Part I: Leukosis
The cycle begins with four immersive movements, performed without pause, for six percussionists, six violins, 16 solo voices, and chamber ensemble.

  ——

    A symphonic cycle of monumental proportions, James Dillon’s Nine Rivers is one of the most talked-about new works of the past few years. Written over several decades—and scored for a formidable assemblage of musicians and multimedia artists—the cycle covers a vast sonic terrain, from hushed a cappella singing to high-octane drumming.

    Miller opens the 2011-12 season with an ambitious, three-night staging of this important work, bringing together members of the original creative team with some of the best new music performers on both coasts.

    Co-produced with Works & Process at the Guggenheim
    Mary Sharp Cronson, producer

  Part II: Iosis
  Night two features the evening-length work La coupure, for percussion solo with live electronics and video projection, performed by Schick.

——

  A symphonic cycle of monumental proportions, James Dillon’s Nine Rivers is one of the most talked-about new works of the past few years. Written over several decades—and scored for a formidable assemblage of musicians and multimedia artists—the cycle covers a vast sonic terrain, from hushed a cappella singing to high-octane drumming.

  Miller opens the 2011-12 season with an ambitious, three-night staging of this important work, bringing together members of the original creative team with some of the best new music performers on both coasts.

  Co-produced with Works & Process at the Guggenheim
  Mary Sharp Cronson, producer

Part III: Melanosis
  The journey comes to a close with four movements for chamber ensemble, live electronics, tape, brass ensemble, percussion, and voices, including a finale for all 50 musicians.

  ——

  A symphonic cycle of monumental proportions, James Dillon’s Nine Rivers is one of the most talked-about new works of the past few years. Written over several decades—and scored for a formidable assemblage of musicians and multimedia artists—the cycle covers a vast sonic terrain, from hushed a cappella singing to high-octane drumming.

  Miller opens the 2011-12 season with an ambitious, three-night staging of this important work, bringing together members of the original creative team with some of the best new music performers on both coasts.

Co-produced with Works & Process at the Guggenheim
  Mary Sharp Cronson, producer

  Acclaimed by The New Yorker as “a genuine creator with a fertile unforced vein of invention,” Tobias Picker’s music melds the discipline and rigor of his mentors—Charles Wuorinen, Elliott Carter, and Milton Babbitt—with an unabashed and impassioned Romantic streak. Perhaps best known for his operas, which have premiered at major houses such as the Met to widespread critical acclaim, Picker brings an equal sense of drama to his chamber music. A highlight of Miller’s Portrait is his exuberant piano concerto Keys to the City, written to commemorate the centenary of the Brooklyn Bridge. Plus, Sarah Rothenberg and members of the Brentano String Quartet premiere Picker’s new Piano Quintet, Live Oaks.

Miller is proud to be one of the key partners in Sounds of a New Century (SONiC), a new nine-day festival devoted to music written in the first decade of the 21st century by emerging composers age 40 and under. Produced in partnership with American Composers Orchestra, SONiC will feature works by over 100 composers.

Supported in part by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, the festival recalls the landmark Ditson festivals of contemporary music, held at Miller Theatre in the 1940’s and 50’s, which featured premieres by Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, and Elliott Carter, among many others. Could the next Ives be among this crop of new voices? Miller hosts three performances during the festival’s opening weekend.

      Miller is proud to be one of the key partners in Sounds of a New Century (SONiC), a new nine-day festival devoted to music written in the first decade of the 21st century by emerging composers age 40 and under. Produced in partnership with American Composers Orchestra, SONiC will feature works by over 100 composers.

        Supported in part by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University,  the festival recalls the landmark Ditson festivals of contemporary music, held at Miller Theatre in the 1940’s and 50’s, which featured premieres by Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, and Elliott Carter, among many others. Could the next Ives be among this crop of new voices? Miller hosts three performances during the festival’s opening weekend.

  Miller is proud to be one of the key partners in Sounds of a New Century (SONiC), a new nine-day festival devoted to music written in the first decade of the 21st century by emerging composers age 40 and under. Produced in partnership with American Composers Orchestra, SONiC will feature works by over 100 composers.

  Supported in part by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University,  the festival recalls the landmark Ditson festivals of contemporary music, held at Miller Theatre in the 1940’s and 50’s, which featured premieres by Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, and Elliott Carter, among many others. Could the next Ives be among this crop of new voices? Miller hosts three performances during the festival’s opening weekend.

  Perhaps Brahms best described what Bach achieved with his landmark solo violin works: “On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings.” The exceptional violinist Jennifer Koh follows up her acclaimed rendition of these works, heard over several recitals in Miller’s 2009-10 Lunchtime series, with this marathon performance of all six solo sonatas and partitas, played over the course of a single afternoon.

This program will be performed with two brief pauses and will conclude by 5 p.m.

  The Lionel Loueke Trio makes its Miller debut, with original and inventive compositions that seamlessly blend modern jazz with samba, the instrumental traditions of Mali and Nigeria,  and the folklore of the guitarist’s native Benin. Loueke’s evocative sound palette combines intricate guitar plucking techniques, undulating pedal effects, and unique vocals inspired by the sounds of African languages, earning accolades from jazz greats including Herbie Hancock,  who calls him “a musical painter.”

