Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble programs a season that seriously bucks tradition while still having fun
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Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble pianist Conor Hanick. -
Lindsey Goodman, David Skidmore and Kevin Noe. -
Kevin Noe, conductor of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.
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What happens when classical music is not classical? You need only climb the stairs to the upper space of the South Side's City Theatre this month to find out. There you will hear music played on orchestra instruments but written more recently than the music of an oldies or even classic rock radio station.
Mustered from around the nation, the seven musicians known as the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and their artistic director, Kevin Noe, may be classically trained, but they aren't performing Beethoven or Brahms.
"The music we play is born of the world we are in," says Mr. Noe, who programs PNME's season, conducts and even performs in its concerts. "There is a direct resonance with the audience."
Where: City Theatre, South Side.
When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through July 30.
Tickets: $15-$25; free for PNME first-timers. 412-431-2489.
Information: www.pnme.org.
A typical season for the chamber group founded by composer David Stock in 1976 might include music by the likes of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, George Crumb, David Lang, Derek Bermel, Kevin Puts -- big names in the contemporary scene but hardly on the household level. Over the years, PNME has commissioned more than 200 works.
That's not to say that PNME has thrown out the past. Like the absurdly contradictory term of "contemporary classical music," its repertoire is rooted in and best understood through the art music tradition of, yes, composers such as Beethoven. But it explores subjects just as modern and relevant as pop or hip-hop tracks.
Yet PNME and other such ensembles wage a war on two fronts for recognition. Traditional symphony and opera devotees see new music as superfluous, while fans of just about every other contemporary genre do not even know anyone still writes music in the classical tradition.
Mr. Noe is more than willing to fight these battles. He argues that the classical music establishment's programming of centuries-old works has led to complacency in its patrons. In contrast, he feels that contemporary music "asks the audience to really listen," he says. "If you don't, you can't get a work like 'Sparrows' [a composition by Joseph Schwantner that PNME performs in its first concert weekend Friday and Saturday]. It can't be background music."
First Published July 7, 2011 12:00 am
