I’ve been out of the loop for a while, so lots and lots of announcements this time around! Let’s get right to it:

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EUGENE MARLOW has been asked to participate on a panel discussion as part of the Conference on “Jazz in the Global Imagination: Music, Journalism, and Culture,” an international conference of jazz journalists presented by Columbia University’s Center for Jazz Studies. The Jazz Journalists Association (of which Gene is a long time member) is a prime participant in this first of its kind conference.

The main conference will take place on September 29, 2007 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the Lecture Hall of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 2950 Broadway (at 116th Street) in New York City. The main event is free and open to the public.

Thirty-two jazz journalists from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, and Turkey, in addition to journalists from the United States, will speak in several moderated 90-minute sessions.

Gene writes: “The session I have been asked to participate in is “How The Other Half Lives: Music in Local Scenes.” I will be talking about my research on jazz in China. As you know, I traveled to China last year to specifically interview indigenous jazz musicians. As you also know, I have begun to draft a book entitled “Jazz in the Land of the Dragon: A Work in Progress” on this very subject. This panel will take place at 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. on September 29. I have previously talked on this subject before members of the International Association for Jazz Education, the Jazz Journalists Association, the New York Composers Circle, and the Aspen Composers Conference.”

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Trombonist HAIM AVITSUR is presenting a concert of music for trombone and organ on October 2, 8pm. The venue is Second Presbyterian Church at 6 West 96th. Suggested donation $10. Haim is playing music both old and new, including Vivaldi and Guilmant, with contemporary pieces by Frigyes Hidas, David Loeb (a world premiere) and Eitan Avitsur (also a world premiere). The organist is Paul Sanner.

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World premieres of two one-act chamber operas by MARTIN HALPERN will be presented at the Brooklyn Music School Playhouse at 8 P.M on Friday, October 12 and Saturday, October 13. The first opera, Resurrection Day, is freely based on Henrik Ibsen’s last play, When We Dead Awaken.  The second, Constancy, is freely based on Anton Chekhov’s play The Bear. 

Resurrection Day will be performed by Samuel Smith, baritone, as the aging sculptor Rubek, and Jacqueline Thompson, soprano, as his former model Irene, who appears to him in a dream after twelve years of estrangement. 

Soprano Judith Barnes, artistic director of Brooklyn’s Vertical Players Repertory Opera Company, will perform the leading role of the young widow Varya in Constancy.  Tenor Aram Tchobanian, a frequent performer with the Vertical Players, will play her servant Looka; and Samuel Smith will play Grigory, the landowner who comes to collect a debt owed by Varya’s late husband and ends up wooing her successfully. 

The orchestra for both operas will include Aaron Boyd, violin, Cyrus Beroukhim, viola, and Katherine Cherbas, cello. 

The Brooklyn Music School is located at 126 Saint Felix Street, just around the corner from the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and the Atlantic Avenue stops of the 2, 3, 4, 5, D, M, N, R, B and Q trains and the Long Island Railroad.  There is also ample parking space at the lot across from the Brooklyn Academy.

Ticket prices are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and students. For further information, and to order tickets online, go to www.Brooklynmusicschool.org.   

You may also reserve tickets by calling 718-638-5660.

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Several NYCC names will be involved at a concert billed “Invisible Landscapes” on October 16, at Saint Peters at Citigroup Center. Soprano SOFIA DIMITROVA is performing pieces by last year’s Honorary Composer, PAUL MORAVEC, members RICHARD RUSSELL and KEVIN McCARTER, Marilyn Bliss, David Tcimpidis, and Raphael Fusco. On Rich Russell’s piece, Sofia will be joined by her sister, violinist STANI DIMITROVA. The accompanist is Catherine Miller. Concert starts at 8pm with small reception to follow. The concert is free!

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VICTOR FROST would like to invite everyone to a concert whose main attraction will be a performance of his Eight Poems of Amy Clampitt, for baritone and string quartet.  The venue is

Jan Hus Presbyterian Church 351 East 74th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues) 

Sunday, October 28th, 12:30 P.M.

Victor writes:  "That’s on the north side of 74th, practically at 1st Avenue.  (There is another big church in the middle of the block on the same side of the street….)  I hope a lot of NYCC can be in attendance at this free event.  First, because I have always considered this my finest composition.  Second, because this is a composer-driven recital series, and I hope other composer members will want to take advantage of this outlet.  So it’s also a chance to check out the location, its fine acoustics, and its loyal audience."

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HUBERT HOWE, RICHARD BROOKS, MARTIN HALPERN, and FRANK RETZEL are each slated to have pieces performed at the Festival and Conference of New Music for the Society of Composers, Region 2, and the Long Island Composers Alliance. This will take place from November 15-17. In all, there are 9 concerts with many new pieces, so this is definitely of interest to us new music types! Most of the concerts are at the LeFrak Concert Hall at Queens College. Have a look at the full schedule at  http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/music/index.php?L=1&M=10 for all the information.

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PETER DIZOZZA‘s new musical, Hermaphroditism Through the Ages, received an 8 performance prodeuction at Manhattan Theatre Source over the summer. Visit this page for a photo synopsis with the great cast and look for a recording of the songs soon. http://www.cinemavii.com/images/2.2.2/4thPerf/index.htm 

And look for a production at La Mama of his experimental musical play TentagatneT in the Fall.  

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CESAR VUKSIC is going on a Concert Tour of Argentina, both as a Composer and Pianist. His composition “Dialogues” for Wind Quintet and Piano will be performed in an International Festival in Rosario City that will also includes Chamber Compositions and Piano solo pieces by New Jersey Composer Jerome David Goodman, with Vuksic performing all the Piano parts. He will also perform his new Composition “Two Preludes” in his Piano Solo Recital in Buenos Aires, which will include music by Brahms, Debussy, Luis Mucillo, Carlos Rausch, Jerome Goodman and Belisario Perez. His activities will also include a joint Lecture with Jerome Goodman at the Rosario Festival on the subject of Contemporary Composition.

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And finally, congratulations to NOAH HAVERKAMP and JILL FRERE who are now married, as of August! Some of you know that Noah is working as a piano tuner/technician; learn more at http://knowapiano.com/ Congrats, Noah and Jill!