    MacArthur “genius” George Lewis brings an eclectic background—as a performer with Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, a professor and scholar at Columbia, and a pioneer of computer music—to his work as a composer. A former curator at the iconic downtown multi-arts venue The Kitchen and a longtime member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Lewis’s work explores and pushes boundaries, incorporating fresh and wide-ranging influences. ICE is joined by percussionist and conductor Steven Schick in this program, featuring a brand new work written especially for them.

  Pianist Renee Rosnes returns to Miller to headline a show that will include several original works for quartet.  Stints with such jazz greats as Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Bobby Hutcherson helped propel Rosnes’ career and develop her strong, unique voice. The winner of four Juno Awards (the Canadian Grammy), she has an extensive discography — including several collaborations with members of her quartet, all outstanding musicians in their own right. The group possesses an ability to create powerful music filled with melodic sensitivity and rhythmic energy.

The iconic avant-gardist John Zorn returns to Miller with an incredibly ambitious lineup, featuring four world premieres played by some of his favorite musicians from New York and beyond. A top-shelf selection of soloists will play virtuosic new works written just for them, while larger ensemble pieces round out the program, infused throughout with Zorn’s characteristic vitality, rhythmic drive, and rockstar solo passages.

  ——

  Major support for Composer Portraits is provided by the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

  The commission of Bateau Ivre was made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.

  Perennial favorites The Tallis Scholars return with a program for the Christmas season structured around the Magnificat, or Song of Mary, and other texts associated with Jesus’s birth. Selections include masterpieces by Taverner, Praetorius, and Palestrina, as well as more modern works by Britten and Pärt. The beautifully resonant Church of St. Mary provides the ideal setting for these hymns to the Virgin.

  Best known for her inspired recording of Bach’sGoldberg Variations, Brooklyn-based pianist Simone Dinnerstein offers selections from her forthcoming CD in this first solo recital at Miller, again breathing fresh air into the music of Bach. Her inventive program alternates between Bach’s partitas and gems of the Romantic era by Brahms, Chopin, and Schubert, juxtaposing evocative nocturnes, intermezzos, and impromptus with Baroque dance-inspired courantes, allemandes, and sarabandes.

  Known for artistically adventurous writing and performances, the Anat Cohen Quartet makes its first appearance on Miller’s stage with exciting new works by the Israeli woodwind virtuoso. Fluent in modern and traditional jazz, klezmer,  Brazilian Choro, Argentine tango, and an expansive timeline of Afro-Cuban styles, Cohen “has expanded the vocabulary of jazz with a distinctive accent of her own,” according to The Washington Post.

  New York Polyphony follows up last year’s successful Miller debut—and celebrates the release of their upcoming new CD, endBeginning—with this unique exploration of love and its many forms, a romantic concert presented just in time for Valentine’s Day. Lauded for their rich sound and impeccable tuning, the all-male quartet pairs lusty Italian madrigals with soulful settings of the Song of Songs, an anthology of passionate Hebrew love poems. Tickets include a free champagne toast at intermission!

A master interpreter of a variety of genres, Don Byron has worked in an astounding range of musical contexts.  His latest project, the Don Byron New Gospel Quintet, is informed by Byron’s in-depth studies of gospel music, particularly the songs of Thomas A. Dorsey. In his words: “I am combining my own compositions with traditional Gospel pieces in a way I have not attempted before.” The result is a joyous, profound, and affecting musical experience.

  The cantata Drei schöne Dinge sind, composed by J. S. Bach’s mentor Dietrich Buxtehude, celebrates three beautiful things: friendship, brotherhood, and marital bliss. This program augments Buxtehude’s homage with a variety of duets, arias, and instrumental works extolling these same virtues by Bach, Buxtehude, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, and other distinguished German musicans of the era. Repast Baroque Ensemble brings together an extended family of accomplished Baroque performers for this special program at the intimate and acoustically outstanding Academy.

  François Couperin’s Tenebrae (the “dark hours”) sets to music the verses of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, traditionally heard during the Holy Week leading up to Easter, and marked by the extinguishing of candles as a sign of mourning. Internationally acclaimed French ensemble Le Poème Harmonique deftly performs Couperin’s intimate, sorrowful melodies in a moving candlelit concert.

  One of Sweden’s best-known and widely performed composers, Karin Rehnqvist is just starting to make waves in the international community. A recent rave in Gramophone called her music “marvelous” and “stunning,” the sort of revelatory work that “requires one to discard preconceptions of what constitutes Western art music.” A highlight of this Portrait is her “extraordinary” song cycle, given its U.S. premiere by two Swedish singers specializing in Kulning, the extended vocal technique drawn from Nordic folk traditions. The entire evening will feature the remarkable Either/Or ensemble, who are among Rehnqvist’s greatest champions.

