Music

Friday, October 5, and Saturday, October 6, 2012
8 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall

Derek Bermel and Christopher Taylor

In Across the Continent, Derek Bermel, the Institute's Artist-in-Residence and Grammy Award nominee for clarinet performance in 2010, performed with acclaimed solo pianist Christopher Taylor, winner of the bronze medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and first prize at the William Kapell International Piano Competition. The two presented works hailing from countries across Europe, from Sweden to the United Kingdom to Portugal, by composers including Julian Anderson, Alban Berg, Derek Bermel, Johannes Brahms, Anders Hillborg, Witold Lutoslawski, Andreia Pinto-Correia, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Eric Tanguy.

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Friday, November 30, and Saturday, December 1, 2012
8 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall

eighth blackbird

“The blackbirds are examples of a new breed of super-musicians.”
—Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times

In Shifted in Flight, the Grammy Award–winning, wildly inventive sextet eighth blackbird performed a collection of new works from young composers in an "all-out, overcaffeinated, off-kilter jam session." The program featured Andy Akiho's erase; Derek Bermel's Tied Shifts and Soul Garden; Tom Johnson's Counting Duets; György Ligeti's Études; Nico Muhly's Doublespeak; and Mayke Nas's Anyone can do it.

eighth blackbird was joined by students from the Curtis Institute of Music for the performance.

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Friday, February 1, and Saturday, February 2, 2013
8 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall

JACK Quartet with Wiek Hijmans and Derek Bermel

JACK Quartet, which critics have called “viscerally exciting,” “brilliant,” “beautifully harsh,” and “mind-blowingly good,” was joined by renowned Dutch electric guitarist Wiek Hijmans and Derek Bermel, the Institute's Artist-in-Residence. Among the works presented were Brahms's Clarinet Quintet, Ligeti's Quartet no. 2, Bermel's Ritornello, and a new piece by Bermel, A Short History of the Universe (as related by Nima Arkani-Hamed).

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Friday, March 8, and Saturday, March 9, 2013
8 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall

Songs from Golden Motors

The last concerts of the 2012–13 Edward T. Cone Concert season at the Institute for Advanced Study featured a staged reading of Golden Motors, a collaboration in musical theater centering on a family’s struggle to improve their lives in the shadow of a fictional Detroit auto plant during the early 1980s. The music by Derek Bermel, Artist-in-Residence at the Institute, draws on gospel, art-song, Motown, country, and Broadway. The book and lyrics are by poet Wendy S. Walters, author of the forthcoming Troy, Michigan and Longer I Wait, More You Love Me (2009). Directing the readings was Johanna McKeon (American Idiot; Grey Gardens). Performers included Broadway veteran Chuck Cooper (Caroline, or Change; 1996 Tony Winner for The Life), soprano Dan’yelle Williamson (Memphis; Scandalous), Lawrence Clayton (Bells Are Ringing; Dreamgirls), Aisha de Haas (Caroline, or Change; Rent), and Okieriete Onaodowan (American Idiot; Neighbors). The musical director and pianist was John DiPinto (Trav’lin; Footloose). Golden Motors has been presented in New York at Symphony Space and at the Flea Theater.

A concert talk moderated by Steve Smith, Music Editor for Time Out New York and regular contributor to the New York Times, preceded the Saturday performance.

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