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2016 Calendar
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The New Music Gathering
Friday, January 8th 2016
CLASSROOM 206—11:15 am -12:15 pm
Composers and artists Whitney George, Sugar Vendil , Federico Liach, Greg Jukes, and Matt Marks hold a discussion about THEATRICALITY IN NEW MUSIC
BYRD HALL—5:15 pm- 6:15 pm
CONCERT II: THEATRICALITY IN NEW MUSIC
The Curiosity Cabinet and Tenth Intervention split a bill for this event. The Curiosity Cabinet will present selections from their work The Strange Library for narrator, projected images, and live music
Alice Jones, flute
Adam von Housen, violin
Hugh Ash, trumpet
Joe Tucker, percussion
Whitney George, narrator
for more information on the series of events, please visit: www.newmusicgathering.org
O Mistress, My Mistress
Saturday, February 13th 2016—7:30 pm
Sonnets from Shakespeare — Miriam Gideon
for trumpet, violin I, violin II, viola, ‘cello, & soprano
selections from Love Songs —David Morneau
for flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin I, violin II, viola, ‘cello, double bass & soprano
Veiled —Whitney George
for violin I, violin II, viola, ‘cello, & double bass
selections from Shakespeare Songs — Jay Vilnai
for violin, viola, 'cello, & soprano
Three Songs from Shakespeare —Igor Stravinsky
for flute, clarinet, viola, & soprano
Valentine — Jacob Druckman
for solo double bass
[ The Curiosity Cabinet: Martha Cargo, flute; Aleks Karjaka, clarinet; Hugh Ash, trumpet;
Charlotte Munn-Wood, violin; Adam von Housen, violin; Pedro Vizzarro-Vallejos, viola; Caleigh Drane, 'cello;
Emilio Guarino, double bass; Justine Aronson, soprano; Whitney George, conductor]
South Oxford Space
138 S. Oxford Street
Brooklyn, New York
The Curiosity Cabinet & C4 Choral Group—Composers NOW Concert
Tuesday, February 16th—7:30 pm
Under the guidance of distinguished Professor of Music Tania Leon, the Graduate Center composers currently enrolled in the composition seminar will present an evening of original works for choir and mixed chamber ensembles performed by choral group C4, under the direction of Karen Siegel, and the instrumental new music ensemble The Curiosity Cabinet under the direction of composer and conductor Whitney George. The program includes:
The Ballad-Singer — Nathan Pell
Recitation Tomb — Peter Kramer
Elegy — Joseph Prestamo
To Fall — Qin Ding
Mythologies — Drake Andersen
Méandres — Jean-Patrick Besingrand
If I can't dance... — Vicente Alexim
Nymphonia — Sang-Hoon Song
[ The Curiosity Cabinet: Martha Cargo, alto flute; Marina Kifferstein, violin; Charlotte Munn-Wood, violin;
David McCarthy, viola; Caleigh Drane, 'cello, Ellery Trafford, percussion; Joe Tucker, percussion ]
[ C4: Eliza Bagg, soprano; Lisa Burns, alto; Brooke Collins, soprano; Rebecca Ehren, soprano; Mario Gullo, tenor; Bill Heigen, tenor; Lorena del Mar, soprano; Brian Mountford, bass; David See, bass; Bettina Sheppard, alto; Martha Sullivan, conductor; Perry Townsend, conductor/baritone ]
Elebash Recital Hall
The Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
[ admission is free ]
The Wild Called Maxx
Wednesday, April 6th 2016—9:00 pm
The Wild Called Maxx is the story of Maxx, a young and progressive woman, who is having trouble merging her creative identity with her lifestyle. She leaves her traditional job in the suburbs and journeys to the city. The unknown jungle of the metropolitan New York, full of monsters, is overwhelming to Maxx at first. Over time she finds ardent friends willing to help her find her creative voice.
The story is told through live music written by Whitney George and performed by The Curiosity Cabinet with special bass trombone soloist Russ Zokaites and vocalist Emily Iaquinta . Original artwork by Sammy Lopez feature illustrated slides for each scene, creating a monstrous urban jungle fit for the 21st century with strong and vibrant colors that help create and shape Maxx's revolutionary world of discovery.
