Intimate immensity.
A new Morton Subotnick documentary hits streaming platforms, Matana Roberts at The Jazz Gallery, and more recommended live events for Oct. 21–28.
Anyone who’s followed my writing for any appreciable amount of time has probably seen the photo posted above this text… perhaps you’ve seen me wearing this in person. The T-shirt was a perk for contributing to a crowdfunding campaign for Subotnick: Portrait of an Electronic Music Pioneer, an authorized documentary portrait of the trailblazing composer Morton Subotnick. The film was completed in 2022 by Waveshaper Media, the Toronto-based company best known for I Dream of Wires, a compelling 2014 documentary about the rise, fall, and revival of modular synthesizers.
The world-premiere screening of Subotnick: Portrait of an Electronic Music Pioneer took place in Berlin in November 2022, and its North American debut happened nearly a year later in Toronto, in October 2023. A handful of U.S. screenings have happened in places like Cambridge and San Francisco; I can’t recall offhand whether the film has been shown in New York at all.
But good news finally came yesterday: Waveshaper has struck a deal with MVD Entertainment Group to make Subotnick: Portrait of an Electronic Music Pioneer available on on Tuesday, Nov. 11, via a handful of streaming and digital-download sites, including TUBI, Amazon Video Direct, Night Flight, and Vimeo. Those carriers and more will also offer I Dream of Wires, and both films are due on Blu-ray next year. According to Waveshaper, profits from streaming on ad-supported platforms will be directed toward completion and release of the company’s Bob Moog documentary, Electronic Voyager.
Boston friends, your attention, please: My wife, esteemed academic and journalist Lara Pellegrinelli, will be in town next week for a public talk covering her groundbreaking study, “Jazz Counts: Measuring the Jazz Faculty Gender Gap in Higher Education,” recently published by the Berklee College of Music Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. Sourced from the websites of over 200 educational institutions, the report looks at extreme disparities among jazz faculties in the U.S., and offers six actionable recommendations.
Dr. LP will be discussing her findings with drummer, bandleader, composer, and JGJ founder Terri-Lyne Carrington. The talk is happening on Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 1pm EST in Berk Hall (1140 Boylston St.), and you’ll find more details here. And for those of us who can’t be in Boston, the talk will stream online—more details to come.
Lastly this week, The Rambler, the long-running new-music blog of the eminent English academic, author, and critic Tim Rutherford-Johnson, is undergoing an exciting transition. Rutherford-Johnson – author of the superb study Music After the Fall: Modern Composition and Culture Since 1989 and the authoritative volume The Music of Liza Lim – is closing up shop at The Rambler today—and launching a new venture, Purposeful Listening, here on Substack tomorrow.
The goal, Tim tells me, is to publish twice a month “with occasional bits in between.” He’ll offer a mix of interviews and reviews, beginning with the characteristically insightful Leo Chadburn review-essay that concluded The Rambler. I’m not going to reveal the upcoming content he shared with me, but trust me, there’s some strong stuff on the way. Sign up now, and join me in welcoming Tim to the ’Stacks.
The Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
21
Fred Hersch Trio
Village Vanguard
178 Seventh Ave. S; Greenwich Village
Tuesday, Oct. 21–Sunday, Oct. 26 at 8 & 10pm; $40 plus two-drink minimum
villagevanguard.com
Fred Hersch, a lyrical, poetic pianist with a vast compositional range and an uncanny knack for wringing newness from time-tested standards, arrives at jazz’s most hallowed basement for a week-long engagement celebrating his 70th birthday—the actual event is Tuesday evening. He’s joined for the occasion by bassist Drew Gress and drummer Marcus Gilmore, a rhythm section well equipped to provide the mix of familiarity and novelty Hersch thrives on.
