Four Years in Review

With the start of the new year, we want to pause a moment to reflect on the four years since Metropolis Ensemble's founding, and many of the amazing opportunities that have come our way. Since 2006, Metropolis Ensemble...
commissioned 24 world premieres and 5 U.S....

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Exclusive Members-Only Event

Show your support for Metropolis Ensemble and experience inspiring musical performances! If you become a member today, you'll be invited to attend a private concert hosted by June Wu at her Upper West Side apartment. The concert will feature the popular "Composing and...

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The Dreams of Vivian Fung

There's a long tradition of composers finding inspiration in Balinese music, from Poulenc and Britten to Evan Ziporyn and Ingram Marshall. A trip to Bali was also the genesis of Vivian Fung's piano concerto, subtitled Dreamscapes. She traveled there in the summer of...

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Jakub Ciupinski and the Art of Repetition

The title of this concert, Reverb, seems especially meaningful to composer Jakub Ciupinski. "I absolutely love churches for their long reverb. Very often in my music I use a thin, hocket-like texture full of single, short notes that almost never overlap. Harmonic...

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Erin Gee Finds Her Voice

As a composer, Erin Gee seems to have emerged fully-formed. She's reluctant to ascribe any personal experiences or motivations to her work; quite the opposite, in fact. This is unexpected, even contradictory, because she plays an irreplaceable role in her pieces: as...

(via Metropolis Ensemble)

Cristina Spinei in Constant Motion

For Cristina Spinei, writing music is inextricably linked to dance, her study of Brazilian folk music, and, at times, the sounds and rhythms of her commute on Metro-North railway ("Does that make me sound too much like a dorky composer?" she wonders aloud). Dork or...

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New Sounds, New Ideas

With four completely different voices, the composers in our fall concert, REVERB, have summed up their thoughts on what new music can express. Here's some excerpts from the program notes.

Erin Gee:
The music seeks an experiential non-language, containing the...

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Highlights from New Music 101

Photo and video highlights from New Music 101: Intro to Electronica are now live on the site, including behind-the-scenes photos from Le Poisson Rouge and full-length videos of the world premiere performance of Street Prayer, Jenny Lin's encore performance of Morning...

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On the Menu...

One of the highlights of our upcoming concert, New Music 101, is a segment we're calling "Composing and Cocktails." Here's how it works. Music "waiters" (composer Jakub Ciupinksi and conductor Andrew Cyr) will greet you with an iPhone that serves as a real-time...

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Free MP3 Download from Jakub Ciupinski

To celebrate our upcoming concert, New Music 101: Intro to Electronica, Metropolis Ensemble and composer Jakub Ciupinski are delighted to offer the mp3 of an inspiring electronic work by Jakub. "The Architect's Brother" premiered in 2006 at the Juilliard School's Peter...

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Exploring the Roots of David Bruce

Composer David Bruce shares insights about his new work, Groanbox, featuring Michael Ward-Bergeman on accordion, The Groanbox Boys, and the...

Gran Bwa from The Groanbox Boys

The Groanbox Boys released their new album Gran Bwa at Metropolis Ensemble's concert, GROANBOX on January 28, 2009 at Le Poisson Rouge. The...

Concert Highlights from The Rite: Remixed

We're pleased to share a new documentary video about Metropolis Ensemble's world premiere of The Rite Remixed, last summer's adventurous...

Welcome Ray Lustig

Metropolis Ensemble welcomes its 2008-09 Youth Works composer, Ray Lustig. Over the next year, Ray will work with elementary students at...

Live from Prospect Park

Hear the Metropolis Ensemble and Deerhoof perform a concert from the Wordless Music Series, recorded live by WNYC at Prospect Park in...

Metropolis Ensemble on WNYC

Artistic Director/Conductor Andrew Cyr and Composer Ricardo Romaneiro will be on WNYC Soundcheck at 2pm EST today to discuss their new...