Press Release 03/08/2010
SERIAL UNDERGROUND "The subversive nightclub series"
For immediate release: March 2010
Serial Underground Event Information
Serial Underground Calendar
Serial Underground Locations
Serial Underground Artists
SERIAL UNDERGROUND EVENT INFORMATION
Serial introduces multidisciplinary collaborations, and very recently composed music – the second Monday of the month at the legendary Cornelia Street Café, NYC – residencies by Demetrius Spaneas (April), Rachelle Garniez (Jan, May), Giancarlo Vulcano (May, June), Momenta String Quartet (Oct, Nov, Feb), Neil Rolnick (Nov, Jan, Feb), Stephanie&Saar DUO (Oct, Nov), CYGNUS (Feb, Mar, Jun), Ed Schmidt (Mar, Apr, May), Deborah Atherton (Oct, May), CCI artistic director Jed Distler (plays short
interludes throughout the season). Doors open at 8:30 pm. A series of stellar one-offs by the piano duo Quattro Mani (Mar), Jenny Lin (Dec), Word Beat (Dec), Joshua Fried (Dec.) AND the Yamaha upright has been upgraded to a grand piano.
Here’s the deal, show up this season for 2 consecutive ComposersCollaborative (CCi) Serial Underground shows and you get in for free for any of the other shows through June 2010.
Next: March 8, 2010at 8:30 pm
Where: Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia Street, NYC)
When: The second Monday of every month at 8:30 pm
How: By subway – 1, 9 train to Sheridan Square or A, C, E, F, V train to West 4th Street
Box office: 212.663.1967
Admission: $15 gen’l, $10 student/sr – Music charge + food or one drink minimum (cash only)
SERIAL UNDERGROUND CALENDAR
| October 12 Stephanie & Saar DUO Stephanie Griffin viola & John Gurrin media artist Deborah Atherton writer of stories |
March 8 Ed Schmidt Quattro Mani Cygnus |
| November 9 Stephanie & Saar DUO Momenta Quartet Neil Rolnick |
April 12 Demetrius Spaneas Ed Schmidt |
| December 14 Word-Beat, percussion & voice Jenny Lin, piano |
May 10 Rachelle Garniez Giancarlo Vulcano Deborah Atherton Ed Schmidt |
| January 11 Neil Rolnick Spin 17 Rachelle Garniez |
June 14 Momenta Quartet Cygnus Giancarlo Vulcano |
| February 8 Neil Rolnick Momenta Quartet Cygnus |
SERIAL UNDERGROUND LOCATION
Serial Underground, “the subversive nightclub series” (Time Out NY) presents multidisciplinary
collaborations between composers, playwrights, directors, filmmakers and artists of every stripe. Allan
Kozinn (New York Times) contextualizes CCi’s monthly performances in the basement of the Cornelia
Street Cafe – “... part of the ecology of urban night life.” CCi artistic director, Jed Distler, curates the programs
abetted by director Arnold Barkus and lighting designer David Lovett.
The Cornelia Street Café has presented an enormous variety of artists, from singer-songwriter
Suzanne Vega to poet-senator Eugene McCarthy, from members of Monty Python to members of the
Royal Shakespeare Company. And there is a real kitchen, which garners much acclaim such as the 1998
Village Arts Award for “inspired cuisine.”
SERIAL UNDERGROUND ARTISTS IN THE 2009/2010 SEASON
Stephanie Griffin
Praised by the New York Times for her “fiery, full-throttle
performance,” Canadian violist Stephanie Griffin
performs regularly as a soloist and with a wide range
of ensembles, including the Argento Chamber Ensemble,
Continuum, the Momenta Quartet, the conductorless
String Orchestra of New York City (SONYC)
and the avant-jazz band Floriculture. For the past ten
years, she has made annual visits to Indonesia to collaborate
with the composer Tony Prabowo.
Deborah Atherton
Deborah is a writer, lyricist, and librettist living in NYC. Her opera, Mary Shelley,
written with composer Allan Jaffe, was commissioned by Parabola Arts
and presented at the Center for Ethical Culture. Her first opera, Under the
Double Moon, written with Anthony Davis, was commissioned and produced
by Opera Theater of St. Louis. Her short stories have appeared in a variety of
literary magazines: Harmolodic, Siam Records, Aksara and Firehouse 12.
