Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Sergio A. Mims: Civic Orchestra of Chicago pairs performances of Beethoven with Chicago-born jazz musician and contemporary composer, George Lewis

Prof. George E. Lewis
Columbia University


George E. Lewis is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University. A 2015 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Lewis has received a MacArthur Fellowship (2002), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2015), a United States Artists Walker Fellowship (2011), an Alpert Award in the Arts (1999), and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.  In 2015, Lewis received the degree of Doctor of Music (DMus, honoris causa) from the University of Edinburgh.

A member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, Lewis's work in electronic and computer music, computer-based multimedia installations, and notated and improvisative forms is documented on more than 140 recordings. His work has been presented by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonia Orchestra, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Talea Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, Ensemble Pamplemousse, Wet Ink, Ensemble Erik Satie, Eco Ensemble, and others, with commissions from American Composers Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, Harvestworks, Ensemble Either/Or, Orkestra Futura, Turning Point Ensemble, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, 2010 Vancouver Cultural Olympiad, IRCAM, Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, and others. Lewis has served as Ernest Bloch Visiting Professor of Music, University of California, Berkeley; Paul Fromm Composer in Residence, American Academy in Rome; Resident Scholar, Center for Disciplinary Innovation, University of Chicago; and CAC Fitt Artist In Residence, Brown University.


Lewis received the 2012 SEAMUS Award from the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, and his book, A Power Stronger Than Itself:  The AACM and American Experimental Music (University of Chicago Press, 2008) received the American Book Award and the American Musicological Society’s Music in American Culture Award. Lewis is the co-editor of the forthcoming two-volume Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies, and his opera Afterword, commissioned by the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago, premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in October 2015.

Sergio A. Mims writes:

Civic Orchestra of Chicago: Beethoven + Lewis


Experience music that spans centuries as the Civic Orchestra of Chicago pairs performances of Beethoven with Chicago-born jazz musician and contemporary composer, George Lewis.

George E. Lewis is a Professor of American Music at Columbia University, a 2015 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a 2002 MacArthur “Genius” awardee. Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most famous and influential German composers in history. He was as a crucial figure in Western music during the 19th Century.
The Civic Orchestra of Chicago is one of the nation’s premier training programs for emerging professional musicians with a focus on teaching, mentoring, and performing at community venues throughout Chicago. This performance series will mark the second collaboration between Rebuild and COC.

Comments by email:

1) Dear Bill and Sergio (if I may)—

Thanks for sending this along.  As you can imagine, I am a reader of Africlassical, and I’m happy to be included in this recent post.  

I hope you have a chance to hear the piece live.  I’m sorry I can’t be there.  Michael Lewanski, who is conducting the Civic musicians, is simply great. I’m recording a portrait CD with him and Ensemble Dal Niente in August.

About the piece’s history:

* Link to the review of the premiere (2013):


* The piece was performed in Chicago in 2013:


* Attached:  Program notes from Lincoln Center, with my commentary.

* Other recent music of mine:


Someone else who Africlassical might want to write about:

With Seth Parker Woods, cello (another upcoming performance in Chicago this week:


International cello soloist and chamber musician Seth Parker Woods proudly makes his Chicago solo debut with his latest solo project Asinglewordisnotenough, which is inspired by the oeuvre of musique concrète founder, Pierre Schaeffer. The evening’s performance will feature the Chicago premiere of new works commissioned by Woods for solo cello and interactive electronics by composers George E. Lewis, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, and Chicago native Edward Hamel.
Seth Parker Woods: a cellist of power and grace



Very best—

George [George E. Lewis]


----------------------------
George E. Lewis
Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music
Columbia University
Department of Music
621 Dodge Hall, MC1813
2960 Broadway
New York NY 10027 USA


2) Sorry to say I can't be there either because of a previous engagement, What a bummer.  Sergio [Sergio A. Mims] 

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