Institute for Advanced Study Announces 2015–16 Edward T. Cone Concert Series

Sebastian Currier, Artist-in-Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study, has announced the performers for the 2015–16 Edward T. Cone Concert Series. In his third and final season as Artist-in-Residence, Currier will present eminent ensembles performing both traditional and contemporary works.

From the rich, vibrant sonorities of a brass quintet, to the stark intimacy of Kurtag’s vocal settings of Kafka, from a celebration of the many women writing amazing music today, to the nostalgic strains of Derek Bermel’s new piano trio, this will be a season of exciting, provocative and varied music-making,” stated Currier.

The season will open on Friday and Saturday October 16 and 17 featuring the American Brass Quintet, one of the top brass quintets of our time. The quintet will perform music from the 16th and 17th centuries paired with new works written for them, including Sebastian Currier’s Cadence, Fugue, Fade, a work which recasts early Baroque forms and brass writing within a contemporary context.

Kafka Fragments will feature violinist Rolf Schulte, soprano Lucy Shelton and pianist James Winn on November 20 and 21. The ensemble will present an intriguing exploration of music from Czechoslovakia and Hungary written just as the Austro-Hungarian empire was dissolving with works by Bartok and Janacek. They will also perform a selection from the contemporary Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag’s superb settings of Kafka’s epigrammatic short stories for violin and voice, Kafka Fragments.

On February 5 and 6, the New Millennium Ensemble will present a concert celebrating women in music composition with a sampling of prominent women, reflecting various nationalities and aesthetics, including Kaija Saariaho, one of the most distinguished composers writing today. The ensemble will also perform works by Andreia Pinto-Correia, Bun Ching Lam, Melinda Wagner, Belinda Reynolds, Augusta Read Thomas and Laura Schwendinger, with her chamber work, High Wire Act.

The season will conclude March 4 and 5 when Music from Copland House returns to the Institute to perform a wide-ranging concert of vibrant American works. In Remembrance of Things Past, Bach and Schubert are conjured, respectively, by Pulitzer Prize winners Steven Stucky and John Harbison, while William Albright constructs a fantastical “other” world inhabited by the specters of Mozart, Brahms, ragtime and klezmer. Also, former Institute Artist-in-Residence Derek Bermel evokes a place of universal immortality in his piano trio, Death with Interruptions.

All concerts in the series will take place at 8:00 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall at the Institute. Concert talks, providing discussions of the music in the program and related topics, will be held each Friday following the performance.

The concerts are free and open to the public, but tickets must be reserved online. Seating is limited. For further information visit the Institute’s Artist-in-Residence program.

About Edward T. Cone

Noted composer, teacher, pianist and author Edward T. Cone, for whom the Institute’s concert series is named, earned his undergraduate and MFA degrees at Princeton University and was affiliated with its music department for more than 50 years. A Founding Friend of the Friends of the Institute for Advanced Study, he was a tireless supporter of the arts and humanities at the Institute and elsewhere.

About the Artist-in-Residence Program

The Artist-in-Residence program was established at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1994 to create a musical presence within the Institute community and to have in residence a person whose work could be experienced and appreciated by scholars from all disciplines. Pianist Robert Taub was the first Artist-in-Residence from 1994 to 2001, followed by composer Jon Magnussen, who served as Artist-in-Residence from 2000 to 2007. Paul Moravec served as Artist-in-Residence from 2007 to 2008 and Artistic Consultant from 2008 to 2009. Derek Bermel, a composer, clarinetist, conductor and jazz and rock musician, served as Artist-in-Residence from 2009 to June 2013.

Composer Sebastian Currier became Artist-in-Residence in July 2013. His complex and imaginative works have been performed by such eminent artists and ensembles as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Berlin Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet and the New York Philharmonic. A recipient of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, Currier has received numerous honors including the Berlin Prize, the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.