calendar

Continuum’s 42nd New York Series

Cheryl Seltzer & Joel Sachs, Directors

Next Concert

Wednesday, May 7, 7PM

THE LATIN LEGACY
Celebrating the younger generation of Latin American-born composers in the U.S.

Americas Society
680 Park Avenue at 68th
Admission FREE

This flyer can be downloaded.

Americas Society concerts are admission free, but reservations are strongly advised, and may be made at (212)277-8359, ext.2, culture@americas-society.org, or online at americas-society.org. Continuum's website: www.continuum-ensemble-ny.org.

Photos and credits clockwise from top: Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez-Kurt Brownell, Marcelo Toledo, Ricardo Romaneiro-Eric Shanfield, Sebastian Zubieta-Arturo Sánchez, Manuel Sosa-Ileen Kohn, Ileana Pérez Velázquez-Andrew Zema, Fernando Benadon-Carey Benadon, Arthur Kampela-Celso de Menezes (Gianelly Fotografia). Center: Jorge Martín-Angel Martín.
Design: Lia Di Stefano.

CONTINUUM, Cheryl Seltzer and Joel Sachs, directors, presents the closing concert of its 42nd New York season. The concert is Wednesday, May 7, 7 PM, at Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue at 68th Street. 

Continuum has long identified with the music of Latin America, presenting major composers in individual retrospectives, groups of composers in thematic concerts, and making extensive recordings. The forthcoming concert focuses on the younger generation of composers in their 30s and 40s. Less well known than such compatriots as Mario Davidovsky and Osvaldo Golijov, these exciting emerging talents are gaining attention here and abroad, and making unique contributions to our culture.

The composers selected for this concert -- a sampling from many gifted composers settling here from Latin America -- hail from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and Venezuela. Extremely diverse in their styles, some are directly inspired by their native musical culture and synthesize that powerful heritage with new techniques, such as JORGE MARTÍN (Cuba) in his Conjuration for clarinet, violin, cello, piano (2003). Others work within a contemporary framework, with very subtle Latin American overtones, such as FERNANDO BENADON (Argentina) in Meet Café for ensemble (1999), based on William Burroughs' Naked Lunch. Others identify with a purely international language, such as CARLOS SÁNCHEZ-GUTIÉRREZ (Mexico) in . . . and of course Henry the Horse. . . for piano 4-hands, clarinet, violin (2006 - a Continuum commission). Other composers and their works are: ILEANA PÉREZ VELÁZQUEZ (Cuba) - Duendes alados (Winged goblins) for string quartet (2001); RICARDO ROMANEIRO (Brazil) - Partita (Remixed) for ensemble (2007); MANUEL SOSA (Venezuela) - Melodia I for violin and piano (2003) in its WORLD PREMIERE; MARCELO TOLEDO (Argentina) - Aliento/Arrugas, a spectacular sound piece for solo flute (1998); SEBASTIÁN ZUBIETA (Argentina) - CCXCIV - a Petrarch sonnet set for soprano and double bass, blending an early Renaissance sensibility with contemporary rhythmic and microtonal techniques. ARTHUR KAMPELA (Brazil), as Continuum's guest artist, turns his viola into a wild guitar in Exoskeleton for "viola alla chitarra"(2003). 

Soloists are Camille Zamora, soprano; Ulla Suokko, flute; Renée Jolles, violin, Arthur Kampela, viola; Kurt Muroki, double bass; Cheryl Seltzer, piano, and Joel Sachs, piano, conductor.

Continuum's signature Retrospective Series has been a hallmark of New York's musical life since the organization's founding in 1966. Its innovative programming has been especially valued for introducing New York to unknown extraordinary composers from around the world, many of whom later achieve worldwide standing. Continuum, in turn, has had remarkable opportunities to bring American and other new music to festivals in far corners of the world, in the ensemble's travels to such locations as Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, Indonesia, and Korea. Continuum has recorded on Nonesuch, Musical Heritage Society, Bridge, CRI, Capstone, Cambria/Troppe Note, TNC Recordings, Naxos, and New Albion, and has been broadcast extensively on national and European television and radio.

This concert is are made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and support from the Amphion Fund, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Virgil Thomson Foundation, and other private and business donors.

Saturday, February 16, 8 PM
GALINA USTVOLSKAYA -
HIDDEN GENIUS
Merkin Concert Hall

This flyer can be downloaded.

CONTINUUM, Cheryl Seltzer and Joel Sachs, directors, presents the second concert of its 42nd New York season - a retrospective of the Russian genius Galina Ustvolskaya. The concert is Saturday, February 16, 8 PM at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center, in the Goodman House, 129 West 67th Street.

