On any given week at Le Poisson Rouge there is a kaleidoscopic range of programming from some of the worlds top performing musicians, bands and DJ’s. The space morphs to accomodate the performer and in the the last couple weeks I have enjoyed an intimate sit down performance from Terry and Gyan Riley, a standing concert experience from the enigmatic performance-art-bass-music project Hype Williams and a wild, Pan-Latin Cinco de Mayo dance party organized by our friends at Mex and the City.
A quick look at the next month of programming at Le Poisson Rouge includes artists like Philip Glass, Tyondai Braxton, Jeremey Denk, ESG, Regina Spektor, Charlie Siem, Destroyer, Rich Medina (residency) and many other preeminent classical artists, jazz performers, intelligent indie bands and world class DJ’s. LPR Calendar
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Terry and Gyan along with David Cossin (percussion) and Tracy Silverman (electric violin) delivered an intimate and candid performance of Terry and Gyan’s compositions. The evening opened with the flamenco-tinged, math rock compositions of Gyan, demonstrating the restraint and virtuosity of David Cossin’s percussion. Terry Riley mesmerized with baroque explorations of jazz and Indian rooted musical ideas, often putting Tracey Silverman in the foreground to exhibit his unparalleled prowess on the electric violin. One of the evening’s highlights was a traditional Indian raga Terry sang in an unexpectedly beautiful, trembling and decidedly Indian sounding voice. It was so great to see this tight-knit group of masterful musicians playing in a relaxed environment while sitting at a table munching on edamame and a seriously tasty kale salad.
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Artist Bio’s Via LPR
Terry Riley
Terry Riley is considered the father of Minimalism; laundhing the movement with the composition IN C. A Rainbow in Curved Air, IN C and Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band were very influential on the Brittish Rock scene in the late 60′s and early 70″s. He has had a composing and performing career spanning almost 6 decades and is the recipient of Guggenheim , Fromm and NEA awards. He taught composition at Mills College in Oakland for a decade. Terry has been a devotee of Indian Classical Music and spent 26 years studying with the great master vocalist, Pandit Pran Nath and appeared in numerous concerts with Pran Nath as tabla and vocal accompanist from 1970-1996. He has written over 25 works for String Quartet; most of them during a 30 year association with the Kronos Quartet. Terry’s new electric violin concerto written for Tracy Silverman and the Nashville Symphony, The Palmian Chord Ryddle, will have 5 premiere performances in May, 2012, starting in Nashville and ending at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Gyan Riley
Gyan Riley won his first guitar in a raffle when he was 12 years old. After learning all of the songs in his cassette collection by ear, he began his life-long adventure in music, touring as a classical guitar soloist and in various ensembles, including performances with Zakir Hussain, Michael Manring, Mike Marshall, Dawn Upshaw, the San Francisco Symphony, the Falla Guitar Trio, the World Guitar Ensemble and his father, the composer/pianist/vocalist Terry Riley. Gyan’s diverse work now focuses on his own compositions, improvisation, and contemporary classical repertoire. Recent performance highlights include Carnegie Hall, London’s Barbican Theatre, the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival, the Big Ears Festival, and soloing with the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra at Kimmel Center. Over the years, Riley has performed throughout Europe, Canada, Latin America and the US. In January 2011, Gyan’s fourth recording of original compositions, entitled Stream of Gratitude, was released on Tzadik Records.
David Cossin
David Cossin is a specialist in new and experimental music. David has worked across a broad spectrum of musical and artistic forms to incorporate new media with percussion. He has recorded and performed internationally with composers and ensembles including the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steve Reich and Musicians, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Meredith Monk, Tan Dun, Cecil Taylor, Talujon Percussion Quartet, and the trio Real Quiet. Numerous theater projects include collaborations with Blue Man Group, Mabou Mines, and director Peter Sellars. David was featured as the percussion soloist in Tan Dun’s Grammy and Oscar winning score to Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. David has performed as a soloist with orchestras throughout the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra Radio France, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sao Paulo State Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Hong Kong Symphony, and the Singapore Symphony. David ventures into other art forms include sonic installations, which have been presented in New York, Italy and Germany. David is also an active composer and has invented several new instruments, which expand the limits of traditional percussion. David is the curator for the Sound Res Festival, an experimental music festival in southern Italy and also teaches percussion at Queens College in New York City.
Tracy Silverman
Lauded by the BBC as “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin”, Tracy Silverman’s groundbreaking work with the 6-string electric violin defies musical boundaries. The world’s first concert electric violinist, Silverman was recently named one of 100 distinguished alumni by The Juilliard School. Formerly first violinist with the innovative Turtle Island String Quartet, Silverman will premier a new concerto by legendary composer Terry Riley with the Nashville Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 2012. Silverman has worked with a who’s-who of rock, new music, and jazz, including Pulitzer winner John Adams, who composed his electric violin concerto, “The Dharma at Big Sur,” specifically for Tracy, recorded on Nonesuch Records with the BBC Symphony. Silverman tours internationally as a soloist with orchestras, with his one-man performances, and as a collaborator with many other artists and chamber ensembles. Tracy teaches at Belmont University and Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville, TN.
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