Bill Morrison News

Musiqa, two-time winner of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, is proud to announce its 2018-19 season. Building on the bold, adventurous programming of previous years, Musiqa's seventeenth season features new, exciting interdisciplinary collaborations, commissions, world premieres, and community and educational programming.

Winner of the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance, The Crossing, with conductor Donald Nally, today announces its 2018-19 season, titled Aniara. The season-which is centered around exploring mankind's place in the universe, the relationships between humans, navigating through space and life, and the passage of time - features The Crossing's New York Philharmonic and Peak Performances debuts, the world premiere of the choral-theater work Aniara: fragments of time and space; and world premieres by Gavin Bryars, Michael Gordon, Thomas Lloyd, and Toivo Tulev.

The Ucross Foundation hosted its inaugural New York Gala & Awards Dinner last night at The Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The night was filled with performances and readings by notable award-winning artists, all Ucross alumni, including Ricky Ian Gordon (Grapes of Wrath, opera), Steven Lutvak (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder), bestselling author Tayari Jones, author and Vanity Fair contributor Elissa Schappell, composer/pianist Dylan Mattingly, trumpeter Frank London, and singer-songwriter Kate Schutt. Special guests included Broadway stars Laura Benanti and Nancy Anderson. A collection of artwork from Ucross visual artist alumni was on display and available for purchase. The emcee was former journalist and current film and television screenwriter William 'Bill' Broyles.

On Sunday, June 10, 2018 at 9:30pm (doors 9pm), the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), will perform the music of the late Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker St., NYC) as part of the venue's 10th anniversary celebration, LPR X. The concert will include selections from Johannsson's first concert in New York, which took place in 2009 at Le Poisson Rouge, with ACME. ACME artistic director Clarice Jensen will also perform bc for solo cello and tape loops, a piece that she co-composed with Johannsson last year, which is included on her 2018 debut solo album For this from that will be filled (Miasmah).

Peak Performances presents the world premiere of Spinning, a collaborative musical work written and composed by Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow Julia Wolfe (Anthracite Fields, 2015), and conceived with "cello goddess" (The New Yorker) Maya Beiser, with multimedia projections by innovative artist Laurie Olinder (May 10-13). Commissioned by Peak Performances and culminating their season of works by women, Spinning considers the essential labor of spinning thread-work once performed by hand by women-paying homage to the human dignity of this "women's work."

LA Opera has added a performance of Soldier Songs by David T. Little, with film by Bill Morrison, as part of its 2018/19 Off Grand season. Starring baritone David Adam Moore, the multi-media concert presentation directed by Ashley Tata will take place at the Ford Theatres (2580 Cahuenga Boulevard East, Hollywood, 90068) on Saturday, October 13, at 8:30pm.

The Ford Theatres today announced the 2018 season of events at the fully transformed John Anson Ford Theatres. The 2018 season will open on Friday, June 1 with Chano Dominguez'sFlamenco Sketches, a reimagining of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album in the world, featuring Chano on piano and National Flamenco Contest (Cordoba, Spain) winner Daniel Navarro, and will conclude on Sunday, October 28 with a new site-specific work by the always innovative Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre.

Cellist Clarice Jensen, artistic director of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), releases her debut solo album, For this from that will be filled, worldwide on Miasmah Recordings on April 6, 2018. She celebrates the release with a concert featuring music from the album presented by the Ambient Church Series on April 7, 2018 at 8pm (doors 7pm), at Bushwick Methodist Church (1139 Bushwick Ave.). The Ambient Church concert also celebrates the release of electronic artist Christina Vantzou's new album, No. 4, and includes the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), Steve Hauschildt, Deradoorian, John Also Bennett, and C. Lavender.

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents the Kronos Quartet, tenor Rinde Eckert and Vietnamese instrumental virtuoso Van-Ánh Võ inMy Lai, composed by Jonathan Berger with libretto by Harriet Scott Chessman, at8 p.m. on Friday, March 9 at Royce Hall. Tickets for $29-$59 are now available online at cap.ucla.edu, via Ticketmaster, by phone 310-825-2101 and at the UCLA Central Ticket Office.

