NEC Faculty Recital to Feature Gordon Beeferman in March
New England Conservatory event showcases collaborative faculty and student performances
NEC's Contemporary Musical Arts will present a special residency concert with composer, pianist, and improviser Gordon Beeferman joined by CMA Department Chair Eden MacAdam-Somer (voice/violin/foot percussion), CMA and Jazz Studies faculty Joe Morris (guitar) and CMA students on Thursday, March 5 in Jordan Hall. The program features Beeferman's works, drawing on a multitude of genres and influences, including songs, compositions and improvisations on solo piano, and scored improvisations for trio and large ensemble. Admission to the 7:30 p.m. concert is free but tickets are required. For information visit necmusic.edu.
The program also features Beeferman's The Sway, a piece commissioned by and written for Eden MacAdam-Somer in honor of the CMA department's 50th anniversary. This extraordinary work for solo performer on voice, violin, and percussive dance joins others on the program in blurring the lines between contemporary improvisation, classical virtuosity, and avant-jazz innovation.
NYC-based Gordon Beeferman has created and performed innovative opera, chamber and orchestra music, avant-jazz, and numerous collaborations with choreographers, writers, and video artists. His varied projects include bands that perform his compositions: an organ trio; Other Life Forms, a quartet; and Music for an Imaginary Band, a septet. Beeferman has composed two operas with librettist Charlotte Jackson: The Rat Land, and The Enchanted Organ, scenes of which have been performed to sold-out theater and nightclub audiences in downtown Manhattan. His music has been performed by the New York City Opera orchestra, Momenta Quartet, Minnesota Orchestra, Albany Symphony, California EAR Unit, St. Urban Concerts, Talea Ensemble, Quartet New Generation recorder collective, and others. He has received commissions from the MAP Fund, Fromm Foundation, the BMI Foundation, and Concert Artists Guild, three BMI Student Composer Awards, a Tanglewood fellowship, and residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the Copland House, and Ucross. An active member of the New York music scene for over 25 years, Beeferman has performed at venues and series including Roulette, MATA, and the Vision Festival. Beeferman's recordings are available on zOaR, Minor Amusements, Different Track, Clang, Innova, OutNow, Generate, Genuin, and Summit Records. He is a 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow.
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