Just the facts and pass the bucket.
A full dozen new-music performance highlights happening during the next seven days in New York City.
After last week’s concert reflections, I’ve not been out to see or hear anything since. But I recall promising to share something from the review of Kronos Quartet at Carnegie Hall that I wrote for Musical America, once it was published:
…[I]t’s not that big a stretch to suggest the new-music world falls into two eras: “Before Kronos” and “Because Kronos.” Hundreds of pieces have come about through Kronos commissions, boosting the careers of hundreds of composers. And hundreds of musicians, alone and in groups, have eased through doors kicked down by Kronos as it addressed diversity, inclusion, and iconoclastic funkiness with programming, presentation, and promotion.
“I grew up with the Kronos Quartet,” cellist Paul Wiancko says in [Sam] Green’s film [KRONOS at FIFTY]. Wiancko, also a composer, joined Kronos in February of this year. “In my fantasy world,” he adds, laughing, “I’ve been in the Kronos Quartet for 30 years. Is that creepy?”
Not surprisingly, for a group of such longevity, Kronos has altered course plenty over the years, and that showed at Carnegie Hall. The quartet’s members—Harrington and Wiancko, plus long-serving violinist John Sherba and violist Hank Dutt, who both joined in 1978—were onstage constantly throughout the program. But like guests of honor pressed into hosting their own party, they often seemed to play second fiddle (pun intended) to a steady stream of guests and videos.
I do plan to get out once or twice this week. Meanwhile, to the listings…
Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
14
X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X
Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side
Various dates and times through Saturday, Dec. 2; $47–$470
metopera.org
The first opera by composer Anthony Davis and librettist Thulani Davis – introduced at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia in 1985, and presented in its operatic premiere by New York City Opera in 1986 – comes at last to the Metropolitan Opera, in a new production helmed by the Tony-nominated director Robert O’Hara. Will Liverman is featured in the title role, and Kazem Abdullah conducts. (This week’s performances are Tuesday at 8pm and Saturday at 1pm.)
15
Either/Or
University Settlement House
184 Eldridge St., Lower East Side
Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 8pm; $20, seniors and students $10
eitherormusic.org
Explosive pianist Kathleen Supové joins the intrepid fellow travelers of Either/Or in an evening comprising solo and duo pieces by Hannah Kendall, Jō Kondō, Inga Chinilina, Kaija Saariaho, Leroy Jenkins, plus an all-hands-on-deck finale, Joanna Ward’s A London plane tree hid me from the sun. (See Nov. 17 for another event featuring Kathleen Supové.)
Lasse Marhaug
Artists Space
11 Cortlandt Alley, TriBeCa
Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 7pm; free admission
artistsspace.org
Norwegian noise-music titan Lasse Marhaug supervises a performance of his INA-GRM commissioned piece, How to Avoid Ants, and other 8-channel works. In support are Eternities, the heavyweight duo of Katie Porter on bass clarinet and Bob Bellerue on other noises, and Neuter, the solo project of feedback artist riley s. riley, of NYC noise trio Many Many Girls. (See Nov. 17 for another event featuring Bob Bellerue.)
16
Composer Portrait: John Zorn
Miller Theatre, Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Upper West Side
Thursday, Nov. 16 at 8pm; $30, seniors $25, students and under 25 $22
millertheatre.com
Miller Theatre’s third and final celebration of composer and improviser John Zorn’s 70th birthday offers a chance to get up-close and personal with the incandescent singer and conductor Barbara Hannigan. JACK Quartet, pianist Stephen Gosling, bassist Jorge Roeder, percussionists Ches Smith and Sae Hashimoto, and sound artist Ikue Mori share the stage in an evening of recent vocal works.
Sam Weinberg Trio + Charmaine Lee
Sisters Restaurant
900 Fulton St., Brooklyn
Thursday, Nov. 16 at 8pm; $10–$30 sliding scale (cash/Venmo; no advance)
sistersbklyn.com
Inquisitive Brooklyn saxophonist Sam Weinberg presents a set of new music with his trio, featuring bassist Henry Fraser and drummer Jason Nazary, with an opening solo set by ingenious extended-vocals improviser and composer Charmaine Lee.
17
Kathleen Supové
The Old Stone House
336 3rd St., Brooklyn
Friday, Nov. 17 at 7pm; $15 (cash, Venmo, PayPal accepted)
theoldstonehouse.org
Rightly celebrated as a keen interpreter of modern works by an extraordinary range of contemporary composers, pianist Kathleen Supové pursues her own muse tonight—and perhaps yours, too. In the first half of a concert titled “Confinement/Escape,” she’ll employ some of her favorite personal items as 3-D graphic scores; in the second half she’ll ask audience members to loan or donate objects for similar treatment.