Over its long history Continuum has been credited for introducing New York audiences to the great composers of the former Soviet Union - among them Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Pärt, Silvestrov - music at that time which was virtually hidden from public performance in the USSR. Another in this rank is Galina Ustvolskaya, who died little more than a year ago. Born in St. Petersburg (Petrograd), in 1919, she was the favorite student of Shostakovich, who actually quoted from her music in his compositions, and in the 50s even proposed marriage. Ustvolskaya repudiated any notion of his influence on her music, and developed a fiercely independent path. Much of her life she led a reclusive life in St. Petersburg, refusing interviews and photos.

Called "one of the century's grand originals . . . like nothing else in musical history" (Alex Ross, New York Times), Ustvolskaya developed a powerful, austere, passionate language, totally her own. Extremes of dynamics reaching into five and six degrees of forte are at the same time directed to be played "very expressively"; obsessive reiterations and reappearance of sections are at the service of a clear sense of form.

Some pieces call for unusual performance techniques and unlikely instrumental conceptions. Three works have religious subtitles when it was dangerous to do so. Continuum's forthcoming concert includes the SIXTH PIANO SONATA (1988), a work played almost entirely in tone clusters, with arms, fists, and palms. The percussion of two works consists solely of a large hollow wooden box, beaten with hammers. The instrumental core of COMPOSITION No. 2, "DIES IRAE" (1973) is an ensemble of eight amplified double basses. Two works called "Symphonies" are for a maximum of six players: SYMPHONY NO. 4 "PRAYER" for voice, trumpet, tam-tam, and piano (1987) and SYMPHONY NO. 5 "AMEN" for male speaker, oboe, trumpet, tuba, violin, wooden box (1990). The latter work, a ritualistic, haunting setting in Russian of The Lord's Prayer, was given its World Premiere by Continuum at Alice Tully Hall in 1991 (followed by a Continuum retrospective at Merkin Hall in 1996). An earlier work from 1952, the SONATA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO, is just as radical but reveals a gentler side of the composer.

Soloists are Alison Tupay, mezzo-soprano, Philip Booth, speaker, Renée Jolles, violin, Cheryl Seltzer, piano, and Joel Sachs, piano, conductor

Continuum's signature Retrospective Series has been a hallmark of New York's musical life since the organization's founding in 1966. Its innovative programming has been especially valued for introducing New York to unknown extraordinary composers from around the world, many of whom later achieve worldwide standing. Continuum, in turn, has had remarkable opportunities to bring American and other new music to festivals in far corners of the world, in the ensemble's travels to such locations as Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, Indonesia, and Korea. Continuum has recorded on Nonesuch, Musical Heritage Society, Bridge, CRI, Capstone, Cambria/Troppe Note, TNC Recordings, Naxos, and New Albion, and has been broadcast extensively on national and European television and radio.

For its final New York concert, on Wednesday, May 7, at 7 PM, Continuum once again performs at Americas Society. THE LATIN LEGACY celebrates the new generation of supremely gifted composers from Latin America who have settled in the U.S. Featured will be a work written for Continuum by the Mexican-born Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez.

These events are made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and support from the Amphion Fund, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Virgil Thomson Foundation, and other private and business donors. http://www.jccmanhattan.org;

Tickets for the February 16 concert, $20, students/seniors $10, are at the Merkin Hall box office, 129 West 67th Street, or at (212)501-3330, www.kaufman-center.org.

Opening Concert
Wednesday, October 10, 8 PM

BENJAMIN YUSUPOV PORTRAIT CONCERT

At the JCC in Manhattan

This flyer can be downloaded.

BENJAMIN YUSUPOV PORTRAIT CONCERT

OPENING CONCERT OF CONTINUUM'S 42nd NEW YORK SEASON

OFFERS TWO WORLD PREMIERES

CONTINUUM, Cheryl Seltzer and Joel Sachs, directors, launches its 2007-2008 New York series with a BENJAMIN YUSUPOV PORTRAIT CONCERT, presented by the JCC in Manhattan, Amsterdam at 76th, on Wednesday, October 10, at 8 PM.

One of today’s most exciting younger composers, Benjamin Yusupov immigrated to Israel from Dushanbe, Tajikistan in 1990 at the outset of the former Soviet republic’s civil war. The prodigious 44-year-old composer, who also is a much sought-after conductor and a virtuoso pianist, quickly established himself in his new country, and has gained an international following. Yusupov had a recent triumph with the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony will perform his music at Carnegie Hall during next season. Continuum has been an advocate of his music for several years.

Yusupov’s music pulses with rhythmic vitality, and mixes exotic sounds from his native Tajikistan with the middle-eastern culture of his adopted homeland. The composer, who will be here for the concert, has created a new major work for Continuum, which will receive its World Premiere. HAQQONI (CROSSROADS 4 - 2007) combines evocative prayers sung by eminent cantors and chanted by the composer’s grandfathers recorded from Yusupov’s Tajik-Jewish past, with a live ensemble of clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. ("Haqqoni" is a vocal genre of Bukharian - Jewish-Central Asian - music associated with spiritual purification.) The work was commissioned by a member of New York’s Bukharian Jewish community, Edward Yagudaev, in memory of Eduard Nektalov.

