The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble has a slightly redefined focus this summer, broadening from premieres by adding encore performances of music it's premiered over the past five years.
This weekend's season opening concerts will present Steve Reich's modern classic "Clapping Music," Roger Zahab's "Ohio Entelechron," Wang Jie's "The Joy of Sextet" and encores of Michael Lowenstein's "But Would She Remember You?" and Kevin Puts' "Einstein on Mercer Street."
It's a wry old joke that the only thing more unlikely than the premiere of a new piece is a second performance.
"We seem so comfortable doing Beethoven's Fifth 30 or 40 times, yet it's almost a prescription for new music to get one performance and then die on the shelf," says Kevin Noe, the ensemble's conductor and executive artistic director.
After noting that the new music ensemble has given 30 premieres in the past five years, Noe says audience requests to hear some of these new pieces contributed to the decision to present encore performances. And while the encores don't count as a new work for the ensemble, Noe says "our audiences have grown so much (the pieces) will be new to many in the audience."
Noe and the new music ensemble are moving in another way to improve the exposure of the new music it presents. Successful fundraising will enable the group to make a commercial recording of "Einstein on Mercer Street" in January 2008.
But recording itself poses additional questions for Noe, because theatrical presentation is a distinctive element of Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble performances. Future recordings are likely to be for DVD as well as CD, he says.
Fundraising is one of many administrative tasks Noe has taken on since becoming executive artistic director earlier this year, after former managing director Jeff Nytch decided he wanted more time for his own compositional work.
The new post is a lot more work for Noe, who says, "We certainly have had our best year ever in fundraising and there are many things moving forward. But I doubt I could keep up this pace forever. I'll fall over dead."
He hopes to be able to hire administrative help for next season.
"The question is exactly how to frame the post. The hardest part with a unique organization like PNME is finding the right person," Noe says. One potential candidate has been identified, but he declined to identify the person.
The new music ensemble's summer season will welcome guest artists for its final offering on the first weekend in August. The new music will be David Passmore's "Billy Strayhorn A/K/A," which was commissioned by the new music ensemble and bases each of its movements on nicknames for the jazz composer who was a close collaborator with Duke Ellington.
"It happens that our former board president Bruce Wilder is himself a great jazz lover. I always thought a tribute to Strayhorn was a great idea. David's piece is 45 minutes, and we could have presented it with something else jazz-themed. But I didn't feel it's right to pay tribute to a composer and then play none of his actual music," say Noe.
It's all about composers at the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.
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