Renowned New Music Ensemble to perform in Allendale

The New Music Ensemble at Grand Valley State University has been featured on NPR's "Weekend Edition," performed in New York at the Bang On a Can marathon, and most recently at the College Music Society national conference in Atlanta. In April 2009 members of the ensemble will perform at Carnegie Hall with the Kronos Quartet and others in a 25th anniversary performance of Terry Riley's work "In C."

Local audiences can hear the ensemble perform during an evening of classic contemporary music on Sunday, November 16, at 8 p.m. in the Large Dance Studio in the Performing Arts Center on the Allendale Campus. Admission is free and open to the public.

The ensemble’s founder and director, Bill Ryan, was honored this week by Grand Valley President Thomas J. Haas and the university’s Board of Trustees. The recognition was for being named as an Arts Educator Award honoree at the 23rd Annual Governor’s Awards for Arts & Culture (The Guvvys), to be presented at the Detroit Institute of Arts on November 13.

The upcoming concert will include a celebration of what would have been the 100th birthday of a French composer, a performance by a Grammy-nominated pianist, and the world premiere of a new composition.

In honor of the French composer Olivier Messiaen, three of his works will be performed: "Oiseaux Exotiques"; a prelude for solo piano; and a movement from his "Quartet for the End of Time." The latter will also be choreographed by Shawn Bible, a new Grand Valley dance faculty member.

In addition, the world premiere of J. Anthony Allen's composition "Pierrot Variations" will be performed. This work, a remix for chamber ensemble and electronics of Arnold Schoenberg's seminal work "Pierrot Lunaire," was commissioned by the New Music Ensemble and the GVSU Alumni Association in honor of Allen receiving the 2008 GVSU Young Alumnus Award.

Rounding out the program will be contemporary arrangements of classic works by Radiohead, Velvet Underground, Steppenwolf, and James Blunt. These arrangements were recently released to rave reviews on Grammy-nominated recording artist, Andrew Russo's CD "Mix Tape."

The New Music Ensemble at Grand Valley, founded in 2006, has quickly risen to the national stage. The ensemble's 2007 recording of Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians" was called the "Story of the year in classical music" by WNYC's John Shaefer.

The CD has received glowing critical reviews worldwide and was named on numerous "Best Recordings of 2007" lists, including those by the New York Times, New York Magazine, and L.A. Weekly. In a rarity for new music ensembles, it spent 11 weeks on Billboard's top classical crossover chart.

For more information, contact Bill Ryan at (616) 331-3087 or visit www.newmusicensemble.org .