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MATA's 2009 Festival drew strong critical acclaim from the press and music community's alike. Over four nights at Manhattan's (Le) Poisson Rouge, audiences were treated to performances of works by twenty-two young composers from around the world, including ten world premieres and four works commissioned by MATA. So Percussion, NOW Ensemble, The Knights, Ne(x)tworks, Bing and Rut and Sawako gave each of these works truly stellar, distinctive performances.
This year's commissionees were chosen from hundreds of hopefuls residing in 20 countries. They included Canadian aural collagist Nicole Lizée, who created a surrealistic joyride for So Percussion, and Irish provocateur Andrew Hamilton, whose MATA commissioned Product No. 1 was premiered by the Knights chamber orchestra to great acclaim. Brooklyn-based composer David Moore led a moving set by his own group, Bing and Ruth, and electronic soundscaper Mike Vernusky (Austin, TX) premiered a new sound installation created in collaboration with filmmaker Daniel Maldonado.
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" [MATA is] making New York a better place for contemporary music" Jeffrey Edelstein, MusicWeb International "New-music festivals are often nomadic, but the MATA Festival has wandered more widely than most, having started at the Anthology Film Archives in the East Village and moved to Chelsea and Brooklyn in recent years. Now it has settled in at Le Poisson Rouge, the Greenwich Village club that in the last year has become an important part of the new-music circuit. It is a perfect home for the festival: the club’s programming philosophy overlaps with MATA’s mission of presenting young composers who write in any style that suits them." - Allan Kozinn, New York Times 4/1/09 "...there were many incredible discoveries—from a piano and string quartet composition by MATA artistic director Chris McIntyre (whom I normally associate with trombone improv-type things) to a surreally meditative percussion work (those words already something of an oxymoron) by Cenk Ergün done by So Percussion (a group I normally associate with kinetic post-minimalism). Then there were amazing pieces by international composers I had never heard of before—a dreamy and occasionally nightmarish solo piano piece by Kate Moore, an Australian now based in the Netherlands, and a joyous orchestra sing-a-long by Irish maverick Andrew Hamilton which came across as something of a Gavin Bryars's Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet arranged by Conlon Nancarrow." - Frank J. Oteri, newmusicbox.org, 4/7/09 "The music performed by NOW Ensemble and Bing and Ruth is innovative, bold, and communicative, which, impressively, is typical of the MATA Festival. The concert was also surprising: it was suffused with nostalgia — an unusual mood coming from composers in their 20s and early 30s. But what are these composers nostalgic for if not their early memories; the comfort of childhood, the joy of discovering music, and the sense of limitless possibility. It is an unexpected sentiment to permeate a new music concert, but one that deepened the experience and has stayed with me. Is it nostalgia for what these composers once thought music — or life — was: a longing for a better past tomorrow?" - Jeffrey Edelstein, MusicWeb International "I always do a tiny double-take when I see publicity for MATA, the organization dedicated to the work of young composers, since in Spanish "mata" can be translated as "it kills." This year's festival, on four nights at (Le) Poisson Rouge, looks particularly ready to slay listeners with unusual fare." - Bruce Hodges, monotonousforest.com "For their 11th-annual festival, the folks at MATA have put together a stellar lineup, featuring string-and-brass ensembles, J-pop knob twiddlers, coffee-cup clangers, and much more." - Axel Anderson, Flavorpill |
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