Highlights include Miguel Zenon's Multi-Media Masterpiece: Identities Are Changeable: Tales From The Diaspora
Randy Weston with the NEC Jazz Orchestra
Faculty Recitalby Fred Hersch and Tanya Kalmanovitch
In The Mix - 36 one-hour concerts by exceptional student ensembles – and many more
New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble’s internationally renowned Jazz Studies and Contemporary Improvisation Departments announce nearly 60 free concerts for the Spring 2013 season. Highlights include the third-ever performance of MacArthur Fellow and NEC faculty member Miguel Zenón’s multi-media masterpiece Identities Are Changeable: Tales From The Diaspora featuring Zenón’s Quartet and the NEC Jazz Orchestra on February 22, 2013, Randy Weston with the NEC Jazz Orchestra on April 18, 2013, faculty recitals by Fred Hersch and Tanya Kalmanovitch, In the Mix, 39 one-hour concerts featuring exceptional student ensembles, concerts by the NEC Youth Jazz Orchestra and NEC Prep students in a Jazz Combo Festival. All concerts are free and open to the public, except for the Miguel Zenón concert and events in venues outside of NEC.
Spring 2013 Events
All concerts at 8 p.m. except the In the Mix events which take place at 7, 8 and 9 p.m., each with a different ensemble.
Saturdays, January 12 & 19
NEC Prep Jazz Combo Festival - Saint Botolph Bldg. Room G 01
Monday, January 28
Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Faculty Spotlight Concert - Jordan Hall
Members of NEC's Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation faculty come together giving audiences a rare opportunity to catch them in the act—working in combinations that may never occur outside NEC’s walls.
Tuesday, January 29
Brando Noir - Jordan Hall
Now an annual tradition, this year’s multi-media Film Noir
extravaganza (rescheduled due to the October hurricane), curated by Ran Blake and Aaron Hartley, switches from a director focus to the work of the actor who brought the word “brooding" into everyday speech: Marlon Brando.
Wednesday, January 30
Tyler Gilmore A Rambling Stretch - Brown Hall Renowned composer Tyler Gilmore, a second year master’s student in NEC’s highly acclaimed jazz studies department, premieres his multi-media work A Rambling Stretch, a personal portrait of life on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Thursday, February 14
Jason Moran Residency Concert - Brown Hall
Tuesday, February 19
From Third Stream to Contemporary Improvisation - Jordan Hall
Co-curated by Gunther Schuller and Tanya Kalmanovitch, with a 6:15 p.m. pre-concert panel discussion in the Keller Room moderated by Tanya Kalmanovitch, featuring Gunther Schuller, Ran Blake, Allan Chase, and Hankus Netsky.
Friday, February 22
Miguel Zenón Quartet w. NEC Jazz Orchestra - Jordan Hall
Third-ever performance of Zenón’s multimedia masterpiece: Identities Are Changeable: Tales From The Diaspora. With Zenón’s Quartet — Zenón with Luis Perdomo, piano; Hans Glawischnig, bass; Henry Cole, drums — and the NEC Jazz Orchestra conducted by Ken Schaphorst, along with video by David Dempewolf.
Wednesday, February 27
Dominique Eade and Ran Blake - Scullers Jazz Club
Now in their third decade of collaborations, two of NEC’s most acclaimed faculty members team up for a night of duets and noir interplay with music and film. It’s a belated celebration of their CD Whirlpool, which Lucid Culture called “absolutely chilling and absolutely exhilarating. It makes you glad to be alive.”
Sunday, March 3, 7 p.m.
Eternal Echoes: Songs and Dances for the Soul - Symphony Hall
Featuring violinist Itzhak Perlman, vocal soloist Chazan Yitzchok Meir Helfgot and musical director Hankus Netsky, Chair of NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation Department and Maestro Russell Ger with members of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and Chamber Orchestra. Presented by the Celebrity Series.
