Sunday, September 21, 2008 | 3:00pm
Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston
Harold Shapero Sinfonia in C minor (1948)
Arthur Levering Il Mare Dentro (2008)*
Paul Moravec Montserrat, concerto for cello and orchestra (2000)
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Leon Kirchner Toccata (1955)
Andy Vores Two Fabrications (2008)**
John Harbison Partita for Orchestra (2000)

*Commissioned by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project

**Commissioned by the American Composers Forum New England with support from the Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund and the Thomas R. and Ruth R. McMullin Fund

Gil Rose, 2008 Artistic Director

Sonic Boom. This September the eyes and ears of the new music world turn to Boston. Led by Gil Rose, the city's legendary ensembles and rising stars burst into the spotlight for four days of sonic splendor in an iconic 21st-century space.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

6:30pm
Firebird Ensemble
Curtis Hughes Danger Garden (2006)
Donald Martino Rhapsody for solo cello, with piano and vibes
Boston Premiere
Mario Davidovsky Flashbacks (1995)
Lee Hyla Polish Folk Songs (2007)

8:00pm
Boston Musica Viva
Richard Pittman, conductor

Julie Rohwein Borne on the Wind (2008)
World Premiere
Comissioned by the American Composers Forum New England*
Gunther Schuller Four Vignettes
Ronald Perera Three Poems of Gunter Grass (1947)
Pamela Dellal, mezzo-soprano
Deborah Cornell and Richard Cornell Tracer
Chou Wen-Chung Twilight Skies (2007)

Friday, September 19, 2008

6:30pm
Dinosaur Annex
Scott Wheeler, conductor

Scott Wheeler The Gold Standard (2000)
Text by Kenneth Koch
Boston Premiere
Barbara White My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon (2008)
East Coast Premiere
Richard Beaudoin Eunoia Songs (2005)
Text by Christian Bok
World Premiere
Brian Robison Danca da Tranquilidade
World Premiere
Ezra Sims In Memoriam Alice Hawthorne (1963-67)
Text by Edard Gorey

8:00pm
Cantata Singers and Collage New Music
David Hoose, conductor

Donald Sur Satori on Park Avenue (Tea for Two) (1984)
Donald Sur Catena III
Yehudi Wyner On this Most Voluptuous Night (1982)
David Rakowski Imaginary Dances (1986)
Dalit Warshaw Sonate Francaise (The Unwritten Chapters) (2008)
World Premiere
Commissioned by the American Composers Forum New England*
Donald Sur Sonnet 97
Irving Fine O Know to End as to Begin, from The Hour-Glass (1949)
Irving Fine Design for October, from The Choral New Yorker (1944)

Saturday, September 20, 2008

6:30pm
Callithumpian Consort
Stephen Drury, Artistic Director

John Luther Adams songbirdsongs (1974-80)
Lei Liang Trio (2002)
Jo Kondo Aquarelle (1990)
Lei Liang Brush-Stroke (2008)

8:00pm
The George Russell Living Time Orchestra
Featuring the music of George Russell
George Russell, conductor

Listen to the Silence (opening theme) (1971)
All About Rosie (1957)
Stratusphunk (1960)
Living Time (excerpts) (1972)
New York, New York (excerpts) (1959)
The African Game (1984)
It's About Time (excerpts) (1996)
So What? (Miles Davis, arr. Ingles, Russell) (1987)

Sunday, September 21, 2008

1:30pm
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Geoff Burleson, piano

August Read Thomas Cantos for Slava (2007)
World Premiere
David Sanford 22 Part I for cello and piano (1995)
Tod Machover Vinyl Cello (2007)
DJ Olive

3:00pm
Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Gil Rose, conductor

The Ditson Festival of Contemporary Music
Gil Rose, 2008 Artistic Director

Co-produced by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston

The first in a series of biennial festivals of contemporary music initiated by the Alice M. Ditson Fund, which supports music by emerging American composers. Also with generous support from the Boston Musicians' Association

Tickets are available for purchase online through the American Repertory Theater website or by calling the A.R.T. Box Office at 617.547.8300 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm).

News and Press

[News Coverage] Ditson Festival showcases Boston's contemporary music

Boston, Massachusetts, is home to a tremendous amount of new music and composers. This fall Boston’s new music ensembles joined together at the new Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) concert hall for a four-day festival. The Ditson Festival of Contemporary Music ran September 18-21 and featured eight cutting-edge concerts, with seven world premieres, supplemented by multimedia works, visual art collaborations, and special events.

International Musician Full review
[Concert Review] Concert Review: Matt Haimovitz and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project at the ICA

On Sunday, the Ditson Festival of Contemporary Music’s last pair of concerts at the ICA began with two people and finished with over sixty, in a glass box on the harbor. The former were Matt Haimovitz, on cello, and Geoff Burleson, on (and in) piano. Children standing on the postmodern boardwalk outside pressed their faces against the window as Burleson hit keys with one hand and reached in with the other to pluck at the piano’s viscera, as Augusta Read Thomas’s Cantos for Slava (2008) required.

Bostonist Full review
[News Coverage] Ditson Festival of Contemporary Music at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art

Inaugural Ditson Festival of Contemporary Music Features Boston’s Leading Musicians, Composers, and Ensembles

2008 Ditson Festival is Co-Produced by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston

All About Jazz Full review
[News Coverage] This fall at the ICA: New music and the world's fastest dancer

The Institute of Contemporary Art continues to push boundaries in its fall lineup of performances, and this year a lot of these boundaries are musical.

“The artistic goal of our performing arts program is to present to Boston the full range of what artists are doing across disciplines,” says David Henry, the ICA’s director of programs. “For the first year and a half we highlighted dance. But you cannot ignore music.”

The Boston Globe Full review