Santa Fe New Music Presents a World Premiere by the Rising Star of
American Composition, Missy Mazzoli

From the hotbed of New York’s Downtown Compositional Scene,

Composer Will be Present in Santa Fe for the Premiere of Her New Work

Santa Fe New Music is proud to announce the World Premiere of the SFNM CoMission Club commissioned work by esteemed young American composer Missy Mazzoli. The new work is for string quartet and is entitled “Death Valley Junction.” The concert will be Saturday, June 19, at 4:00 p.m., at the New Mexico History Museum with the composer in attendance.

One of the most vibrant new compositional voices in America, Missy Mazzoli has been described in ecstatic terms by the music media. In March, 2010, Time Out New York called her “Brooklyn’s Post-Millennial Mozart,” The New York Times described her last year as “among the more consistently inventive and surprising composers now working in New York,” and in the words of National Public Radio: her music “add(s) up to a sound that exists somewhere between chamber music and the vaguely defined, mostly instrumental ‘post-rock’ scene… her approach to tonality is refreshingly strange.”

SFNM’s Artistic Director John Kennedy comments that one of SFNM’s strengths over its nine seasons of existence has been its ability to bring the freshest and most innovative compositional voices to enthusiastic audiences in New Mexico. This concert is particularly exciting because it is the culmination of the second SFNM CoMission Club, a commissioning effort wherein members of the community play a role in bringing a new work to the repertoire.

The SFNM CoMission Club was launched to give individuals and groups the opportunity to invest in the commissioning of a new piece of music by a major American composer. Memberships start at $100, with opportunities to attend rehearsals, meet the composer, and play a role in assigning the commission scaled in with membership levels. Membership in this year’s CoMission Club will close on June 15, 2010. More information is available at SFNM's website.

Kennedy points out that Santa Fe New Music audiences are fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in a World Premiere by Mazzoli in this manner. For over the course of the two years leading up to this composition, she has become a veritable star of new classical music, commissioned by such venerable institutions as the Minnesota Orchestra, and collaborating with leading new music ensembles Eighth Blackbird and Kronos Quartet, among many others.

The program also includes three other works by Mazzoli, as well as a piece influential to her by Henryk Górecki.

Henryk Górecki:

Quasi una Fantasia (String Quartet No. 2) (1991), for string quartet

Missy Mazzolli:

Volume (2006), for two percussion
A Thousand Tongues (2009), for solo cello and electronics

Lies You Can Believe In  (2006), for string trio

Death Valley Junction (2010) (Premiere, SFNM CoMission Club Commission),  for string quartet

David Felberg and Roberta Arruda, violins
Ikuko Kanda, viola
Sally Guenther, cello
Angela Gabriel and David Tolen, percussion

Features on Mazzoli can be accessed online at The New York Times and Time Out New York

The concert takes place on Saturday, June 19, 2010, at 4:00 p.m. at the New Mexico History Museum Auditorium. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and are available through SFNM’s website (www.sfnm.org) or at Nicholas Potter Booksellers, 211 E. Palace Avenue.

In addition to her compositional laurels, Mazzoli is the Executive Director of the MATA Festival of New Music in New York, a festival devoted to the works of young composers that was founded by Philip Glass. Hear samples of Mazzoli’s music and read more about this remarkable composer at her website: www.missaymazzoli.com.

Through concerts, commissions, and educational events, Santa Fe New Music promotes understanding of, enthusiasm for, and participation in the music of our time, serving as an advocate for new classical music and its future. SFNM was founded by Artistic Director John Kennedy in 2000. Santa Fe New Music is a 501(c)3 corporation.

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