Great Noise Ensemble presents

Learning To See
Sunday, May 18, 2008, 6:30 PM
The National Gallery of Art

Great Noise Ensemble wraps up its third season a program of works designed to complement both the collections and the space at the National Gallery of Art, with works inspired by concepts as far ranging as the emotion of love and as specific as the colors of a favorite painting.

The works of composers Evan Chambers (Rothko-Tobey Continuum) and Barbara White (Learning to See) engage in a dialogue about the congruence of music and the visual arts in the 20th century, while Blair Goins contemplates the most common basic artistic inspiration in the premiere of his new work, Quintet of Love. We also wrestle with the classical tradition in the world premieres of Armando Bayolo’s Chamber Symphony:Illusory Airs and Andrew Rudin’s Piano Concerto, featuring guest soloist Marcantonio Barone.

Free admission. For more information, visit the National Gallery of Art’s events website.

Great Noise Ensemble presents

Sublime and Ridiculous Songs
Saturday, April 12, 2008, 8 PM
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring
10309 New Hampshire Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20903

$20 General/$10 Students & Seniors*
Tickets available at BrownPaperTickets.com or by calling 1(800)838-3006.

Great Noise Ensemble returns to one of its favorite venues, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring, to present a program which highlights the beauty and expressive range of the human voice. Sublime and Ridiculous Songs brings together music featuring solo voices which run the gamut from David Little’s profound musings on war and military life in Soldier Songs to Pablo Neruda’s odes to everyday objects in Arlene Sierra’s Neruda Settings while Tom Schnauber ruminates on childhood in his Not Pooh! songs and Louis Andriessen has a little fun with Mozart (and Frankenstein!) in M is for Man, Music, Mozart.

“The music on this program is perhaps the most challenging and the most fun that Great Noise Ensemble has yet to take on and provides an excellent opportunity to feature the human voice,” says artistic director Armando Bayolo. The group features two of its regular members as well as bringing two new faces in as guest soloists: Kara Morgan, who lends her lyrically rich voice to Sierra’s Neruda Settings, and Rachel Barham, whose humor and vim shine in M is for Man, Music, Mozart. Monica Szabo brings her talents to Schnauber’s Not Pooh! and baritone Aaron McNeil takes on selections from David Little’s powerful one-man opera Soldier Songs.

Tickets available at BrownPaperTickets.com or at the door.*

*Stay tuned for an exciting announcement regarding discounted tickets for this and future Great Noise Ensemble concerts!!

Great Noise Ensemble presents

Aires Nuevos Y Tropicales
Friday, February, 22, 2008, 8PM
The Patricia M. Sitar Center
1700 Kalorama Road NW Suite 101
Washington, D.C. 20009

$20 General/$10 Students & Seniors
Tickets available at BrownPaperTickets.com

Great Noise Ensemble explores the myriad connections between the United States and Latin America with a program of pieces exotic and native.

Both American and Hispanic cultures are geographically and artistically diverse, and Aires Nuevos and Tropicales is a program reflecting these vibrant variations. Heather Figi’s Moon Big is an exploration of Brazilian culture and the rhythms of the Portuguese language. Gabriela Lena Frank’s Cuatro Canciones Andinas is an exploration of Peruvian culture and a response to her encounter with the work of the Quechua folklorist Jos Mara Arguedas. Eric Ewazen’s Trio for Trumpet, Clarinet and Piano and Marc Sylvester’s Pulse (in 7) represent the rhythmic vibrancy which American music has in common with the music of our brothers and sisters to the south while Michael Holmes’ Recitative, Passacaglia and Fugue represents the neo-classical strain of the American concert music tradition in the 20th century. Finally, jazz legend Paquito d’Rivera’s woodwind quintet, Aires Tropicales, is a love letter to the music of his native Cuba and to his friend, Dizzy Gillespie.

Tickets available at BrownPaperTickets.com or at the door.

Great Noise Ensemble makes its Harman Center debut on Wednesday, February 13th with a dynamic Happenings at the Harman performance featuring favorite works from their 2007-2008 season.

Featuring discussions and performances by Washington-area scholars and artists, Happenings at the Harman seeks to connect audiences with today’s leading artists and thinkers. The series explores the synergy between performances on the city’s stages and the events that shape our community and world.

Box lunches are available for purchase for $10 if desired; reservations are requested but not required. Artists and programs subject to change based on guest availability. Call the box office at 202.547.1122 for up-to-date schedule information, to reserve a space and to place an order for a box lunch.

