Pushing The Envelope: Music Decidedly Left Center

Greetings!

PTE's radio presence continues for it's 28th year, airing on Saturday mornings from 10am – 1pm EST on WHUS / Storrs, CT (http://www.whus.org/listen-live).

PTE and CT Summerfest are pleased to bring you a new series of interviews with the CT Summerfest ensembles-in residence and composer faculty.

Enjoy!

Joel

CT SUMMERFEST is a weeklong contemporary music festival for the education and career advancement of emerging composers and performers. The festival is comprised of seminars, lessons, rehearsals, and recording sessions for participants, as well as a free concert series open to the public, featuring ensembles-in-residence and new works by participant composers!  

The concerts will take place from June 15-19 at The Hartt School's Berkman Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT.

All of Connecticut Summerfest's concerts are free to attend and open to the public. No advanced ticket reservation is required, and live streams are available!

http://xelanaduo.com/

Xelana Duo balances the refinement of classical music while zigzagging through hip-hop, blues, flamenco, bollywood, and rock n' roll. The Duo surprises you with an unexpected instrumentation filled with vibrant shades, that are each dazzling on their own, but simply breathtaking when joined together. Daring these two instruments to have a conversation, Xelana Duo commissions electrifying works, creating an ice-breaker for this unusual collaboration of bassoon and saxophone.

Ana and Alex return to Connecticut Summerfest for a second year as one of three ensembles-in-residence.   During our talk, they catch us up on what has developed since last year's Summerfest and their future plans.

Enjoy!

Greetings!

Welcome to the return of the Pushing The Envelope Podcast!  PTE and CT Summerfest are pleased to bring you the fourth in a series of interviews with the CT Summerfest ensembles-in residence and composer faculty. Today's podcast features an interview with CT Summerfest ensemble-in-residence, Apple Orange Pair.

Don't forget, PTE's radio presence continues for it's 27th year, airing on Saturdays from 11am to 2pm EST on WHUS / Storrs, CT (http://www.whus.org/listen-live).

Enjoy!

Joel

CT SUMMERFEST is a weeklong contemporary music festival for the education and career advancement of emerging composers and performers. The festival is comprised of seminars, lessons, rehearsals, and recording sessions for participants, as well as a free concert series open to the public, featuring ensembles-in-residence and new works by participant composers!  

The concerts will take place from June 16-20 at The Hartt School's Berkman Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT.

All of Connecticut Summerfest's concerts are free to attend and open to the public. No advanced ticket reservation is required, and live streams are available!

Apple Orange Pair (Emily Boyer, horn, and Colleen Potter Thorburn, harp) is a duo committed to engaging audiences through a growing repertoire for this unexpected pairing. Since its founding in Connecticut in 2010, the duo has premiered fourteen new works by emerging composers. Five of these new works are featured on their debut album, “Seeds,” released in 2013. Apple Orange Pair regularly serves as an ensemble-in-residence at new music festivals and universities, where they present workshops on contemporary composition for their instruments and bring to life new works by student and faculty composers.

They have performed as ensemble-in-residence at Connecticut Summerfest at Hartt School of Music in Hartford, where they are returning for a second season this June, and are serving as ensemble-in-residence for Central Connecticut State University’s music department for the 2016-2017 academic year.

Apple Orange Pair has been honored as the recipient of commissioning grants from the American Harp Society and the Yale School of Music’s alumniVentures program. They have also participated in several chamber music residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire.

For further information, please visit http://www.appleorangepair.com

Greetings!

Welcome to the return of the Pushing The Envelope Podcast!  PTE and CT Summerfest are pleased to bring you the third in a series of interviews with the CT Summerfest ensembles-in residence and composer faculty. Today's podcast features an interview with CT Summerfest composer faculty member, Gilda Lyons.

Don't forget, PTE's radio presence continues for it's 27th year, airing on Saturdays from 11am to 2pm EST on WHUS / Storrs, CT (http://www.whus.org/listen-live).

Enjoy!

Joel

CT SUMMERFEST is a weeklong contemporary music festival for the education and career advancement of emerging composers and performers. The festival is comprised of seminars, lessons, rehearsals, and recording sessions for participants, as well as a free concert series open to the public, featuring ensembles-in-residence and new works by participant composers!  

The concerts will take place from June 16-20 at The Hartt School's Berkman Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT.

All of Connecticut Summerfest's concerts are free to attend and open to the public. No advanced ticket reservation is required, and live streams are available!

GILDA LYONS, composer, vocalist, and visual artist, combines elements of renaissance, neo-baroque, spectral, folk, agitprop Music Theater, and extended vocalism to create works of uncompromising emotional honesty and melodic beauty. An active vocalist and fierce advocate of contemporary music, Dr. Lyons has commissioned, premiered, and workshopped new vocal works by dozens of composers.

She received her Ph.D. in Music Composition from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Bard College. Dr. Lyons made her professional debut as composer and vocalist with the American Symphony Chamber Orchestra in 1997, performing the world premiere of her orchestral song cycle "Feis." 

As composer, current recording projects include the release of Lyons’ work by Quince and Entelechron in the upcoming season. Lyons’ vocal collaboration with Laura Ward will be released on Lyric Fest’s all-Hagen CD. Sing for Hope featured Lyons' Hold On on their most recent release, An AIDS Quilt Songbook. Lindsey Goodman's tour de force performance of Lyons' Chrysalis was released on Goodman's debut CD, reach through the sky. As composer and vocalist her works and performances are available on the Clarion, GPR Records, Naxos, New Dynamic Records, and Roven Records labels.

Dr. Lyons serves on the Board of Advisors of Composers Now and teaches composition at The Hartt School, University of Hartford. In addition, she is Artistic and Executive Director of The Phoenix Concerts, New York's "intrepid" and "plucky Upper West Side new-music series" (The New Yorker). Their mission is to offer excellent contemporary concert music of a broad stylistic range, commission new works by emerging and established composers and to remain committed to the inclusive nature of musical performance.

