Boston University Center for New Music Announces 2017–2018 Season

August 29, 2017

Schedule of events to include a residency with distinguished Australian composer Liza Lim, as well as concerts and workshops featuring the Cairn Ensemble, Sound Icon, the JACK Quartet, and the Arditti Quartet.

Boston, MA – For nearly three decades, the School of Music at Boston University College of Fine Arts has been a powerful force for new music. The School has trained generations of composers and performers across all departments, hosted visits by leading composers, and has presented thousands of works by known and unknown composers alike.

Through the Boston University Center for New Music (CNM), CFA continues this tradition. Located within a thriving music school, the Center seeks to enhance the presence of cutting edge music within the curriculum while encouraging awareness of new music to the BU arts community and to the broader New England arts community. To widen the conversation within the greater University, the Center hosts lectures, demonstrations, and performances that are open to the public, providing a forum for broader interdisciplinary involvement. To that end, the Center also hosts several institutional collaborations, including its partnership with the Boston-based contemporary music sinfonietta Sound Icon, and Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art among others.

Celebrating its sixth season, the Boston University Center for New Music is honored to host esteemed artist-in-residence composer Liza Lim (February 12-28, 2018). Australian Liza Lim is one of the most distinguished composers of her generation. Her wide-ranging compositional catalogue emphasizes research and immersion into cross-cultural practice in music, and she has been commissioned and performed by many of the world’s preeminent festivals, ensembles, and orchestras. Liza has taught at universities and conservatories around the world and is a highly sought-after lecturer, but has quite rarely been featured in the United States.

Joshua Fineberg, the Director of the BU CNM, says “this is a really special opportunity for us to bring in one of the world’s most exciting composers at the peak of her career and allow our students, professional musicians and the broader musical community to have a wide-ranging set of interactions that hopefully will forge lasting links.” Other events and programs throughout the year will include workshops and concerts with France’s Cairn Ensemble, New York’s JACK Quartet, Boston’s own Sound Icon and Ludovico, and the world’s preeminent new music quartet, the Arditti Quartet.

The School of Music is proud to offer this slate of events that place innovation and creation as cornerstones of the music experience for the Boston University community.

Boston University Center for New Music

Schedule of Events

Artist in Residence

Feb 12-28, 2018
Liza Lim
This residency of renowned Australian composer Liza Lim, whose work has made her a leading international artist, includes performances with the Ludovico Ensemble, Sound Icon, the JACK Quartet, and Ashot Sarkissjan of the Arditti Quartet; Lim will also offer a series of lectures on her work, along with coachings, open rehearsals, and masterclasses. Learn more about Liza Lim at www.lizalimcomposer.wordpress.com.

Concerts

Oct 21, 2017, 8pm
Cairn Ensemble
CFA Concert Hall (855 Commonwealth Ave.)
Free Concert
The Cairn Ensemble from France’s Loire Valley will come to the BU Center for New Music on its first ever American tour. They will play in the concert hall and host pedagogical events around their remarkable ¼-tone accordion earlier in the day.

Featuring: Franck Bedrossian’s Innersonic (for accordion and electric guitar), Joshua Fineberg’s Just as much entangled with other matter for accordion and iPhones, Fausto Romitelli’s Professor bad trip for electric guitar, Jérôme Combier’s KikaPou for ¼ tone accordion, and Daniel Alvarado Bonilla’s Tañer el viento. Find more information at www.ensemble-cairn.com.

Oct 22, 2017, 3pm
Arditti Quartet
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
The highly-acclaimed Arditti Quartet returns to the ICA in collaboration with the Boston University Center for New Music. Founded in 1974 by Irvine Arditti, the quartet’s concerts and albums of 20th and 21st century music have been praised for their technical expertise and spirited interpretations. The Guardian has called the Arditti Quartet “The world’s pre-eminent contemporary music quartet.”

At the ICA, the Arditti Quartet will perform a concert of prominent 21st female composers. Co-presented with the Boston University Center for New Music. Tickets: $20 general admission; $10 ICA members + students. https://www.icaboston.org/events/arditti-quartet; http://www.ardittiquartet.co.uk/

Program: Liza Lim – Hell, Clara Iannota – Dead wasps in the jam jar, Rebecca Saunders – Fletch interval, Hilda Paredes – Bitacora Capilar, Olga Neuwirth – In the realms of the unreal

Feb 16, 2018
Ludovico Ensemble
St. Paul’s Church, Brookline
Featuring Liza Lim’s Spirit Weapons and Inguz, and the world premiere of Marti Epstein’s Dirl
http://www.ludovicoensemble.org/

Feb 18, 2018, 8pm
Sound Icon
CFA Concert Hall
Free Concert

Featuring Liza Lim’s The Turning Dance of the Bee, The Heart’s Ear and An Elemental Thing and a work by a BU student composer. www.soundiconensemble.org

Feb 20, 2018, 8pm
JACK Quartet
CFA Concert Hall
Free Concert
New music string quartet performing Liza Lim’s The Weaver’s Knot, Dum Transisset (Brian Ferneyhough), Chambers (Marcos Balter), and String Quartet No. 2 (Elliott Carter) www.jackquartet.com

Feb 22, 2018, 8pm
JACK Quartet
CFA Concert Hall
Free Concert
Performing a concert of new works written by BU student composers for the JACK Quartet.

Feb 26, 2018, 8pm
Ashot Sarkissjan solo recital
CFA Concert Hall
Free Concert
Ashot Sarkissjan (violin), most often seen as a member of the Arditti Quartet, returns to the BU CNM as a soloist, performing the world premiere of Liza Lim’s The Su Song Star Map for solo violin with, James Dillon Del Cuatro Elemento (1988), Steven Daverson Giacometti’s Razor (2014), Georg-Friedrich Haas De Terrae Fine (2001), and a work by a BU student composer.

PUBLIC EVENTS (free)

Oct 21, 2017, 1:30pm
Ensemble Cairn
855 Commonwealth Ave., Room B38
“The Microtonal Accordion”

COMPOSER’S FORUM — HIGHLIGHTS

Feb 13, 2018, 9:30-11:50am
Composer’s Forum Lecture: Liza Lim
855 Commonwealth Ave., Room B38

Feb 20, 2018, 9:30-11:50am
Composer’s Forum Lecture: Liza Lim
855 Commonwealth Ave., Room B38

Feb 27, 2018, 9:30-11:50am
Composer’s Forum Lecture: Liza Lim
855 Commonwealth Ave., Room B38

For a full listing of visiting composers, visit here.