NEW MUSIC Circle 50th Anniversary SEASON  


Thanks to A L L
for a

memorable
           50 th                 anniversary
season!

New Music Circle
2008-2009 50th Anniversary Season

Vinny Golia Large Ensemble
Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008 – 7:30 p.m.
Co-sponsored by Webster University
Webster Community Music School
534 Garden Ave.

As a composer, performer, and bandleader, Vinny Golia has showcased work around the globe.  Golia’s compositions fuse the rich heritage of Jazz, contemporary classical and world music into innovative and unique pieces.  He has won numerous awards as a composer, including grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, The Lila Wallace Commissioning Program, and Meet the Composer.  A multi-woodwind performer, Golia’s recordings have been consistently picked by critics and readers of music journals for their yearly "ten best" lists. In 1998 he ranked first in the Cadence Magazine Writers & Readers Poll and has continually placed in the Downbeat Critic's Poll for Baritone Saxophone.  Jazziz Magazine named Golia as one of the 100 people who have influenced the course of Jazz in our Century.  He currently teaches at California Institute of the Arts. 

In 1982 he created the on-going Vinny Golia Large Ensemble to perform his compositions for chamber group and jazz orchestra. New Music Circle has assembled a 27-piece group of top local and national talent for the concert.  Large Ensemble compositions are based in the Jazz tradition and blend heavily notated contemporary chamber music with improvisation, and incorporate various extended instrumental techniques, 20th-century idioms, and world music concepts.  Golia's music demands an exceptional group of dedicated musicians, adept at both reading and improvising, and at home in a wide variety of styles. 

Morton Subotnick
Until Spring Revisited
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008 – 7:30 p.m.
Co-sponsored by Forest Park Community College
Mildred Bastian Theater
5600 Oakland Ave.

The internationally acclaimed Morton Subotnick is a pioneer in the development of electronic music and an innovator in works involving instruments and other media.  Most of Subotnick’s music calls for a computer part, or live electronic processing; his oeuvre utilizes many of the important technological breakthroughs in the history of the genre.  A highly decorated talent, Subotnick has received multiple Rockefeller Grants, the Guggenheim Grant, and ASCAP’s John Cage Award among many others.  Co-sponsored by Forest Park Community College, Subotnick will perform, Until Spring Revisited, a combination electronic music and video composition. 

Subotnick’s work, Silver Apples of the Moon brought celebrity in 1967.  The piece contains synthesized tone colors, striking for its day, and a control over pitch that many other contemporary electronic composers had relinquished. The record was an American bestseller in the classical music category, an extremely unusual occurrence for any contemporary concert music at the time.  In addition to music in the electronic medium, Subotnick has written for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, theater, and multimedia productions.  His "staged tone poem," The Double Life of Amphibians, a collaboration with director Lee Breuer and visual artist Irving Petlin, premiered at the 1984 Olympics Arts Festival in Los Angeles.


CAMA – Back for another Season
“Collaborating Artists Manifest Adventure” or CAMA is the initiative that New Music Circle first launched last season to provide more support for local productions of new music, dance, mixed media art events and educational programs.  NMC has again funded five artists (Tom Hamilton, James Hegarty, Rich O’Donnell, Kelsey LaPoint, and Van McElwee) for the creation of diverse adventures in collaboration with other local artists.

CAMA Event!
Rich O’Donnell and friends
WORDSDROW
Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008 – 7:30 p.m.
Satori
3003 Locust St.

Rich O’Donnell’s career as a composer and performer spans five decades and multiple media.  Aside from his 40 plus years as a percussionist with the St. Louis Symphony, his talents range from inventor of seesaw drumming to avant-garde electronic composer.  In his latest multimedia work, WORDSDROW, O’Donnell collaborates with poet Anna Lum, performance artist Tom Brady, visual artist John Newman, and a troop of acro-yogis.  A three-part piece, WORDSDROW  will feature electronically manipulated "word-poems,” fractured speaking, and images of word-pictures accompanied by electronic music and yogic asanas morphed into words.   “WORDSDROW is intended to “create a peaceful jitter between the left and right sides of the brain” (O’Donnell).

