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Susie Ibarra & Brad Lubman
Headline ‘Composers OutFront!’
Performances at Joe’s Pub
ACO’s focus on the composer-performer moves downtown
with shows September 27 & October 20
Extending its reach beyond Carnegie Hall, American Composers Orchestra’s season-long focus on composer-performers comes to Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, with the launch of its Composers OutFront!performances by composer-percussionist Susie Ibarra on Wednesday, September 27 at 9:30pm; and the New York City debut of Brad Lubman’s Electric Fuzz ensemble on Friday, October 20 at 7pm.Ibarra’s performance explores her Filipino roots, while Electric Fuzz incorporates a post-modern melding of rock, cutting edge chamber music, and electronics. Tickets are $20.
Composers OutFront! puts composers on stage, and making connections between their musical roots as performers and their works for the concert hall. By featuring young musical creators-with interests ranging from jazz and improvised music to rock and pop, and a variety of world music influences-the series introduces an eclectic array of contemporary musicians to new audiences, helps develop the network of composers on whose behalf ACO exists, provides connections with the concerts ACO gives at Carnegie Hall, and establishes a deeper context for audiences to understand the artists’ work. “Composers today wear multiple hats-performing, composing and living in more than one realm of musical expression,” says ACO Artistic Director Robert Beaser. “If Composers OutFront! helps to debunk any remaining ‘ivory tower’ stereotypes about who composers are and how they create, all the better,” he adds.
Susie Ibarra: Barangay Rhythms
Wednesday, September 27 at 9:30 pm
Percussionist-composer Susie Ibarra kicks-off the series on September 27 with a show titledBarangay Rhythms (barangay is a Filipino term for “neighborhood”), that explores the mixture of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Thai influences in her work, and highlights her work with kulintang, a traditional Filipino set of graduated-pitch gongs. Pianist Jade Simmons will perform Ibarra’s Dance Steps. Mari Kimura performs Black and White, a piece for solo violin with electronic percussion samples. The Ancients is a composition for winds, strings and percussion, influenced by the Filipino kulintang scale, with Joseph Trent, flutes; Gilad Harel, clarinets; Mari Kimura, violin; Tomas Ulrich, cello; and the composer, Jade Simmons and Roberto Rodriguez playing small hand percussion instruments. The second half of the show showcases Electric Kulintang, a duo featuring Ibarra on acoustic and electric kulintang, drum set, vocals and keyboard; and Roberto Rodriguez playing live electronics, claypot, cajon and drum set. They will perform music from their new recording to be released this fall, EK: The Dialects, weaving melodies and rhythms that evoke Filipino folkloric trances.
Susie Ibarra studied percussion and composition at Mannes and Goddard Colleges. She studied kulintang with Danongan Kalanduyan and drum set with Buster Smith, Vernel Fournier and Milford Graves. She has performed southeast Asian gong music, jazz, avant-garde, improvised and solo concert works with artists such as John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Pauline Oliveros, Derek Bailey, Ikue Mori, Sylvie Courvoisier, William Parker, Kavita Krishnamurti, John Lindberg, Wadada Leo Smith, Mark Dresser, Thurston Moore, Prefuse 73, Yo La Tengo, among others. Teaching Artist residencies include: The Walker Art Center, Mills College, Bard College, Swarthmore College, Fundacio Joan Miro, University of Michigan, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, and The New School. She was recently nominated Best Drummer in the Village Voice, Downbeat, Jazziz, and The Wire. Ibarra is a Yamaha, Paiste & Vic Firth Artist. Ibarra’s Joe’s Pub performance previews her appearances at ACO’s Orchestra Underground concert at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall on October 13, and the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia on October 15.