  The “crystalline and ethereal voices” of the young British choir Stile Antico are back with a program of masterpieces from the golden age of choral music. The richly varied repertoire features works by fifteen composers, including Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, and represents a broad range of Renaissance styles from Flemish to Tudor to Jacobean—even a piece based on a medieval text,  but written specifically for the twelve voices of Stile Antico.

    Rooted in Mayan thought, tinged with Indian rhythms, and shaped by studies in London, Hilda Paredes’ music seems to exist outside time and place, evoking ancient South American civilization with modern European language. Widely recognized as the leading Mexican composer of her generation, Paredes has won a number of prestigious fellowships and commissions and her music is increasingly performed throughout Europe, her adopted home, as well as in her native Mexico. This program pairs her “concerto for ensemble” with a new piece commissioned by Miller for Ensemble Signal.

Featuring an onstage discussion with Hilda Paredes and Lauren Radnofsky.

    A sometime pupil of Xenakis, though largely self-taught, the music of experimental Greek-born composer Georges Aperghis is often theatrical and always provocative. Prolific, unfailingly inventive, and not easily categorized, he has written for a wide array of instruments and ensembles. The International Contemporary Ensemble gives a tour of his works from the 70s to the present day—from duo to trio to quartet to chamber ensemble—led by conductor Ludovic Morlot, a rising star and former assistant to James Levine, music director of the Metropolitan Opera.

Miller presents the expert early-music group Le Poème Harmonique in their largest New York production to date. Performed by candlelight, this theatrical concert presentation builds on the ensemble’s eye-opening approach to opera, using historical gesture, vocal ornament, and an imaginative sequence of songs to depict life in 17th-century Venice. Set in the streets and canals of the city during the time of Carnival,Venezia dalle strade ai Palazzi (Venice: From the Streets to the Palaces) pairs Monteverdi’s haunting madrigals on the torments of love with light, witty works by Francesco Manelli, transporting listeners back in time through song.

This program will also be performed on Friday, September 14th, 2012 at 8:00pm.

  Miller kicks off this year’s Composer Portraits series with a 100th birthday celebration of one of the 20th century’s most profoundly influential composers and thinkers, whose ideas revolutionized art-making across genres. This unique Portrait casts John Cage’s (1912–1992) provocative explorations of chance operations and unorthodox sounds in relief by exploring his at-times explosive correspondence with the iconic French modernist Pierre Boulez. Percussionist and conductor extraordinaire Steven Schick joins up with ICE for a program pairing Boulez’s signature Le Marteau sans maître with Cage’s seminal works, revealing surprising connections between these two polarizing explorers of sound.

  Join us for a series of free creative workshops presented by Columbia University’s Arts Initiative and Miller Theatre. Flex your creative muscles as you paint, craft, sew, and papier-mâché to create magnificent mobile sculptures and large-scale puppets. Workshops are open to all and no experience is needed—-just bring your ideas and imagination. Work alongside neighbors from Harlem, Morningside Heights, the Upper West Side, and beyond. Inspired by the theme, “The Imagined City,” workshops will use art to explore concepts of urban planning and development in the heart of one of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods. At the end of the week, your creations will make their debut in the first annual Morningside Lights procession, an illuminated parade around Morningside Park and through the Columbia campus.

  Workshops will be held on Saturday & Sunday, September 22 & 23, from noon to 6 p.m., and on Monday-Friday, September 24-28, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

  Enormous and luminous sculptures will parade through Morningside Heights in this one-of-a-kind event, co-presented by the Arts Initiative and Miller Theatre at Columbia University. Combining small lanterns, large-scale creations, and a live musical soundtrack, the procession will include community participants of all ages. Inspired by the theme, “The Imagined City,” the parade will take the form of a fantastical moving skyline, showcasing a wide range of ideas about what makes up the ideal city, expressed in illuminated, mobile sculptures.

  Come watch the procession from the sidelines, or visit www.morningside-lights.com for more information on how to join in as a participant or musician.

  Join us! From September 22 to 28, you’re invited to participate in a series of free creative workshops to help imagine and create the lanterns for the Morningside Lights procession. Click here for more information.

  Known for his high energy and staggering versatility, Grammy winner Christian McBride is one of the most recorded musicians of his generation. He has performed and recorded with jazz giants including Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, and Diana Krall, and with well-known popular artists including Sting, The Roots, Carly Simon, and James Brown. Comprised of some of jazz’s most outstanding musicians, his quintet Inside Straight brings what NPR calls “straight-ahead, hard-swinging jazz.”

    Jonathan Harvey’s (b. 1939) music has an otherworldly, transcendent quality. The Guardian puts it quite simply: “There is no more consistently wonderful composer than Harvey, no other contemporary music—classical or otherwise—that makes your jaw drop with joy and delight at the sheer voluptuous possibilities.” Ensemble Signal surveys the spectrum of Harvey’s spiritual explorations, performing works inspired by a moving Renaissance altarpiece of the crucifixion and the ancient Sanskrit hymns of the Rig Veda.