Sunday, March 10
Tanya Kalmanovitch Faculty Recital - Jordan Hall
Tuesday, March 12
Fred Hersch Faculty Recital - Jordan Hall
Thursday, March 14
Music of Dave Holland - Brown Hall
Featuring NEC student ensembles coached by Dave Holland.
Sunday, March 17
Kalmanovitch, Coleman, Reichman - Cornelia Street Café, NYC Friends and faculty members in NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation Department, Kalmanovitch, Coleman and Reichman walk the contested spaces between composition and improvisation, and art music, free improvisation and popular song.
Wednesday, March 20
Today's Jewish Music: From NEC to the Downtown Scene - Thalia Theater at Symphony Space
Performance featuring NEC alumni Frank London, Hankus Netsky, Greg Wall, Lily Henley, Marty Ehrlich, Matt Darriau, Anthony Coleman and others. It will be preceded by a panel discussion on New England Conservatory's role in the contemporary Renaissance of Jewish Music.
Thursday, March 21
Contemporary Improvisation Festival curated by Anthony Coleman - Barbes
With Matt Darriau, Frank London, Ashley Paul, Cuddle Magic, Mat Maneri, Andrew Hock, Judith Berkson.
Saturday, March 23
New England Conservatory Presents: CI at 40 - Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space
For forty years New England Conservatory's Contemporary Improvisation Department has been changing the conversation around improvisation and composition. Join us in an evening celebrating the joy of musical innovation, featuring performances by our trailblazing faculty and alumni including Ran Blake, Dominique Eade, The Claudia Quintet, Christine Correa, John Medeski, Anthony Coleman and Eden MacAdam-Somer.
Monday, April 1
In the Mix: McNeil, Carlberg - Pierce Hall
Tuesday, April 2
In the Mix: Schaphorst, Kalmanovitch - Pierce Hall
Thursday, April 4
NEC Jazz Jam Session - Brown Hall
Monday, April 8
Monk/Webern - Jordan Hall
A concert celebrating two 20th-century compositional masters: Thelonious Monk and Anton Webern curated by Anthony Coleman.
Monday, April 8
In the Mix: Bergonzi - Pierce Hall
Tuesday, April 9
In the Mix: Johnson vocal, Dijkstra - Pierce Hall
Wednesday, April 10
In the Mix: Moran, Stagnaro - Pierce Hall
Thursday, April 11
Jazz, The Next Generation - Brown Hall
Monday, April 15
Full Salon and Bright House Quartet - Jordan Hall
Each year, an audition committee of professional musicians selects a few exceptional students ensembles to represent the NEC Honors Ensemble Program. Tonight's concert features two Honors Ensembles: Full Salon from NEC’s Jazz program, and Bright House Quartet from the Contemporary Improvisation program.
Tuesday, April 16
In the Mix: CI Ensembles - Pierce Hall
Wednesday, April 17
In the Mix: CI Ensembles - Pierce Hall
April 18
Randy Weston with NEC Jazz Orchestra - Jordan Hall
April 16 - 18 residency featuring pianist/composer Randy Weston, culminating in a concert with the NEC Jazz Orchestra directed by Ken Schaphorst. Weston is renowned as one of the world's foremost improvising pianists and is widely credited for his pioneering work in bringing African and Middle Eastern roots music to the world of American improvisation.
Monday, April 22
In the Mix: Seager, Lockwood, Reichman - Pierce Hall
Tuesday, April 23
Jazz Composers Workshop Orchestra - Jordan Hall Student composers coached by Frank Carlberg.
