2019 American Music

Filtering by: 2019 American Music

SING OUT! NEW YORK | FREE CONCERT HUDSON
Jun
9
5:00 PM17:00

SING OUT! NEW YORK | FREE CONCERT HUDSON

FREE OUTDOOR CONCERT

SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2019 - HUDSON
BASILICA HUDSON

ACTIVITIES 5:30PM | CONCERT 7:30 PM

Basilica Hudson’s innovative team will create an immersive, interactive performance space for dancers and ensemble, and will feature pre-performance acts and activities by Hudson’s most creative emerging artists. The concert day will include an immersive outdoor street fair from 5:00pm through the Symphony’s performance. Pre-concert activities will include featured opening acts by local school and community groups, local craft food and beverage vendors, community art making, and family fun.

Program: In addition to one of these new works being featured on each concert, all four programs will also include Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, summertime favorites such as Stars and Stripes Forever, and singalongs including “This Land Is Your Land” and “Lift Every Voice And Sing.”

Featured work:

Viet Cuong, composer and Adam Weinert, choreographer, Woven
This work for dancers and ensemble is inspired by the people of Stonewall who relied on humor to persevere through injustice, and who ultimately awakened a new era in the LGBTQ rights movement with the 1969 Stonewall Uprising.

CONCERT WILL CONCLUDE WITH FIREWORKS


Meet the Composer and Choreographer

Called “alluring” and “wildly inventive” by The New York Times, the “ingenious” and “knockout” (Times Union) music of Viet Cuong has been performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as Sō Percussion, Eighth Blackbird, Alarm Will Sound, Sandbox Percussion, the PRISM Quartet, JACK Quartet, Gregory Oakes, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra, among many others. Viet’s music has been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, and on American Public Radio’s Performance Today. Through his music Viet enjoys exploring the unexpected and whimsical, and his recent works include a solo snare drum piece, a double reed sextet, and, most recently, a tuba concerto. He also enjoys composing for the wind ensemble medium, and his works for winds have amassed over one hundred performances by conservatory and university ensembles worldwide, including at Midwest, WASBE, and CBDNA conferences.

Adam H. Weinert is a dancer, choreographer and researcher based in Hudson, NY. He began his training at The School of American Ballet, and continued on to Vassar College, The Juilliard School, and New York University, where he earned a Master’s Degree under the tutelage of André Lepecki. Adam has danced with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company, The Mark Morris Dance Group, Shen Wei Dance Arts, and Christopher Williams, and for six years served as the Artistic Associate to Jonah Bokaer. In addition to his performance work, Adam has been published in The New York Times, the Juilliard Journal, and as a featured profile in New York Magazine. He produced and choreographed two award-winning dance films screened nationally and abroad, and his performance works have toured to four continents including a number of non-traditional dance venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, The Tate Britain Museum, and The Tate Modern Museum. He was named a "Dance Renedage” by Dance Magazine, awarded Presidential Distinction and Scholastic Distinction from the Juilliard School, and in 2008 received the Hector Zaraspe Prize for Outstanding Choreography. 

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SING OUT! NEW YORK | FREE CONCERT SCHENECTADY
Jun
8
5:00 PM17:00

SING OUT! NEW YORK | FREE CONCERT SCHENECTADY

FREE OUTDOOR CONCERT

SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2019 - Schenectady
MOHAWK HARBOR

ACTIVITIES 5:30PM | CONCERT 7:30 PM

Rivers Casino and Galesi Group will partner with the Symphony to present a celebration of all things Schenectady, including new entertainment and shopping options at the Harbor. The concert day will include an immersive outdoor street fair from 5:00pm through the Symphony’s performance. Pre-concert activities will include featured opening acts by local school and community groups, local craft food and beverage vendors, community art making, and family fun.

Program: In addition to one of these new works being featured on each concert, all four programs will also include Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, summertime favorites such as Stars and Stripes Forever, and singalongs including “This Land Is Your Land” and “Lift Every Voice And Sing.”

Featured work:

Clarice Assad and Girls Inc., Ain’t I A Woman
In collaboration with Girls, Inc. (“inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold”), Assad will create a multimedia work inspired by Sojourner Truth’s 1851 “Ain’t I A Woman” speech. Talented young artists from Girls Inc’s “Eureka” program will work with Assad to create stories, songs, and video footage about women’s rights past and present.

Concert will conclude with fireworks!


Meet the Composer

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A powerful communicator renowned for her musical scope and versatility, Brazilian American Clarice Assad is a significant artistic voice in the classical, world music, pop and jazz genres. A Grammy nominated composer, celebrated pianist, inventive vocalist, and educator, she is renowned for her evocative colors, rich textures, and diverse stylistic range. As an innovator, her award-winning education program, Voxploration, has been presented throughout the United States, Brazil, Europe and Qatar. With her talent sought-after by artists and organizations worldwide, the multi-talented musician continues to attract new audiences both onstage and off.

