Brooklyn Phil Opens Season with 2 Preview Concerts Featuring Mos Def & More

BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC opens 2011-12 season with two free preview concerts:

BROOKLYN PHIL & Mos Def AT RESTORATION ROCKS MUSIC FESTIVAL
Saturday, October 8 at 8:00PM
Featuring performances by the Brooklyn Phil Chamber Players and Mos Def
Music by Mos Def (arr. Derek Bermel) and Frederic Rzewski

WNYC NEW SOUNDS LIVE PRESENTS THE BROOKLYN PHIL
Wednesday, October 12 at 7:00PM
The Winter Garden at World Financial Center, NYC
Featuring performances by Mos Def, Mellissa Hughes, Corey Dargel,
Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Brooklyn Phil Chamber Players
Music by David T. Little, Lev Zhurbin, Mos Def (arr. Derek Bermel),
Frederic Rzewski, Shape Note Singing

Overview:
Hip hop legend and critically-acclaimed actor Mos Def, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, songstress Mellissa Hughes and other special guests join members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic in two lively samplings of things to come in 2011-12. The programs will feature small ensemble versions of music the full orchestra will play later in the season, including Derek Bermel's arrangements of Mos Def's original songs, 19th century Shape Note singing, and works by contemporary composers David T. Little and Lev Zhurbin.

Details:
Brooklyn Phil & Mos Def at Restoration Rocks Music Festival
Saturday, October 8, 2011, 8:00 pm (30-minute set)
Bed-Stuy Restoration, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
Tickets: Free

Featuring:
Mos Def, hip hop artist
Brooklyn Phil Chamber Players; Alan Pierson, conductor
Program:
Bed-Stuy Forever: The Sounds of Mos Def, arr. Derek Bermel (2011)
Frederic Rzewski, Coming Together (1972)

This preview concert is hosted by the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and will feature the first glimpses of collaborations between chamber players from the Brooklyn Philharmonic and rapper and actor Mos Def. Grammy-nominated composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel has arranged the hip hop artist's original songs, including his 2008 single "Life In Marvelous Times."

"Mos Def has always had a unique and powerful voice in hip-hop," explains Bermel. "We've talked about ways that partnering with the Brooklyn Philharmonic can unlock new and creative approaches to timbre and texture." The full collaborations will be presented alongside Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 and Beethoven remixes with the full orchestra on June 9, 2012 as part of the Brooklyn Phil's "Bed-Stuy Series."

The concert will also include American-born composer Frederic Rzewski's Coming Together (1972). One of Rzewski's better-known works, the piece is a musical and spoken text setting of the letters by Sam Melville, an inmate who was killed during the Attica State Prison riots in 1971.

WNYC New Sounds Live presents the Brooklyn Phil
Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 7:00 pm
The Winter Garden at the World Financial Center, NYC
Between 225 Liberty Street and 200 Vesey Street
Tickets: Free

Featuring:
Mos Def, hip hop artist
Mellissa Hughes, voice
Corey Dargel, voice
Brooklyn Youth Chorus; Dianne Berkun, director
Brooklyn Phil Chamber Players; Alan Pierson, conductor
Program:
Shape Note Singing
David T. Little, excerpt from Am I Born (2011)
Lev Zhurbin, excerpt from Only Love (2008)
Corey Dargel: What Might Have Been (2011)
Frederic Rzewski, Coming Together (1972)
Bed-Stuy Forever: The Sounds of Mos Def, arr. Derek Bermel (2011)

Mos Def and the Brooklyn Phil Chamber Players will be joined for the second free preview concert by a collection of artists also set to appear throughout the 2011-12 season. Vocalist Mellissa Hughes and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, under the direction of Dianne Berkun, will showcase in partnership with the Brooklyn Phil, an excerpt from their newly co-commissioned work, Am I Born, by composer David T. Little. Little's work has led critic Alex Ross of The New Yorker to declare: "every bad-ass new music ensemble in the city will want to play him." The piece is based on Francis Guy's evocative 1820 painting "Winter Scene in Brooklyn," currently on display at the Brooklyn Museum. The world premiere performance of Am I Born will take place March 24 and 25, 2012, as part of the Brooklyn Phil's "Downtown Brooklyn Series." Also being previewed from this March 2012 performance will be songs in the great 19th century American tradition of shape note singing.

The Brooklyn Phil will also offer a taste of its opening orchestra concert, Russian Cartoon Music (on the "Brighton Beach Series"), by performing an excerpt from composer Lev Zhurbin's score for the award-winning 2008 Russian cartoon Only Love. The film, directed by Lev Polyakov, takes a tongue-in-cheek look back at the Soviet era. The full performance takes place on November 3, 2011.

In addition, this preview concert will feature a special reprise of What Might Have Been, a piece composed by the Philharmonic's 2010-11 Composer Fellow Corey Dargel, who will perform his own work on the concert.