2012-13 Season of Edward T. Cone Concert Series Explores Diverse Musical Dimensions
The 2012–13 Edward T. Cone Concert Series at the Institute for Advanced Study will explore a vivid spectrum of chamber music of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, including new works by Derek Bermel, the Institute’s Artist-in-Residence, based on particle physics and the Detroit auto industry. Performers will include Christopher Taylor, Bermel, eighth blackbird, JACK Quartet, Wiek Hijmans and an ensemble gathered to present selections from a musical-theater collaboration between Bermel and the poet Wendy S. Walters. The season is part of the Harmonic Series, created by Bermel to examine a variety of aesthetic perspectives in art music.
“From the classical elegance of the Brahms clarinet quintet to new explorations with the electric guitar, the season presents world-class musicians and a broad range of musical dimensions,” said Bermel.
In Across the Continent, the opening concerts on October 5 and 6, Bermel, who was nominated for a Grammy Award for clarinet performance in 2010, will perform 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 will perform works hailing from countries across Europe, from Sweden to the United Kingdom to Portugal.
On November 30 and December 1, the Grammy Award–winning, wildly inventive sextet eighth blackbird will perform a collection of new works from young composers in a highly anticipated engagement postponed from last year’s season. “The blackbirds are examples of a new breed of super-musicians,” Mark Swed wrote of the group in the Los Angeles Times.
On February 1 and 2, 2013, JACK Quartet will perform with signature virtuosity and energy, which critics have called “viscerally exciting,” “brilliant,” “beautifully harsh,” and “mind-blowingly good.” They will be joined by the renowned Dutch electric guitarist Wiek Hijmans. Among the works presented will be a new piece, commissioned from Bermel by Wolf Trap, that draws inspiration from a lecture on fundamental physics by Nima Arkani-Hamed, Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute.
The season will conclude March 8 and 9 with Songs from Golden Motors, featuring excerpts from Bermel’s music theatre collaboration with poet Wendy S. Walters. Some two dozen songs tell the story of workers at a fictional Detroit auto plant during the early 1980s, drawing on a fusion of art-song, gospel, Motown, country and Broadway. Originally scored for 12-piece orchestra, “Golden Motors” was previously presented in New York at Symphony Space and at the Flea Theatre.
Concert talks, providing discussions of the music on the program and related topics, will be held each Friday following the 8 p.m. performance and each Saturday at 6:30 p.m. preceding the 8 p.m. performance in Wolfensohn Hall.
Concert tickets are free and open to the public, but must be reserved online at www.ias.edu/air/music. Seating is limited. For further information about the Institute’s Artist-in-Residence program, visit www.ias.edu/air.
About Edward T. Cone
Noted composer, teacher, pianist and author Edward T. Cone, for whom the Institute’s concert series is named, earned his undergraduate and MFA degrees at Princeton University and was affiliated with its music department for more than 50 years. A Founding Friend of the Friends of the Institute for Advanced Study, he was a tireless supporter of the arts and humanities at the Institute and elsewhere.
About the Artist-in-Residence Program
The Artist-in-Residence program was established at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1994 to create a musical presence within the Institute community and to have in residence a person whose work could be experienced and appreciated by scholars from all disciplines. Pianist Robert Taub was the first Artist-in-Residence from 1994 to 2001, followed by composer Jon Magnussen, who served as Artist-in-Residence from 2000 to 2007, and Paul Moravec, who served as Artist-in-Residence from 2007 to 2008 and Artistic Consultant from 2008 to 2009.
Current Artist-in-Residence Derek Bermel, named to the position in 2009, is a composer, clarinetist, conductor and jazz and rock musician. The 2001 winner of a Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome, Bermel was nominated for a 2010 Grammy Award for performance in his recording Voices for Solo Clarinet and Orchestra.
About the Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute exists to encourage and support curiosity-driven research in the sciences and humanities—the original, often speculative thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. Work at the Institute takes place in four Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science. It provides for the mentoring of scholars by a permanent Faculty of approximately 30, and it ensures the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.
The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 6,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world. Thirty-three Nobel Laureates and 40 out of 56 Fields Medalists, as well as many winners of the Wolf and MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute.