two world premieres open the 2023-2024 mannes orchestra season - arjan singh dogra's Live Salmon and jl marlor's saltwater lungConcert also features Pulitzer Prize and Grammy®-winning composer Kevin Puts' Marimba Concerto with percussion soloist and concerto competition winner Katherine Fortunato and Brahms' Symphony No. 3 in F |
NEW YORK, September 12, 2023 – The New School’s Mannes School of Music announces the 2023-2024 Mannes Orchestra season opener featuring two world premieres from emerging young composers: Arjan Singh Dogra’s Live Salmon and JL Marlor’s Saltwater Lung, and includes Pulitzer Prize and Grammy®-winning composer Kevin Puts’ Marimba Concerto, featuring percussion soloist Katherine Fortunato. The program is bookended by the Brahms Symphony No. 3 in F and will take place on September 29 at 7:30pm at The New School’s John L. Tishman Auditorium. Admission is free with registration and open to the public. “In 1916, David Mannes appointed Ernest Bloch as the first faculty member to teach music composition at the brand new David Mannes School of Music. In 2023 nurturing living composers - the lifeblood of the future of classical music - is as important as ever at Mannes. These two young composers are examples of the truly exemplary work that is being done by our leading composition faculty and gifted student composers. And our school pride is overflowing for this concert, as it includes our student Katherine Fortunato, a 2023 Mannes concerto competition winner, performing Kevin Puts’ Marimba Concerto,” said Richard Kessler, Dean of Mannes. JL Marlor (she/they) is a Brooklyn based composer, electric guitarist, performer, and educator. She is known for her narrative-driven multi-genre works drawing from the worlds of riot grrrl punk and DIY punk, Slavic choral music, plainchant, and American protest music. In 2021, JL was named a Toulmin Creator in collaboration with National Sawdust, and will spend the next two years as a fellow for American Opera Project’s Composers and the Voice program. In addition to her work as a composer and songwriter, JL is a passionate educator teaching composition with the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers and is a founding member of American Composer’s Orchestra’s genre-defying educational initiative Sonic Spark Lab. Saltwater Lung, says Marlor, “deals with the immense beauty and palpable danger of the open ocean. I grew up along the rocky shores of Massachusetts watching the calm serenity of the summer months dissolve into the sheer ruthlessness of hurricane season in the fall. The siren myth was ever-present in my youth, and as I grew, I wanted to find a way to use the imagery of these women/non-women creatures to make a larger point about the male gaze and women's rage under the patriarchy. One of the most valuable parts of my Mannes education has been my one-on-one weekly work with my private composition teacher David T. Little - a cornerstone of the Mannes pedagogy - and when I presented him with my initial ideas, he dove in headfirst with me into finding works of music, film, art, and more that might further inspire me. I was grateful for these weekly lessons - every week I came out of lessons feeling excited to peel back another layer of what would become Saltwater Lung.” Arjan Singh Dogra is a composer, performer, and conductor based in New York City who creates art to understand and contextualize his relationship with time, nature, and his culture. He specializes in creating multidisciplinary works of art and regularly collaborates with filmmakers, game developers, dancers, and more. Indian Classical music plays a key role in Arjan’s writing and performance practice. He grew up studying Indian Classical violin with Dr. Sisirkana Dhar Choudhury, and it is such training that informs his compositional decisions in regards to harmony, structure, and pacing. Live Salmon is described by Singh Dogra as “an exploration of different colors and textures that weave in and out of each other, held together by a simple melody that is constantly being squeezed, stretched, and permuted. The piece evokes the imagery of ocean currents and various waterways that meander and wash through each other, and of the salmon that bravely swim upstream against these currents to spawn.” Katherine Fortunato, a Mannes student and a winner of the 2023 George and Elizabeth Gregory Concerto Competition, is the featured solo percussionist in Kevin Puts’ Marimba Concerto. Fortunato’s primary pedagogues are Ian Rosenbaum of Sandbox Percussion, the newly appointed chair of the Percussion Department and Glen Velez, widely known as the father of the modern frame drum movement. This event is free with registration. Space is limited: Register hereSeptember 29 at 7:30pm at The New School’s John L. Tishman Auditorium · WORLD PREMIERE of Martinů Prize Winner, Arjan Singh Dogra's Live Salmon |
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