Central to the new-music experience in New York.
– Time Out NY
Central to the new-music experience in New York.
– Time Out NY
Heather Kravas overly merry
May 3, 4, & 5, 2024
5/3 – 7:00pm
5/4 & 5 – 2:00pm
Chocolate Factory Theater
38-33 24th Street, Long Island City
TILT Brass Kravas Band
Jen Baker, Terry Green II, Sam Kulik, Chris McIntyre – trombone; Kavi McIntyre – trumpet; Ryan Sawyer, Dennis Sullivan – perc.
Drawing by Valentina Starkie, inspired by Remy Charlip
Huang Ruo, composer
David Henry Hwang, librettist
Carolyn Kuan, conductor
Chay Yew, director
Sunday, May 12, 2024 – Performance #1, 3pm
Tuesday, May 14, 2024 – Performance #2, 7pm
Thursday, May 16, 2024 – Performance #3, 7pm
Saturday, May 18, 2024 – Performance #4, 8pm
Sunday, May 19, 2024 – Performance #5, 3pm
PAC Event Page
On October 3, 2011, Chinese-American Army Pvt. Danny Chen was found dead in a guard tower at his base in Afghanistan. Based on his story and the ensuing courts-martial of Chen’s fellow soldiers, this New York City premiere opera tells the powerful true story of a young soldier from Manhattan’s Chinatown who sought to serve his country, only to find his biggest threat was the very people who swore to protect him.
Told through the multidimensional music of Huang Ruo (M. Butterfly, Book of Mountains and Seas) with libretto by Tony and Grammy winner David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Soft Power), and directed by Obie Award winner Chay Yew (Cambodian Rock Band, Sweatshop Overlord), An American Soldier is a powerful and unforgettable experience.
Co-Produced by PAC NYC, Boston Lyric Opera, and American Composers Orchestra.
The 2024 version was co-commissioned by PAC NYC and Boston Lyric Opera.
Saturday, May 18, 2024
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
RSVP for FREE tickets
EO Event Page
PROGRAM
Talib Rasul Hakim, composer
Currents (1967)
string quartet
Four (1965)
clarinet, trumpet, trombone, piano
Music for Nine Players and Soprano Voice (1977)
soprano, alto flute, English horn, bass clarinet, horn, trombone, piano,
cello, double bass, percussion
Psalm of Akhnaten; ca. 1365-1348 B.C. (1978)
mezzo soprano, flutes, piano
Scope-Seven (1965)
piano solo
Either/Or (EO) and International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) co-present and collaborate on a program of works by legendary Society of Black Composers co-founder Talib Rasul Hakim. Following the performance, a panel discussion featuring three MacArthur composers— Courtney Bryan, Tyshawn Sorey, and ICE AD George Lewis — and EO’s Richard Carrick and Chris McIntyre will discuss the history and ongoing impact of Hakim’s work.
Before his untimely passing, Talib Rasul Hakim (1940-88) was already becoming a widely influential composer, one who suffused his music for chamber and orchestral forces with intense deliberation, considered improvisations, dynamic rhythmic profiles, and purposeful silences. Hakim saw his compositions as more than just music: he saw music performance as the equivalent to an almost religious awakening. In the 1978 book The Black Composer Speaks, Hakim maintained, “It is hoped that whenever [my] music is performed, both performer and listener will experience some degree of inner stirring, that they will experience some philosophical, religious, political, emotional, intellectual experience.”
In this program, ICE and Either/Or present five diverse aspects of Hakim’s artistry that consider music as an encounter with the divine. The program includes performances of Psalm of Akhnaten; ca. 1365-1348 B.C. (1978), an imposing trio work that features a searching articulation of faith, mysticism, and spirituality; Currents (1967), his masterful entry to the string quartet canon; Scope-Seven (1965), an enigmatic solo piano work recently discovered within the vast holdings of the Library for the Performing Arts; Four (1965) for quartet; and Music for Nine Players and Soprano Voice (1977), which features the combined forces of ICE and Either/Or performers.
PERSONNEL
Either/Or
Richard Carrick, conductor
Jennifer Choi, violin
Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet
Pala Garcia, violin
Madison Greenstone, clarinet
Chris McIntyre, trombone
John Popham, cello
Kal Sugatski, viola
International Contemporary Ensemble
Fay Victor, mezzo-soprano
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, flute
Nicolee Kuester, horn
Cory Smythe, piano
Clara Warnaar, percussion
Panel
Courtney Bryan, composer; Tyshawn Sorey, composer; Richard Carrick, Director, Either/Or ; Chris McIntyre, Curator, Either/Or; George Lewis, Artistic Director, ICE
Image of Mr. Hakim from the William A. Brown Collection, courtesy of the Archives & Special Collections at Columbia College Chicago
Supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. More information at macfound.org.
Made possible in part through lead support from Arlene and Larry Dunn Fund for Afrodiasporic Music and the Cheswatyr Foundation.