  Fred Lerdahl’s music is all about variation: building colorful, complex soundscapes from small melodic ideas. A Guggenheim fellow and composition professor at Columbia, he has had a tremendous impact, not only as a composer but also as an accomplished scholar and theorist. In this program, the Daedalus Quartet gives an authoritative performance of his three acclaimed string quartets, written over a span of three decades from 1978 to 2008, and expressly intended by the composer to be performed as a cycle. The third quartet—a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—was written especially for Daedalus.

  This event will take place at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA.

  Three generations of minimalist composers are featured in the first Pop-Up of the season, with music for violin, cello, and electronics. Program highlights include the US premiere of a work by Dublin-based composer Donnacha Dennehy, whose music the The New York Times describes as “magnificently energetic” and “viscerally thrilling.”

  Bring a friend, grab a drink, and join some of today’s most interesting performers onstage at Miller Theatre on select Tuesday evenings. This fall, Miller continues its Pop-Up Concerts, an informal, free series designed to provide a chance to test out ideas and hear from new voices before they hit the Miller mainstage. This fresh take on the concert experience brings an intimate, living room-type setting to Miller’s stage. All concerts start at 6 p.m. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis, and doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Guggenheim fellow and DownBeat Critics Poll winner Rudresh Mahanthappa is one of the most innovative voices in jazz today. Drawing inspiration from the musical traditions of his Indian heritage and the African-American roots of jazz, Mahanthappa sets out to create something entirely new—and undeniably funky. Joined by Pakistani-American guitarist Rez Abbasi and tabla expert Dan Weiss, Mahanthappa shatters preconceptions of Indo-jazz fusion, “heralding,” according to DownBeat, “a new reality in jazz.”

      “New York’s queen of avant-garde piano” (The New Yorker) offers a sampler of solo works for her instrument, stretching from the 1890’s to the present day. Alongside works by familiar names, such as Scriabin, Glass, and Janáček, are several premieres, including a new work by the promising young composer Hannah Lash.

      Bring a friend, grab a drink, and join some of today’s most interesting performers onstage at Miller Theatre on select Tuesday evenings. This fall, Miller continues its Pop-Up Concerts, an informal, free series designed to provide a chance to test out ideas and hear from new voices before they hit the Miller mainstage. This fresh take on the concert experience brings an intimate, living room-type setting to Miller’s stage. All concerts start at 6 p.m. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis, and doors open at 5:30 p.m.

A Narrative Based on the Memoir of Wadad Makdisi Cortas

Written by Mariam C. Said and Vanessa Redgrave
Directed and narrated by Vanessa Redgrave
Featuring Vanessa Redgrave, Najla Said, Nadim Sawalha along with musicians Steven Bentley-Klein (violin), Sary Khalife (cello), Sofya Melikyan(piano), and The Spence Middle School Chorus.

Written by Mariam C. Said and Vanessa Redgrave and directed and narrated by Vanessa Redgrave, A World I Loved is a one-of-a-kind theatrical event based on the memoir of Said’s mother, Wadad Makdisi Cortas, an Arab woman who lived through and chronicled one of the most tumultuous periods in recent history.

Beginning in Lebanon in 1917 and spanning over half a century, through the creation of Israel to the Lebanese Civil War, A World I Loved interweaves Cortas’ personal experiences as a student, teacher, and then principal of the Ahliah School for Girls in Beirut with the wider political and historical narrative of Lebanon throughout the 20th century.

A rich narrative combining music, storytelling, choral singing, and video projections, A World I Loved also includes appearances by two of Cortas’s direct descendants: her daughter and co-author of the production, Mariam (widow of the Palestinian scholar and former Columbia University professor Edward Said) and her granddaughter, Najla Said. They are joined by Nadim Sawalha, along with musicians Steven Bentley-Klein (violin), Sary Khalife (cello), Sofya Melikyan (piano), and the Spence Middle School Chorus.

A World I Loved is a co-production with the Public Theater.

A Narrative Based on the Memoir of Wadad Makdisi Cortas
Written by Mariam C. Said and Vanessa Redgrave
Directed and narrated by Vanessa Redgrave
Featuring Vanessa Redgrave, Najla Said, Nadim Sawalha along with musicians Steven Bentley-Klein (violin), Sary Khalife (cello), Sofya Melikyan(piano), and The Spence Middle School Chorus.

Written by Mariam C. Said and Vanessa Redgrave and directed and narrated by Vanessa Redgrave, A World I Loved is a one-of-a-kind theatrical event based on the memoir of Said’s mother, Wadad Makdisi Cortas, an Arab woman who lived through and chronicled one of the most tumultuous periods in recent history.

Beginning in Lebanon in 1917 and spanning over half a century, through the creation of Israel to the Lebanese Civil War, A World I Loved interweaves Cortas’ personal experiences as a student, teacher, and then principal of the Ahliah School for Girls in Beirut with the wider political and historical narrative of Lebanon throughout the 20th century.

A rich narrative combining music, storytelling, choral singing, and video projections, A World I Loved also includes appearances by two of Cortas’s direct descendants: her daughter and co-author of the production, Mariam (widow of the Palestinian scholar and former Columbia University professor Edward Said) and her granddaughter, Najla Said. They are joined by Nadim Sawalha, along with musicians Steven Bentley-Klein (violin), Sary Khalife (cello), Sofya Melikyan (piano), and the Spence Middle School Chorus.