Brad Lubman’s Electric Fuzz:
Friday, October 20 at 7:00 pm
The versatile conductor-composer-instrumentalist Brad Lubman brings his latest project, Electric Fuzz, to Joe’s Pub on Friday, October 20, marking the group’s New York City Debut. Electric Fuzz aims to create new artistic synergies by juxtaposing acoustic music with electronics, pop-art and the avant-garde. The ensemble’s eclectic repertoire reflects the varied backgrounds of Lubman and its members, who draw inspiration from their experiences in a variety of musical genres, including classical, jazz, world, klezmer, and electronic music. Electric Fuzz’s members have worked closely with artists ranging from Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble Intercontemporain, to Bang on a Can, Ensemble Modern, Walter Thompson’s Soundpainting and Gamelan Lila Muni. Electric Fuzz was formed by Lubman at the Eastman School of Music earlier this year, and includes Todd Reynolds, violin; Olivia DePrato, violin; Lauren Radnofsky, cello and electronics; Juliet Grabowski, clarinets and koto; Will Chapin, electric guitar; Charlie Dye, percussion; Oliver Hagen, keyboards; Paul Coleman, electronics; with Lubman playing keyboards, percussion and electronics.
Lubman’s own compositions figure prominently in the Joe’s Pub event, with the premiere of a new work named for Electric Fuzz; plus Jumping to Conclusions, a quartet with electronics; and several pieces for violin, cello and synth that Lubman has co-composed with ensemble member Lauren Radnofsky. Music by David Lang and Pierre Boulez rounds-out the event. Boom Design Group will contribute video installation.
Brad Lubman enjoys a multi-faceted career as conductor and composer. He was Assistant Conductor to Oliver Knussen at the Tanglewood Music Center from 1989-94, and has since conducted orchestras such as the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Finnish Radio Symphony, New World Symphony, and Frankfurt Radio Symphony, as well as contemporary groups Ensemble Modern, MusikFabrik Cologne, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and Steve Reich and Musicians. He has worked with many of today’s musical luminaries, including John Adams, Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, Elliot Carter and Steve Reich, as well as Elvis Costello, DJ Spooky, and John Zorn. Lubman is professor of conducting at Eastman, and music director of the resident Musica Nova Ensemble. Lubman’s compositions have been performed in the U.S. and Europe by the Guild Trio, New Millennium Ensemble, Percussion Group The Hague, and Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. The first CD of his own compositions was recently released on the Tzadik label. He makes his ACO debut on October 13 at Zankel Hall, conducting a program that includes the world premiere of his new multimedia work Fuzzy Logic.
Tickets for each performance are $20. Between the hours of 10am and 9pm, tickets can be purchased by phone at 212-967-7555. Between the hours of 11am and 5pm tickets can be purchased and dinner reservations can be made simultaneously by calling 212-539-8778.
You may buy tickets in person at The Public Theater box office, located at 425 Lafayette Street from 1:00 pm to 6:00pm on Sundays and Mondays and 1:00pm to 7:30pm from Tuesday through Saturday. Tickets are also available for purchase in person at Joe’s Pub from 6:00pm to 10:00pm, seven days a week. Please note that many shows at Joe’s Pub do sell out in advance, so door sales are subject to availability.
Composers OutFront! is made possible by The New York State Music Fund established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. ACO’s emerging composers program is supported by The Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Henfield Foundation, Jerome Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and ACO’s Inner Circle.
Major support of American Composers Orchestra is provided by ACO Inner Circle, American Symphony Orchestra League, Amphion Foundation, Anncox Foundation, The Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund, Arlington Associates, ASCAP, ASCAP Foundation, The Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts, Bay and Paul Foundations, Bodman Foundation, Booth Ferris Foundation, BMI, BMI Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Citigroup Foundation, Edward T. Cone Foundation, Consolidated Edison, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Fidelity Foundation, Fromm Music Foundation, Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, The Estate of Francis Goelet, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Irving Harris Foundation, Henfield Foundation, Victor Herbert Foundation, Jephson Educational Trust, Jerome Foundation, John and Evelyn Kossak Foundation, Neil Family Fund, The New York Community Trust, The New York State Music Fund established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, The Rodgers Family Foundation, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Susan and Ford Schumann Foundation, Emma A. Sheafer Charitable Trust, the Virgil Thomson Foundation, Paul Underwood Charitable Trust, The Watchdog and Sonata Charitable Trust, The Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation and The Helen F. Whitaker Fund. ACO programs are also made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
The residency of Derek Bermel is made possible through Music Alive, a program of the American Symphony Orchestra League and Meet the Composer. This national program is designed to provide orchestras with resources and tools to support their presentation of new music to the public and build support for new music within their institutions. Funding forMusic Alive is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music.