[silence] S.E.M. Ensemble at The Stone, Tuesday, July 25

[PK SEM]

For Immediate Release
July 18, 2006   
Contact: Donel Young
Phone: 732/295-2406
    
S.E.M. ENSEMBLE AT THE STONE

WORKS BY EMERGING COMPOSERS
WITH MASTERPIECES BY CAGE, FELDMAN, EASTMAN AND YOUNG

When:  Tuesday, July 25, 2006, 8pm & 10pm
Where:  The Stone (NW corner of 2nd Street and Avenue C)
Who:  S.E.M. Ensemble
Petr Kotik, Director
Joseph Kubera, Piano

Thomas Buckner, Allison Lyman, Voices; Petr Kotik, Natacha Diels, Flutes;
Carol McGonnell, Clarinet; Sam Hillmer, Saxophone; Anne Guthrie, Horn; Chris
Nappi, Percussion; Conrad Harris, Violin; Ron Lawrence, Viola; Jessie
Marino, Violoncello
    
8:00 PM - Set 1:
        Reiko Füting     leaving without/palimpsest  (2006)
        Sam Hillmer     ³...the night sweats and the day sweats...² (2004)
        Anne Guthrie     Margaret Or Olivier  (2006)
        Morton Feldman     Why Patterns?  (1978)
        
10:00 PM - Set 2:  
        John Cage     Ryoanji  (1983)
        Julius Eastman     Piano 2  (1986)
        La Monte Young     Composition 1960 #7 (1960)
            
Tickets: $10 per set ($20 for whole night)
Info & Reservations:  718/488-7659 or info@semensemble.org


Reiko Füting (born 1970 in Königs Wusterhausen, East Germany) is on the
faculty at Manhattan School of Music. He studied music in Germany, the U.S.
and Korea. A member of the New York composers collective Wet Ink, Mr. Füting
is active in New York and Europe as composer/pianist. In 2003, Mr. Füting
was a resident at the Ostrava Days Institute. leaving without/palimpsest is
based on a piece for solo piano, premiered in 2002 in London. The original
material for the piece comes from an old German folk tune, which is
reflected in the title and the form of the composition.
 
Sam Hillmer (born 1978 in Washington, D.C.) has been living and performing
in New York since 1998. He studied saxophone and composition at the
Manhattan School of Music. Presently, he is studying composition at SUNY
Stony Brook with Peter Winkler. Hillmer is a co-founder of the chamber
ensemble/band "Zs" and the young composers' collective Wet Ink. Hillmer has
been a resident at Ostrava Days 2003 and 2005.

Anne Guthrie (born 1983, Minneapolis) received a B.M. in composition from
the University of Iowa in 2005. She also studied composition with Michael
Young at Goldsmith's College in London. As a French horn improviser, she has
performed with Walter Thompson's Soundpainting ensemble, with Edwin Prevost
and with members of Sakada. Her music has been performed by the University
of Iowa Philharmonic Orchestra. Margaret Or Olivier takes as its rhythmic
and timbral source the spoken realization of excerpts from Olivier Cadiot's
book-length poem Art Poetic.

Julius Eastman (1940-1990) grew up in Ithaca, New York, where he began
studying piano at age 14.  He continued to study piano and composition at
the Curtis Institute of Music, and made his debut as a pianist in 1966 at
Town Hall in New York City. Eastman actively performed as pianist, singer
and dancer. In 1970, he joined the Center for the Creative and Performing
Arts at SUNY Buffalo where he met Petr Kotik. Eastman and Kotik performed
together extensively in the early to mid 1970s. Eastman was a founding
member of the S.E.M. Ensemble and composed numerous works for the group.

