Dec. 18th @ 8:00pm - The Year of Czech Music In Conclusion
Wednesday, December 18th, 2024 @ 8:00 pm
Paula Cooper Gallery
534 W 21st St, New York, NY 1001
Under the artistic direction of Petr Kotik, the S.E.M. Ensemble returns to Paula Cooper Gallery for its traditional December concert.
The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble
Petr Kotik, Conductor
performs
John Cage - Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1958)
Rudolf Komorous - Olympia (1962)
Anna Heflin - The Man Who Owned the Forest also Owned the Racetrack (2023)
Luboš Mrkvička - Quartet, Part A (2021)
Morton Feldman - Structures (1951)
Petr Kotik - Why Melody? (2024 - premiere)
Advance tickets for $19 available HERE / $25 at door
PREVIEW:
Monday, December 16th, 2024 @ 8:00 pm
Willow Place Auditorium
25 Willow Place, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Preview of Paula Cooper Gallery concert (same program as above)
Free admission - RSVP HERE
CALL FOR SCORES: S.E.M. Ensemble Readings – Workshop – Concert of New Scores
Have you just finished a score, or are you in the process of writing one? Send it our way! Emerging and young composers are encouraged to submit score(s) for S.E.M. Ensemble's annual reading - workshop - concert.
Submission deadline: December 10, 2024
Workshop date: February 9-13 2025
Composers are expected to attend the workshop, giving them the possibility to work further on their composition alongside the conductor and musicians. The workshop will conclude with a public performance at Willow Place Auditorium, 26 Willow Place, Brooklyn Heights.
Presently, We will consider scores for ensembles of up to 7, 8 musicians. There may be a possibility for larger ensembles, pending results from our fundraising efforts. The use of electronics is possible. Selected scores will be read, rehearsed, critiqued, perhaps adjusted by composers themselves. Preference will be given to works that have not been performed and have no scheduled premiere.
MISSION GUIDELINES:
Please email or mail:
1. One performance-ready copy of your score (recording not necessary)
2. A short statement about your music.
3. Short biography (include date of birth and the city / country you are based in)
4. $30 processing fee (cash, check payable to S.E.M. Ensemble, Inc., or PayPal [pksem@semensemble.org] is acceptable)
To:
pksem@semensemble.org
OR
S.E.M. Ensemble
25 Columbia Place
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Materials should be sent, postmarked or hand-delivered NO LATER THAN TUESDAY, December 10*, 2024
*if you are still in process of writing a piece at the deadline, tell us about it. Due to our January international schedule, we have to make all the basic decisions during December, but we may still make some adjustments later (we will not be able to start working on the scores before the beginning of February)
S.E.M. Ensemble performing at the Emerging Composers Workshop, Willow Place Auditorium, February 2024
Composers and Musicians who participated in the 2024 Emerging Composers Workshop pictured with Petr Kotik
S.E.M. Ensemble: Music of Our Time
Founded by Petr Kotik with Julius Eastman and Jan Williams, the S.E.M. Ensemble is the oldest new music ensemble in the United States today.
On April 15, 1970, a group of musicians under the name S.E.M. Ensemble performed its first concert, music by Cornelius Cardew, John Cage, Petr Kotik, and Rudolf Kamorous. The reviewer of the Buffalo Evening News described it as an "Audience in Retreat": "an audience of 17, including wives and other relatives, remained out of an original 100 attendees, at the conclusion of Wednesday evening's performance of the newly-formed S.E.M. Ensemble."
Since then, the S.E.M. Ensemble have been performing music of our time: new compositions by both established and emerging composers as well as masterpieces from the recent past. In 1992, SEM expanded into a large, 86-piece orchestra, The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, with a concert at Carnegie Hall. There, The SEM Orchestra premiered Atlas Eclipticalis by John Cage in its first complete version, with David Tudor as the pianist in Winter Music. The event attracted audiences and critics from across the United States, Europe, and Japan. Alex Ross wrote about the performance in the New York Times: "highly disciplined and monumental... sonorities shifted, intangible events solidified; collective images began to appear amid shapeless sound... an epiphany rises in the back of the mind."
From small chamber music formations to large orchestral events, SEM has made its mark on contemporary music, not paying much attention to an approval from critics or audiences. From a group of three to a large orchestra - from Morton Feldman's For Philip Guston, to large-scale compositions by Alvin Lucier, Roscoe Mitchell, Petr Kotik, and others. SEM concerts featured such soloists as Julius Eastman, John Cage, Amina Claudine Myers, David Tudor, Pauline Oliveros, Christian Markley, Maryanne Amacher, Roscoe Mitchell, to name a few.
After relocating to New York City from Buffalo, NY in 1983, S.E.M. Ensemble, started to present yearly concerts at the Paula Cooper Gallery and in its own space, the Willow Place Auditorium in Brooklyn Heights. It also performs concerts at high-profile New York venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Bohemian National Hall, and DiMenna Center for Classical Music, among others.
Composers Julius Eastman, Garret List and Ben Neill were past members of the S.E.M. Ensemble. Among a score of other composers, most of whom created new compositions for the Ensemble while working directly with SEM, are John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill Niblock, Earle Brown, Alvin Lucier, David Behrman, as well as many young, emerging composers.
Manifesto
It is a call
Creating music
Someone said
Not gesturing
Or calculating
For success
The flow
Shaping
Sounds and silences
Depth, volume,
Immediacy, space,
Intimacy and directness
Unconditionally changing
Nothing new
A sweeping run
Not a pause
Not an interval
This is the new composition
Even though
After all
We are
As we were
The same place
For centuries
S.E.M. Ensemble, Inc.
25 Columbia Place
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Phone: (718) 488-7659
info@semensemble.org
Contact Lola Votruba, coordinator,
at pksem@semensemble.org
