We’re gearing up for June in Buffalo 2013 and preparing to host
the renown
Talea Ensemble for the festival, from June 3 – 9. They’ll be
traveling here from New York City with conductor
James Baker, and will be
rehearsing and performing pieces by June in Buffalo student composers, and offering an evening concert of works by June in Buffalo Faculty composers.
Talea has been very active recently – just last year they
released an exquisite album of music by
Fausto Romitelli on John Zorn’s label,
Tzadik, which they recorded at EMPAC. The CD features five very thoughtfully
interpretted chamber ensemble pieces:
Amok
Koma (2001),
Domeniche alla periferia
dell”impero (2000),
La sabbia del
tempo (1991),
Nell”alto dei giorni
immobili (1990), and
Blood on the
Floor, Painting 1986 (2000).
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| Talea Ensemble |
Currently, the Talea Ensemble is preparing a concert of
pieces by Austrian composer Beat Furrer, which they’ll be presenting at the
Austrian Cultural Forum in New York City on May 14th. Two days later, they’ll
give the U.S. premiere of Beat Furrer’s opera
Fama, on both May 16th and 17th. More on the premiere
here.
One thing we love about Talea is their indefatigable
enthusiasm for the music of our time, and the tremendous energy they bring to contemporary
American musical life. A bit from their
mission statement below:
“In music, the term talea (literally, “cutting” in Latin)
refers to collections of repeating, cycling rhythmic patterns. Most often, these
patterns are associated with the ars nova period of Medieval music in which new
techniques of musical composition were emerging.Talea has also been used in
several other traditions including Indian classical music (tala in Sanskrit – a
wonderful linguistic coincidence), and throughout the ages in Western music,
from the composer Guillaume de Machaut in the 14th Century to Olivier Messiaen
and Gérard Grisey in the 20th Century. This idea of a global, timeless, and
cutting-edge musical practice, inventive in its construction and beautiful in
its execution, is at the root of the Talea Ensemble’s artistic direction.
“The Talea Ensemble is committed to promoting new,
groundbreaking music through innovative programming thereby communicating the
distinctive voices of composers that deserve to be heard. By commissioning and
programming these progressive works alongside the established literature of
modern and contemporary repertoire, the ensemble creates a dialogue that
challenges the boundaries of music and fosters a greater understanding of the
works of today. Additionally, the Talea Ensemble wishes to support and advance
familiarity with contemporary American works by bringing it to concert halls
and venues not only in New York but also abroad. By developing an interactive
relationship between the composers, performers and audience, the Talea Ensemble
builds an environment of reciprocal inspiration that sparks the imagination of
all.”
Below is a video excerpt of Talea offering a gorgeous interpretation of Helmut Lachenmann's Trio Fluido:
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We’re looking forward to the opening weekend
of June in Buffalo 2013! The festival will kick off with a concert by the JACK
Quartet on Thursday, May 30, at 6:30 p.m., at One M&T
Plaza, a special historical building in downtown Buffalo
which was designed and built in 1966 by Minoru
Yamasaki, the architect for the World Trade Center in New
York City. In addition to opening JiB 2013, the concert is also part of
the Center for 21st Century Music’s Music in Buffalo’s Historic Places
series (more on the event and the series here), and will open with a brief presentation by
UB Professor of Architecture, Brian Carter, who recently published M&T
Bank, a book detailing the history and design of the building. 