22
Lucy Shelton
Greenfield Hall, Manhattan School of Music
130 Claremont Ave.; Morningside Heights
Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 7:30pm; free admission
msmnyc.edu
Venerated for decades of forging new paths in contemporary vocal music, Lucy Shelton is not about to slow down now… in fact, she’ll make her Metropolitan Opera debut in Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence next April at age 82. For this free faculty recital, she’s joined by an ensemble of student performers in a program that includes Arnold Schoenberg’s foundational Pierrot Lunaire, selections from The Pierrot Project by Karl Kohn, John Harbison, Miriam Gideon, Stephen Mosko, and Ursula Mamlok, and further works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Ana Sokolović, and Shulamit Ran. If you can’t attend in person, the concert will stream live on the MSM website.
23
Estonian Festival Orchestra
Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall
881 Seventh Ave.; Midtown West
Thursday, Oct. 23 at 8pm; $59–$146
carnegiehall.org
The eminent, influential Estonian composer Arvo Pärt commences his 90th year by occupying the Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall this season. The first of his programs is a big one: Paavo Järvi leads an all-Pärt program featuring some of the composer’s signature works – Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, Fratres, Tabula Rasa, and more – joined by violinists Midori and Hans Christian Aavik, pianist Nico Muhly, and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (which has its own concert tomorrow night).
Interpretations
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave.; Brooklyn
Thursday, Oct. 23 at 8pm; $20, seniors and students $15
roulette.org
The long-running, broad-minded new-music series Interpretations, now in its 36th season, presents a curiously appealing double bill of One System, a fabulously shiny electroacoustic trio formed by Juraj Kojš, Margaret Lancaster, and Alex Lough; and J.D. Parran’s Protestation and Prayer for Peace and Survival, which matches the woodwind improviser with guitarist Nels Cline, bassist Hilliard Greene, and drummer Andrew Drury. If you can’t attend in person, the show will be streamed live and archived for on-demand viewing on the Roulette website and YouTube.
24
andPlay
Tenri Cultural Institute
43a W. 13th St.; Greenwich Village
Friday, Oct. 24 at 7:30pm; free admission
Instagram
Appearing under the banner of composer Reiko Füting’s series New Sounds New Sounds New, andPlay, the enterprising duo of violinist Maya Bennardo and violist Hannah Levinson, presents an evening of seven premieres, by Füting, James Diaz, Jeewon Kim, Tongyu Lee, Matt Simon, Angela Tse, and Foo Jeng Wong.
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall
881 Seventh Ave.; Midtown West
Friday, Oct. 24 at 7:30pm; sold out, but check for returns
carnegiehall.org
Music director Tõnu Kaljuste leads the celebrated Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Talinn Chamber Orchestra in an all-Arvo Pärt program, including his Stabat Mater, Magnificat, and Te Deum.
Matana Roberts
The Jazz Gallery
1158 Broadway, 5th floor; Flatiron District
Friday, Oct. 24 & Saturday, Oct. 25 at 7 & 9pm; $35–$45, livestream $20
jazzgallery.org
Matana Roberts is the improvising saxophonist, composer, poet, and artist behind the Coin Coin series, a prodigious exploration of Black American life from historical and personal perspectives. They’re adopting a workshop strategy for these two intimate evenings at The Jazz Gallery, revisiting and reimagining segments from their five-volume (so far) cycle with a choice group, including trumpeter Chris Williams, cellist Lester St. Louis, bassist Adi Myerson, and drummer Ryan Sawyer.
25
loadbang
Tenri Cultural Institute
43a W. 13th St.; Greenwich Village
Saturday, Oct. 25 at 7pm; $25, seniors and students $15
eventbrite.com
The distinctive new-music ensemble loadbang, a quartet comprising baritone vocalist Ty Bouque, clarinetist Adrián Sandí, trumpeter Andy Kozar, and trombonist William Lang, presents a concert called “Worlding,” rooted in Martin Heidegger’s term denoting how humans negotiate a sense of their surroundings. Featured on the program are premieres by Gabriel Bolaños and Eli Greenhoe, alongside works composed for the group by Taylor Brook, Alexandre Lunsqui, Felipe Lara, Josué Collado Fregoso, and Monthati Masebe.
