Due to restrictions placed on gathering, The Month of Moderns 2020 is canceled.
Artwork by Christopher St. John
www.christophermichaelstjohn.com
Insta - @christopherst.john
pre-concert talk with Donald and Nicholas at 4pm
Program
Watersheds (2018) by Nicholas Cline
on texts of Rachel Carson, Mary Austin, John Muir, C.D. Wilber, and Henry Thoreau
Rothko Chapel (1971) by Morton Feldman
with films by Brett Snodgrass
The friction between motion and stillness ties together these two extended works that speak to each other over a chasm of nearly 50 years. Drawing on texts from American environmentalists, Nick Cline’s Watersheds has its roots in the composer’s family history; his grandfather was a water witch. In this probing work, fueled by the words of some of our most eloquent and outspoken environmental thinkers, Nick explores our relationship with shared spaces created not by political borders, but by the flow of water.
And then there is Morton Feldman and Rothko Chapel, icons of the 1970s: abstract expressionism of the visual realm and experimentalism that presages minimalism of the aural realm synthesized in a contemplation of time and space. Transparent. Simple. In Feldman’s words, “An immobile procession not unlike the friezes on Greek temples.”
With films by Brett Snodgrass projected on the giant canvas of the walls of the Icebox, Philadelphia’s industrial acoustic marvel.
Performers
The Crossing
Matthew Levy, tenor saxophone
Wendy Richman, viola
Nathan Davis, percussion
Performances and commissioning activities during the 2019-20 concert season are made possible by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, A.N. and Pearl G. Barnett Family Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Amphion Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Pacific Harmony Foundation, Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, mediaThe foundation inc., The Casement Fund, BMI Foundation, 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 Illinois Arts Council Agency. The International Contemporary Ensemble is the Ensemble in Residence of the Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for ICE.