Apr 264 min read

12th Annual CompCord Festival: '1984' featuring CompCord Ensemble

CompCord Ensemble and Composers Concordance

Saturday, April 27, 2024 @ 7:00pm – 8:30pm (EDT)

LOFT393, New York, NY, United States

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$20

Melanie Mitrano, soprano
Michiyo Suzuki, clarinet
Daniel Schnyder, saxophone
David Taylor, bass trombone
Gene Pritsker, guitar
Jane Getter, guitar
Max Pollak, cajon, tap dance, & body percussion
Robert C. Ford, recitation
Peter Jarvis, conductor

Gene Pritsker — 1984 – A Year In Music

Melanie Mitrano — Everyone Else

Peter Jarvis — Reminiscing

Jane Getter — Detour

David Taylor — Swathe Cozen

Max Pollak — Mole's Eye Recall

Marina Vesić — Selected works

Ginka Mizuki — Selected works

Dan Cooper — Selected works

David Saperstein — Selected works

Daniel Schnyder — Selected works

On April 27th at 7pm at LOFT393, the "CompCord @ 40" festival continues with a concert featuring new music compositions which reflect upon the year 1984, when the Composers Concordance series was founded in New York City by composers Joseph Pehrson and Patrick Hardish.

The program will showcase the tour-de-force musicianship of the CompCord Ensemble: Melanie Mitrano (soprano), Michiyo Suzuki (clarinet), Daniel Schnyder (saxophone), David Taylor (bass trombone), Gene Pritsker and Jane Getter (guitars), Max Pollak (cajon-tap dancer-body percussion), and Robert C. Ford (recitation), conducted by Peter Jarvis.

Featured compositions include 1984 – A Year In Music by Gene Pritsker; Everyone Elseby Melanie Mitrano; Reminiscing by Peter Jarvis, Detour by Jane Getter, Swathe Cozenby David Taylor, and Mole's Eye Recall by Max Pollak, plus music by Marina Vesić, Ginka Mizuki, Dan Cooper, David Saperstein, and Daniel Schnyder.

All four festival concerts will also be live-streamed on Composers Concordance's Facebook Page. Celebrating the Big Apple's most eclectic new music series with a myriad of brazen new compositions, The "CompCord @ 40" festival is not to be missed!

About CompCord Ensemble

http://www.composersconcordance.com/

About Composers Concordance

Staying in rotation for 40 years in NYC is a rare feat. In the case of a new music presenting organization, it requires not only diligence and cognizance of achievements of the past but also an ethic of keeping one's ear to the ground for emerging stylistic and technological developments, as well as talented new composers on the scene.

Composers Concordance, founded in 1984 by Joseph Pehrson and Patrick Hardish, advised by Otto Luening, strives to present contemporary music in innovative ways, with an emphasis on thematic programming. Directors Gene Pritsker and Dan Cooper co-curate the programs and lead the CompCord Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, String Orchestra, and Big Band. Associate Directors are Milica Paranosic, Peter Jarvis, Debra Kaye, and Seth Boustead.

Composers Concordance has also created a Naxos-distributed record label: Composers Concordance Records, co-directed by Peter Jarvis. Composers Concordance's overriding vision is to promote contemporary music, composers, and new works as a rightful and respected part of society. Good music performed and recorded well, pushing the boundaries of sound and composition.

http://www.composersconcordance.com

About David Taylor, bass trombone

Receiving B.S. and M.S. degrees from Juilliard, David Taylor started his playing career as a member of Leopold Stokowski's American Symphony Orchestra, and by appearing with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez. Simultaneously, he was a member of the Thad Jones Mel Lewis jazz band, and recorded with groups ranging from Duke Ellington to The Rolling Stones. He has appeared and recorded with major jazz and popular artists including Barbara Streisand, Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, Frank Sinatra, and Aretha Franklin. Mr. Taylor has won the NARAS Most Valuable Player Award for five consecutive years, and has also been awarded the NARAS Most Valuable Player Virtuoso Award, an honor accorded no other bass trombonist. He has been a member of the bands of Gil Evans, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis, George Russell, Jaco Pastorius, Charles Mingus, Michelle Camillo, Bob Mintzer, Dave Matthews, the Words Within Music Trio, and B3+. In 1998 Taylor performed on four GRAMMY nominated CDs: The J.J. Johnson Big Band, Dave Grusin's West Side Story, the Joe Henderson Big Band, and the Randy Brecker Band. The latter two CDs were chosen for GRAMMYs. David Taylor is also on the faculties of the MSM and Mannes. He plays Edwards bass trombones exclusively.

https://www.davetaylor.net/

About Gene Pritsker, guitar

Composer/musical polymath Gene Pritsker has written over nine hundred compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music and songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles. His compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles, that are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures.

He is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation, an eclectic hip hop-chamber-jazz-rock-etc. ensemble. He also Co-Directs Composers Concordance. Gene's music is performed all over the world at internationally recognized festivals and by highly respected ensembles and performers.

He co-founded the Grammy-nominated Absolute Ensemble with Kristjan Jarvi and has been a composer in residence and guitarist since its creation in 1993. He worked closely with jazz fusion legend Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies, including Cloud Atlas, for which he wrote additional music and composed his Cloud Atlas Symphony. He is also the lead orchestrator for such TV series as Babylon Berlin, Jett, Netflix's Sense8, and Messiah. Gene is the lead orchestrator and has additional music in the 2021 film The Matrix Resurrections.

"My music is extremely eclectic, for me music has no bounds – I view the world of music as one big genre. My motto for my art is ending the segregation of sound vibration."

Gene is also a guitarist/rapper/Di.J./ and producer he incorporates each of these musical attributes to create music that is "not designed for easy listening or to melt into the background. It is insistent. It demands attention and curiosity." (New York Newsday) "Mischief-maker and cultural blender-in-chief, Pritsker is a serious artist, yet much of his work is witty and irreverent. Anyone can draw a mustache on the Mona Lisa, but few musicians draw it as artistically and creatively as Gene Pritsker." (Raymond Tuttle, Fanfare Magazine)

https://www.genepritsker.com/

About Jane Getter, guitar

NYC-based Jane Getter is a “triple-threat” (Geoff Wilbur)—guitarist, singer, and award-winning composer. Getter’s 6th release, Anomalia, coalesces a lifetime of musical exploration into intricate arrangements, powerful playing, and killer solos.

https://janegetter.com/