http://www.nowensemble.com NOW Ensemble Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:25:51 +0000 http://www.nowensemble.com en http://www.nowensemble.com/N-E-W-S http://www.nowensemble.com/following/nowensemble.com/N-E-W-S Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:25:51 +0000 NOW Ensemble 2350880 December 14, 2011 NOW Ensemble's performance of Judd Greenstein's Change is one of NPR Music's Favorite 100 Songs of 2011! We are chuffed to be in such rarefied company as St. Vincent, Paul Simon, Wilco, TuneYards, Bon Iver, and many more. Go here to listen to listen to the track and watch the accompanying film by Joshua Frankel. December 9, 2011 The great folks over at New Amsterdam Presents have been giving away some of their best and best-selling albums all week as part of their winter fund-raising event. Today, we are happy to let you that they will be offering both of our albums free to potential donors. Please consider heading over there to get to hear Awake and Now for free, and consider supporting one of the most important forces in new music today. December 7, 2011 We are extremely pleased to find out today that Seth Colter Walls of online magazine theawl.com has included our album Awake in his "50 Favorite Albums of 2011" list. Many thanks to Seth for this awesome plug! November 24, 2011 Welcome to our new site! There are great things coming up for the group, including an evening length Missy Mazzoli opera at the Kitchen in February and a collaboration with Dan Deacon on the Ecstatic Festival in March. Check the Events and individual project pages for details. Joshua Frankel's film Plan of the City, featuring NOW playing Judd's Change, continues to make the rounds, including a spot on onedotzero's Adventure's in Motion Festival this month in London. The video has now topped 93,000 plays on Vimeo. October 17, 2011 NOW Ensemble was delighted to be part of the week-long SONiC Festival at Miller Theater, and are especially grateful to the fans who stuck around for our post-midnight set. We premiered a great new work by Sarah Kirkland Snider, and the live performance of Mark's Burst was selected for WQXR's Q2 Re-Sounds program. June 2011 Since Awake was released at the end of May, NOW Ensemble has been receiving some exciting press. On May 22nd, Awake was profiled on NPR's All Things Considered. With Awake's synthesis of popular idioms and (mostly) classical instrumentation and form, NPR lauded it as being at the forefront of the so-called "indie classical" movement. The enthusiastic profile propelled the album to #2 on the iTunes Classical Chart, #2 on Amazon Classical (hitting #1 on their chamber music chart), and even helped the album land a spot on the Billboard classical music chart. Critics, bloggers, and radio personalities have been equally enthusiastic. Alex Ross posted Plan of the City, the epic video for Change, on his blog The Rest is Noise, calling it "gorgeous". The Boston Globe's David Weininger went as far as saying the album was "an album that offers a lot of engaging new music, as well as one piece I am sorely tempted to call a masterpiece." Classical music critic Anne Midgette lauded the live show in The Washington Post as "terrific", calling Plan of the City "one of the best matches of visuals to music I've seen". Awake was also featured on WQXR's Q2 program, where it was named "Album of the Week". New music blog Silent Ballet named Awake Album of the Month and named NOW Ensemble Band of the Week, describing the record as a "...truly a delightful experience from beginning to end." Post-rock Paper Scissors named Patrick Burke's title-track Awake as one of the best tracks of 2011 so far. Bloggers Jerry Bowles (Sequenza 21) and Daniel Stephan Johnson (New Haven Advocate) dished out colorful plaudits such as "If you're not smiling by the end, try Prozac" and "ovations [are] sure to greet the release of NOW's forthcoming second album, Awake". The ensemble was even cheered in the Bangkok Post as "music [that] speaks very eloquently for itself." http://www.nowensemble.com/E-V-E-N-T-S http://www.nowensemble.com/following/nowensemble.com/E-V-E-N-T-S Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:19:35 +0000 NOW Ensemble 2350854 Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt by Missy Mazzoli, film by Stephen Taylor, direction by Beth Morrison February 24-25, and March 1-3, 2012, The Kitchen, NYC. All performances at 8pm. songfromtheuproar.com Ecstatic Music Festival, Merkin Hall, NYC NOW Ensemble collaboration with Dan Deacon and the Calder Quartet March 20, 2012, 7:30pm Ecstatic Festival Hell Hot Festival