Category Archives: Blog

Please join us in welcoming Adrian Morejon, Talea’s Interim Executive Director! Adrian assumed the new role in December 2021 and has been a member of the Talea Ensemble as a performer since 2011. Adrian is an accomplished bassoonist and administrator and brings his depth of experiences from both on and beyond the stage to his  Continue Reading »

Oscar Bettison, Composer Talea kicks off the 2018-19 season—Our 10th anniversary year—with its opening night as part of TIME:SPANS Festival 2018. The program is a split bill of large ensemble works by Oscar Bettison and Felipe Lara, colleagues at the Peabody Institute of Music. I sat down with Oscar during a break from rehearsal to  Continue Reading »

Talea premiered Scenes 2-5 of Maxwell Dulaney’s “Already Root” in April 2018, after working in-person in residence in New Orleans. We brought the show back to New York to close our mainstage season on April 13 at St. Peter’s, alongside works by Courtney Bryan, Anna Walton, and Rebecca Saunders. Read on to learn more about  Continue Reading »

JOB TITLE: Production Coordinator POSITION TYPE: Part-time Permanent SALARY: $10,000 annually APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED: Rolling, until May 15th   PLEASE NOTE: THIS POSITION HAS BEEN FILLED Thank you to everyone who applied.   Description Join the Talea team! Talea is hiring a part-time Production Coordinator to begin in June 2018. Applicants should have a background in  Continue Reading »

Courtney Bryan, Composer & Pianist Courtney’s new work “In the Heart of God” will be performed tonight on Talea’s mainstage season finale. We sat down to chat about composition, Courtney’s diverse influences, and big-picture questions about diversity and inclusion that are coming to the forefront of conversations in jazz and classical music. ZS: Let’s dive  Continue Reading »

Greg Chudzik, double bass Talea’s illustrious bassist, Greg Chudzik, is the featured soloist in Rebecca Saunders’ “fury ii” in the concert this Friday, April 13th, at St. Peter’s Chelsea. We talked about Rebecca Saunders’ music, Greg’s many musical hats, and bonded over freelancing in NYC. ZS: So, Greg, how long have you been with Talea  Continue Reading »

Lauren Slaughter, Poet, author, and editor Before Talea’s mainstage season finale on Friday, April 13th, I had the chance to sit down with Lauren Slaughter, who wrote the libretto to Maxwell Dulaney’s Already Root, a modern retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. We talked about Eurydice, feminism, re-runs of Friends, and more. By Zach  Continue Reading »

In the lead-up to Monday’s performance of Michelle Agnes Magalhaes’ Herbarium, we spoke about her work as an improviser and composer, about imagination and memory, and about Emily Dickinson’s garden. ZS: Thank you for making a little bit of time to talk with me today! Can you talk some more about your project, Herbarium, and  Continue Reading »

In advance of Karen Kim’s big debut as the newest member of Talea’s roster, we sat down to chat about her background, her preparations for the Nono, and her approach to such a mysterious and beguiling work…. Zach Sheets: Let’s see: first, to get to know you a little better, I’m wondering if you could  Continue Reading »

Thanks to the support of the Columbia University Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, the British music critic, novelist, and librettist Paul Griffiths has written a specially commissioned long-form program note for February 21st’s concert, featuring Luigi Nono’s 1989 masterpiece La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura. We invite you to read it in advance of  Continue Reading »

By Zach Sheets A few days ago, I had the chance to chat with Chris Gross about the upcoming iNSIDE Out concerts on January 18th and January 20th at the Flea Theater. Our conversation touched on the music for this weekend, Chris’ vision for the iNSIDE Out series, on being a new father, and on  Continue Reading »

FACE for voice and ensemble (60′) (U.S. premiere) Pierluigi Billone writes: Face has a double meaning: light/star in Old Italian, as well as its typical English meaning. But, both expressions—“Voice and ensemble” and “Voice”—must be clarified. Voice, in a general sense, appears in all parts in different ways and according to particular hierarchies. It deals with a main vocal part (the female voice)  Continue Reading »

By Zach Sheets. Before this weekend’s concert, I had the chance to sit down with vocalist Lucy Dhegrae and composers Christopher Trapani and Shawn Jaeger. Chris moved back to Astoria just ten days ago, after a year in Rome, and we spent the afternoon in his living room talking about inspiration, style, identity, and what’s  Continue Reading »

By Zach Sheets. Before this weekend’s concert, I had the chance to sit down with vocalist Lucy Dhegrae and composers Christopher Trapani and Shawn Jaeger. Chris moved back to Astoria just ten days ago, after a year in Rome, and we spent the afternoon in his living room talking about inspiration, style, identity, and what’s  Continue Reading »

Written for Talea is a landmark series of concerts that Talea has been presenting for the past four seasons. Written for Talea is a unique set of concerts because it puts the audience and the ensemble in the same boat- positioning them as explorers. We navigate the pieces together with a blank slate of expectation,  Continue Reading »

