Performances
Alice Guy Blaché Film Score Project
A Screening and Live Concert
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 8 PM
French Institute Alliance Française
Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th Street, New York, NY
Commissions by Whitney Live in collaboration with French Institute Alliance Française
Featuring composers Missy Mazzoli, Tamar Muskal, Tender Forever, and Du Yun
Whitney Live, in collaboration with French Institute Alliance Française, presents four young composers in dialogue with pioneering filmmaker Alice Guy Blaché as part of the Whitney Museum retrospective of her career. Du Yun, Missy Mazzoli, Tamar Muskal, and Tender Forever each find common ground with the work of this unique figure in early cinema and shed a contemporary light on Guy Blaché’s legacy. These four composers each possess an extraordinary vision and a promising record of original work. Whether writing for orchestras, chamber ensembles, or solo performer, each one pushes the boundaries of contemporary composition in an innovative, singular way.
Whitney Live has commissioned scores for suites of short films by Guy Blaché, which will be presented during the exhibition as well as recorded and screened in the Museum. As part of the collaboration with the French Institute Alliance Française the performances and screenings will be presented during the Crossing the Line festival in September 2009.
Tickets: $20; $15 for FIAF and Whitney Members
Information: fiaf.org | (212) 355 6160
Du Yun Visit Du Yun’s MySpace page
Du Yun is a New York-based Chinese-American composer who occupies the space between several genres, including contemporary classical, traditional music, and experimental electronica. Her work composing for many well known contemporary ensembles, as well as for herself on amplified/processed Chinese zither (the twenty-one-string zheng), piano, laptop, and voice makes her equally at home in concert halls, clubs, theaters, and other venues.
Missy Mazzoli Visit Missy Mazzoli’s website
As the executive director of the MATA Festival of new music, an organization dedicated to promoting and commissioning works by young composers, composer/performer Missy Mazzoli can be found at the central intersection of the young indie/new music scene. Her unique sound is forged from many influences outside of that world, and Mazzoli’s output reflects this range; she writes for melodicas, out-of-tune guitars, and electronics as well as orchestras, string quartets, and other ensembles.
Tamar Muskal
Tamar Muskal’s music reflects the cultural diversity of her upbringing and education (split between Israel and the United States). Her carefully structured, detailed works are often brushed with musical elements from both places. Recent works include a piece for the Eighth Blackbird Ensemble with video art by Daniel Rozin, a song cycle for string quartet and percussion for Hila Plitmann, and the Lark quartet on poems by David Grossman, and a piece for Jennifer Koh and voice commissioned by the 92Y-New York. Muskal’s piece The Yellow Wind was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2007.
Tender Forever Visit Tender Forever’s MySpace page
Like Alice Guy Blaché, Tender Forever (aka Melanie Valera) was born and began her artistic life in France. She continues to live an intercontinental existence, artistically and otherwise, and moves between the streets of Bordeaux, where she grew up, and her adopted home town of Olympia, Washington. Her tender, delicate songs bring forth hidden connections between these worlds and occupy the musical landscape in which Melanie Valera became Tender Forever (taking as reference points punk rock, experimental electronica, weird visuals, and collaborations with several fellow K Records artists).
