New PCE website!

The Post-Classical Ensemble has relaunched its website today, with News and other features available there by Twitter, Facebook, or soon by RSS feed from the website itself.


Please come and see the newly relaunched website!  :  http://www.post-classicalensemble.org/

(Please note also that we will no longer post PCE PR announcements from this website but only at ensemble's relaunched website or by social media.)

Washington Post previews P-CE's Russian Gershwin

Unanswered Question: Joe Horowitz on P-CE's Upcoming 2010-2011 Season

Last week, we announced our eighth season. It comprises a robust series of festivals celebrating an assortment of iconic twentieth century composers: George Gershwin, Lou Harrison, and Igor Stravinsky.

(Read more)

Examiner notes P-CE's Interpreting Liszt festival

Washington Post lists P-CE's Interpreting Liszt

Baltimore Sun notes P-CE's Interpreting Liszt

WETA announces P-CE's Interpreting Liszt

WAMU announces P-CE's Interpreting Liszt

Georgetown announces Interpreting Liszt

P-CE's Kerry Van Laanen at Gala Theatre in QuinTango

Season Premieres with 'Encounters: David Taylor'

For its 2009-10 season opener, P-CE brings to DC a pair of unclassifiable, widely recorded artists prominent both in jazz and classical circles. Both are fixtures of the edgy jazz scene in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The virtuoso bass trombonist David Taylor began his jazz career playing with the likes of Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, and with the Gil Evans and Charles Mingus Big Bands. More recently, he has toured with Winton Marsalis.

Encounters: David Taylor

David Taylor, bass trombone
William Sharp, baritone
Angel Gil-Ordóñez, conductor

DATE: Thursday, October 1, 2009
TIME: 7:30 pm
LOCATION: The Harman Center for the Arts, Sidney Harman Hall, 610 F Street NW, Washington, DC
TICKETS: $25, $35, $10 (Students only) - For tickets: 202.547.1122 or www.harmancenter.org
INFO: www.post-classicalensemble.org

When he is not composing for the Berlin Philharmonic or Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, the composer/saxophonist Daniel Schnyder tours widely with a trio also including Taylor and the pianist Kenny Drew, Jr.; their repertoire ranges from Bach to Ellington to Schnyder.

Schubert/Mahler: Death and the Maiden
Schubert: Doppelgänger and other late songs
Stravinsky: Suite from A Soldier's Tale
Daniel Schnyder: Works for bass trombone and orchestra
(Post-concert discussion with Daniel Schnyder and David Taylor)

Post-Classical Ensemble: 2009-2010 Season Announcement

With the Harman Center for the Arts now principal venue, the Post-Classical Ensemble has its 2009-2010 season planned.

This season includes "Interpreting Liszt," a two-day Post-Classical Ensemble Festival held in collaboration with Georgetown University to explore new perspectives on Romantic art and the Romantic artistic personality. The performances are part of “Interpreting Liszt,” a conference including film, historic recordings, and much more.

The season also includes performances in Chicago for "Beyond Flamenco: Finding Spain in Music," a Post-Classical Productions festival exploring the search for Spanish identity through music, presented by the University of Chicago and sponsored by the Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales of the Spanish Ministry of Culture with additional support from WFMT radio.

ENCOUNTERS: DAVID TAYLOR
“Left every brass player in the packed house shaking his head in disbelief” – The Chicago Tribune about David Taylor

Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009, 7:30pm
The Harman Center for the Arts, Sidney Harman Hall
610 F Street NW
Washington, DC
www.harmancenter.org

David Taylor, bass trombone
William Sharp, baritone
Angel Gil-Ordóñez, conductor

Are you in the mood for something really edgy? Post-Classical Ensemble showcases one of the world’s great instrumentalists: the bass trombonist DAVID TAYLOR, whose flamboyant virtuosity and eruptive temperament astonishingly transfigure music of every stripe. With P-CE, Taylor performs a medley of harrowing late Schubert songs, plus a pair of jazzy and rambunctious Daniel Schnyder scores: subZERO Concerto for Bass Trombone and Orchestra (DC premiere) and RoTor (world premiere).

Schubert/Mahler: Death and the Maiden (string orchestra)
Schubert: Doppelgänger and other late songs
Stravinsky: Suite from A Soldier’s Tale
Daniel Schnyder: Works for bass trombone and orchestra

Post-concert discussion with the participation of composer Daniel Schnyder


INTERPRETING LISZT

A Post-Classical Ensemble Festival in collaboration with Georgetown University, exploring new perspectives on Romantic art and the Romantic artistic personality.

