August 13, 2012 — New Music New College’s 14th season will showcase a brilliant array of international artists in its five-concert subscription series, and will offer more educational events and more free performances by New College students, faculty and alums than ever before.
Kicking off the 2012-13 season will be Third Coast Percussion (Sept 22), a Chicago-based quartet which will perform music of the legendary John Cage in celebration of the composer’s 100th birthday. Other guest artists for the season include improvisational pianist Marilyn Lerner (January 19), vocalist/composer Toby Twining and his ensemble (April 20), and the JACK Quartet (Nov 17), whichwill perform compositions by New College graduates who have earned recognition in the world of contemporary music. Free Artist Conversations will be held the day before four of this year’s performances.
Now in its fifth rendition is the engaging rock-happening under the stars, Crossroads 5: BluesX (March 16), which this year will be devoted to the intersection of modernism with blues and bluegrass music, featuring the Sarasota-based band Passerine, Tampa Bay trombonist David Manson and New College musicians. In tandem with the performance is a free panel discussion entitled Experimental Music Meets Bluegrass (March 15) with New College professors David Brain (sociology, member of Passerine) and Kariann Goldschmitt (music), and New Music New College’s director, Stephen Miles.
New this year will be two free Experimental Music Class Workshops (Oct 12, Nov 20) that invite the public to both witness and participate. The public workshops are an outgrowth of Miles’s Experimental Music classes at New College, and will feature New College students, as well as some graduates, as the core participants.
Another free event features New College alumna Erica Gressman, who graduated in 2009. Gressman, who just completed an MFA in Performance Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will return to perform and discuss “Wall of Skin”(Feb 8), which she describes as “the embodiment of our core human struggle between raw human identity and technology.” As a New College student, Gressman performed twice in NMNC Crossroads concerts as drummer, vocalist and keyboardist for the student band, Tyger Beat. She will also share her post-New College experiences with current students at an informal lunch gathering.
Concluding the season are two more free events: the Sarasota Wind Quintet (May 5), which will perform compositions by current New College students in what has become an annual collaboration between the Sarasota Orchestra and New College; and an Electronic Music concert (May 9) that is the culmination of Visiting Assistant Professor Mark Danciger’s Electronic Music class.
“As a vital program of New College of Florida, New Music New College’s purpose is to engage the campus and the Sarasota community in important questions about music and meaning, and to pose the questions experientially,” says Miles, who is professor of music as well as New College’s Provost. “Through our performances and educational programs, we explore the music of today, asking: What makes “new music” new, and why does it matter? When does sound become music? What is the relationship between innovation and tradition? Is music a sonic object or is it a process? Why is improvisation important in music and to our everyday lives? How does experiencing music in live performance change our perception and understanding of music?”
Miles says that these are not merely academic questions, but questions that get to the heart of life under conditions of modernity.
“NMNC brings audiences together for performances that are exciting, challenging, and memorable,” he says. “Our goal is to offer music so powerful as to stay in the mind, inviting continued reflection and conversation.”
Performances take place either at the Mildred Sainer Music and Arts Pavilion/Caples Fine Arts Complex, 5313 Bay Shore Road; at Sudakoff Center, 5845 Gen. Dougher Place; or at the Black Box Theater, located in Hamilton Center across from Sudakoff Center.
Subscriptions for the five-concert series are priced at $60. Single tickets are $15 for the general public, $5 for non-New College students, and free to the New College community. Reservations are now being taken online at donate.ncf.edu/events, or by calling 941-487-4888. More information is available at newmusicnewcollege.org, or facebook.com/newmusicnewcollege.
New Music New College is a program of New College of Florida, the state’s honors college and a national leader in the liberal arts and sciences. It is funded in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development tax revenues. This year’s media sponsors are ABC-7, the Herald-Tribune Media Group and WSMR.
NEW MUSIC NEW COLLEGE SEASON SCHEDULE/CALENDAR LISTINGS
Also includes Artist Bios
FIVE CONCERT SUBSCRIPTION SERIES ($60)
Music of John Cage and Steve Reich
Third Coast Percussion
Saturday, Sept 22, 2012, at 8:00 pm
Club Sudakoff, 5845 Gen. Dougher Place, New College Pei (East) Campus
Tickets $15; non-New College students $5
Free to New College community
941-487-4888
Online reservations: donate.ncf.edu/events
newmusicnewcollege.org
Third Coast Percussion is a Chicago-based quartet whose performances have been described as “sonically spectacular” (Chicago Tribune), and which has won accolades for its recent recording of music by John Cage (MODE Records). In celebration of Cage’s centennial, Third Coast Percussion will perform the composer’s Radio Music, enlisting 16 students from NMNC Director Stephen Miles’s Experimental Music class. Also on the program: Mallet Music, a recent composition by one of contemporary music’s living giants, Steve Reich. New Music New College will present them in the informal atmosphere of its improvised “Club Sudakoff.”
