2017 Composers Now Festival Opening Event

Wednesday, February 1, 2017 at 7:30pm

Cary Hall, DiMenna Center
450 West 37 Street, New York, NY

Tania León and IONE

The Opening Event of the seventh annual Composers Now Festival featured a vibrant program of music by living composers hosted by Composers Now founder and artistic director, Tania León. The event also included the second annual Composers Now Visionary Awards ceremony honoring Muhal Richard Abrams, Thomas Buckner, and Pauline Oliveros (posthumously). At the Opening Event, Composers Now was honored with a Proclamation presented on behalf of Mayor Bill de Blasio by Kathleen Hughes, Assistant Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs:

"I, Bill de Blasio, Mayor of the City of New York, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, February 1st, 2017 in the City of New York as: Composers Now Festival Day."

Muhal Richard Abrams Thomas Buckner Pauline Oliveros

Music by composers including:

Video Screenings by Fall 2016 Composers Now Creative Residents at the Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund:
 
Sasha Zamler-Carhart, composer, singer
Ngô Thanh Phu'o'ng, choreographer, dancer		  
Tonia Ko, composer
Yasuno Miyauchi, composer
Sasha Zamler-Carhart Ngô Thanh Phu'o'ng Tonia Ko Yasuno Miyauchi

 
Performances Featuring:

Muhal Richard Abrams, Four+ for piano

Muhal Richard Abrams

Edmar Castañeda, harp

 

Edmar Castenada

Jessie Montgomery, Strum for string quartet

Jessie Montgomery

Nkeiru Okoye, "The Cooking Song" and "The Chastity Song" from We've Got Our Eye on You

Krista Wozniak, Kamala Sankaram and Maria Elena Armijo, singers; Mila Henry, pianist
 
In collaboration with Opera on Tap

Nkeiru OkoyeOpera On Tap

Zamler-Carhart/Rauh/Greenberg

voice, electric guitar, glockenspiel

Zamler-Carhart/Rauh/Greenberg

Tyshawn Sorey, percussion

 

Tyshawn Sorey

 

Quartet: TSU, excerpts from works by Paris Lavidis and Michelle David