METROPOLIS ENSEMBLE PRESENTS
PARALLAX
Conor Hanick (“brilliant,” “effortlessly elegant”, NY Times) joins pianists Julia Hamos, Han Chen, and Erika Dohi to perform works by Kati Agócs, Robert Beaser, Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, Balázs Futó, Jocelyn Morlock, and Nicolas Namoradze, as part of Agócs’s A Stone’s Throw series and Metropolis Ensemble x BLUEPRINTS Piano Festival.
Friday, March 29, 2019
1 Rivington Street / 2nd Floor (Buzzer #1) / New York, NY
6:30pm (doors) / 7:00pm (event)
Tickets: $15 general / $10 students / free for members
Kati Agócs’s A Stone’s Throw series with Metropolis Ensemble with the spotlight on pianist Conor Hanick performing musical paraphrases. Agócs’s new work for solo piano (world premiere), a paraphrase of her own setting of a poem by Hungarian poet Szilárd Borbély from The Debrecen Passion, will have its New York premiere. This piece was commissioned by the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra as a competition piece for the Iowa Piano Competition. A selection of solo piano Etudes by Nicolas Namoradze; Antithesis by fellow Hungarian Balázs Futó; aphoristic dialogues with the Paganini Caprices by Robert Beaser and Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade; and the U.S. premiere of Petrichor, a violin-piano duet based on J.S. Bach by Canadian Jocelyn Morlock, create a colloquy with Agócs’s Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, itself a dialogue with Bach’s ground bass forms. Also featured in this program: violinist Katie Hyun, clarinetist Bixby Kennedy, and cellist Mariel Roberts.
on the program
Balázs Futó: Antithesis***
for clarinet and piano
Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade: Devil’s Minion
for solo violin
Robert Beaser: Pag-Rag
for solo piano
Nicolas Namoradze: Piano Etudes (selection)
for solo piano
Kati Agócs: Whole World*
for solo piano
Jocelyn Morlock: Petrichor**
for violin and piano
Kati Agócs: Trio
for Violin, Cello, and Piano
*World Premiere
**NYC Premiere
***U.S. Premiere
BLUEPRINTS unites pianists from different musical genres for eclectic concerts that present traditional classical music alongside contemporary works (including premieres), jazz and free improvisation. Co-founded by Daniel Anastasio and Erika Dohi, these unusually varied programs are each inspired by an aesthetic theme or blueprint. In Visible Roads, co-created with Metropolis Ensemble, represents its first major artistic collaboration with another performing organization, with the goal of enriching the community of pianists, composers, and instrumentalists alike through creating and fostering new collaborative relationships.
Yamaha CF6 premium grand piano provided by Yamaha Artist Services New York.
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Pianist Conor Hanick is regarded as one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music old and new. With a unique adeptness for contemporary music reinforced by a commitment to music of all ages, Hanick’s interpretations… READ MORE
Hailed by the New York Times as a pianist with "a graceful touch... rhythmic precision... hypnotic charm” and "sure, subtle touch," Han Chen is a distinctive artist whose credentials at a young age already include important prizes in competitions of traditional music… READ MORE
NYC-based pianist Erika Dohi, a multi-faceted artist with an eclectic musical background that ranges from traditionally classical to jazz, free improvisation, and new music, has been described as a “dynamic” performer whose “technique is decidedly… READ MORE
Pianist Julia Hamos performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, notably in Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. She has given recitals and chamber music performances… READ MORE
A winner of Astral’s 2016 National Auditions, violinist Katie Hyun has appeared as soloist with the Houston Symphony, the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Columbia Festival Orchestra, among others... READ MORE
Admired for his “suppleness and beauty of tone” (Allan Kozinn, Portland Press Herald) Bixby Kennedy is one of the most versatile clarinetists of his generation. He has performed concerti with the Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Bloomington Sinfonietta… READ MORE
Trailblazing” cellist Mariel Roberts (Feast of Music) is widely recognized as a deeply dedicated interpreter of contemporary music. Recent performances have garnered praise for her “technical flair and exquisite sensitivity” (American Composers Forum), as well as her… READ MORE
The music of Kati Agócs has been honored and performed worldwide, delivering both visceral power and otherworldly lyricism with soulful directness. From folk music of an imaginary culture to volatile spectralism, polytextual… READ MORE
Robert Beaser is Artistic Director Laureate of the American Composers Orchestra and was co-music director and conductor of Musical Elements Ensemble from 1978 to 1989. In 1977 he became the youngest composer to win the… READ MORE
Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade (b.1989) is a composer and cellist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She delights in composing for old, new, and damaged musical instruments. Her past projects have included works for symphony orchestra, viols… READ MORE
JUNO® Award-winning composer Jocelyn Morlock's music is hailed as"airy but rhythmic, tuneful but complex," with "uncanny yet toothsome beauty" (Georgia Straight.) “A lyrical wonder, exquisite writing” with “an acute feeling… READ MORE
Balázs Futó was born in 1981, in Kaposvár. He had been studying composition, piano, conducting, music theory and percussion until 2000, when he joined the composition class of Zoltán Jeney in the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy, Budapest… READ MORE
Pianist and composer Nicolas Namoradze came to international attention in 2018 upon winning the triennial Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, Canada – the largest piano prize in the world. His compositions have… READ MORE