The Third Coast percussionists are Owen Clay Condon, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin and David Skidmore. “Third Coast is thrilled to be performing the first time at New Music New College,” says Skidmore. “We are very much looking forward to celebrating the 100th anniversary of John Cage’s birth with performances of his music for percussion. We will also perform the music of another visionary American composer who has made a huge impact on percussion music, Steve Reich.”
Third Coast Percussion uses an impressive array of percussion instruments to create a unique performance experience. With exceptional talent and dedicated artistry, the quartet combines the driving intensity of drums, the beautiful warmth of marimbas and vibraphones and the surprisingly exotic sounds of everyday objects to make music that is playful, memorable and profound. In performances around the country, the ensemble has swiftly gained national attention for effortlessly combining the energy of a rock concert with the precision and sophistication of classical chamber music.
Then and Now: Music of New College Graduates
The JACK Quartet
Saturday, Nov 17, 8:00 pm ($15)
Mildred Sainer Music and Arts Pavilion
5313 Bay Shore Road
Tickets $15; non-New College students $5
Free to New College community
941-487-4888
Online reservations: donate.ncf.edu/events
newmusicnewcollege.org
In “Then and Now,” the JACK Quartet will perform recent works by distinguished New College graduates Taylor Briggs, Alejandro Castaño, Jason Rosenberg and Sara Moone, each of whom has 
gone on to win major prizes and commissions, juxtaposed with some of their notable student compositions. This will mark the fourth appearance of the JACK Quartet on the New Music New College series. Musicians Christopher Otto (violin), Ari Streisfeld (violin), John Pickford Richards (viola) and Kevin McFarland (cello) have quickly established a reputation for giving high-energy performances of today’s most demanding works for string quartet.
The JACK Quartet is focused on the commissioning and performance of new works, leading them to work closely with composers Helmut Lachenmann, György Kurtág, Matthias Pintscher, Georg Friedrich Haas, James Dillon, Toshio Hosokawa, Wolfgang Rihm, Elliott Sharp, Beat Furrer, Caleb Burhans, and Aaron Cassidy. Upcoming and recent premieres include works by Jason Eckardt, Zeena Parkins, Payton MacDonald, Huck Hodge, James Clarke, Mauro Lanza, Simon Steen-Andersen, Walter Zimmermann and Toby Twining. Throughout 2012-2014, JACK will join legendary pianist Maurizio Pollini as a part of his Perspectives series with performances at the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), Suntory Hall (Japan), Cité de la Musique (France), Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Germany) and Teatro alla Scala (Italy). Additionally, JACK will be the featured ensemble for the 2012 Finale® National Composition Contest in partnership with MakeMusic and the American Composers Forum. JACK has led workshops with young composers at Princeton University, Yale University, the American String Teachers Association of New Jersey, New York University and many other institutions. In addition to working with composers and performers, JACK seeks to broaden and diversify the potential audience for new music through educational presentations designed for a variety of ages, backgrounds and levels of musical experience.
Dreamwork
Marilyn Lerner, pianist
Saturday, Jan 19, 2013, at 8:00 pm
Mildred Sainer Music and Arts Pavilion
5313 Bay Shore Road
Tickets $15; non-New College students $5
Free to New College community
941-487-4888
Online reservations: donate.ncf.edu/events
newmusicnewcollege.org
Widely recorded and internationally renowned, Marilyn Lerner’s work speaks to improvisation, not just as an approach to music making, but as a way of life, a mode of being that is accessible to all of us in our daily lives. Her groundbreaking recordings have garnered much recognition, including her two solo recordings Luminance and Romanian Fantasy, and Special Angel with Sonny Greenwich. Her intimate knowledge of the piano, combined with a fearless experimental and passionate spirit, render her a true original. Lerner’s work spans the worlds of jazz, creative improvisation, klezmer and 20th century classical music. She composes for film, theatre, radio and television. She is also an audio artist and has created a series of soundscapes using samples of sounds she collects in the natural environment. Lerner is also a practicing psychotherapist and an analyst in training at the Toronto Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis. While at New College, she will discuss how her artistic work and her therapeutic work inform each other, and how her practice in both arenas is informed by and informs her feminism, at a session for the New College community co-sponsored by the college’s Gender Studies Program.
