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David Adamcyk & Zosha Di Castri: Phonobellow (2015) *New York premiere
Natacha Diels: An Economy of Means (2014)
Maria Stankova: Movement, for clarinet and soprano (2015) *world premiere
Zosha Di Castri and David Adamcyk’s Phonobellow, an hour-long new music theater work for five musicians, electronics, and large-scale performative installation, is the result of this collaborative process. Taking as their starting point the year 1877, Di Castri and Adamcyk explore how Muybridge’s high-speed camera and Edison’s phonograph have marked human perception. Via a heterogeneous assemblage of music, images, recorded texts/sounds, electronics, movement, sculpture, and lighting, the piece seeks to capture how deeply these inventions reverberated with people at the time, and continue to reverberate to this day. Both hailing from Canada, Di Castri is an Assistant Professor of Music (Composition) at Columbia University, and Adamcyk teaches Electronic Music at Manhattan School of Music and Columbia University’s Computer Music Center.
In contrast to the imposing Phonobellow, Natacha Diels’ An Economy of Means explores the small scale with DIY electronics, choreographed movement, performer controlled lighting, vocalizations, and a miniature drum kit. By avoiding the temptation of writing for a large setup, this quirky percussion solo (written for ICE’s Ross Karre) reflects the obsessive concentration that most percussionists bring to their practice, while at the same to invoking the clangorous freedom and ritualistic intimacy of child’s play. At once experimental, repetitive, and humorous, An Economy of Means follows its own unusual internal logic. Diels’ compositions have been described as "a fairy tale for a fractured world" (Music We Care About) and "fantastic playful modern chamber music full of magic and wit" (Vital Weekly). An accomplished composer/flautist, Diels is founder of the experimental music collective Ensemble Pamplemousse and co-founder of the performance duo On Structure. Holding degrees from NYU and Columbia University, Diels is an Assistant Professor of Music Composition at University of California San Diego.
Bulgarian composer/experimental vocalist Maria Stankova offers a new work for voice and clarinet performed by Alice Teyssier and Joshua Rubin. Stankova’s work interweaves multi-linguistic poetry fragments in an exquisite study of harmony. Her unique approach to the human voice reflects her experience singing classical music with the Bulgarian National Radio Youth Choir, studying vocal folk techniques from the Shop region of Bulgaria, and improvising in the NY experimental new music scene. Stankova is a founding member of the live electronics duo Pygmy Jerboa, and a member of the composer/performer collective Ensemble Pamplemousse. She is currently a PhD Candidate in Ethnomusicology at NYU.
This concert is part of a two-day event Women, Music, Power, which celebrates the work of musicologist Suzanne G. Cusick through a symposium and the Festschrift launch of Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture, in her honor.
ICE’s 2015-16 performances and commissioning activities are made possible by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, French American Cultural Exchange (FACE Foundation), the A.N. and Pearl G. Barnett Family Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, The Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, New Music USA, The Amphion Foundation, The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Concinnity Fund, The Casement Fund, the BMI Foundation, the Paul R. Judy Center for Applied Research at the Eastman School of Music, a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, as well as public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council for the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for ICE.