Musician

Upcoming concerts

Argento Sunday Concert Series
beginning on August 22, 2010, every Sunday at 4 pm
Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 East 52nd Street, New York

I am managing this series of wonderful programming of new music anchored by Arnold Schoenberg's Pierre Lunaire. Each month, the program explores one aspect of his compositions: Schoenberg's influences in August, Allusion in September, Invention in October, Rhapsody in November, and his legacy in December.

Moving Sounds Festival 2010
September 2 to 5, 2010
Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 East 52nd Street, New York
Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street (at Thompson), New York
Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street, New York

I am also managing this festival of multimedia arts and international artistic collaboration. This year's special guest from Austria is composer Georg Friedrich Haas. Argento will give two world premieres and one U.S. premiere of his compositions.

At the opening concert on September 2 (Thursday) in the Austrian Cultural Forum, Argento will perform the world premiere of Haas's Atthis with soprano Tharanga Goonetilleke. Argento will also give the U.S. premiere of his Phantasien, a duet for clarinet and viola. The program will also include an electroacoustic work, The Flypaper, by American composer Steven Takasugi.

The concert on September 3 (Friday) in Bohemian National Hall will feature a "spatialized sonic experience," which explores the architectural features of the hall in music compositions old and new, including Richard Strauss's monumental Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings, the U.S. premiere of Haas's massive Unheimat for 19 solo strings, the world premiere of Edmund Campion's concerto for the Yamaha AvantGrand electronic keyboard Flow-Debris-Falls, and Victor Adán's Fonoptera B, written and programmed for custom made surround sound instruments.

September 4 (Saturday) will be a busy evening at Le Poisson Rouge. Concerts begin at 6:30pm with flute-percussion ensemble Due East performing the two world premieres: Bernhard Lang's Differenz/Wiederholung 21 and Brian Kane's new work for contrabass flute and electronics. Then, at 7:30pm, singer-songwriter Soap & Skin will take the stage, followed at 9pm by multimedia sound artist Christian Fennesz.

Focus returns to Haas in concerts on September 5th (Sunday) at the Austrian Cultural Forum. At 1pm, Argento performs the U.S. premiere of Haas's Duo for viola and prepared piano and the world premiere of Steven Takasugi's Die Klavierübung. At 8pm, Jack Quartet will perform Haas's String Quartet No.3 in complete darkness.