Akoka: The End of Time Plays Joe's Pub Jan 14

Clarinetist David Krakauer along with musical pioneer cellist Matt Haimovitz, will present Akoka: The End of Time featuring beat architect Socalled, with violinist Maria Bachmann and pianist Geoffrey Burleson, at 9pm on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street, NYC). Akoka: The End of Time comprises Krakauer's own composition Akoka, Messiaen's masterwork Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (Quartet for the End of Time), and Socalled's astonishing coda Meanwhile. This is the second concert of DK55, in a series of concerts in New York celebrating Krakauer's 55th birthday. Further concerts to be announced.

This innovative program is centered around Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, which was composed and premiered in a prisoner of war camp during World War II in the midst of tremendous upheaval. Henri Akoka was the Jewish clarinetist in the prison camp who performed the world premiere. This program has a musical focus on Akoka's story, bringing out the human aspect of this composition as seen from the perspective of someone caught in terrifying events beyond his control. Quartet for the End of Time will be performed in its entirety between two new works – an opening piece by Krakauer called Akoka (a raw improvisation that takes as its point of departure some of the musical gestures of the Messiaen) and a closing piece by Socalled called Meanwhile (sequences and samples of the acoustic recording of the Messiaen combined with sound images that illustrate the violence and turbulence of the piece). Akoka: The End of Time lifts Messiaen's original work out of the polite context of a chamber music concert and places it in a dramatic setting that drives home the gravity and impact of the work, while bringing it into the 21st century.

About David Krakauer:
Clarinetist David Krakauer occupies the unique position of being both one of the world's leading exponents of Eastern European Jewish klezmer music, plus a major voice in classical music and avant-garde improvisation. His klezmer sound has been described by RootsWorld as "an electrifying amalgam of cozy Eastern European traditions, free-form jazz, and dissonant howls of rage and pain ... a bittersweet statement of personal and collective race memory."

In recent years, Krakauer has emerged as a compelling soloist, introducing his distinctive sound to symphonic audiences in the US and Europe. Throughout his career, he has enjoyed major ongoing artistic collaborations with a diverse group of the world's foremost performers and composers including the Kronos Quartet, Emerson String Quartet, pianist Uri Caine, Aspen Wind Quintet, the Orion String Quartet, and many more. Krakauer and his band Klezmer Madness! have performed around the world since 1996, forging alliances between his branch of world music and a multitude of musical genres including jazz, funk and most recently, electro. While firmly rooted in traditional klezmer folk tunes, the band "hurls the tradition of klezmer music into the rock era" (The New York Times). In 2006, Krakauer co-founded the multi-genre super group Abraham Inc. with legendary funk trombonist and arranger Fred Wesley and Jewish hip-hop renegade and beat architect Socalled. Abraham Inc. heralds a time when boundaries are eroding, mutual respect is presumed, and musical traditions can hit with full force without concession or appropriation.

In addition to Abraham Inc.'s Tweet Tweet, Krakauer's discography contains some of the most important clarinet recordings of recent decades on the Label Bleu, Nonesuch, Tzadik, and Deutsche Grammophon labels. Krakauer makes his home in New York, and is managed by Bernstein Artists, Inc. He is an artist and clinician for the Selmer, Conn-Selmer and Rico companies. For more information, visit www.davidkrakauer.com.

About Matt Haimovitz:
Renowned as a musical pioneer, cellist Matt Haimovitz has inspired classical music lovers and countless new listeners by bringing his artistry to concert halls and clubs, outdoor festivals and intimate coffee houses, any place where passionate music can be heard. He brings a fresh ear to familiar repertoire, champions new music and initiates groundbreaking collaborations, all while mentoring an award-winning studio of young cellists at McGill University's Schulich School of Music in Montreal.

Haimovitz made his debut in 1984, at the age of 13, as a soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic, and at 17 he made his first recording for Deutsche Grammophon (Universal Classics) with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Haimovitz made his Carnegie Hall debut when he substituted for his teacher, the legendary Leonard Rose, in Schubert's String Qu

Haimovitz's recording career encompasses more than 20 years of award-winning work on Deutche Grammophon and his own Oxingale Records. His recent release Meeting of the Spirits was nominated for a GRAMMY® for Best Classical Crossover Album and won a GRAMMY® for Best Producer of the Year (Classical). A new recording with pianist Christopher O'Riley, Shuffle.Play.Listen, blurring the boundaries between Classical and Pop is due for release in Fall 2011.