CAMA Event!
James Hegarty
Antithesis Reflex
Friday, Nov. 7, 2008 – 7:30 and 9:15 p.m.
Three Sinks Gallery
8715 Big Bend Blvd.

Digital synthesis expert James Hegarty's works have been performed throughout the US and in several countries abroad.  As a performer, he has presented concerts of original works at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Eyedrum gallery in Atlanta, and the St. Louis Art Museum.  He has received grants from numerous state arts agencies and the National Endowment for the Arts.  Hegarty is currently Associate Professor of Music at Principia College where he teaches music composition.  Hegarty’s upcoming performance will reflect the surrealism of a trip out west.  “I drove to California recently.  Once I got to Tahoe, I was not even tempted to drive back to Kansas before making it to the coast.  It was a linear experience.  Why is it hard to resist the temptation to recapitulate?  Perhaps that explains my antithesis reflex” (Hegarty).  Join “electronic-music maven" (RFT), James Hegarty, for spontaneous music that asserts and reacts—and perhaps results in synthesis.  Two different shows will be performed.  Those attending the first show may stay for the second if space allows.

Circle/Cinema 22
In conjunction with St. Louis International Film Festival
Co-sponsored by Cinema St.
The Inferno (L'Inferno)
(Giuseppe de Liguoro, Italy, silent, 1911 (restored in 2004), 71 min.)
With musical accompaniment by S.A.N.E (Semi-Acoustic Noise Ensemble)
Sunday, Nov. 16 – 3 p.m.
St. Louis Art Museum Auditorium
One Fine Arts Dr.
Admission: $10, $8 for Cinema St. Louis members and students, free for NMC members
 
Back in its 22nd iteration, New Music Circle presents Circle-Cinema 22 in collaboration with Cinema St. Louis' St. Louis International Film Festival and St. Louis Art Museum.  The stunning Italian classic silent film L'Inferno will be accompanied by the innovative sounds of S.A.N.E (Semi-Acoustic Noise Ensemble) in an all-electronic configuration, led by New Music Circle's Mike Murphy (aka dr. mabuse).  S.A.N.E is a St. Louis chamber music ensemble that employs musicians with equal facility on complex analog synthesizers and unamplified acoustic instruments and strives to respect each discipline without prejudice.  Current members include Mike Murphy, J. Bruce McLaughlin, Venus Slick, tory z starbuck, and Tony Engelhardt.
  Director Giuseppe de Liguoro captivated audiences worldwide with the premier of L'Inferno, the first full-length Italian film ever made, in 1911.  L'Inferno is based loosely on Dante's epic, and is inspired in part by illustrations created by Gustav Dore`.  The film, which grossed more than $2 million in the United States alone, took three years to produce and involved more than 150 people –quite rare for its time.  L'Inferno is also rumored to be the first film to feature male frontal nudity.  After the 2004 restoration, critic Nick Hasted remarked that L'Inferno has, "the antique oddness of a magic-lantern show…"

CAMA Event!
MAY THESE CHANGES MAKE US LIGHT:
A Winter Show Collaborative
co-created by Kelsey LaPoint and cast

Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008 - 7 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 20, 2008 - 5 p.m. & 7 p.m.

New City School Theater
5209 Waterman Ave (entrance on Lake)
Admission: $10

A young adventurer seeks the council of Santa Claus on a quest to meet the most inspiring entities of Earth. On his journey to the North, he encounters other unexpected and yet extraordinary individuals:  Atnas, the environmental activist; the Snowqueen, guardian of the North; Mrs. Claus; and many creatures and elves.

Interwoven with this experimental film narrative are performances from a cast of St. Louis talent:  The Universal Lotus Lovers Acroyoga troupe, choreographer Rebecca Rivas, singer-songwriters Mark Pagano and Celia, the Yuletide Express Christmas Choir, Native American flutist and digeridoo player Brad Smith, Emily Heymeyer (dulcimer and improvisational vocals), singer and lovebomb Na-do, video mixer Mike Pagano, Jeffrey Miller (artist/actor), award-winning artist Lyndsey Scott as Atnas, and visionary conceptualist Kelsey LaPoint as the storyteller.  Experience a radical adventure and remaking of the Christmas myth!

