Miller Theatre to Present Composer Portrait of Romanian Spectralist Iancu Dumitrescu

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts continues its Composer Portraits series with Bucharest's Iancu Dumitrescu, leader of the little-known movement Romanian Spectralism, which will be on rare display the entire week.

Performers include Either/Or and conductor Richard Carrick on Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 8 p.m. at Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street). Tickets: $20-$30; Students with valid ID - $7-$18. For more information, visit www.millertheatre.com/events/iancu-dumitrescu.

In conjunction with this Portrait, two free Pop-Up Concerts further explore the legacy of Romanian Spectralism on Tuesday, March 1 and Thursday, March 3 at 6:00 p.m.

From Miller Theatre Executive Director Melissa Smey: "This March, audiences will get the rare chance to delve into a hidden gem of new music-the compositional world of Romanian Spectralism. Iancu Dumitrescu will visit New York for the first time to share his hand-picked program and discuss his work onstage. He will also be joined by his long-time collaborator, Ana-Maria Avram, whose work will be highlighted in a free Pop-Up Concert earlier that week. Don't miss this opportunity to experience such a singularly unique genre."

A cornerstone of Miller's programming, these "endlessly important" (The New York Times) and "indispensable" (The New Yorker) evening-length musical profiles explore the work of a single composer in depth, offering contemporary artists a space to explore, experiment, and make significant contributions to the field. Many composers participate in onstage discussions as part of their Portrait concert, offering the audience unique insight into their inspiration behind the notes.

Iancu Dumitrescu stands at the forefront of one of the 20th century's most invisible avant-gardes: the spectral composers of Romania. Operating on the margins of a regime committed to Socialist Realism, his microscopic explorations of acoustics draw on both Western techniques and local traditions: the folk music research of Béla Bartók, Eastern Orthodox chant, and Byzantine mysticism. The resulting compositions break apart sonic conventions. They reflect, in Dumitrescu's words, "the attempt to release or unveil the god that is living in every piece of base matter."

PROGRAM:
Meteors and Pulsars (1998)
Galaxy (1993; soloist version 2016) world premiere
Pierres sacrées (1988-91) U.S. premiere
Le Silence D'or (2008) U.S. premiere
Ultrasonic Sublime (2009-14; ensemble version 2016) world premiere

ARTISTS:
Iancu Dumitrescu, composer
Either/Or
Richard Carrick, conductor
This Composer Portrait is part of a special series of concerts
celebrating the music of Romania, including two free Pop-Up Concerts:

Tuesday, March 1, 2016, 8pm
Either/Or: Precursors and Parallels

Thursday, March 3, 2016, 8pm
Either/Or: Chamber Music of Ana-Maria Avram

Iancu Dumitrescu (www.spectralmusic.org/Iancudumitrescu) - Iancu Dumitrescu, composer, conductor and musicologist, was born in Sibiu, Romania, in 1944. Between the ages of seven and 22, he pursued conventional musical studies leading to an M.A. in Composition at the National Conservatoire in Bucharest. Towards the end of this period he met Alfred Mendelsohn, who introduced him to the music-then forbidden in Romania-of Schoenberg and Webern. A slight liberalization of the Romanian regime beginning in 1968 catalyzed a move towards more personal work amongst a group of composers that included Dumitrescu, Niculescu, Stroe, Vieru, and Olah. In 1973, Dumitrescu met Sergiu Celibidache, who made a profound impression on him and who introduced him to the application of Husserlian phenomenology to music and composition.

From this moment Dumitrescu emerged as one of the leading personalities in European contemporary music-an artist whose significance and influence have embraced both composition and the interpretation and philosophy of music.

Since 1976, Dumitrescu has directed the Hyperion Ensemble, based in Bucharest and performing throughout Europe. Hyperion was founded to explore a new aesthetic-hyper-spectral music, based on the radiant power of sound and its microcosmic complexity, all aspects of which are questioned, analyzed, and recomposed from a spectral perspective. Dumitrescu is also the founder and artistic director of the International Music Festivals of Computer Assisted Music, Acousmania, Musica Nova, Musica Viva, the International Spectral Music Festival, and Spectrum XXI, held annually in three European capitals. Edition Modern, a contemporary music recording label run by Dumitrescu and Ana-Maria Avram in partnership with ReR MegaCorp, has released more than 40 CDs since its founding in 1990.

His oeuvre includes more than 300 works, including chamber music, electroacoustic, orchestral music, and computer music.

Either/Or (www.eitherormusic.org) - Either/Or has been at the forefront of New York's contemporary music scene since 2004, presenting new and recent works for unconventional ensembles rarely heard elsewhere. Co-directors Richard Carrick and David Shively curate its programming, drawing on the Either/Or roster of 17 regular musicians alongside special guests. Performances throughout the Northeast include Philadelphia Museum of Art, ICA Boston, The Kitchen, and Miller Theatre, as well as a recent Swedish tour and frequent appearances at experimental music venues such as The Stone, Roulette, and Issue Project Room.

The Either/Or programming explores equally the products of an American Experimental tradition (as traceable via artists such as Cage, Feldman, Lucier, Ashley) and of a European avant-garde, with a special emphasis on composers working outside the institutional mainstream. Either/Or has presented the first U.S. portrait concerts for composers such as Chaya Czernowin, Horatiu Radulescu, Karin Rehnqvist, Rebecca Saunders, Hans Thomalla, and Anna Thorvaldsdottir, bringing most of these composers to New York City for public lectures and teaching engagements.

Either/Or has premiered more than 50 new works in past seasons, not including dozens of student compositions. Artists commissioned by Either/Or include Anthony Coleman, George Lewis, Keeril Makan, Miya Masaoka, Zeena Parkins, and Elliott Sharp. Either/Or has released CD recordings of composers Keeril Makan (Starkland, 2011), Richard Carrick (New World, 2011, 2015), Karin Rehnqvist (Sterling, 2013), and Anthony Coleman (New World, 2014) with further titles in preparation from Carrick, Makan, Elliott Sharp, and Morton Feldman.

Richard Carrick - Richard Carrick is a New York based composer, pianist, and conductor. Described as "charming, with exoticism and sheer infectiousness" by Allan Kozinn of The New York Times, Richard Carrick's music has been performed throughout the Americas, Europe, and Japan by the New York Philharmonic (Ensemble Series), Vienna's Konzerthaus, ISCM World Music Days, Darmstadt Summer Festival, the Nieuw Ensemble, the JACK Quartet, Tony Arnold, Magnus Andersson, Rohan de Saraam, and others. Recent works include Prisoner's Cinema for large ensemble and image projection, Harmonixity for Saxophone Quartet, Adagios for String Orchestra, and The Flow Cycle for Strings. As a pianist and conductor, he regularly premieres new works, working closely with composers including Lachenmann, Czernowin, Radulescu, Lewis, Greenwood, Rehnqvist, Saunders, Sharp, and others. He teaches composition at Columbia University, New York University, and for the New York Philharmonic and has guest lectured about his music in Japan, South Korea, Sweden, France, Germany, The Netherlands, and the US.

Directions and information is available online at www.millertheatre.com or via the Miller Theatre Box Office, at 212.854.7799.