Announcing The Village Trip 2024 Classical and New Music

The Village Trip 2024 – classical programme

Greenwich House Sunday, Sept 15th, 5pm
Composers Concordance: In Memory of Sean Satin

Composers: Gene Pritsker, Eugene M. McBride, David Saperstein, Dan Cooper, Patrick Grant, Shanan Estreicher, others TBA

Performers: Gene Pritsker, Greg Baker, Jacob Horowitz, Patrick Grant - guitars
Jessica Bowers - voice, others TBA

Poets: Robert C. Frod, Erik T. Johnson , Imelda O’Reilly

Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe and Jackson Pollock: A Celebration in Music
September 17
Salmagundi Club

7:00pm
9:00pm

Georgia O’Keeffe described music as being able to be “translated into something for the eye.” This unique concert features music inspired of by three of New York City’s most iconic artists, all of whom lived and worked in Greenwich Village and shared the heartbeat of the city: Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe and Jackson Pollock. The concert—presented in partnership with Cutting Edge Concerts—takes place in an elegant art-filled Italianate townhouse that for over 150 years has been home to one of New York’s City’s most celebrated arts clubs.

Highlights of the program include Jennifer Higdon’s American Canvas, a work evoking the nature, life and emotions of O’Keeffe and Pollock; Victoria Bond’s “Dancing Colors” from Blue and Green Music after O’Keeffe’s 1921 painting; and “Ruth’s Aria” from John Musto’s opera Later the Same Evening. With a libretto by Mark Campbell, the opera captures the evocative atmosphere of Hopper’s downtown scenes. The composer will be at the piano to accompany soprano Amy Burton. Ned Rorem’s trio for flute, viola and piano also features.

A special showing of a PBS documentary about Jackson Pollock with a score by Roger Trefousse will be shown before the concert, with the composer present to speak about his work.

Dolce Suono Trio – flutist Mimi Stillman; pianist Charles Abramovic; cellist Gabriel Cabezas
Soprano – Amy Burton
Pianist and composer – John Musto
Speaker – composer Roger Trefousse

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American Primitive & Inventors of Genius Weekend

“Of course he’s not a composer, but he’s an inventor — of genius” – Arnold Schoenberg on John Cage

September 20, 21, 22 at Greenwich House, St. Marks in the Bowery, and St. John’s in the Village

The American Primitive & Inventors of Genius Weekend
this is long & awkward, but it’s very much the focus.

John Schneider: American Primitive

September 20
Greenwich House

7:00pm
9:00pm

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Grammy Award-winning guitarist John Schneider explores another side of the Greenwich Village music scene, looking at works by the intrepid Harry Partch and Lou Harrison and others and their engagement in world music and “American Primitive.” Schneider’s work is “of a caliber that kept this listener in a state of continuous astonishment” – Mark Seed, Los Angeles Times

Grammy Award-winning guitarist John Schneider explores another side of the Greenwich Village music scene, looking at works by the intrepid Harry Partch and Lou Harrison and others and their engagement in world music and “American Primitive.”

Schneider’s work is “of a caliber that kept this listener in a state of continuous astonishment” – Mark Seed, Los Angeles Times

American Maverick Guitar: “Nowadays they’re known as West Coast composers, but Harry Partch and Lou Harrison spent their essential years right here in New York City. Schneider will perform Partch’s long lost-song cycle December 1942 that was written in the Village, as well as one of his most famous pieces he called his Hobo Concerto. Lou Harrison began his exploration of Just Intonation while working with Virgil Thompson at the Herald-Examiner, living on Bleecker Street and hanging out with John Cage and many other seminal musical personalities. We’ll hear Harrison’s Just Guitars music and other work for refretted guitars that exist thanks to these two fearless visionaries”

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Eliza Garth: Sonatas and Interludes by John Cage

September 21
St Mark’s in the Bowery

2:00pm
4:00pm

Pianist Eliza Garth performs Sonatas and Interludes, John Cage’s 1947 masterpiece for prepared piano. Sonatas and Interludes is regarded as a formative piano piece of the 20th Century. St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery is known and loved as a gathering place for innovative musicians, dancers, and poets including Ginsburg and Cage.

Pianist Eliza Garth performs Sonatas and Interludes, John Cage’s 1947 masterpiece for prepared piano. Sonatas and Interludes is regarded as a formative piano piece of the 20th Century. St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery is known and loved as a gathering place for innovative musicians, dancers, and poets including Ginsburg and Cage.

“Sonatas and Interludes is absorbingly lovely when played with the commitment and delicacy that pianist Eliza Garth has devoted to her performance…Garth, with a touch that allowed for almost ethereal transparency, played the meditative mind game expertly… there was nary a cough, a dropped program or even an audible rustle anywhere in the audience through the whole hour” – Washington Post

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The Village Trip GuitarFest 24 Microtonal Village

September 21
St John’s in the Village

6:00pm
10:00pm

GuitarFest 24 expands on American Primitive, with the wildly inventive Ictus Novus, the Curtis Guitar Quartet, soprano Sharon Harms and many of New York’s best guitarists. American Primitives John Fahey, Julián Carrillo and works by Paul Lansky, Kyle Miller, David Amram, Agustín Castilla-Ávila, and Gary Philo among others.

