Composers Concordance: Gene Pritsker @ 50

Composers Concordance kicks off its 2021/2022 concert season on Sunday, September 5th at New York City's DROM with a concert celebrating the 50th birthday of composer/performer Gene Pritsker.

Called "Audacious...multitalented" by The New York Times, Pritsker is a prolific composer, arranger, bandleader, guitarist, DJ, and Renaissance man.

The concert features performances of his music by the groups Sound Liberation and B3+, violinist Lara St. John, bass trombonist David Taylor, clarinetist Michiyo Suzuki, and many other amazing instrumentalists, vocalists, and poets who have worked with Gene for many years.

Premieres on the concert include Prelude & Fugue #4, Cold Gin Variation, a quartet for brass and tap dancer, as well as performances of Iguana, A Certain Degree of Neurosis, and There’s Not Enough Pain In The World.

The concert will also be live-streamed on the Composers Concordance Facebook Page.

The livestream will take place at 6pm Eastern / 3pm Pacific.

Watch the livestream here

Attending in person
The concert will take place at:

DROM
85 Avenue A
New York, NY 10009

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About Composers Concordance

Staying in rotation for 40 years in NYC is a rare feat. In the case of a new music presenting organization, it requires not only diligence and cognizance of achievements of the past but also an ethic of keeping one's ear to the ground for emerging stylistic and technological developments, as well as talented new composers on the scene.

Composers Concordance, founded in 1984 by Joseph Pehrson and Patrick Hardish, advised by Otto Luening, strives to present contemporary music in innovative ways, with an emphasis on thematic programming. Directors Gene Pritsker and Dan Cooper co-curate the programs and lead the CompCord Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, String Orchestra, and Big Band. Associate Directors are Milica Paranosic, Peter Jarvis, Debra Kaye, and Seth Boustead.

Composers Concordance has also created a Naxos-distributed record label: Composers Concordance Records, co-directed by Peter Jarvis. Composers Concordance's overriding vision is to promote contemporary music, composers, and new works as a rightful and respected part of society. Good music performed and recorded well, pushing the boundaries of sound and composition.

About B3+ Brass Trio

This is bass trombone, French horn, and trumpet as you have never heard, seen, or experienced before. Taylor/Clark/Hackl are creating their own brass trio literature. The tension initiated by the blending of improvisation and composed passages defies every attempt to categorize it. B3+ develops into much more than its individual parts―it is music at its purest. It is as simple and as complex as that. You will hear an exciting meeting of Bartok, Pastorius, Schubert, Bach along with early classical music, jazz standards, free jazz, original music, authorized and non-authorized interpretations of pop tunes, and Welsh hymns. John, Franz, and Dave began to play their instruments at an early age, and their open minds and searching ears got busy right away. Sometime later they earned advanced degrees from the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, and Manhattan School of Music. "Real-world degrees" were subsequently earned as they worked with great musicians all over the world.

B3+ is where the experiences and ideas accumulated in orchestras, recording studios, jazz clubs, big bands, late-night jam sessions, and on long bus rides from gig to gig…all get a chance to bubble and stew and become something unique. Think: Gunther Schuller meets P. Diddy meets Yo-Yo Ma meets Gil Evans meets Michael Jackson. Get the picture?

John Clark, French horn |
Franz Hackl, trumpets |
Jonathan Greenberg, bass trombone

About Sound Liberation

Sound Liberation, an eclectic chamber ensemble/band, was formed in 1996. The band has gained exposure in the New York city area and has generated a loyal core following playing such notable venues as Joe's Pub, Wetlands, Knitting Factory, The Blue Note, Downtime, New Music Cafe, Cutting Room, Le Poisson Rouge, and many other performing spaces.

Sound Liberation's musical philosophy, developed by band founder Gene Pritsker, is based upon "ending the segregation of sound vibration (i.e. musical Genres)". The group incorporates its philosophy by performing compositions that encompass a diverse range of musical genre, heavily influenced by hip-hop and rock rhythms. This enables one to hear elements from classical music to Jazz to music of various cultures at a Sound Liberation show.

The group performed at the Outreach Festival '06 and '07 and '14 in Schwaz, Austria. In '07 Sound Liberation performed at the Estonian House and presented Gene Pritsker's opera Money at the Players Theatre and Flea Theatre in New York. In May of '08, Money was performed at the Etna music Festival in Catania, Sicily and Sound Liberation played in Ragusa, Sicily. In July '08, they performed at the Blaine jazz Festival in Blaine, Wa. In May of '09, Sound Liberation presented 2 nights at the Flea theater, performing Gene Pritsker's one-hour VRE Suite written for the Sound Liberation Quintet and a concert with B3+ of music from their albums on Col-Legno records. In September 2011, they performed at the Bremen Musik Fest in Germany. In past years the group was part of the Peekaboo Festival of New Music, 21st Century Schizoid at Cornelia Street Cafe and Theater, and toured Newfoundland, Canada in April of '99.

In August of '09 the Song No Truth was featured in the Universal Home Videos motion picture The Wedding Bothers. In the fall of 2010, Human Condition was featured on PBS's Road Trip Nation series. The band played a very publicized concert at New York's Le Poisson Rouge in January '10. The New Yorker wrote: "Pritsker, a rule-breaking composer-guitarist (and rapper) who impresses funk and rock beats onto classical structures, fronts this eclectic jazz-type combo of singers and instrumentalists."