This post has been updated to reflect program changes made since this press release was issued.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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February 12, 2024
HEAR NOW MUSIC FESTIVAL 2024 PRESENTS THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE
CELEBRATING THE FESTIVAL’S THIRTEENTH YEAR APRIL 24 TO 28
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE, LYRIS QUARTET, BRIGHTWORK, HEX AND THE UCLA PHILHARMONIA PRESENTING THE MUSIC OF 29 LOS ANGELES COMPOSERS
Los Angeles, February 12, 2024 — Hugh Levick, Artistic Director of HEAR NOW, is pleased to announce the 13th Annual HEAR NOW Festival of New Music by Contemporary Los Angeles Composers. This year HEAR NOW 2024 will take place April 24 to 28, with the International Contemporary Ensemble from New York as special guest performers, plus the UCLA Philharmonia, led by Neal Stulberg, Hear Now resident ensembles Brightwork Ensemble, the Lyris Quartet and HEX vocal ensemble. Concert locations include 2220 Arts + Archives, FRANKIE in the Arts District, and UCLA Philharmonia at Schoenberg Hall. Tickets are $35 general admission; $25 for Seniors; and $15 for students; General festival pass (five concerts) $150 (28% discount) at https://www.ticketor.com/hearnow.
Levick announced that the annual HEAR NOW Ursula Krummel commission was offered this year to LA composer Andrew Moses, “a spectacularly gifted young composer,” he said. “We are proud of our 13 years presenting the music of Los Angeles composers, over 290 works, and grateful for the support of the Los Angeles community. We are also pleased to present the outstanding International Contemporary Ensemble from New York, and an orchestral work by George Lewis, their artistic director. As Lewis says in his opera AFTERWORD, ‘this music has a lot to do with disrupting any status quo or system…Our purpose is to awaken the psyche.’ In other words, the materiality of sound infused with Spirit becomes music, and the music of HEAR NOW offers an expression of plenitude and abundance, that is, our true nature.” Alex Ross in The New Yorker calls Lewis “one of the most formidable figures in modern music…”
Presenting 29 works by LA composers, this festival includes ORFEO in a World Premiere by Thea Musgrave, and LONNIE AND LONIE by George Lewis, both performed by the UCLA PHILHARMONIA, the flagship orchestra of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music (one of Southern California’s premiere training orchestras), led by Neal Stulberg.
Following is the festival program (subject to change) – except as noted all concerts begin at 8:00pm:
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, Electroacoustic+ concert in collaboration with People Inside Electronics, Brightwork and HEX
2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles 90057, 8pm
Antibodypolitic Running Spring, Alexander E. Miller
Because Patterns/The Deep State, Isaac Io Schankler
Drones, Improvisations, Refrains, John M. Kennedy (World Premiere)
black_may, James Leelayuvat (World Premiere)
a place without language or streets, Jack Herscowitz
In Waves, Kion Heidari
Eikosany Study, Daniel Corral
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, Chamber Concert with Lyris Quartet and Brightwork Ensemble
2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles 90057, 8pm
Trio Contraptions, Ryan McWilliams (US Premiere)
Softly Speaks the Wind, Madeline Barrett (Live Premiere)
Le Train, Oscar Pan (West Coast Premiere)
Adrenaline, Feona Lee Jones (LA Premiere)
octet, Jeonghyeon Joo
Traveling Symphony, Donald Crockett (LA Premiere)
FRIDAY, April 26, Chamber Concert II with International Contemporary Ensemble
FRANKIE, 300 S Mission Road, Los Angeles, 8pm
…in the dreams of another…, Kay Rhie
A Prayer amidst the Chaos, Jeremy Davalos (Live Premiere)
Double Jeopardy, Mu-Xuan Lin (World Premiere)
PETRIFIED UNREST, Hugh Levick (World Premiere)
Glimpse II, Joseph Pereira (World Premiere)
SATURDAY, April 27, Chamber Concert III with International Contemporary Ensemble
FRANKIE, 300 S Mission Road, Los Angeles, – Sunset Concert beginning at 5:00pm
Nobject-Catoptriarch-Umbration, Andrew Moses (World Premiere – Hear Now Krummel Commission)
Danse Macabre, Michael M. Lee (World Premiere for Part 2)
Fougère, J. M. Gerraughty
Triboluminescence, Corey Dundee (West Coast Premiere)
Hagall (Haglaz), Jeffrey Holmes
SUNDAY, April 28, Orchestra Concert with UCLA Philharmonia, Neal Stulberg, conductor
Free concert with reservation SCHOENBERG HALL, UCLA, 4:00pm
Orfeo V: Orfeo ed Euridice, Thea Musgrave (World Premiere)
seawall blvd, Ella Kaale
From th’Ethereal Skie, Jack Van Zandt (World Premiere)
Songs from the Deep, Juhi Bansal (LA Premiere)
Inhabited by air, Akari Komura (West Coast Premiere)
Lonnie and Lonie, George Lewis (LA Premiere)
In addition to the concerts, HEAR NOW and the American Composers Forum are planning an LA composer-wide gathering where all are welcome. The HEAR NOW Festival of New Music by Contemporary Los Angeles Composers began in 2011 with two chamber music concerts and has expanded to include five-to-six concerts of orchestral, electroacoustic and chamber music concerts. HEAR NOW is dedicated to providing an ever-broadening spotlight on the musical imagination of composers based in the Los Angeles area, and the results from the last twelve festivals are 290 new and recent works by 204 individual composers, from emerging composers to masters.
Access more information about this year’s composers
Locations
2220 Arts + Archives
2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles 90057
FRANKIE
300 S. Mission Road, Los Angeles 90033
Schoenberg Hall – UCLA
445 Charles Young Dr. E, Los Angeles 90095
Hear Now Festival of LA Composers
www.hearnowmusicfestival.com
hearnowcomposersfestival@gmail.com
(323) 226-0326
Hugh Levick, Artistic Director
Peter Knell, Associate Artistic Director
Joseph Pereira, Associate Artistic Director
Isaac Schankler, Associate Artistic Director
Heidi Lesemann, General Manager
Lauri D Goldenhersh, Assistant General Manager
