For Immediate Release

Contact: Miranda Cuckson, Publicity

Argento New Music Project

552 Riverside Dr. Suite 1-K

New York, NY 10027

212 875 0326

info@argentomusic.org

 

 

CONCERT FEATURES VIRTUOSO INTERACTIONS IN SURROUND SOUND

 

Argento New Music Project partners with IRCAM, France's leading institute for electronic music, for a concert of striking contemporary compositions presented in an immersive surround sound environment. On Sunday, May 7, 2006 at Miller Theater, Argento Chamber Ensemble led by Michel Galante will present a concert of four innovative pieces that combine the very best of ensemble playing with the latest in realtime interactive technology. The concert is the culminating event of IRCAM@Columbia 2006, a week long series of rehearsals, workshops, and concerts organized with the collaborative efforts of Argento New Music Project, IRCAM, Columbia University, Harvard University, the Columbia Sinfonietta, the FACE Council, and the Florence Gould Foundation.

 

The program begins with the world premiere of Lolita, Part I, by young American composer Joshua Fineberg, a work for narrator, ten instruments, and live electronics that explores the warped mind of Nabokov's Humbert Humbert, and features actor Daniel Gurian in the lead role. Violist Stephanie Griffin is soloist in the American premiere of Swiss composer Michael Jarrell's ...more leaves..., a virtuoso piece for solo viola and a ÒvirtualÓ orchestra of acoustic and electronic instruments. Leading French spectral composer Tristan Murail evokes a vivid sense of time and place in Winter Fragments, a work for mixed chamber ensemble that investigates a rich landscape of instrumental timbres and electronic sounds. Concluding the program is Philippe Leroux's Voi(Rex) for soprano, chamber ensemble and electronics. Soprano Daisy Press is the featured soloist in this vocal tour-de-force that skillfully merges vocalise with recorded sounds and live electronic processing.

 

The concert will be held at Miller Theater on Sunday, May 7 at 6:00 pm. Miller Theater is located at 116th Street and Broadway and is accessible via Subway 1 to 116th Street. Tickets are $15 General Admission, $8 Seniors and Students, and may be purchased in advance by calling the box office at 212-854-7799, online at http://www.millertheater.com/tickets/, or on the day of the performance at the Miller Theater box office. For more information about the events of IRCAM@Columbia 2006 please visit http://www.music.columbia.edu/ircam2006/. Information about Argento New Music Project can be found at http://www.argentomusic.org.