Jed Distler
“An altogether extraordinary pianist” - M. Redmond, Newark Star-Ledger
Jed Distler is Artistic Director of Composers Collaborative, for whom
he has created such innovative series as Solo Flights, Non Sequitur,
and Serial Underground. He has given two-piano performances with
artists as diverse as Dick Hyman and Frederic Rzewski, composed a
large body of vocal, chamber and solo piano works broadcast and
performed worldwide, and helped expose 2007’s notorious Joyce
Hatto scandal. Distler’s work can be found on the Nonesuch, Decca,
Point, CRI, ASV, Bridge and Laserlight labels.
Giancarlo Vulcano
Giancarlo Vulcano grew up in midtown Manhattan, and continues to live
and work in New York City. After playing guitar in rock bands he went to
Sarah Lawrence College and studied composition with George Tsontakis.
A year abroad in Florence was devoted to the study of strict counterpoint
and harmony at the conservatory, and also to an independent study of
late Stravinsky scores, a passion that continues today. He returned to New
York for graduate school, studying with Thea Musgrave at Queens College,
CUNY. Giancarlo’s debut CD Vetro was named by Newsweek as a Top Album for Summer 2008, and
his work has been hailed by Time Out New York: ”Vetro evokes a gentle world rendered in primary colors.
“ He currently works with composer Jeff Richmond on the music for the comedy 30 Rock on NBC. He
contributes arrangements, incidental music, and plays all the guitar-family instruments heard on the show
(ukelele, banjo, lapsteel).
Ed Schmidt
Ed Schmidt’s (Playwright, Performer, Producer, Genius) plays have been
rejected by some of the most and least venerable theater companies
in America, including Arena Stage (“not right”), Manhattan Theater Club
(“really don’t think it’s right”), Lincoln Center Theater (“don’t feel the
play is right”), Roundabout Theatre Company (“don’t think the piece is
quite right”), South Coast Rep (“haven’t found a slot for it here”), Paper
Mill Playhouse (“not the type of show that we are looking to produce”),
Old Globe (“not the kind of work I respond to”), Playwrights Horizons
(“too schematically drawn for our tastes”), Manhattan Class Company
(“not interested in working with you”), Cleveland Play House (“unable
to persuade the powers-that-be to choose it”), Zebra Crossing Theatre
(“generally do not depict this type of behavior on stage”), New Playwrights’
Theatre (“seeking liquidation under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy
Code”), Immediate Theatre (“out of business”), and the North Carolina
Black Repertory Company (“please refrain from calling the office about
your scripts”).
DUO Stephanie & Saar
“The duo gave beautifully understated performances.” Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times. July 21, 2009
DUO Stephanie & Saar (Stephanie Ho and Saar Ahuvia)
recently appeared with the Czech Republic’s Pilsen
Radio Symphony Orchestra in Martinu’s Concerto for
Two Pianos and Orchestra, and are fixtures on Baltimore’s
cutting-edge An die Musik LIVE! Series. They performed
Mozart’s Two Piano Concerto with Regensdorf
Chamber Orchestra (Switzerland), while a Banff Centre
residency resulted in a four-hand CD. Their repertoire
encompasses everything from Beethoven Quartet transcriptions to new works written for them by Hywel
Davies, Philippe Bodin and other composers. They’ve been awarded a New York City Department of
Cultural Affairs Individual Artist Grant through the Queens Council for the Arts Community Arts Fund,
and are faculty members at Concordia College’s Conservatory of Music in Bronxville, New York.
Rachelle Garniez
New York native Rachelle is currently collaborating with performance
artist Taylor Mac, composing music for his piece
“The Lily’s Revenge”, and writing songs for the Franklin Stage
Company’s adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s “American Fairy
Tales”. Other notable collaborators include Thomas Dolby,
Sxip Shirey, Claywoman, the Marvin Sewell Group, Rufus
Wainwright, Hazmat Modine and Jenny Scheinman. Hailed by
the New York Press as “one of the greatest songwriters of our
time”, described by the New Yorker as “a certified free spirit
with a rich voice and a wild imagination,” Garniez has released
four CDs, serves as co-musical director of renowned musical
theater troupe The Citizens Band, and, since 1997, has lead
her own band The Fortunate Few.
