The Poetry of Solo
Press Contacts:
Linda Reichert, Artistic Director
Lisa Miller, Executive Director
215-848-7647
info@networkfornewmusic.org
CLICK HERE for a printable download of this press release
2011-2012 Concert Season WORD MUSIC presents THE POETRY OF SOLO
Live poetry readings accompany virtuoso solos by the Network Ensemble
Upstairs at the World Cafe
World and Philadelphia premieres
by Ingrid Arauco, Louis Karchin, Thomas Kraines, Joseph Hallman, Andrew Rudin, Arne Running, Robert Schultz
New poetry
Created and read by Jeanne Minahan and Lamont “Napalm” Dixon
Featuring virtuoso members of the Network for New Music Ensemble
Thomas Kraines, Elizabeth Masoudnia, Hirono Oka, Anthony Orlando, Arne Running, Edward Schultz, Burchard Tang
Tickets are available online at http://tickets.worldcafelive.com, or by phone at 215-222-1400
“I heard Andy Rudin’s ‘Portentum’ and LOVED it! (must admit I had to look the word up in the dictionary.) I thought it was both dramatically operatic and eerie, foreboding and thought-provoking. It’s a wonderful piece of music to collaborate with my style of free verse poetry…I actually found myself reciting to it right then and there.” -Lamont “Napalm” Dixon, poet
PHILADELPHIA – Network for New Music, the award-winning chamber ensemble dedicated to commissioning and performing works by living composers, is pleased to announce the opening concert in its 2011-2012 season, WORD MUSIC.
This season, Network for New Music explores the art thta happens when music meets words. Every concert in our 2011-2012 season brings together exceptional American composers and virtuoso musicians with the words of American poets, playwrights, and even physicists; every performance is a different and invigorating conversation between artist and audience, with words that are sung, spoken, and silent.
THE POETRY OF SOLO brings live performances of new music and new poetry to the World Cafe! The program explores the deep interconnections between poetry and music; poets, musicians, and composers collaborate in different ways to explore the deep interconnections between poetry, music, and the ways that artists express those connections. Network has commissioned Philadelphia poets Jeanne Minahan and Lamont “Napalm” Dixon to create and read new poetry especially for this concert, which presents world and Philadelphia premieres of music chosen especially for this concert.
Network’s incomparable ensemble musicians, many of whom are also members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, take star turns on this program. Choosing solo works that held deep personal meaning to them, each of them has found a different way to communicate their passion for the music and their connection to the words.
~ Joseph Hallman wrote a brand new piece for English hornist Elizabeth Masoudnia, setting a complicated double sonnet by Jeanne Minahan. (Minahan’s comment: “I can’t wait to hear what he does…he picked the hardest one!”)
~ Lamont “Napalm” Dixon, a regular on the jazz-poetry scene, wrote new poetry inspired by the rhythm and shape of Andrew Rudin’s Portentum for percussion, performed by Anthony Orlando. “But on this night / poems will escape their buds and shape space to blossom / …on this tell-tale night / we will be wailing and dancing/trumpeting inside ourselves…”
~ Edward Schultz, flutist, takes the connection home to his family: he performs a new piece written by his brother, composer Robert Schultz, which sets poetry by their mother, writer and poet Barbara Burwell.
Other poetry and music combinations include violist Burchard Tang playing the world premiere of Ingrid Arauco’s Violiloquy, inspired by the poetry of Donald Justice; clarinetist Arne Running, who has collaborated the poet Lamont Dixon in the composition of new music and new poetry for this performance; Hirono Oka, playing Louis Karchin’s Ricercar for solo violin, with new poetry written and read by Jeanne Minahan; and Thomas Kraines, cellist, who has chosen the poetry of Lee Sharkey to accompany his own new music.
This is Network’s first performance in the upstairs venue at the World Cafe Live. Dinner is available for purchase by ticket holders, and a cash bar is available as well. The performance will be followed by a post-concert talk-back with composers, poets, and musicians.
The program will be repeated on Friday, November 11, 2011, 8:00 pm, at Haverford College in Marshall Auditorium (free).
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION:
WHEN: Sunday November 6, 2011, 7:30 pm; doors open for dinner at 6:30 pm
WHERE: Upstairs at the World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
TICKETS: In advance: available online at http://tickets.worldcafelive.com, or by phone at 215-222-1400. Dinner seating cannot be reserved through the website; ticket buyers should call the World Cafe directly to reserve table seating.
General Admission, $20; Students, $15; ticket prices do not include $3 processing fee, or dinner
At the door: General admission, $25; students, $20; ticket prices do not include $3 processing fee, or dinner
CLICK HERE for additional program information For hi-res photos, CLICK HERE
About Network for New Music
Founded over twenty-five years ago by Linda Reichert and Joseph Waters, Network for New Music has become one of the country’s pre-eminent commissioning and performing ensembles of contemporary classical music. Artistic Director Linda Reichert draws in the very best composers from across the nation and the world, and programs their work with that of the best and most interesting Philadelphia composers. As performed by the brilliant Network for New Music Ensemble (many of whom are also members of The Philadelphia Orchestra), the result is an invigorating and exceptional take on the best of contemporary music, and a window into the future’s standard repertoire.
Network’s creative programming and spectacular musicianship has attracted world-class guest artists and composers such as Leon Fleisher, Peter Serkin, William Bolcom, Christoph Eschenbah, and many others; and Network often collaborates with artists from the worlds of dance, video, poetry, and theater. Through residencies, workshops, and outreach concerts, the ensemble nurtures the gifts and enthusiasm of students who write and play the music of the next generation.
For more information, photos, and interviews, please contact:
Lisa Miller, Executive Director
Linda Reichert, Artistic Director
215-848-7647 ~ info@networkfornewmusic.org