Exploded Views (2016) Taylor Brook Most people are familiar with exploded views from putting together Ikea furniture: they are the diagrams that display all the individual parts separated out, showing how they may be assembled, usually via dotted lines connecting the parts. A musical phrase may be understood as a set of connected parts and  Continue Reading »

…in terra aliena…(2015) Lewis Nielson in terra aliena deals directly with the structure and demeanor of the trial of the American revolutionary John Brown in Charlestown, Virginia (now West Virginia).  After a series of all-too-predictable events in the US involving race relations and issues, I asked myself if there had been even one white American  Continue Reading »

Princess Nightmare Moon (2016) Natacha Diels Fairytales for performers: Phantasms return Adjourned spirits draw near Six heads snap left Nervous glances Pages turn. Scornful wistful slow singsong Lonesome hiss of air expired A silver lining, deceptive mirror Pages turn. Carved from cotton candy, A transient ritual— a fragile fancy. natachadiels.com Wanna hear and see what  Continue Reading »

Marseille: May 2016 Matthew Gold A few weeks ago, in late May, I was lucky enough to travel to France with Yuki Numata Resnick and Stephen Gosling to represent Talea at Le Festival Les Musiques 2016, a weeklong program of GMEM, the Centre National de Création Musicale in Marseille. As a trio we presented two  Continue Reading »

Written for Talea is now becoming a tradition, an annual of concert of works written expressly for the flexible configurations of the Talea Ensemble and reflecting our belief in the creation of a new repertory that highlights important and varied voices. The admiration goes both ways: performers who thrive on the new bring to life  Continue Reading »

In anticipation of the US premiere of Georges Aperghis’ multimedia extravaganza Happy End on April 23, 2014, the Talea Ensemble offers a portrait concert of solo and chamber works by the Paris-based Greek composer, whose lifelong engagement with experimental musical theatre has influenced every aspect of his work, including the purely instrumental. Aperghis (b. 1945  Continue Reading »

Check out a beautiful article written by Ben Sisario for the New York Times about John Zorn’s life and a year-long celebration of a life-long journey of music making. Zorn is one of the most influential artists across a variety of genres of music. Talea is gearing up for a concert as a part of  Continue Reading »

Talea hits the Newport Jazz Festival this Sunday, August 4th, with a brand new piece by legendary jazz saxophonist, Steve Coleman. Checkout Anthony Cheung’s post about working with Steve on his new piece for Talea. After rehearsal yesterday, I had a chance to sit down with Steve Coleman and talk about his approach and interests.  Continue Reading »

Come hear Talea perform Hans Abrahamsen’s Schnee at the Bang on a Can Marathon on June 16th. More info here. Hans Abrahamsen’s Schnee is a wonder. How to say how? It is a sequence of aural images of snow, in some cases onomatopoeic (the swish of brushing off a wooden deck, the soft ease-crunch of  Continue Reading »

American Immersion: Beat Furrer is coming to New York May 14-17. Checkout what Tara says about learning this masterpiece and preparing her brand new contrabass flute for FAMA Scene VI. FAMA is really an amazing composition and it’s a thrill to be a part of this project. The writing is so imaginative and colorful and  Continue Reading »

FAMA is coming!  Mark your calendars for American Immersion: Beat Furrer for May 14-17.  Together with the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Bohemian National Hall, Talea will present an evening of chamber music as well as the US Premiere of Beat Furrer’s chamber-opera, FAMA. Read what Michelle Lou says about her experiences upon first hearing  Continue Reading »

As we get ready for Saturday’s show at the MATA Festival, Taylor Brook gives some insight into his piece, Against the Morning. Come check it out this weekend at Roulette! The Talea Ensemble will be giving the US premiere of my recent composition, Against the Morning, as part of the MATA festival this Saturday night at Roulette  Continue Reading »

Talea is westward bound this week for concerts in Seattle and Victoria, BC.  If you can’t join us out west, checkout Anthony Cheung’s program note about Tuesday’s concert at Town Hall Seattle.  We’re psyched to be collaborating with rock star cellist, Joshua Roman. The Talea Ensemble presents a concert on the theme of “games,” loosely  Continue Reading »

The man who excites hardly can judge upon what he is doing… (Karlheinz Stockhausen) It is late Saturday night, and we have spent many hours over the last few days in a white room making noises on a very, very large tam-tam. We will spend many more hours doing the same over the days to  Continue Reading »

  The first nine months of 2012 have been filled with an underlying sadness in the wake of the death of Ralph Kaminsky, who died on January 15 at age 85. I have never met anyone like him. In a state-of-the-art listening room (with, for equipment geeks, two Wilson Audio Alexandria speakers holding court) he  Continue Reading »

About this time a couple years ago, Talea was getting ready to perform a portrait concert of Boulez’s works at Miller Theatre.  Boulez had been with us for the few rehearsals leading up to the performance and we were honored to have David Robertson, conductor of St. Louis Symphony and former music director of Ensemble  Continue Reading »