A prolific Grammy nominated composer with over 70 works to her credit, Clarice Assad’s numerous commissions include works for Carnegie Hall, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo, Chicago Sinfonietta, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Youth Orchestra, General Electric, Sybarite5, Metropolis ensemble, the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Queen Reef Music Festival and the La Jolla Music Festival, to name a few. Her work Danças Nativas was nominated for a Latin Grammy for best contemporary composition in 2009.  Her compositions have been recorded by some of the most prominent names in the classical music, including percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and oboist Liang Wang. 

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SING OUT! NEW YORK | FREE CONCERT ALBANY
Jun
7
5:00 PM17:00

SING OUT! NEW YORK | FREE CONCERT ALBANY

FREE OUTDOOR CONCERT

FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2019 - ALBANY
JENNINGS LANDING

ACTIVITIES 5:30PM | CONCERT 7:30 PM

The Albany Symphony returns to Jennings Landing for a community-centric concert, featuring partnerships with Albany public and charter schools. The concert day will include an immersive outdoor street fair from 5:00pm through the Symphony’s performance. Pre-concert activities will include featured opening acts by local school and community groups, local craft food and beverage vendors, community art making, and family fun.

Program: In addition to one of these new works being featured on each concert, all four programs will also include Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, summertime favorites such as Stars and Stripes Forever, and singalongs including “This Land Is Your Land” and “Lift Every Voice And Sing.”

Featured work:

Andre Myers and Albany High School Chamber Choir, Studies in Hope: Frederick Douglass
Working with four talented spoken word artists from Albany High School and the Albany High School Chamber Choir, Andre Myers creates a Hip-Hop work inspired by the words of Frederick Douglass.

Concert will conclude with fireworks!


Meet the Composer

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Andre Myers is an artist and instructor of piano, composition and theory based in California's Inland Empire. He serves on the faculty at the Academy of Universal Arts & Music in Yucaipa. Intense and lyrical, his music mixes narrative drama, poetry, and meditations on color to create work that aspires to moments of honesty, poignancy, and depth. A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Andre has three times been commissioned by the Michigan Philharmonic Orchestra, where he served as composer-in-residence for the Philharmonic’s CLASSical music outreach program. His second commission from the Philharmonic, a musical adaptation of Holling C. Holling’s picture book Paddle to the Sea, has been performed regularly since 2005 as a part of the orchestra’s “Koncert for Kids” series, and the composer has narrated the work for tens of thousands of school children.      

Other recent commissions include Partita for Solo Violin for the celebrated Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist and MacArthur Fellow Vijay Gupta, Cadenza & Aria for international viola soloist Brett Deubner, and Quilting: Poems by Countee Cullen for the acclaimed countertenor Darryl Taylor and Orchestra Santa Monica. His piece BOP! for two flutes and piano, was selected for performance by the MAN Trio as a part of the group's collaboration with new music presenters Vox Novus, and received its premiere in November 2015 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  

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SING OUT! NEW YORK | FREE CONCERT SCHUYLERVILLE
Jun
6
5:00 PM17:00

SING OUT! NEW YORK | FREE CONCERT SCHUYLERVILLE

FREE OUTDOOR CONCERT

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2019 - SCHUYLERVILLE
HUDSON CROSSING PARK

ACTIVITIES 5:30PM | CONCERT 7:30 PM

The beautiful Hudson Crossing Park will host its first major concert event with the Albany Symphony. The concert day will include an immersive outdoor street fair from 5:00pm through the Symphony’s performance. Pre-concert activities will include featured opening acts by local school and community groups, local craft food and beverage vendors, community art making, and family fun.

Program: In addition to one of these new works being featured on each concert, all four programs will also include Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, summertime favorites such as Stars and Stripes Forever, and singalongs including “This Land Is Your Land” and “Lift Every Voice And Sing.”

Featured work:

Loren Loiacono and Capital Repertory Theatre, Petticoats of Steel
Inspired by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and the origin of the fight for women’s suffrage, Loiacono creates a musical docu-play in collaboration with Capital Repertory Theatre exploring New York’s role at the vanguard of the women’s rights movement.

Concert will conclude with fireworks


Meet the Composer

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The music of Loren Loiacono (b. 1989) has been described as “plush...elusive” (New York Times), “vivid and colorful” (Albany Times Union), “dreamy, lilting” (Pioneer Press), and “quirky and fun” (Bad Entertainment- Twin Cities).  An emerging orchestral voice, she has received commissions and performances from such nationally esteemed ensembles as the Detroit Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and the American Composers Orchestra.  She is a frequent collaborator of the Albany Symphony, serving as Mellon Composer-Educator-in-Residence for the 2017-18 season.  In June 2018, the Albany Symphony premiered Loren's Concerto for Piano, written for Vicky Chow.

Ms. Loiacono is also a prolific writer of chamber and vocal music, with performances by ensembles and performers including clarinetist Anthony McGill, pianist Xak Bjerken, cellist Peter Stumpf, New Morse Code, Latitude 49, the New York Virtuosi Singers, Music from Copland House, Transit New Music Ensemble, and the JACK, FLUX, Friction, Argus and Altius String Quartets

She has received awards from ASCAP's Morton Gould Awards, New York Youth Symphony’s First Music Commissioning Program, the Minnesota Orchestra Composers Institute, and many others.  In 2015, she was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where her “Stout With Another Man’s Song” was performed by the New Fromm Players.  In 2017, she received The ASCAP Foundation Fellowship for Composition at The Aspen Music Festival & School.  Ms. Loiacono is also an active member of the New York new music scene; she is a co-founder of the Kettle Corn New Music concert series, and is Associate Director of the MATA Festival.  A native of Stony Brook, New York, she is a doctoral candidate at Cornell University, where she studied with Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra and Kevin Ernste.  She also holds degrees from Yale University (MM/BA). 

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SING OUT! MUSIC IN THE SQUARE
Jun
2
11:00 AM11:00

SING OUT! MUSIC IN THE SQUARE

FREE OUTDOOR CONCERT

Sunday, June 2, 2019 - Troy
Monument Square | 11:00am

The first week of the American Music Festival culminates in an old-time community brunch celebrating women’s right to vote, followed by free musical performances in Monument Square.

Visit the Arts Center of the Capital Region to “make-your-own suffragist sash” and enjoy button and pinmaking, and leave your mark on the community chalk mural. Re-enactors, including legendary figures like Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, will mingle with the crowd, recreating speeches and events of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.

Music in the Square will feature performances by your favorite Festival artists, including Molly Joyce and IAMIAMIAM, local jazz and folk bands, and community performers. The Suffragist Brunch and Music in the Square are a partnership with the City of Troy, The Arts Center of the Capital Region, and the Downtown Troy Business Improvement District.

Enjoy brunch at your favorite Downtown restaurant or explore 50 local food vendors at VEG OUT! presented by the Capital Region Vegan Network.

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Late Night Lounge with Clarice Assad
Jun
1
10:00 PM22:00

Late Night Lounge with Clarice Assad

Clarice Assad, piano & vocals

GRAMMY® nominated composer, celebrated pianist, and inventive vocalist, Clarice Assad brings her unique artistry to the American Music Festival’s Late Night Lounge.  Hear her unique blend of classical, world music, pop, and jazz in a relaxed lounge atmosphere.


Meet the Composer

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A powerful communicator renowned for her musical scope and versatility, Brazilian American Clarice Assad is a significant artistic voice in the classical, world music, pop and jazz genres. A Grammy nominated composer, celebrated pianist, inventive vocalist, and educator, she is renowned for her evocative colors, rich textures, and diverse stylistic range. As an innovator, her award-winning education program, Voxploration, has been presented throughout the United States, Brazil, Europe and Qatar. With her talent sought-after by artists and organizations worldwide, the multi-talented musician continues to attract new audiences both onstage and off.

A prolific Grammy nominated composer with over 70 works to her credit, Clarice Assad’s numerous commissions include works for Carnegie Hall, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo, Chicago Sinfonietta, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Youth Orchestra, General Electric, Sybarite5, Metropolis ensemble, the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Queen Reef Music Festival and the La Jolla Music Festival, to name a few. Her work Danças Nativas was nominated for a Latin Grammy for best contemporary composition in 2009.  Her compositions have been recorded by some of the most prominent names in the classical music, including percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and oboist Liang Wang. 

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Film Screening | Secret Music
Jun
1
10:00 PM22:00

Film Screening | Secret Music

DAVID DEL TREDICI FILM VIEWING

A film by Daniel Beliavsky

(Suitable for mature audiences, 18+)

EMPAC THEATRE | 10:00PM

Secret Music is a documentary film about Pulitzer prize winning composer David Del Tredici and the historical and cultural significance of his music within and outside the gay community. The film investigates the sometimes ineffable processes that are fundamental to music composition, performance, and the communication of meaning through art. Highlighting the nuanced challenges of private sexual identity projected outward into art, Secret Music examines Del Tredici’s personal transformations through the joys and sorrows of gay life, and his goal of communicating sexuality through music that is influential in modern culture.

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AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL CONCERT
Jun
1
7:30 PM19:30

AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL CONCERT

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THIS IS MUSIC YOU MORE THAN HEAR — IT'S MUSIC YOU FEEL!

David Alan Miller, conductor

Hila Plitmann, soprano

Philip Edward Fisher, piano

The Albany Symphony continues its exploration of the new American music landscape with a new work by composer/performer Tanner Porter inspired by the women’s suffrage movement. The Albany Symphony with soloist Phillip Fisher performs and records John Corigliano’s Piano Concerto commemorating its 50th anniversary. Hila Plittman returns to the American Music Festival to perform and record with the orchestra David Del Tredici’s Pop-pourri, the first of ten works inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.

Tanner Porter: Knit/Purl (world premiere)

John Corigliano: Piano Concerto

David Del Tredici: Pop-pourri

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John Corigliano’s musical language is unique and unmistakable, yet rooted in the grand traditions of the past.
— Joshua Bell
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…a glittering jewel in classical music today... Plitmann has a vocal instrument that is simply unreal in its beauty.
— Entertainment Today

Meet the Guest Performers and Composers

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Pianist Philip Edward Fisher is widely recognized as a unique performer of refined style and exceptional versatility. International tours as a prolific soloist and ensemble musician have taken Mr. Fisher across his native United Kingdom to Italy, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, Kenya, Zimbabwe, the Ukraine, and United States. In 2001, he received the prestigious Julius Isserlis Award from the Royal Philharmonic Society of London.