Thursday, April 25
In the Mix: Hunt, McBee - Pierce Hall
Monday, April 29
In the Mix: Moses, Morris - Pierce Hall
Tuesday, April 30
In the Mix: Eade - Pierce Hall
Wednesday, May 1
In the Mix: Nieske, Leake - Pierce Hall
Saturdays, May 11 & 18
NEC Prep Jazz Combo Festival - Saint Botolph Bldg. Room G 01
Wednesday, May 15
NEC Youth Jazz Orchestra - Jordan Hall
Founded in 1972 by musical visionaries Gunther Schuller and Ran Blake, New England Conservatory's Contemporary Improvisation program celebrates its 40th anniversary in the 2012-2013 season with a series fo events in Boston and New York City. NEC’s CI Program trains creative musicians to broaden their musical palettes and develop unique voices as composer/performer/ improvisers and is unparalleled for its structured approach to ear training and its emphasis on singing, memorization, harmonic sophistication, aesthetic integrity, and stylistic openness. . Under Blake's guidance for its first twenty-six years, the program expanded its offerings under subsequent chairs Allan Chase and Hankus Netsky. Alumni include clarinetist/composer Don Byron, keyboardist John Medeski, pianist Jacqueline Schwab, and vocalist Aoife O'Donovan; faculty include violinist Carla Kihlstedt, iconic improvisational pianist Blake, vocalist Dominique Eade, and pianist/composer/ improviser Anthony Coleman. Appearing at a departmental event in the fall of 2011 that included world music, chamber music and free improvisation, Gunther Schuller, who coined the term “Third Stream" in the 1950s and articulated the idea of the “Complete Musician" during his presidency at NEC remarked: “I feel that my vision for this department has now been realized." The program currently has 43 undergrad and graduate students from 15 countries.
NEC’s Jazz Studies Department was the first fully accredited jazz studies program at a music conservatory. With a faculty that has included six MacArthur “genius" grant recipients (3 now teaching) and four NEA Jazz Masters, and alumni that reads like a who’s who of jazz, NEC’s Jazz Studies Program, now in its 43rd year, has spawned numerous Grammy winning composers and performers. As Mike West writes in JazzTimes: “NEC’s jazz studies department is among the most acclaimed and successful in the world; so says the roster of visionary artists that have comprised both its faculty and alumni.” The program currently has 61 undergraduate and 45 graduate students from 12 countries.
Randy Weston with the NEC Jazz Orchestra
Faculty Recitalby Fred Hersch and Tanya Kalmanovitch
In The Mix - 36 one-hour concerts by exceptional student ensembles – and many more
New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble’s internationally renowned Jazz Studies and Contemporary Improvisation Departments announce nearly 60 free concerts for the Spring 2013 season. Highlights include the third-ever performance of MacArthur Fellow and NEC faculty member Miguel Zenón’s multi-media masterpiece Identities Are Changeable: Tales From The Diaspora featuring Zenón’s Quartet and the NEC Jazz Orchestra on February 22, 2013, Randy Weston with the NEC Jazz Orchestra on April 18, 2013, faculty recitals by Fred Hersch and Tanya Kalmanovitch, In the Mix, 39 one-hour concerts featuring exceptional student ensembles, concerts by the NEC Youth Jazz Orchestra and NEC Prep students in a Jazz Combo Festival. All concerts are free and open to the public, except for the Miguel Zenón concert and events in venues outside of NEC.
Spring 2013 Events
All concerts at 8 p.m. except the In the Mix events which take place at 7, 8 and 9 p.m., each with a different ensemble.
Saturdays, January 12 & 19
NEC Prep Jazz Combo Festival - Saint Botolph Bldg. Room G 01
Monday, January 28
Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Faculty Spotlight Concert - Jordan Hall
Members of NEC's Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation faculty come together giving audiences a rare opportunity to catch them in the act—working in combinations that may never occur outside NEC’s walls.
Tuesday, January 29
Brando Noir - Jordan Hall
Now an annual tradition, this year’s multi-media Film Noir
extravaganza (rescheduled due to the October hurricane), curated by Ran Blake and Aaron Hartley, switches from a director focus to the work of the actor who brought the word “brooding" into everyday speech: Marlon Brando.
