Charlotte New Music Festival has gone virtual — enjoy 2 weeks of innovative new music

For the ninth year, Charlotte New Music Festival is bringing contemporary classical music to Charlotte.

Only this year it’s happening online. 

You’ll have many chances to see new work created by composers and musicians from all over the world. The online concerts are free to watch.

You watch them on Charlotte New Music’s Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Here’s the schedule: 

The Current: Classical to Contemporary and Beyond
Every Tuesday
8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Free

Tuesdays at 8pm ET, “The Current: Classical to Contemporary & Beyond” is an engaging weekly show, featuring a mix of local to nationally recognized musicians & composers in the realms of “classical to contemporary and beyond”. We encourage audience participation via Q&A and the live ongoing chat during the show. Grab a drink along with us and have a good time with some cool, interesting, artistic, moving, and powerful live performances that you can see and feel.

Hosted by Elizabeth Kowalski (composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist)

Concert: Popebama / Byrne:Kozar:Duo
Wednesday, June 17th, 2020
1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Free

The Charlotte New Music Festival is proud to present Popebama (1pm) & the Byrne:Kozar:Duo (1:30pm)!

Popebama will be present a series of quiet but energetic pieces amplifying small sounds in a small apartment. Composed in -the-moment, by Erin Rogers (saxophone) + Dennis Sullivan (percussion).

Popebama is a New York-based experimental duo that focuses on exciting performances of unconventional works. Described as “Noisily Virtuosic” (clevelandclassical.com), Erin Rogers (saxophone) and Dennis Sullivan (percussion) are composer-performers who apply text, electronics, and high-energy instrumental writing to freshly-squeezed sounds.
Learn More: http://popebama.com/

The Byrne:Kozar:Duo will be presenting music by Icelandic composer Finnur Karlsson, NYC based vocalist and composer Jeffrey Gavett, and a sneak preview of a new work by Beth Wiemann!

Byrne:Kozar:Duo – Created by New York City and Boston based soprano Corrine Byrne and trumpeter Andy Kozar, the Byrne:Kozar:Duo presents historically informed performances of Baroque music for natural trumpet and soprano in addition to commissioning new works for modern trumpet and soprano. They have been said to create ‘an arresting symbiosis in their melding of voice and trumpet timbres’ (Textura) and that the ‘trumpet and voice seem to take on one another’s qualities’ (Bandcamp Daily).

Concert: Transient Canvas – Agitprop
Thursday, June 18th, 2020
1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Free

Playlists (2018) by Avik Chari

Anatomy of the Infinite Machine (2017) by Marissa Hickman

Unrestful Souls (2020) by LuAnne Dreves WORLD PREMIERE

Un Vistazo al Amor (2020) by Fred T. Dunlap III WORLD
PREMIERE

four colorforms (2020) by Trevor J. Smith WORLD PREMIERE
i. crimson proverb
ii. earthtones
iii. dots on a cerulean line
iv. blooming

Agitprop (2017) by Lansing McLoskey
I. O tempora!
II. O mores!
III. O di inmortales!

Transient Canvas returns to the Charlotte New Music Festival with a program that pairs some of their favorite electroacoustic pieces with world premieres by CNM Fest composers. Avik Chari’s upbeat Playlists and Marissa Hickman’s metaphysical Anatomy of the Infinite Machine are joined by CNM Fest composers LuAnne Dreves, Fred Dunlap, and Trevor Smith. Grammy Award-winning composer (and 2020 CNMF faculty) Lansing McLoskey’s Agitprop rounds out the program.

Concert: SpacePants
Friday, June 19th, 2020
1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Free

The Charlotte New Music Festival invites you to a concert of SpacePants, featuring the work of composers Scott Nelson, Serena Barringer, Lisa Sidoran, Sidney O’Gorman, Michael J. Williams, and Ian Hardemon.

While singing (Jen) and playing viola (Diana) at a music festival in Vermont, we met, realized we shared a life-long dream of wearing as many sparkles as possible, and ran joyfully out into a field to celebrate. Our enthusiasm attracted the attention of some rad aliens who invited us to party and jam with them. As luck would have it, they were having a full-on sparkle party. When we woke up the next day, groggy and disoriented, we discovered the rad aliens had left us three parting gifts: a 25-foot long tube, a mission, and several pairs of spacepants. The tube would of course become a central focus of our music-making. The mission, which we accepted, is to wear spacepants while bringing both our own and other earth-bound beings’ works of music, poetry, multi-media, storytelling and art to life.

Concert of Miniatures with Beo String Quartet
Saturday, June 20th, 2020
1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Free

Composers in the 2020 Charlotte New Music Festival are given one week to compose short, brand new works based on a specific set of criteria. This year, the works must draw influence from the first Contrapunctus of Bach’s brilliant Art of Fugue, and Led Zeppelin’s iconic song Kashmir.

Beo String Quartet will have two days to learn these new works before the live performance, so be sure to join in and watch this unique concert of miniatures!

Concert: Duo Zonda
Monday, June 22nd, 2020
1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Free

The Charlotte New Music Festival is proud to present Duo Zonda, performing the works of composers Elias Brodsky, Leah Taylor Mullen, Dmitri Hunter, Alex Ruiseco, Brittany LeBrae Benton, Pak Hei Leung, and Jacob Miles.

Duo Zonda (Orlando Cela & Wei Zhao) was created to explore the sonic possibilities of the flute in its many forms, merging the different western classical flutes, and folk flutes from all over the world, to explore, rediscover, and create new sonic landscapes.

Concert: RPE Duo at Charlotte New Music Festival
Wednesday, June 24th, 2020
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Free

RPE Duo is a live act that explores interaction between trumpet and live electronics. Electronic grooves combine hip- hop with techno/dub in an experimental manner. The trumpet interacts with electronics, aiming to contrast/duplicate the electronic timbre. Improvisations slowly develop in time into dense noise or fragmented pieces. None of the material is scored however each sound is carefully crafted. The duo will perform new and reworked pieces from their latest album Bananas and explore the aesthetic benefits of live streaming.

Concert: Erin Frechette, Flute
Wednesday, June 24th, 2020
6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Free

Program will be selected from the following:

• Chamberlaine, Death Whistle
• Lam, Bittersweet Music
• Liebermann, Eight Pieces
• Ran, East Wind
• Hoover, Winter Spirits
• Higdon, Rapid Fire

Erinn Frechette joined the Charlotte Symphony as Piccolo/Third Flute in June 2002. Previously she has been a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, and the Sorg Opera Company Orchestra. As a chamber musician she has performed as Principal Flutist of the Ethos Chamber Orchestra and Queen City Virtuosi, with Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Suzuki and Friends Chamber Music Series, Fresh Ink, the Charlotte New Music Festival, Providence Chamber Music Series, and Friends of Music Series.

Concert: loadbang “such is now the necessity”
Wednesday, June 24th, 2020
8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Free

On July 24 at 8pm, the Charlotte New Music Festival and loadbang will be presenting ‘such is now the necessity,’ a video of new works for the ensemble with introductions from members of the ensemble as well as composers of the pieces. Featuring music for loadbang by George Lewis, Cristina Lord, and Alex Mincek, as well as works for loadbang and string orchestra by Paula Matthusen and Heather Stebbins, this presentation takes advantage of this unique opportunity to share some works from their repertoire that would not normally be possible to present to a live audience at a loadbang concert in Charlotte.

Concert: William Fried
Thursday, June 25th, 2020
1 p.m. to 1:50 p.m.
Free

The Charlotte New Music Festival welcomes you to a concert by William Fried.

“My specialty as a pianist is “new music,” roughly speaking composition from the last fifty years (or so), and particularly the music of certain Avant Garde traditions of this period. My other interests include French music more generally, electro-acoustic music, and the realization of unconventionally notated scores.”

Some concert highlights include performances at the LA Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series, Vancouver New Music Festival, Roerich Museum (NY), UC San Diego Wed@7 Series, La Giralda de l’Arboç, and New England Conservatory’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice. Critics have described my playing as “poised and remarkably dexterous… hypnotic” (The Boston Globe), “in possession of an incredible technique” (Vancouver Classical Music), “subtly shaded and delicately phrased” (SanDiego.com), and “awe inspiring” (Beacon Sound).

CNMFest Concert: Forget Buxtehude (Hypercube)
Friday, June 26th, 2020
1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Free

Straight from Queens, NY to your living room, Hypercube presents 6 new works by Charlotte New Music Festival composers; expect hints of jazz, folk, chorale, hyper modernism, drone, lyricism and the occasional smoking hot lick. Hypercube is thrilled to be a part of the Charlotte New Music Festival for the second time!

Since 2014, Hypercube has built a reputation for high-energy performance and impressive execution. The quartet of saxophone, electric guitar, accordion/piano and percussion, spans electric and acoustic worlds redefining the boundaries of chamber music.

WDAV’s (Virtual) Small Batch with Beo String Quartet
Friday, June 26th, 2020
5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Free

Computer Music Concert
Saturday, June 27th, 2020
2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Free

Featuring Jessica Lindsey, Christopher Dorian, Charles Nichols and other composers in the Charlotte New Music Festival.

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