[ The Curiosity Cabinet: Aleks Karjaka, clarinet;
Maya Bennardo, violin; Caleigh Drane, 'cello;
Tristan Kasten-Krause, double bass;
Andrea Christie, piano, Joe Tucker, percussion;
Whitney George, narrator/conductor ]
with special guest artists
Russ Zokaites, bass trombone
& Emily Iaquinta, voice
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street
Brooklyn, New York
The Sphere of Influence: In the Wake of Pierrot
Thursday, April 14th 2016—7:30 pm
The Curiosity Cabinet, with the support of the New York Women Composers Organization and the Earle Brown Foundation present the second concert in their Sphere of Influence series, influenced by the seminal work Pierrot Lunaire by Arnold Schoenberg. The evening will incorporate theater and staging between works for a seamless and dramatic presentation. The program includes:
Chasing Light — Whitney George
for flute, clarinet, violin, ‘cello, piano, and percussion
as like a raging fire—Chen Yi
for flute, clarinet, violin, ‘cello, and piano
Apart/ment—Rebekah Driscoll
for 4 singers, alto flute, bass clarinet, 'cello, & piano
The Viola in My Life (1)—Morton Feldman
for viola, flute, clarinet, violin, 'cello, piano, & percussion
Tracking Pierrot—Earle Brown
for flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, 'cello, percussion, & piano
These Broken Wings—David Lang
for flute, clarinet, violin, 'cello, percussion, & piano
[ The Curiosity Cabinet: Alice Jones, flute, Aleks Karjaka, clarinet; Charlotte Munn-Wood, violin;
Pedro Vizzarro-Vallejos, viola; Liz Kovalchuk, 'cello; Isabelle O'Connell, piano, Joe Tucker, percussion;
Whitney George, narrator/conductor ]
with special guests: Christine Cornell, Barbara Porto, Kristina Malinauskaite & Julia Tang
Firehouse Space
246 Frost Street
Brooklyn, NY
[ PURCHASE TICKETS HERE ]
Night, like Velvet: in Twelve Letters
Monday, May 23rd 2016—8:00 pm
Still & Brimming—Mirror
for flute, clarinet, violin, 'cello, & percussion
Cracked Looking Glass
for violin & 'cello
A Compass as My Planchette
for chamber ensemble & voice
Her Secret Drawer
for clarinet, trombone, viola, 'cello, double bass, percussion, & piano
As the Crow Flies
for flute, violin, 'cello, percussion, piano, & voice
Burning a Name with Black Edges
for violin, 'cello, & piano
In Green Water
for flute, clarinet, violin, 'cello, percussion, & piano
The Flickering of a Four-Cornered Eye
for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, 'cello, double bass, percussion, piano, & voice
Watching the Dark Slowly Unfold
for clarinet, violin, viola, 'cello, & piano
The Pit of Red
for flute, clarinet, violin, 'cello, piano, & percussion
Open me or Readdress me
for solo percussion
Rope at the Throat
for flute, violin, 'cello, & percussion
[ The Curiosity Cabinet: Lindsey Eckenroth, flute; Aleks Karjaka, clarinet; Alix Tocou, trombone; Adam von Housen, violin; Pedro Vizzarro-Vallejos, viola; Liz Kovalchuk, 'cello, Tristan Kasten-Kruase, double bass; Isabell O'Connell, piano; Joe Tucker, percussion; Sharon Harms, soprano; Whitney George, conductor]
Dixon Place
161 Chrystie Street
New York, New York
[ PURCHASE TICKETS HERE ]
The Yellow Waper
Friday, June 10th and Saturday, June 11th—7:30 pm
Witness one woman's journey on the road to madness, presented by Fresh Squeezed Opera and The Curiosity Cabinet. Whitney George’s hauntingly beautiful interpretation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper lends itself to a unique multi-disciplinary experience.
The story depicts the effect of extreme loneliness and solitude, common to women of that station, on the narrator's mental health and her descent into psychosis. She becomes obsessed with the wallpaper. "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw – not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. But there is something else about that paper – the smell! ... The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell."
Denise Crawfort’s electric performance highlights the relevance of a story about a trapped woman to modern society. Whitney George leads the Curiosity Cabinet in a humbling, thought-provoking show. Performed at the DiMenna Center, this opera transcends its Victorian setting to become resonant with contemporary audiences.
The Curiosity Cabinet:
Lindsey Eckenroth, flute; Lee Braun, oboe; Mara Mayer, bass clarinet; Charlotte Munn-Wood, violin;
Pat Muchmore, 'cello; Justin Lee, double bass; Joe Tucker, mallet percussion; Michael Lupo, aux. percussion;
Isabelle (Izzy) O'Connell, harpsichord; Melinda Faylor, celeste; Whitney George, conductor
Fresh Squeezed Opera:
Denise Crawfort, soprano
Ryan Hill, baritone
Christine Duncan, dancer
DiMenna Center
450 West 37th Street
New York, New York
The Strange Library
Friday, July 22nd 2016—8:00 pm
Designed and illustrated by Murakami’s frequent collaborator Chip Kidd, the novella is packaged like a graphic novel. The collage technique of Kidd’s work gives the images a moody, mysterious, and all-together surreal quality, depicting the darkest dreams of a child, our protagonist.