Of her program in Sarasota, the artist states, “Dreaming is an activity not limited to sleep but a state that continues during our waking hours. Art is testament to this! I invite the audience to accompany me on a unique musical journey, a moment in time, the creation of sound poems, explorations in sound, songs, and improvisations. Improbable, unrepeatable, virtuosic, a personal integration of influences spanning classical, jazz, and world music, created with heart and passion.”
Crossroads 5: BluesX
Passerine and David Manson, trombone
New College Musicians
Saturday, March 16, 2013, at 8:00 pm
Caples Fine Arts Complex, PepsiCo Arcade
5313 Bay Shore Road
Tickets $15; non-New College students $5
Free to New College community
941-487-4888
Online reservations: donate.ncf.edu/events
newmusicnewcollege.org
NMNC’s annual Crossroads performances bring musicians of very different backgrounds together—to perform together and to learn from each other—all under the stars in the PepsiCo Arcade. For the fifth edition of Crossroads, the musicians will get down and go deep, exploring the modernist dimension of music that is strongly traditional, the music of bluegrass and the blues. What happens when Bill Monroe and Robert Johnson meet John Cage and Steve Reich? The answers will be revealed by NMNC musicians Stephen Miles, R. L. Silver, New College students (including blues virtuoso Nat Langston) with special guests, trombonist David Manson and Passerine, an ensemble that includes NCF sociology professor David Brain, NCF alumna Sara Moone and current NCF student David Baker.
Formed in 2009, Passerine is a five-piece Americana and folk project from Sarasota, Fla. Passerine’s distinctive sound combines three and four-part vocal harmonies, the crisp rhythms of an acoustic guitar, the haunting voices of the fiddle and dobro and the resonant lows of an acoustic bass. With this unusual arrangement of voices and instruments, Passerine offers a fresh take on traditional folk and bluegrass music as well as a repertoire of original songs that range from sweet ballads to the edgier side of contemporary Americana. Members include Carmela Pedicini (vocals, acoustic guitar), Tanya Radke (vocals, acoustic guitar), David Baker (vocals, acoustic bass), David Brain (resonator guitar) and Sara Moone (vocals, violin). Passerine’s new full-length CD, recorded at Zen Recording Studios in St. Pete, is entitled “Another Song About a Bird,” and is available on iTunes and cdbaby. Their August 3-19 tour includes 18 “gigs” in 17 days on the road in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Alabama. “Passerine” is the common name for the order of birds that includes songbirds known for the sweetness of their songs.
David Manson is a trombonist, composer, improviser, presenter and music technologist. His degrees include a doctorate from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He began his performance career with positions in the Florida West Coast Symphony (now Sarasota Orchestra) and Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and taught low brass and jazz studies at Indiana State University before returning to Florida. He has been soloist and composer with the BONK New Music Festival, Subtropics New Music Festival, Society of Composers and SEAMUS. He has performed and recorded with Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers, Eugene Chadbourne, Davey Williams and other innovators.
Manson’s solo recordings include “Modern Music for Trombone” (lps 3209) and “Beast” (isospin). His releases as leader, composer/arranger and soloist include “Particle Zoo” with ensemble SHIM, “Fluid Motion” with jazz legend Sam Rivers and “Infinita Bossa” with Brazilian band O Som Do Jazz. He was trombonist and arranger for Bogus Pomp, a Frank Zappa repertoire band from 1993-2007. Manson is a recipient of two Artist Fellowships in music composition from the Florida Arts Council, a Fulbright-Hays project in Turkey, an artist feature in the Southern Arts Federation’s JazzSouth radio program, and grants from Meet The Composer. His orchestral works have been performed by the Florida Orchestra. Hanson directs the EMIT series of adventurous music at the Salvador Dali Museum and is former director of the Tampa Bay Composers’ Forum (1995-2003). Through EMIT and the Composers Forum, he has presented over 200 concerts of new music. Hanson currently writes for and performs with Brazilian group O Som Do Jazz and brass quintet Glorious Brass. He directs the Helios Jazz Orchestra and teaches Pro Tools courses in the MIRA (Music Industry/Recording Arts) program at St. Petersburg College.
New Voices, New Harmonies
Toby Twining Music
Saturday, April 20, 2013, at 8:00 pm
Mildred Sainer Music and Arts Pavilion
5313 Bay Shore Road
941-487-4888
Online reservations: donate.ncf.edu/events
newmusicnewcollege.org
Toby Twining has established a reputation as one of the most innovative vocalist/composers active today, and performances by his ensemble have won accolades from critics. In the words of Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times: “Using elements as diverse as jazz improvisation, contemporary classical pointillism and repetitions, ethnic throat 
singing, doo-wop, yodels, vocal sound effects and a few utterly unclassifiable techniques that are uniquely their own, the ensemble is setting a standard for the stylistically unrestricted exploration of voice music. Toby Twining Music is an unquestionable original.” For NMNC’s season finale, Toby Twining Music will perform music from Twining’s score for the ballet, Eurydice, excerpts from the group’s break-out recording, Shaman, as well as completely new material.