CAMA Event!
Rich O'Donnell, Robert Dick, and Ashley Tate
Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009 - 7:30 p.m.
Kranzberg Arts Center (Big Brothers, Big Sisters Building)
501 N. Grand Blvd.

Rich O'Donnell's collaborative creativity forever evokes wonder and awe in the minds of audiences.  Whether he's improvising on instruments of his own creation or digitally manipulating sound samples in real-time, O'Donnell's sonic palette draws on influences ranging from elephant seals to calculus to Bach.  Since retirement in 2002 after 43 years with the St. Louis Symphony as principal percussionist, O'Donnell was awarded three U.S. patents for percussion devices; he introduced free improv to China on a five city tour; and has regularly performed in St. Louis and New York.

In his latest musical invention, O'Donnell collaborates with New York-based composer/flutist Robert Dick, and local dancer Ashley Tate.  Dick's contributions to the development of the flute and its music are profound.  He is known worldwide as the flute's visionary, and the leading voice in the instrument's new music.  The New York Times noted that Dick is "…a flutist whose technical resources and imagination seem limitless."  Tate, a 2008 Grand Center "St. Louis Visionary Award" winner is the founder, artistic director, and choreographer of Ashleyliane Dance Co.

The concert will showcase a "sonic symbiosis" which explores the fuzzy line between human/non-human activity and the aesthetic potential within that spectrum.  The virtuosic soundscape features O'Donnell and Dick performing on acoustic instruments (many of their own making) altered and expanded by electronic manipulation.  For the finale, O'Donnell has positioned sensors on the hands and feet of Tate, whose movements will play a synthesizer via a wireless MIDI controller.  For more info visit www.richodonnell.com, or www.robertdick.net.

CAMA Event!
Off-Topic
Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009 – 7:30 p.m.
Kranzberg Arts Center (Big Brothers, Big Sisters Building)
501 N. Grand Blvd.
 
New Music Circle CAMA artist Jim Hegarty brings together some of the finest St. Louis improvisers for the premier performance of a group dubbed "Off-Topic."  Reed player Dave Stone, bassist Willem von Hombracht, and percussionist Henry Claude join keyboard virtuoso and synthesizer specialist Jim Hegarty.   The music is rooted in free improv and experimental electronics, and blended with multiple layers of compositional influences.  This concert will include two sets and feature works for the entire quartet as well as individual solo selections by each of the members.

Gino Robair
I, Norton
Saturday, Mar. 7, 2009 – 7:30 p.m.
Co-sponsored by Forest Park Community College
Mildred Bastian Theatre
5600 Oakland Ave.

San Francisco-based percussionist/composer Gino Robair has performed and recorded throughout the world.  In his career, fellow collaborators have included Anthony Braxton, Tom Waits, John Butcher, and John Zorn among others.  Robair's aesthetic "holds the listener captive as he oscillates between the accidental and the intentional; between the tiniest, most delicate noise and a torrential outpouring of sound" (S.F. Bay Guardian).  His opera, I, Norton is based on the life of Joshua Norton, who on September 17, 1859 proclaimed, "at the request of the citizens of these United States, I…declare myself Emperor." 

I, Norton will feature 20 performers, including many of St. Louis' most highly regarded musicians.  The ensemble itself is assembled in a unique way for each concert.  In performance, I, Norton takes the shape of an improvised collage structure that combines hand cues, graphic scores, memory-based improvisational structures, and fully notated works.  For more info visit www.myspace.com/ginorobair.

CAMA Event!
Van McElwee and friends
Saturday, Apr. 18, 2009 – 7:30 p.m.
Winifred Moore Auditorium (Webster University)
470 E. Lockwood Ave.

Van McElwee's body of work encompasses over 40 video installations and single channel works.  He is the recipient of multiple awards and grants including The American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Award and 7 fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.  McElwee has exhibited his work extensively worldwide, and is currently Professor of Electronic and Photographic Media at Webster University.

