Saturday, November 28, 2009

Rehearsing...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Quick post just to put up a few pictures - we're rehearsing all weekend for our concert on Monday (tickets at the Carnegie Hall website), pretty exciting stuff going on! I feel like we say this every time, but it is really amazing to see everything coming together after months of anticipation and preparation.It is amazing watching this orchestra shift from piece to piece. First a Chinese folk singer, then a jazz pianist riffing on 'Now's the Time' and finishing off the day qith a work dedicated to the traditions of the Navajo Indians. No rest for ACO musicians and never a dull moment...



Conductor Stefan Lano rehearsing with Huang Ruo and the orchestra


Percussionist Jonathan Haas rehearses Huang Ruo's Leaving Sao


Stefan Lano and pianist Donal Fox rehearse Peace Out


Donal Fox and Creative Advisor Derek Bermel

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The Brotherhood/Sister Sol and Curt Cacioppo

Just a few days ago on November 20th we had a fantastic program with Curt Cacioppo and an amazing group of kids from The Brotherhood/Sister Sol. Curt's brand new work When the Orchard Dances Ceased will be premiered next week (!) at Zankel Hall, when Curt will perform with the orchestra, singing in the Navajo Indian style and playing traditional Navajo instruments. At the event with Brotherhood/Sister Sol, Curt demonstrated some of the music and brought his instruments for the kids to try out. The kids had a great time, and we are very excited to be welcoming them to the concert next week!

Curt with Navajo InstrumentStudent with Navajo Instrument
















Photos by Lyn Liston.

Monday, November 23, 2009

We've been busy! - Colin and Erin collaborate for our season-opener....

Wow, the last few months have been really busy here at ACO! Between gearing up for our season opener concert at Zankel Hall, education programming, submissions for our New Music Readings programs, and our Composers OutFront! series, its hard to imagine that just a few months ago it was summertime and we were blissfully getting ahead on projects...

On October 30th we had our first Composers OutFront! concert of the season, featuring creative siblings Erin and Colin Gee at The Whitney Museum in a performance and discussion. ACO will be premiering Erin's new work
Mouthpiece XVIII: Mathilde of Loci, Part 1 at our season opener concert on November 30th. (Psst - check out all of our season highlights here). For a "behind the scenes" look at Erin and Colin's collaboration process, as well as excerpts from the Composers OutFront performance, check out this video by our filmmaker Jeremy Robins: