MNMP's 20th Anniversary Benefit Concert November 30, 2010

Manhattan New Music Project celebrates its 20th anniversary with a commission for Darcy James Argue and his 18-piece steampunk big band Secret Society — along with performances by Claire Chase of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and MNMP founding member David Taylor.

Praising Darcy James Argue for his talents as a bandleader and composer, the New York Times recently called his work “…a wickedly intelligent dispatch from the fading border between orchestral jazz and post-rock and classical minimalism.” Darcy will debut a world premiere commissioned in honor of MNMP’s late founder and artistic director, Paul Nash. Darcy will also present pieces from his recent album, Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam Records) performed by his 18-piece big band, Secret Society. Infernal Machines was one of the most talked about jazz albums of 2009, featured on over 70 year-end “best” lists, including NPR, Wall Street Journal, and Village Voice.

ICE co-founder Claire Chase will perform Steve Reich’s Vermont Counterpoint for solo flute and tape. Declared “dynamic” and “indefatigable” by Time Out New York, Claire is a passionate leader and innovator in 21st century music who has produced events both in the world’s most important concert halls, and in warehouses, galleries and clubs. Claire co-founded the International Contemporary Ensemble in 2001, and the New Yorker has described them as “a powerhouse of new-music programming on a Chicago-New York axis…brilliant and unexpected.”

David Taylor, described by the New York Times as “a bass trombonist with a marvelously dark cavernous sound and an attack that is as vividly dramatic as it is virtuosic,” was a founding member of Manhattan New Music Project in 1990. He has appeared as a soloist throughout the world, and recorded with Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Wynton Marsalis among many others. He will perform works by MNMP founder Paul Nash with surprise guests.

Official Website: http://www.mnmp.org/calendar/20th-anniversary-benefit-concert/