TRIO MEDIÆVAL & DONNACHA DENNEHY WITH CRASH ENSEMBLE

Merkin Hall
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 8PM
at Kaufman Center, 129 W. 67th Street
(between Broadway and Amsterdam)


» Tickets
» New Sounds Live 2006-2007 Concert Season

New Sounds Live presents a night of early and adventurous new music on Wednesday, March 28 at Merkin Hall. Experience two European ensembles that draw from the rich history of early European music and add a contemporary twist. Trio Mediaeval, the Norwegian early music group, specializes in medieval ballads from England, France and Norway. With their unerringly precise blend of voices, their repertoire also includes new works and arrangements of Nordic folk song.

Crash Ensemble is at the center of the Irish new music scene, and is often compared to NY's Bang On A Can All-Stars. They present the North American premiere of “Grá agus Bás,” a work for traditional Irish chant and electroacoustic ensemble. Featured singer is the renowned Sean Nós singer and former Afro-Celt Sound System lead vocalist, Iarla Ó Lionáird. Rounding out the show, Lisa Moore (from Bang on a Can All-Stars) performs the world premiere of Donnacha Dennehy's new piece for piano and electronics called “Stainless Staining.” Crash Ensemble have transformed the Irish music scene over the last 10 years with their joyously “open-eared" yet rigorously focused attitude to new music. Crash Ensemble founder and composer Dennehy makes innovative use of technology to create sophisticated, fresh compositions all his own.

TRIO MEDIÆVAL
Anna Maria Friman, Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Torunn Østrem Ossum, the brilliant young Scandinavian sopranos of Trio Mediæval, specialize in a diverse repertoire that features polyphonic medieval music from England and France, contemporary works written for the ensemble and traditional Norwegian ballads and songs. Founded in Oslo in 1997, Trio Mediæval developed its unique repertory during intense periods of work at the Hilliard Summer Festivals in England and Germany between 1998 and 2000. At the outset of the 2005-06 season, Trio Mediæval’s highly anticipated third release, Stella Maris, was released on ECM records.

The trio performs new music and collaborates with a multitude of contemporary composers, including Gavin Bryars, Piers Hellawell, Roger Marsh, Ivan Moody, Paul Robinson, Gonzalo Macías, Markus Ludwig, Thoma Simaku, Oleh Harkavyy, Bjørn Kruse and Andrew Smith. In March 2005, the trio premiered Shelter in Cologne, Germany. This joint production of Bang on a Can composers- Michael Gordon, Julia Wolf & David Lang, German new music ensemble MusikFabrik, and Ridge Theater- received its U.S. premiere in November 2005 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

Trio Mediæval’s first CD on ECM Records, Words of the Angel, immediately charted on Billboard’s Top 10 Bestsellers list and was the April 2002 Stereophile “Recording of the Month.” The second recording, Soir, dit-elle (2004), features Leonel Power’s Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater along with Gavin Bryars, Andrew Smith and Ivan Moody, and met with similar critical and commercial success.

DONNACHA DENNEHY
Born in 1970, Donnacha Dennehy is a leading Irish new music composer living in Dublin. He has received commissions from the BBC, WNYC, RTE, Amsterdam Funds Voor der Kunst, the Arts Councils of both England and Ireland, and from many individual ensembles. Noted performers of his work include Bang On A Can All-Stars, Crash Ensemble, Electra, Ensemble Integrales, Jenny Lin, and San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, among many others. He now lectures in music technology and composition at Trinity College Dublin. He founded the Crash Ensemble in 1997 to concentrate on the newest music exploiting multimedia. Recent premieres include 'HIVE' (2005) commissioned by BBC Radio3 for the Ulster Orchestra and the National Chamber Choir of Ireland. The Weathering, which premiered at Lincoln Center in May 2004 by the Dutch group Electra, was described as being 'viscerally thrilling' by the New York Times.


CRASH ENSEMBLE
was founded in 1997 by composer Donnacha Dennehy, conductor and pianist Andrew Synott and clarinetist Michael Seaver. Their repertoire features the works of major composers of the 20th and 21st century, including Reich, Stockhausen, Andriessen, Glass, and Cage among many others. They have worked directly with composers such as Steve Reich, Louis Andriessen, Gavin Bryars, Michael Gordon, Kevin Volans and Arnold Dreyblatt in preparing important premieres and performances. Apart from their regular concerts in Ireland, they have also performed in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Canada and the USA, and have featured in radio broadcasts in all of those countries. The BBC broadcasted their recent December 2005 London debut in full. Crash has made an indelible mark on the Irish music scene and beyond. They believe in a joyous yet absolutely rigorous engagement with the most adventurous music today and the (extremely) recent past. In the coming year, Crash will feature in recordings to be released by labels such as NMC (London) and Cantaloupe (New York).

Additional Resources:
» Trio Mediaeval's website
» Donnacha Dennehy's website
» Crash Ensemble's website
» New Sounds Live 2006-2007 Concert Season
» Merkin Hall