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Grammy-winning composer John Corigliano continues to add to one of the richest, most unusual, and most widely celebrated bodies of work any composer has created over the last forty years. Corigliano's numerous scores—including three symphonies and eight concerti among over one hundred chamber, vocal, choral, and orchestral works—have been performed and recorded by many of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians in the world. Corigliano serves on the composition faculty at the Juilliard School of Music.

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Hila Plitmann is a glittering jewel on the international music scene, known worldwide for her astonishing musicianship, light and beautiful voice and the ability to perform challenging new work. She has worked with many leading conductors, performing with the likes of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra.

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Tanner Porter is a composer-performer (voice and cello), songwriter and visual artist from California. Tanner’s passion for storytelling manifests in her setting of original poetry; her love for the cross-mingling of art forms often brings Tanner to incorporate her own artwork and animations into scores and performances. Tanner received a Bachelors in Music Composition from the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance, and is currently pursuing a Masters in Music Composition from the Yale School of Music.

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"Del Tredici," said Aaron Copland, "is that rare find among composers – a creator with a truly original gift. I know of no other composer of his generation who composes music of greater freshness and daring, or with more personality." Ever extravagant, Del Tredici remains a forceful presence on the musical scene. With the appearance in 1976 of Final Alice, Del Tredici forged for himself a fresh compositional path, but at the same time gave hope to a generation of young composers seeking a new way of composing.

ENHANCE YOUR FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

Learn more about the music presented at each concert through the Albany Symphony's two main pre-concert events, Vanguard Concert Prevue's and Concert Preludes.

Vanguard | An Albany Symphony Volunteer Organization

Vanguard | An Albany Symphony Volunteer Organization

Vanguard Concert Prevue | Friday, May 31, 2019 at 12:00PM | Albany Public Library, Main Branch (161 Washington Ave, Albany)

Onstage Concert Prelude | Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 6:30PM, EMPAC Concert Hall

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YousaidShesaidHesaid:  From the "girl of the mill"
Jun
1
4:00 PM16:00

YousaidShesaidHesaid: From the "girl of the mill"

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A New Take on A Classic Song Cycle
by Molly Joyce

Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin from the experience of the miller’s daughter.

Lucy Dhegrae, soprano

Lucy Dhegrae, soprano

 

Lucy Dhegrae, vocalist

Christopher Herbert, baritone

Nathaniel LaNasa, piano

Created in collaboration with playwright Christopher Oscar Pena, director Austin Regan, and pianist Patrick Jones, Molly Joyce’s YousaidShesaidHesaid traces the same timeline as Schubert’s song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin but from the experience of the other character in the story, who until now has had no voice – the “girl of the mill” herself. 

Baritone Christopher Herbert performs selections from Die Schöne Müllerin.

PREVIEW NOW


Meet the Artists

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Patrick John Jones is a London-born composer based in York. His music has been performed in concert halls around the UK by a variety of ensembles and artists, including members of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s Ensemble 10/10, The Kreutzer Quartet, and Octandre. Patrick was awarded the RPS Composition Prize in 2015.

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Soprano Lucy Dhegrae is a passionate vocalist who regularly premieres new vocal works and operas, and has worked closely with such composers as Unsuk Chin, Jason Eckardt, Susan Botti, Alexandra Vrebalov, and Sky Macklay. Dhegrae is the 2018 recipient of University of Michigan School of Music’s Emerging Artist Award, and among the first cohort of fellows with Turn the Spotlight, a new mentorship program for young professionals.

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Composer and performer Molly Joyce’s work is primarily concerned with disability as a creative source. She has an impaired left hand and the primary vehicle in her pursuit is her electric vintage toy organ, which allows her to engage with disability on a compositional and performative level.

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Argus Quartet
Jun
1
2:00 PM14:00

Argus Quartet

The Argus Quartet returns to the American Music Festival to perform David Del Tredici’s stirring piano sextet, Bullycide, Juri Seo’s Infinite Seasons, and Christopher TheofanidisConference of the Birds. Bullycide (2013) is a musical response and a memorial to violinist Tyler Clementi and 4 gay teens who committed suicide after being relentlessly bullied. Founded in 2013, Argus is dedicated to reinvigorating the audience-performer relationship through innovative concerts and diverse programming.

David Del Tredici: Bullycide

Juri Seo:  Infinite Seasons

Christopher Theofanidis: Conference of the Birds

HEAR THE ARTISTS

Hear for yourself how the Argus String Quartet honors the storied chamber music traditions of the past while forging a new path forward.


Meet the Artists and Composers

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Dana Kelley, viola, received her Bachelor’s of Music from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, and completed her Master’s of Music degree at the New England Conservatory. In addition to Argus, Dana frequently performs with The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, A Far Cry, and The Knights chamber orchestras.

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Joann Whang, cello, was the 2010 First Prize winner at the Amsterdam Cello Biënnale Competition and has performed extensively throughout Europe and the United States. A champion of contemporary music, Joann has worked with some of the most influential composers and new music performers across the globe, including Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg, Martijn Padding, Tristan Murail, and Beat Furrer.

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Juri Seo seeks to write music that encompasses extreme contrast through compositions that are unified and fluid, yet complex. She merges many of the fascinating aspects of music from the past century—in particular its expanded timbral palette and unorthodox approach to structure—with a deep love of functional tonality, counterpoint, and classical form. She hopes to create music that loves, that makes a positive change in the world—however small—through the people who are willing to listen.

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By commissioning, premiering, and championing works from living composers, violinist Clara Kim has quickly established herself at the forefront of her generation in the interpretation of contemporary music. Clara also dedicates much of her energy to community engagement work and education and has taught at a number of leading academic institutions.

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Violinist Jason Issokson has performed as a soloist with orchestras across the world, including Aspen Concert Orchestra, Waco Symphony, Great Falls Symphony, Abilene Philharmonic, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra di Teatro San Carlo, and the Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia. Jason studied with Midori at both the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Southern California.

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Ever extravagant, Del Tredici remains a forceful presence on the musical scene. "Del Tredici," said Aaron Copland, "is that rare find among composers – a creator with a truly original gift. I know of no other composer of his generation who composes music of greater freshness and daring, or with more personality."



Christopher Theofanidis has had performances by many leading orchestras from around the world, including the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the National, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Detroit Symphonies. In 2007, he was nominated for a Grammy award for best composition for his chorus and orchestra work, The Here and Now, and in 2017 for his bassoon concerto. His orchestral work, Rainbow Body, has been one of the most performed new orchestral works of the new millennium.

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Speak Out, Justice!
Jun
1
11:30 AM11:30

Speak Out, Justice!

The wheels of justice are powered by people
who stand up and speak out.

David Alan Miller and musicians of the Albany Symphony premiere four new melodrams for chamber orchestra and narrator, each inspired by notable Americans who advanced “liberty and justice for all.”

Evan Mack: A Little More Perfect
Inspired by Justice Kennedy’s Supreme Court Ruling on Same Sex Marriage 

Jorge Sosa: I Dissent
Inspired by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Molly Joyce: Past and Present
Inspired by pioneering journalist Nellie Bly and her reporting on the conditions at the Blackwell Island mental institution

Judy Bozone: MOONSHOT

Inspired by native New Yorker and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her recent work on the Green New Deal.


Meet the Composers

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Jorge Sosa’s music covers everything from electronic music to opera, with an eclectic mix of styles and influences that converge to shape an original and personal voice. You will find traces of folk and traditional music from around the globe, chant, and polyphonic vocal repertoire, Afro-Latin rhythms, Jazz harmonies, and electronic music.

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Judy Bozone’s music explores texture, tonality and space while maintaining a strong perspective.  Her music often utilizes a wide variety of art forms that are imagined into the music.  She recently returned to the United States after living and working in Bangkok, Thailand for four years.


Evan Mack believes that opera should be theater grounded in climatic expression that delivers larger-than-life stories and music that harnesses the full athletic thrill of singing. In 2016, Mack’s opera Roscoe received its orchestral world premiere with the Albany Symphony.


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Composer and performer Molly Joyce’s work is primarily concerned with disability as a creative source. She has an impaired left hand and the primary vehicle in her pursuit is her electric vintage toy organ, which allows her to engage with disability on a compositional and performative level.

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I AM I AM I AM | Raise Your Voice!
Jun
1
9:30 AM09:30

I AM I AM I AM | Raise Your Voice!

Vocalists: Sun-Ly Pierce, Chloe Schaaf, Paulina Swierczek, SeolAh Yoo

Vocalists: Sun-Ly Pierce, Chloe Schaaf, Paulina Swierczek, SeolAh Yoo

The singers collective IAMIAMIAM, founded at Bard Conservatory of Music, presents Raise Your Voice!, a program of works by living women composers. Through subjects ranging from the Salem Witch Trials to the 1969 Stonewall riots, IAMIAMIAM celebrates the voices that society has not always been ready to hear. The program includes works by established and emerging composers and illuminates the connective thread of humanity in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, Nikita Gill, poet Aiden Feltkamp, and more.

Beata Moon: Commission, SSAA quartet on piano, using Suffragist texts (world premiere)

Stacy Garrop: In Eleanor’s Words (selections, solo voice and piano)

Alexis C. Lamb: Commission, TBD voice, poem by Aiden K. Feltkamp on the subject of Marsha P. Johnson (world premiere)

Melissa Dunphy: Four Poems of Nikita Gill, solo voice and piano and then a capella voice quartet

Frances Pollock: In Twenty Minutes, solo voice and piano

Missy Mazzoli: New New York Song: II. Manhattan Island

Danika Lorén: Commission for solo voice and piano, using Salem Witch Trial texts (world premiere)

Gilda Lyons: A capella solo voice, using text of Anne Sexton

Judy Collins: Bread and Roses, arrangement for four voices and piano

Carole King: Beautiful, solo voice and piano


Meet the Artists

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Soprano Seolah Yoo received her bachelor’s degree in music through the Joint Degree Program offered by the National University of Singapore and the Peabody Conservatory. She has appeared in numerous performances with an extensive range of repertoire and been hailed by The Strait Times Singapore for her “haunting, dulcet soprano tone.”
Albany Symphony Debut: 2015

