Roulette to Present Neil Rolnick's DYNAMIC RAM & CONCERT GRAND, 2/17

Roulette presents the world premiere of Neil Rolnick's Dynamic RAM & Concert Grand, commissioned by the Fromm Foundation for Bang On A Can All-Stars pianist Vicky Chow.

This is the third piece in a series of large-scale works for piano and computer. Also featured will be the previous two works, each performed by the pianist who commissioned it. Kathleen Supove will play Digits (2005) and Bob Gluck will play Faith (2009). Rolnick will perform the computer part for all three pieces.

The concert takes place on Monday, February 17th at 8pm and is a featured evening in the Composers Now Festival.

ROULETTE is located at 509 Atlantic Ave (On the corner of Atlantic & 3rd Aves) (DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN 2, 3, 4, 5, C, G, D, M, N, R, B & Q trains and the LIRR). Tickets: $20; Members/Students/Seniors: $15; FREE for All Access Members www.roulette.org/events/neil-rolnick-2013.

About Composers Now: The Composers Now Festival celebrates living composers, the diversity of their voices and the significance of their musical contributions to our society. During the month of February, the Festival brings together dozens of performances presented by venues, ensembles, orchestras, opera companies, dance companies and many other innovative events throughout New York City. Experience the sounds and get to know the creators behind the music. From jazz to indie, from classical to electronic and beyond, join us on a sonic journey through the landscape of the arts of our time. Composers will be in attendance at all events and will be interacting with audiences. Composers Now is a project partner of The Fund for the City of New York. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the ASCAP Foundation, the Cheswatyr Foundation and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

Neil Rolnick, Composer: Composer Neil Rolnick pioneered in the use of computers in musical performance, beginning in the late 1970s. Based in New York City since 2002, his music has been receiving increasingly wide recognition and numerous performances both in the US and abroad. Rolnick has often included unexpected and unusual combinations of materials and media in his work. He has performed his music around the world, exploring forms as diverse as digital sampling, interactive multimedia, and acoustic vocal, chamber and orchestral works. Throughout the 1980s and '90s he was also responsible for the development of the first integrated electronic arts graduate and undergraduate programs in the US, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. As Founding Director of Rensselaer's iEAR Studios, Rolnick's innovation as an educator was to bring together the commonality of artistic creation across many disciplines, which led to his varied work with filmmakers, writers, and video and media artists.

Though much of Rolnick's work has been in areas which connect music and technology, and is therefore considered in the realm of "experimental" music, his music has always been highly melodic and accessible. Whether working with electronic sounds, acoustic ensembles, or combinations of the two, his music has been characterized by critics as "sophisticated," "hummable and engaging," and as having "good senses of showmanship and humor."

In 2012 Rolnick wrote Gardening At Gropius House, a concerto for violin, computer and ensemble, for The Juilliard School's Beyond the Machine Festival. A recording of the concerto, featuring Todd Reynolds and members of Alarm Will Sound conducted by Alan Pierson, has just been released on the Innova label in October 2013. In 2010 and 2011 Rolnick worked primarily on writing MONO, an evening long meditation on the senses. Approximately half of the work was previewed in 2011 in New York City, and at EMPAC in Troy, NY. In 2010 Rolnick was awarded the Hoefer Prize from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, which included a commission for large ensemble, and an artist residency at the Conservatory in 2012. Anosmia, the work written for this commission, is also a part of MONO, and was premiered and recorded in March 2012 in San Francisco. Rolnick also received a 2012 NY State Council on the Arts Commission, a 2011 Fromm Foundation Commission and a 2010 NY Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. From 2010 to 2012 Rolnick was awarded two residencies at the MacDowell Colony, and residencies at the Ucross Foundation and the Djerassi Foundation. In 2012 the American Composers Orchestra issued a download-only release of Rolnick's iFiddle Concerto, and in 2011 Innova released his 16th CD, Extended Family.

In 2009 he completed Extended Family for the string quartet ETHEL and MONO Prelude. His CD The Economic Engine, on the Innova label, was cited as among the outstanding classical CDs of 2009 by The New York Times. He ended 2009 with a 3-week tour of China, in which he played Faith and MONO Prelude in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.

In 2008 Rolnick completed The Economic Engine for the Chinese Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and Faith for pianist BobGluck. Works completed in 2007included Hammer & Hair for violin and piano; Love Songs for orchestra, voice and violin; and The Bridge for large ensemble. In 2006 his iFiddle Concerto was premiered by the American Composers Orchestra in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York. Also in 2006, his CD Digits was released to enthusiastic reviews in the New York Times and in Time Out New York.

Neil Rolnick was born in 1947, in Dallas, Texas. He earned a BA in English literature from Harvard College in 1969. He studied musical composition with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music School, with John Adams and Andrew Imbrie at the San Francisco Conservatory, and with Richard Felciano and Olly Wilson at UC Berkeley, where he earned a PhD in musical composition in 1980. He studied computer music at Stanford with John Chowning and James A. Moorer, and worked as a researcher at IRCAM in Paris, France, from 1977 to 1979. From 1981- 2013 he was a Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

www.neilrolnick.com | www.youtube.com/neilrolnick | www.vimeo.com/channels/neilrolnick

Vicky Chow, Pianist: Canadian pianist Vicky Chow has been described as "brilliant" (New York Times), "a monster pianist" (Time Out New York), "virtuostic" (New Jersey Star Ledger), and "one of the new stars of new music" (Los Angeles Times). She is the pianist for the New York based sextet Bang on a Can All-Stars and is also a founding member of DUO X88, a piano duo with Dutch pianist Saskia Lankhoorn and GRANDBAND, a six keyboard ensemble with pianists Lisa Moore, Blair McMillen, David Friend, Isabelle O'Connell and Paul Kerekes..Most recently she gave the North American premiere of Steve Reich's work 'PIano Counterpoint' and also the world premiere of a new evening length work by artist/composer Tristan Perich for solo piano and 40 channel 1-bit electronics titled 'Surface Image'. Her next solo projects include commissions from American composers Chris Cerrone, Neil Rolnick, and Canadian composer Adam Basanta and releases on the New Amsterdam and nonesuch labels.

