Go to a concert of the classics and you commit yourself, at least for a couple of hours, to the special but removed world where great music resides. Those who went to the Great Noise Ensemble’s concert at Catholic University’s Ward Hall on Friday, however, were brought face to face with music as life.

…the music was put out there with enormous exuberance and good humor, all tempered by moments of delicacy and restraint.

–Joan Reinthaler, The Washington Post

To read the full review, click here.

41st Rudiment (low res) from Terry Berlier on Vimeo.

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Like most garage bands, alt-classical groups have to make the most of limited resources. “A lot of the vibe we’ve developed,” says Bayolo of the Great Noise Ensemble, “is that we’ve been forced to work in a tough economy with very little money, as what I call guerrilla music makers.” The ensemble’s musicians are still working without pay, though the question of performance space has been solved since the group took up residency at Catholic University. (Their next concert is Oct. 30.)

The residency is appropriate in that Bayolo specifically cites the catholicism — with a small C — of his musical tastes. All music, to this young composer, is created equal, but the established format is too restrictive. “The notion of music as religious relic is what I’m trying to fight against,” he said.

Read the full article here.

On April 30th, Great Noise Ensemble presents the world premiere of a brilliant new percussion concerto by composer D.J. Sparr: The 41st Rudiment. Performed by guest soloist Chris Froh on the fantastic percussion instrument sculptures created by sculptor Terry Berlier, Sparr’s concerto combines visual art with compositional mastery and spectacular stage performance for an experience on a myriad of artistic planes.

Also featured on the program are works by Ian Hartsough and Robert Paterson: Ian Hartsough’s City Life portrays the the “frustrations, wonders, and concerns that come with starting a life on one’s own” as seen through the lens of life in Manhattan, while Paterson’s Looney Tunes uses as inspiration and point of departure favorite characters from the cartoons of the same name.

This program is a featured performance in Great Noise Ensemble’s role as resident new music ensemble at The Catholic University of America, and is presented in The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music’s historic Ward Recital Hall.

Tickets:
$25 General
$15 Students & Seniors
Free for CUA Students, Faculty & Staff with valid CUA ID

Tickets are available through Ovationtix:
https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/692545

Colors and shapes, portraits and architecture: the musical reflects the visual in Colors Of Cool, presented by Great Noise Ensemble on March 5 at Catholic University’s historic Ward Hall.

This concert presents the music of five composers:

Geoffrey Gordon’s Cool Red Cool (a jazz and improvisation-tinged response to Andy Warhol’s Self Portrait (1986)),

Jonathan Russell’s Night Dance

Blair Goins’s Chamber Concerto (written for Great Noise Ensemble)

Jacob Cooper’s Not Just Another Piece For Solo Bass Drum

Harold Meltzer’s Brion (inspired by the colors and architectural shapes of the Brion-Vega Cemetery in San Vito d’Altivole, not far from Venice.)

Tickets available through OvationTix.

Great Noise Ensemble returns to the National Gallery of Art for Colorfield Passions, a program of world premiere works inspired by the paintings of Mark Rothko (Armando Bayolo’s Kaddish:Passio:Rothko) and the music of Claudio Monteverdi (Carlos Carrillo’s Motets from Vespro della Beata Virgine (2010)), in collaboration with the National Gallery Orchestra and Chorus.

This concert is free: for more information visit the site for the Concert Series at the National Gallery of Art.

Inspiration can come from a myriad of places, and not all of them exist in the realm of the sane or the real or the tangible: GNE’s third concert of the season, Illusions & Hallucinations, features works by composers Armando Bayolo, Andrew Simpson and Geoffrey Gordon inspired by things both imagined and etheral.

Geoffrey Gordon’s Lux Solis Aeterna draws its inspiration from neutrinos and the creation of sunlight, while Andrew Simpson’s lotus and poppy springs from images and personifications of lotus eaters and opium addicts, applied to modern day issues of unjust warfare. Armando Bayolo’s Chamber Symphony: Illusory Airs springs from our increasing connection through the wireless and intangible pathways of the internet and mobile communication, in direct opposition to our ever increasing physical isolation.

Tickets are available at OvationTix: $25 Adults, $15 Students/Seniors, CUA Faculty and Staff free with valid CUA I.D.