Other music includes METAPHOR for solo harp (1996) in its World Premiere; SONATA FOR CELLO AND PIANO (1988), evoking Tajik sources of chant, instrumental improvisation, and dance; the monumental PIANO TRIO (2000), a virtuoso mixture of Tajik and middle-eastern influences; and a brief piece for string quartet "ET MA SHERATZITI" ("What I wished for"- 1997), based on a song by Alexander Argov and written for Israel’s 50th anniversary.

Soloists are Bridget Kibbey, harp; Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; Renée Jolles, violin; Kristina Reiko Cooper, cello, Cheryl Seltzer, piano, and Joel Sachs, piano, conductor.

The forthcoming concert is Continuum’s fourth featuring Jewish and Israel music at the JCC in Manhattan. Continuum's signature Retrospective Series has been a hallmark of New York's musical life since the organization's founding in 1966. Its innovative programming has been especially valued for introducing New York to unknown remarkable composers from around the world, many of whom later achieve worldwide standing. Continuum, in turn, has had remarkable opportunities to bring American and other new music to festivals in far corners of the world, in the ensemble's travels to such locations as Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, Indonesia, and Korea. Continuum has recorded on Nonesuch, Musical Heritage Society, Bridge, CRI, Capstone, Cambria/Troppe Note, TNC Recordings, Naxos, and New Albion, and has been broadcast extensively on national and European television and radio.

Continuum’s program will be repeated on Saturday, October 13, 8:30 PM, sponsored by the Bukharian Jewish Community Center, 106-16 70th Avenue in Forest Hills, Queens.

Continuum’s next New York concert, GALINA USTVOLSKAYA – HIDDEN GENIUS, is on February 16, 8 PM, at the newly-renovated Merkin Concert Hall. Continuum has avidly promoted music of this extraordinary, notoriously- reclusive composer from St. Petersburg, Russia. The concert is a memorial to the composer, who passed away last December.

For its final New York concert, on Wednesday, May 7, at 7 PM, Continuum once again performs at Americas Society. THE LATIN LEGACY celebrates the new generation of supremely gifted composers from Latin America who have settled in the U.S. Featured will be a work written for Continuum by the Mexican-born Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez.

These events are made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and support from the Amphion Fund, the Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Virgil Thomson Foundation, and other private and business donors. Mr. Yusupov’s presence at the October concerts is sponsored by the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York.

Tickets for the October 10 concert are $20, $15 JCC members, and are available at the box office, JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Avenue at 76th Street, (646)505-5708, www.jccmanhattan.org,

Continuum's website: www.continuum-ensemble-ny.org.

2007-2008 Next New York Area Concerts

This flyer can be downloaded.

THE LATIN LEGACY

Celebrating the new generation of Latin American-born composers in the U.S. Amazing innovations, surprising inter-cultural mixes, vivid colors, infectious energy.

FERNANDO BENADON (Argentina)
Meet Café (1999)
Ensemble
 
ARTHUR KAMPELA (Brazil)
Exoskeleton (2003)
"Viola alla chitarra" performed by the composer
 
JORGE MARTIN (Cuba)
Conjuration (2003)
Clarinet, violin, cello, piano
 
ILEANA PEREZ VELAZQUEZ (Cuba)
Duendes alados (Winged goblins - 2001)
String quartet
 
RICARDO ROMANEIRO (Brazil)
Partita (Remixed) (2007)
Ensemble
 
CARLOS SANCHEZ-GUTIERREZ (Mexico)
...and of course Henry the Horse (2006)
piano 4-hands, clarinet, violin
Commissioned by Continuum
 
MANUEL SOSA (Venezuela)
Melodia I (2003)
Violin and piano
World Premiere
 
MARCELO TOLEDO (Argentina)
Aliento/Arrugas (1998)
Solo flute
 
SEBASTIAN ZUBIETA (Argentina)
CCXCIV (2002)
Soprano and contrabass

Camille Zamora, soprano
Ulla Suokko, flute
Moran Katz, clarinet
Jared Soldiviero, percussion
Renée Jolles, violin
Ann Miller, violin
Dov Scheindlin, viola
Arthur Kampela, guest viola
Kristina Reiko Cooper, cello
Kurt Muroki, double bass
Cheryl Seltzer, piano
Joel Sachs, piano, conductor

If you would like to be added to Continuum's mailing list and private informational e-mail list, receive details on Friends of Continuum and Continuum's recordings, please write us at Continuum-ny@nyc.rr.com or Continuum, 333 West End Ave.-16C, NYC 10023. www.continuum-ensemble-ny.org