Miller Theatre Announces 2011-2012 Season, Its 2nd Under Melissa Smey

MILLER THEATRE announces 2011-2012 23rd Season

"Miller Theatre has single-handedly made contemporary classical music sexy in New York."
- TIME OUT NEW YORK

Opening the season: JAMES DILLON'S MONUMENTAL NINE RIVERS CYCLE
SPREAD OVER THREE CONCERTS
Co-produced with Works & Process at The Guggenheim, Mary Sharp Cronson, producer
Presenting the much-anticipated US Premiere of the Scottish composer's 9-part magnum opus
for percussion, voice, electronics, video, strings, and brass
Starring
Steven Schick · International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) · Red Fish Blue Fish · The Crossing

3 COMMISSIONS, 11 PREMIERES, 6 COMPOSER PORTRAITS
(all concerts feature onstage discussions with the composer)
GEORGE APERGHIS: ICE plays the flamboyant work of this eccentric Greek composer & Xenakis pupil
George Lewis: ICE premieres new work by this Columbia U-based, MacArthur-winning composer
HILDA PAREDES: the brilliant Signal premieres a Miller commission by the London-based Mexican artist
TOBIAS PICKER: arias from his operas & a new piano quintet display Picker's beautiful sound-world
KARIN REHNQVIST: Either/Or applies their laser-like focus to this Swedish superstar's folk-art fusion
JOHN ZORN: an evening of 5 world premieres includes a new solo violin piece for Jennifer Koh
Plus:
KAIJA SAARIAHO: A favorite Portrait hits the road on tour to Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

BACH AND THE BAROQUE IS BACK
WITH 2 GREAT SOLOISTS & RARE BUXTEHUDE FROM REPAST
Jennifer Koh tackles all of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas in a single afternoon
Simone Dinnerstein highlights the Romantic alongside the Baroque
Repast Baroque Ensemble honors Buxtehude's "three beautiful things"

GLORIOUS GROUPS RETURN TO MAKE EARLY MUSIC FRESH
The Tallis Scholars · New York Polyphony · Le Poème Harmonique · Stile Antico

JAZZ SERIES: LEADING MEN & WOMEN FROM AFRICA, ISRAEL & NYC
Lionel Loueke Trio · Renee Rosnes Quartet · Anat Cohen Quartet · Don Byron New Gospel Quintet

SONiC: SOUNDS OF A NEW CENTURY FESTIVAL
In partnership with American Composers Orchestra and the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University
Miller plays host to three concerts of this new festival devoted to music written since the year 2000

"On Wednesday night Melissa Smey began her first full season as the director of Miller Theatre at Columbia University. It was clear from the kickoff program that the Miller Theatre will be just as adventurous as it was under George Steel."
- THE NEW YORK TIMES

MELISSA SMEY'S SECOND SEASON
In her second season, Miller Theatre's exuberant young director Melissa Smey continues to add her personal stamp to the Miller brand. While continuing Miller's time tested series, she takes them further into unexpected territory. In the 2011-2012 season, the selection of Composer Portraits is, if anything, more rare and unusual than ever. And Smey is committed to deepening relationships with returning ensembles such as ICE, Either/Or, and Signal (and Early Music's Stile Antico, Le Poème Harmonique, and NY Polyphony), allowing them carte blanche to shape the programs of their dreams. Regardless of one's preferences, evenings like this will be found nowhere else. It's no wonder Miller is hailed as "New York's happiest haven of musical adventure" (The Financial Times).

Melissa Smey talks about next season:
"Miller fills an important niche in New York's cultural life, presenting work that's not done elsewhere, and I think this season really exemplifies that commitment. I'm thrilled to kick off the season with the U.S. premiere of James Dillon's immense and absorbing multimedia work Nine Rivers, perhaps the most rapturously reviewed premiere in Europe last season. We've assembled a dynamite team of musicians, singers, and designers from across America, headed up by the incomparable percussionist Steve Schick. Our Composer Portraits series features 8 world premieres this season, including 3 brand new works commissioned by Miller-the first of my tenure here-written by the iconic New Yorker John Zorn as well as two lesser-known but truly fantastic composers, Hilda Paredes from Mexico and Georges Aperghis from Greece. Jennifer Koh's marathon performance of Bach's complete solo violin works, which she performed first in Miller's Lunchtime series, will be a highlight of our Bach series. Our Early Music offerings include encore performances by the terrific young ensembles New York Polyphony and Stile Antico. And our Jazz series explores an eclectic variety of influences, from West African guitarist Lionel Loueke to Israeli clarinetist Anat Cohen and Don Byron's New Gospel Quintet."

T H E 11 / 12 S E A S O N

Opening Night
All concerts begin at 8:00PM

"an immense occasion, unquestionably the most significant new-music event this year."
- The Guardian, London

"This may go down in history as the most cancelled premiere of all time."
- James Dillon, in The Telegraph

Miller opens the season with an ambitious, three-night staging of James Dillon's Nine Rivers, a symphonic cycle of monumental proportions, and one of the most talked-about new works of the past few years. Written over several decades-and scored for a formidable assemblage of musicians and multimedia artists-the cycle covers a vast sonic terrain, from hushed a cappella singing to high-octane drumming. For this event, Miller is bringing together members of the original creative team with some of the best new music performers on both coasts.

