NEC Contemporary Improvisation: Opening Night!
NEC kicks off the year with a live concert featuring faculty of the Contemporary Improvisation Department, with music from West African, Persian, Appalachian, Middle Eastern, and Jewish traditions as well as Jazz, Avant Garde, new works, and a whole lot more. Featuring Department Chairs Eden MacAdam-Somer and Hankus Netsky, Founding Chair Ran Blake, Mal Barsamian, Nima Janmohammadi, Dominique Eade, Jerry Leake, Mehmet Sanlikol, Lautaro Mantilla, Liz Knowles, Mark Zaleski, Anthony Coleman, and Bert Seager.
This performance is open to in-person audiences only. A streamed version will be viewable on September 14 at 7:30 p.m. See event listing
Traditional Klezmer | Galitzianer Tantsn
Artists- Eden MacAdam-Somer, violin, voice
- Hankus Netsky, piano
Franz Schubert/James P. Johnson | An die Musik/Aintcha Got Music
Artists- Anthony Coleman, piano
Traditional Irish | An Irish Suite
Artists- Liz Knowles, fiddle, hardanger
Artaki Candan/Traditional Turkish | Karciğar Sarki: “Bu gece çamlarda kalsak ne olur/Apopse”/Karciğar Köçekçe
Text
Bu gece camlarda kalsak ne olur
Ne olur felekten bir gece calsak ne olur
Denize mehtaba dalsak ne olur
Turkish text: Avram Naum
Απόψε στα πεύκα να ‘ρθεις αν θέλεις
Αν θέλεις μαζί μου να ξενυχτήσεις
Αν θέλεις ναζιάρα μου
Αν θέλεις μεσ‘ στη θάλασσα με το φεγγάρι
Αν θέλεις κουκλίτσα μου
Greek text: Dimitris Semsis and
Agapios TomboulisWhat if we spent the night in the forest?
What if we just enjoyed the night?
What if we just forgot everything and enjoyed the moonlight?
Come to the pines tonight if you want to
If you want to, come stay up all night with me
If you want to, my coquette
If you want to, in the sea with the moon
If you want to, my doll.Artists- Mal Barsamian, clarinet
- Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, voice, oud
Robert Cogan | Aflame in Flight
for Afghanistan, in memoriam Bob Cogan
Text
Aflame in Flight
…aflame (only) in flight!
We know nothing of death
…small birds
Moved by desire, passionately…
The colors…indecipherable
the white, the yellow, the black.
The flames towering/Ah!
flames with a belly of their
own that destroys…
A drunkenness
of flames…All fire, afire!
Whirling flames, leaping
carried by the wind…Beautiful thing! Aflame
– intertwined with fire
the waterfall of the
flames, reversed shooting
upward…The person
Becomes the flame
a shriek of fire with
the upwind…
float
upon the flames as upon a
sweet breeze
riding the air…Beautiful thing
the flame’s lover –
The pitiful dead
cry back to us from the fire,
cold in
the fire, crying out…William Carlos Williams, from Paterson and Spring and All
Artists- Eden MacAdam-Somer, voice, violin
George Ruckert, South Indian Traditional | And now for my next number
Artists- Jerry Leake, voice, clapping
Traditional Persian Improvisation
Artists- Nima Janmohammadi, setar
Irving Berlin | How Deep is the Ocean
Artists- Mark Zaleski, saxophone
- Bert Seager, piano
Roland Dyens, arr. Lautaro Mantilla | Saudade
Artists- Lautaro Mantilla, guitar
Jean Ritchie | West Virginia Mine Disaster
Artists- Dominique Eade, voice
- Ran Blake, piano
This streamed concert—which kicked off NEC's concert season when it took place in Jordan Hall for in-person audiences on Thursday, September 9—features faculty of the Contemporary Improvisation...