Neighborhood Classics to Present Contemporaneous' DON'T EVEN, 2/11

The Neighborhood Classics concert series presents new music group Contemporaneous on Monday, February 11 at 7pm, at P.S. 142 (100 Attorney St., NYC) on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The evening, entitled DON'T EVEN, will be hosted by James Matheson, composer and Neighborhood Classics Artistic Director at P.S. 142. The program includes Sean Friar's Clunker Concerto (world premiere, revised version), Jeremy Podgursky's Mindjob (East Coast premiere), Judd Greenstein's Octet 1979, Andrew Norman's Try, and David Lang's increase.

Sean Friar's original Clunker Concerto was commissioned and premiered in 2011 by American Composers Orchestra, as part of its "Playing it UNsafe" series at Carnegie Hall. Sean Friar's work is a percussion ensemble concerto for junk car (scavenged from a local junk yard) and orchestra. The revised version will have its premiere on February 11.

Of Clunker Concerto, Friar says, "Whether it is a gong made of sheet metal whose pitch spectrum informs the orchestral harmonies played against it, or the acoustic beating of two closely-tuned car wheels mimicked by woodwind multiphonics, or even the inherent pitch abilities (or more aptly, limitations) of a fender being used to determine the orchestra's melody notes; I try to explore the nuances and capabilities of each junk instrument as carefully as I would were I writing for a violin, clarinet, or any other traditional instrument. I was happy to discover that by using the idiosyncratic and often wonky natures of the junk instruments as a starting point, I was able to come up with musical ideas I would have never otherwise thought of."

Contemporaneous, a New York-based ensemble of 20+ musicians, performs the most exciting music of this generation, music that describes the world and captures the spirit of the present moment. Founded in 2010 at Bard College, Contemporaneous has played over 40 concerts at venues including the Merkin Concert Hall, Galapagos Art Space, Roulette, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and The Stone, and gave the first ever performance at Van Dyke Park, New Amsterdam Records' space in Brooklyn. In April 2012 Innova Recordings released Contemporaneous' debut album, Stream of Stars - Music of Dylan Mattingly comprising music written for the ensemble by its founding co-artistic director. For more information, visit www.contemporaneous.org.