A World I Loved is a co-production with the Public Theater.

  Miller darlings The Tallis Scholars return with a program framed by two brilliant double choir settings of the Magnificat—one Spanish, the other German. A highlight of the program is Lassus’ unforgettable setting of Osculetur me, an evocative and at-times erotic text taken from the Song of Songs. Additional works by Tallis, Praetorius, and Pärt take the listener from the chromatic harmony and disjointed rhythms of the late Renaissance to the excitement of the early Baroque era. The Church of St. Mary the Virgin is the ideal setting in which to showcase the ensemble theNew York Times calls “the rock stars of Renaissance vocal music.”

  An inquisitive explorer of sounds orchestral and electronic, musical and textual, Olga Neuwirth (b. 1968) returns to Miller. A student of Nono and Murail, the Austrian composer first burst onto the international scene at age 22, when her operas premiered at the Vienna Festival; debuts at Salzburg and Lucerne soon followed. Longtime champions the International Contemporary Ensemble give the U.S. premiere of her “inexplicably profound” (Financial Times) work “…ce qui arrive…” alongside her dramatic piano concerto.

  John Zorn’s music is back at Miller, this time in an all-star chamber music program pairing the New York premiere of his quartet The Alchemist with a new violin duo for David Fulmer and Christopher Otto.

  Bring a friend, grab a drink, and join some of today’s most interesting performers onstage at Miller Theatre on select Tuesday evenings. This fall, Miller continues its Pop-Up Concerts, an informal, free series designed to provide a chance to test out ideas and hear from new voices before they hit the Miller mainstage. This fresh take on the concert experience brings an intimate, living room-type setting to Miller’s stage. All concerts start at 6 p.m. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis, and doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Miller favorite Wycliffe Gordon returns with a special concert for the holidays. Coming to jazz from a childhood steeped in gospel music, Gordon has played with the Wynton Marsalis Septet and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He is an undisputed master of his instrument, a six-time recipient of Trombonist of the Year from the Jazz Journalists Association. Joined for this concert by special guests, he captures the spirit of the season, putting an inventive spin on traditional Christmas favorites.

  New York Polyphony returns to Miller’s series with a performance of Tallis and Byrd’s uniquely intimate masses for four voices. Written during a time of religious turbulence in England, these settings of the traditional Latin mass text were intended for modest forces and favor a beautifully simple, straightforward style. Composed late in the 16th century, Byrd’s mass was an act of courage, written for secret use by fellow Catholics forced underground by the prevailing monarchy. The program is rounded out with a handful of brief sacred works from the 15th century to the present.

  Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931) has earned her place among the great living composers. Her singular sound is characterized by a love of unusual sonorities and a deep-seated belief in the mystical properties of music. Quietly encouraged by Shostakovich to boldly pursue what the Soviet establishment perceived as the “wrong course” musically, she fled to Germany, where she cultivated her passion for the avant-garde. This program—her second Portrait at Miller—traces her evolution before and after her relocation to Hamburg, with several solo works as well as larger spiritual tours-de-force.

  This concert explores the incredible sonic possibilities of the cimbalom. A trapezoid-shaped hammer dulcimer, cimbalom crops up regularly in the folk music of Hungary and Romania. The instrument was championed by a number of 20th-century classical composers, chief among them György Kurtág, whose pieces frame this Pop-Up program. A world premiere for violin and cimbalom by French Canadian composer François Rose rounds out this exploration of the instrument’s immense palette.

  Bring a friend, grab a drink, and join some of today’s most interesting performers onstage at Miller Theatre. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

  Led by classically trained and forward-thinking vibraphonist Stefon Harris, Blackout is a collaborative outfit of brilliant musicians from a variety of backgrounds, all of whom contribute to both the performance and composition of original works. NPR calls Blackout “a troupe of music mercenaries adept in the language of jazz, the strut of soul music, and the raucous ruckus of breakbeats, go-go and new-jack rhythms…This is what the next generation of jazz masters sounds like today.”

      A sensation on Europe’s festival circuit and an established favorite among its leading new-music bands, Enno Poppe (b. 1969) is one of Germany’s most talked-about composers. The founder and conductor of Berlin’s ensemble mosaik, Poppe is as inspired by his experience with and love of chamber ensembles as it is by his theoretical interest in the nearly infinite permutations possible with even the tiniest musical motives. The new piano-percussion ensemble Yarn/Wire joins returning favorites the JACK Quartet for this fascinating Portrait.

An imaginative multi-media concert, Tafelmusik’s House of Dreams takes the audience on a journey through five homes in five European cities where, in the 17th and 18th centuries, exquisite works by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Marais were performed in intimate settings against a backdrop of private collections of paintings by Vermeer, Canaletto, and Watteau. With narration, projected images of the paintings and homes, and music dynamically performed from memory, House of Dreamsrecreates the concert experience at the intersection of Baroque music and art.

  Ensemble Signal takes the audience on a mini exploration of the wildly different ways composers confront complexity and virtuosity. This tour-de-force Pop-Up is sure to keep listeners on the edge of their seats.