Wednesday, January 30
Tyler Gilmore A Rambling Stretch - Brown Hall Renowned composer Tyler Gilmore, a second year master’s student in NEC’s highly acclaimed jazz studies department, premieres his multi-media work A Rambling Stretch, a personal portrait of life on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Thursday, February 14
Jason Moran Residency Concert - Brown Hall
Tuesday, February 19
From Third Stream to Contemporary Improvisation - Jordan Hall
Co-curated by Gunther Schuller and Tanya Kalmanovitch, with a 6:15 p.m. pre-concert panel discussion in the Keller Room moderated by Tanya Kalmanovitch, featuring Gunther Schuller, Ran Blake, Allan Chase, and Hankus Netsky.
Friday, February 22
Miguel Zenón Quartet w. NEC Jazz Orchestra - Jordan Hall
Third-ever performance of Zenón’s multimedia masterpiece: Identities Are Changeable: Tales From The Diaspora. With Zenón’s Quartet — Zenón with Luis Perdomo, piano; Hans Glawischnig, bass; Henry Cole, drums — and the NEC Jazz Orchestra conducted by Ken Schaphorst, along with video by David Dempewolf.
Wednesday, February 27
Dominique Eade and Ran Blake - Scullers Jazz Club
Now in their third decade of collaborations, two of NEC’s most acclaimed faculty members team up for a night of duets and noir interplay with music and film. It’s a belated celebration of their CD Whirlpool, which Lucid Culture called “absolutely chilling and absolutely exhilarating. It makes you glad to be alive.”
Sunday, March 3, 7 p.m.
Eternal Echoes: Songs and Dances for the Soul - Symphony Hall
Featuring violinist Itzhak Perlman, vocal soloist Chazan Yitzchok Meir Helfgot and musical director Hankus Netsky, Chair of NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation Department and Maestro Russell Ger with members of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and Chamber Orchestra. Presented by the Celebrity Series.
Sunday, March 10
Tanya Kalmanovitch Faculty Recital - Jordan Hall
Tuesday, March 12
Fred Hersch Faculty Recital - Jordan Hall
Thursday, March 14
Music of Dave Holland - Brown Hall
Featuring NEC student ensembles coached by Dave Holland.
Sunday, March 17
Kalmanovitch, Coleman, Reichman - Cornelia Street Café, NYC Friends and faculty members in NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation Department, Kalmanovitch, Coleman and Reichman walk the contested spaces between composition and improvisation, and art music, free improvisation and popular song.
Wednesday, March 20
Today's Jewish Music: From NEC to the Downtown Scene - Thalia Theater at Symphony Space
Performance featuring NEC alumni Frank London, Hankus Netsky, Greg Wall, Lily Henley, Marty Ehrlich, Matt Darriau, Anthony Coleman and others. It will be preceded by a panel discussion on New England Conservatory's role in the contemporary Renaissance of Jewish Music.
Thursday, March 21
Contemporary Improvisation Festival curated by Anthony Coleman - Barbes
With Matt Darriau, Frank London, Ashley Paul, Cuddle Magic, Mat Maneri, Andrew Hock, Judith Berkson.
Saturday, March 23
New England Conservatory Presents: CI at 40 - Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space
For forty years New England Conservatory's Contemporary Improvisation Department has been changing the conversation around improvisation and composition. Join us in an evening celebrating the joy of musical innovation, featuring performances by our trailblazing faculty and alumni including Ran Blake, Dominique Eade, The Claudia Quintet, Christine Correa, John Medeski, Anthony Coleman and Eden MacAdam-Somer.
Monday, April 1
In the Mix: McNeil, Carlberg - Pierce Hall
Tuesday, April 2
In the Mix: Schaphorst, Kalmanovitch - Pierce Hall
Thursday, April 4
NEC Jazz Jam Session - Brown Hall
Monday, April 8
Monk/Webern - Jordan Hall
A concert celebrating two 20th-century compositional masters: Thelonious Monk and Anton Webern curated by Anthony Coleman.