Christopher McIntyre leads a varied career in music as a performer, composer, educator, and curator/producer. He performs a wide variety of material on trombone and synthesizer, ranging from fully notated concert works to open improvisations. Current projects include TILT Brass (Co-Founder & Director), Either/Or Ensemble (curator, performer), and frequent collaborations with choreographer Yoshiko Chuma and the School of Hard Knocks. McIntyre's trombone skills have been utilized in ensembles including SEM, Talea, Musikfabrik, The Knights, the Tri-Centric and Flexible Orchestras, Merce Cunningham Dance Co. (Legacy Tour including Park Ave Armory Events), among many others. He has worked directly with many composers, in their projects and in his own ensembles, including Joan La Barbara, Kitty Brazelton, Zeena Parkins, Lois V. Vierk, Richard Barrett, David Behrman, Jonathan Bepler (w/ Matthew Barney), Anthony Braxton, Anthony Coleman, James Fei, Fast Forward, David First, Daniel Goode, Chris Jonas, John King, Phill Niblock, Elliott Sharp, Michael Schumacher, Charles Waters, and Nate Wooley. Recordings of his performing and composing can be heard on New World, Tzadik, Mode, Edition Modern, POTTR, zOaR, and Non-Site Records, and on Archive.org.
McIntyre has contributed to the revival of composer, pianist, and vocalist Julius Eastman’s (1940-90) music, having transcribed and/or created score realizations for several works since 2006 including Stay On It (1973), Trumpet (1971), and Femenine (1974). McIntyre also led performances of Eastman’s music during Philadelphia-based Bowerbird’s Julius Eastman Festival in May 2017 and again during The Kitchen’s Julius Eastman: That Which Is Fundamental Festival in January 2018. He was interviewed by the NY Times to discuss the process of realizing the score for Trumpet.
McIntyre's compositions express a wide-range of musical and intellectual interests. He often experiments with spatialization, improvisative strategies, serialized rhythmic cycles, and symmetrical pitch construction. He uses conventional, instructional, and graphic notation systems to achieve these conceptual ends, frequently employing combinations of them within a single piece. He often finds inspiration in the work and ideas of visual artists, in particular Robert Smithson (Smithson Project), Sol LeWitt (Stuplimity Series), and Richard Serra (Precensing Pieces.) The work invests a great deal in the creativity and musicianship of its players; each performance is a unique iteration of the original material. His compositions have been performed by TILT Brass, Ne(x)tworks, 7X7 Trombone Band, Ullu, and Flexible Orchestra, with performances at venues including The Kitchen, Gagosian Gallery, City Center, ISSUE Project Room, Knockdown Center, Roulette, and Wave Farm.
Since 2018, McIntyre has been a member of the Brass & Chamber Music Faculty at Mannes School of Music at The New School. His nearly 30 years of experience in the fields of contemporary and experimental music inform every interaction with students. At Mannes, McIntyre created Chamber Brass Workshop, a course designed to expose students to a wide range of practices via performative work and research, approaching brass repertoire from historical, contemporary, and varied cultural perspectives to encourage inclusivity in 21st century brass practitioners. Prior to Mannes (his graduate school alma mater), he taught in various contexts, ranging from beginning trombone students to co-leading a lecture/workshop for Ensemble Connect at Carnegie Hall called Exploring Graphic Notation (for educators).
Beyond performing, creating, and teaching music, McIntyre is active as a curator and concert producer. He currently creates concert programs for Either/Or Ensemble, 2015 awardee of a CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. From 2007 to 2010 he was Artistic Director of MATA, a non-profit organization that commissions and presents the work of young composers. During his tenure, McIntyre conceived and launched the successful concert series Interval (co-presented with ISSUE Project Room) with friend and colleague Missy Mazzoli. He also curated and co-produced (with Mazzoli) three annual, week-long MATA Festivals, featuring groups such as Ensemble Pamplemousse, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Calder Quartet, So Percussion, NOW Ensemble, Either/Or, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project. As curator for the creative music group Ne(x)tworks from 2006 to 2009, he was responsible for concert programming including three annual multi-event residencies. He served as Associate Music Curator at The Kitchen, acting as Artistic Director of the ten-piece experimental chamber orchestra Kitchen House Blend, and lead curator of live events during New Sound, New York Festival (April '04). Independent curatorial projects include After 9 Evenings: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (September, 2016) and Syncretics Series (2017-18) at ISSUE Project Room; Composing With Patterns: Music at Mid-Century heard in the Rotunda at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (July '12); A full month of programs at The Stone (East Village) in June 2007 which featured the festival Trombonophilia and TILT Brass’ mini-festival ALL TILT; and multi-event projects at The Kitchen including Let's Go Swimming: A Tribute to Arthur Russell (May '08) and A Power Stronger Than Itself: A Celebration of the AACM (Oct '08). McIntyre has served on the Board of Directors for MATA Festival and Tri-Centric Foundation.
[updated Sep. '21]