Category: 2017 – 2018

Canadian pianist Vicky Chow has been described as “brilliant” (New York Times), “a monster pianist” (Time Out New York) and “new star of new music” (Los Angeles Times). She is the pianist for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, piano duo X88 Grand Band, New Music Detroit, and has collaborated with other ensembles such as the International Contemporary Ensemble and Wet Ink Ensemble. Her latest recordings of Steve Reich’s ‘Piano Counterpoint’ (Nonesuch) and Tristan Perich’s ‘Surface Image’ (New Amsterdam Records) was included in the top albums of the year lists such as The Rolling Stone Magazine and Rhapsody. Her solo album AORTA (fall 2016 – New Amsterdam Records), features six new works by American composers. such as Rome prize winners Andy Akiho and Christopher Cerrone. Later this year, An EP of a solo piano work by Bang on a Can founder Michael Gordon titled “SONATRA”, will be released in l on Cantaloupe Music. As an artist frequently broadcasted on WNYC’s Q2 radio, her recorded work can be found on the ‘Nonesuch’, ‘New Amsterdam’, ‘Tzadik’, ‘Cantaloupe Music’,’ Innova’, ‘Hinterzimmer’, and ‘AltaVoz’ labels. Interviews and articles featuring Ms. Chow was published in the Huffington Post, Gramophone, The New York Times, The Vancouver Sun, and many more. Her performances of Morton Feldman and John Cage were featured on BBC3‘s documentary series ‘The Sound and The Fury’, based on Alex Ross’ book ‘The Rest is Noise’.

Starting the piano at age 5, she was invited to perform at the age of 9 at the International Gilmore Music Keyboard Festival. She made her orchestral debut at the age of 10 with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and made her NY orchestral debut appearance at Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Symphony performing Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Ms. Chow is a Yamaha Artist

Free Admission

More info: http://www.vickychow.com

Known for their unique and imaginative concert programming (varying wildly in style and instrumentation from djembe and contrabass flute to Nintendo Gameboy and drum set), A/B Duo has been delighting their audiences all over the United States since 2013. The duo has performed at The Green Mill in Chicago, Spectrum in NYC, The Center for New Music in San Francisco, as well as the Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and other diverse venues such as the video game and indie music festival Rockage 4.0.

The bi-coastal duo (percussionist Christopher G. Jones from Rochester, NY and flutist Meerenai Shim from the San Francisco Bay Area) has commissioned numerous works from American composers including Drew Baker, Zack Browning, Andrea La Rose, Ned McGowan, Brendon Randall-Myers, Ivan Trevino, and Ken Ueno. Many of A/B Duo’s commissions can be heard on their upcoming full-length album, Variety Show on the Aerocade Music label, and on their 2013 EP, Things We Dream About.

A/B Duo is probably the only chamber group to design their own video game. Echoloquacious: the game can be played here.

Free Admission

More info: http://abduo.net

Described by the Warsaw Music Journal as “unquestionably one of the greatest performers of 20th century music,” and the New York Times as “an artist of intense concentration and conviction,” Jeffrey Jacob received his education from the Juilliard School (Master of Music) and the Peabody Conservatory (Doctorate) and counts as his principal teachers, Mieczyslaw Munz, Carlo Zecchi, and Leon Fleisher. Since his debut with the London Philharmonic in Royal Festival Hall, he has appeared as piano soloist with over 25 orchestras internationally including the Moscow, St. Petersburg, Seattle, Portland, Indianapolis, Charleston, Saõ Paulo and Brazil National Symphonies, the Silesian, Moravian, and North Czech Philharmonics, and recently, the London Symphony and the New Jersey Philharmonic. A noted proponent of contemporary music, he has performed the world premieres of works written for him by George Crumb, Vincent Persichetti, Gunther Schuller, Samuel Adler, Francis Routh, and many others. He has performed solo recitals in London, Dublin, Glasgow, Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Prague, Warsaw, Bucharest, Milan, Madrid, Helsinki, Rio de Janeiro, Saõ Paulo, Havana, Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Jakarta, Tokyo, Sydney, Auckland, Toronto, Ottawa, and throughout the U.S.

Mr. Jacob has recorded over 120 works for solo piano and piano and orchestra including his critically acclaimed series of CDs of the complete piano music of Samuel Barber and George Crumb and major works of Bela Bartok. Fanfare Magazine recently devoted a feature article to his series of CDs for New Ariel Recordings entitled “Contemporary American Eclectic Music for the Piano.” Additionally, he has made radio recordings for Radio Warsaw, Radio Prague, and Brazil National Radio, as well as a series of recordings of American music for the BBC.

As a composer, he has written four symphonies, three piano concertos, and numerous works for piano and chamber ensemble. Raymond Leppard and the Indianapolis Symphony premiered his Symphony: Winter Lightning. The London Symphony recorded his Symphony No. 3. The Moscow and St. Petersburg Symphonies premiered respectively his Piano Concertos 1 and 2 with the composer as soloist. The Gregg Smith Singers premiered his Sleeping at Last for mixed chorus and solo cello. Mr. Jacob’s Persistence of Memory was premiered by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony at the 1999 College Music Society National Convention, and was selected by the Charles Ives Center for American Music for a performance by the Charleston Symphony at the 2002 Charleston Spoleto Festival. Other works have been premiered and recorded by the Orquesta de Baja California, the Chamber Orchestra of the Rhein, the North Czech Philharmonic, the Cavani Quartet and sopranos Mary Nessinger and Laurel Thomas. Two CDs of Mr. Jacob’s orchestral music have been released by Centaur Records and Vienna Modern Masters, and recordings of individual works appear on several labels including Albany, Opus One, Capstone, and New Ariel. Currently Emeritus Professor at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, he recently received the Artist of the Year Award from the International New Music Consortium at New York University for his work as composer, pianist and educator.

Free Admission

More info: http://jeffreyjacob.org

Praised by the Boston Globe as “superb”, the dynamic bass clarinet/marimba duo Transient Canvas (Amy Advocat, bass clarinet & Matt Sharrock, marimba) has been blazing its own trail in the world of contemporary music since 2011. In under five years, they have premiered over 60 new works, essentially creating an entirely new repertoire for their unique instrumentation. Fearless in their programming and hungry for new collaborations, TC has performed anywhere from microbreweries to Jordan Hall and actively seeks out new composers who will stretch their instrumentation to its limits.

Transient Canvas performs almost exclusively works written for them. Their mission is to provide a blank slate or canvas for composers to explore while simultaneously making bass clarinet and marimba a new standard ensemble. They have worked with a wide variety of composers, including well established artists such as Marti Epstein, Curtis Hughes, John McDonald and Andy Vores and emerging voices such as Victoria Cheah, Peter Van Zandt Lane, Adam Roberts, and Tina Tallon.

Dedicated to spreading their repertoire, Transient Canvas has performed across the United States. Their 2014-15 season included a featured performance on the closing concert of the first annual New Music Gathering at the San Francisco Conservatory, a shared recital with pianist Taka Kigawa on the Firehouse New Music Series in Brooklyn, and a collaborative concert with Chamber Cartel and the artwork of Igor Korsunskiy at the Goat Farm Arts Center in Atlanta. In their hometown of Boston, they have been featured performers with the Equilibrium Concert Series, the Fifth Floor Collective, Opensound, and the innovative new Original Gravity Concert Series which pairs local composers with local beers at Aeronaut Brewing Company.

Free Admission

More info: http://www.transientcanvas.com

The Argus Quartet was formed in the summer of 2013 and is receiving invitations from concert series throughout the United States and abroad. Recent performances include appearances at Carnegie Hall, Laguna Beach Live!, the Hear Now Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, the Birdfoot Festival, and the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam. This season also includes performances with the Brentano Quartet and clarinetist David Shifrin at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Oneppo Chamber Series, and Carnegie Hall. The Argus Quartet will serve as the Ernst Stiefel Quartet in Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts during the 2016-17 season.

