Institute & Festival for Contemporary Performance at Mannes

Reviews from IFCP 2010

Marc Ponthus — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:38:01 +0000

The New York Times reports on the Opening Concert
“Mannes’s concert life blossoms most fully in the summer, when it offers several tightly focused festivals associated with training sessions and master classes.”

Sequenza21 on Robert Dick’s recital of June 17
“Robert Dick was a name we heard in graduate school, spoken by flutists and composers alike in hushed, almost reverent tones.”

TimeTable percussion at Le Poisson Rouge June 20
“the vital, fresh installment the festival staged at Le Poisson Rouge on Sunday”

Marc Ponthus — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:00:53 +0000

Yejin Gil (*1980) began her professional musical career at the age of five. Her fascination with 20th century music began early on and is now an integral part of her repertoire. She has studied at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany (with Bernhard Wamback and Michael Roll) as well as at Seoul National University in her native Korea. She given regular concerts throughout Germany and Korea, including full-length solo recitals at the Bach Festival in the German state of Thuringia (Thueringer Bach Wochen), as guest of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra or as Solist of Bergische Symphoniker. She also appeared twice at the internationally renowned Ruhr Klavier Festival (2006, 2007) and has appeared with the SMAF Orchestra and Seoul Symphony Orchestra.
Yejin Gil has won numerous prizes, including the Korea National Competition, Kyunghyang Competition or Köhler-Osbahr-Price. In early 2010 she was winner of the prestigious Orléans Concours International (OCI) in France. As the only finalist she was awarded four main prices (Prix SACEM, Prix Nadia Boulanger, Prix Albert Roussel, Prix HITACHI).

Advisory Board

admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:28:55 +0000

Elliott Carter, Honorary Advisor
Pierre Boulez, Honorary Advisor

Marc Ponthus, Founder & Director, IFCP
Allen Blustine, Associate Director, IFCP
Joel Lester, Dean, Mannes College
Mario Davidovsky
Linda Dusman
Alan Fletcher
Joel Krosnick
Mary Madigan
Charles Rosen
Rolf Schulte
Russell Sherman

Matthew Gold

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:32:37 +0000

Matthew Gold is a member of the multi-media chamber group Sequitur, the Glass Farm Ensemble, the Orchestra of the League of Composers/ISCM, and a co-director of the TimeTable percussion trio. An advocate of new music, he has commissioned and premiered numerous new works and has performed frequently with the Da Capo Chamber Players, New York New Music Ensemble, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, ISCM Chamber Players, Ahn Trio, SEM Ensemble, New Juilliard Ensemble, and has been a member of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. He appears regularly with the Westchester Philharmonic, the Mark Morris Dance Group, the New York City Ballet, and was the percussionist for the Lincoln Center Theater production, The Light in the Piazza. Solo appearances include concerto performances with Sequitur, the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, and the Williams College Symphonic Wind Ensemble. While based in New York City, Mr. Gold is an instructor of percussion at Williams College where he directs the Williams Percussion Ensemble, co-directs the in-residence ensemble I/O New Music, and serves as principal percussionist in the Berkshire Symphony.

Robert Dick

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:32:19 +0000

Robert Dick’s contributions to the development of the flute and its music are profound. He is known worldwide as the flute’s visionary, the leading voice in the instrument’s new music. Soloist, composer, teacher, author and inventor, Dick has performed his music worldwide. With equally deep roots in classical music old and new and in free improvisation and new jazz, Robert Dick has established himself as an artist who has not only mastered but redefined the flute. Listening to him play solo has been likened to the experience of hearing a full orchestra. Robert plays the flute like it’s a human powered synthesizer. His sound can be thick chords one instant, then chromatic percussion, then delicate whispering filigrees, then a display of surprising power. His performances include flute (with his invention, the Glissando Headjoint®), piccolo, alto flute, and bass flutes in C and F and the giant, stand-up contrabass flute. Dick lives in New York City and is on the faculty of New York University and the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. He holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.M. in composition from the Yale School of Music. He has had a major impact on flute playing everywhere because of his pedagogy, including countless master classes throughout the Americas, Europe, Australia and Asia, the seminal books The Other Flute, Tone Development through Extended Techniques and Circular Breathing for the Flutist plus two volumes of the etudes Flying Lessons. Instructional CDs and DVDs illuminate his pieces for students and professionals everywhere. website

Timetable Percussion

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:48:53 +0000

Known for its riveting performances of new and experimental music, TimeTable invites audiences to experience percussion up close.

