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NTQ – Explorations Vol. 6: Time and Breath

NTQ presents our 6th Explorations concert with a program of cutting edge works for saxophone, drawing from meditative breath, temporal flux, sine tone clusters, dissembled instruments, and vocalization.

The concert opens with works from NTQ’s residencies at New York University and Binghamton University. Neva Derewetzky‘s small voices explores time and air, growing from meditative breath to sweeping dynamic swells. Derewetzky writes the saxophone “is an instrument that begs to run… For just a few minutes, I want the instrument to be patient. To take a breath and to wait.” Michael Seltenreich‘s Ornamentation 1 uses flux in tempo to build a constant pulsing line. The work builds harmonically while always centered around the push and pull of time. Our program will continue with commissioned works by NTQ founding member Erin Rogers and by Victoria Cheah. Erin RogersFoliage utilizes timbral and harmonic shifts to produce slow motion color changes in a gradual transition to noise. Victoria Cheah‘s Walk for a shell incorporates fixed media playback alongside the saxophone quartet, and explores how actions along a path may connect you to others. Cheah writes “Pilgrimage journeys put time and effort to work at covering a distance in an offering of respect. Walk for a shell attempts this respect with gestures of tuning, ghosts of words exchanged, and offerings of effort.”

Explorations Vol. 6: Time and Breath
Sunday, Sept 10 @ 2pm
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Benzaquen Hall
450 West 37th Street, New York, NY, 10018
Tickets – $10 online and at the door

Program
Neva Derewetzky – small voices (2023), NYC premiere
Michael Seltenreich – Ornamentation 1 (2022), NYC premiere #
Erin Rogers – Foliage (2023), world premiere *
Victoria Cheah – Walk for a shell (2023), world premiere *

Learn more at our event page.

Electric Sax Vol. 1: Workings and Re-Workings

Electric Sax Vol. 1: Workings and Re-Workings is the first offering of our new annual multimedia performance series. This program draws from one of our earliest large-scale electro-acoustic projects: a residency at the University of Virginia in 2018. NTQ is excited to revisit collaborations with composers Becky Brown and Ben Luca Robertson from UVA. In addition, New Thread presents recastings of works by Aron Dahl, Ebun Oguntola, and Dennis Sullivan, and . The program features novel sounds and inspirations: from emotions researcher, Brené Brown, to garden snakes, the deeply personal to the abstract.

Tickets – $10 online and at the door

Program:
Becky Brown – some favored gem (2018)
Ben Luca Robertson – Opheodrys (2017)
Aron Dahl – Fluid Interference – (2022, revised 2023) *world premiere
Ebun Oguntola – Interim (2022) *in-person world premiere
Dennis K. Sullivan, II – As Above, So Below (2018, revised 2023) *world premiere, commissioned

More at NTQ’s event page.

FURIOSUS, North American premiere Feb 16

NTQ joins composer Roberto Scarcella Perino for the North American premiere of his opera FURIOSUS for vocalists, string quartet, sax quartet, piano, and percussion.

Event details and tickets here – THIS CONCERT IS SOLD OUT.

FURIOSUS, opera in two acts
Music by Roberto Scarcella Perino
Libretto by Flora Gagliardi
based on the epic poem ‘Orlando Furioso’ by Ludovico Ariosto

February 16, 2023 @ 7:30pm
Merkin Hall – Kaufman Music Center
129 West 67th Street, New York, NY

Inspired by Orlando Furioso, one of the best-known works in Italian literature, the two act opera Furiosus with libretto by Flora Gagliardi takes us on a galactic journey from earth to moon, from mythical to human, highlighting the vicissitudes of life, love, sorcery, and seduction while Roberto Scarcella Perino’s score provides a warm, whimsical, and thoroughly transportive musical underpinning of the unfolding drama.

More at my event page.

NTQ residency at Binghamton University

New Thread Quartet had a blast spending two days at Binghamton University working with the composition students of Professor Daniel Thomas Davis on new works for saxophone quartet. A few months prior we met with students to demonstrate saxophone technique, reading their drafts, and giving feedback on the music. During our visit to Binghamton we rehearsed with each composer, gave a panel talk on post-college careers, and recital of student works alongside the music of Martin Bresnick, Emily Koh, and Malaika Paralkar.

A big thank you to Daniel Thomas Davis for organizing the residency, to Thomas Giles for joining us on alto sax for this project, and to the excellent students of Binghamton University for their hard work and artistry!

Explorations Vol. 5: New Thread @ 10 Years

Wow, NTQ @ 10 years?! Time flies by with all that microtonal, theatrical, noise focused, computer generated, light bulb conducted, meditative, and leg muted rep. Join us on Sept 16 as we celebrate with Explorations Vol. 5, featuring works by Martin Bresnick, Malaika Paralkar, Noah Meites, Elori Saxl and Om Srivastava.

New Thread Quartet – Explorations Vol. 5
September 16, 2022 at 7:30pm
Tenri Cultural Institute – 43 W 13th Street, New York, NY
Tickets – $10 online and at the door

NTQ Event Page

Program
Martin Bresnick – Mending Time, co-commissioned *
Malaika Paralkar – Haze at the Edge of the Sky
Noah Meites – Fracture Mechanics, world premiere, written for NTQ
Elori Saxl – Private Life
Om Srivastava – KRIYA, world premiere, co-commissioned #

* Co-comissioned by New Thread Quartet in a consortium led by PRISM Quartet with support from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

# Co-commissioned by New Thread Quartet and Palmetto Quartet

George Lam: Family Association

George Lam Family Association

I had the pleasure of working with composer George Lam on his latest project: Family Association, an exploratory, immersive soundwalk for Manhattan’s Chinatown. As you walk through the streets, you will hear fragments of oral history interviews alongside music inspired by the recorded speech. At any given point during the 17-minute experience, your location in the neighborhood determines the stories and music that you hear. As a result, each soundwalk yields a unique experience.

George writes:

Building on my recent project (The Emigrants) with oral history and musical placemaking, Family Association is a new site-specific, geolocation-enabled piece that uses collected oral history recordings from five members of the Chinese-American community as part of an interactive soundwalk in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Listeners will hear interviewees’ memories of their extended families, how their families emigrated to the United States, and whom they imagine their ancestors to be — including those who left their homeland to seek a new future in the U.S. decades (and perhaps centuries) ago. Using GPS technology, Family Association embeds the audio within sites of various “family associations” in Chinatown; such associations have created tight-knit, supportive, social, and imagined communities based on a common family name. These associations in the neighborhood serve as a way for the listener to interact with the stories that they hear.

We are kicking off the release of Family Association with a series of meet ups to walk the route while listen to the interactive. But, you can also download and experience the work anytime you’d like on your own. The Family Association soundwalk is a free iOS app. It’s the preferred way for iOS users to experience Family Association along with your favorite earbuds. Even if you’re not in NYC, drag the map to explore a virtual soundwalk!

Have an Android device or using a computer? Use the Chrome browser for best results and head to https://familyassociation.app to experience Family Association! If you are located away from NYC, tap “Play” and try dragging the map to Manhattan’s Chinatown for a virtual soundwalk.

Read more about the project here:
https://www.gtlam.com/family-association