The plot of the novella is as eerie as the images accompanying the text: a young boy enters a strange library, described as “even more hushed than usual”, and he is sent to Room 107. An odd librarian leads him though an illogical maze beneath the library. It is in Room 107 that we discover the librarian’s devious plot. The boy encounters a small man dressed as a sheep and a young girl who delivers food, their worlds strangely entangled due to our protagonist’s unfortunate situation. The boy’s predicament as the prisoner of the librarian grows stranger and stranger by the page.
The Curiosity Cabinet:
Alice Jone, flutes
Aleks Karjaka, clarinets
Pedro Vizzarro-Vallejos, viola
Joe Tucker, percussion
Whitney George, narrator
Mise-en Place
678 Hart Street
Brooklyn, New York
The Inner Circle
Friday, October 20th 2016 & Saturday, October 21st 2016—7:30 pm
The Inner Circle is a sexually blunt new opera about a group of researchers in the 1940s, led by the charismatic visionary Professor Kinsey, whose lives are entangled in his quest to scientifically study human sexual behavior in a way never before attempted.
Let Opera on Tap tease you with scenes from the opera-in-development by Daniel Felsenfeld and Kate Gale, in collaboration with The Curiosity Cabinet, followed by a talk-back and reception with the creators. Incubated by the cell theatre, The Inner Circle is part of Opera on Tap’s Roadworks commissioning series, with masterful stage direction by Joseph Hendel, and music direction by Mila Henry.
The Curiosity Cabinet:
Alice Jones, flute
Ashlee Miller, clarinet
Adam von Housen, violin
Liz Kovalchuk, 'cello
Opera on Tap:
Maria Elena Armijo
Jeremy Hirsch
Heather Michele Meyer
Matthew Yohn
Mila Henry, piano
the cell theatre
338 West 23rd Street
New York, New York
Sinners & Saints
Friday, October 28th & Saturday, October 29th — 8:00 pm
Join us for a costumed, Halloween-themed collaboration between co-director and composer Whitney George and puppeteer-designer Daniel Patrick Fay, featuring "The Curious Tale of Ed Leedskainin, the story of a small unassuming Latvian immigrant who is responsible for singlehandedly constructing the monument Coral Castle in Florida. This was an impossible feat for one man to create, but he claimed that he had discovered the secret of the Egyptians and constructed this monolithic coral city using nothing but a small mysterious box set on a tripod that he claimed could reverse the magnetic forces on Earth and levitate these huge structures. To this day no one can explain how these coral formations could have been moved from the sea miles away to the location where he built this and he did it for a woman he loved who never came to see his creation. Ed's tale is reimagined with original music, film, and puppetry in a feature-long theatrical presentation. Our evening will also include a thrilling burlesque performance of The Masochist's Tango, for solo violin, performed by Adam von Housen, and a setting of E.A. Poe's classic poem The Raven.
The Curiosity Cabinet:
Adam von Housen, violin
Alice Jones, flute
Mara Mayer, bass clarinet
Joe Tucker, percussion
Whitney George, actress/composer
Daniel Patrick Fay, puppeteer/design
The Standard Toykraft
722 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, New York
The Sensory String Quartet
Friday, December 9th —7:00 & 8:00 pm
BitterSuite is pioneering a new way to listen to music through all the senses. As one of just 30 audience members, you’ll find yourself blindfolded and guided through Debussy’s String Quartet in the comforting hands of a BitterSuite dancer, who will move around you and move you around, spray smells, feed you tastes. Each sensory experience has been designed by a team of specialists including Perfumer Sarah McCartney, Chef Ysanne Spevack and Psychologist Clare Jonas to create an embodied experience where each sense works together to deepen the nature of the music itself.
“This is active listening.” The Guardian
With a live performance of the string quartet from The Curiosity Cabinet Ensemble, the evening is a true feast for the senses.
The Curiosity Cabinet:
Charlotte Munn-Wood, violin
Adam von Housen, violin
Pedro Vizzarro-Vallejos, viola
Liz Kovalchuk, 'cello
BAM: Hillman Studios
30 Lafayette Ave
Brooklyn, New York