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Soprano Paulina Swierczek is a vibrant story-teller, combining technical facility with a consuming passion for communication. Paulina attended the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Rita Shane, Dr. Constance Haas and Anthony Dean Griffey, and currently studies with Sanford Sylvan.
Albany Symphony Debut: 2017

Mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce’s fierce passion for music of all genres has led her to an eclectic range of performance opportunities. She currently studies with Lorraine Nubar in the Graduate Vocal Arts Program.
Albany Symphony Debut: 2017

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Mezzo-soprano Chloë Schaaf has been praised for her emotional subtlety and animated aplomb, in addition to her lyrical singing. Chloë was most recently seen with the iSING! International Young Artists Festival in China, performing excerpts from Bizet’s Carmen as well as a wide array of Chinese repertoire on tour with the Suzhou Symphony.
Albany Symphony Debut: 2017

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Meet the Composers

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Late Night Lounge |  Breaking and Entering
May
31
10:00 PM22:00

Late Night Lounge | Breaking and Entering

Molly Joyce, toy organ & vocals

Composer/performer, Molly Joyce takes to the late night stage for a set of musical works for voice, vintage toy organ, and electronics. Joyce aims to engage and challenge her impaired left hand physically and artistically in an act of “breaking and entering” the human body to a realm beyond ability.

Molly Joyce | Going beyond ability | 2017


Meet the Composer

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Composer and performer Molly Joyce’s music has been described as one of “serene power” (New York Times), written to “superb effect” (The Wire), and “impassioned” (The Washington Post). Her works have been commissioned and performed by ensembles including the New World, New York Youth, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, and the New Juilliard, Decoda, and Contemporaneous ensembles. Additionally, her work has been presented at TEDxMidAtlantic, Bang on a Can Marathon, Classical:NEXT, VisionIntoArt’s FERUS Festival, and featured in outlets such asPitchfork, WNYC’s New Sounds, Q2 Music, I Care If You Listen, andThe Log Journal.

Her work is primarily concerned with disability as a creative source. She has an impaired left hand due to a previous car accident, and the primary vehicle in her pursuit is her electric vintage toy organ, an instrument she bought on eBay which suits her body and allows her to engage with disability on a compositional and performative level. Related engagements include speaking/performing at TEDxMidAtlantic and National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, as well as publishing a personal essay for 21CM.

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Dogs of Desire
May
31
7:30 PM19:30

Dogs of Desire

A LABORATORY FOR TODAY’S MOST ADVENTUROUS COMPOSERS!

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David Alan Miller, conductor

Lucy Dhegrae, vocals

Lucy Fitz Gibbon, vocals



Dogs of Desire, the orchestra’s electrifying genre-bending new music ensemble, sing out with five world premieres by leading-edge composers Clarice Assad, Viet Cuong, Loren Loiacono, Andre Myers, and Rachel Peters inspired by great passions of historic figures and milestones, such as abolitionist Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and the Stonewall Uprising. Collaborators include Capital Repertory Theatre, Girls Inc., Albany High School Chorus, and choreographer Adam Weinert.

Viet Cuong, composer, and Adam Weinert, choreographer, Transfigured
Inspired by the people of Stonewall who relied on humor to persevere through injustice, and who ultimately awakened a new era in the LGBTQ rights movement with the 1969 Stonewall Uprising.

Clarice Assad, Ain’t I A Woman
In collaboration with Girls, Inc. (“inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold”), Assad creates a multimedia work inspired by Sojourner Truth’s 1851 “Ain’t I A Woman” speech.

Andre Myers, Studies in Hope: Frederick Douglass
Working with the Albany High School Chorus, Andre Meyers creates a Hip-Hop work Inspired by the words of Frederick Douglass.

Rachel J. Peters, If You Can Prove That I Should Set You Free
Collaborating with a theatre group, Peters takes inspiration from Alice Duer Miller’s Women are People

Loren Loiacono, composer, and Capital Repertory Theatre, Petticoats of Steel
Loiacono, in collaboration with Cap Rep, resets poetry, protest songs (both pro- and anti-suffrage), speeches, and letters in a contemporary vernacular to create a multifaceted portrait of the suffrage movement. The work incorporates poetry by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (author of “The Yellow Wallpaper”) and abolitionist Sarah Forten.


HOW DID DOGS GET ITS NAME?


Meet the Performers, Composers, and Collaborators

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Lucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano, is a dynamic musician whose repertoire spans the Renaissance to the present. She believes that creating new works and recreating those lost in centuries past makes room for the multiplicity and diversity of voices integral to classical music’s future. As a recitalist Lucy has appeared in such venues as London’s Wigmore Hall; New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Park Avenue Armory, and Merkin Hall; and Toronto’s Koerner Hall.

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Adam H. Weinert is a dancer, choreographer and researcher. Adam has danced with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company, The Mark Morris Dance Group, Shen Wei Dance Arts, and Christopher Williams.  In addition to his performance work, Adam has been published in The New York Times, the Juilliard Journal, and as a featured profile in New York Magazine. He produced and choreographed two award-winning dance films screened nationally and abroad, and his performance works have toured to four continents.

