CMS Improvisers Orchestra To Perform Saturdays, May 21 and June 18, 2016 At the El Taller Cultural Community Center, NYC
The Creative Music Studio’s Improvisers Orchestra, conducted by Karl Berger, will perform two concerts at the El Taller Cultural Community Center at 215, East 99th Street in Manhattan, on Saturdays, May 21 and June 18 at 8:30pm (with a rehearsal open to ticket holders at 7:00). Since its inception in 2011, the Improvisers Orchestra, comprised of 30 or more professional string, horn, reed, and percussion soloists who turn improvisational ideas into fully formed concerts, has performed 85 times.
Conducted in Karl’s inimitable style developed over decades at the legendary Creative Music Studio™, the Improvisers Orchestra explores original compositions by Karl Berger as well as melodies from the world’s folk traditions, and themes written by visionaries such as Don Cherry or Ornette Coleman, creating a platform for musical ideas to arise spontaneously in solo/duo/trios 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.
The CMS™ Improvisers Orchestra has received numerous critical reviews. In a glowing review, 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™ performances include: Jason Hwang, viola, Sana Nagano, Leonor Falcon, Richard Carr, violins, Graham Haynes, cornet, Peter Apfelbaum, Ras Moshe, flute and tenor sax, Sylvain Leroux, fula flutes, Haruna Fukazawa, Gene Coleman, Nick Gianni, flutes , Andy Laties, shakuhachi, Lee Odom, Don Payne, clarinets, Michael Lytle, Christoph Knoche, bass clarinet, Richard Keene, oboe, Jason Candler, soprano sax, Rocco John, alto sax, Bill Ylitalo, baritone sax, Yasuno Katsuki, euphonium, Rick Maurer ,Westwood Johnson, trombones, Michael Gassmann, Ted Orr guitars, John Ehlis, mandolin, Ken Filiano, Max Johnson, Nicolas Letman, basses, Warren Smith, Aaron Latos, Hollis Headrick, John Pietaro, percussion, Ingrid Sertso, vocals.
