Category: performances

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The JACK Quartet Premieres “The Winding Path” at the Provincetown Playhouse

JACK Quartet Flier
I am honored to have my string quartet The Winding Path premiered by the acclaimed JACK Quartet alongside the works of nine of my talented colleagues in the graduate composition program at New York University Steinhardt. The concert is the culmination of a seminar led by the amazing composers Julia Wolfe and Missy Mazzoli, in which we have explored modern string quartet repertoire and workshopped new compositions in live readings. This performance is my New York City debut!

The concert, JACK x 10, will be held on Tuesday, April 23, 7:00pm at the historic Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village (133 MacDougal Street, New York, NY). Admission is FREE (no tickets needed) and open to the public. View the event on Facebook to learn more about the venue and the program.

The JACK Quartet electrifies audiences worldwide with “explosive virtuosity” (The Boston Globe) and “viscerally exciting performances” (New York Times) and works with many of today’s leading composers. Visit their website for more information about their numerous notable collaborations and performances.

My piece The Winding Path describes a circular journey, moving outward, striving towards a goal, a destination, or a state of being perhaps illusory or unreachable, and inevitably returning, transformed, to where it began. This is my second composition for string quartet, preceded in 2008 by The Course of Empire. Audio and video recordings of the performance will be made available online.

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Success at the Parrish Art Museum; “Watercolors” on YouTube

“Nell’s extraordinary interdisciplinary vision…was an ideal program to introduce the public to the Museum’s collection through music and images. Two “standing room only” performances [of Watercolors] were met with high praise from attendees. The Director of the Museum cited this event as one of the best of the opening weekend.” Andrea Grover, Curator of Special Programs, Parrish Art Museum

The Chelsea Quintet and I at the Parrish Art Museum“I am so glad someone has at last given voice to what one imagines Burchfield might have been hearing in so many of his watercolors. Congratulations on bringing Burchfield alive in a way that I think he would have much appreciated.” Richard Kahn, art collector

“Your music illuminated Burchfield’s paintings for me.” Audience member

* * *

I’m happy to report that The Chelsea Quintet’s performances of Watercolors at the Parrish Art Museum in the Hamptons were an all-around success. We received a great audience response and turnout, with about 400 people hearing Watercolors and viewing selected videos from Beyond the Notes in the Museum’s new Lichtenstein Theater.

Watercolors received several preview articles and photographs in regional and local papers, including Newsday (the country’s highest-circulation weekday newspaper in a suburban area); The Sag Harbor Express; and The East Hampton Star, which printed a large feature article about my music (read it here). The Parrish Museum’s grand opening as a whole received notable publicity in The New York Times, New York Magazine, et al.

Now you can re-live the Parrish Art Museum concert or experience it for the first time! I’ve posted an HD video of one of The Chelsea Quintet’s November 10th performances on YouTube:

Watch Watercolors online


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“Watercolors” at the Parrish: Crowdfunding Success!

Thanks to the generosity of some awesome and fantastic funders, my fundraising campaign to support The Chelsea Quintet‘s performance of Watercolors this Saturday at the Parrish Art Museum was a great success: contributions have brought the campaign to 126% of my fundraising goal! Combined with the funding provided by the Museum, this makes it possible to compensate the five musicians and cover transportation and production expenses.

The Chelsea Quintet
The Chelsea Quintet

The generous supporters of this campaign, whose contributions ranged from $15 to $200, are:

  • Anonymous (2)
  • Daniel Gagne
  • Andrea Grover
  • Kevin Morgan
  • Dorothy Reilly
  • John Resig
  • Nancy Weekly 

If you haven’t had a chance to contribute yet, you can still make a difference: all of the funds raised in excess of my goal for the Parrish Art Museum performance will help cover the expenses of my next (TBA) project bringing Music Inspired by Art into a gallery or museum venue. This is an ongoing project that needs continual support to thrive.

If you contribute by Saturday, November 10, 11:59PM Pacific Time you can still receive some neat perks, which include a DVD with over an hour of video from performances of my “Music Inspired by Art;” a personalized CD of my music; a special-invitation high tea at my apartment; and even a commission of a short piece of music.

