SIGNAL To Perform At Merkin Concert Hall 5/27

On Thursday May 27th at 7:30 pm, SIGNAL, a large ensemble comprising some of Eastman School of Music's most gifted and innovative alumni, will perform the World Premiere of Stabat Mater by Nico Muhly. Celebrated as "one of the next great hopes for the future of classical music" by New York Magazine, Muhly has worked with Philip Glass, Björk and Antony and The Johnsons and composed the score for the 2008 film The Reader. Conductor Brad Lubman - co-founder of SIGNAL and a member of the Eastman faculty - will lead the concert program.

The performance also includes the American Premiere of The Corridor by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, one of the most prominent figures in European contemporary music. This piece for two singers and an ensemble explores the climax of the Orpheus myth: his fatal glance back at Eurydice. This performance is the final concert of Merkin Concert Hall's Contemporary Contexts, a series of concerts devoted to presenting the adventurous universe of 21st century music.

SIGNAL

SIGNAL was founded by Brad Lubman and cellist Lauren Radnofsky, an Eastman School graduate. The majority of the ensemble's performers are Eastman alumni who in the past 10 years played in the School's Musica Nova under the direction of Lubman. Since its first appearances in 2008 at the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City, SIGNAL has earned widespread praise. Described by the New York Times as "one of the most vital groups of its kind," the ensemble explains its mission as building new audiences for new music. In 2008, the San Francisco Classical Voice wrote of Lubman and SIGNAL, "Years ago, Reich predicted that orchestras would need to change, to become more flexible in order to perform more than the extremely narrow band of repertoire we keep hearing over and over . . . With Brad Lubman's SIGNAL, composed of some of New York's most accomplished music players, that day seems closer. In only its second official performance, the group nailed Eight Lines and Reich's new-ish Daniel Variations."

BRAD LUBMAN

Conductor/composer Brad Lubman has played a fundamental role in contemporary music for more than two decades. A frequent guest conductor of the world's leading ensembles, he has gained widespread recognition for his versatility, commanding technique, and insightful interpretations.

Brad Lubman is particularly noted for his ability to master challenging new scores in a variety of settings, a skill honed during his tenure as Assistant Conductor to Oliver Knussen at the Tanglewood Music Center from 1989-94. Today, Lubman is Music Director of the new music ensemble SIGNAL, founded in 2008. Signal has rapidly become a vital force in the American new music scene, and was recently hailed by The New York Times as "one of the most vital groups of its kind."

Brad Lubman is on faculty at the Eastman School of Music, where he serves as Associate Professor of Conducting & Ensembles, and the Director of the student-based ensemble Musica Nova. Musica Nova gives several concerts of up-to-the-minute contemporary music and 20th- and 21st-century classics each year, often with the composers present. Visiting composers have included: Steve Reich, John Adams, George Crumb, John Zorn, Bernard Rands, Luca Francesconi, and Harrison Birtwistle.

EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC, UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER

The Eastman School of Music (www.esm.rochester.edu), located in Rochester, N.Y., is one of the nation's leading music schools, earning top rankings from Kaplan/Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. Eastman, which will celebrate its 90th anniversary during the 2010-2011 season, is dedicated to providing students with intensive professional educational and entrepreneurial opportunities in their musical disciplines as well as opportunities for a broader liberal arts education within the context of a university.

Established in 1921 by Eastman Kodak Company founder George Eastman as the first professional school of the University of Rochester, the Eastman School educates 500 undergraduate and 400 graduate students annually in performance, composition, jazz studies and contemporary media, music education, theory, conducting, and musicology. Its faculty includes Grammy winners, Guggenheim Fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, and recording artists. Eastman's prominent alumni include opera singers Renée Fleming, Anthony Dean Griffey, Joyce Castle, and the late William Warfield; jazz musicians Ron Carter, Steve Gadd, and Chuck Mangione; composer-conductor Maria Schneider; and composers Dominick Argento, Charles Strouse, Michael Torke, and Jeff Beal.

TICKETS: Single tickets: $25, $30 premium seating. Students: $12.50, available in advance with valid ID. For information or to purchase tickets, call the Merkin Concert Hall box office at 212-501-3330, or visit online at www.merkinconcerthall.org. The box office is located at 129 W. 67th St. between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue.