Butch Morris News

DACAMERA continues its virtual series of streamed archival concerts with the release of Tyshawn Sorey's Perle Noire.

Miller Theatre's celebrated, fun and free Pop-Up Concerts resume, with a change of venue. Filmed live in the awe-inspiring Lantern (the top floor venue in the Lenfest Center for the Arts, with sweeping views of Manhattan), Miller invites the public to take a virtual front-row seat for exciting performances by world-class musicians.

On Wednesday, February 12 at 5:30 pm and 8 pm, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) presents performances by the Music From China ensemble in celebration of the Princeton University Art Museum's exhibit The Eternal Feast: Banqueting in Chinese Art from the 10th to the 14th Century. To be held amid the Museum's second floor galleries, the concert spotlights the artistry of musicians Wang Guowei, Sun Li, and Wang Junling as they perform traditional Chinese music on erhu, pipa, and zheng.

Baruch Performing Arts Center continues its Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives Concert Series with pianist Vijay Iyer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith performing selections from their 2016 album A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke on April 17, 2020 at 8PM. The concert will be held at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue (25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues), NYC. Tickets are $16-$51 and can be purchased online at https://ci.ovationtix.com/1091/production/1014634?performanceId=10437252.

Baruch Performing Arts Center continues its Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives Concert Series with pianist Vijay Iyer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith performing selections from their 2016 album A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke on April 17, 2020 at 8PM. The concert will be held at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue (25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues), NYC. Tickets are $16-$51 and can be purchased online at https://ci.ovationtix.com/1091/production/1014634?performanceId=10437252.

The United States Artists (USA) announced today that dancer/ choreographer Dianne McIntyre is one of fifty recipients of their 2020 USA Fellow award. Each of the fifty recipients will receive a $50,000 cash award of unrestricted funds.

The Apollo Theater announced today that it will screen the iconic MGM film Shaft (1971), as part of the Apollo Film series, on Saturday February 29th at 8:00 p.m. The screening will be accompanied by a live performance of Isaac Hayes' Academy Award® nominated score by Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber, a sprawling band of musicians led by founder and cultural critic Greg Tate.

Crystal Beth unleashes her first full-length studio record, PUSH THRU, a solo incarnation using wailing vocals, amplified clarinet, beat-boxing and electronics to weave a sonic universe all her own. The album will be released on Trey Gunn's 7D Media on October 18, 2019. Beth has been described as “world music from an imaginary planet..quite compelling & magical” (Seattle Times), “a supremely versatile and virtuosic maverick” (The Stranger), and “one of the most fearless and innovative musicians in the city…” (Earshot Jazz). Known for crafting aural rituals that encompass industrial chants, alien disco breaks, heart gushings, and robot love songs, Crystal Beth redefines the possibilities of the voice and clarinet in tight experimental pop songs and undulating, cathartic noise cries. Crafting moments that ricochet between meditation and a full body purge, she is an electric, adrenaline inducing performer voted Seattle's Best Classical Musician and nominated for NW Vocalist of the Year.

"There's probably no frame wide enough to encompass the creative output of the pianist Vijay Iyer," The New York Times observed. His Ph.D. in cognitive science from UC Berkeley is just the start. He's been recognized as a bona fide "genius" by DownBeat magazine and was named by GQ India as one of the 50 most influential Indians. The jazz pianist is also a prolific recording artist and his quintet will play the final Jazz Club performances of The Soraya's 2018/19 season on May 10 and 11.

Just a few meditative blows, colorful touches, poetic spirit, telepathic communication and a playful sense of adventure. Fascinating music, rich with imagination, colors and trust. - All about Jazz

Just a few meditative blows, colorful touches, poetic spirit, telepathic communication and a playful sense of adventure. Fascinating music, rich with imagination, colors and trust. - All about Jazz

The trumpeter and composer Samantha Boshnack isn't a geologist by trade, but she certainly thinks a lot about earthquakes and volcanoes. Over the past 15 years, while living in her adopted hometown of Seattle, Boshnack has hiked the environs of Washington's Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens with a kind of unnerved fascination. During her travels in places like Mexico and Indonesia, she's made a point to visit the storied volcanic sites. Throughout her journeys, a couple of questions have persisted: What causes these astounding landscapes and events, and how are they all connected? And how can these vistas be so unspeakably beautiful yet also harbor such a profound potential for catastrophe?