Evening events at Georgetown University, Gaston Hall (Healy Building)
Liszt Conference at McNair Hall
37th and O Streets NW. (Parking available on campus through Prospect St. and Canal Rd.)
http://performingarts.georgetown.edu/DAVIS/

Friday, Feb. 12, 7:30 pm: LISZT AND ITALY, an illustrated piano concert including poetry by Petrarch and Dante, visual art by Raphael and Michelangeli, Mykola Suk’s harrowing interpretation of Liszt’s Dante Sonata, and Kumaran Arul’s Lisztian improvisation on St. Francis Walking on the Water.

Saturday, Feb. 13, 7:30 pm: ANGELS AND DEVILS
(Illustrated pre-concert on Totentanz by Anna Celenza at 6:30 pm)

Mykola Suk, piano
Georgetown University Chamber Singers; Frederick Binkholder, director
Angel Gil-Ordóñez, conductor

Liszt: Hymne de l'enfant a son reveil and Inno a Maria Vergine, for chorus
Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor
Liszt: Pastorale from Christus
Liszt: Totentanz for piano and orchestra

Feb. 12, 1:15 to 5 pm, and Feb. 13, 10 am to 4:30 pm: “INTERPRETING LISZT” CONFERENCE, including film, historic recordings, speakers Anna Celenza, Joseph Horowitz, and Thomas Mastroianni, and pianists Mykola Suk, George Barth, and Kumaran Arul. Free admission. For information: http://performingarts.georgetown.edu

“An astonishing blend of muscular power, poetry and utter control – one of the more formidable talents to have appeared in this country in years”– The American Record Guide on Mykola Suk.


THE MAGISTRATE AND THE MILLER’S WIFE

Friday, April 23, 2010, 7:30 pm
The Harman Center for the Arts, Sidney Harman Hall
610 F Street NW, Washington, DC
www.harmancenter.org
(Pre-concert film presentation on “Falla and flamenco” at 6:30 pm)

Pedro Carbone, piano
Angel Gil-Ordonez, conductor
Ramon Oller, choreographer
Dancers from the Spanish National Dance Company

Falla: Fantasia Baetica (solo piano)
Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain (piano and orchestra)
Falla: The Magistrate and the Miller’s Wife (dance/pantomime; DC stage premiere)

Manuel de Falla, Spain’s most famous composer, used flamenco to revitalize Spanish music after a century of somnolence. All the music on our program is infused with the haunting cante jondo of flamenco song, and the dramatic exuberance of flamenco dance. The Magistrate and the Miller’s Wife (El Corregidor y la Molinera), a boisterous farce, is an early version of Falla’s best-loved score, The Three-Cornered Hat. This new production, also to be conducted by Angel Gil-Ordonez at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is Spain’s major American cultural export in celebration of its Spring 2010 Presidency of the European Union.


Benefit Gala
May 20010
A gala benefit for Post-Classical Ensemble will be held in May 2010. Details will be available before the end of the year.

Society of Spain announces P-CE's 2009-2010 season

Shakespeare Theatre: Encounters - A John Adams Snapshot

Date: April 22, 2009 (Wednesday)
Time: 7:30 P.M.
Place: Harman Center for the Arts at the Shakespeare Theatre, 450 7 ST NW, WDC (directions)

"Encounters: A John Adams Snapshot" provides a rare opportunity for DC audiences to hear two cutting-edge compositions by an indispensable American original. "Phrygian Gates," early Adams, is a landmark of keyboard minimalism, a 30-minute kaleidoscope of swirling colors and textures. "Gnarly Buttons," late Adams, is a sizzling clarinet concerto distilling swing, blues, and jazz. Both works will be performed for the first time by two great American instrumentalists.

Principal Performers:
David Krakauer, clarinet
Benjamin Pasternack, piano
Angel Gil-Ordóñez, conductor

Program:
John Adams: Phrygian Gates
John Adams: Gnarly Buttons

Kennedy Center: Iberian Inspirations

Date: March 1, 2009 (Sunday)
Time: 7:30 P.M.
Place: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Fortas Chamber Music Concerts on the Terrace Theater

As the major presenter of Spanish concert music in both DC and New York City, Post-Classical Ensemble has long made a cause of the lesser-known works of Falla, and of the master Catalonian modernists Montsalvatge and Gerhard. PCE returns to the Kennedy Center with a program including the American premiere of a Montsalvatge sinfonietta, inspired by the paintings of Salvador Dali.

(More at the Kennedy Center's website.)

Principal Performers:
Harolyn Blackwell, soprano
Angel Gil-Ordóñez, conductor

Program:
Manuel de Falla: Psyche
Joaquin Turina: Poema en Forma de Canciones
Xavier Montsalvatge: Sinfonietta Folia Daliniana (US premiere)
Joaquin Rodrigo: Cuatro Madrigales Amatorios
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Choros no. 7 (Septet)
Roberto Gerhard: Cancionero de Pedrell