Great Noise Ensemble continues its third season with a program of new chamber works for small ensembles. The works of masters like Michael Colgrass and Karlheinz Stockhausen are showcased next to works by ensemble members Heather Figi, Blair Goins, and Mark Sylvester. The intimate setting of Washington’s Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts serves as a jewel box to showcase these gems for soloists, duos, or trios.

“1-2-3″ is Great Noise Ensemble at its most intimate. It gives us a chance to explore the many possibilities available in recent chamber music. From Mark Sylvester’s gentle lyricism, Blair Goins’ playfulness and Heather Figi’s eclecticism to Michael Colgrass’s rhythmic vibrancy, the brash virtuosity of Robert Morris and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s trailblazing genius, it’s all here!” says founder and Artistic Director Armando Bayolo.

General Admission $25, Students & Seniors $15. Tickets available at BrownPaperTickets.com or at the door.

Great Noise Ensemble
presents

1-2-3

December 2, 2007, 6 PM
The Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts
1700 Kalorama Road NW, Suite 101
Washington, D.C. 20009

$25 General Admission, $15 Students & Seniors

It’s been thirty years since The King left the building, but for one night only he’s back and headlining for Great Noise Ensemble on September 29th in Michael Daugherty’s Dead Elvis.

Great Noise Ensemble starts their third season with a bang as bassoonist Alan Michels dons the mantle- and the jumpsuit- of The King for Michael Daugherty’s Dead Elvis. “I’ve performed and enjoyed the thematic basis for Dead Elvis, Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale, but I didn’t identify with the protagonist–I’ve never wanted to sell my soul to the devil for a violin,” says Michels with a grin. “On the other hand, I’m absolutely willing to sell my soul to the god of rock and roll bassoon–or the god of glittery Las Vegas jumpsuits. Highest bidder!”

In their season opener and the inaugural concert of Catholic University’s “New Music at CUA” series, Great Noise Ensemble also presents soloists Kristen Williams and Katherine Kellert from within their own ranks as well as guest artists Duo 46 and Steven Leffue in a program of concertos and features. Michels kicks off the program, followed by new music pair Duo 46, who join the group for the world premiere of their commission, Armando Bayolo’s re-imagining of the Brandenburg Concertos, Concerto a Due. Kristen Williams takes to the keyboard in Emanuella Ballio’s Comme pour jeu…, Steven Leffue performs the late master Luciano Berio’s Sequenza VIIb for saxophone, and clarinetist Katherine Kellert closes the program with John Adams’s pyrotechnic concerto Gnarly Buttons.

“One of our goals as a new music group is to promote the talents of our members as well as the up and coming composers we’ve programmed. Great Noise Ensemble is made up of some of the finest young musicians in the Washington area, most of whom are still relatively unknown to the general public,” says group founder and conductor Armando Bayolo. “Show Offs presents an opportunity to shine the spotlight on a handful of this group’s versatile and vibrant members. Dead Elvis is a great showcase for Alan’s sense of humor as well as his bassoon chops. Comme pour jeu… reflects Kristen Williams’ eclectic musical personality. Gnarly Buttons is a great fit for Katherine Kellert, because it shows off both the lighter and more profound sides of her musicianship. Duo 46 is really plugged in to the new music scene and such a great advocate for new music in general, and Concerto a Due shows off their incredible individual and ensemble dynamic.”

Admission for this event is free to the general public.

New Music at CUA presents
Great Noise Ensemble in
Show Offs!
Saturday, September 29, 2007: 8 PM
Ward Hall, The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music
Free admission.

Great Noise Ensemble presents the final concert of their second season, “Idol Worship (and possessions…)” on May 18, 2007 at the Patricia M. Sitar Center in Washington, D.C. This performance is a part of the American Composers Forum New Music Salon series and will feature an evening of chamber music that demonstrates the wildly interesting scope of contemporary music written in the past 33 years.

The concert will feature the following works-

Icicle by Robert Aitken lets the flute soloist dictate the form of the composition and uses unconventional extended techniques for the instrument to evoke the experience of ice melting.

This is Not for John Lennon by Stephen Stone is a memorial for John Lennon based on the poetry of Nikki Giovanni which challenges the listener to improve their world.

Banjo Trio No. 2 in 4 movements by Mark Sylvester swaps the traditional roles of banjo, viola, and bass instruments in an unexpected, yet somehow familiar composition.

Dances for Brass Quintet by Blair Goins took its initial inspiration from Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances and turned this traditional style into a jazz composition.

Elegy in the Form of Dream by Francis McKay explores the tension of internal and external worlds as depicted in Proust’s writing.

Turns and Nocturnes for Solo Piano by Frances McKay is a modern take on the character pieces from the 19th century.