The evening will begin with music by S.A.N.E. (Semi-Acoustic Noise Ensemble) accompanying a new video work by Austrian artist Holger Lang.  The piece will be followed by a collaboration between S.A.N.E. and video artist Zlatko Cosic, who will perform a live video mix commissioned for the performance.  Two works by R D Zurick will be shown: White Wat with an original soundtrack by Fong Naam, and Angkor Zoom with live musical accompaniment by acclaimed musician Rich O'Donnell.  Finally, McElwee will premiere two new video works with experimental soundtracks: Alternity, and a piece shot in Japan, Liquid Crystal.

CAMA Event!
Tom Hamilton
Fifty (or More)
Saturday, May 2, 2009 – 7:30 p.m.
Kranzberg Arts Center (Big Brothers, Big Sisters Building)
501 N. Grand Blvd.

Composer and performer Tom Hamilton's work with electronic music originated in the late-60s era of analog synthesis.  Hamilton often explores the interaction of many simultaneous layers of activity, prompting the use of "present-time listening" on the part of both performer and listener. Hamilton was a 2005 Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, has worked on more than 60 recordings, including 9 CDs of his own music, and is a longtime member of composer Robert Ashley's touring opera ensemble.  Hamilton returns to St. Louis to help celebrate the New Music Circle's 50th Anniversary. Through the years, his events have been constructed like aural kaleidoscopes, constantly yielding sonic surprises in performances by some of St. Louis' most original artists. We look forward to this unusual event in one of St. Louis' newest and most exciting spaces.  For more info visit www.myspace.com/dataday.

Chris Brown and Guillermo Galindo
River of Voices
Sunday, May 31, 2009 – 5 p.m.
Co-sponsored by Laumeier Sculpture Park
Laumeier Sculpture Park
12580 Rott Rd.
 
A renowned composer, pianist, and electronic musician, Chris Brown inspires audiences with innovative projects.  Currently co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College, Brown creates music for acoustic instruments with interactive electronics, for computer networks, and for improvising ensembles.  In River of Voices, the audience must bring portable radios to receive a live broadcast on one of four low-power FM frequencies.  As participants move through the sculpture park, they'll become an animated sound system for the multichannel electronic music piece.  Brown, along with Guillermo Galindo will perform and transmit the work live, mixing operatic source material with streams of recorded and live voices in different languages, drawn from a variety of poetic and musical texts.  The performance will be a single continuous work based on themes of the river, immigration, and discovery.

Upcoming Shows:
1/31/09 - Rich O'Donnell & Robert Dick @ Kranzberg Arts Center (Big Brothers, Big Sisters Bldg.) - 501 N. Grand Blvd.
2/21/08 - Off-Topic featuring James Hegarty @ Kranzberg Arts Center (Big Brother, Big Sisters Bldg.) - 501 N. Grand Blvd.
3/7/09 - Gino Robair - "I, Norton" @ Mildred Bastian Theatre - 5600 Oakland Ave.
4/18/09 - Van McElwee & friends @ Winifred Moore Auditorium - 470 E. Lockwood
5/2/09 - Tom Hamilton @ Kranzberg Arts Center (Big Brothers Big Sisters Building) - 501 N. Grand Blvd.
5/31/09 - Chris Brown and Guillermo Galindo - "River of Voices" @ Laumeier Sculpture Park

Support New Music Circle with a Season Ticket Membership!
Join New Music Circle today, and receive season tickets to our 12 regular events, plus discounts on CDs and merchandise.  These 12 tickets can be used for any show, so if you miss a concert, you can present unused tickets for you or a guest for admission at a future event.  If purchased at the door at day-of-show prices, a full season would cost $180.  However, we are offering season tickets for just $80 regular admission, or $40 for students.  That’s more than a 50% discount!  Purchase a benefactor membership for $125, and receive a total of 17 tickets, so you can introduce your friends to the mind-expanding world of New Music Circle.  We remind you that New Music Circle relies heavily on the generous donations of private members.  Because of NMC’s status as a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization, any contribution in excess of $110 may be deductible from your federal income taxes. 
_____ Benefactor Membership(s) (17 tickets, $110+; avg. cost $6.50/ticket)
_____ Regular Membership(s) (12 tickets, $80; avg. cost $6.66/ticket)
_____ Student Membership(s) (12 tickets, $40; avg. cost $3.33/ticket)
Thanks to ALL
for a

memorable
         50th
                anniversary
season!