Featuring

—Lou Harrison’s Canticle III
—from Jonathan Dawe’s microtonal opera: Amor nello Specchio (Love in the Mirror) for microtonal guitars with Sharon Harms, soprano.
—touching on Connie Converse, John Fahey (also often considered “American Primitive” box), TVT commissioned work by Nora Stanley for Ictus Novus
—a surprise touching on Connie Converse, marking the 50th anniversary of her mysterious disappearance
—Memorial Tribute to Larry Polanski
–William Anderson’s Kaleko Sonata for electric guitar and piano

Performers
Ictus Novus, Curtis Guitar Quartet, cellist Richard Jimenez, soprano Sharon Harms, flutist Roberta Michel (ocarina), guitarists Jay Source, Oren Fader, Dan Lippel, Mario García Hurtado, Kyle Miller, Pascual Araujo, Niel Beckman, Daniel Conant, Daniel Zapata, Oren Fader, Giacomo Fiore, percussionists Dylan Ofrias, Jordana Sidlow, Najee Marcelin, pianist Joan Forsyth

Composers
Kyle Miller, Larry Polansky, Lou Harrison, John Fahey, Julián Carillo, Andrew McKenna-Lee, Todd Tarantino, David Amram, Agustín Castilla-Ávila, Gary Philo, Shoko Suzuki, Kenny Hill, Nora Stanley, William Anderson

Ictus Novus - the “genre-fluid” Kyle Miller, with percussionist Matthew Kowalski - offers a rock & metal remaking of “contemporary classical”. TVT commissioned new work “No Benign Umbrella” for Ictus Novus by Nora Stanley

The Curtis Guitar Quartet (Xingxing Yao, Ruqi Jiang, Radomir Romashkov-Danilov, and Muxin Li) will perform Four’s Company, composed by Paul Lansky in 2018 for David Starobin’s guitar class at the celebrated Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

William Bland: Village Maverick

September 21
St John’s in the Village

4:00pm
4:45pm

Kevin Gorman, praised for his “passion, technical facility and explosive tonality,” (Fanfare Magazine) is a champion of the piano music of maverick composer, poet, painter William Bland. He has performed and recorded Bland’s epic cycle of piano sonatas for Bridge Records to great acclaim.

Kevin Gorman, praised for his “passion, technical facility and explosive tonality,” (Fanfare Magazine) is a champion of the piano music of maverick composer, poet, painter William Bland. He has performed and recorded Bland’s epic cycle of piano sonatas for Bridge Records to great acclaim.

Greenwich Village maverick composer, painter, and poet William Bland is an American original whose huge three-tiered production is emerging to wider public recognition. Pianist Kevin Gorman has devoted himself to performing Bland’s cycle of 24 large-scale sonatas in each of the major and minor keys, perhaps taking their cue from Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues. Composed over 16 years, the cycle encompasses an extraordinarily wide range of cultural influences, merging the simple and the complex, the popular and the classical, the romantic and the modernist.

Gorman performs Sonata No. 6, subtitled Bestiary - con amore, opening with a brutal Bear Dance, followed by the gliding Song of the Great Hawk. Then a slinky Panther leads to an all-out Dragon, with its finale, a soothing Regard on Edward Hicks’ painting “The Peaceable Kingdom.” To wind up the recital, Gorman tackles Bland’s wild Fantasy on Gottschalk’s Souvenir de Puerto Rico, Marche des Gibaros.

The performance is complemented by an exhibit of paintings by William Bland, aka Damon C Carter, Bland’s birth name.

The concert is part of The Village Trip’s American Primitive and Inventors of Genius Weekend

Quattro Mani

September 22
Greenwich House

7:00pm
9:00pm

Renowned duo pianists Susan Grace and Steven Beck perform works by Lou Harrison, John Cage, Arnold Schoenberg, John Adams and Fred Lerdahl who, with linguist Ray Jackendoff, developed the Chomsky-inspired generative theory of tonal music, an endeavor inspired by Leonard Bernstein’s Norton Lectures, given at Harvard in 1973.

Renowned duo pianists Susan Grace and Steven Beck perform works by Lou Harrison, John Cage, Arnold Schoenberg, John Adams and Fred Lerdahl who, with linguist Ray Jackendoff, developed the Chomsky-inspired generative theory of tonal music, an endeavor inspired by Leonard Bernstein’s Norton Lectures, given at Harvard in 1973.

Susan Grace and Steven Beck form one of the most dynamic piano duos of the modern day. Giorgio Koukl in EarRelevant writes: “..their incredible array of capacities is strong enough to place them precisely on the top of the piano duos of today.” Fanfare’s Robert Carl observed: “Quattro Mani is one of the most enduring and leading keyboard duos anywhere.” Quattro Mani records for Bridge Records.

The concert is part of The Village Trip’s American Primitive and Inventors of Genius Weekend

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Microtonal Village, hosted by composer Agustín Castilla-Ávila

Composers and musicologists from around the world gather to present their music and thoughts on the microtonality of American Primitive and other new directions, with attention to developments in Greenwich Village through visionaries like Cage, Harrison and Partch. Agustín Castilla-Ávila—a tireless advocate for composers around the world who are exploring new and old tuning systems, and President of the Ekmelic Society of Salzburg—will preside.

