quick news: BSO & Mobtown Modern Collaborate with "Synchronicity"

Mobtown Modern, Marin Alsop, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra recently formed a dynamic new partnership called Synchronicity. “The idea is that in conjunction with some of the BSO’s contemporary music programming, Mobtown Modern will present companion concerts bringing together our musicians and musicians from the BSO in performances designed to introduce and familiarize audiences with the music of the contemporary composers on the BSO’s program,” writes Brian Sacawa, curator Mobtown Modern.

Partnering with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, a true champion of contemporary music, is a natural development in the growth of the Contemporary Museum’s Mobtown Modern Music Series. This innovative partnership furthers our mission to build an awareness, appreciation, and audience for the music of our time and holds great promise for establishing Baltimore as a vital center for contemporary music.

– Brian Sacawa

So far, two concerts have been planned for the 2010-2011 season. On January 12, 2011 the combined Mobtown Modern and BSO forces will present Baltimore native and minimalist icon Philip Glass’s seminal work Glassworks as a companion to the BSO’s performance of Icarus at the Edge of Time; and the June 1, 2011 concert will feature Osvaldo Golijov’s inventive and beautiful multicultural song cycle Ayre (with stellar soprano Lara Bruckmann as the soloist) as a companion show to the BSO’s performance of Golijov’s new Henry Fogel Consortium Commission work.

Baltimore is one of the most exciting cities for the arts these days with a vitality and depth of talent that rivals the major cities of the world. This collaboration between the BSO and the Contemporary Museum’s Mobtown Modern Music Series is an extension of the BSO’s commitment to partnering with our exceptional fellow arts groups in town. With Mobtown Modern we share a desire to further our community’s unique spirit of creativity and serve as catalysts for new ideas and stimulating projects.

– Marin Alsop

Mobtown Modern has already garnered serious praise for their commitment to contemporary classical in Baltimore. Heading into their fourth season, Sacawa isn’t letting off the gas just yet. In fact, Mobtown Modern illuminates the city’s musical scene next week with “LigetiFest.” (In fact, I will be there performing “Lux Aeterna.” Don’t miss it.)

Simply put, LigetiFest is the perfect way to begin the new season of Mobtown Modern. Not only does the one-night event showcase an uncategorizable variety of modern solo, chamber, vocal, and mechanical music, it also shows off the increasing ambition and reach of the Contemporary Museum’s concert series, now entering its fourth year of championing works by contemporary composers. And, of course, LigetiFest focuses welcome attention on the late György Ligeti (1923-2006), one of the greatest composers of the second half of the 20th century, not to mention the modernist composer whose work the most people have heard, whether they know it or not.  – Lee Gardner, City Paper

Related Articles

• Mobtown Modern’s 2010-2011 Season Starts Next Week (avantmusicnews.com)
• You: BSO’s Marin Alsop, inspired by books such as ‘Change by Design’ (washingtonpost.com)
• Portrait of the artist: Marin Alsop (guardian.co.uk)