IMPROVISATORY MINDS Presents: “Chamber Music by Jazz Composers”

February 10, 2017 at 8pm

Christ & Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church

120 West 69th Street between Columbus & Broadway

New York, New York 10023

Donation: $25 (includes one free download)

Presented by the composers’ collective Improvisatory Minds, “Chamber Music by Jazz Composers” showcases new and recently written chamber works, and will include at least one world premiere.  Featuring works by Bevan Manson, Ed Neumeister, Michael Patterson, Dennis Dreith, with special guest artist Billy Drewes, from the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

Artists performing on the February 10th concert in Christ and St. Stephen’s Church will include Miranda Cuckson, violin; Jennie Hansen, viola; Billy Drewes, clarinet and saxophone; Mark Lopeman, alto sax: Katherine Fink, flute and piccolo; Harry Searing, bassoon; Dominic Derasse, trumpet; Chris Komer, French horn; Ed Neumeister, trombone; John Arrucci, percussion and marimba; Brad Dutz, marimba and percussion; Lee Musiker, piano; and Bevan Manson, piano

Improvisatory Minds, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that actively encourages the creation of new chamber works by composers with a jazz perspective, and promotes this music through concerts, clinics, educational and community outreach.

About the Composers & Artists:

Billy Drewes joined the Mel Lewis (now Vanguard Jazz) Orchestra in 1990.  Drewes  weaves classical music into a wide body of music that he composed and performed.  He continues to record and tour with artists including Herbie Hancock, Bill Frisell, Eddie Gomez, Randy Brecker, John Scofield, Toninho Horta, John Abercrombie, Fred Hersch and Peter Erskine.

Bevan Manson’s Piano Quartet was powerfully polyrhythmic. – The Washington Post

Ed Neumeister is one of the finest of his generation, an underrated giant waiting to be discovered. – All Music Guide

Michael Patterson is a wonderful composer and collaborator – Eddie Daniels

Dreith is influenced by early 20th century classical, with echoes of Copland and Stravinsky. – Music Connection Magazine

Ms. Cuckson brought out the work’s singing quality, soulfulness as deep as anything in Janacek. Her tonal luster and variety of touch enliven everything she plays. – New York Times

 John Arucci has influenced the explosion of Bahian music – Bahia Tribune

Critics laud Lee Musiker as absolutely brilliant, sparkling, and a remarkably empathic and inventive virtuoso.

For more information contact: ImprovisatoryMindsInc@gmail.com – www.ImprovisatoryMinds.org

Bevan Manson (310) 386-8151 – Michael Patterson (917) 887-6921

Improvisatory Minds welcomes, Dennis Dreith, our newest member.

We are looking forward to the collaboration.

More info

Featuring:

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

Music by Ed Neumeister, Bevan Manson, Michael Patterson,

Dennis Dreith, Duke Ellington, and Louis Moreau Gottschalk

Wine Tasting offered by Graef Wine

——————————————-

Violinist Ben Hudson was the concertmaster/director of the renowned Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in Germany for 20 years,

and lead the orchestra on tours with them to China, Japan, Korea, and South America. Previously he had been concertmaster for many groups in New York, including the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Dance Theater of Harlem, and the New York Pops. He was also concertmaster for Sweden’s Drottningholm Court Theatre Orchestra, as well as London’s well-known period instrument orchestra the Hanover Band.

As a soloist and concertmaster, he has worked with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, James Levine, Lukas Foss, and Dennis Russell Davies.  Hudson was also first violinist for NYC’s major contemporary music groups, Speculum Musicae and the Group for Contemporary Music.

