CMS Improvisers Orchestra Special Performance Saturday, May 27 at the El Taller Cultural Community Center, NYC
Soloists Include Peter Apfelbaum, Graham Haynes, Jason Hwang,
Warren Smith and Steve Swell;
Concert Features Latino Poet Jesús Papoleto Meléndez
And Songwriter Bernardo Palombo
Woodstock, NY, May 16, 2017 — The Creative Music Studio™ Improvisers Orchestra, conducted by Karl Berger, will perform Saturday night, May 27 at the El Taller Cultural Community Center at 215, East 99th Street in Manhattan. This performance features multi-instrumentalist and CMS™ associate artistic director Peter Apfelbaum, cornetist Graham Haynes, violin/viola virtuoso Jason Hwang, percussion wizard Warren Smith, trombonist Steve Swell and vocalist/poet Ingrid Sertso. The Orchestra will also back Latino poet Jesús Papoleto Meléndez and songwriter Bernardo Palombo. The performance begins at 8:30 with a rehearsal open to ticket holders at 7:00. Tickets are $20 ($15 students).
Since its inception in 2011, the CMS Improvisers Orchestra, comprised of 20 or more string, horn, reed, and percussion soloists, has performed nearly 90 times. Conducted in Karl’s inimitable style developed over decades at the legendary Creative Music Studio™, the CMS™ Improvisers Orchestra explores Berger’s original compositions as well as melodies from the world’s folk traditions and themes by visionary composers such as Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman, creating a platform for musical ideas to arise spontaneously among the orchestra’s musicians. Karl’s conducting blends and harmonizes improvised sounds and rhythms in constantly shifting instrumentations and dynamics. One of the orchestra’s trademarks is Ingrid Sertso’s unique vocalizations and poetry.
In this special performance, the CMS Improvisers Orchestra will accompany “Poet and Prophet of El Barrio,” Jesús Papoleto Meléndez, and icon of Nueva canción and El Taller founder, Bernardo Palombo, as they perform a poem and a song honoring Antonia Martínez Lagares, a college student fatally shot by police in Puerto Rico in 1970 while protesting police violence . The New York State Council on the Arts and the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation are generously underwriting this performance. CIO will also perform at El Taller on Saturday, June 10, in concert showcasing Valerie Naranjo, a marimbist, percussionist, vocalist, and composer who is exploring the relationships between indigenous music in West Africa and popular music in America.
The CMS Improvisers Orchestra has received numerous critical reviews. In a glowing notice, the Wall Street Journal said the orchestra’s sound “draws on lush harmonies and a well-defined relationship between foreground soloists and background.” The arts blog Lucid Culture remarked that “the camaraderie and warmth of the repartee between the orchestra and conductor – and among the orchestra itself – was visceral,” and acclaimed jazz critic Howard Mandel wrote that the orchestra “can expand on simple themes paying utmost attention to dynamics and each other through ‘intuited communication.’”
Musicians featured in these CMS Improvisers Orchestra performances may include:, Sana Nagano, Richard Carr, Ernesto Llorens violins, Jason Hwang, Leonor Falcon, viola, Tomas Ulrich, cello; Graham Haynes, cornet, Brian Groder, Thomas Heberer, trumpet; Peter Apfelbaum, Ras Moshe, flute and tenor sax; Sylvain Leroux, fula flutes; Haruna Fukazawa, Gene Coleman, flutes; Andy Laties, shakuhachi; Lee Odom, Don Payne, clarinets; Michael Lytle, Christoph Knoche, bass clarinet; Richard Keene, oboe; Jason Candler, soprano sax; Welf Doerr, Patrick Brennan, alto sax; Bill Ylitalo, baritone sax;; Steve Swell, Rick Maurer, Westwood Johnson, trombones; Michael Gassmann, Ted Orr, guitars; John Ehlis, mandolin; Ken Filiano, Hilliard Greene, Nicolas Letman, basses; Warren Smith, Aaron Latos, Hollis Headrick, percussion; and surprise guests.
The Creative Music Studio engages musicians and listeners from all backgrounds and traditions, deepening and transforming their personal experience, understanding and expression of music as a universal language by illuminating its shared elements in workshops, residencies, performances, recording and archival projects throughout the U.S. and around the globe. The Creative Music Studio™ and CMS ™ are trademarks of the Creative Music Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation founded in 1971 that receives funding from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), among others.