Monday, April 8
In the Mix: Bergonzi - Pierce Hall
Tuesday, April 9
In the Mix: Johnson vocal, Dijkstra - Pierce Hall
Wednesday, April 10
In the Mix: Moran, Stagnaro - Pierce Hall
Thursday, April 11
Jazz, The Next Generation - Brown Hall
Monday, April 15
Full Salon and Bright House Quartet - Jordan Hall
Each year, an audition committee of professional musicians selects a few exceptional students ensembles to represent the NEC Honors Ensemble Program. Tonight's concert features two Honors Ensembles: Full Salon from NEC’s Jazz program, and Bright House Quartet from the Contemporary Improvisation program.
Tuesday, April 16
In the Mix: CI Ensembles - Pierce Hall
Wednesday, April 17
In the Mix: CI Ensembles - Pierce Hall
April 18
Randy Weston with NEC Jazz Orchestra - Jordan Hall
April 16 - 18 residency featuring pianist/composer Randy Weston, culminating in a concert with the NEC Jazz Orchestra directed by Ken Schaphorst. Weston is renowned as one of the world's foremost improvising pianists and is widely credited for his pioneering work in bringing African and Middle Eastern roots music to the world of American improvisation.
Monday, April 22
In the Mix: Seager, Lockwood, Reichman - Pierce Hall
Tuesday, April 23
Jazz Composers Workshop Orchestra - Jordan Hall Student composers coached by Frank Carlberg.
Thursday, April 25
In the Mix: Hunt, McBee - Pierce Hall
Monday, April 29
In the Mix: Moses, Morris - Pierce Hall
Tuesday, April 30
In the Mix: Eade - Pierce Hall
Wednesday, May 1
In the Mix: Nieske, Leake - Pierce Hall
Saturdays, May 11 & 18
NEC Prep Jazz Combo Festival - Saint Botolph Bldg. Room G 01
Wednesday, May 15
NEC Youth Jazz Orchestra - Jordan Hall
Founded in 1972 by musical visionaries Gunther Schuller and Ran Blake, New England Conservatory's Contemporary Improvisation program celebrates its 40th anniversary in the 2012-2013 season with a series fo events in Boston and New York City. NEC’s CI Program trains creative musicians to broaden their musical palettes and develop unique voices as composer/performer/ improvisers and is unparalleled for its structured approach to ear training and its emphasis on singing, memorization, harmonic sophistication, aesthetic integrity, and stylistic openness. . Under Blake's guidance for its first twenty-six years, the program expanded its offerings under subsequent chairs Allan Chase and Hankus Netsky. Alumni include clarinetist/composer Don Byron, keyboardist John Medeski, pianist Jacqueline Schwab, and vocalist Aoife O'Donovan; faculty include violinist Carla Kihlstedt, iconic improvisational pianist Blake, vocalist Dominique Eade, and pianist/composer/ improviser Anthony Coleman. Appearing at a departmental event in the fall of 2011 that included world music, chamber music and free improvisation, Gunther Schuller, who coined the term “Third Stream" in the 1950s and articulated the idea of the “Complete Musician" during his presidency at NEC remarked: “I feel that my vision for this department has now been realized." The program currently has 43 undergrad and graduate students from 15 countries.
NEC’s Jazz Studies Department was the first fully accredited jazz studies program at a music conservatory. With a faculty that has included six MacArthur “genius" grant recipients (3 now teaching) and four NEA Jazz Masters, and alumni that reads like a who’s who of jazz, NEC’s Jazz Studies Program, now in its 43rd year, has spawned numerous Grammy winning composers and performers. As Mike West writes in JazzTimes: “NEC’s jazz studies department is among the most acclaimed and successful in the world; so says the roster of visionary artists that have comprised both its faculty and alumni.” The program currently has 61 undergraduate and 45 graduate students from 12 countries.
For more information contact Braithwaite & Katz Communications.