Cellist Clarice Jensen, artistic director of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), releases her debut solo album, For this from that will be filled, worldwide on Miasmah Recordings on April 6, 2018. Building on a long and romantic tradition of solo cello repertoire, Jensen expands and confuses the familiar sound of solo cello through the use of effects pedals, multi-tracking, and tape loops recorded at variable speeds.

After 25 years as director of the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University, Sherri Geldin has announced she will leave the helm at the end of December 2018.

The Winnipeg New Music Festival resounded with an exceptional opening weekend, infused by the thrilling presence of living legend Philip Glass and attracting audiences numbering over 4,000 in total. Opening night on Saturday, January 27 featured the Canadian premieres of Glass' Symphony No. 11 and Bjork's Family, as well as new works by Canadian icon Michael Snow, and WSO composer-in-residence Harry Stafylakis. Sunday evening saw an equally enthusiastic crowd for a transporting performance of Glass' complete Piano Etudes featuring pianists Jenny Lin, Vicky Chow, Jonas Sen, local favourite Madeline Hildebrand, and Philip Glass himself. And the enthusiasm continued for Monday night's concert, Through the Looking Glass, at Westminster United Church, which had been sold out weeks in advance. Winnipeg choirs Polycoro and Camerata Nova presented excerpts from Philip Glass' ioperas, along with the world premiere of Orphic Hymn by Iceland's Johann Johannsson and several other stunning works in a powerfully-eclectic concert exploring identity, politics, and spirituality.

Maya Beiser and David Lang will release a new album, the day, on January 26, 2018 on Cantaloupe Music. The album features Lang's new work for Maya, the day, paired with a new recording of his previous work for her, world to come. the day (2016) was composed as prequel to world to come (2003).

Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, the New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (NWS), presents its seventh annual New Work performance on Saturday, February 3, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. at the New World Center. New Work is dedicated to commissioning and premiering new pieces from high-profile and developing artists across a range of genres, exploring intersections between music, theater, dance, poetry, video, lighting, and other art forms. This year's program opens with a world premiere, multidisciplinary performance of selections from Glimpse of the Big Picture, conceived, scored, and authored by NWS Artistic Director/Co-Founder Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT). Divided into three parts, the performance brings music together with the spoken word, featuring MTT as speaker. The 2018 New Work program also includes two NWS commissions: composer Ted Hearne and filmmaker Jonathan David Kane's 2017 crowdsourced, multimedia symphony, Miami in Movements, in a revised version; and the world premiere of The Inherent Sadness of Low-Lying Areas, a short play by playwright Christopher Wall featuring music by a variety of composers, from Bach to Saariaho.

The Winnipeg New Music Festival's (WNMF) unique relationship with Iceland its innovative composers and their uniquely evocative music has evolved over a number of seasons. This year is the 100th anniversary of an important milestone in Icelandic history: the Danish Icelandic Act, a pivotal point in Iceland's history and journey to independence. In celebration of that event, the 2018 Festival (running Jan. 27-Feb. 2, 2018) presents multiple world premieres by Icelandic composers including a major new work for orchestra and choir by Hilmar rn Hilmarsson on January 31.

CUNY Dance Initiative and John Jay College, in collaboration with Du an T nek Dance Theatre, present the World Premiere of Anna at the Gerald Lynch Theater at John Jay College, 524 W. 59th Street, NYC on February 16 & 17, 2018 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $30 ($20 for students and seniors) and are available at https://dusantynek.eventbrite.com.

CUNY Dance Initiative and John Jay College, in collaboration with Dusan T nek Dance Theatre, present the World Premiere of Anna at the Gerald Lynch Theater at John Jay College, 524 W. 59th Street, NYC on February 16 & 17, 2018 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $30 ($20 for students and seniors) and are available at https://dusantynek.eventbrite.com.

Film Comment's annual end-of-year survey was released today with Josh and Benny Safdie's Good Time, Terence Davies's A Quiet Passion, and Olivier Assayas's Personal Shopper taking the top spots among films released in 2017.

Each year, at the peak of its frigid winter, Winnipeg transforms into an oasis of the most inspiring, adventurous, and riveting music of our time. The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's New Music Festival presents its 27th season from January 27 through February 2, 2018, reveling in the music of today, inspiring artists and igniting abundant audiences of all ages.