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Intense and lyrical, Andre Myers’ music mixes narrative drama, poetry, and meditations on color to create work that aspires to moments of honesty, poignancy, and depth. A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Andre has three times been commissioned by the Michigan Philharmonic Orchestra, where he served as composer-in-residence for the Philharmonic’s CLASSical music outreach program.

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An emerging orchestral voice, Loren Loiacono has received commissions and performances from such nationally esteemed ensembles as the Detroit Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and the American Composers Orchestra. For the Albany Symphony’s 2017-2018 Season, Loren served as Mellon Composer-Educator-in-Residence, and in June 2018 premiered her Concerto for Piano, written for Vicky Chow.

Soprano Lucy Dhegrae is a passionate vocalist who regularly premieres new vocal works and operas, and has worked closely with such composers as Unsuk Chin, Jason Eckardt, Susan Botti, Alexandra Vrebalov, and Sky Macklay. Dhegrae is the 2018 recipient of University of Michigan School of Music’s Emerging Artist Award, and among the first cohort of fellows with Turn the Spotlight, a new mentorship program for young professionals.




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Through music, composer Viet Cuong enjoys exploring the unexpected and whimsical. His work has been performed on six continents and featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, and on American Public Radio’s Performance Today. . His recent compositions include a solo snare drum piece, a double reed sextet, and, most recently, a tuba concerto. He also enjoys composing for the wind ensemble medium, and his works for winds have amassed over one hundred performances.

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A powerful communicator renowned for her musical scope and versatility, Brazilian American Clarice Assad is a significant artistic voice in the classical, world music, pop and jazz genres. A Grammy nominated composer, celebrated pianist, inventive vocalist, and educator, she is renowned for her evocative colors, rich textures, and diverse stylistic range. As an innovator, her award-winning education program, Voxploration, has been presented throughout the United States, Brazil, Europe and Qatar.


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Composer/librettist Rachel J. Peters writes all manner of works for the stage. Her extensive catalogue of art songs and cabaret songs have been performed at Lincoln Center, Second Stage, The National Opera Center, Symphony Space, NYMF, Ars Nova, Joe’s Pub, and cabarets and theatres nationwide. Rachel has received the Anna Sosenko Assist Trust and multiple ASCAPlus awards.

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Film Screening | "Of Rage and Remembrance: A Portrait of John Corigliano”
May
31
6:00 PM18:00

Film Screening | "Of Rage and Remembrance: A Portrait of John Corigliano”

** Special Preview Screening **

6:00pm | EMPAC Concert Hall

John Corigliano, composer
Gerry Herman, filmmaker

This powerful new film by documentary filmmaker and Capital Region native, Gerry Herman, provides an intimate portrait of Pulitzer, Oscar, and four time GRAMMY® Award-winning composer John Corigliano, as he tells the story of the creations of his Symphony No. 1. Through this documentary, Corigliano shares his story of love and loss and the creation of his Symphony No. 1 to commemorate “my friends – those I had lost and the one I was losing” to the AIDS epidemic. This film juxtaposes Corigliano’s deeply moving narrative with dramatic performance-footage of the symphony, featuring the Albany Symphony and conductor David Alan Miller.


Enjoy an exclusive dinner and meet-and-greet with
John Corigliano and Gerry Herman
5:00pm


ARTIST BIO:

The American John Corigliano continues to add to one of the richest, most unusual, and most widely celebrated bodies of work any composer has created over the last forty years. Corigliano's numerous scores—including three symphonies and eight concerti among over one hundred chamber, vocal, choral, and orchestral works—have been performed and recorded by many of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians in the world.

Recent scores include Conjurer (2008), for percussion and string orchestra, commissioned for and introduced by Dame Evelyn Glennie; Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: The Red Violin (2005), developed from the themes of the score to the François Girard’s film of the same name, which won Corigliano the Oscar in 1999; Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2000) for orchestra and amplified soprano, the recording which won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition in 2008; Symphony No. 3: Circus Maximus (2004), scored simultaneously for wind orchestra and a multitude of wind ensembles; and Symphony No. 2 (2001: Pulitzer Prize in Music.) Other important scores include String Quartet (1995: Grammy Award, Best Contemporary Composition); Symphony No. 1 (1991: Grawemeyer and Grammy Awards); the opera The Ghosts of Versailles (Metropolitan Opera commission, 1991, International Classical Music Award 1992); and the Clarinet Concerto (1977.)

One of the few living composers to have a string quartet named for him, Corigliano serves on the composition faculty at the Juilliard School of Music and holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Music at Lehman College, City University of New York, which has established a scholarship in his name; for the past fourteen years he and his partner, the composer-librettist Mark Adamo, have divided their time between Manhattan and Kent Cliffs, New York.

