28th Annual MATA Festival: Night Three: Local Music

Without a doubt, the 28th Annual MATA Festival is the liveliest and most interesting musical event happening in NYC on Memorial Day weekend, May 21 - 23. Ever since the Festival was co-founded by Philip Glass in the 1990s, it has been the prime opportunity for concertgoers to hear “Tomorrow’s Music Today.”

This year’s programs are fascinating and provocative – tap-dancing to music by Morton Feldman and Steve Reich, anyone? – and the performers are top-notch, including violinists Miranda Cuckson, Conrad Harris, and Leah Asher, pianists Marilyn Nonken and Taka Kigawa, BlackBox Ensemble, Unnameable Strings, and tap/pointe dance company The Bang Group, among others. Plus, there’s a six-hour experimental “rave” on May 20! All in all, the MATA Festival is not to be missed.

‘Local music’ refers to Feldman’s focused exploration of isolated, quiet, and intimate sound moments – the "local" action of a single note or chord over the overall structure, creating a physical sound-world that emphasizes the tactile, immediate properties of sound. The seven-member BlackBox Ensemble (flute/clarinet/piano/percussion/violin/cello/voice), conducted by Leonard Bopp, plays finely detailed scores by Laila Arafah, Erich Barganier, Kristupas Bubnelis, Gillian Rae Perry, Floriana Provenzano, and Jessica Shand. Like Feldman, they often draw inspiration from literature, philosophy, and visual media. Rounding out the program are two iconic works by Feldman from the 1970s: For Frank O’Hara, and I Met Heine on the Rue Fürstenberg. 

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