The Baryshnikov Arts Center Presents Two BAC Salon Concerts this November

The Baryshnikov Arts Center will present two BAC Salon concerts in November, both in the intimate Howard Gilman Performance Space. On Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 7:30pm, BAC and Composers Now co-present Dialogues with Margaret Brouwer, Esperanza Spalding, and Du Yun and performances by Amy Schwartz Moretti, Blair McMillen, Michael Lipsey, Du Yun, and String Noise, moderated by Composers Now founder and composer Tania León. On Friday, November 4, 2016 at 7:30pm, BAC presents theremin virtuoso and composer Carolina Eyck with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), in the world premiere of Eyck's Fantasias for theremin and string quartet.

BAC Salon is a series of concerts presented in a salon setting, without a division between stage and auditorium. This series takes music written for intimate spaces, jazz and classical alike, back to its natural setting. BAC strives to make live music more integrated in the everyday lives of busy New Yorkers by presenting these hour-long programs with no intermission and by keeping ticket prices affordable.

Leadership support for BAC music programming in 2016 provided by the Anne and Chris Flowers Foundation and the Thompson Family Foundation.

Dialogues with Composers Now on November 1

In an evening of performance and conversation, Margaret Brouwer, Esperanza Spalding, and Du Yun share their music and discuss their creative process as part of a series designed to showcase the diversity of living composers, and create a forum for meaningful exchange among composers, performers, and audiences, moderated by Tania León. The program will feature the world premiere of Margaret Brouwer's Fleeting Images performed by Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin; Blair McMillen, piano; and Michael Lipsey, percussion; the world premiere of Du Yun's A few stops on the 7 train performed by Du Yun and String Noise (Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim, violins); and the world premiere of a new work by composer and bassist Esperanza Spalding. Composers Now has invited "Conversation Catalysts" to participate in the evening, contributing questions and ideas to the discussion. They are composers Felipe Lara, Miya Masaoka, Milica Parasonic, and Jeff Scott, members of the Board of Advisors and Distinguished Mentors Council of Composers Now.

Composers Now empowers all living composers, celebrates the diversity of their voices and honors the significance of their contributions to the cultural fabric of society. Founder and artistic director Tania León has led the organization since 2010. Composers Now features a broad spectrum of performances in concert halls, jazz mobiles, opera stages, experimental spaces, conservatories, museums and other musical venues. Symphony Space served as an incubator for the development of the Composers Now Festival. The Fund for the City of New York invited Composers Now to become a project partner in 2013. Amy Roberts Frawley has been its Program Director since that time. Composers Now's Dialogues program is an innovative new initiative comprised of inspiring performances, thought provoking conversations and stimulating exchanges of ideas between composers, performers and audiences. Occurring in each borough of New York City, Dialogues is a series of five events that will focus on a different theme each year. The theme for this year is "The impact of the arts in our society."

Carolina Eyck + ACME in Fantasias on November 4

German-born composer and performer Carolina Eyck is one of the world's foremost theremin virtuosi. Since making her debut in the Berlin Philharmonic, she has been invited to perform all over the world. The BBC World Service proclaims, "Carolina Eyck is one of the worlds leading theremin players ... and is a pioneer of this relatively new instrument," and Cicero calls her the "queen of the theremin." She was a winner of the 2015 ECHO-Classic prize in Germany for Concert Recording of the Year (Music 20./21.Century), and her book The Art of Playing the Theremin (written when she was 17) teaches the theremin technique she developed at age 14. Carolina Eyck's Fantasias, which will receive world premiere live performances at BAC, range from slow-evolving arpeggiations reminiscent of Reich and Glass, to alternative bowing and fingering techniques that achieve an ethereal ambience, to athletic explorations reminiscent of Bartók's String Quartets. Eyck and ACME have recorded the Fantasias for an album to be released by Butterscotch Records on October 14. Eyck composed these six Fantasias specifically for the 12" vinyl LP format, a practice reminiscent of early-60s Nonesuch releases. All performances were recorded in full takes with no editing. ACME tracked Eyck's quartet scores first, and then Eyck overdubbed her deft, fluid, single-take improvisations - thus the fitting title Fantasias. The result is an organic virtuosity that leads the listener through a wide range of sonic environments across the six pieces. Eyck's striking theremin performances in her Fantasias showcase her dead-aim intonation, her command of microtonality, her fluid melodicism, and - perhaps most importantly - her utter lack of self-consciousness as an improvisor. This latter quality is no accident, as Eyck has practiced improvisation for years, and has even studied techniques typically aimed at athletes for entering flow-states and shutting down critical inner dialogue.

The ACME players on Fantasias are Ben Russell, violin; Caroline Shaw, violin (album); Yuki Numata Resnick, violin (live concert); Caleb Burhans, viola; and Clarice Jensen, cello and ACME artistic director. ACME was honored by ASCAP during its 10th anniversary season in 2015 for the "virtuosity, passion, and commitment with which it performs and champions American composers." NPR calls the players "contemporary music dynamos," and The New York Times describes the group's performances as "tight, viscerally powerful."

BAC is the realization of a long-held vision by artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov to build an arts center in Manhattan that would serve as a gathering place for artists from all disciplines. BAC's opening in 2005 heralded the launch of this mission, establishing a thriving creative laboratory and performance space for artists from around the world. BAC's activities encompass a robust residency program augmented by a range of professional services, including commissions of new work, as well as the presentation of performances by artists at varying stages of their careers. In tandem with its commitment to supporting artists, BAC is dedicated to building audiences for the arts by presenting contemporary, innovative work at affordable ticket prices. For more information, please visit www.bacnyc.org.