It’s one of those evenings when you wish you could be at two New York concert venues at once!
Mohammed Fairouz’s opera, Sumeida’s Song, will be performed at Zankel Hall on 4/2 at 7:30. The work is based on playwright Tawfiq El Hakim’s Song of Death. Presented by the Mimesis Ensemble (conducted by Scott Dunn), the cast features soprano Jo Ellen Miller, mezzo Rachel Calloway, tenor Robert Mack, and baritone Mischa Bouvier. (Ticket info here).
Also on Monday at 7:30 PM, Cutting Edge Concerts Festival kicks off its fifteenth season at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space. Monday nights in April will feature concerts and composers in conversation with the festival’s curator, composer and conductor Victoria Bond (ticket info here).
Jazz pianist Jim McNeely joins the Danjam Orchestra perform two works inspired by Paul Klee paintings. They will also perform the world premiere of a new work by saxophonist Daniel Jamieson. The program also features the premiere of N. Lincoln Hanks’ Monstre Sacre, assayed by pianist Paul Barnes. Finally, tenor Rufus Muller and pianist Jenny Lin perform a work by Bond, based on a portion of James Joyce’s Ulysses, entitled Leopold Bloom’s Homecoming.
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The Cutting Edge Concert on Monday April 9th includes works by Roberto Sierra, Judith Shatin, and Tania Leon. And Sequenza 21 readers should be sure to mark their calendars for the Cutting Edge show on April 16. Washington DC’s Great Noise Ensemble, led by S21’s own Armando Bayolo, visits the Big Apple to present a program that includes violinist and composer Cornelius Dufallo in a new piece for amplified violin and ensemble.
Mimesis is hiring an entire orchestra for $10 per service with 10 services for a whopping total of $100. And if you miss a rehearsal, you guessed it……$90. In addition, Bridge Records is planning to record this music and there will be no additional pay for the musicians. Interesting that there is enough money to present this music in Zankel but not enough to pay a respectful fee. Any money made by Bridge and Mimesis for this project is unclean.
And all this after taking an orchestra to D.C. a few years ago and then never paying anyone the fee they were promised!!!!
Everyone has been a part of a project where they were payed minimally or not at all….sometimes that’s what goes along with being a part of something you feel strongly about. But Mimesis has been performing at expensive venues at the expense of the musician fees for years now. Positive press given to them is an insult to the musicians who are being taken advantage of. Enough is enough.