  Bring a friend, grab a drink, and join some of today’s most interesting performers onstage at Miller Theatre. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

    Two great violinists team up to perform four double-concertos, starting with Bach’s beloved Concerto for two violins in D minor. Rounding out the program are Philip Glass’s tranquil Echorus and two newly commissioned pieces by David Ludwig and Anna Clyne, inspired by Bach and written especially for Koh and Laredo. The orchestra features exceptional young players from the Curtis Institute of Music, Koh and Laredo’s alma mater, and the institution where they first played the Bach double together as teacher and student.

  Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931) has earned her place among the great living composers. Her singular sound is characterized by a love of unusual sonorities and a deep-seated belief in the mystical properties of music. Quietly encouraged by Shostakovich to boldly pursue what the Soviet establishment perceived as the “wrong course” musically, she fled to Germany, where she cultivated her passion for the avant-garde. This program—her second Portrait at Miller—traces her evolution before and after her relocation to Hamburg, with several solo works as well as larger spiritual tours-de-force.

  This event will be held at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA.

    A star pupil of Wolfgang Rihm, Rebecca Saunders (b. 1967) favors a delicate, sparse aesthetic. “From this surface of apparent silence,” the composer explains, “I try to draw out and mold sound and color.” Finding inspiration in the work of Samuel Beckett, the philosophy of Goethe, and Wassiliy Kandinsky’s writings on spirituality in art, Saunders’ seems to strip away the extraneous and ornamental in order to uncover the essential within. Her works explore the unique timbres of idiosyncratic solo instruments and chamber ensembles, all performed with thoughtfulness by the members of Either/Or. The Guardian calls Saunders “one of the most intriguing British composers of her generation,” and for good reason.

  Cleveland-based French Baroque specialists Les Délices make their Miller debut, recreating the opulent sound world of a 1750s Paris salon. Featuring works that pushed the boundaries of harmony and technical virtuosity, the program revels in the decadence of the era while embracing the Enlightenment values of individuality, originality, and experimentation. Les Délices deftly makes accessible little-known works by Philidor, Dauvergne, Mondonville, and Rameau.

    The music of British conductor and composer Oliver Knussen (b. 1952) is at once entirely accessible and thoroughly modern. A classical wunderkind, Knussen got his start at age 15, when he led the London Symphony Orchestra in performances of his First Symphony, at home and at New York’s Carnegie Hall. No stranger to New York’s new-music scene, his works have earned repeated accolades in performance at Lincoln Center. This concert traces his long and fruitful career, from his teenage years to more recent music, including many of his best-known and most-loved chamber works.

    The Pop-Up series hosts its first CD release party, celebrating the completion of a new disc for Albany Records featuring the work of native New Yorker Laura Kaminsky. Called a composer with “an ear for the new and interesting” by The New York Times, Kaminsky has received numerous awards for her compositions.

    Bring a friend, grab a drink, and join some of today’s most interesting performers onstage at Miller Theatre. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

    Previously heard in Miller’s new-music series, Ensemble Signal returns with crackerjack harpsichordist Bezuidenhout to explore the vanguard of a different era. Jean-Féry Rebel’s daringly dissonant “Chaos” depicts the emergence of the universe from the turbulent cosmos. Familiar and lesser-known works by the Bach family follow, including J.S.’s famous Harpsichord Concerto in D minor. A modern work inspired by Vivaldi’s canons and fiery string writing concludes the program—Michael Gordon’s Weather 1, another piece inspired by the chaotic nature of the elements.

  Whether tackling Bach’s Goldberg Variations on a dual-manual piano or playing a Messiaen magnum opus from memory, Christopher Taylor has consistently wowed Miller Theatre audiences with his smart, bold performances. This time, he pairs selections from Bach’s “Clavier-Übung” (“Keyboard Practice”) with Frederic Rzewski’s virtuosic and politically charged variations on “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!” for an unforgettable night of pianistic fireworks.

          Born in Mexico City, the child of Spanish refugees, Julio Estrada (b. 1943) is a product of cultural crossroads. Influenced in equal part by Xenakis’s abstract theories and Mexican music history, by his studies of mathematics and acoustics, Estrada has published widely and been the recipient of numerous awards, including the internationally respected French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Join us as we close out the Miller season with this kaleidoscopic Portrait, culminating with the world premiere of a new commission.

    Bring a friend, grab a drink, and join some of today’s most interesting performers onstage at Miller Theatre on select Tuesday evenings.

    For the first Pop-Up Concert of the 2013-14 season, Ensemble Signal presents three premieres, including a world premiere of a new work by Hilda Paredes, a composer with whom the group has worked closely over many years. This concert gives the audience a rare opportunity to hear seldom featured solo piccolo and solo trombone on the same intimate program of works for soloist. Featuring Oliver Hagen, piano; Kelli Kathman, piccolo; Bill Solomon, percussion; Steven Parker, trombone.

    Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis, and doors open at 5:30 p.m.

  Workshops: September 14-20, 2013

  Procession: September 21, 2013

More information about the Second Annual Morningside Lights will be announced this summer!

