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Composers Concordance Presents: Steve Sandberg - piano & Gene Pritsker - guitar For Immediate Release - New York, NY - On May 9th at Kostabi World, Composers Concordance presents 'Steve Sandberg - piano & Gene Pritsker - guitar'. This salon style event will feature compositions by Sandberg and Pritsker as well as music of Mark Kostabi, John McLaughlin and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Joining Sandberg and Pritsker will be bassist Melissa Slocum and drummer Max Pollak. Featured compositions include Pritsker's 'End Suite', reacting to current war conflicts in the world, Sandberg's duo 'The Great Water' and Rahsaan Roland Kirk's 'Bright Moments'. Please join these musicians at Mark Kostabi's intimate performance space, where the imaginary 4th wall is broken between audience and performer and where they interact in a unique and informal atmosphere enhanced by stunning art works, exceptional wine, and one of the finest Steinway D's in New York City. _____________________________________________________ Three-time Emmy-nominated composer/pianist Steve Sandberg plays original music that masterfully blends classical, global music traditions, and jazz with the excitement of virtuosic improvisation. Steve was lead composer and musical director for Nickelodeon’s landmark children’s programs “Dora the Explorer” and “Go, Diego, Go!” His scoring and songwriting are informed by a lifetime of immersion in the music of many cultures. He began playing the piano at the age of four (and is a current student of the legendary pianist and teacher Seymour Bernstein). While studying music at Yale, and African Art History with Robert Farris Thompson, he heard Felipe Luciano’s Latin Roots radio program, and it changed his life. Deeply drawn to these rhythms, Steve moved back to New York after graduating to immerse himself in the world of jazz and Afro-Caribbean music. His mentor was multi-instrumentalist Mario Rivera, a member of the Dizzie Gillespie, Tito Puente, and George Coleman ensembles. Steve was pianist, composer and arranger for Rivera’s “Salsa Refugee” group, and also performed with Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, and Ruben Blades. A highlight of this period was an appearance in Rio and São Paolo in a duo with vocalist Bebel Gilberto. Steve has toured with David Byrne (“Rei Momo”) as keyboardist and vocalist, and was musical director for Lincoln Center’s summer Brazilfest series. He has conducted and arranged for Broadway (Chronicle of a Death Foretold) and for many regional and off-Broadway theatres, including the New York Shakespeare Festival. Composer Gene Pritsker has written over nine hundred compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music and songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles. His compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles, that are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures. He is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation, an eclectic hip hop-chamber-jazz-rock-etc. ensemble. He also Co-Directs Composers Concordance. Gene's music is performed all over the world at internationally recognized festivals and by highly respected ensembles and performers. He co-founded the Grammy-nominated Absolute Ensemble with Kristjan Jarvi. He worked closely with jazz fusion legend Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies, including 'Cloud Atlas', for which he wrote additional music and composed his ''Cloud Atlas Symphony’. He is also the lead orchestrator for such TV series as Babylon Berlin, Jett, Netflix's Sense8 and Messiah. Gene is the lead orchestrator and has additional music in the 2021 film The Matrix Resurrections. “My music is extremely eclectic, for me music has no bounds - I view the world of music as one big genre. My motto for my art is ending the segregation of sound vibration.” Gene is also a guitarist/rapper/Di.J./ and producer he incorporates each of these musical attributes to create music that is “not designed for easy listening or to melt into the background. It is insistent. It demands attention and curiosity." - New York Newsday. _____________________________________________________ Staying in rotation for 40 years in NYC is a rare feat. In the case of a new music presenting organization, such longevity requires not only diligence and cognizance of achievements of the past but also an ethic of keeping one's ear to the ground for emerging stylistic and technological developments, as well as talented new composers on the scene. Composers Concordance, founded in 1984, celebrates its 40th season with a four-concert festival all about reaching this amazing milestone. The series, founded in 1984 by Joseph Pehrson and Patrick Hardish, advised by Otto Luening, strives to present contemporary music in innovative ways, with an emphasis on thematic programming. Directors Gene Pritsker and Dan Cooper co-curate the programs and lead the CompCord Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, String Orchestra, and Big Band. Associate Directors are Milica Paranosic, Peter Jarvis, Debra Kaye, and Seth Boustead. Composers Concordance has also created a Naxos-distributed record label: Composers Concordance Records, co-directed by Gene Pritsker and Shanan Estreicher. Composers Concordance's overriding vision is to promote contemporary music, composers, and new works as a rightful and respected part of society. Good music performed and recorded well, pushing the boundaries of sound and composition. "Composers Concordance..a veritable New York new music institution of concerts, album production and multiple ensembles under a sweeping, tenacious brand, thriving on the emulsion of contemporary classical, free improv, jazz and rock, overt humor and fearless political statements, all very much in evidence..The ensemble..was masterful throughout.”- John Pietaro, The New York City Jazz Record "An unwavering force in giving composers exposure through concert bookings and its own record label, the intrepid new-music organization Composers Concordance” - The Brooklyn Rail "The Composers Concordance folks are unpredictable and at times refreshingly irreverent in a reverent sort of way....ingenious fun" - Classical-Modern Music Review “Enterprising new music organization” - The New York Times |
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