Argus is dedicated to reinvigorating the audience-performer relationship through innovative concerts and diverse repertoire – connecting with and building up a community of engaged listeners is at the core of the quartet’s mission. The quartet also believes that today’s ensembles can honor the storied chamber music traditions of our past while forging a new path forward. In that spirit, their repertoire includes not just staples of the chamber music canon but also a large number of pieces by living composers.

Through Chamber Music America and the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Argus has commissioned a number of new works including quartets by Donald Crockett, composer and GRAMMY nominee Eric Guinivan, and the 2014 Hermitage Prize winner Thomas Kotcheff. Argus served as the Quartet in Residence at New Music on the Point under the guidance of the JACK Quartet, and was also selected as one of three ensembles to perform works from Kronos Quartet’s “Fifty for the Future” commissioning project at Carnegie Hall.

The quartet recently began an appointment as the Yale School of Music’s Fellowship Quartet in Residence and is the first ensemble to be mentored by the Brentano String Quartet in that capacity. In addition to their teaching responsibilities at Yale, Argus has worked with students through residencies and masterclasses at James Madison University, Rockport Music, the Milken School, the Young Musicians Foundation, California State University Long Beach, and the Birdfoot Festival.

Free Admission

More info: http://argusquartet.com

Since 2009, the GRAMMY-nominated Los Angeles Percussion Quartet (LAPQ) has forged a distinct identity as a world-class contemporary chamber music ensemble that is dedicated to commissioning and presenting new works for percussion quartet. Originally, members Nick Terry, Matt Cook, Justin DeHart, and Cory Hills joined together to create a classical percussion ensemble that would champion the important contributions of 20th century West Coast composers while collaborating with local artists to continue the tradition of innovation and exploration. Today, the group continues their mission while broadening creative output through recordings, performances, and educational outreach.

LAPQ’s partnership with Sono Luminus Records has contributed some of the most dynamic and realistic recordings of percussion music to date. Rūpa-Khandha, LAPQ’s seminal album recorded at Skywalker Ranch in Marin, CA, pioneered a new level of sonic achievement in 2012 as the first 7.1 surround-sound high-fidelity recording of percussion chamber music. The quartet’s recorded performance was praised by Neue Musikzeitung for presenting “the entire color-spectrum of global percussion instruments intelligently and with great competency,” while Percussive Notes hailed LAPQ’s commitment towards “championing composers of thought- provoking and uncompromisingly intelligent music.” The album won multiple nominations in the 55th GRAMMY Awards, including the prestigious category of Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. In 2014, LAPQ released their second surround sound album with Sono Luminus Records, entitled The Year Before Yesterday, featuring works by Shaun Naidoo, Eric Griswold, Nick Deyoe, Isaac Schankler, Joseph Pereira, and PAS Hall of Fame member William Kraft. The album was hailed by the New York Times as “mesmerizing,” with “colorful, atmospheric and…supremely melodic music.”

LAPQ’s performances range in scope from living room salons, art museums, and warehouses, to appearances in distinguished concert series, including Festival Mozaic, Laguna Beach Music Festival, Percussive Arts Society International Convention showcases, Southern California Marimba Competition, Monday Evening Concerts, Music and Conversations, People Inside Electronics, Morrison Artists, Fullerton Friends of Music, April in Santa Cruz, L.A. Composers Project, and a concerto with the South Dakota Black Hills Symphony Orchestra. Equally committed to outreach and education, the quartet currently presents workshops and masterclasses to young musicians at middle schools, high schools, and universities, such as the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, University of Southern California, California Institute of the Arts, Chapman University, Stanford University, CSU Sacramento/Bakersfield/East Bay/Long Beach, and Occidental College.

The individual members of the group are all active freelance performers and educators residing in Southern California. Collectively, they are graduates of America’s leading music institutions, including USC, UC San Diego, California Institute of the Arts, Oberlin Conservatory, and Northwestern University. The members of Los Angeles Percussion Quartet are proud Yamaha Performing Artists and receive generous support from Innovative Percussion, REMO, Black Swamp Percussion, and Sabian Cymbals.

Free Admission

More info: http://www.lapq.org