Indie-Rock and Classical: Collision and Cross-Pollination
From January 17 through March 28, Merkin Concert Hall plays host to the first-ever Ecstatic Music Festival. This three-month, 14-concert event presents collaborations between songwriters, composers and performers from classical and popular music traditions.
The festival kicks off with a free seven-hour marathon on Jan. 17 featuring Buke and Gass, Victoire, So Percussion, NOW Ensemble, Ne(x)tworks, members of the Bang on a Can All-Stars any many more. Q2 will Web cast this event at a later date and archive it as an on-demand stream. Q2 is also thrilled to partner again with New Sounds Live to bring you 4 live Web casts from the festival, all hosted by John Schaefer.
Unlike other festivals that juxtapose performers from different worlds on a single bill, Ecstatic Music aims to foster new collaborations and experimental commisions. Immerse yourself in this world of cross-pollinations all week starting Jan. 17 on Q2 as we embrace this spirit of sincere, unbridled creativity.
Recently in Ecstatic Music Festival
Andrew Bird: Live from the Greene Space
Friday, March 30, 2012
Andrew Bird’s brand of indie rock doesn’t sound like anyone else’s. The violinist, singer, and film composer uses digital delay and electronics to blend the sounds of pop and chamber music. He’ll play songs from his new album, “Break It Yourself,” live in the Greene Space.
So Percussion, Bobby Previte and Special Guests
Monday, March 28, 2011
On Monday, March 28 at 7:30 p.m., Q2 and New Sounds Live team up to bring you our final live audio Webcast from the inaugural Ecstatic Music Festival hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer. Housed at Merkin Concert Hall, this evening's performance features the innovative quartet So Percussion premiering a work by composer and drummer Bobby Previte.
Shara Worden, Sarah Kirkland Snider and yMusic
Monday, March 14, 2011
On Wednesday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m., Q2 and New Sounds Live team up to bring you a live audio Webcast from Merkin Concert Hall hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer. Part of the inaugural Ecstatic Music Festival, this evening features composer/vocalist Shara Worden and the stunning sextet yMusic performing works by Worden and Sarah Kirkland Snider.
Ecstatic in March
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
The inaugural Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Concert Hall closes this March with its most concentrated month of ambitious programming to date. Featuring six concerts and two Webcasts on Q2, the festival's culmination epitomizes music-making at its most collaborative and experimental.
Live Web cast: Newspeak and Secret Society
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tonight at 7:30 p.m., Q2 brings you a live audio Web cast from Merkin Concert Hall hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer. The evening features the eight-piece, high-octane ensemble Newspeak alongside Darcy James Argue's Secret Society.
Bang on a Can 2011 People's Commissioning Fund Concert
Sunday, February 13, 2011
On Thursday, February 10 at 7:30 p.m., Q2 and New Sounds Live teamed up to bring you a live audio Web cast from Merkin Concert Hall hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer. Part of the inaugural Ecstatic Music Festival, this annual world premiere-commissioning concert presents the electric Bang on a Can All-Stars live in concert.
Ecstatic Music Marathon: Part 3
Friday, February 11, 2011
This third and final segment of the Ecstatic Music Festival Marathon features singer, composer and pianist Gabriel Kahane, composer-producer duo Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurðsson, Missy Mazzoli's band Victoire, the Brooklyn-based duo Buke and Gass, and none other than Q2's very own Nadia Sirota.
Ecstatic Music Marathon: Part 2
Thursday, February 10, 2011
The Ecstatic Music Festival, a two-month event dedicated to exploring the boundaries between classical music and pop, kicked off with an eight-hour marathon last month. Check out some of the highlights on Q2.
Bang on a Can All-Stars Live Audio Web cast
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
On Thursday, February 10 at 7:30 p.m., Q2 and New Sounds Live team up once again to bring you a live Web cast from Merkin Concert Hall with WNYC host, John Schaefer. Part of the inaugural Ecstatic Music Festival, this annual world premiere-commissioning concert presents the perennially badass Bang on a Can All-Stars live in concert.
Ecstatic Music Marathon: Part 1
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
The Ecstatic Music Festival, a two-month event dedicated to exploring the boundaries between classical music and pop, kicked off with an eight-hour marathon last month. Check out some of the highlights on Q2.
Ecstatic in February
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Merkin Concert Hall's Ecstatic Music Festival blazes into February with concerts from the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Roomful of Teeth, Newspeak and Darcy James Argue's Secret Society. Listen below to get the perspective of composer and festival curator Judd Greenstein as he continues his series of introductions to this month's imaginative, cross-pollenating pairings, two of which will be Web cast live on Q2 as part of New Sounds Live with WNYC's John Schaefer.
Ecstatic Salad
Monday, February 07, 2011
There is so much Q2 on Q2 this week! Monday, Tuesday, and Friday on the show, we explore music that was written during composers’ salad days. We focus on the early works that catapulted some of our favorite composers into their careers. For some, these are voice-defining pieces, and for others, these works were composed in styles long discarded.
Piano Casserole
Monday, January 24, 2011
A lot to digest last week, no? The Ecstatic Music Festival marathon gave us a taste of its "multi-genre" offerings, performer-composers flourished in unique collaborations, and Q2 was blarring John Adams's El Niño, which typically ends with head-banging to "Shake The Heavens." This week on Hammered!, too much of last week's good things means reheating the uneaten pianistic highlights and serving them anew.
School Daze
Monday, January 24, 2011
For some reason, my brain functions exclusively on an academic calendar. This is perhaps due to my parents’ working in academia or to the nature of the concert season? However it came to pass, I truly look forward to the fall. It’s nearly September! It’s nearly time for this heat to finally break! It’s nearly time for new seasons and new rep and new festivals, and my Pavlovian response is to buy PENS.
'That Utopia Of Musical Possibility'
Monday, January 17, 2011
A utopia "where austerity and spontaneity are not rivals, but companions" is how composer and Ecstatic Music Festival curator Judd Greenstein described the compositional space of festival headliners Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurðsson. This week on Hammered! we'll amplify that description with piano music written and performed by musicians featured in the Ecstatic Music Festival.
Genre Fishing
Monday, January 17, 2011
Discussions of genre tend to cause bristling, bad moods and miscommunications. Genre identifiers are such ludicrously loaded terms that I tend to be shy even bringing them up (and I’m not, as they say, too terribly shy)! Yet here we are: a week devoted to composer/band leaders and those who tend to be not so category-specific.
Ecstatic in January Audio Tour
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Composer Judd Greenstein recently came by the WQXR studios to explain the impetus behind Merkin Concert Hall's first ever Ecstatic Music Festival: an ambitious, 14-concert festival he's created as an experimental model for fostering collaboration among artists of different musical fields. In addition, Greenstein took us on a focused, guided tour through each intriguing concert pairing.
Judd Greenstein: Composer-Curator
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
As unreliable as terminology can be, the phrase "indie-classical" has become the go-to description for a community of young composers and ensembles exploring the boundaries of experimental pop music and contemporary music. Composer Judd Greenstein has exerted an undeniable influence on this New Music community, in his role as founder of the adventurous New Amsterdam label and, most recently, in the curation of the ambitious Ecstatic Music Festival kicking off Monday, January 17 at Merkin Concert Hall.
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Thank you for an excellent evening of lovely sounds. I tuned in quite by accident and was completely stunned. I ...
I had to be working from home tonight, and it's AMAZING to be able to listen (with such wonderful sound ...
Thank you so much for making this concert available via live webcast. For those of us unable to be there ...