Abstraction’s Debut Newsletter - Fall 2024
Access PDF of Newsletter Here: AMG Fall 2024 Newsletter
Hello friends,
The waning heat and vibrant days of the summer simmering down as the back to school season begins, however, our artist roster at Abstraction Music Group is still radiating with the fires of excitement and creativity!
Our Fall newsletter highlights the amazing work of our clients and how Abstraction is collaborating with them to bring their work to the forefront. Check out our recent feature in I Care If You Listen as a resource for composers needing to preserve their work in Finale and transition to Dorico, our primary engraving and arranging software.
Saturday, October 26th, 8PM - 10PM, Derek David: Di Fayerdike Libe - Passionate Love - ליבע ערדיקעײַפֿ די
This past Saturday, October 26th, we produced for Di Fayerike Libe - Passionate Love - די ליבע ערדיקעײַפֿ, a concert given by Abstraction Artist and 2024 Fay Chandler Creativity Grant Derek David. Presented in Killian Hall at MIT’s Center for Art, Science, and Technology, this concert will feature two world premieres of Derek’s: “Partita for Solo Viola”, performed and commissioned by Jesse Morrison, and a new string quartet written and commissioned by the Semiosis Quartet. Derek will also be singing unaccompanied Yiddish Folk Songs himself. Additionally, please join us for the pre concert discussion, concluding Derek’s collaboration with ethnomusicologist and MIT lecturer Joseph Maurer, a folk song specialist, concludes with a pre-concert discussion on the Yiddish folk song tradition and its influence on contemporary musical practice, including topics of performance techniques and 18th-century Partimento compositional pedagogy. Abstraction Music Group assisted in receiving the CAST Fay Chandler Creativity Grant for this concert and will be producing the concert with MIT Music & Theater Arts.
Check out Derek’s interview in the San Francisco Chronicle, and follow Derek on Facebook for more news such as his upcoming interview with the Yiddish Book Center and his upcoming lecture in Vienna as part of, “Partimento! - Realizing Its Potential!”, where he will speak on his experience of incorporating partimento into undergraduate pedagogy with other scholars. Thanks to SHASS (MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences) for supporting Derek during the trip.
News from Robert Honstein:
The Ramble, an arrangement of Olmsted for string quartet premiered in Kentucky in September by Music for a Purpose. We enjoyed proofing the score and parts for performance!
The Orlando Ballet will perform Alysa Pires's Skyward, which features his Conduit II. Pulse; we were happy to negotiate a Grand Rights License for this project!
We worked with Matthew Lau and Up:Strike to create a residency for Rob in Hong Kong taking place in June, 2025. Rob will attend rehearsals, composer workshops, and university courses, culminating in a Portrait Concert with the premiere of a percussion quartet for Up: Strike!
Recent works:
A Hudson Diptych, for advanced string ensemble
Sonnets for New Exit New Music (full premiere TBA)
Upcoming work: New song for The Living Earth Show (completed in February, 2025)
New Album Release: Boston Etudes by Jihye Chang
Featuring compositions by members of our Abstraction Artist Roster (composers Stratis Minakakis and Dan VanHassel), we are beyond excited to announce the upcoming release of Boston Etudes on October 18th on New Focus Recordings! Listen to the album preview here. Abstraction Music Group is proud to say we were able to raise $5k with Jihye for the production and design expenses to make this album possible. It was an absolute treat to sell her CDs at her October 12th performance and support eight amazing and unique composers in Greater Boston.
New From Stratis Minakakis:
We recently released TJ Borden’s outstanding performance of Stratis’s Ek Vatheon, Ekekraska Soi. In addition to his Lowell Etudes released on Boston Etudes, upcoming projects include a saxophone concerto with saxophonist Don-Paul Kahl.
New From Dan VanHassel:
Premiere of Collective Effervescence on October 3rd at Ithaca College for reed quintet, and comissioned by Splinter Reeds (work page coming soon).
Recent performance and promotion of Bassoonification, which Ben Bradshaw highlighted in his lecture at IDRS (Check out the performance video here!)
New Music from Charles Shadle
Recent Dorico engraving projects:
Postcards, for Wind Quintet
A Little Choctaw Music, for saxophone quartet Check out the performance video here! - with David Stevens as baritone saxophonist :)
In August, ensemble E-YAH-Pah-Hah, the “Town Crier,” performed a mini premiere of three of five movements of a new piece, “Postcards of Native America,” by Native American composer and Abstraction Artist Dr. Charles Shadle, Choctaw, who teaches theory and composition at MIT. Read more.
New Music from Micah Levy
Micah just completed a commissioned choral work to be premiered in 2025 entitled Let Every Breath Praise.
Ongoing Abstraction Music Group Projects:
Working with the Peyton family as a Music Archivist for Malcolm Peyton compositions. We look forward to sharing updates to the Catalog, and preserving underperformed works and publishing lesser known works.
We’re currently working on engraving two works for Charles Shadle: Grace, for MIT’s choir to celebrate the opening of their new building, and a Harpsichord Concerto entitled, Chahta Tuffa (Choctaw Summer)
Project managing Derek David’s Yiddish Song Cycle, set to be premiered in late 2025.
Currently acting as a petitioner for composer Niki Harlafti for her O-1B Visa Application. Wish us luck in this extensive process!
Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter! We are looking forward to sharing more updates in 2025, including some exciting new clients!
David Stevens
Abstraction Music Group
