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Composer/Percussionist Lukas Ligeti Celebrates 50th Birthday Tonight
By: BWW News Desk Jun. 11, 2015
On the occasion of his 50th birthday (6.13.15), the Austrian Cultural Forum New York presents an unprecedented overview of composer/percussionist Lukas Ligeti's work as a composer including new pieces written specifically for the occasion. The concert series opens tonight, June 11th at the ACFNY, with performances of Lukas' solo and small ensemble works (performers include Thomas Bergeron, Candy Chiu, Jennifer Hymer, Ben Reimer, David Cossin, and others), and premiere pieces for Lukas' new classical/indie rock band, Notebook. The festival culminates June 14th at Roulette featuring Lukas' music for chamber orchestra. Program includes several world premieres, as well as U.S. and New York City premieres, performed by the fresh, contemporary-collective Ensemble mise-en conducted by Oliver Hagen, pianist Vicky Chow, and others. See below for program details.
A champion of intercultural music and arguably one of the world's most ingenious composers, Lukas neatly bridges the classical-modernist-world-music divide by combining his post-minimalist compositional style with other facets of contemporary expressions such as noise and electronics as well as indigenous non-Western musical and cultural influences. Just this past year, he released two highly-acclaimed, jazz hybrid albums, toured nationally with jazz trio Hypercolor, was featured in a weeklong residency at The Stone, performed at Carnegie Hall to honor Meredith Monk, and more.
As Lukas approaches 50, he is well placed to continue on his sonic voyage to discover and produce thought-provoking, intercontinental, chaotic yet beautiful music. "It is thrilling to be entering my fifth decade with great ebullience and an insatiable hunger to create new, adventurous music," says Lukas. Known for embodying a challenging, innovative approach to music, Lukas strives to find new sounds through cross-cultural and cross-genre collaboration. "When I compose, I always want to present something new. I hope to innovate and deliver works of the highest integrity."
Lukas has written 25+ commissioned works, composed 50+ world premieres, recorded 12+ albums, performed in 30+ countries, and taught at 20+ universities around the world. His contemporary classical writing is polymetric and polytemporal, absorbing rhythms, forms, and concepts from a variety of African sources. Having participated in cultural exchange projects in Africa for the past 20 years, Lukas uses an African template for his explorations of rhythmic improvisations and extremities. "I'm interested in creating consonances and dissonances of rhythm," says Lukas.
About Lukas Ligeti
Brooklyn-via-Austria percussionist/composer Lukas Ligeti is a pioneer in the field of experimental intercultural collaboration and has created some of the most strikingly original music of the past decades. Scion of avant-garde classical pioneer Gyo?rgy Ligeti, Lukas has long been involved in contemporary classical music but is also known for his experimental forays into jazz and world music genres, including work in various parts of Africa. His music, often characterized by complex polymetric structures, ranges from the through-composed to the free-improvised and frequently involves live electronics. Lukas has been commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, Bang On A Can, Kronos Quartet, to name a few; composed music for installations and choreographers; and founded several bands including Hypercolor, Notebook, and Burkina Electric, the first electronica group from Burkina Faso. For more info, visit lukasligeti.com.
LUKAS LIGETI ACFNY FESTIVAL
Program subject to change
*World premiere **U.S. premiere ***NYC premiere
When: Thursday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Austrian Cultural Forum New York, 11 East 52nd Street, NYC, Train: E/M 53rd Street or B/D/F/M Rockefeller Center
Tickets: Free. Reservations are required. To reserve, visit acfny.org or call212.319.5300.
Tangle (2006/08)
Performers: Thomas Bergeron (trumpet) + Candy Chiu (percussion)
Details: Tangle, for trumpet and percussion, was commissioned by the Borletti- Buitoni Trust for Colin Currie and Ha?kan Hardenberger.
Dust*** (2009)
Performer: Jennifer Hymer (kalimba)
Details: Dust was written for Hamburg-based pianist Jennifer Hymer. The kalimba, while frequently used in ethnic music, is surprisingly yet to be established as a solo new music instrument.
Play Addict (2013)
Performer: Jennifer Hymer (toy piano + digital sampler)
Details: Commissioned by Phyllis Chen, the bucolic, kinetic Play Addict premiered in New York City at Chen's UnCaged Toy Piano Festival.
Lakoni in Kazonnde (2013)
Performers: Ben Reimer + David Cossin (drums)
Details: Written for Ben and David, this work for two drum sets premiered at the 2013 Bang on a Can Marathon. According to NewMusicBox.org, it is "a very impressive example of this integration. Inspired by Ghanian agogo bell traditions, Ligeti pits one drumset against another with intricate cross-rhythms overlaying on top of one another. It's not as flashy as one might expect a double drumset piece to be, but infinitely more interesting."
title tba*
Performers: Notebook - Lukas Ligeti (drums), Daniel Blake (saxophone), Lorna Krier (synthesizer), Eyal Maoz and Grey McMurray (electric guitars), and special guests tba
title tba*
Performers: Notebook, featuring Grey McMurray (guitar)
Kaleidoscope Point (2009)
Performers: Notebook - Lukas Ligeti (drums), Daniel Blake (saxophone), Lorna Krier (synthesizer), and Eyal Maoz and Grey McMurray (electric guitars)
Details: Kaleidoscope Point was written in 2009 for Notebook's performance at the Whitney Museum. With Lukas on percussion, Notebook (formerly known as Kaleidoscope Point) explores the cross currents of classical, modernist, and world music.
________
When: Sunday, June 14 at 5:30 p.m.
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, Train: 2/3/4/5/D/M/N/R/B/Q Barclays Center
Tickets: $20/Students & Seniors $15. To purchase tickets, visit roulette.org or call917.267.0363.
Trinity*
Performer: Vicky Chow (piano)
Details: Trinity was written in 2003 for pianist Jay Gottlieb's album Continents.
Champagne for Urbana*
Performer: Vicky Chow (piano)
Details: Champagne for Urbana was written in 2006 for the 70th birthday of Ligeti's composition teacher, Erich Urbanner.
Thinking Songs*
Performers: tba (marimba)
Details: Commissioned by a consortium of 16 U.S. marimba soloists, Thinking Songs is a five-movement piece; this premiere performance will be performed by five members of the consortium.
Castle of Turns*** (2007)
Performers: Ensemble mise-en
Conductor: Oliver Hagen
Details: Castle of Turns was commissioned in 2007 by the German concert hall Tonhalle Du?sseldorf. It received its U.S. premiere at Eastman College.
Zambezi* (1999, new version 2015)
Performers: Ensemble mise-en
Conductor: Oliver Hagen
Details: Commissioned by London's Icebreaker, Zambezi was written for the group's extremely unusual instrumentation. Ligeti created a new version for chamber orchestra, which will be premiered here.
Surroundedness** (2012)
Performers: Ensemble mise-en
Conductor: Oliver Hagen
Details: This piece was commissioned in 2012 by the seminal Austrian chamber orchestra, Ensemble "die reihe", to celebrate its 50th anniversary season.
title tba*
Performers: Ensemble mise-en
Conductor: Oliver Hagen
Details: Featuring the largest ensemble of all the program's pieces, this new work is written for 15 musicians and commissioned by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York.
Photo Credit: Chris Woltmann
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