  Last season Miller Theatre, in partnership with the Arts Initiative at Columbia University, hosted the first Morningside Lights—a week of creative workshops culminating in an illuminated procession through Morningside Park. This fall the visiting artists of Processional Arts Workshop return to bring local residents together to explore the theme “The Luminous Deep.” Together, we’ll imagine, build, and bring to life a collective sea-floor fantasy of bioluminescent life forms to light our way from Morningside Park to Columbia’s campus in the Second Annual Morningside Lights.

  John Zorn returns to perform on the incredible Aeolian-Skinner organ at St. Paul’s Chapel. Guaranteed admission for Zorn at 60 All-Access Pass holders; first-come, first-served for all others. Co-produced with Works & Process at the Guggenheim.

  This is a bonus event, included as part of Miller Theatre’s 2013-14 Opening Night: Zorn at 60, celebrating one of New York’s most imporant artists: John Zorn.

  This fall, Miller joins with venues across the city and around the world—from the Met Museum to the Barbican Centre—in celebrating the 60th birthday of one of New York’s most important artists: John Zorn. Miller’s marathon roams widely, exploring notated and improvised music alike, and features an all-star lineup of musicians, every one of them hand-selected by the composer for these performances.

Part 1: Orchestra John Zorn’s dream team orchestra—80 players, at last count—performs some of the composer’s great symphonic works, including his masterpiece violin concerto. Featuring violin soloist Christopher Otto and conductor David Fulmer heading up an entire orchestra of soloists.

  This fall, Miller joins with venues across the city and around the world—from the Met Museum to the Barbican Centre—in celebrating the 60th birthday of one of New York’s most important artists: John Zorn. Miller’s marathon roams widely, exploring notated and improvised music alike, and features an all-star lineup of musicians, every one of them hand-selected by the composer for these performances.

Part 2: Chamber Music Voices, winds, percussion, electronics, and strings. A program of works for small ensembles, including four world premieres, performed by musicians from the city’s best new-music bands. In all, more than two dozen performers and 16 pieces, all of them written since 2002

  Featuring: TALEA Ensemble; Sarah Bailey, soprano; Lisa Bielawa, soprano; Jay Campbell, cello; Trevor Dunn, bass; Abby Fischer, alto; David Fulmer, violin; Steven Gosling, piano; Rebekah Heller, bassoon; Melissa Hughes, soprano; Daniel Lippel, guitar; Ikue Mori, electronics; Michael Nicolas, cello; Tara Helen O’Connor, flute; Christopher Otto, violin; Joshua Rubin, clarinet; Jane Sheldon, soprano; Fred Sherry, cello; Kirsten Sollek, alto; Kenny Wolleson, percussion; and others

  This fall, Miller joins with venues across the city and around the world—from the Met Museum to the Barbican Centre—in celebrating the 60th birthday of one of New York’s most important artists: John Zorn. Miller’s marathon roams widely, exploring notated and improvised music alike, and features an all-star lineup of musicians, every one of them hand-selected by the composer for these performances.

Part 3: Game Pieces Without dictating any of the notes to be played, these pieces use visual cues and graphic scores to structure the interactions of improvisers, resulting in remarkable (and one-of-a-kind) performances. This program brings together works rarely heard in a single evening and features many of Zorn’s longtime collaborators: Cyro Baptista, Uri Caine, Erik Friedlander, George Lewis, Marc Ribot, and many, many others.

  Featuring: Cyro Baptista, percussion; Joey Baron, percussion; Brian Chase, percussion; Sylvie Courvoisier, piano; Trevor Dunn, bass; Erik Friedlander, cello; Kenny Grohowski, percussion; Okkyung Lee, cello; George Lewis, trombone; John Medeski, piano; James Moore, guitar; Ikue Mori, electronics; Mike Patton, vocals; Mark Ribot, guitar; Marcus Rojas, tuba; Ches Smith, percussion; William Winant, percussion; Kenny Wolleson, percussion; Dither Guitar Quartet; and TALEA ensemble

        The music of Georg Friedrich Haas possesses “an otherworldly beauty,” writes The New Yorker. His compositional toolbox includes exotic scales and alternative tunings. He often draws on centuries past for inspiration, as in this program, which includes homages to the music of Desprez and the poetry of Sappho. Newly appointed to the Columbia University faculty, Haas will be the first composer of many this season to participate in an onstage discussion about his music during the performance.

    The Anat Cohen Quartet is back for a second appearance on the Miller stage, on the heels of their enormously popular 2012 debut. Influenced by klezmer, reggae, funk, and Latin rhythms, and known for her expressive, charismatic performances, Cohen has earned accolades from audience, critics, and peers alike, including jazz great and frequent collaborator Paquito D’Rivera who has called her “one of the greatest players ever on the clarinet.”

