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The concert series Emergence has its own home on the Web, with photos, music, and lots of info about the Ensemble, the guest artists, and the emerging chamber opera Lucia.
Piano Trio No.1 had its New York debut at MoMA's Summergarden 2006: New Music for New York this past Sunday, July 9th. The NY Times hailed the performance as filled with an "irresistible energy [that] seemed to come from everywhere" (Allan Kozinn, NY Times). Read the full article here. Check back in a few days for video clips of the live performance!
Invitation to Emergence at Makor, April 16 PDF GIF
We are extremely excited for the upcoming Makor debut of Emergence. We are having four singers for this one, and are putting Christine Zorzi, the librettist for Lucia, front and center as our special guest. The event is being co-presented by Advance, an Australian Young Professionals' association, and there will also be a wine tasting after the event...we're going to saturate all your senses! Look forward to seeing you there...
Emergence held a house concert at the home of Hamish Norton in February. It was Emergence unplugged, with no microphones, played for an intimate gathering, and it was great to get back to the natural acoustic core of our sound. Stay tuned for more house concerts upcoming.
American Spiritual, my commission from the Ying Quartet, received its premiere in Rochester NY on February 12th. The 4-movement piece was performed with passion and flair by the Yings, and their effort received an enthusiastic ovation from the crowd at Eastman's Kilbourn Hall.
Last week the Yings repeated American Spiritual in a very interesting concert at Symphony Space, called Rhythm. The concert also featured Satoshi Takeishi, my longtime colleague, on percussion. Sato played interludes between the other string quartets that the Yings had programmed (by Barber and Michael Torke), emphasizing their rhythmic features. Before my piece, Sato and I played a duet that I wrote for the occasion, which also utilized the themes of the other quartets. It was a very effective presentation, with a lot of contrast and continuity, showing the similarities and differences between two very different metiers.
Emergence will premiere in 2006 at a bigger and better venue, Makor! Mark your calendars for March 26th, and help us kick off a brand new phase in the Emergence series!
Invitation to Concert Nine, the Holiday Concert HTML/FLASH
Invitation to Concert Eight PDF GIF
Invitation to Concert Seven PDF GIF
Invitation to Concert Six PDF JPG
Four concerts down, twenty to go. Thanks to our pianist Steve Gosling, Emergence has been mentioned in the New York Times. Come out and get in on the action!
Invitation to Concert Five PDF JPG
Invitation to Concert Four PDF JPG
After two great concerts, Emergence is officially underway. Come and join us!
Invitation to Concert Three PDF JPG
The first concert was a success! It met all of our expectations, and has provided an excellent foundation for the next twenty-three performances. Emergence Concert Two is coming up on Sunday, September 11th. We hope you'll join us!
Invitation to Concert Two PDF JPG
The official word is out on Patrick Zimmerli's upcoming concert series at the Triad in Manhattan. Entitled Emergence, the series of twenty-four concerts will begin on August 28 and carry on for alternating Sundays throughout the 2005-06 season, and will feature music from Zimmerli's latest release Phoenix, along with work from the forthcoming opera Lucia, and a smorgasbord of special guests. Updates will appear throughout the summer.
Invitation to the Opening Night Concert PDF JPG
Performance in the inaugural concert of the "Coming Home" Concert series at Flagg Road Church, West Hartford, Connecticut. The series features practicing musicians that came up through the West Hartford School System (I'm a graduate of Hall High School). We played the Sappho Fragments, which were beautifully rendered by Karen Goldfeder; some of the Piano pieces, in gripping performances by Steven Gosling; and a few arrangements from the Phoenix CD. It was a fun show.
Recorded the Six Pieces for Piano with Adam Neiman. Adam is a beautiful spirit and his renditions of the pieces combined technical brilliance with sonic depth and richness. Adam is that rare combination of the thoughtful artist who also plays with flash when required. The set was recorded at the Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase, and engineered beautifully by Judy Sherman, who got a terrific sound. We hope to have this music commercially released before long. Listen to excerpts.
Eminent photographer and National Geographic Photographer-in-Residence Frans Lanting (http://www.franslanting.com) has executed a photoessay on Evolution, entitled "Life." The stunning series of photos was turned into a 14-minute work that Frans narrated as a keynote presentation at this year's TED conference (http://www.TED.com/). Other keynote speakers included scientist James Watson (of Watson/Crick fame) and astrophysicist Brian Greene. Zimmerli coordinated the accompanying music, which included work from Phoenix as well as new original material and work by young Australian composing phenomenon Andrew Byrne.
The evening was fabulous. Thanks to everyone who came out. New shows are already being planned.
Phoenix is finally out, and the release party is happening at the Jazz Standard on Monday the 10th, with the band playing at 7:30 and 9:30. See the flyer for details.
Phoenix at the Jazz Standard, January 10th
The date for the Phoenix debut at the Jazz Standard has finally been firmed up for January 10th. The performance coincides with the release of the CD on Songlines.
The 8th annual Edgefest, a small but important festival of new jazz held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, closed this year with a performance of the Book of Hours, featuring myself on soprano saxophone. The assisting musicians included players from the University of Michigan's jazz ensemble, as well as area professionals Ed Sarath and Ryan Mackstaller, each of whom contributed material for the set.