Yasunao Tone + Marcia Bassett & Bob Bellerue
Brooklyn Music School
126 St Felix St., Fort Greene
Friday, Nov. 17 at 8pm; $20
issueprojectroom.org
Issue Project Room hosts a double bill in partnership with AvanTokyo, featuring a solo set by Fluxus icon Yasunao Tone and a duo performance by two longtime pillars of the NYC experimental-noise continuum, Marcia Bassett and Bob Bellerue.
18
Reggie Nicholson Percussion Concept
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue, Midtown East
Saturday, Nov. 18 at 7 and 9pm; $45
armoryonpark.org
Appearing as part of a series curated by Jason Moran to showcase the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians – a.k.a. the celebrated collective AACM – percussionist and composer Reggie Nicholson showcases the music he’s created for a quartet featuring a wind instrument surrounded with three master percussionists.
Trevor Watts & Jamie Harris
Jazz Gallery
1158 Broadway, 5th floor, NoMad
Saturday, Nov. 18 at 7:30 and 9:30pm; $33–$44, livestream tickets $22
jazzgallery.org
The Robert D. Bielecki Foundation hosts a rare New York City appearance by a bona fide legend of British jazz and free improvisation: saxophonist Trevor Watts, co-founder of the foundational Spontaneous Music Ensemble and longtime member of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra. Since the 1980s, Watts has pursued a passion for rhythm-driven styles from Africa and South America; here, he plays with percussionist Jamie Harris, a driving force behind Watts’s Celebration Band and his partner on the stripped-down, infectious 2022 release, Live in São Paulo.
19
“The 19th Annual NYC In C”
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker St., Greenwich Village
Sunday, Nov. 19 at 7:30pm; $25–$45, advance $20–$40
lpr.com
For the 19th time since 2005, a stellar array of New York City new-music luminaries assembles to perform Terry Riley’s foundational minimalist work, In C. Participants include Billy Martin, Matana Roberts, Lea Bertucci, String Noise, Simon Hanes, Zach Layton, Eszter Balint, Nick Hallett, Nels Cline, Yuka C. Honda, Marina Rosenfeld. Shahzad Ismaily, Ben Neill, Chris McIntyre, and many more. Proceeds will benefit Creative Music Studio, the storied research and development gathering established by Ornette Coleman, Karl Berger, and Ingrid Sertso in 1971.
“Philip Glass: The Complete Piano Etudes”
David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side
Sunday, Nov. 19 at 7pm; choose what you pay ($35 suggested)
lincolncenter.org
Marking the release of Philip Glass Piano Etudes, a new box set featuring the scores for Glass’s Etudes Nos. 1-20 plus a companion book, Studies in Time: Essays on the Music of Philip Glass, 10 pianists assemble to perform a complete traversal of the collection. The participants, mostly longtime Glass associates, are Timo Andres, Inon Barnatan, Lara Downes, Daniela Liebman, Jenny Lin, Nico Muhly, Maki Namekawa, Ursula Oppens, Christian Sands, and Adrian Zaragoza. (An scaled-down encore happens in the same space on Monday, Nov. 20, at 8pm during Lincoln Center’s Fall Gala.)
20
Vicky Chow
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Monday, Nov. 20 at 8pm; $30, advance $25, seniors and students $20
Free livestream (donations encouraged)
roulette.org
Versatile pianist and Bang on a Can All-Star Vicky Chow presents three compositions by Michael J. Schumacher, an artist more closely linked to electronic sound art. The program also includes more recent Schumacher works for piano and electronics. The concert will be streamed live on the Roulette website and YouTube, and the stream will be archived for on-demand viewing afterward.
21
Russell Greenberg
Miller Theatre, Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Upper West Side
Tuesday, Nov. 21 at 6pm; free
millertheatre.com
A Miller Theatre stalwart best known for his work in the quartet Yarn/Wire – and a participant in the Either/Or concert listed above – percussionist Russell Greenberg stars in a pop-up program meant to emphasize minimalism: not the musical style, but literally pieces that feature few instruments. On the agenda are solo works by Andrew McIntosh and Davíð Brynjar Franzson, and duos by Jürg Frey and Ryoko Akama to be played with trumpeter Nate Wooley.
For even more listings, see the Night After Night Watch master list, here.
Thank you.
(Photographs by the author, except where indicated otherwise.)