The trumpeter and composer Samantha Boshnack isn't a geologist by trade, but she certainly thinks a lot about earthquakes and volcanoes. Over the past 15 years, while living in her adopted hometown of Seattle, Boshnack has hiked the environs of Washington's Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens with a kind of unnerved fascination. During her travels in places like Mexico and Indonesia, she's made a point to visit the storied volcanic sites. Throughout her journeys, a couple of questions have persisted: What causes these astounding landscapes and events, and how are they all connected? And how can these vistas be so unspeakably beautiful yet also harbor such a profound potential for catastrophe?

Known for his multifaceted musical personality, composer/musician Wayne Horvitz displays his remarkably singular and distinguishable sound in two new recordings: his debut pianos/keys-bass-drums trio album The Snowghost Sessions (Songlines, 10.05.18) and his debut orchestral CD Those Who Remain (National Sawdust Tracks, 10.12.18). Both are complemented by a nationwide tour culminating in a New York City CD release concert at Brooklyn's Roulette, December 5, 2018. (Please scroll below for complete tour schedule.)

Known for his multifaceted musical personality, composer/musician Wayne Horvitz displays his remarkably singular and distinguishable sound in two new recordings: his debut pianos/keys-bass-drums trio album The Snowghost Sessions (Songlines, 10.05.18) and his debut orchestral CD Those Who Remain (National Sawdust Tracks, 10.12.18). Both are complemented by a nationwide tour culminating in a New York City CD release concert at Brooklyn's Roulette, December 5, 2018. (Please scroll below for complete tour schedule.)

 Known for his multifaceted musical personality, composer/musician Wayne Horvitz displays his remarkably singular and distinguishable sound in two new recordings: his debut pianos/keys-bass-drums trio album The Snowghost Sessions (Songlines, 10.05.18) and his debut orchestral CD Those Who Remain (National Sawdust Tracks, 10.12.18). Both are complemented by a nationwide tour culminating in a New York City CD release concert at Brooklyn's Roulette, December 5, 2018. (Please scroll below for complete tour schedule.)

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) will open its 2018-2019 season with a concert honoring Phenomenal Women presented by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall on Friday, November 2, 2018 at 7:30pm. The performance, conducted by ACO Music Director George Manahan, will feature the world premiere of Valerie Coleman's Phenomenal Women performed by the Imani Winds with ACO; as well as the world premiere of Alex Temple's Three Principles of Noir with singer Meaghan Burke, director Amber Treadway, and costumes by Storm Garner. Grammy and Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Joan Tower's Chamber Dance from 2006, which treats the orchestra as a chamber ensemble, completes the program.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) will open its 2018-2019 season with a concert honoring Phenomenal Women presented by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall on Friday, November 2, 2018 at 7:30pm. The performance, conducted by ACO Music Director George Manahan, will feature the world premiere of Valerie Coleman's Phenomenal Women performed by the Imani Winds with ACO; as well as the world premiere of Alex Temple's Three Principles of Noir with singer Meaghan Burke, director Amber Treadway, and costumes by Storm Garner. Grammy and Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Joan Tower's Chamber Dance from 2006, which treats the orchestra as a chamber ensemble, completes the program.

Marking the debut solo record of “envelope-shredding” trumpeter/composer Stephanie Richards, Fullmoon is years of shaping, culminating in a mesmerizing work of refined electric insanity. With Fullmoon, Richards is unplugged, acoustically manipulating her horn against resonating surfaces, appearing to sound processed, only to be live-sampled by electronic pioneer Dino J.A. Deane. Unbridled and succinct, Fullmoon is a sonic exploration of supernatural pulses and groove.

Friday, January 26 at 8:30 p.m., Sardinian guitarist Paolo Angeli brings his imaginative and masterful playing to Zankel Hall as part of an international tour celebrating the release of his new album, Talea.