Ensemble Pi -- a socially conscious new music collective -- returns to The Cooper Union’s Great Hall with its annual Peace Project concert, Dancer on a Tightrope. This year’s program will address the courage and compassion necessary to fight for one's belief with works celebrating life as risk and art as flight into another existence. Highlights include Persian composer Behzad Ranjbaran’s Shiraz -- a trio celebrating the poets and historic gardens which have made this Southern Iranian city (the 500 B.C. capital of Persia) famous.
Even after thirty years in the United States, Behzad Ranjbaran’s music remains infused with Persian modes, folk rhythms and ornamental melodic figures. Ranjbaran is recognized as one of the most imaginative and interesting composers of our time. Critics have described his music as filled with “radiant luminescence. He plays the colors of the orchestra with an unconscious mastery, and with grace and ease.” www.behzadranjbaran.com.
Also part of this concert will be: the world premieres of Canadian-American composer Karim al-Zand’s Swimmy (2010) – a setting of Leo Lionni’s classic children tale; composer/vocalist Kristin Norderval’s A Remarkable Failure (2010) – a setting of prominent Israeli journalist and author Amira Hass’s acceptance speech for the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women's Media Foundation; the New York premiere of Frederic Rzewski’s Whangdoodles (1990) as well as Sofia Gubaidulina’s Dancer on a Tightrope (1993).
Ensemble Pi’s Dancer on a Tightrope will take place at The Cooper Union’s Great Hall on Saturday, March 13 at 8 p.m. Cooper Union is located at 7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue, NYC. Tickets are $15 ($10 for students and seniors). For more information, call (212) 362-4745 or visit: www.ensemble-pi.org
Event Posted by Isabelle Deconinck at 2010-02-25 19:06