  This new, evening-length work brings together 125 short compositions by 125 different composers, written according to a compositional model created by Cage in 1945. An adaptation of a parlor game popular with Surrealist artists, Cage’s rules are fairly simple: each participant receives a small portion of blank manuscript paper, along with the final few notes of the composition that will precede theirs in performance. Within the given space, the composers—among them William Bolcolm, Jason Eckardt, Kamran Ince, Lei Liang, David T. Little, and Keeril Makan—write whatever they please, passing their final measure on to the next composer in line. Assembled for the first time in performance, the resulting piece is an incredible amalgam of different styles, influences, methods, and perspectives—a whole that is, without a doubt, greater than the sum of its parts.

  Featuring:

  Either/Or Richard Carrick, conductor

  A part of CAGE100, a project of the Forum of Contemporary Music Leipzig.

Acclaimed French early-music ensemble Le Poème Harmonique returns following two sell-out Opening Night concerts last season. Centered around Monteverdi’s revolutionary Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, considered one of the finest madrigals of war, this season’s program contrasts Monteverdi’s dramatic cantata with a light-hearted piece by Marazzoli that parodies the same love-lorn tale. Showcasing works in stile rappresentativo—a style of singing developed in 16th century Italian opera that is more emotive than speech but less melodic than song—Le Poème Harmonique celebrates music as a means of connection and poetic communication.

        Bring a friend, grab a drink, and join some of today’s most interesting performers onstage at Miller Theatre on select Tuesday evenings.

        The Horszowski Trio makes their Miller debut examining the myriad ways composer use music not just to evoke a feeling, but to tell a story. Pairing Joan Tower’s moving and personal work for her late nephew with John Harbinson’s playful Piano Trio No. 2. and other works, the Horszowski Trio takes the audience through the spectrum of emotions with this program.

        Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis, and doors open at 5:30 p.m.

  Following his electrifying appearance last season with Christian McBride and Inside Straight, virtuoso vibraphonist Warren Wolf returns to Miller as a bandleader. Wolf draws on his varied musical knowledge and experience working with the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, and Esperanza Spaulding, creating inventive new melodies and modern reinterpretations of classic tunes. At once boldly expressive and finely nuanced, Wolf is “…an artist of immense ability and taste” (DownBeat).

    Currently composer-in-residence at San Diego’s Calit2 (California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology), Rand Steiger has been fascinated by the intersection of classical music and technology throughout his career. A former resident artist at IRCAM, Steiger is particularly interested in combining live orchestral instruments and real-time electronics. His new set of works for ICE includes eight pieces, each featuring different instruments from the ensemble paired with electronics.

              It’s been 25 years since The Orlando Consort first began sharing their love of medieval and Renaissance repertoire with audiences around the globe. Miller raises a glass to these ambassadors of early music with a program focused on Machaut’s extraordinary Le voir dit, the improbable (and possibly autobiographical) love story of an aging poet and his young admirer, widely considered one of the great works of the Middle Ages. In the second half of the program, the quartet traverses other favorites from their repertoire, including works by Dufay, Ockeghem, and Josquin.

    Bring a friend, grab a drink, and join some of today’s most interesting performers onstage at Miller Theatre on select Tuesday evenings.

    Catalyst Quartet makes their Miller debut with a program that features a work by their own violinist Jessie Montgomery—a student of Joan Tower—alongside works by Tower, Phillip Glass and jazz great Paquito D’Rivera. Catalyst is comprised of top winners and alumni of the renowned Sphinx Competition, an annual competition designed to identify and champion outstanding young string players in the Black and Latino communities.

    Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis, and doors open at 5:30 p.m.

        Pianist Aaron Diehl headlines his first show at Miller with original interpretations of the masters of jazz and ragtime. Meticulous in his technique and playful in his improvisations, Diehl moves easily between hard-swinging jazz and moments of elegant restraint. Having previously appeared at Miller with Wycliffe Gordon, and with a tour with the legendary Wynton Marsalis already under his belt, the young, Juilliard-trained Diehl displays “striking subtleties of touch and a foothold in the music’s bedrock traditions,” according to The New York Times.

                      Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir has burst onto the scene in recent years. Her “shimmering, harmonically ambiguous” music is oft described in cinematic terms, evoking an expansive, wintry landscape with “the impression of a distant, howling wind” (The New York Times). Her 2011 album Rhízōma won international accolades, earning places on best-of lists from New York and Chicago to the Nordic countries. Either/Or plays a favorite from that record, Hrím, alongside several pieces never before heard in the U.S.

      Bring a friend, grab a drink, and join some of today’s most interesting performers onstage at Miller Theatre on select Tuesday evenings.

      Yarn/Wire returns to Miller Theatre on the heels of their February 2013 debut with a program of new works for their unique instrumentation: two keyboard players and two percussionists. The four team up to play a recent piece by composer Eric Wubbels, and then divide and conquer in solos for piano and marimba.

      Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis, and doors open at 5:30 p.m.

            New York Polyphony returns with a diverse holiday program that offers an intimate and meditative take on the Christmas season. The imaginative repertoire spans nine centuries and ranges from popular early fare, including Victoria’s O magnum misterium and ancient carols, to newer repertoire, including a piece by New York Polyphony’s own countertenor Geoffrey Williams and the world premiere of a Miller Theatre commission from composer Andrew Smith.