, NY). Sirota composed these variations – “. . . alabaster cities . . .” and “. . . God mend thine every flaw . . .” – as part of Min Kwon’s project America/Beautiful, for which she commissioned a diverse group of more than 70 of today’s leading American composers to each compose a variation on America the Beautiful. In addition to Sirota, the composers on July 9 include Timo Andres, Sebastian Currier, Tyson Davis, Fred Hersch, Vijay Iyer, Tania León, George Lewis, Miya Masaoka, Paul Moravec, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Gity Razaz, and Melinda Wagner.
Tickets and more information here.
Kwon’s goal was to paint a sonic picture of her adopted country in all of its sprawling complexity, and ultimately try to find the beauty at the core of the American experiment and its credo of e pluribus unum (out of many, one). She explains, “Ultimately this project is about embracing our diversity, and remembering that by understanding, appreciating, and celebrating our differences, we become stronger both as individuals and as a country. The fact that 70 composers can hear the same song in a completely different way is, to me, something truly beautiful.” The 70+ world premiere performances that make up America/Beautiful will take place over six days, beginning July 4, 2021, with a series of free streamed video performances by Kwon followed by discussions with the composers.
Of his Two Variations on America the Beautiful, Sirota says, “Every new work presents particular challenges. In this case, the challenge is composing short variations intended as part of a large communal work. Given that the subject is America, the form of this project could not be more appropriate. Our country is supposed to be about creating unity out of diversity; about making sure that all voices are heard, that no single voice shouts the others down. To do this while celebrating the beauty and distinctiveness of every individual voice is what we are working towards. ‘ . . . alabaster cities . . .’ is a view of our country as seen from 30,000 feet. A dream, an ideal, an aspiration, never to be completely achieved, always to be striven for. ‘. . . God mend thine every flaw . . .’ brings that aspiration down to ground level, where the real work goes on every day to form a ‘more perfect union.”
Each performance on July 9 begins with an hour-long reception featuring a complimentary whiskey tasting. The journey to and from the Catacombs for the musical performance takes approximately 20-30 minutes, which includes walking over hilly and uneven terrain; proper footwear is recommended. The program inside the Catacombs will run for approximately one hour with no intermission. Health and safety protocols will be strictly enforced, including wearing a mask and keeping a distance of at least 6 feet from those not in your party. Attendees must provide a negative COVID test result or proof of completed vaccination and fill out a health survey in advance of the event.
