New England Conservatory Presents György Kurtág Signs, Games & Messages on Monday, April 28 in NEC’s Jordan Hall

Join NEC Contemporary
Improvisation students and faculty, led by composer/pianist Anthony Coleman in György Kurtág Signs, Games & Messages, a concert featuring performances and riffs on
renowned Romanian-born composer Kurtág's music, sources, and notions. 
The concert takes place on Monday, April 28 at 8 p.m. in NEC’s Jordan Hall, 290 Huntington
Avenue, Boston, MA. The concert is free and open to the public. For more
information, log on to http://necmusic.edu/gyorgy-kurtag-signs-games-and-messages
or call 617-585-1122.

György Kurtág is a composer to whom thoughts and words
are important: he often spins his music off of texts—by writers and thinkers
ranging from Samuel Beckett to 18th-century scientist Georg Christoph
Lichtenberg. This is also a man deeply dedicated to playfulness: the umbrella
term Játékok (Games) has now been applied to 8 volumes of an ongoing
series of his music for piano since 1973, and he has created Hommage
works dedicated to a hall of fame where Robert Schumann and Nancy Sinatra
provocatively coexist. One of the most anticipated new operas on the horizon is
Kurtág's setting of Samuel
Beckett's Endgame, which is now projected to be premiered in 2015. That
this 88-year-old composer can continue to generate headlines with such an
ambitious project is testimony to a long career that has combined playfulness,
perfectionism, and a highly intellectual bent.

From the
Sarajevo Jazz Festival to the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, Poland, Anthony
Coleman’s musical odyssey has
taken him through many cultures and led him to wear many hats as composer,
improvising keyboardist, and teacher. Coleman joined the NEC faculty in 2006,
returning to a school where he himself studied in the 1970s, during the birth
of NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation program (then called Third Stream). In
addition to his work as a studio teacher and ensemble coach, Coleman works with
NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation students to organize a departmental concert
each spring. 

Coleman is
featured on over 100 CDs including some 15 of his own, many on the Tzadik
label. Coleman has presented his own work worldwide including performances at
the Sarajevo Jazz Festival (Bosnia), North Sea Jazz Festival (Holland),
Saalfelden Festival (Austria), and the Krakow and Vienna Jewish Culture
Festivals.  He has also toured and
recorded with John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Marc Ribot, Shelley Hirsch, Roy
Nathanson, and many others.    

His work
has been commissioned and performed by a wide range of musicians/organizations
including clarinetist David Krakauer/Concert Artists Guild, Relâche, The
Crosstown Ensemble, Neta Pulvermacher and Dancers/Meet The Composer, Bang on a
Can All-Stars/Jerome Foundation, TILT Brass Band. the Brecht Forum, Merkin
Concert Hall, the Festival Banlieues Blues/Ensemble Erik Satie, ISSUE Project
Room/ String Orchestra of Brooklyn and many others. 

Founded in 1972 by musical visionaries Gunther Schuller and Ran Blake, New England Conservatory's Contemporary
Improvisation program is “one of the most versatile in all of music education”
(JazzEd).  Now in its 41st
year, the program trains composer/performer/ improvisers to broaden their
musical palettes and develop unique voices.  It is unparalleled in its structured approach to ear
training and its emphasis on singing, memorization, harmonic sophistication,
aesthetic integrity, and stylistic openness.  Under Blake's guidance for its first twenty-six years, the
program expanded its offerings under subsequent chair Allan Chase and current
chair Hankus Netsky. Alumni include Don Byron, John Medeski, Jacqueline Schwab,
Aoife O'Donovan and Sarah Jarosz; faculty include Carla Kihlstedt, Blake,
Dominique Eade, and Anthony Coleman. “A thriving hub of musical exploration,”
(Jeremy Goodwin, Boston Globe), the program currently has 43 undergrad and
graduate students from 14 countries.

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