This coming week is a really interesting one.  Four performances, all very different.

Tomorrow (Monday, 6/21), Mantra Percussion is performing if when without itself, for 3 drumsets and (wii-controlled) electronics as part of the annual Make Music NY festival (the performance is in the archway under the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO, and starts at 5pm.  More info here.)  They’ll also be playing their KILLER arrangement for drumsets of Xenakis’s Okho.

Then on Wednesday, 6/23, choreographer Tzveta Kassabova, a frequent collaborator these last few years, is premiering her new dance/multimedia work, Memoria, as part of the Source festival in Washington, DC, for which I composed several 2-4 minute sound pieces.  The piece will play again on Friday, June 25.

Also on Friday is my good friend Barry’s wedding.  Barry was a classmate during my undergrad years at Connecticut College, and is now a lawyer and successful blogger.  Check out his blog, Is it Luck?, where he mixes awe at the natural world and the universe with awe at the stupidity of the American religious right, using equal parts sincerity and humor.  I’m a huge fan of his writing, as are more and more people – if you haven’t clicked, yet, click.  Now.  Anyway, I wrote a string quartet for his wedding ceremony, which I’m thrilled will be performed by Joanna Frankel, Guy Figer, Erin Wight, and Yoed Nir.  Sorry not to be able to invite you all to this one, but I’ll put up a recording later this month.

Lastly, on Sunday, my old friend and classmate from MSM, fellow composer Ronna Na Rong will be playing a short movement for piano which I wrote a couple years ago while in residency at MacDowell.  It’s a small piece of which I’m fond, and which I wrote for no particular occasion (probably why it’s never been performed yet).  This performance will be during the New York Composers Circle monthly salon, in the Symphony Space Thalia Rehearsal Studio on Sunday, 6/27, at 3:30 pm.  I’m curious about this group – seems like an interesting network of musicians, and they invite any and all NY-based composers to present a work at their monthly salons.  Jacob Goodman is the coordinator, and has been great to work with so far.  We’ll see how it goes.  (you can check out their site here)

Looking forward to a busy week of performances, then a short rest, and then diving into three exciting projects that are happening in the fall (which ought to occupy my entire summer).  More on these soon.