Complete Schedule is posted HERE

September 19 through 22

Sept 19, venue TBD

September 20
Greenwich House Music School
Sept 21, venue TVD
September 22 at Greenwich House

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From the Courtyard

Friday, September 27 at St. John’s in the Village
In cooperation with The Tenement Museum

7:00pm
9:00pm

Featuring Raices Negras – flutist Ceylon Mitchell, cellist Erin Murphy Snedecor, and pianist Elizabeth G. Hill, piano offer premieres by Clarisse Assad and Leo Brouwer. And with soprano Adriana Valdez.

“From the Courtyard” first recreates the sounds of an 1890s tenement courtyard, shared by immigrant families, then moves into the concert hall to hear how the rich legacy of folk music inspire later generations of composers. Premieres by Leo Brouwer and Clarice Assad. With the Tenement Museum.

A powerful communicator renowned for her musical scope and versatility, Brazilian-American Clarice Assad is a significant artistic voice in the classical, world music, pop, and jazz genres. The Grammy Award–nominated composer, celebrated pianist, inventive vocalist, and educator is acclaimed for her evocative colors, rich textures, and diverse stylistic range. “She energetically bends music to her will and reshapes it with fascinating results.” – Jazz Improv Magazine

We don’t picture Cuban guitarist/composer Leo Browuer in Greenwich Village, but he must have visited Westbeth (David Del Tredici’s building in the West Village) to study with Stefan Wolpe. Brouwer is the most celebrated composer of guitar music, but his work extends far beyond that. Check out his film score for Like Water For Chocolate.

Lazar Wyner immigrated to New York from Cherkasy, Ukraine in 1914. An accomplished pianist, he soon found work in the silent movie industry and Yiddish musical milieu that had sprung up around second avenue in the East Village. He was a prolific composer of Yiddish art songs; his son, Pulitzer Prize winner Yehudi Wyner, grew up in New York City amidst this vibrant Yiddish cultural and intellectual tradition. We pair Lazar Weiner’s moving “Somewhere far away” and lively “Yoshi the klezmer” with Yehudi Wyner’s early Psalm and Family Vaudeville songs.

Composer Manuel Ponce (1882-1948) scandalized ardent defenders of European classical music when he gave a concert combining Mexican popular and traditional songs with European artistic genres. He became an ardent advocate for South and Latin American music, exploring and cataloguing native music and developing its melodic and rhythmic features in his own original works.

Amy Beach (1867-1944) moved from Boston to New York City upon the death of her husband in 1915, attracted by its vibrant musical life. Her own compositional credo embraced folk music, in particular the folk songs of her own ancestors, the Irish, Scottish and English peoples who had immigrated to America. She wanted to depict the “laments, romances and dreams” of the Irish peoples in this “Suite for Two Pianos Founded upon Old Irish melodies.” An ardent contributor to New York’s intellectual and artistic scene, she wrote a response in the NY Times to Dvorak’s call for American composers to embrace the music of indigenous and African immigrants with a reminder that the cultural legacy of the British Isles was also a strong element of American cultural heritage. The dialogue reflects the search for a truly “American” musical identity that was a strong part of early twentieth-century musical thought in the Americas, a desire to shake off the chains of the European classical tradition and find new paths that reaffirmed new national identities. Cuban-born Tania León’s compositional style has been influenced by

Undine Smith Moore was one of the most prominent African-American women composers of the 20th Century. Her Afro-American Suite (1969) sets traditional spirituals in a contemporary modern harmonic idiom. Dr. Moore once said “Art preserves life in a very special way. Our memories die with us, but art preserves the values and experiences.”

Program

Lazar Wyner
–Somewhere Far Away 2’
–Yoshi the Klezmer 2’10

Yehudi Wyner
–Psalm 112 2’45
–Family Vaudeville Songs 2’30

Amy Cheney Beach Suite for Two Pianos 9”39
–Prelude 5’09”
–Finale 4’30’’

Undine Smith Moore
–Afro-American Suite 13’ 4”

Manuel M. Ponce
–Canciones Mexicanas 5’

Clarice Assad
–Flight of the Fairies. 4’ 03

Leo Brouwer
–El Cazadoe de Historias. 12’

Tania Leon Arenas
–D’un Tiempo 12’

Saturday, Sept 28th at pm at St. John’s in the Village
Composers Concordance: World Central Kitchen Fundraiser

Composers: Gene Pritsker, Dan Cooper, W.A. Mozart, Bill Schimmel, William Anderson, Mark Kostabi

Performers: Beth Levin, Gerald Robbins, Donna Weng Friedman, Mark Kostabi - piano,
Bill Schimmel - accordion, Yeou Cheng Ma, Lara St. John - violin, Gene Pritsker, William Anderson - guitar,

Poets: Richard Levine, Erik T. Johnson, Robert C. Ford, John Pietaro, Imelda O’rielly

St. John’s In the Village
218 W 11th New York, NY