neoPhonia Concert TONIGHT!

Apologies for the late notice on this one. Tonight we kick off the 15th Season of the neoPhonia New Music Ensemble featuring special guest artist, saxophonist John Sampen. The program, entitled "Mysterious Morning" is a multi-media show designed as an exciting "seamless" musical experience. It features projected visuals, interactive electronics and theatrical elements. Composers featured on the concert include: John CAGE, Toru TAKEMITSU, Morton SUBOTNIK, Fuminori TANADA, Marilyn SHRUDE, William BOLCOM and Mark BUNCE.

The concert begins at 7:30 PM in the GSU Kopleff Recital Hall. It's FREE and open to the public. There will also be a reception afterwards hosted by the GSU Student Chapter of SCI.

Curtis Bryant Song Cycle Receives New York Performance

Tuesday, September 29, 2009
8:00 PM
Saint Peter's Church, 619 Lexington Ave (at 54th St.)
New York, NY

Atlanta baritone James Robinson and pianist Jo Kroger will present a recital including works by Rossini, Mozart, Peter Cornelius and Atlanta composer Curtis Bryant. Featured on the recital is Bryant's song cycle "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," based upon the 1793 mystical book of the same title by William Blake. Bryant composed the set of five songs in 1983 for American bass-baritone Peter Harrower, who premiered them the following year. Other performers of "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" have included Atlanta bass-baritone Oral Moses and New York bass-baritone Rhys Ritter.

Works by KSU Faculty Composers

Featuring music by Laurence Sherr, Jen Mitchell, and Drew Dolan

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
8:00pm
Bailey Performance Center at Kennesaw State University
Free and Open to the Public
Directions and Map

With Performances By:
Paul Brittan • John Lawless
Jana Young • Helen Kim • Benjamin Wadsworth
Caleb Herron • Olivia Kieffer


Program to Include:

SHERR: Four Short Pieces
Dhammapada Verses
Duo Concertante

MITCHELL: Chakras of on Automaton: Duet for Percussion and DJ

DOLAN: Extreme City

Collaborative Project

Hi everyone!

ASN, your favorite Atlantan-in-self-imposed-exile here. I am posting to solicit participants in a possible collaborative project.

Back in 2007, I started a project of flute solos with hip-hop beats. This has been shelved for some time, and I want the project to have a life. I am now proposing an “EP” of sorts with 6-8 tracks, and I am looking for composer-performer soloists.

How this will work:

1. I will supply you with a backing track and a melodic line/theme.

2. You will compose variatons on my melodic line.

3. You will record the “theme and variations.”

4. I will edit and mix the tracks together.

This will be a genre-bending exercise, as the music is influenced by hip-hop, classical, rock, Celtic, reggae, electronica, etc. I hope that your variations will be just as exciting and style-defiant.

Requirements:

1. You can play a melodic instrument competently.

2. You have access to a decent instrument.

3. You have access to decent recording equipment.

I plan to release this through CDBaby and for digital download. I will give you a percentage of the sales, copyright, and performing rights. It will allow some cross-promotion, which can’t hurt!

Feel free to comment here with questions, or contact me directly [adamscottneal at gmail] to get involved. I look forward to hearing from you!

Back to Iraq

Dear Friends,

Once again, I'm heading back to Iraq, but this time it will be for at least a year. First of all, I really appreciate those of you who reached out last year to help with the new music workshop. I could really use your help again this year in establishing an Academy for language and arts in the north. Please feel free to forward this along to anyone you know in the community who might be interested in helping.

Soulbird advocates and advances human rights and social justice through community engagement in the arts (soulbird.org new Web site forthcoming). In most of Iraq, being a singer, musician, dancer, or any other creator of the arts can have grave consequences. Hundreds of artists have been targeted for torture and murder since 2003, while many have since fled the country (85% of singers).

We are opening an Academy in the relatively safer Kurdistan region of Iraq to provide a safe place for Arab and Kurdish artists to work on projects without fear of imminent death or danger. In addition to providing courses in language and the arts, the Academy will serve as a base for some of Soulbird's important human rights and community organizing work, especially working to address the plight of artists in Iraq today.

We would be very grateful for any in-kind donations, such as CDs (any kind of music), DVDs (operas, musical performances/concerts, musicals, dance performances, artist biographies, hollywood or indie films, documentaries on social movements, etc.), books (anything arts-related; social movements, etc.) and music scores (from standard repertory to 20th and 21st century composers). You can receive a tax-deduction for these items through our fiscal sponsor. You can mail them to me, which I will take with me to Iraq on October 17th. My address is

R. Timothy Brady/Soulbird
29 Peachtree Pl NW
#5
Atlanta, GA 30309
United States

We also accept tax-deductible cash donations to help pay for the rent, diesel for generator (electricity), and transportation. You may visit our fiscal sponsor's Web site to make a contribution (https://www.thefield.org/ContributionToSA.aspx?) We are listed as "Soulbird" for the sponsored artist. They process all donations for us.

If you have any questions. please contact me at +1 646.833.8840 or tim@soulbird.org. Our new Web site, soulbird.org, should be up later this week.

Thanks and hope all of you are doing well.

R. Timothy Brady

Founder, Executive Director at Soulbird