La Monte Young (born in Bern, Idaho in 1935) grew up in Los Angeles where he
studied at U.C.L.A. and U.C. at Berkeley. In 1959 he attended the Darmstadt
summer courses where he met John Cage.  Since 1960, he has lived in New York
City. Around 1960, La Monte Young produced a series of works, which were
radically different from the music composed at that time in that he
refocused on the quality of pitches, worked with extended durations, and
started to pay attention to tunings. He has had a profound influence on a
whole generation of composers, including Cage himself. Composition 1960 #7
is considered a seminal work from this period.

SEM's history with Ryoanji began in February of 1987, when the S.E.M.
Ensemble performed the work at the "24 Hours with John Cage" festival in
Cologne -- a large scale, 24-hour broadcast celebration of Cage's 75th
birthday with Cage's participation. John Cage (b. 1912 in Los Angeles, d.
1992 in New York), in collaboration with Kotik, created a special version of
the work for SEM, which was performed and recorded at WDR (Westdeutscher
Rundfunk). The material in Ryoanji was described by the composer as a
"garden" of sounds to be played gently as much as possible, like sounds in
nature rather than sounds in music.

Toward the end of the 1970's, Morton Feldman (b. 1926 in New York City, d.
1987 in Buffalo, NY) was increasingly in demand in Europe as a lecturer and
for concerts of his music. It is believed that he composed Why Patterns?
(1978) for one of these European tours. Except for a short coda at the end,
Why Patterns? is uncoordinated. Although the score is traditionally notated,
each musician proceeds independently. The result is a score that does not
correspond to the way it sounds. The idea of uncoordinated notation had been
Feldman's signature technique since the 1950s. It is interesting to note
that due to his poor eyesight, Feldman could not, while performing on piano,
follow the entire score in a coordinated way. The idea of not coordinating
each instrument's performance may have come to Feldman as a practical
solution to the problem. Feldman composed two additional works for the same
trio of flute, piano, and percussion-Crippled Symmetry (1983) and For Philip
Guston (1984). There, the idea of an uncoordinated score was abandoned in
favor of a more traditional approach to ensemble performance.

Joseph Kubera (born May 25, 1949 in Buffalo, New York), pianist and graduate
of the Peabody Conservatory, is widely recognized for his performances of
contemporary music.  He has toured extensively with the Merce Cunningham
Dance Company and works regularly with leading new music ensembles
throughout the U.S. A leading proponent of the music of Cage, Kubera has
performed many of the composer's works, including Etudes Australes, Sonatas
and Interludes, and Music of Changes. He has given New York recitals at The
Kitchen, Merkin Concert Hall, Roulette and P.S.1. He has also appeared as
soloist with the San Francisco Symphony under John Adams, and has recorded
for 1750 Arch Records, Opus One, Wergo and Lovely Music.

The S.E.M. Ensemble is dedicated to the performance and advancement of new
music, with a focus on works that can best be described as post-Cagean.
Since its inception in 1970, SEM has collaborated with composers who also
often perform with the group. They have included, among others, Earle Brown,
John Cage, Alvin Lucier, Morton Feldman, Alvin Singleton, Leroy Jenkins,
Pauline Oliveros, Elliott Sharp, Jackson Mac Low, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill
Niblock, David Tudor, and Christian Wolff. Since 1972, The S.E.M. Ensemble
has also performed extensively overseas, touring Europe once or twice every
season. In 1997, SEM performed at the Takemitsu Memorial Concert at Oji Hall
in Tokyo.


For more information
About S.E.M. Ensemble: www.semEnsemble.org
About The Stone: www.thestonenyc.com


###

S.E.M. Ensemble is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, the
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable
Trust, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Phaedrus Foundation, and
individual contributions from Yoko Ono, Noni Pratt, Stephanie Bernheim,
Alvin Friedman-Kien, Molly Davies, Christian Wolff, Ulla Dydo, Rosumund
Bernier & John Russell, Rackstraw Downes, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Levinson,
Peter Layton, Susan Sollins-Brown, Sheldon Berlow, Mr. and Mrs. Richard
Kuhns, and John and Linda Wadsworth.


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