We've done a bit of spring cleaning around the Metropolis website in preparation for our 2009-2010 season, and we're excited to announce six upcoming events:
Complete details about each program will be unveiled in due time. Be sure to RSVP for Glimpses on May 6 at the stunning Americas Society for an evening of music demonstration and wine tasting sponsored by Miro Cellars!
The Groanbox Boys released their new album Gran Bwa at Metropolis Ensemble's concert, GROANBOX on January 28, 2009 at Le Poisson Rouge. The worldwide CD release party for Gran Bwa followed intermission at the concert, with a special performance by The Groanbox Boys. Get the album today on iTunes and CD Baby.
Gran Bwa is named after the Haitian Vodou loa (spirit) of the woods. Creole for great wood (from the French grand bois), Gran Bwa is the great spirit who resides deep in the woods and is associated with the gateway between the spirit world and the living world, the management of time, and medicinal healing. Read more...
Looking for more of The Groanbox Boys? The trio invites you to a special concert at Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn, on January 24 (10:30pm, $10 cover). Check out their official site, MySpace, and YouTube.
Composer David Bruce shares insights about his new work, Groanbox, featuring Michael Ward-Bergeman on accordion, The Groanbox Boys, and the Metropolis Ensemble:
As a composer whose music has long incorporated folk elements, it has been an incredibly exciting challenge to write a piece for these two groups of outstanding musicians. I titled my piece simply Groanbox, (itself an old American term for the accordion), and wrote a piece which is not at all like a traditional 'concerto', but rather a piece in which the two groups merge as one, along with the two styles of music. I suppose it's a sort of imaginary folk-music I'm writing, played by the largest and most virtuoso village band you've ever seen. Read more...
This past year, David introduced A Bird In Your Ear, a new opera based on an old Russian folk tale originally published in 1903 called "The Language of the Birds," which received its world premiere in March 2008. In this scene below, a Bird with Golden Plumage (soprano Yulia Van Doren) arrives to thank Ivan (tenor Sungeun Lee) for saving her children. She offers to grant him a wish, and so he asks to understand the language of the birds.
You can watch more from this performance of A Bird in Your Ear by Bard College Orchestra and Choir conducted by James Bagwell, and learn more about the work. The opera will also be presented at the NYC Opera VOX Festival on May 1-2, 2009.
Looking for more from David Bruce? Carnegie Hall is featuring his commissioned work Piosenki, which is available as a free download. The work reflects on snapshots of childhood found in the poems of the Polish poet Julian Tuwim, and features a lagerphone similar to the Freedom Boot used by The Groanbox Boys in their upcoming concert with Metropolis Ensemble on January 28, 2009.
We're pleased to share a new documentary video about Metropolis Ensemble's world premiere of The Rite Remixed, last summer's adventurous collaboration exploding the boundaries of live electro-classical music. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the three concerts and watch exclusive interviews with the performers and composers!
Update: You can also experience the concerts through our highlights page with streaming audio, photo gallery, interviews, and press.
Metropolis Ensemble welcomes its 2008-09 Youth Works composer, Ray Lustig. Over the next year, Ray will work with elementary students at PS11 in Manhattan to teach them about composition and music appreciation... which culminates in a concert featuring the students' work. Ray is a doctoral student at Julliard; his orchestral composition Unstuck won last year's prestigious Rudolf Nissim Prize from the ASCAP Foundation. Here are a few samples of his recent work:
Youth Works is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the van Otterloo Foundation.
Hear the Metropolis Ensemble and Deerhoof perform a concert from the Wordless Music Series, recorded live by WNYC at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY. Listen on NPR.org starting at 7:30pm EST. An hourlong special about the Wordless Music Series begins at 6:30pm. Tonight's webcast is produced by WNYC and hosted by David Garland.
Wordless Music Series pairs Metropolis Ensemble led by Artistic Director/Conductor Andrew Cyr and indie sensation Deerhoof for a night of music under the stars. Experience The Rite: Remixed and Two-Part Belief with an expected audience of 10,000 at Celebrate Brooklyn. Featuring soprano Hila Plitmann.
Join us in Prospect Park - either in person or online - for a night of music under the stars!
Artistic Director/Conductor Andrew Cyr and Composer Ricardo Romaneiro will be on WNYC Soundcheck at 2pm EST today to discuss their new composition, The Rite: Remixed and share the secrets of setting Stravinsky's most famous work to keyboards, laptops, brass and drums.
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers recently featured Avner Dorman in the ASCAP Audio Portraits series. The interview includes excerpts from the forthcoming studio album with Metropolis Ensemble performing the complete chamber orchestra concerti of Avner Dorman (from our Fall 2007 concert, On Record). The new album, produced by Grammy-winning David Frost, will be released this fall.
Metropolis Ensemble is pleased to offer a free download of Sports et Divertissements, recorded live at The Times Center in New York City on April 10, 2008. Erik Satie's twenty-one brilliant thumbnail sketches are presented in a delightful arrangement for chamber orchestra by David Bruce, and featuring our resident funny-man Mike Daisey.
David and Mike had the opportunity to sit down and discuss Satie's work ahead of last month's concert. The conversation – ranging from challenges of composing and updating this work, to the serious (and not so serious) business of comedy – is available in the video archive. Be sure to also watch the Tennis excerpt and see conductor Andrew Cyr serve up a surprise finale.
And because there should never be lack of razor-sharp wit, Mike Daisey invites you to his latest performance: How Theater Failed America, running through June 22 at the Barrow Street Theatre. Dark, honest and hilarious, Daisey seeks answers to essential and dangerous questions about the art we're making, the legacy we leave to the future, and who it is we believe we're speaking to. An exclusive discount is available for Metropolis Ensemble members and fans!
Sports et Divertissements is commissioned for chamber orchestra by Metropolis Ensemble. Special thanks to audio engineer Ryan Streber, videographer Tim Bakland, and video editor Dan Hayek.
Metropolis Ensemble and composer Ryan Francis are delighted to offer the complete live recording of Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra during its world premiere performance at The Times Center in New York City on April 10, 2008. You can download it here, absolutely free.
Ryan Francis: Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra:
(right-click to download the mp3s, ctrl-click on a mac)
You can also watch the entire Concerto, featuring pianist Anna Polonsky and the Metropolis Ensemble led by Artistic Director/Conductor Andrew Cyr on the Media Page, along with an extensive archive of performances and behind-the-scenes footage. Watch now...
Looking for more of Ryan Francis? Check out his MySpace, and get ready for this summer's world premiere of The Rite: Remixed. Ricardo Romaneiro joins forces with Ryan Francis and Leo Leite to re-conceptualize the most revolutionary work of the 20th Century, Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, through the lens of the latest sounds and technology from electronica! Three opportunities to experience the revolution (July 16-18)! Complete details...
Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra is co-commission from the Metropolis Ensemble and the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation. Metropolis Ensemble's Wet Ink and Youth Works programs are generously funded by the van Otterloo Foundation. Special thanks to audio engineer Ryan Streber, videographer Tim Bakland, and photographer Vern Kousky.
David and Mike had the opportunity to sit down and discuss Satie's work ahead of last month's concert. The conversation – ranging from challenges of composing and updating this work, to the serious (and not so serious) business of comedy – is available in the 
Metropolis Ensemble and composer 
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