Jeffrey Mumford
http://www.presser.com/composer/mumford-jeffrey/
(Ronald Jantz)
(Ronald Jantz)
Kahil El'Zabar
Alvin Singleton
Fulcrum Point CELEBRATES AFRICAN-AMERICAN ARTISTS WITH
PROCLAMATION! THE BLACK COMPOSER SPEAKS
AT PROMONTORY, IN ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY, FRIDAY, APRIL 29
Featuring World Premieres from Kahil El’Zabar and Jeffrey Mumford,
a minimalist take on Funk, abstract expressionism, and improvisation;
Tickets on-sale Friday, March 11
(CHICAGO, March 10, 2016) –
Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Chicago’s leader in New Art Music led by
Stephen Burns, proudly presents
“Proclamation! The Black Composer Speaks,” a dynamic
concert program showcasing the broad spectrum of new art music from the
African American perspective at the Promontory Chicago, 5311 S. Lake
Park Ave., in one performance only,
Friday, April 29, at 7:30 pm.
Based on the award-winning treatise of the same name by symphonic jazz composer David Baker, the double bill incorporates
music by three generations of African American composers. A highlight of the evening is the
World Premiere of a dramatic, improvisatory set in the
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) tradition
by the internationally acclaimed percussionist
Kahil El’Zabar and his quartet featuring Robert Baabe Irving III (Miles
Davis’ music director/pianist), Dennis Winslett, and Harrison Bankhead
alongside members of Fulcrum Point. The program also includes
Alvin Singleton’s striking “In Our Own House” and Jessie Montgomery’s funky “Voodoo Dolz” for string quartet.
The cornerstone of the program is the
World Premiere of composer Jeffrey Mumford’s concerto for solo piano and ensemble, “becoming…,” with
Winston Choi as piano soloist. Commissioned by Fulcrum Point with
support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and New Music
USA, “becoming…” is an abstract expression of Mumford’s personal
experience with the majesty and beauty of light, clouds,
and atmosphere from childhood memories. Photographic projections will
complement the music to enhance the accessibility of the presentation.
“‘Proclamation! The Black Composer Speaks’
demonstrates our ongoing commitment to championing diversity in new art music,” says Fulcrum Point Artistic Director
Stephen Burns. “Throughout our 18-year history we have performed
music by Fela Kuti, Duke Ellington, Tania León, Hannibal Lokumbe,
Anthony Davis, and Lester Bowie in addition to masters and iconoclasts
like John Cage, John Corigliano, Frank Zappa, Zhou
Long, Paul Moravec, and Param Vir. Thank you for your spirit of
adventure.”
Tickets for
“Proclamation! The Black Composer Speaks” are $35/25/15 and will be available starting Friday, March 11 at
promontorychicago.com or by calling 312-801-2100.
ABOUT FULCRUM POINT NEW MUSIC PROJECT
Created
in 1998 by conductor, composer and trumpet virtuoso Stephen Burns, the
mission of Fulcrum Point New Music Project is to be a Chicago
leader of diverse new music by presenting multi-media performances,
generating educational programs, as well as commissioning and recording
innovative works. Its programs are inspired and influenced by popular
culture, including literature, film, dance, folk,
rock, jazz, blues, Latin and world music. Through multi-disciplinary
concert performances and educational programs, Fulcrum Point seeks to
encourage audiences to make cross-cultural connections between new
music, art, technology and literature, gaining greater
insight into today’s diverse world. For more information on Fulcrum
Point and its programs visit
www.fulcrumpoint.org.
ABOUT KAHIL EL’ZABAR
Kahil
El’Zabar is an international percussion master who has collaborated
with Jazz legends Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder,
Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Cannonball Adderley, and recipients of
this year’s NEA Jazz Masters award, Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp.
His illustrious career has included
film scores for the movies “Mo’ Money” and “How U Like Me Now,” as well
as early arrangements for Broadway show “The Lion King.” In 2014
El’Zabar was a recipient of the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres
from the French government. He is thrilled to
be a “Proclamation” partner with Robert Baabe Irving III (piano),
Dennis Winslett (saxophone), and Harrison Bankhead (bass).