He has directed recordings of J.S. Bach’s complete Violin Concertos, Brandenburg Concertos, and the Art of the Fugue.  Along with pianist Mary Verney, Hudson has recorded the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas for Nimbus Records. He has also recorded music of contemporary American composers such as John Adams, Elliot Carter, Steve Reich, Phillip Glass, and John Cage.  With the Hanover Band, he recorded a highly regarded version of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor.  The Strad Magazine commented that “his performance is so fine that he seems able to energize both orchestra and conductor…sets a standard for future performances”.  Regarding a recording of American composer Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and American Gamelan, the New York Times said, “ the most persuasive advocacy of Harrison’s music came from Benjamin Hudson’s violin…”.

Born in Illinois, Ben grew up in California and studied violin with Donald Weilerstein, Eunice Shapiro, Josef Gingold, Oscar Shumsky,  Joseph Silverstein, and Henryk Szeryng.

——————————————

Pianist Antoinette Perry gave her first public performance at the age of four. She has since appeared throughout the U.S., Europe and China as a soloist and chamber musician, collaborating with many of the world’s greatest artists, including Leon Fleisher, Ralph Kirshbaum, Ronald Leonard, Brooks Smith, David Shifrin, Gabor Rejto, Henri Temianka, Joaquin Valdepenas, Carol Wincenc, and actors Michael York and Walter Matthau.

She has performed with members of the American, Chicago, Cleveland, Emerson, Juilliard, Los Angeles, Paganini, Sequoia, and Takacs string quartets, as well as concertmasters and principals of major orchestras in Los Angeles, New York, Rotterdam, the Hague, Amsterdam, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Gulbenkian, Zurich, Chicago, St. Louis, Toronto, and San Francisco.

As an Artist-Faculty Emeritus at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Ms. Perry performed in over 100 festival concerts, in addition to participating in festivals in Germany, China and throughout North America. Her recordings in collaboration with flutist David Shostac have been issued by Harmonie & Excelsior and her work has frequently been heard on NPR’s Performance Today, and the Bravo! channel.

Le Dauphine Libere has lauded Ms. Perry’s “irreproachable technique” and “a musical comprehension which could only belong to one of the greats.” Germaine Vadi of Les Affiches de Grenoble et du Dauphine wrote, “One felt to be in the presence of a great pianist – an absolute art of nuance, her subtle touch, and finally her perfect musical understanding, which permits her to assimilate the music of all cultures.”

Distinguishing herself as a pedagogue, Ms. Perry taught with UCLA for 12 years before joining the Keyboard Studies faculty of the USC Thornton School of Music in 1996.

www.improvisatoryminds.org

Bevan Manson, Ed Neumeister, Mike Patterson & Gernot Wolfgang are: “Improvisatory Minds”

Improvisatory Minds presents the  New Hollywood String Quartet

at a private house concert in Agoura Hills, CA

Sunday, April 12, 4:00 pm
(doors open at 3:30 pm)

String quartets by Jeff Beal
and Improvisatory Minds members
Bevan Manson, Ed Neumeister, Michael Patterson and Gernot Wolfgang

performed by the
New Hollywood String Quartet
Tereza Stanislav – violin
Rafael Rishik – violin
Rob Brophy – viola
Andrew Shulman – violoncello

the New Hollywood String Quartet

Suggested donation: $ 30 per person

You can donate at the door via cash or check, or ahead of time via PayPal.
(For PayPal payment, please direct your donation to improvisatory.minds@gmail.com)

We are expecting this event to sell out, therefore RSVP is required.

To RSVP, please send an email with the following information to: improvisatory.minds.rsvp@gmail.com

1) Please use the subject line: IM_12_April_2015_Concert

2) Your first and last name, followed by IM_12_April_2015_Concert

3) The first and last name of your guest(s)

4) your telephone number

Upon receipt of your RSVP email you will receive address of and directions to the venue.

Improvisatory Minds, Inc. is a non-profit 501c(3) organization whose mission is to present chamber music composed by jazz musicians.

Bevan Manson, Ed Neumeister, Mike Patterson & Gernot Wolfgang are “Improvisatory Minds”

After presenting 5 concerts in Los Angeles, we are changing our location for the next installment of the Improvisatory Minds concert series.  This will be our New York City debut concert at St. Peters Church in Manhattan, on September 18th, at 7:30 PM.

