CONDUCTING
the
CME
the
CURIOSITY CABINET
&
GUEST
CONDUCTING
founded in 2000,
artistic director
& conductor since 2010
The Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME) of the CUNY Graduate Center was founded in 2000 by conductor and composer Josh Feltman. Dedicated to playing pieces of chamber orchestra repertoire from the 20 and 21st centuries, the ensemble also takes two composers-in-residence for each concert season to workshop and premiere their works.
The ensemble is a combination of collaborative instrumental forces from the CUNY schools, CUNY graduates, and NY freelancing musicians. Besides having premiered over a dozen new works by PhD CUNY Graduate Center composers, the CME has been involved in the inaugural and 2nd annual CUNY-wide New Music Festival. Conductor and composer Whitney George has been directing the ensemble since 2010 and composer Inés Thiebaut has been assistant conductor since 2012.
[standard repertoire]
selections from Sonnets from Shakespeare
Miriam Gideon (Spring 2014)
Music for the Theater
Aaron Copland (Fall 2013)
Appalachian Spring : Suite for 13 Instruments
Aaron Copland (Spring 2013)
selections from L'Histoire du soldat
Igor Stravinsky (Fall 2012)
Exotic Birds (Oiseaux exotiques)
Olivier Messiaen (Spring 2012)
Chamber Symphony, Op. 9
Arnold Schoenberg (Fall 2011)
Octandre
Integrales
Edgar Varese (Spring 2011)
Dumbarton Oaks
Igor Stravinsky (Fall 2010)
[premieres & performances
of original works by composers:]
Nina C. Young
Rebekah Driscoll
Harry Stafylakis
Whitney George
Casey Hale
David Bridges
Ines Thiebaut
Angelica Negron
Nicholas R. Nelson
Andre Bregegere
[for more information visit]
founded in 2009,
artistic director & conductor
Founded in 2009 by composer and conductor Whitney George, The Curiosity Cabinet is a chamber orchestra dedicated to performing works of the 20th/21st-century standard repertoire and premiering works by living composers working in interdisciplinary mediums. The group began as a Pierrot Ensemble, and has since grown into a collective of more than 20 instrumentalists and 6 singers, with a core group of 10 performers and a conductor. The ensemble has been involved in a variety of festivals and performances in New York and the east coast since it’s creation. In 2010, the ensemble was awarded the Robert Engelman Award for the premiere performance of George’s 50-minute monodrama 'The Yellow Wallpaper'. In the Spring of 2011, the ensemble premiered a 13-movement work written for the ensemble by George entitled 'The Anatomy of the Curiosity Cabinet'. This performance won the CUNY Graduate Center's prestigious Robert Starer Award. In the same year, the ensemble premiered selections of a new opera by David Bridges, and was the ensemble-in-residence at the annual Hartford Women Composers' Festival. This Fall season, the ensemble will be in-residence with Concrete Timbre’s artist collective for a Satie-inspired work titled 'Un Lieu de Vie', and in the Spring of 2015, the ensemble is collaborating with puppeteer Daniel Fay for a collaborative performance at the Standard Toykraft Theater in Brooklyn. Since 2011, the ensemble has been involved in the annual NY-wide "Composers Now" event. The group has performed works by composers Whitney George, David Bridges, Ellen O'Meara, Miriam Gideon, Faye-Ellen Silverman, and Karen Powers.
[premieres of original works
by Whitney George]
selections from
Night, like velvet: in twelve letters
llusion from The Crimson Hand
Visual Training
Inferno: the Nine Circles of Suffering
The Anatomy of the Curiosity Cabinet
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Tell Tale Heart
Stained Glass
And Thus the Whirligig of Time
Brings in his Revenges
[premieres of other works]
selections from The Lady with the Dog
David Bridges
Opening for Ardor
Ellen O'Meara
pink fluffy alarmetts still sound
Karen Power
No Strings
Faye Ellen Silverman
since 2010
Low Brass Connection
Variations on America
Charles Ives
Carelessly Open, Something Unsaid, the Phone off the Hook
Whitney George
Too Suite
David Taylor
(Sounds After the Oil War in Austria & Germany- Summer 2014)
Fresh Squeezed Opera
La Zombiata
Jillian Flexner
(Baruch in New York- Summer 2014)
New York Trombone Consort
Too Suite
David Taylor
(NY Spring 2014 Tour)
The String Orchestra of Brooklyn
Pillars of Light
Doron Sadja
Expand
Catherine Lamb
(String Theories at Roulette- Spring 2014)
The Noveau Classical Project
Early Lyrics
Huck Hodge
(Composers NOW at Symphony Space- Spring 2013)
Fred Ho's Green Monster Big Band
Sweet Science Suite
Fred Ho
(Guggenheim Museum- Fall 2011)
Black Liberation Suite
Cal Massey
(Recording for CD release- Spring 2011)
Ursula Oppens's ConTempo Ensemble
selections from Time Cycle
Lukas Foss
(Brooklyn College- Spring 2010)