The U of M players were very well grounded in the classical as well as jazz traditions, and, thanks to the excellent preparation by their director Ellen Rowe, they put on a very high-quality performance of the Book of Hours. This was only the second distinct group ever to play the music, and their perspective formed an nice contrast with that of Octurn.
The Ying Quartet's LifeMusic project, sponsored in part by the Institute for American Music, commissions works that explore some aspect of the American experience. The Yings commission two pieces a year. The first album in the LifeMusic series came out last summer on the Quartz label. It's a beautiful CD, highly recommended, which features music by Kevin Puts, Michael Torke, Carter Pann and Paquito D'Rivera. Other commissioned composers in the series include Chen Yi, Daniel Kellogg, Augusta Read Thomas, and Ned Rorem, Jennifer Higdon and Bernard Rands.
Piano Trios CD at long last released! I hope you will find the CD worth the wait--it should be filling shelves in a CD store near you sometime in the near future.
The 2nd Trio premiere was a great success, it was given a web simulcast on www.king.org, the Seattle Classical music station. The Festival was a wonderful experience as always and I feel like I have a second family out in Seattle.
Phoenix release has been pushed back to early 2005 due to the vagaries of label scheduling. The concurrent project at the Jazz Standard is still in the works, hoping for some more specifics soon...
Current projects: An opera on the life of Lucia Joyce, daughter of James Joyce in development with Christine Zorzi. I've found Christine's idea for an opera on this subject to be fertile ground, particularly as it revives my long-standing interest in one of the 20th Century's most brilliant yet problematic artists, James Joyce. Also, a piece for Piano and Saxophone for Alexander Berne and Sonia Rubinsky; and more music for Phoenix, being developed with Satoshi Takeishi, for our fall performances.
Piano Trios CD design completed. The cover image is by one of the most interesting artists in New York today, James Casebere. Casebere's work consists of photographs of tiny architectural models that he builds and paints himself. The photos are then blown up, so that the models seem like real architectural spaces. The effect is very haunting and dramatic, and makes for a novel, compelling synthesis of architecture, painting, and photography. His photographs strike me as at once classical and contemporary, which is the blend I'm striving for in the Piano Trios.
The Piano Trios and Phoenix are now scheduled for simultaneous late-summer release. In conjunction with this double release Seth Abramson and I are planning a festival of jazz/classical synthesis, to take place in November 2004 at the Jazz Standard in New York City. Among other jazz acts whose work is inflected by classicism and classical artists who have made forays into jazz, both Phoenix and the Piano Trios will be performed, an unusual event where chamber musicians will perform at a jazz club!
The Metamorphosen benefit was a great success. James Wolfensohn, head of the world bank and a major arts philanthropist, played cello with the Orchestra in a gala attended by such prominent members of New York society as Judy and Sam Peabody, Daisy Corsini, and James Gorman. Mr. Wolfensohn also gave an inspiring talk about the importance of philanthropic endeavor and of extending one's interests beyond the four walls of America.
Six pieces for string quartet and soprano saxophone completed. Recording tentatively scheduled for June in Ghent, Belgium with the Rubio Quartet.
Current projects: Romances for Violin and Piano; Tosca Variations, a short piece based on a theme of Puccini for Cello and Orchestra, written for Kristina Reiko Cooper and the Quartetto Gelato; A set of solo piano pieces; A set of pieces for String Quartet and Saxophone, for saxophonist Alexander Berne; and Movements, a series of independent movements for Orchestra designed to be played either separately or as a group.
Work on Phoenix design and mastering nearly completed. Schisma Design Studio has done a great job with the design for the record, coming up with an image and layout that really captures the contemporary and classic elements of the music. Mastering is planned for the end of this month in Boulder, Colorado.
New York Overture Completed. The New York Overture, a short work for Chamber Orchestra, is to be premiered at a benefit concert for Metamorphosen to be held on March 10, 2004.
Piano Trios #1 & 2 recorded at SUNY Purchase's Performing Arts Center, with Scott Yoo, violin, Mike Mermagen, cello, and John Novacek, piano. The three days we spent putting down the two four-movement works were really intense and fraught, with the musicians taking only short breaks over the 6-hour sessions. Mike was fighting arm trouble the whole time, John walked in on the second day with flu symptoms, and even Scott was exhausted after fighting heroically through the 3rd movement of the 2nd trio. Notwithstanding the adversity, everyone sounded great. Scott is now furiously editing the record and it should be ready for mastering by the new year.
Parts and Score completed for Piano Trio #2, commissioned by the Seattle Chamber Music Festival. The piece will be premiered in Seattle next summer by violinist Scott Yoo, Cellist Michael Mermagen, and Pianist Jon Novacek; it will be recorded in November for release on the Arabesque label concurrent with the premiere.
Mix of Phoenix completed. Patrick Zimmerli-Phoenix, a CD of music for String quartet, Saxophone, Piano, Bass, Percussion, and Electronics, was recorded in the spring for the Songlines label. Over 5 days, we mixed the record at Kampo Studios in New York. It was mixed in both stereo and SACD surround sound formats, and the surround mix was very fancy indeed! It will be released for public consumption in Spring 2004.
Patrick Zimmerli appointed Composer in Residence with the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra. The Orchestra will play one of Zimmerli's works per year for the extent of his residency. The orchestra is planning to schedule a season in New York City.