by Steven Pisano (All photos by Steven Pisano.) Since 2011, the Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Concert Hall has presented collaborative concerts by performers and composers in the alternative and […]
The Ecstatic Music Festival continues to be one of the best places find and celebrate the ongoing synthesis between the classical and pop worlds. On April 19th, the festival will bring
Most of the works on last Thursday's Bang on a Can People's Commissioning Fund concert at Merkin Concert Hall were riffs on some found sound, or other pre-existing music. Which, in itself
Story telling among friends. That was the impression given during Wednesday nights Ecstatic Music Festival performance. The Merkin Concert Hall stage was a gathering of old friends and collaborators who wanted to play some new music that they had written. Timo Andres–whose new song cycle Work Songs was the impetus for the gathering–Gabriel Kahane, Ted Hearne, Becca Steven, and Nathan Koci each brought their unique charms to create a musical quilt in celebration of their musical friendship.
The reserved approach to the evening could have done with another uptempo number or two, but the relaxing atmosphere added to the storytelling effect apparent in most of the pieces. Each whisper or shout had a supporting role to the stories being told, and was wrapped up in the warm, if often subdued, sounds behind them.
by Robert Leeper Photo credit: David Andrak Saul Williams has been peddling his unique brand of hyperliterate hip-hop for several years now. His dense, lyrical offerings present socially conscious narratives
The fourth edition of the Ecstatic Music Festival got underway in earnest last week with a pair of shows that featured unique collaborations between musicians from both the indie and
The fourth season of the Ecstatic Music Festival is now underway, with 11 unique and varied collaborations between composers and performers from both sides of the indie/classical divide. A collaboration
by Gabriel Furtado Deerhoof and Ensemble Dal Niente performing Marcos Balter's Meltdown Upshot Last Wednesday night Deerhoof and new-music group Ensemble Dal Niente came together for a concert at Merkin
The third annual Ecstatic Music Festival is back in swing over at Merkin Concert Hall, with Judd Greenstein once again presenting collaborations between composers from the new-music world with musicians