Cygnus Ensemble
With its pairs of plucked strings, bowed strings and woodwinds, the Cygnus Ensemble has a precedent
in the Elizabethan “broken consort”. They’ve toured Holland, Denmark, Poland, and Mexico. They premiered
Jonathan Dawe’s chamber opera “Prometheus” for the Guggenheim’s Works & Process, and
recorded Matthew Greenbaum’s “Nameless” with Momenta String Quartet (also in residence on Serial
Underground during the 09/10 season). Dedicated to helping the next generation of composers,
Cygnus is in residence at Sarah Lawrence College, and at the CUNY Graduate Center. Their work is
featured on the CRI and Bridge labels.
Neil Rolnick
“Balkanization, based on Bulgarian and Yugoslav folk themes... brought to mind the folk-theme fantasies composed in the 19th century. Mr.
Rolnick’s fantasy is technologically and idiomatically updated, but the
sense of spirited and inventive variation is very much in that time-honored
tradition.” -- Allan Kozinn, New York Times (June 4, 1988)
Since he moved to New York City in 2002, Neil Rolnick’s music
has been receiving increasingly wide recognition and numerous
performances both in the US and abroad. A pioneer in the use
of computers in performance, beginning in the late 1970s, Rolnick
has often included unexpected and unusual combinations of
materials and media in his music. He has performed around the
world, and his music has appeared on 14 CD’s.
Though much of Rolnick’s work has been in areas which connect
music and technology, and is therefore considered in the realm of “experimental” music, his music has
always been highly melodic and accessible. Whether working with electronic sounds, improvisation, or
multimedia, his music has been characterized by critics as “sophisticated,” “hummable and engaging,” and
as having “good senses of showmanship and humor.
Demetrius Spaneas
Demetrius Spaneas leads a varied international career.
He has commissioned, recorded and premiered works by
many major composers, including John Cage, John Harbison,
Donald Martino, Bernard Rands, Gunther Schuller,
Joan Tower, and many others. He currently has two solo
recordings on Capstone Records, When Wind Comes to
Sparse Bamboo (2003) and From a Far-off World (2006).
Current recording projects include: Sfumato, a collection
of improvisations with vocalist Galina Parfenova, and The
Legacy of Xenakis, a collection of new music by Greek
composers.
Quattro Mani
“The duo piano team Quattro Mani is one of the very finest I have heard. Susan
Grace and Alice Rybak are wonderful artists and their performances are both
technically and musically superb.” - George Crumb
Quattro Mani, formed in 1989, has gained international recognition with
performances in Spain, Korea and many cities in the United States. Their
special interest in twentieth century repertoire has led to collaborations
with such composers as George Crumb, Joan Tower, Jed Distler and Frederic
Rzewski and to participation in contemporary music festivals throughout the USA and Europe.
Their recording of George Crumb’s Two Piano Music for the Bridge label won the Cannes Classical
Awards “Best Chamber Music CD of the Year” award.
WORD BEAT
Word-Beat is a critically acclaimed collaboration of
spoken word and original music, with percussion
artist Tom Teasley and singer/actor Charles Williams.
They combine history’s greatest words about justice,
peace, and life with music inspired by the writer’s
culture of origin. Poetry and prose from Harlem, the
Civil Rights Movement, ancient Africa, India, and the
Middle East converge with the energy of jazz, folk,
and modern music. Word-Beat’s first recording, Poetry,
Prose, Percussion and Song was hailed as one
of the most important of its kind at the 2007 International
Association for Jazz Education conference. IAJE singled out Word-Beat as a leading collaboration
in the integration of poetry and music, calling Word-Beat’s recordings “must-haves.” The duo’s second
CD, The Soul Dances, was nominated for the Washington Area Music Association’s Best World Music
Release award.
Joshua Fried
Joshua Fried emerged from New York’s downtown experimental music
and East Village performance art scenes of the 1980s. His full-length
HEADFONE FOLLIES completed its 12-week run at HERE Arts Center
in 2001 with a rotating cast of sixty-four headphone-driven performers.
His innovative Radio Wonderland imaginatively processes live radio
through computer programs triggered by old shoes and a steering wheel.
P.S. If you are so inclined, at the end of every performance you can let us know how you liked the show. Give us an earful if necessary. You are part of our community and we care about what you have to say.