Watch the Trailer, Find Out More, and Donate

Watercolors at the Parrish is already attracting some great feedback and press: The Sag Harbor Express included an article on the event in their Thursday, October 25 print edition announcing that I would be “Christening the Parrish” with the performance (click here to read a scan of the article). Nancy Weekly, leading Charles E. Burchfield scholar and curator at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, comments on the Indiegogo campaign: “Nell Shaw Cohen deserves superlative praise for her compositions inspired by art, particularly her understanding of Charles E. Burchfield’s rapport with nature.” 

Stay tuned for more updates!

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“Watercolors” at Parrish Art Museum

WATERCOLORS

Inspired by the paintings of Charles Burchfield
Performed by The Chelsea Quintet
The Parrish Art Museum
Water Mill, NY
Saturday, November 10, 2012
12:30pm & 2:30pm
Free admission

I’m thrilled to announce another exciting performance of my music inspired by art coming up this November. I’d also like to ask that you consider helping me make this special project a reality.

The Parrish Art Museum, est. 1898, a prestigious museum in the Hamptons, will open the doors of a brand new facility this November. To celebrate the public opening on November 10, the Museum has chosen to feature two performances of my piece Watercolors for wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon) inspired by the watercolor paintings of Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967).

Watercolors will be performed by a wonderful ensemble of accomplished musicians, The Chelsea Quintet. The group’s affiliated parent organization, The Chelsea Symphony, is the resident symphony orchestra of the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.

Read more about this concert and how you can help on my Indiegogo campaign page, which includes a video trailer and more information about the venue, musicians, and the music!

Watch the Trailer, Find Out More, and Donate *

* The Indiegogo campaign lists a number of suggested donation levels that have special “perks” — gifts and special opportunities I am offering as thanks — but remember that you or your friends can donate any amount, whether it’s $5 or $55!

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Reading of “Symphony No. 1” (excerpt)

On April 27th, the New England Conservatory Philharmonia recorded a reading of the first movement from my in-progress Symphony No. 1 as part of NEC’s composers’ orchestral readings program. The recording is now available online.

This recording represents the best take from about 30 minutes of rehearsal and is not intended to be considered a polished performance, but it’s an excellent account of the piece. Following the reading session, I revised some of the orchestration and I’m in the process of completing the other four movements of the symphony. Stay tuned!

Did you know this is my third orchestral composition that’s been read and recorded by the NEC Philharmonia? Check out From the Faraway Nearby (2009) and The Sphinx and the Milk Way (2011).

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Premiere of “Sextet” in Jordan Hall – my last Tuesday Night New Music concert!

Monday, April 23, 8:00pm
Sextet *PREMIERE*
Performed by Zachary Boeding, oboe, Andrew Thompson, bassoon, Gregor Kaelin, trumpet, Amy Kao, harpsichord, Lisa Goddard, violin, and Elizabeth Oka, viola.
Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 30 Gainsborough St, Boston MA. Free admission.

Sextet for oboe, bassoon, trumpet, harpsichord, violin, and viola is a love letter to the textures and sound world of Baroque music (a subject I explored in a very different way with my recent piece for trumpet and electronics, San Marco). Although references to historical style are not continuous throughout this piece, Baroque music influenced my choice of instrumentation and certain compositional devices I utilized: hence the movement titles Canon, Ritornello, and Passacaglia.

This piece is also infused with a feeling for syncopation, groove, melody, harmony, and soloistic playing—as well as the sense of being taken on a journey through music—inherited from my favorite 1970s progressive rock bands such as Yes and Gentle Giant and contemporary indie band The Flaming Lips: hence the movement title Groove.

For this performance, Sextet is also a fond goodbye to my time as an undergraduate at New England Conservatory: this marks the 20th and final performance of my music on a Tuesday Night New Music concert, and the 28th performance of my music in Boston and at NEC since arriving here in the fall of 2008.

