Interval 6.3 Blog Post 2

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Contemporaneous playing Ryan Brown's Big Dig at Fordham University last month

This Thursday at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, Contemporaneous is delving into some of the most exciting music we know and love from this generation. We are incredibly excited to be presented by MATA and feel like kindred spirits with their mission of championing the work of young composers.Our program features music by four young New York composers whose music captures the visceral nature of improvised music from indie rock to Central African folk. Each of the four pieces was written for a specific band, and two were written for the composer's own groups. All of the pieces we are performing involve some element of live improvisation and also draw more generally on the energy and spontaneity of improvisation. We are having a blast with the music and know you will, too!Best known for his work as an electric guitarist with the indie-rock band The National, Bryce Dessner regularly writes for and plays on the new music scene as well, with such luminaries as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Nico Muhly, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. He has worked with Bang on a Can now for over 15 years and wrote his piece O Shut Your Eyes Against the Wind specifically for the All-Stars in 2010. From the strange and beautiful sound of a bowed electric guitar in the opening, the piece morphs gradually and organically into a driving and manic climax of pulsing rock-infused rhythm.Passenger Fish is an opera-in-progress that composer/keyboardist Wil Smith is writing for his own band of the same name. The opera takes place in an airport, and our excerpt focuses on the inner struggle of a soul-searching and benevolent flight attendant. As she comforts a crying baby, she reflects on her work with “lazy, dumb, and insincere” adults. “But tears are such a weak defense against the world’s incompetence,” she says, encouraging the baby to be even more of a grown-up than its parents. Contemporaneous soprano and co-executive director Lucy Dhegrae will sing this role in our performance.Now a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University, California-native Ryan Brown wrote his piece Big Dig for the Robin Cox Ensemble, which was founded by Ryan's former teacher, composer/violinist Robin Cox. The high-energy rhythms stem from Central African mbira music, in which he was immersed at the time he was composing this piece. It's a really fun and grooving piece that we love to play!Our performance on Thursday will be the sixth time Contemporaneous has performed David Moore’s ...and then it rained, which he wrote for his 13-member band Bing and Ruth. The score invites the performers to make many decisions of texture, instrumentation, and structure. For this reason, no two performances will be the same, but Moore’s heartfelt melody and arrestingly beautiful harmonies always come through. This piece can be found on Bing and Ruth’s most recent album City Lake, which is released on the composer’s own label Happy Talk.We can't wait to share this music live at Galapagos on Thursday and hope to see you there!— David Bloom, co-artistic director, Contemporaneous