  Your new work, SynchroniCities is a play on words; you’ve turned it into a compound word: time and place. I understand you took field recordings in different locations and worked them into the piece. What inspired you to do this? And can you describe the processes involved in incorporating these recordings? I was interested  Continue Reading »

                Columbia Professor, legendary trombonist, improvisor and scholar George Lewis speaks a bit about his new work for Talea and about his compositional approach.     Talea will be premiering your work, Mnemosis, on December 14th. What was the point of departure for this piece? Mnemosis draws inspiration from  Continue Reading »

    Composer, saxophonist Steve Lehman fields questions about his work and his upcoming piece, Khalid. Can you talk a bit about how you found yourself choosing to study music composition first at Wesleyan while concurrently at the Hartt School of Music and then later at Columbia? What attracted you to these institutions? Well, my parents  Continue Reading »

  Composer Christopher Trapani talks about his new work, Waterlines, written for Talea and funded by an American Composers Forum Jerome Foundation commissioning grant. You were born and raised in New Orleans and it is clear that the rich sonic tapestry of blues and jazz is an important element that you draw from in your  Continue Reading »

Looking back on last night’s concert at Wien Modern and looking forward to tomorrow’s concert at Contempuls, Talea bassoonist talks about learning Olga Neuwirth’s torsion: transparent variation for solo bassoon and ensemble. When I first received my part to Olga Neuwirth’s torsion: transparent variation for solo bassoon and ensemble, I quickly realized the amount of  Continue Reading »

Hear an excerpt of Ondřej Adámek’s Ca tourne ca bloque and read what Talea intern, Zach Seely, says about Adámek’s fascinating music. Come hear the US Premiere of Ca tourne ca bloque on September 21st at the Bohemian National Hall. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] I am always excited when introduced to a composer’s  Continue Reading »

July 31, 2012!  Talea Record Release on Tzadik Anamorphosis: Music by Fausto Romitelli Read what Beth Weisser says about her experience in working on the new disc. In March of this year, Talea traveled to EMPAC to record works by one of our favorite composers, Fausto Romitelli. Recording is something that comes with the territory of  Continue Reading »

In anticipation of the world premiere of James Dillon’s New York Triptych, Talea cellist and Dillon-veteran Chris Gross talks about his experience in learning Dillon’s music. Come hear the world premiere on July 16, at the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt Practicing your own part of a new work is kind of like studying an elephant by  Continue Reading »

Of all of the music we play that makes reference to nature, it is the work of Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) that for me most clearly suggests natural phenomena in their manner of operation and capacity for overwhelming power. The Greek born Xenakis was a trained and practicing architect, engineer, mathematician, music theorist, and not least  Continue Reading »

If you missed Talea Gala 2012, you can catch a glimpse of the festivities here! Stay tuned for announcements about Talea Gala 2013!  

Come hear Talea play Grisey’s Talea this Friday April 20th at the DiMenna Center! Talea friend and wonderful music journalist, Bruce Hodges, shares his insight on listening to this spectral masterpiece and Talea’s namesake. In Latin, “talea” means “cutting,” and in Gérard Grisey’s Talea, an initial idea is gradually excised—elements removed and others taking their  Continue Reading »

As we gear up for a week of recording Fausto Romitelli’s music at EMPAC, get to know Fausto through some beautiful tributes written by his friends and family. We were fortunate to have gathered these for a concert back in April 2010, and happy to share them again here with our e-fans! Riccardo Nova: Composer  Continue Reading »

We are excited to premiere a brand new work by Hans Thomalla. Come hear Capriccio on March 9th! Read what Talea’s Artistic Director, Anthony Cheung, and Hans had to say about it recently. AC: Many of your works reference historical genres pieces of the past, particularly the early 19th Century. Titles such as “Character pieces,”  Continue Reading »

In preparation for Saturday’s Inharmonic/ (X)enharmonic concert at Merkin, Rane Moore tells us about mastering Enno Poppe’s clarinet concerto, Holz. Listen Here: Enno Poppe: Holz (excerpt) Klangforum Wien, Stefan Asbury (conductor) “I’ve spent the last month or so engrossed in the music of Enno Poppe. His clarinet concerto Holz, was written for one of my heroes, clarinetist  Continue Reading »

John Zorn Composer Portrait Video Preview We are psyched to premiere  John Zorn’s Bateau Ivre (2011) on Friday December 9th at Miller Theatre.  Join us and a great collection of all-stars including Fred Sherry, Jennifer Koh, Stephen Gosling, and many more. Bateau Ivre (2011) has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning  Continue Reading »

Last night, Alex and I rehearsed Stockhausen’s Kontakte for the first time since our performance of it at the Spark festival in Minneapolis last fall. The concert on Friday at the German Consulate New York will be our third outing with the work, a milestone of electroacoustic music which remains mesmerizing a half century after  Continue Reading »