Hong Kong Curated by Samson Young Hong Kong August, 20-26, 2012 Fall 2012 Tour Performance Destinations to be announced http://www.nowensemble.com/E-C-S-T-A-T-I-C-F-E-S-T-I-V-A-L http://www.nowensemble.com/following/nowensemble.com/E-C-S-T-A-T-I-C-F-E-S-T-I-V-A-L Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:00:18 +0000 NOW Ensemble 2318126 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/5/169992/2318126/3-20_collage.jpg" border="0" width="230" height="345" width_o="230" height_o="345" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/5/169992/2318126/3-20_collage_o.jpg" align="left" /> Ecstatic Music Fest: Dan Deacon, NOW Ensemble & the Calder Quartet Tuesday, March 20, 2012 7:30pm. For more information and tickets, please go here. Dan Deacon returns to the Ecstatic Music Festival after last year’s sold-out show, this time writing a series of new works for NOW Ensemble and the acclaimed Calder Quartet, both for the individual ensembles and for the two together in a mini-chamber orchestra. In addition, this will be a A New Sounds Live Presentation Hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer. http://www.nowensemble.com/SONG-FROM-THE-UPROAR http://www.nowensemble.com/following/nowensemble.com/SONG-FROM-THE-UPROAR Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:34:45 +0000 NOW Ensemble 2309095 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/5/169992/2309095/-2_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="1075" width_o="800" height_o="1344" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/5/169992/2309095/-2_o.jpg" align="left" /> Please consider taking a moment to visit the Kickstarter page for the recording project. The deadline to meet our goal is just a week away! Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt is a multi-media chamber opera by composer Missy Mazzoli and filmmaker Stephen Taylor. Conceived in collaboration with director Gia Forakis and librettist Royce Vavrek, Song from the Uproar features musical performance by NOW Ensemble, mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer, and a 5-piece chorus. The libretto for Song from the Uproar was inspired by the journals of Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904), an explorer, nomad, journalist, novelist, passionate romantic, Sufi, and one of the most unusual women of her era. She left her life in Switzerland for a nomadic and unfettered existence in North Africa, traveling extensively on horseback, dressing as a man, and relentlessly documented her travels in detailed journals. Song from the Uproar immerses the audience in the surreal landscapes of Isabelle's life and explores the universality that makes her tale so vibrant and relevant over one hundred years after her death. Song from the Uproar will premiere at New York City venue, The Kitchen, on February 24, 2012, and will run until March 3. This production will feature set design by Zane Pihlstrom, costumes by Alixandra Gage Englund, lighting design by Scott Bolmon. Song from the Uproar is a Beth Morrison Project. A recording of the project will be released by Ms. Mazzoli and NOW Ensemble in late 2012 on New Amsterdam Records. http://www.nowensemble.com/PLAN-OF-THE-CITY http://www.nowensemble.com/following/nowensemble.com/PLAN-OF-THE-CITY Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:57:29 +0000 NOW Ensemble 2307166 May, 2011, 13 Minutes. Visit filmaker Joshua Frankel's Vimeo page here. "One of the best matches of visuals to music I have seen." - Anne Midgette, Washington Post "Gorgeous." - Alex Ross, New Yorker critic, in The Rest Is Noise Plan of the City is a new animated film, conceived and directed by Joshua Frankel, about the architecture of New York City blasting off to outer space and resettling on Mars. The film's visuals are an animated collage combining live action footage, animated elements, illustrations and treated photographs, including photos taken by the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity made available to the public domain by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Plan of the City was created in collaboration with composer Judd Greenstein and NOW Ensemble who feature prominently in the film as live actors set inside the animated framework. The audio of the film consists solely of Greenstein's Change, performed by NOW Ensemble; Change and Plan of the City were created in parallel, each expressing its own artistic intention while simultaneously serving its "sibling". The film was presented with the music performed live, timed to the film, at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City