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Premiere of “San Marco” for trumpet and electronics

San Marco *PREMIERE*
Sunday, April 1, 8:00pm
Performed by Ezra Weller, trumpet and electronics
Pierce Hall at New England Conservatory
241 St. Botolph St, Boston MA.
Free admission.

Renoir, Piazza San Marco Venice
A painting of San Marco by Auguste Renoir

This piece combines live trumpet with digital processing and playback of pre-recorded samples controlled by the performer. This premiere performance is being featured on a recital of electro-acoustic music by students of composer John Mallia.

My goal with San Marco is to create a fluid, ambient atmosphere evoking the sound-world and spirit of the sacred instrumental music of the late Renaissance/early Baroque, especially Monteverdi (who I sample in the piece). The famous cathedral in Venice, Basilica of St. Mark’s (Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco), was a center for this music and the inspiration for my title, San Marco.

The piece features truncated, looped, and processed samples of late Renaissance music for voice and cornetto, a wind instrument with a sound not unlike a trumpet (although its construction is very different). The cornetto was highly regarded in the 16th and early 17th centuries for its similarity to the human voice, and has a delicate sound I find incredibly beautiful. The modern trumpet plays along with and around the samples, alternately imitating, dominating, and being dominated by the sound of the cornetto.

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Proclaiming Pan concert to feature “Nine Muses”

Proclaiming Pan
Proclaiming Pan concert poster

Nine Muses
Sunday, March 25, 2:30pm
Hunneman Hall
Brookline Public Library
361 Washington Street
Brookline, MA
Free admission with a suggested $10 donation.

My set of nine miniature movements for solo flute, harp, and violin referencing the muses of Greek mythology will be performed by Elizabeth Erenberg, flute, Maria Parker, harp, Ryan Shannon, violin, and Oriana Dunlop, narrator, at the Brookline Public Library.

This performance is part of Proclaiming Pan, a musical and literary experience with Greek Mythology curated and produced by flutist Elizabeth Erenberg (a fellow Entrepreneurial Grant recipient). The program also features music by Debussy, Schubert, and Purcell, and literary quotations from Isadora Duncan, John Lyly, Goethe, and ancient texts.

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Premiere of “Places in the Bay Area” for flute/piccolo and piano

Sarah Sullivan, fluteKristina Nyberg, piano
Sarah Sullivan & Kristina Nyberg

Places in the Bay Area *Premiere*
Tuesday, March 6, 8:00pm
Tuesday Night New Music
Pierce Hall at New England Conservatory
241 St. Botolph St, Boston MA. Free admission.

Performed by Sarah Sullivan, flute and piccolo, and Kristina Nyberg, piano.

With this piece, I sought to capture feelings I have about places in and around my former hometown of San Francisco, CA.

The first movement, San Francisco Streets – Home, features a lively, rhythmically-driven ritornello section alluding to the sunny energy of the city. The first instance of the ritornello is followed by a more reflective mood—perhaps a gray day out in the Richmond District. After a truncated ritornello, the music shifts character again to evoke some of the nostalgia I feel for my childhood home, an Edwardian apartment near the Presidio where my family lived for about 16 years.

The second movement, The Marin Headlands in Fog, features piccolo in place of flute. It depicts the mysterious atmosphere of the foggy coastal scenery of the Marin Headlands national park across the bay from the city.

The Marin Headlands
The Marin Headlands

I hope you can join me for Tuesday Night New Music!

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New Beyond the Notes website launched

Beyond the Notes is live! Visit www.beyondthenotes.org now on your browser or mobile phone.

The online multimedia educational guide includes numerous videos, interviews with art curators, audio excerpts, and program notes. The site contains:

  • 24 pages
  • 47 audio clips
  • 33 videos
  • 29 images

“Far more extensive than the usual site devoted to an event or artwork, [Beyond the Notes] contains…loads of information connecting the music and art.”

David Weininger, The Boston Globe (read full article)

After browsing the website, come check out the concert on November 2!

Beyond the Notes: Music Inspired by Art
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
6:00pm-7:30pm 
Free admission. Reception to follow.
Pierce Hall at New England Conservatory
241 St. Botolph Street, Boston, MA 02115