2017 Composers Now Festival Opening Event
The Opening Event of the seventh annual Composers Now Festival featured a vibrant program of music by living composers hosted by Composers Now founder and artistic director, Tania León. The event also included the second annual Composers Now Visionary Awards ceremony honoring Muhal Richard Abrams, Thomas Buckner, and Pauline Oliveros (posthumously). At the Opening Event, Composers Now was honored with a Proclamation presented on behalf of Mayor Bill de Blasio by Kathleen Hughes, Assistant Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs:
"I, Bill de Blasio, Mayor of the City of New York, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, February 1st, 2017 in the City of New York as: Composers Now Festival Day."
Music by composers including:
Video Screenings by Fall 2016 Composers Now Creative Residents at the Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund:
Sasha Zamler-Carhart, composer, singer
Ngô Thanh Phu'o'ng, choreographer, dancer
Tonia Ko, composer
Yasuno Miyauchi, composer
Performances Featuring:
Edmar Castañeda, harpMuhal Richard Abrams, Four+ for piano
Zamler-Carhart/Rauh/Greenberg, voice, electric guitar, glockenspiel
Tyshawn Sorey, percussion
Jessie Montgomery, Strum for string quartet
Nkeiru Okoye, "The Cooking Song" and "The Chastity Song" from We've Got Our Eye on You
Krista Wozniak, Kamala Sankaram and Maria Elena Armijo, singers; Mila Henry, pianist
In collaboration with Opera on Tap
Quartet: TSU, excerpts from works by Paris Lavidis and Michelle David