Vicky's passion for new music has propelled her to work with an A-to-Z of leading composers and musicians such as John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Bryce Dessner (The National) Philip Glass, Glenn Kotche (Wilco), David Longstreth (Dirty Projectors), Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth). Her recorded work can be found on the 'tzadik', 'Cantaloupe',' innova', 'hinterzimmer', and 'altaVoz' labels. In addition to performing, Ms. Chow also produces and curates "Contagious Sounds", a new music series focusing on adventurous contemporary artists and composers in New York City. She receives continuous support from the Canada Council for the Arts and has received grants from the Fromm Foundation, Vancouver Foundation, and the BC Arts Council.

Originally from Vancouver Canada, Ms. Chow studied at The Juilliard School with Yoheved Kaplinsky and JulIan Martin before continuing studies at Manhattan School of Music with Christopher Oldfather. Starting

the piano at age 5, she was invited to perform at the age of 9 at the InternationAl Gilmore Music Keyboard Festival. She made her orchestral debut at the age of 10 with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra made her NY orchestral debut appearance at Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Symphony performing Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 1.

www.vickychow.com

Kathleen Supove, Pianist: Kathleen Supove is one of America's most acclaimed and versatile contemporary music pianists, known for continually redefining what a pianist/keyboardist/ performance artist is, in today's world. Ms. Supove? presents solo concerts entitled THE EXPLODING PIANO where she has performed and premiered works by countless established as well as emerging composers. Upcoming projects include new/complete PIANO MINIATURES by Mohammed Fairouz, DIGITAL DEBUSSY, the piano works/ghost pieces of Morton Subotnick, and performances throughout the UK of URBAN BIRDS by Arlene Sierra in connection with the Commonwealth Games. In June 2013, she and Sideband Laptop Orchestra performed and gave a GOOGLE TALK at their headquarters in Chelsea, NYC.

In May, 2012, Supove? received the John Cage Award from ASCAP for "the artistry and passion with which she performs, commissions, records, and champions the music of our time." Ms. Supove? is a Yamaha Artist. Her latest solo CD is THE EXPLODING PIANO. For more info, visit www.supove.com or follow https://www.facebook.com/pages/Exploding-Piano/432149896837747?ref=hl or twitter (@supove).

Bob Gluck, Pianist: Bob Gluck is a multi-faceted pianist, composer, and historical writer. His repertoire spans jazz, live electronic music, and avant-garde concert. Erik Lawrence (Chronogram) has referred to Gluck as "an accomplished and passionate pianist in the most elusive tradition of avant-garde masters Cecil Taylor, Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner, and Don Pullen. He's captured the magic of being at once sentimental and Space Pong crazy." Jay Collins (Cadence magazine) adds: Gluck is "a brilliant improviser," who offers ('Sideways' (2008) "arguably the most touching and memorable take on ["A Remark You Made"] since its initial version on Heavy Weather..."

Gluck designs his own software interfaces for interactive musical performance and multimedia installation. His current projects focus on the design of interfaces for computer- assisted piano performance, especially in jazz settings. Other recent work includes the sound installations 'Layered Histories' (2004), an immersive sound and video environment with Cynthia Rubin and 'Sounds of a Community' (2002), in which visitors trigger and shape recorded sounds by interacting with electronic musical sculptures; performances featuring home-built and retrofit sensor-based electronic instruments, including eSaz, eShofar, eBoard, harpsichord and piano.

His historical research focuses on the early collaborations between live electronic music and jazz, and on the development of electronic music beyond North American and Europe. He is presently working on a book about Herbie Hancock's "Mwandishi" band (1970-1973).

Gluck's recordings include 'Stories Heard and Retold' (1998, EMF 008), a series of sonic collages relating to Jewish life, 'Electric Songs' (2003, EMF 151), documenting recent performances, 'Electric Brew (2007, EMF 069) and The Bob Gluck Trio's "Sideways" (2008, FMR 251). His musical training is from the Julliard, Manhattan, and Crane schools of Music, the State University of New York at Albany (BA, 1977) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (MFA, 2001). His music has been performed in Prague, Berlin, Boston, New York, San Diego, Ottawa ... His work has been discussed and reviewed in the Computer Music Journal, Keyboard, Cadence, Moment, The Forward, Reconstructionism Today, Hadassah Magazine ... His articles have appeared in Computer Music Journal, Leonardo Music Journal, Leonardo, Organized Sound, Tav +, Journal SEAMUS and elsewhere. Bob Gluck is Associate Professor of Music and Director of the Electronic Music Studio at The University at Albany, and Associate Director, Publications at the Electronic Music Foundation. He serves as co-executive editor, along with Joel Chadabe, of the EMF Institute. More info: www.electricsongs.com.

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