26
counter)induction
Mise-En_Place
45 Saint Nicholas Ave.; Harlem
Sunday, Oct. 26 at 4pm; $20
mise-en.org
The ever-inventive composer/performer cabal counter)induction comes to the new Mise-En_Space in Harlem with a program titled “New Cartographies,” featuring a characteristically eclectic mix of works by member composers Douglas Boyce and Kyle Bartlett, along with further pieces by Alvin Singleton, Suzanne Sorkin, and Eric Moe.
GatherNYC
Museum of Arts and Design
2 Columbus Circle; Midtown West
Sunday, Oct. 26 at 11am; $30, children under 12 free
gathernyc.org
If you’ve yet to experience GatherNYC, you’re missing out on one of New York City’s true hidden gems: a casual hour-long mix of storytelling, mindful silence, and music played by top-flight guests—and contemporary fare is a regular part of the mix. For this week’s opening concert, cellist Laura Metcalf and guitarist Rupert Boyd, who perform as Boyd Meets Girl and serve as artistic directors of the series, join clarinetist Jo-Ann Sternberg and New York Philharmonic violist Audrey Wright in works by Olivier Messiaen, Paul Wiancko, Laurent Boutros, and more. All this, plus complimentary coffee and pastry… what’s not to love?
27
American Contemporary Music Ensemble
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Ave.; Flatiron District
Monday, Oct. 27 at 7pm; $35
ovationtix.com
Cellist-composer Clarice Jensen and her American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) comrades present an attractive program exploring the intersection of contemporary concert music and film scores—an area Jensen is intimately familiar with, given her own work composing in both domains. Her music is included on the bill, which also features selections by Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Ennio Morricone, Nico Muhly, and Jóhann Jóhannsson.
Mivos Quartet
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave.; Brooklyn
Monday, Oct. 27 at 8pm; $30, advance $25, seniors and students $20
roulette.org
The exacting, persuasive Mivos Quartet celebrates the release this week of its newest album, May Our Centers Hold, an absorbing collection of recently commissioned works by Ambrose Akinmusire, Michaela Catranis, George Lewis, and Jeffrey Mumford on the Chicago label Sideband. If you can’t attend in person, the concert be streamed live and archived for on-demand viewing on the Roulette website and YouTube.
Yarn/Wire
Miller Theatre, Columbia University
2960 Broadway; Morningside Heights
Monday, Oct. 27–Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 6pm; free admission
millertheatre.com
Percussionists and pianists are accustomed to keeping tabs on a lot of different details all at once—so it’s no big surprise to see the tireless explorers of piano/percussion quartet Yarn/Wire simultaneously opening Miller Theatre’s Pop-Up Concerts series and their own 20th anniversary simultaneously with three consecutive free early-evening shows. Tonight’s opener includes new pieces by and with harpist Zeena Parkins and electronic composer/performer Sam Pluta; Tuesday’s program includes Enno Poppe’s Feld and a premiere with improvising pianist and newly minted MacArthur genius Craig Taborn, and Wednesday’s finale rounds out the series with pieces by Tyshawn Sorey, Mei-Fang Lin, and Linda Catlin Smith.
28
Talea Ensemble
St. Bartholomew Hall, The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew
520 Clinton Ave.; Brooklyn
Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 7:30pm; $20, seniors $10, students pay-what-you-can
taleaensemble.org
Talea Ensemble opens the 2025–26 season in its new home venue, Brooklyn’s Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew, with a program called “Talea Sequenze I”—full points if you detect the start of a seasonlong survey of Luciano Berio’s ingenious Sequenze. Tonight’s menu includes pianist Steve Beck playing Sequenza IV and trumpeter Sam Jones in Sequenza X, along with additional works by Bohuslav Martinů, Thomas Adès, Pierre Boulez, and Loretta Notareschi.
To submit listings for consideration, email nightafternight [at] icloud [dot] com.
More vital directories of new-music destinations:
Find even more events in Night After Night Watch: The Master List, here.
Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.