Raised in Texas, with family roots in country-swing and gospel, Toby Twining has traveled musically from playing for rock and jazz bands to composing and performing experimental music for voices with a fresh approach to harmony. He moved to New York in 1987, initially writing for modern dance choreographers who wanted the sounds of a new choral music. In 1991, he started Toby Twining Music, which performed in music halls and festivals across the United States and Europe. His recordings include Shaman (SONY, 1994), The Little Match Girl and Emily Dickinson’s Birthday Pizza on A Prairie Home Companion 20th Anniversary Album (Highbridge, 1996), Chrysalid Requiem and Eurydice (Cantaloupe Music, 2002 and 2011). Twining’s instrumental music has been recorded by pianist Margaret Leng Tan and cellist Matt Haimovitz. He was a 2003 Pew Fellow, co-founder of Arts on the Edge Wolfeboro, and 2011 Guggenheim recipient.
FREE COMMUNITY EVENTS
Artist Conversation with Third Coast Percussion
Friday, Sept 21, 2012, at 3:30 pm
Mildred Sainer Music and Arts Pavilion
5313 Bay Shore Road
941-487-4888
newmusicnewcollege.org
Experimental Music Class Workshop:
Cornelius Cardew’s The Great Learning Paragraph 7
Friday, Oct 12, 2012, at 1 pm
Caples Fine Arts Complex
5313 Bay Shore Road
941-487-4888
newmusicnewcollege.org
Artist Conversation with New College Composers
Friday, Nov 16, 2012, at 3:30 pm
Mildred Sainer Music and Arts Pavilion
5313 Bay Shore Road
941-487-4888
newmusicnewcollege.org
Experimental Music Class Workshop
Tuesday, Nov 20, 2012, at 1 pm
Caples Fine Arts Complex
5313 Bay Shore Road
941-487-4888
newmusicnewcollege.org
Artist Conversation with Marilyn Lerner
Friday, Jan 18, 2013, at 3:30 pm
Mildred Sainer Music and Arts Pavilion
5313 Bay Shore Road
941-487-4888
newmusicnewcollege.org
“Wall of Skin”
Performance Artist Erica Gressman (New College alumna)
Friday, Feb 8, 2013, at 8 pm
Black Box Theater, Hamilton Center, Pei Campus
(Parking in Sudakoff lot, 5845 Gen. Dougher Pl)
Reservations highly recommended due to limited seating
941-487-4888
newmusicnewcollege.org
Erica Gressman just recently received her MFA in Performance Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she is currently living and working. She fuses electronic noise with performance elements, displaying her body as a vehicle for noise and raw analogue technology. Gressman imbeds electronics onto her body to create live biofeedback noise compositions while creating fantasy happenings, forcing her audience to feel a visceral awakening. “Wall of Skin” is an immersive sound and light interactive piece involving the demolition of a wall to reveal light. “This is a live visceral awakening that explores the role of skin containing our internal chaos and noise through psychological underpinnings and metaphorical expression,” states the artist. She will also talk about “Artistic Life Beyond New College” with students.
Panel Discussion, “Experimental Music Meets Bluegrass”
Friday, March 15, 2013, at 3:30 pm
Mildred Sainer Music & Arts Pavilion
5313 Bay Shore Road
941-487-4888
newmusicnewcollege.org
This panel discussion will explore the intersection of traditional music genres bluegrass and blues with modernist and experimental ideas. Panel members include New College sociology professor David Brain (member of Passerine) and music professor Kariann Goldschmitt, and New Music New College’s director, Stephen Miles.
Artist Conversation with Toby Twining
Friday, Apr 19, 2013, at 3:30 pm
Mildred Sainer Music and Arts Pavilion
5313 Bay Shore Road
941-487-4888
newmusicnewcollege.org
The Composers Concert
Sarasota Wind Quintet Performs Student Works
Sunday, May 5, 2013, at 4 pm
Mildred Sainer Music and Arts Pavilion
5313 Bay Shore Road
941-487-4888
newmusicnewcollege.org
Electronic Music Class Concert
Sonic Landscapes, Performances and Collaborations:
Projects in Electronic Music
Thursday, May 9, 2013, at 7:30 pm
Mildred Sainer Music and Arts Pavilion
5313 Bay Shore Road
941-487-4888
newmusicnewcollege.org