From The Greene Space:

At the nexus of the active, New York-centric indie-classical scene, Merkin Concert Hall’s Ecstatic Music Festival is a ground-breaking series emphasizing vibrant, adventurous ensembles and unlikely collaborations between composers from the pop and classical realms. In this its second year, the festival returns with a star-studded line-up of artists from diverse musical backgrounds. Hosted by WQXR’s Terrance McKnight, Q2 Music’s preview concert features music and conversation with Ecstatic Music Festival composer-performersJason Treuting, Angélica Negrón, and Jherek Bischoff as well as a conversation with composer and festival founder and curator, Judd Greenstein.

More information here: http://www.thegreenespace.org/events/thegreenespace/2012/feb/01/q2-music-previews-ecstatic-music-festival/

From Kaufman Center:

The “mesmerizing” (New Yorker) multi-instrumentalist and composer Sxip Shirey (pictured) teams up with Angélica Negrón, composer of “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR) music for an evening of fabulously eclectic and sonically wide-ranging collaboration. In addition to working together, they will be joined by a slate of special guests, including violinist/composer/Ableton master Todd Reynolds, guitar sound-architect Noveller (“simultaneously soothing and mind-wrecking,” NY Press), the wine-glass/guitar marvel Jonny Rodgers (“beautiful, fragile and consistently challenging,” New Haven Register). The teen alt-classical sensations Face the Music (“stunning,” “polished, exuberant,” New York Times) will give the world premiere of Angélica Negrón’s El Gran Caleidoscopio.

So excited to be part of this festival and to be working with such wonderful musicians. Please get your tickets here: http://kaufman-center.org/mch/event/ecstatic-music-festival-sxip-shirey-and-angelica-negron-with-special-guests

The  UnCaged Festival is coming up! We will be hopping around New York City in a three-day extravaganza celebrating all things toy. I will be singing three songs for voice and toys on Tuesday November 29th during the Playhouse at Dixon.  Also performing that night are my friends Matt Evans, Phyllis Chen and toy piano legend Margaret Leng Tan.  On Saturday December 3rd come to the wonderful Toy Bonanza at Dimenna Center where Phyllis Chen, the festival founder,  will be performing my piece “The Little Things” among other great performers including Miguel Frasconi & Takuji Kawai.

I’m also very excited to announce that I’ll be part of Ecstatic Music Fest 2012.  I’ll be collaborating with multi-instrumentalist and composer Sxip Shirey and also with guitar sound-architect Noveller.  I’ll write more about these collaborations in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned!

I’m very honored to be a part of these two lists:

The Mix: 100 Composers Under 40

Flavorwire’s 10 Young Female Composers You Should Know

For the past few months, I’ve been working on a very exciting project along with Composers Now and El Museo del Barrio.  Next Wednesday February 23rd, the project will finally come to life with a very busy day full of live visuals, masks, puppets and tons of great music!  First stop is a fun Balún interactive concert for the whole family titled “Painting With Sounds”.  Throughout the concert the audience will have the opportunity to play instruments and sing alongside the band and there will be awesome live visuals accompanying the music!

During the evening, Arturo en el Barco will be playing selections from Alejandro in a very special collaboration with Julio Morales from my favorite Puerto Rican theater company Y No Había Luz.  The other half of the program will be pieces by Latin American composers from the áltaVoz collective which includes composers Mauricio Pauly, José Luis Hurtado, Jorge Grossman, Felipe Lara & Pedro Malpica.  The performance will be followed by a Q&A with the artists.

For more info on the Balún show during the morning please visit here.

For more info on the evening show with Arturo en el Barco and áltaVoz visit here.

Both shows are free! You just need to RSVP here.

Hope to see you there!

October is gone and the sunny days are now an island away! November is off to a great start and I’m happy to announce I’m Q2′s Featured Composer of the month! You can read my composer profile and artist statement here.

Last Friday was the release party of janus trio’s new album “i am not” out on New Amsterdam Records which includes my piece Drawings for Meyoko.  The girls played beautifully as always and the night had an indescribable magic in the air that’s hard put into words. I’m really excited about this album which you can now pre-order here.

This upcoming Thursday, I’ll be performing at Nabi Gallery as part of the Encore Music Forum’s series. I’ll be performing selections from my album Alejandro in this all-electronic/computer music event which will also feature music by Luke DuBois, Linda Oh (with Ambrose Akinmusire, Fabian Almazan, Henry Cole, and more) and Yael Acher.

Also, on Tuesday November 16th Arturo en el Barco will be performing at the gorgeous St. Peter’s Church selections from Let the Sun Sine On Me and Make Me Feel Special which you can download for free at our bandcamp. This is the last time, for a while, that we’ll be performing these pieces because after this the group will be focusing on new songs which will also include our newest addition to the ensemble, pianist/toy pianist/toy instruments extraordinaire Phyllis Chen.  This concert is going to be lots of fun since we will be sharing the stage with our good friends from Iktus Percussion Quartet and at the end both groups will join forces for Rzewski’s Coming Together!

And one last thing, I made my first pumpkin pie yesterday and it wasn’t a disaster!! it was actually pretty yummy!

These past few months have been really busy for me working on new pieces for some friends, playing fun shows with Balún and moving to a nice new place! There are many great things happening and I wanted to share some of them with you.  The amazing janus trio just finished recording my piece “Drawings for Meyoko” for their upcoming album on New Amsterdam Records titled “i am not” which will be out on November 2010. All of the pieces in the album sound incredible and I feel really lucky to be a part of this project!  Visit their website to learn more about how you can become a part of this historic album and get a full belly out of it too!

I’m also very excited to announce that I’ve been selected to be one of three 2011 MATA Commissionees and will be working on a new piece for Cantori New York for the MATA Festival 2011 which will be held on May 2011 at (Le) Poisson Rouge.  The piece will be for choir and live electronics and will feature myself on voice, toys and electronics.

I also recently finished a new piece for Beaten Paths Percussion Duo + Christa Van Alstine titled “Four Ways To Eat Cereal” which will be premiered on October 29th at Tenri Cultural Center and my recent piece for Cadillac Moon Ensemble “Quimbombó” received a Robert Starer Award from the Graduate Center.  Also in the works is a new piece for the very talented percussion trio the howl (theory) and a new work for my friend toy pianist Phyllis Chen in which she’ll be playing lots of tiny things.

On another note, my students from Brooklyn Phil’s SRI Program in PS 250 were in the Daily News and I couldn’t be prouder! Here is a link to download the article and read about these wonderful third graders.

I’m also working on a new piece about different ways of eating cereal so stay tuned!

Arturo en el Barco will be performing in Redhooker’s CD Release Party this Sunday January 31st at (Le) Poisson Rouge.  This show it’s going to be really nice and I can’t wait to play again with everyone!