Mario Diaz de León on Tzadik

Not an Opera Cabal event....

Friday, September 25, 2009
8:30-10:30pm
Roulette
20 Greene St.
NYC

Mario Diaz de León's music focuses on acoustic/electronic hybrids that often fuse the two elements into unified meta-instruments. Often structured as walls and gestures of shimmering sound, his work is influenced by contemporary composers Scelsi, Ligeti, Dumitrescu and Radulescu as well as a wide range of electronic music, free improvisation, underground metal and American noise bands like Metalux and Sejayno. ICE is featured on his debut album for John Zorn's Tzadik label, and members will perform several of his pieces from the album live at this event. Also featured will be the Talea Ensemble, conducted by Nicholas DeMaison.

Prism Path for two alto flutes and percussion (2009) WORLD PREMIERE
Mansion for two alto flutes, percussion, and electronics (2009)
The Flesh Needs Fire for flute, clarinet, and electronics (2007)
Gated Eclipse for sextet and electronics (2006) NEW YORK PREMIERE
ii.23 for viola and electronics (2002)
2.20 for string trio and electronics (2003)

(n.)

SALON XXVII

Thanks to everyone for a top salon this past Saturday. The lineup (which included some unannounced surprises):


Martina Bohacova & Petr Tobiska (international standard ballroom dance)
"Lovely standard," from the Lento dancing club in Prague

Roger Moseley & Thomas Christensen (piano four-hands)
Isolde's "Liebestod" (the love-death theme from Tristan und Isolde), transcribed by Franz Liszt for two hands, subsequently arranged for four
"Souvenirs de Munich," quadrille on themes from Tristan

Roger Moseley (piano)
Happy Birthday in the style of a Chopin mazurka

Thomas Christensen (piano)
Happy Birthday in the style of a Bach fugue

Sidney Nagel (piano) & Young-Kee Kim (movement)
a birthday dance inspired by Scriabin (Op. 11, no. 13), with choreography by Irene Hsiao
(via Skype!)

Jonathan Ullyot (reading)
from a collection of prose poems called "New Spleen"

Tim Munro (flute), Majel Connery (voice), Roger Moseley (piano)
"Deux poèmes de Ronsard," op. 26 nos. 1 & 2 (1924 Albert Roussel, 1869-1937)
"Fantaisie" in Em, Op. 79 (Gabriel Fauré)
"Une flûte invisible" (Camille Saint-Säens)

Aaron Curtis (academic reading)
"The Heathrow Jesuses"
a poetico-philosophico-theological essay on love, death, god, sacrifice, and public transit

Rohit Kukreti (guitar, voice)
classical Indian-influenced blues folk

Vesalii Rehearsals

Let's call this ... the wall series.













We'll see you tomorrow ...

-majel.

Vesalii Icones and the Horizon of Expectation

With only one show to go, I thought I'd post a taste of more to come.

Conceived at the height of his career in experimental music for the stage, Peter Maxwell Davies’ Vesalii Icones was originally scored for the Pierrot Players, a group started by Davies that would redefine the meaning of fringe, and push German expressionism to new extremes. Unlike Pierrot, Vesalii is written for a single dancer who interacts silently with a discordant ensemble. As Davies’ only choreographed work, Vesalii permitted experimentation on a new level with two of the composer’s perennial preoccupations: excessive embodiment, and the slippery division between sacred and profane. The piece begins with an unlikely superimposition of 16th-century anatomical diagrams with the fourteen Stations of the Cross. The above diagram corresponds with Davies' sixth station, Christ receives the Cross. It is the task of dancer and ensemble to intelligibly engage two systems of representation (religious iconography and the
medicalization of bodies in decay) very much at odds with one another -- or perhaps offering unexpected mutual illumination.

With direction by Majel Connery (Ph.D. candidate, University of Chicago), stage design by Rose DiSalvo (B.A., UCLA; MFA Art Institute of Chicago), choreography by Adrian Jevicki, and with dancers Brian Moore and Sam Goodman. Preview performance Monday, September 7th at High Concept Laboratories at 8p. Discussion with Luis-Manuel Garcia at 9p. Till then.

-majel.