If you’re open to noticing it, music of gay composers is being performed all the time. I’ve just made it my job to point it out now and then. And there’s a nice stream of special events during the second week of April in Manhattan. Here’s the run down:
Choral works of JOHN CORIGLIANO and MARK ADAMO.
New York Virtuoso Singers, Harold Rosenbaum, conductor
3 p.m. Sunday April 11 St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church
Surely it’s no accident that these two composers are paired on the same program, but the choir’s website never mentions that the two are married.
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Copland’s APPALACHIAN SPRING and Barber’s SUMMER MUSIC
plus other stuff by Mozart and Wolpe.
Ensemble ACJW
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 13, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall
Okay, nothing rare and unusual here, but the Ensemble ACJW is a great young group, though I’ll never get used to their cobbled-together name.
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Nico Muhly’s DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS (World Premiere)
Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, for its latest new music enterprise Contact! Alan Gilbert conducts.
Also on the program brand new works by Sean Shepherd and Matthias Pintscher with baritone Thomas Hampson.
8 p.m. Friday, April 16, Symphony Space
7 p.m. Saturday, April 17, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The continued rise of Nico. View a video of him yacking about his piece and walking around the city here.
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Lou Harrison’s CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN & PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE
and Kyrie and Gloria from the MASS TO ST. ANTHONY for chorus and percussion.
Owen Dalby, violin, Rutgers University Percussion Ensemble
Riverside Choral Society.
The second half features Carmina Burana in the version for pianos and percussion.
8 p.m. Sunday, Saturday, April 17, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center
Everybody loves Lou Harrison but performances of his works aren’t all that common. Hopefully a good crowd will turn out and not just for Carmina.
I recently interviewed soloist Owen Dalby (who’s also a member of the Ensemble ACJW), prior to his March 26 premiere with the Albany Symphony Orchestra of Timothy Andres’ “Look Around You,” a concerto for violin AND viola (Dalby played both). The conversation turned to California and the music of the 60s and 70s and he mentioned that he was learning the Harrison concerto. Dalby grew up in Berkely, so he knew of Lou from an early age.
“I met him a few times as a kid and I played some of his easier music,” said Dalby. “He was a wonderful benevolent presence and I loved his music.”
Like I said, everybody loves Lou.
