The Miller Theatre's Composer Portraits Series Presents Missy Mazzoli Tonight

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts continues its Composer Portraits series with MISSY MAZZOLI featuring ETHEL, Mivos Quartet, Marnie Breckenridge, soprano, Jody Redhage, cello & voice, Nathan Schram, viola, and Robert Simonds, violin. Tonight, February 5, 2015, 8:00 p.m. at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University (2960 Broadway at 116th Street). Tickets: $20-$30 • Students with valid ID: $12-$18

From Miller Theatre Executive Director Melissa Smey:
"I can't wait to welcome Missy Mazzoli to our stage. She is an invigorating presence in new music, with a captivating voice and diverse body of work. I am especially thrilled that this Composer Portrait will include the world premiere of Quartet for Queen Mab, a work co-commissioned by Miller Theatre for the string quartet ETHEL."

COMPOSER PORTRAITS

"Miller Theater's invaluable marquee series of deep dives,
a single living composer at a time." - The New York Times

One of New York City's "strongest new-music series" (The New Yorker),Composer Portraits at Miller Theatre allow audiences to become immersed in one composer's singular style, as well as hear from them in-person during an onstage discussion. The 2014-15 season includes a wealth of world premieres and performances from cutting-edge artists such as the JACK Quartet, ICE, Third Coast Percussion, the Brentano String Quartet, and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo.

Composer Portraits

Thursday, February 5, 2015, 8:00 p.m.
Missy Mazzoli

Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street)
Versatile and dynamic, American composer Missy Mazzoli has been called "Brooklyn's post-millennial Mozart" (Time Out New York). Her work includes commissions from Carnegie Hall, the Kronos Quartet, the LA Phil, and the Whitney Museum of Art, as well as a co-commission from Miller Theatre-Quartet for Queen Mab-that will have its world premiere as part of her Composer Portrait, performed by ETHEL. This concert highlights Mazzoli's diverse works for strings, from solo pieces for cello and violin to works such asHarp and Altar, a love song to the Brooklyn Bridge that fuses string quartet with pre-recorded electronics and the poetry of Hart Crane.

Missy Mazzoli

www.missymazzoli.com

Missy Mazzoli's music has been performed all over the world by the Kronos Quartet, eighth blackbird, pianist Emanuel Ax, the American Composers Orchestra, JACK Quartet, New York City Opera, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, cellist Maya Beiser, violinist Jennifer Koh, pianist Kathleen Supové, Dublin's Crash Ensemble, the Sydney Symphony, and many others. She is currently Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia, Gotham Chamber Opera and Music Theatre-Group, and in 2011/12 was Composer/Educator in residence with the Albany Symphony. Missy was a visiting professor of music at New York University in 2013, and recently joined the composition faculty at the Mannes College of Music.

Mazzoli is the recipient of four ASCAP Young Composer Awards, a Fulbright Grant to the Netherlands, the Detroit Symphony's Elaine Lebenbom Award, and grants from the Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, and the Barlow Endowment.

The 2014/15 season will include many new projects and collaborations, including a new work for ETHEL String Quartet, a performance on the New York Philharmonic's CONTACT! Series, and the second release from Missy's band Victoire - an album of her works recorded with Wilco percussionist Glenn Kotche and electronic musician Lorna Dune. Along with librettist Royce Vavrek, Missy is also working on Breaking the Waves, a chamber opera based on Lars von Trier's 1996 film, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia.

Mazzoli is an active pianist and keyboardist, and often performs with Victoire, a band she founded in 2008 dedicated to her own compositions. Their debut full-length CD, Cathedral City, was named one of 2010′s best classical albums by Time Out New York, NPR, The New Yorker, and The New York Times.

ETHEL

www.ethelcentral.org

Acclaimed as "indefatigable and eclectic" (The New York Times), "vital and brilliant" (The New Yorker), and "one of the most exciting quartets around" (Strad Magazine), ETHELinvigorates the contemporary music scene with exuberance, intensity, imaginative programming, and exceptional artistry. Always striving to demonstrate the unifying power of music, ETHEL has initiated innovative collaborations with an extraordinary community of international artists including David Byrne, Bang on a Can, Todd Rundgren, Carlo Mombelli, Ursula Oppens, Juana Molina, Tom Verlaine, Polygraph Lounge, and Vijay Iyer.

Over the past four years, ETHEL has premiered over 55 new works by 20th- and 21st-century composers including: Phil Kline's "SPACE" at the gala reopening of Alice Tully Hall; "RADIO" by Osvaldo Golijov at the debut of WNYC Radio's Jerome L. Greene Space; ETHEL's TruckStop®: The Beginning at BAM's Next Wave Festival; ETHEL Fair: The Songwriters at opening night of Lincoln Center's Out of Doors; "WAIT FOR GREEN" with choreographer Annie-B Parson; and works by contemporary music luminaries such as Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe, John Zorn, Evan Ziporyn, Steve Reich, John King, Raz Mesinai, John Luther Adams, JacobTV, Hafez Modirzadeh, David Lang, Kenji Bunch, Don Byron and Marcelo Zarvos.

Founded in 1998 and based in New York City, ETHEL is comprised of Ralph Farris (viola), Dorothy Lawson (cello), Kip Jones (violin), and Tema Watstein (violin).

Mivos Quartet

www.mivosquartet.com

The Mivos Quartet, an "accomplished, admirably broad-minded young string quartet" (New York Times), is devoted to performing the works of contemporary composers, presenting new music to diverse audiences. Since the quartet's beginnings in 2008 they have performed, commissioned and closely collaborated with an ever-expanding group of international composers who represent multiple aesthetics of contemporary classical composition. The quartet's international performing schedule has included appearances at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music (Darmstadt, Germany), Wien Modern (Vienna, Austria), Asphalt Festival (Düsseldorf, Germany), Concerti Aperitivo (Udine, Italy), HellHOT! New Music Festival (Hong Kong), Edgefest (Ann Arbor, MI), and Aldeburgh Music (UK). Beyond expanding the string quartet repertoire, Mivos is committed to working with guest artists, collaborating on multi-media projects, exploring group improvisation, and supporting young musicians through educational activities. Mivos' forthcoming album (Spring 2013) on Carrier Records will feature works by Alex Mincek, David Franzson, Felipe Lara, and Wolfgang Rihm.

Marnie Breckenridge

www.marniebreckenridge.com

Soprano Marnie Breckenridge's versatility of roles range from highly acclaimed performances of Lucia di Lammermoor to Emily in Rorem's Our Town. Her excellent acting credits and musicianship have brought her into the worlds of television and voice-over as well as theatre where she recently composed the vocal lines for and sang the lead inWake, an original production with director Mei Ann Teo and composer Jon Bernstein. As a champion of contemporary music, she regularly performs new music by modern composers in concert and recital.

For her recent debut with the Sacramento Philharmonic she sang the Bachianas Brazilerasand Chicago Songs written for her by Kurt Erickson conducted by Michael Morgan. Other recent concert work includes Carmina Burana soloist with the SF Choral Society. Her opera roles include, Olga in The Merry Widow with the San Francisco Opera, and Lucia Di Lammermoor with Mobile Opera. Ms. Breckenridge is a featured soloist on the 2012 New World Records' album of Victor Herbert songs and recently made her European and Asian debuts as Cunegonde in Candide with the English National Opera and Prague State Opera.

Jody Redhage

www.jodyredhage.com

Jody Redhage, a passionate advocate of creative new music and chamber music, has been called "a new music dynamo" (MusicWorks). Redhage has premiered over 100 works, including almost 30 that she has commissioned for her voice, cello, and electronics from some of today's most talented composers. An active composer herself, she writes for the band Rose & the Nightingale, and pursues a solo project in which she sets the poems of living American poets as the lyrics. Equally experienced and comfortable as a player of classical, new music, jazz, rock, pop, improvised music, and recording session work, Redhage is a mainstay within several active and groundbreaking New York scenes, contributing to the ever-increasing 21st century blur of musical boundary lines.

Redhage is a member of Best New Artist Grammy winner, Esperanza Spalding's Chamber Music Society band, traveling to five continents to support the release of Spalding's third record, featuring a jazz trio, string trio (violin, viola, cello), and backup vocalists. Jody often works as a recording session player, recording for Sesame Street, and on many CDs, commercials, and films, including the 2009 release of Sufjan Stevens' The BQE, and Alan Ferber's Chamber Songs. Jody has also recorded for My Brightest Diamond, Fall Out Boy, and Chromeo.

Nathan Schram

nathanschramnoise.com

Hailed by the New York Times as an "elegant soloist" with a sound "devotional with its liquid intensity," Nathan Schram is the violist of the Bryant Park Quartet as well as a member of the Carnegie Hall trained ensemble Decoda. Nathan explores other musical interests by playing with an array of adventurous ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, ACME, New York Baroque Incorporated, Le Train Bleu, and the Wordless Orchestra. Working with many of today's great composers he has premiered music by Steve Reich, Nico Muhly, Timo Andres, David Bruce, Brooks Frederickson, Elliot Cole and Brad Balliet. He is also a founding member of the string trio Speed Bump, an ensemble devoted to improvisation and performing their own compositions.

Apart from performing, Nathan is the Founding Director of Musicambia, a New York based initiative establishing a network of music conservatories within prisons and jails in the United States. He is an Alumnus of Carnegie Hall and Juilliard's Ensemble ACJW, and a prizewinner of the 2007 Primrose International Viola competition, the 2006 Corpus Christi Concerto Competition, and a First Prize winner of the 2008 ASTA National Solo Competition. He studied at Indiana University with Alan de Veritch and at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain with Diemut Poppen and Yuval Gotlibovich. Nathan has performed chamber music alongside Itzhak Perlman, Colin Carr, Gil Kalish, Phil Setzer, Atar Arad, Joshua Bell, Ron Leonard, and Jonathan Carney.

Robert Simonds

Robert Simonds is the Principal Second Violin of the Louisville Orchestra and a member of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, CA. In addition to performing the music of leading contemporary composers, Rob is also dedicated to working across genres and has produced and performed in small ensemble partnerships with indie-folk artists Joe Pug, Ben Sollee, Tobie Milford and The Low Anthem.

Rob began his professional orchestral career with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, which was followed by a longtime position in The Phoenix Symphony. He regularly returns to Arizona to play with the Downtown Chamber Series, as well as the recently opened Musical Instrument Museum. His work in Arizona also includes performances with the Arizona Music Fest Orchestra. As a substitute musician, he has worked with the orchestras of Minnesota, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Columbus, and Virginia. For several summers he was a member of the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder.

Photo Courtesy of the Miller Theatre