ABOUT JEFFREY MUMFORD
Born
in Washington, D.C. in 1955, composer Jeffrey Mumford has received
numerous fellowships, grants, awards and commissions. Awards include the
"Academy
Award in Music" from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a
Fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, a Fellowship and an ASCAP
Aaron Copland Scholarship. He was also the winner of the inaugural
National Black Arts Festival/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Composition
Competition. Other grants have been awarded by the Ohio Arts Council,
Meet the Composer, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music Inc., the
ASCAP Foundation, and the University of California. His music has been
performed extensively, by major orchestras,
soloists, and ensembles, both in the United States and abroad,
including London, Paris, Helsinki, and Vienna. Mumford's most notable
commissions include those from Washington Performing Arts, Duo Harpverk
(Iceland), the Sphinx Consortium, the Cincinnati Symphony,
the VERGE Ensemble /National Gallery of Art/Contemporary Music Forum,
the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Ole Bohn, the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt
(Vienna), the Network for New Music, the Cleveland Orchestra, the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a consortium of presenters
consisting of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Chamber Music Columbus (OH.)
and Omus Hirshbein, the Nancy Ruyle Dodge Charitable Trust, the Meet the
Composer/Arts Endowment Commissioning Music/USA
the National Symphony Orchestra (twice), Cincinnati radio station WGUC,
'cellist Joshua Gordon, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, the Fromm
Music Foundation, and the McKim Fund in the Library of Congress.
ABOUT ALVIN SINGLETON
Alvin
Singleton was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended New York
University and Yale. As a Fulbright Scholar, he studied with Goffredo
Petrassi at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy. After
living and working in Europe for fourteen years, Singleton returned to
the United States to become Composer-in-Residence with the Atlanta
Symphony Orchestra (1985-88). He subsequently served
as Resident Composer at Spelman College in Atlanta (1988-91), as UNISYS
Composer-in-Residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1996-97),
and was the 2002–03 Composer-in-Residence with the Ritz Chamber Players
of Jacksonville, Florida. In addition, he has
served as Visiting Professor of Composition at the Yale University
School of Music.
Singleton
has amassed numerous awards throughout his compositional life,
including a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship. Singleton has composed music
for theatre, orchestra, solo instruments, and a variety of chamber
ensembles. His compositions have been performed by the symphony
orchestras of Boston, Pittsburgh, Houston, Cincinnati, Atlanta,
Cleveland, Philadelphia, Detroit, Oregon, Baltimore, Syracuse,
Louisville, and Florida, the American Composers Orchestra, the
Rotterdam Philharmonic, l’Orchestre de Paris, das Guerzenich-Orchester
Koelner Philharmoniker and also the Kronos Quartet, the Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center, the Nash Ensemble of London,
the Asko Ensemble of Amsterdam, Ensemble des 20. Jahrhunderts of
Vienna, the London Sinfonietta, Trio Basso of Cologne and the Bremer
Tanztheater.
ABOUT JESSIE MONTGOMERY
Jessie
Montgomery is a New York native violinist, composer and music educator.
Her music has been featured on national radio by Q2 Music
and National Public Radio and is performed regularly by PUBLIQuartet,
the Catalyst Quartet and the Sphinx Virtuosi. She was the inaugural
Musician Fellow at Lighthouse Works in partnership with the Orpheus
Chamber Orchestra. An active chamber musician and
collaborator, Jessie has performed with the highly acclaimed Catalyst
Quartet, raved by the New York Times as “invariably energetic and finely
burnished…performing with earthly vigor.” She was a co-founder of
PUBLIQuartet, an ensemble of composers and arrangers
playing their own music as well as that of emerging and established
contemporary composers. From 2004-2009 Jessie was also a member of the
Providence String Quartet, a pioneering ensemble in community-based
music education. As well as being a traditionally
trained classical musician, Jessie has collaborated as an improviser
with several avant-garde greats such as Don Byron, Butch Morris and
William Parker.
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