New Music Series

2021-2022 New Music Series 

Composer Portrait: inti figgis-vizueta presented by LUNME

Thursday, February 24, 2022, 8:00 P.M.
Harper Hall, Music Drama

inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993) writes magically real musics through the lens of personal identities, braiding a childhood of overlapping immigrant communities and Black-founded Freedom schools—in Chocolate City (DC)—with direct Andean & Irish heritage and a deep connection to the land.

David Friend, piano & Jerome Begin, composer

Friday, March 4, 2022, 8:00 P.M. 
Harper Hall, Music Drama

David Friend is taking piano performance in new directions. As chamber musician, soloist, and in interdisciplinary projects, his performances have been hailed as "astonishingly compelling" (Washington Post), and he won a Grammy Award in 2017. He has performed at major venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall (London), and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing). As soloist, David Friend is noted for charismatic performances and thoughtful programming. Through compelling solo programs and meaningful audience engagement, he brings a 21st-century approach to the 19th-century piano recital format.

Called a "fabulous composer-pianist" and an "unimpeachable" choice of collaborator by the New York Times, Jerome Begin has composed many scores for dance and theatre, concert works, installation, and film. Equally at home in the classical, experimental, theatrical and pop worlds, he has always been drawn to collaboration. Begin takes from classical music concepts of form, process, and compositional rigor. From experimental electronic and acoustic music, he draws on ideas of sonic expansion and innovation in the ways musicians connect in time and sonic texture. In pop music, he is strongly attracted to the power of rhythm and sound over the body, as well as the ability of the "hook" to resonate within the consciousness of individuals and masses. His recent works have incorporated extensive use of electronics to process and augment the sound of acoustic instruments, employing customizable touch screen interfaces which allow him to "play" the effects live.

Bang on a Can Allstars

Friday, April 15, 2022, 8:00 P.M.
Location

Robert Black, bass
Vicky Chow, piano
David Cossin, percussion
Mark Stewart, guitars
Ken Thomson, clarinets
Andrew Cotton, sound

Bang on a Can is dedicated to making music new. Since its first Marathon concert in 1987, Bang on a Can has been creating an international community dedicated to innovative music, wherever it is found. With adventurous programs, it commissions new composers, performs, presents, and records new work, develops new audiences, and educates the musicians of the future. Bang on a Can is building a world in which powerful new musical ideas flow freely across all genres and borders. According to The New York Times, the group plays "a central role in fostering a new kind of audience that doesn’t concern itself with boundaries. If music is made with originality and integrity, these listeners will come."