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FIRST DRAUGHTS READING SESSION
May
30
7:00 PM19:00

FIRST DRAUGHTS READING SESSION

  • Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Beer Tasting begins at 7:00pm // Reading session begins at 7:30pm

FROM THE COMPOSER’S IMAGINATION TO THE CONCERT HALL
& FROM THE BREWER’S RECIPE TO THE TAPROOM

Watch as 12 emerging composers have their newest works performed for the first time. David Alan Miller, composer Christopher Theofanidis, and musicians of the Albany Symphony guide each new voice through the challenges of composing in the 21st century. In between the readings, audience members can sample beers, including new brews inspired by the Festival, from Back Barn Brewing Co., Browns Brewing Co., and Wolf Hollow Brewing Co.

Aiyana Braun – Untitled

Erin Busch – Liminal Space

JunYi Chow – To the Night

Daniel De Togni – Fireworks

Theodore Haber – Scattered Flashcards

Aaron Houston – Midway to Midtown

Katie Madonna Lee – Disco Demolition

Jesus Martinez – The Heart of the Question

Brendan McMullen – Dynamic Checkerboard

Sameer Ramchandran – Le jardin des ombres (The Garden of Shadows)

Matthew Schreibeis – Unite in Song

Lawren Brianna Ware – Winds of Change

SAVOR THE EXPERIENCE WITH A REFRESHING BEER

In between the readings, meet and toast the composers at a private happy hour and sample beers from local craft breweries, including new brews inspired by the Festival.

 
 

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Composer Masterclass with Christopher Theofanidis
May
30
2:00 PM14:00

Composer Masterclass with Christopher Theofanidis

EMPAC Studio Beta | 2:00pm

Led by Christopher Theofanidis, this intensive 5-day workshop provides 12 emerging composers with in-depth training in composing for today’s ensembles, immerses them in the Festival’s new music activities, and features 12 brief new works, one by each of them, in the “First Draughts” reading session.

FEATURED COMPOSERS

  • Aiyana Braun

  • Erin Busch

  • JunYi Chow

  • Daniel De Togni

  • Theodore Haber

  • Aaron Houston

  • Katie Madonna Lee

  • Jesus Martinez

  • Brendan McMullen

  • Sameer Ramchandran

  • Matthew Schreibeis

  • Lawren Brianna Ware

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SENECA FALLS DAY TRIP & CONCERT
May
18
8:30 AM08:30

SENECA FALLS DAY TRIP & CONCERT

  • Women's Rights National Historical Park (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

SENECA FALLS DAY TRIP & CONCERT

Saturday, May 18

It was at Seneca Falls, at the Conference on Women’s Rights, on July 19-20, 1848, that Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Frederick Douglass, and others met for the first time in American history to formally affirm the audacious idea that women deserve the same rights as men.  

We will relive that glorious moment in New York State’s history: touring the National Historic Site and legendary Wesleyan Chapel with the Park’s rangers; having a talk with a brilliant Harvard professor and human rights scholar, Kathryn Sikkink; exploring the town, including the Women’s Hall of Fame; and enjoying an unforgettable, suffrage-themed performance by the four brilliant young singers of the IAMIAMIAM collective from the Bard College Vocal Arts Program in the Wesleyan Chapel, the very room in which the original Conference of 1848 took place.


2019 AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL SING OUT! NEW YORK SPECIAL PREVIEWS

The Albany Symphony’s 2019 American Music Festival, Sing Out! New York frames two anniversaries: the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote, and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, a turning point for LGBTQ rights. Sing Out! New York draws inspiration from these events to tell the stories of the heroic figures, milestone events, and great passions behind New York’s leading role in championing equal rights.

While the main events of the Festival will take place here in the Capital Region, our two special previews will connect Sing Out! New York to the historic sites central to the women’s rights movement and the LGBTQ rights movement and their fight for equality and justice for all people.

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DEL TREDICI MEET UP AT STONEWALL
May
11
2:00 PM14:00

DEL TREDICI MEET UP AT STONEWALL

DEL TREDICI MEET UP AT STONEWALL

Saturday, May 11 | 2:00pm

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The iconic June 28, 1969 Stonewall Uprising was a catalyst for the LGBTQ rights movement, awakening a new era in the fight for equal rights. In 2016, the Stonewall National Monument, which comprises the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and the streets where the events of the Uprising occurred, was designated as the 412th national park and the first to commemorate LGBTQ rights and history.

We will begin the day at the Stonewall National Monument in Christopher Park, enjoy a command performance of David Del Tredici’s Felix Variations for bass trombone featuring David’s nephew, legendary bass trombone virtuoso, Felix Del Tredici, and hear David’s reminiscences about his early life as a gay composer living and working in New York City during  the 1960s.

OR CALL THE ALBANY SYMPHONY AT 518-465-4755 AND ASK FOR RACHEL!


2019 AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL SING OUT! NEW YORK SPECIAL PREVIEWS

The Albany Symphony’s 2019 American Music Festival, Sing Out! New York frames two anniversaries: the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote, and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, a turning point for LGBTQ rights. Sing Out! New York draws inspiration from these events to tell the stories of the heroic figures, milestone events, and great passions behind New York’s leading role in championing equal rights.

While the main events of the Festival will take place here in the Capital Region, our two special previews will connect Sing Out! New York to the historic sites central to the women’s rights movement and the LGBTQ rights movement and their fight for equality and justice for all people.


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