NINE RIVERS
*Listen Here*
By James Dillon; U.S. premiere
Co-produced with Works & Process at the Guggenheim; Mary Sharp Cronson, producer

September 14 - Part I: Leukosis
The cycle begins with four immersive movements, performed without pause, for six percussionists, six violins, 16 solo voices, and chamber ensemble.

September 16 - Part II: Iosis
Night two features the evening-length work La coupure, for percussion solo with live electronics and video projection, performed by Steven Schick.

September 17 - Part III: Melanosis
The journey comes to a close with four movements for chamber ensemble, live electronics, tape, brass ensemble, percussion, and voices, including a finale for all 50 musicians.

featuring
Steven Schick, conductor and percussion
International Contemporary Ensemble
The Crossing
Red Fish Blue Fish
Ross Karre, video design
Nicholas Houfek, lighting design

Composer Portraits
All concerts begin at 8:00PM

"Miller Theatre has become one of the city's most popular venues for
new music, offbeat ensembles, and adventurous concerts." - Bloomberg.com

"For 10 years now, the Composer Portraits have enticed young people who are curious about
all kinds of extreme contemporary music to take chances on living classical composers."
- The New York Times

The Composer Portraits series-now in its 12th season-remains the heart of Miller Theatre's programming. Each concert investigates the work of a single composer by offering a prismatic view of their oeuvre. This season features a fascinatingly diverse group of composers in a series studded with commissions and premieres-plus, every composer will participate in an onstage discussion at his or her Portrait.

TOBIAS PICKER (b. 1954)
*Listen Here*
October 6
Acclaimed by The New Yorker as "a genuine creator with a fertile unforced vein of invention," Tobias Picker's music melds the discipline and rigor of his mentors-Charles Wuorinen, Elliott Carter, and Milton Babbitt-with an unabashed and impassioned Romantic streak. Perhaps best known for his operas, which have premiered at major houses such as the Met to widespread critical acclaim, Picker brings an equal sense of drama to his chamber music. A highlight of Miller's Portrait is his exuberant piano concerto Keys to the City, written to commemorate the centenary of the Brooklyn Bridge. Plus, Sarah Rothenberg and members of the Brentano String Quartet premiere Picker's new Piano Quintet.

George Lewis (b. 1952)
*Listen Here*
November 12
MacArthur "genius" George Lewis brings an eclectic background-as a jazz trombonist with Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, a professor and scholar at Columbia, and a pioneer of computer music-to his work as a composer. A former curator at the iconic downtown multi-arts venue The Kitchen and a longtime member and champion of AACM, Lewis's work explores and pushes boundaries, bringing fresh and wide-ranging influences to his so-called "classical" music. ICE is joined by percussionist and conductor Steven Schick in this program, featuring a brand new work written especially for them.

JOHN ZORN (b. 1953)
December 9
The iconic avant-gardist John Zorn returns to Miller with an incredibly ambitious lineup, featuring five world premieres played by some of his favorite musicians from New York and beyond. (Complete all-star lineup available online.) A top-shelf selection of soloists will play virtuosic new works written just for them, while larger ensemble pieces round out the program, infused throughout with Zorn's characteristic vitality, rhythmic drive, and rockstar solo passages.

KARIN REHNQVIST (b. 1957)
*Listen Here*
March 22
One of Sweden's best-known and widely performed composers, Karin Rehnqvist is just starting to make waves in the international community. A recent rave in Gramophone called her music "marvelous" and "stunning," the sort of revelatory work that "requires one to discard preconceptions of what constitutes Western art music." A highlight of this Portrait is her "extraordinary" song cycle, given its U.S. premiere by two Swedish singers specializing in Kulning, the extended vocal technique drawn from Nordic folk traditions. The entire evening will feature the remarkable Either/Or ensemble, who are among Rehnqvist's greatest champions.

HILDA PAREDES (b. 1957)
*Listen Here*
May 12
Rooted in Mayan thought, tinged with Indian rhythms, and shaped by studies in London, Hilda Paredes' music seems to exist outside time and place, evoking ancient South American civilization with modern European language. Widely recognized as the leading Mexican composer of her generation, Paredes has won a number of prestigious fellowships and commissions and her music is increasingly performed throughout Europe, her adopted home, as well as in her native Mexico. This program pairs her "concerto for ensemble" with a new piece commissioned by Miller for Signal.

GEORGES APERGHIS (b. 1945)
*Listen Here*
May 24
A sometime pupil of Xenakis, though largely self-taught, the music of experimental Greek-born composer Georges Aperghis is often theatrical and always provocative. Prolific, unfailingly inventive, and not easily categorized, he has written for a wide array of instruments and ensembles. ICE gives a tour of his works from the 70's to the present day-from duo to trio to quartet to chamber ensemble-led by Ludovic Morlot, a rising star and former assistant to James Levine. A highlight of the program is the world premiere of a new Miller/ICE co-commission.