The solo cello recital is a Haimovitz trademark, both inside and outside the concert hall. In 2000, he made waves with his Bach "Listening-Room" Tour, for which, to great acclaim, Haimovitz took Bach's beloved cello suites out of the concert hall and into clubs. He was the first classical artist to play at New York's infamous CBGB club, in a performance filmed by ABC News for "Nightline UpClose."

In 1996, he received a B.A. magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University. Matt Haimovitz plays a Venetian cello, made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller. For more information, visit www.matthaimovitz.com.

About Socalled:
Klezmer-hip hop maestro Socalled is a musician, producer, composer, arranger, magician, filmmaker, photographer and visual artist based in Montreal. Born in Ottawa and raised just north of there, in Chelsea, Quebec, he grew up taking piano lessons and loving funk and hip hop. When Socalled first heard klezmer music on an old Yiddish record, he was fascinated by the cool sounds he could sample to make hip hop beats. Then he realized that integrating this Jewish music from the 1930s into his songs was a way of representing himself and his cultural heritage. It enabled him bring something of his own to funk and hip hop, giving him what he calls "a real reason to make music."

Known for his genre-bending approach and his collaborations with musical giants of funk, klezmer, hip hop, lounge and classical music, Socalled has performed all over the world. He has released three CDs: Socalled Seder; and HipHopKhasene; and most recently, Ghettoblaster, recorded with Yiddish singer Theodore Bikel, lounge pianist Irving Fields, musician and producer Gonzalez, master clarinetist David Krakaeur, country singer Katie Moore, rapper C-Rayz Walz, and funk trombone legend Fred Wesley, among others. All of these wonderful lunatics, and so many more, appear in the Reframe Films/NFB
The Socalled Movie," available for exclusive download on Youtube. For more information, visit www.socalledmusic.com.

About Maria Bachmann:
Violinist Maria Bachmann combines outstanding musicianship with dazzling technical command, a tone of exceptional purity and a magnetic stage presence. The New York Times has hailed her as "a violinist of soul and patrician refinement," and The Boston Globe similarly praised Bachmann as being "astonishing in every musical and technical regard."

Her numerous CDs include Glass Heart (2010), music of Glass (Sonata for violin and piano written for her), Schubert, Bach and Ravel, The Red Violin, chosen by BBC Music Magazine as "North American CD of the Month", and Beethoven and Mendelssohn Violin Concertos released on Sony Classics in 2010. As the violinist of Trio Solisti, she has recorded numerous CDs and maintains an active touring schedule.

An eminent proponent of new music, Bachmann performed the world premiere of Philip Glass's Double Concerto with the Orchestra of The Hague in The Hague, Netherlands in 2010 and Paul Moravec's Violin Concerto at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. She has performed as soloist with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, with orchestras in Japan, China, Taiwan, and Hungary, and worked with conductors Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, and Marin Alsop. She has given performances over the world in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, The Opera Comique in Paris, The Musikverein in Vienna, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.

Bachmann is the Artistic Director of Telluride MusicFest, an annual music festival in Telluride, Colorado. She studied at The Curtis Institute of Music with Ivan Galamian and Szymon Goldberg, and performs on a 1782 violin by Nicolo Gagliano. For more information, visit www.mariabachmann.com.

About Geoffrey Burleson:
Geoffrey Burleson has performed to wide acclaim throughout Europe and North America, and is equally active as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and jazz performer. The New York Times has hailed Burleson's solo performances as "vibrant and compelling," furthermore praising his "rhythmic brio, projection of rhapsodic qualities, appropriate sense of spontaneity, and rich colorings." Burleson's solo recordings include Roy Harris: Complete Piano Works, released in 2010 by Naxos, and Vincent Persichetti: Complete Piano Sonatas (New World Records), a 2-CD set on which all twelve of Persichetti's piano sonatas are united on one release for the first time. The Persichetti recording was accorded high acclaim from the BBC Music Magazine ("BBC Music Choice"; 5/5 stars), a laudatory feature review in Gramophone, and was listed among the best recordings released in 2008 by Fanfare and the American Record Guide. Another recent release is Odd Couple (Oxingale), a duo CD of American works with cellist Matt Haimovitz. Upcoming projects include Saint-Saëns: Complete Works for Solo Piano, on 4 CDs, for Naxos. Volume 1 of the project, Saint-Saëns: Complete Piano Études, will be released in February 2012.

Burleson is a core member of The New York Art Ensemble, the Boston Musica Viva, and The Pittsburgh Collective, and Impetus. He holds the DMA degree from SUNY-Stony Brook, where he studied with Gilbert Kalish. He teaches piano at Princeton University, and is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Piano Studies at Hunter College-City University of New York. For more information, visit www.geoffreyburleson.com.