Our guest composers will be Alan Broadbent and Billy Childs, as well as Improvisatory Minds regulars Bevan Manson, Ed Neumeister, Michael Patterson and Gernot Wolfgang.

The performers will be:
The Righteous Girls (Gina Izzo – flute,  Erika Dohi – piano)
Susan May Schneider – voice
Alan Broadbent – piano

St. Peter’s Church  (212-935-2200)

619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street
New York, NY 10022

for more information:

bevanmanson@earthlink.net

pattersonmusic@earthlink.net

More about the composers:

GERNOT WOLFGANG-his music has been described by Dave Brubeck as “having unconventional beauty”.   He has received commissions from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic principals David Breidenthal (bassoon), Joanne Pearce Martin (keyboard) and Michele Zukovsky (clarinet), and the European Broadcasting Union.  Regarding his LACO commission “Desert Wind’ Richard Ginell of the L.A. Times said: “Wolfgang’s arresting, jazz-drenched new score seemed to capture at once the realities and myths of Los Angeles during fire season…music that’s somehow cool and sultry at the same time…”

He is currently associate artistic director to ‘HEAR NOW – A Festival of New Music by Contemporary Los Angeles Composers’ and artistic advisor to the Beverly Hills International Music Festival.

BEVAN MANSON  has received commissions from the San Francisco Symphony, First Night Boston, Sierra Chamber Music, and L.A. Chamber Orchestra violist Victoria Miskolczy.  Bevan recently wrote and conducted string arrangements for saxophonist Gary Smulyan at NYC’s Blue Note. Chatter Chamber Concerts in Albuquerque presented his new piece for French horns and piano in 2013.

His California Concertino for Flute and Chamber Orchestra was premiered by Katherine Fink of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and also performed by L.A. Chamber Orchestra flutist David Shostac with the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony. Regarding a recent recording of the piece with Sara Andon and the Hollywood Studio Symphony, Fanfare Magazine commented that it “spins out a lovely melodic line…appealing… clear American pastoralism”. The Washington Post called his Piano Quartet “powerfully polyrhythmic”. He has performed with George Garzone, Gunther Schuller, Howard McGhee, and many others.

ED NEUMEISTER has received commissions from all over the world from solo to chamber, jazz bands and orchestra and has received a Grammy Award Nomination, Commissions and Awards from ASCAP/IAJE, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, National Endowment for the Arts and Meet the Composer. All Music Guide has called him, “one of the finest of his generation, an underrated giant waiting to be discovered.” Billboard Books said he is “a living legend”.

A long-time member of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, he currently is a faculty member at the University of the Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. He is the founder of the NeuHat Ensemble in New York, an 18-piece hybrid ensemble, and ENJO (Ed Neumeister Jazz Orchestra) in New York and Los Angeles. As a leader, he has recorded seven albums.
 Neumeister is also active as a trombone soloist with frequent performances in the US, Europe, and Japan.

MICHAEL PATTERSON– he is a Grammy (2010) and Emmy Award winning composer. Commissions include the London Symphony Orchestra, NYRO, New Mexico, Utah and Sichuan, (China), Symphony Orchestras.

Artists he has collaborated with include Eddie Daniels, Rick Van Matre, Debussy Trio, Bob Sheppard and Marc Copland. Film and TV scores -The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, J.A.G. (CBS-TV), Tiny Toon Adventures with Spielberg, and Lucasfilms’ Radioland Murders. Recent CD’s as producer, arranger, and composer for IPO recordings –Vol. I: The Music of Thad Jones –One More- Vol. II: The Summary. Mean What You Say and Homecoming with Eddie Daniels; Our Delight, Moody 4A and 4B.

Michael currently teaches composition/film scoring at NYU and Composition and Arranging at Mannes College and Manhattan School of Music.

Guest composers: