Miller Theatre opens the 2011-12 season with an ambitious, three-night staging of James Dillon's Nine Rivers, a symphonic cycle of monumental proportions, and one of the most talked-about new works of the past few years. Written over several decades-and scored for a formidable assemblage of musicians and multimedia artists-the highly conceptualized cycle covers a vast sonic terrain, from hushed a cappella singing to high-octane drumming. For this event, Miller is bringing together members of the original creative team with some of the best new music performers on both coasts. A complex undertaking, James Dillon has told The Telegraph (UK) that Nine Rivers "may go down in history as the most cancelled premiere of all time."
September 14 - Part I: Leukosis
The cycle begins with four immersive movements, performed without pause, for six percussionists, six
violins, 16 solo voices, and chamber ensemble.
September 16 - Part II: Iosis
Night two features the evening-length work La coupure, for percussion solo with live electronics and
video projection, performed by Steven Schick.
September 17 - Part III: Melanosis
The journey comes to a close with four movements for chamber ensemble, live electronics, tape, brass
ensemble, percussion, and voices, including a finale for all 50 musicians.
ARTISTS: Steven Schick, conductor and percussion
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
The Crossing conducted by Donald Nally
red fish blue fish
Ross Karre, video design
Nicholas Houfek, lighting design
BIOS: STEVEN SCHICK, percussionist, conductor, and author, was born in Iowa and raised in a farming family. For the past thirty years he has championed contemporary percussion music as a performer and teacher by commissioning and premiering more than one hundred new works for percussion. Schick is Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego and a Consulting Artist in Percussion at the Manhattan School of Music. He was the percussionist of the Bang on a Can All-Stars of New York City from 1992-2002, and from 2000 to 2004 served as Artistic Director of the Centre International de Percussion de Genève in Geneva, Switzerland. Schick is founder and Artistic Director of the percussion group "red fish blue fish" and director of "Roots and Rhizomes," a summer course on contemporary percussion music hosted at the Banff Centre for the Arts. In 2007 he assumed the post of Music Director and conductor of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, and is a regular guest conductor of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). In 2011 Steven Schick was named Artistic Director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players.
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE (ICE) was founded in 2001, and over the past nine years has established itself as one of the leading musical ensembles of its generation as well as one of the most innovative young arts organizations in the United States. Winner of the 2010 Trailblazer Award from the American Music Center and the 2010 ASCAP/CMA Award for Adventurous Programming, ICE has created a pioneering performer/presenter model that sets a bold new standard for the future of music in the 21st century. ICE performs more than 50 concerts a year throughout the United States and abroad, has commercially released six acclaimed albums, and produced eight large-scale music festivals. A champion of music by young composers, ICE has also given more than 400 world premieres by composers under the age of 35. Highlights of the current season include headline performances at the
Lincoln Center Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival, BAM, Miller Theatre, Darmstadt Festival, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
THE CROSSING is a professional chamber choir of twenty-four voices, conducted by Donald Nally. Formed by a group of friends in 2005 who sang with Nally in Philadelphia and Italy, The Crossing has grown to become a vital part of Philadelphia's cultural scene, presenting innovative programs, establishing a summer new music festival, and making two acclaimed recordings. The Philadelphia Inquirer has named The Crossing "Philadelphia's best chorus" (David Pat
Rick Stearns, January 2008) and has listed their concerts in each of the past two years as among the "Best Classical Events of the Year." Winner of both the 2009 and 2011 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming from Chorus America, The Crossing is one of the only professional choirs in the world dedicated to singing exclusively new and recently-composed works. Frequently invited to collaborate, The Crossing has recorded Kile Smith's Vespers with Piffaro, the Renaissance Band, and is collaborating on projects with Lyric Fest, Ensemble N_JP, and Network for New Music, as well as commissioned premieres by Kile Smith, Francis Pott, and Lewis Spratlan. Recent world premieres have includ
Ed Smith,
David Lang, ?riks Ešenvalds, Gabriel Jackson, Kamran Ince, Benjamin C.S. Boyle, Paul Fowler, Lansing McLoskey, and
David Shapiro.
DONALD NALLY lives in Philadelphia where he concentrates on The Crossing's commissioning projects, collaborations, and current concerts. Donald is also music director of Cincinnati's Vocal Arts Ensemble, the region's only professional choir, and chorus master for The Chicago Bach Project - annual performances of Bach's masterworks presented by Soli Deo Gloria. In 2011-12, he will guest conduct the Latvian State Choir for the opening concert of the International Festival of Sacred Music in Riga and will be Visiting Professor in Choral Music at the University of Illinois. Donald just completed a distinguished tenure as chorus master at Lyric Opera of Chicago where he collaborated with the world's major opera singers, conductors, and directors. He has served many summers as Chorus Master of Il festival dei due mondi in Spoleto, Italy and was Chorus Master of the Welsh National Opera, where he conducted the WNO chorus and orchestra in major cities throughout England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. While in the UK, Donald guest-conducted London's Philharmonia Chorus and collaborated with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia Cymru. Prior to his work in Wales,
Donald Lived in Philadelphia where he was chorus master at the Opera Company of Philadelphia and artistic director of the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, which was awarded the 2002 Chorus America
Margaret Hillis National Award for Excellence in Choral Music. His book Conversations with
Joseph Flummerfelt: thoughts on conducting, music and musicians was published in 2010 by Scarecrow Press. He holds the distinction that in the last two years he has conducted concerts named to the Top Classical Events of the Year by the major newspapers of three major American cities: Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati.
red fish blue fish is the resident percussion ensemble of the University of California, San Diego. The group functions as a laboratory for the development of new percussion techniques, sounds and music. It has toured widely including performances at Lincoln Center and the Henry Street Settlement in New York City, the Agora Festival (Paris), the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella Series, the Centro des Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in addition to its regular series at the University of California, San Diego. red fish blue fish was the ensemble in residence at the 2007 June in Buffalo festival and will be the featured ensemble at the Tapei International Percussion Conference in 2008. The group has recorded for John Zorn's Tzadik label and has recently released a 3-CD set of the complete percussion works of Iannis Xenakis on Mode records to great critical acclaim. In the fall of 2007, red fish blue fish premiered Roger Reynold's evening-length Sanctuary - a collaborative project that has developed for more than four years - at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
ROSS KARRE (b. 1983 Battle Creek, MI) is a percussionist and intermedia artist. He works with a variety of media and practices ranging from contemporary classical music to experimental multimedia performance incorporating video, sound, lighting, and theatre. He attended Oberlin Conservatory (BM 2005) and UCSD (DMA 2009, MFA 2011). He has worked extensively with Steven Schick and red fish blue fish. He co-founded the percussion group EnsembleXII under the direction of
Pierre Boulez in Lucerne, Switzerland. Ross has worked closely with many leading modern, experimental and avant-garde composers including
Pierre Boulez,
Harrison Birtwistle, Helmut Lachenmann, Peter Eotvos, John Luther Adams, Matthias Pintscher, and Philippe Manoury. Ross engages in ongoing collaborations using video and percussion with Fritz Hauser, Roger Reynolds, Third Coast Percussion, and Mark Applebaum. Recent projects include collaborations with Speak Percussion (Australia), eighth blackbird, and James Dillon (Scotland). Ross joined the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) as a percussionist and video artist for the 2011-12 season in New York, NY. Ross is also a member of the National Gallery of Art New Music Ensemble in Washington D.C. With NGANME, Steven Schick, Allen Otte, Steve Antosca, and Roger Reynolds, Ross will coordinate the percussion concerts at the
John Cage Centennial in 2012.
NICHOLAS HOUFEK is a lighting designer whose recent work has been seen at the
Lincoln Center Festival (SoPercussion and Matmos, Varése: (R)evolution Part 1), Marvell Repertory Theatre (Nora, In the Shadow of the Glen, Blood Wedding, The Dybbuk), Olney Theatre Center (Farragut North, Call of the Wild), Collaboration Town (The Play About My Dad, THE MOMENTUM), Potomac Theatre Company (Therese Raquin), Awaken Productions (Proof), The Tank NYC (FULL), Sinking Ship Productions (Puppet Playlist, Powerhouse Reading), NY Fringe Festival (Be The Dog), Boston University (Postcard from Morocco), and the Boston Center for American Performance (Glass Menagerie). He is a graduate of Boston University's Theatre Design Program.
Columbia University's Miller Theatre is located north of the Main Campus Gate
at 116th St. & Broadway on the ground floor of Dodge Hall.
All-access passes for Opening Night are now on sale online at
www.millertheatre.com.
Single tickets can be purchased online beginning August 15.
The public may also purchase tickets through the Miller Theatre Box Office
in person or at 212/854-7799, M-F, 12-6 pm beginning August 29.
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