Four Humors by Elizabeth Vercoe uses the Medieval philosophy of the four bodily fluids that create moods and sets these to music for clarinet and piano.

Tickets are available at the door prior to the concert ($20). The Patricia M. Sitar Center is located at 1700 Kalorama Rd., NW, Washington, DC, 20009.

http://www.composersforum.org/dc

http://www.sitarartscenter.org/

Great Noise Ensemble: Guest Artists – The Chamber Music of Andrew Earle Simpson
Thursday, March 22, 8:00 PM
Ward Recital Hall
The Catholic University of America

Free and open to the public
Reception to follow

Great Noise Ensemble appears as guest artists on a recital of chamber music and silent film music by Andrew Earle Simpson (a composition faculty member at Catholic University).

GNE will perform Simpson’s Chamber Concerto, a 1992 three-movement work for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion. GNE Director Armando Bayolo will conduct the performance.

Also on the program:

The premiere of the clarinet-piano version of Summer-Night Songs (1994, rev. 2006);

phos (2000-01), for piano and percussion;

The Dead are Dancing (2006), for flute and piano;

Melies Suite (2006), for solo piano, featuring music originally written to accompany silent films;

Liberty (2005), performed by the Snark Ensemble (Andrew Simpson, piano, Maurice Saylor, woodwinds, and Phil Carluzzo, percussion, with Ben Redwine, guest artist): inspired by a Laurel and Hardy silent film of the same title

Directions to Catholic University may be found by clicking on this link: http://www.cua.edu/directions/

Jesus gave a message of peace, tolerance and love – why has so much violence been committed in his name?

Composer Armando Bayolo in his 2 part oratorio for chamber orchestra and voices seeks to understand how Jesus’ message and Christianity have been so mis-represented.

GREAT NOISE ENSEMBLE continues their second season on March 16, 2007 with “Sacred Music for a Secular Age ” and a presentation of Towards Golgatha for Chamber Orchestra and Vocal Quartet composed by Armando Bayolo. GNE will be joined by Rachel Barham, soprano, Tracy Cowart, mezzo-soprano, Thomas Mirenda, tenor and Solomon Howard, bass.

The concert will take place at the Ward Recital Hall, Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Catholic University 8 P.M. 620 Michigan Ave NE, Washington, DC 20064 at 8 PM. Tickets are $20 general/ $10 students & seniors and available at the door or online:
www.greatnoiseensemble.com

Towards Golgotha by Armando Bayolo sets the story of Jesus’ last days through the lens of poetry from the last 200 years. Scored for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and baritone soloists and chamber orchestra, Towards Golgotha explores the story of Jesus’ last days through the work of modern and contemporary poets and seeks to arrive at an understanding of the myriad meanings attached to the foundational story of Christian faith and the significance it still holds to a largely secularized contemporary age.

Bayolo’s music “often exude(s) a searching quality that makes each piece a pathway reaching toward a kind of understanding or discovery. Achieving this effect is one of the most difficult and important projects for an artist to undertake, and he does it with a sincere heart and great technical accomplishment; ”
(Evan Chambers, the University of Michigan)

“It is new, it is fresh and it gets its message across.”
(Gerald Cochran, Charlotte Observer)

Past performances by the GNE this season included a birthday celebration of Steve Reich and his music, the first of Great Noise’s annual Composers in Profile series, ” Premieres and Prized Pieces,” an all-premiere program and ” Dancing, Drumming & Re-Defining” a recital of chamber works. Also in 2006-2007, Great Noise is the ensemble in residence for the Washington chapter of the American Composers Forum.

The mission of the Great Noise Ensemble is to promote the work of young, emerging talents in the field of new music from the United States with a focus on composers from the Washington DC area and to further the creation of new musical compositions, present world-class performances of masterpieces of music since 1970 and to educate audiences on the work of both established and emerging composers active in the creation of new concert music.

For questions please contact Executive Director Kristen Williams at info@greatnoiseensemble.com
or visit http://www.greatnoisensemble.com
and http://www.myspace.com/greatnoise

The American Composers Forum New Music Salon Series features Great Noise Ensemble

What would is sound like if…
an amplified Coke can and a mandolin come together in duet?
a flute, bassoon and oboe get inspired by the Techno music of Ibizia, Spain?
a traditional Cuban song gets a minimalist makeover?
good and evil battle together on one piano?

Great Noise Ensemble continues their second season answering these questions and more in:

“Dancing, Drumming and Re-Defining”
January 26, 2007 8:00PM
at the Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts,
1700 Kalorama Rd., NW, Washington, DC

Tickets are $15 general $8 in advance, and $20/$10 at the door (space is limited)

Visit www.greatnoiseensemble.com for tickets and more information.