in May, 2011. It also exists as its own stand-alone entity, utilizing NOW Ensemble's recent studio recording of Change (out on New Amsterdam Records). Plan of the City has been made possible by a generous grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. http://www.nowensemble.com/A-L-B-U-M-N-O-W http://www.nowensemble.com/following/nowensemble.com/A-L-B-U-M-N-O-W Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:45:01 +0000 NOW Ensemble 2307108 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/5/169992/2307108/no4itunes-e1314643838824.jpg" border="0" width="350" height="350" width_o="350" height_o="350" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/5/169992/2307108/no4itunes-e1314643838824_o.jpg" align="left" /> Released January 2008 on New Amsterdam Records. Listen here or purchase on Amazon and iTunes. With seven pieces from our core repertoire, our debut album represents a body of work that we think redefines chamber music for the 21st century. After a sold-out record release show at Joe's Pub, NOW was released to warm reviews from the Washington Post, Time Out New York, and the AllMusic guide. "5 Stars" -Time Out New York, Time Out Chicago "More of this is demanded, not requested." - AllMusic “...plenty deep enough to be dredged on multiple passes without crawling up inside its head so far it misplaces the soul.” - The Washington Post "...the formal elegance of chamber music with a pop-honed concision and rhythmic vitality" - Time Out New York Tracks: Folk Music-Judd Greenstein Hypno-germ-Patrick Burke Hanging There-Mark Dancigers All Together Now-Patrick Burke How About Now-Nico Muhly Cloudbank-Mark Dancigers Sing Along-Judd Greenstein Personnel: Flute - Alex Sopp Clarinet - Sara Budde Electric Guitar - Mark Dancigers Double Bass - Peter Rosenfeld Piano - Michael Mizrahi Produced, tracked, mixed by Dan Bora Mastered by Hector Castillo http://www.nowensemble.com/A-L-B-U-M-A-W-A-K-E http://www.nowensemble.com/following/nowensemble.com/A-L-B-U-M-A-W-A-K-E Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:44:58 +0000 NOW Ensemble 2307128 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/5/169992/2307128/NowEnsemble_CVR-e13146484693981.jpg" border="0" width="350" height="350" width_o="350" height_o="350" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/5/169992/2307128/NowEnsemble_CVR-e13146484693981_o.jpg" align="left" /> Released April, 2011 on New Amsterdam Records. Listen here or purchase on Amazon and iTunes. In August 2010, we went back to the "studio", an acoustically amazing church in northern New Jersey, with sound engineer Jesse Lewis to record our second album. The resonant, shimmering yet dark acoustic of the space perfectly matched the aesthetic of the album repertoire, contributed by in-house composers Burke, Dancigers, and Greenstein, as well as our good friends David Crowell, Sean Friar, and Missy Mazzoli. After a profile on NPR's Weekend Edition, Awake reached #1 on Amazon's Classical Chamber Music Chart and posted in the top 5 on the iTunes Classic Charts. "Album of the Month...an energetic, enthralling showcase of modern chamber music...The real triumph of the album, however, is the personality that the ensemble brings to each of the compositions...Awake solidifies NOW Ensemble's place as a serious player in the field of modern composition." - The Silent Ballet "...there's an obvious challenge in the music's mix of old, new and the exotic, and one that is rewarded by repeated listening as its interweaving of superficially contrary elements coalesce into something fresh and vibrant." - The Classical Review "...an album that offers a lot of engaging new music, as well as one piece I am sorely tempted to call a masterpiece." - The Boston Globe "Album of the Week" - WQXR's Q2 "music [that] speaks very eloquently for itself" - The Bangkok Post "Throughout Awake, simple and complex repetitions are deftly woven together, forming patterns that engage listeners while urging their ears to dig deeper, layer by layer." - Alarm Press "If you're not smiling by the end, try Prozac." - Sequenza 21 "Ovations [are] sure to greet the release of NOW's forthcoming second album, Awake." - The New Haven Advocate Tracks: Change - Judd Greenstein Velvet Hammer - Sean Friar Magic with Everyday Objects - Missy Mazzoli Burst - Mark Dancigers Waiting in the Rain for Snow - David Crowell Awake - Patrick Burke Personnel: Flute - Alex Sopp Clarinet - Sara Budde Electric Guitar - Mark Dancigers Double Bass - Logan Coale Piano - Michael Mizrahi Tracked, mixed, and mastered by Jesse Lewis Produced by Judd Greenstein and Jesse Lewis