For further information, please visit  www.gildalyons.com.

Greetings!

Welcome to the return of the Pushing The Envelope Podcast!  PTE and CT Summerfest are pleased to bring you the second in a series of interviews with the CT Summerfest ensembles-in residence and composer faculty.

Don't forget, PTE's radio presence continues for it's 27th year, airing on Saturday mornings from 10am – 1pm EST on WHUS / Storrs, CT (http://www.whus.org/listen-live).

Enjoy!

Joel

CT SUMMERFEST is a weeklong contemporary music festival for the education and career advancement of emerging composers and performers. The festival is comprised of seminars, lessons, rehearsals, and recording sessions for participants, as well as a free concert series open to the public, featuring ensembles-in-residence and new works by participant composers!  

The concerts will take place from June 16-20 at The Hartt School's Berkman Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT.

All of Connecticut Summerfest's concerts are free to attend and open to the public. No advanced ticket reservation is required, and live streams are available!

Ken Steen is a composer, sound artist and educator living in Glastonbury, CT. His music sits squarely on the frontier between the acoustic and electronic domains of musical expression; often combining traditional orchestra, chamber ensemble or soloist with electronic instruments or processed sound and noise.  He is currently Professor of Composition and Theory, director of Studio D at the Hartt School, University of Hartford and member of the 2017 CT Summerfest composition faculty.

In addition to composing concert music in many forms, Steen has composed a wide variety of works both acoustic and electronic for sound installation, dance, theater and web-distribution. His music and soundworks have been featured on concert and radio programs throughout the U.S.A., Canada, Italy, Belgium, Romania, Australia, Cuba and Japan among others.

Steen's music can be found on the Capstone, Vienna Modern Masters, Auralit and CRI CD labels, as well as at www.kensteen.com, and is published by University of Arizona Publications, Harrock Hall Music as well as American Composers Edition.  

Greetings!

Welcome to the return of the Pushing The Envelope Podcast!  PTE and CT Summerfest are pleased to bring you the second in a series of interviews with the CT Summerfest ensembles-in residence and composer faculty.

Don't forget, PTE's radio presence continues for it's 27th year, airing on Saturday mornings from 10am – 1pm EST on WHUS / Storrs, CT (http://www.whus.org/listen-live).

Enjoy!

Joel

CT SUMMERFEST is a weeklong contemporary music festival for the education and career advancement of emerging composers and performers. The festival is comprised of seminars, lessons, rehearsals, and recording sessions for participants, as well as a free concert series open to the public, featuring ensembles-in-residence and new works by participant composers!  

The concerts will take place from June 16-20 at The Hartt School's Berkman Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT.

All of Connecticut Summerfest's concerts are free to attend and open to the public. No advanced ticket reservation is required, and live streams are available!

Ken Steen is a composer, sound artist and educator living in Glastonbury, CT. His music sits squarely on the frontier between the acoustic and electronic domains of musical expression; often combining traditional orchestra, chamber ensemble or soloist with electronic instruments or processed sound and noise.  He is currently Professor of Composition and Theory, director of Studio D at the Hartt School, University of Hartford and member of the 2017 CT Summerfest composition faculty.

In addition to composing concert music in many forms, Steen has composed a wide variety of works both acoustic and electronic for sound installation, dance, theater and web-distribution. His music and soundworks have been featured on concert and radio programs throughout the U.S.A., Canada, Italy, Belgium, Romania, Australia, Cuba and Japan among others.

Steen's music can be found on the Capstone, Vienna Modern Masters, Auralit and CRI CD labels, as well as at www.kensteen.com, and is published by University of Arizona Publications, Harrock Hall Music as well as American Composers Edition.  

Greetings!

As the phoenix rises from the ashes, so returns the Pushing The Envelope Podcast!  PTE's radio presence continues for it's 27yh year, airing on Saturday mornings from 10am – 1pm EST on WHUS / Storrs, CT (http://www.whus.org/listen-live).

PTE and CT Summerfest are pleased to bring you the first in a series of interviews with the CT Summerfest ensembles-in residence and composer faculty.

Enjoy!

Joel

CT SUMMERFEST is a weeklong contemporary music festival for the education and career advancement of emerging composers and performers. The festival is comprised of seminars, lessons, rehearsals, and recording sessions for participants, as well as a free concert series open to the public, featuring ensembles-in-residence and new works by participant composers!  

The concerts will take place from June 16-20 at The Hartt School's Berkman Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT.

All of Connecticut Summerfest's concerts are free to attend and open to the public. No advanced ticket reservation is required, and live streams are available!

https://youtu.be/JrzF8r9vrxE

Xelana Duo balances the refinement of classical music while zigzagging through hip-hop, blues, flamenco, bollywood, and rock n' roll. The Duo surprises you with an unexpected instrumentation filled with vibrant shades, that are each dazzling on their own, but simply breathtaking when joined together. Daring these two instruments to have a conversation, Xelana Duo commissions electrifying works, creating an ice-breaker for this unusual collaboration of bassoon and saxophone.

Get to know Ana García Caraballos and Alex Davis, the artists behind Xelana Duo!

Landler Land      composer:

While “Pushing The Envelope” has continued with its radio presence, airing on Saturday mornings from 10 – Noon EST on WHUS / Storrs, CT (tune in: http://www.whus.org/listen-live ).  The podcast, on the other hand, has had to take a back seat to grad school.  That being said, it’s not every day we have the opportunity celebrate John Cage’s 100th birthday.

Enjoy!

Joel

Episode 16: John Cage 100th Birthday PTE Podcast (9-8-12)