Release (2009/11/30)

Orchestra Underground:
Traditions & Transmigrations

Monday, November 30, 2009, 7:30 PMZankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, NYC

ACO opens its 33rd season with Orchestra Underground in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall performing three World premieres by Erin Gee, Donal Fox, and Curt Cacioppo; a New York premiere by Huang Ruo; and a rarely heard work by Charles Ives.

Traditions & Transmigrations celebrates the blending and juxtaposition of traditions, and the journey involved in any exploration of new musical territory. The concert showcases the diversity of today’s American composers: Curt Cacioppo’s new work is an homage to the Navajo people of Canyon de Chelly; composer and pianist Donal Fox brings his signature method of pairing an improvised solo part with notated orchestral writing; Erin Gee’s piece places the orchestra as the fulcrum for a multi-media performance that melds video created by her brother Colin Gee (an actor who will also perform live on stage) with Ms. Gee’s unusual vocal techniques utilizing two microphones with live computer processing; and Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo combines Chinese folk singing with vibrant orchestral colors. Charles Ives’ Tone Roads Nos. 1 and 3 provide a touchstone of iconic Americana. The concert spotlights composers who are also performers—Curt Cacioppo (voice and percussion), Donal Fox (piano), Erin Gee (vocalist), and Huang Ruo (vocalist) will all perform as soloists in their own pieces. Guest conductor Stefan Lano makes his ACO debut on this concert.

Erin Gee: Mouthpiece XIII: Mathilde of Loci, Part 1
(ACO/LVMH Commission, World Premiere)

Watch a video about Erin and Colin Gee’s collaboration on Mouthpiece XIII:

Listen to an excerpt from Erin Gee’s Mouthpiece IX Part 1
perf. Erin Gee with Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, cond. Martyn Brabbins

Erin Gee lives in Austria and is currently a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the Montalvo Arts Center. She makes her ACO debut with the world premiere ofMouthpiece XIII: Mathilde of Loci, Part 1, a work she is creating with her brother, Colin Gee. Mouthpiece XIII is based on a fictionalized account of the life of Matteo Ricci, proponent of the Memory Palace or the Method of Loci, a mnemonic technique. For the premiere, Ms. Gee will perform as vocalist and will use an original vocal technique using two microphones and live computer processing. Mr. Gee, writer and director, will also perform as an actor onstage and created the video portion of the work. The commission and performance of Erin Gee’s new work is made possible by a new collaboration between ACO and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton Inc., which shares ACO’s commitment to emerging American artists.

For more info, visit www.erin-gee.com

Colin Gee: Writer, Director, & Actor

Trained as an actor, Colin Gee was a principal clown for Cirque du Soleil from 2001 to 2004 in the touring production, Dralion, and appeared in the company’s television programSolstrom (2003). He is currently the founding artist-in-residence at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and a visiting artist-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. His film Dakota (2006), with live solo performance and music by Erin Gee, was presented at P.S. 122, Diskurs ’04 Giesen, Wexford Arts Center, 4020 Festival, and received the Best Male Performer award at the 2006 Dublin Fringe Festival.

For more info, visit http://colingee.com

Donal Fox: Peace Out for Improvised Piano and Orchestra
(ACO Commission, World Premiere)
Listen to an excerpt from Donal Fox’s Improvised Piano and Orchestra
perf. Donal Fox with University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra, cond. William LaRue Jones

Donal Fox was the first African American composer-in-residence with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and was a special guest artist at the Library of Congress in a program that was recorded by National Public Radio. He first appeared with ACO in the 2003-04 season, when he gave the New York premiere of T.J. Anderson’s piano concerto, Boogie Woogie Concertante, with the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Philharmonic during the American Composers Orchestra’s Improvise! Festival. He returns to ACO with a new commission that showcases his artistry as a virtuosic improviser as well as an accomplished composer of classical music. In Peace Out for Improvised Piano and Orchestra, Fox will perform as soloist, improvising his part along with a fully composed score for the orchestra.For more information visit www.leonellismusic.com

Curt Cacioppo: When the Orchard Dances Ceased
(ACO Commission, World Premiere)
Listen to an excerpt from Curt Cacioppo’s String QuartetCoyoteway
perf. Moscow String Quartet

Curt Cacioppo is Ruth Marshall Magill Professor of Music at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. He makes his first appearance with ACO in the premiere performance of When the Orchard Dances Ceased, an homage to the Navajo people of Canyon de Chelly. In the mid 1800s, the U.S. army drove the Navajo out of their ancestral lands in the Canyon, where they had cultivated thousands of peach trees for generations. In his work, Cacioppo conjures the melodies and instruments of the Navajo, a popular Irish tune of the time, and U.S. military marches. The work includes parts for Native American folk voice and percussion instruments, both of which will be performed by the composer.

For more information visit http://curtcacioppo.com

Huang Ruo: Leaving Sao
(New York Premiere)
Listen to an excerpt from Huang Ruo’s Leaving Sao
perf. Huang Ruo with Bowling Green Philharmonic, cond. Emily Freeman Brown

Originally from Hainan, China, Huang Ruo first came to the attention of ACO in 2004 when his City of Solace was selected to be read in the New Music Readings. His work Leaving Sao is written for soprano or high male voice in folk style and chamber orchestra in memory of his grandmother. Sao in Chinese means sorrowful predicament. This title was taken from a poem written by poet Qu Yuan (fourth century B.C.) from the ancient kingdom of Chu. Instead of setting Qu Yuan’s poem, Huang wrote an original new poem with the same title in a modern form and literal use of word.

For more information visit www.huangruo.com

Charles Ives: Tone Roads No. 1 & 3
Listen to an excerpt from Charles Ives’ Tone Roads No. 1
perf. Emsemble Moderne

Charles Ives’ Tone Roads are thought to be a musical depiction of various journeys humans take through life, our individual differences converging to create the fabric of a larger community. He wrote in his Memos, “The Tone Roads are roads leading right and left—’F.E. Hartwell & Co., Gents Furnishings’—just starting an afternoon’s sport. If horses and wagons can go sometimes on different roads (hill road, muddy road, rocky, straight, crooked, hilly hard road) at the same time and get to Main street eventually, why can’t different instruments on different staffs? The wagons and people and roads are all in the same township, same mud, breathing the same air, same temperature, going to the same place, speaking the same language (sometimes), but not all going on the same road, all going their own way, each trip different to each driver, different people, different cuds, not all chewing in the key of C—that is not all in the same key—or the same number of steps per mile.”