S.E.M. Ensemble

Ostrava Days 2019: August 12-31

Tickets  available now!

SEM will perform "For Philip Guston" at Ostrava Days as part of "The Long Night," an 18-hour, continuous event.

A Biennial Festival of New and Experimental Music

14 Performances • 30 World Premieres • 2 Orchestras

International Ensembles and Soloists

August 22 – 31, 2019

- in -

Ostrava, Czech Republic

Tickets and Info

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The S.E.M. Ensemble will be returning to Ostrava Days this year. The ensemble will perform Morton Feldman's five-hour masterpiece "For Philip Guston" as part of the festival's 18-hour event The Long Night. There is a long history of extended performances in music and theatre. To mention a few such recent performances: Robert Wilson’s 12-hour opera productions, as well as many five to six-hour long compositions by La Monte Young, Philip Glass, Petr Kotík and Morton Feldman. The closing event of Berlin’s MaerzMusik Festival, “The Long Now” (30+hours long) is another example. In Ostrava, as in Berlin, there will be folding beds and refreshments available for the entire 18-hour “The Long Night” event. It will be organized in cooperation with the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre, and will take place in the newly reconstructed Jiří Myron Theatre. From Friday afternoon until Saturday morning, the audience will be free to roam through the individual halls, foyer, restaurants and cafés while listening, eating, dreaming.

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The S.E.M. Ensemble's performance of Morton Feldman's "For Philip Guston" at Ostrava Days 2019: This engagement is supported by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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S.E.M. Ensemble’s 2018-19 season has been made possible with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The season is funded in part by The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., The Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Amphion Foundation, The Low Road Foundation, Sheldon Berlow, Virginia Dwan, Martina Forman, Philip Foster, Allegra Fuller Snyder, Beth Greenberg and Jim Wright, Julian Lethbridge, and Rotraut Moquay-Klein. Special thanks to Paula Cooper, Jasper Johns, Werner Kramarsky, and Brooklyn District 33 Councilman Stephen T. Levin.

       

Photos of SEM's concert at Bohemian National Hall on May 28th can be viewed here.

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SEM's concert at Bohemian National Hall was mentioned in the New Yorker, check it out here.

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Charles Curtis and the S.E.M. Ensemble's performance of Alvin Lucier's "Orpheus Variations" is out now on Important Records. Read Exclaim's review here.

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Photos of SEM's concert at Paula Cooper Gallery on December 19th can be viewed here.