Touring Composer Portrait:
KAIJA SAARIAHO (b. 1952)
May 3, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA
This Portrait of a Miller-favorite features the International Contemporary Ensemble. *Listen Here*

Special Events
Miller is proud to be one of the key partners in SONiC, a new nine-day festival devoted to emerging composers and music written in the first decade of the new millennium. Produced in partnership with American Composers Orchestra and the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, the concept hearkens back to the remarkable Ditson festivals of contemporary music, held at Miller Theatre in the 1940's and 50's, which featured premieres by Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Samuel Barber, and Paul Hindemith, among many others. Could the next Ives be among this crop of new voices? Miller hosts three performances during the festival's opening weekend.

SONiC: SOUNDS OF A NEW CENTURY FESTIVAL

October 15, 7:30PM
eighth blackbird with music by Timothy Andres, Bruno Mantovani, Amy Beth Kirsten, Mayke Nas, Fabien Svensson, Dan Visconti, and Caleb Burhans.

October 16, 12:00PM
Extended Play: Marathon Concert hosted by the JACK quartet and featuring performances by Dither Electric Guitar Quartet, The New York Virtuoso Singers, Imani Winds, Talea Ensemble, Prism Saxophone Quartet, and many others.

October 17, 7:30PM
Either/Or with music by Jonny Greenwood, Keeril Makan, Richard Carrick, Hans Tomalla and Ashley Fure.

Bach and the Baroque

"The ovation was so ardent that Ms. Koh, who had been
visibly engrossed in her performance, wiped away tears."
- The New York Times, on Koh's Partita performance at Miller Theatre's Lunchtime Concerts

"She played with ample clarity and brilliance"
- The New York Times, on a June 2011 performance by Simone Dinnerstein

The popular Bach series is back with two beloved returning performers and one group new to the series, in three concerts that investigate Bach's music in depth. Programs feature Bach's solo violin works, performed back-to-back over one afternoon; a recital mixing Bach keyboard works with those of the Romantic tradition that followed; and an evening centered on a cantata by one of Bach's heroes, Dietrich Buxtehude.

BACH: THE COMPLETE SOLO VIOLIN WORKS
October 23, 2:00PM
American Academy of Arts & Letters
Perhaps Brahms best described what Bach achieved with his landmark solo violin works: "On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings." The exceptional violinist Jennifer Koh follows up her acclaimed rendition of these works, heard over several recitals in Miller's 2009-10 Lunchtime series, with this marathon performance of all six solo sonatas and partitas, played over the course of a single afternoon.

BACH AND THE ROMANTICS
*Listen Here*
February 2, 8:00PM
Miller Theatre
Best known for her inspired recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, Brooklyn-based pianist Simone Dinnerstein offers selections from her forthcoming CD in this first solo recital at Miller, again breathing fresh air into the music of Bach. Her inventive program alternates between Bach's partitas and gems of the Romantic era by Brahms, Chopin, and Schubert, juxtaposing evocative nocturnes, intermezzos, and impromptus with Baroque dance-inspired courantes, allemandes, and sarabandes.

THREE BEAUTIFUL THINGS
*Listen Here*
March 3, 8:00PM
American Academy of Arts & Letters
The cantata Drei schöne Dinge sind, composed by J. S. Bach's mentor Dietrich Buxtehude, celebrates three beautiful things: friendship, brotherhood, and marital bliss. This program augments Buxtehude's homage with a variety of duets, arias, and instrumental works extolling these same virtues by Bach, Buxtehude, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, Johann Philipp Krieger, and other distinguished German musicans of the era. Repast Baroque Ensemble brings together an extended family of accomplished Baroque performers for this special program at the intimate and acoustically outstanding Academy.

Early Music

"It truly was an event: this congregation of performers was having a spiritual moment onstage, an experience in which we counted ourselves lucky to take part."
- TIME OUT NEW YORK

"Le Poème Harmonique's five singers produced beautifully balanced sound." - THE NEW YORK TIMES

This season features four Early Music concerts in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin (affectionately known to insiders as Smoky Mary's) and uptown at The American Academy of Arts & Letters. Miller is pleased to offer revered returning groups hailing from two continents. Two British ensembles-The Tallis Scholars and Stile Antico-open and close the series with timeless vocal pieces. New York's young-yet-polished New York Polyphony brings a Valentines program, complete with a champagne reception during intermission. France's Le Poème Harmonique makes a stop on Miller's series

 

Test and expand your Broadway knowledge with our new game - The Broadway Match-Up! How well do you know your Broadway casting trivia?	Play the Daily Game, explore current shows, and delve into past decades like the 2000s, 80s, and the Golden Age. Challenge your friends and see where you rank!
How well do you know your Tony Awards history? Take our never-ending quiz of nominations and winner history and challenge your friends.	Can you beat your friends? Play today’s daily Broadway word game, featuring a new theatrically inspired word or phrase every day!