Still, the International Contemporary Ensemble and its musicians composer now Created an evening program focused on the Women Composers Association of Iran NYU Skirball On Saturday, few could have predicted how the concert would tie into the moment concretely.Anti-regime protests in Iran followed the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was in custody. , was entering its fifth week of morality police accused of improperly wearing a required headscarf.
Association posted statement of solidarity with protesters on social mediaand some of its composers speak directly of the event in an interviewBut nothing was said from Saturday’s stage. After all, the connection between the group’s mission and the events in Iran spoke for itself, as did the title of the concert, “Peyvand.” A Persian word for connectedness, it evokes the connection between the composers on this decidedly important evening.
Nurbakhsh’s three-movement ‘C Ce See’ concluded the programme, in honor of modern music advocate Cecil (Cese) Wasserman. And it employs a vanity reminiscent of the Fluxus movement, thanks to dynamic sculpture by artist Roxanne Nesbitt. Imagine a small conical object spinning like Rube Goldberg among string players and percussionists. All these elements are connected by his one long thread operated by percussionist Ross Carré.
In the 1st and 2nd movements, a vague, interdependent noise often occurred as a result of string-to-string interference. But at the end of the second movement, when conductor Steven Schick dramatically cut the wires snaking between the strings (and stepped inside a rotating mini-sculpture), there was a sense of relief. The short third movement — featuring independent parts for scalar, zigzag, flute, vibraphone, and strings — heralded brief but hard-won freedom.
Nourbakhsh music is well known. Winner of the Hildegard CompetitionNina Berzeger’s world premiere of Unrelenting Passage was thrilling with its fusion of experimental and extended technical effects with melodic and chordal inventions.