The group specializes in music that crosses boundaries of style and discipline, with an emphasis on works that challenge the language and materials of percussion music. TimeTable collaborates closely with emerging and established composers to investigate and expand the possibilities for percussion-based music, and commissions, premieres, and records an ever-growing body of new works.

TimeTable maintains an active performance schedule including concerts in New York City and beyond, and collaborations with other ensembles and composer collectives. Through its school programs and master classes, the group offers insight into contemporary percussion music and the process of composer-performer collaboration.

TimeTable has performed extensively in and around New York City and the Northeast, including performances and workshops at the Mannes College of Music’s Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance, The Juilliard Summer Percussion Seminar, Manhattan School of Music, Williams College, MIT, Boston Conservatory, and Bates College. Collaborations with composer collectives and other organizations have included those with Wet Ink, Columbia Composers, Three Two Festival, and Forecast Music.

website

2009

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:47:25 +0000

IFCP’s sixth year was successful beyond expectations and enthusiastically received by a spirited audience which significantly increased in size from preceding years. The festival, held at Mannes College New School for Music and Frederick Lowe Theatre, NYU, featured Artistic Director Marc Ponthus in a multimedia performance of Boulez, Schumann, Stockhausen, Outis; cellist Joel Krosnick in a solo recital of Carter, Schuller, Shapey, Wernick; and violinist Rolf Schulte in a recital of Bartok, Carter, Martino, Stravinsky. Speculum Musicae presented a concert of Davidovsky, Lieberson and Rakowski and the IFCP Ensemble and Kolot Ensemble performed works of Crumb, Sanford, and Webern.

IFCP presented a diversity of events, concerts, workshops, symposia, pre-concert talks involving the performers, composers, IFCP participants and audience participation. Time Out New York announced that IFCP “spreads the new-music gospel all over town.”

The guest artists, performers, composers, and participants, including pianists Marc Ponthus and Aleck Karis, violinists Rolf Schulte and Curtis Macomber, clarinetist Allen Blustine, and the Dean of Mannes College, Joel Lester, conducted daily workshops. The Institute interacts with the Festival through a unique apprenticeship program and integrates the younger generation of performers by offering them unique opportunities to work and perform with, and alongside some of the most accomplished and experienced performers of new music within a larger forum of ideas and educational support. Indeed, this principle was reflected not only in music but in the inclusion of Institute participants in the various pre-concert discussions.

In spite of lacking sufficient resources to advertise the events in the press, IFCP received free daily announcements in the New York Times and Time Out New York, which called the festival an “invaluable new music boot camp,” and IFCP was chosen as a listing in Critics’ Picks.

We feel that the goals set out for the sixth year were fulfilled well above and beyond expectations. The significant increase in the size of the audience clearly creates a need not only to pursue but to expand this effort, answering a clear demand from the musical community and audience alike. We fully intend, with the greatly needed support from our donors, to build on these accomplishments.

IFCP Rolls Out New Website

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:52:06 +0000

The Institute & Festival for Contemporary Performance at Mannes is proud to announce its new web presence at http://www.ifcpny.com.

IFCP 2010 – 8 CONCERTS

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:12:53 +0000

at Mannes, 150 W 85th Street, (212) 580-0210 x4884
at Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, (212) 505-3474

See Events for details.

Speculum Musicae

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:32:49 +0000

Formed in 1971, Speculum Musicae has maintained its position as one of the nation’s preeminent contemporary chamber ensembles. Speculum Musicae maintains an active recording relationship with Bridge Records, committing at least one new work to disc for each of the last three seasons. Susan Narucki’s performance of Elliott Carter’s Tempo e Tempi with Speculum Musicae was nominated for a Grammy award in 2003 and the ensemble was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004 for their recording of Elliott Carter’s Oboe Quartet. In the fall of 2003, the ensemble presented three concerts as the featured new music group at the Biennale Festival in Venice.

website