Margaret Leng-Tan » Roulette

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Wednesday, June 6, 2012 @ 8:00 pm

Satie and Satie-inspired music from John Cage, Toby Twining, Federico Mompou and Milos Raickovich, performed on piano and toy piano by Margaret Leng Tan.

Full Description:

Margaret Leng Tan, piano and toy piano
Roberto Rossi, narrator
Ranjit Bhatnagar, sound artist

Satie and Satie-inspired music from John Cage, Toby Twining, Federico Mompou and Milos Raickovich, performed on piano and toy piano by Margaret Leng Tan.

Cage considered Erik Satie “indispensable”. Texts by Cage and Satie will punctuate the evening, read by Roberto Rossi.

A program highlight will be the first live US performance of one of Cage’s last works, his Extended Lullaby. A re-working of Satie’s Vexations, Extended Lullaby was originally created for 12 music boxes. Ms. Tan will present Extended Lullaby in a multiple-toy piano arrangement.

Other works include Satie’s Pieces Froides and his Sports et Divertissements performed with Satie’s poems and projections of the original Charles Martin accompanying illustrations; Cage’s Dream, In a Landscape together with a film by Meredith Holch; Satie Blues by Twining, Mompou’s Canco i Dansa and the US premiere of Waiting for C-A-G-E by Raickovich.

In the lobby Ranjit Bhatnagar’s robot toy piano version of Satie’s Vexations will run for the duration of the show.

Margaret Leng Tan has established herself as a major force within the American avant-garde; a highly visible, visionary pianist whose work sidesteps perceived artificial boundaries within the usual concert experience, she creates a new level of communication with listeners. Embracing aspects of theater, choreography, performance, Tan has brought to the avant-garde a measure of good old-fashioned showmanship tempered with a disciplinary rigor inherited from her mentor, John Cage. This has won Tan acceptance far beyond the norm for performers of avant-garde music, as she is regularly featured at international festivals, records for adventurous labels such as Mode and New Albion, and has appeared on American Public Television, at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

Exploring crosscurrents between Asian music and that of the West led her to John Cage. This sparked an active collaboration between Cage and Tan that lasted from 1981 to his death in 1992, during which Tan gained recognition as a pre-eminent Cage interpreter. She was the featured performer in a tribute to Cage’s memory at the 45th Venice Biennale. During this Cage centenary season Tan will participate in celebrations in the US, Europe and Central America.

Margaret Leng Tan has been hailed as “the queen of the toy piano” (The New York Times). Her groundbreaking albums, The Art of the Toy Piano (Philips/Universal) and SHE HERSELF ALONE: The Art of the Toy Piano 2 (mode), made her the world’s first toy piano virtuoso. Evans Chan’s film, Sorceress of the New Piano: The Artistry of Margaret Leng Tan, nominated for “Best Music Documentary” at the American Film Institute/Discovery Channel’s SilverDocs, is now available on Mode.

Thursday, September 15, 2011 @ 8:00 pm

GRAND OPENING – Kaija Saariaho / Margaret Leng Tan / Henry Threadgill & Zooid / Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier

Full Description:

$35 General Admission
$100 Front Rows (Includes reception before concert)
*No student, senior or member pricing

*$65 of the Front Row ticket price is a tax deductible donation to Roulette in celebration of its Grand Opening*

The long wait is finally over. Roulette re-opens - bigger and better than ever. With a newly renovated Art Deco concert hall, seating for up to 400 people (600 standing!), hifi multi-channel sound system, massive projection screen for film and multi-media events, state-of-the-art lighting system, modular stage, and specially designed floor to accommodate dance - the new Roulette promises to be one of the most exciting places in New York City to experience adventurous music and art. Join us as we kick off our inaugural season with a huge three day Grand Opening Celebration!

To Find out more about our new concert hall, please click HERE

Kaija Saariaho studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg and Paris, where she has lived since 1982. Her studies and research at IRCAM have had a major influence on her music and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures are often created by combining live music and electronics. Although much of her catalogue comprises chamber works, from the mid-nineties she has turned increasingly to larger forces and broader structures, such as the operas L'Amour de loin and Adriana Mater and the oratorio La Passion de Simone.

Margaret Len Tan performs Daughters of the Lonesome Isle, Music for Piano no.2 (string piano), and Water Music by John Cage.

Margaret Leng Tan has established herself as a major force within the American avant-garde: a highly visible, visionary pianist whose work embraces theater, choreography, performance. She is regularly featured at international festivals, records for Mode, New Albion, ECM, and has appeared on PBS and at Carnegie Hall. Originally from Singapore, Tan was the first woman to earn a doctorate from Juilliard, but exploring cultural crosscurrents between Asia and the West led her to John Cage. An active collaboration ensued that lasted from 1981 to his death in 1992, establishing her as his pre-eminent interpreter. Tan is fascinated by the artistic potential of toy instruments and her groundbreaking 1997 CD, The Art of the Toy Piano (Philips/Universal), made her the world's first professional toy piano virtuoso. Favoring music that confronts the piano's normal boundaries, like-minded composers have written for her such as Somei Satoh, Tan Dun, Ge Gan-ru, Michael Nyman and Toby Twining. She is also a favorite of composer George Crumb. Filmmaker Evans Chan's documentary, Sorceress of the New Piano: The Artistry of Margaret Leng Tan, has been screened at numerous international film festivals.

Henry Threadgill is one of the great musical masterminds of the past quarter century - a composer, arranger, and innovator who transcends genres in contemporary music. A multi instrumentalist whose principle axes include alto sax and flute, Threadgill emerged from Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

Threadgill's music has been performed by many of his long lasting instrumental ensembles, including the trio Air, the seven-piece Sextett, Very Very Circus, twenty-piece Society Situation Dance Band, X-75, Make a Move, Aggregation Orb, and his current group Zooid. He has recorded many albums as a leader of various ensembles.

Since 1996, composer/pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman have been performing regularly in the USA , Canada and have toured widely in Europe (playing at festivals such as Willisau, Saalfelden, Mulhouse, Partheney, Shaffhouse, Muenster, Bath , Vancouver, and Bordeaux). Together they perform the music of John Zorn, Masada Book II (Book of Angels) and their own compositions from their CD OBLIVIA on Tzadik Records.