News
November 2, 2017November Performances at the Hall
A 7-foot clown walks into a bar. He motions for a soda water and sits there staring at his drink. The year was 1998 and Puddles had wandered into the Star Community Bar in Atlanta, GA where bartender Big Mike Geier first laid eyes on the sad, silent clown.
“There was a heaviness about him,” says Geier. “I could tell he wasn’t in the mood to chat, so I pretty much left him alone except to pass him the mustard when he pulled an onion and a heel of bread out of his pocket. A couple weeks later, he came by the bar and gave me a flyer to a show he was doing at a flea market. The sound system was crap, but his voice was something else. I’ve been in my share of bands and wasn’t expecting much from a clown singing karaoke from a boombox. But I’ll be damned if his singing didn’t get me all choked up.” The two soon became close friends, with Big Mike acting somewhat as a confidant as the pair travel all over with Puddles Pity Party, Mike speaking on behalf of Puddles since the clown chooses to stay silent.
Originally from River City before kicking around Atlanta, the sulking serenader gained momentum after hitting the road as guest performer on the 2010 Aqua Teen Hunger Force Live tour and 2013 Eels tour and making special appearances at Seattle’s Teatro ZinZanni and NYC’s Sleep No More. Yet it was Halloween 2013 when Puddles then teamed up with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox to record an epic version of Lorde’s hit song “Royals,” which instantly went viral on YouTube, having received over 19 million views so far. The “sad clown with the golden voice” captivated audiences and media from around the world, building a fan base of more than 222,000 on Facebook.
Puddles has since performed all over the planet, garnering rave reviews at festivals like Edinburgh Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, Perth Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Fest and Belgium’s Gent Fest. He was a feature performer in La Soiree’s 2014 Southbank show in London, which won the Olivier Award. He was handpicked by Neil Patrick Harris to perform Just for Laugh’s “Circus Awesomeus,” gala filmed for HBO Canada. And Jack Black selected Puddles to perform at the 2015 Festival Supreme.
Today, the softhearted crooner continues to wander the world with melancholic pop anthems and free hugs for all the party people.
“Puddles gives an emotive performance that resonates with all kinds of folks,” says Geier. “The crowd really responds to him. There’s something about a giant sad singing clown that comforts us, lets us know it’s ok to feel, to show our feelings. It’s a sad and beautiful world, and we’re all in it together, even when we’re totally alone.” For more information on Puddles, or to watch a video of him performing, please visit http://www.puddlespityparty.com/.
Troy Chromatics Concerts presents
Emile Naoumoff, Piano – Saturday, November 11, 7:30 PM Tickets: $35, $25
There will be a pre-concert talk with Emile Naoumoff at the Hall at 6:30
“…the poetry of Rubenstein and the fire of Horowitz.” – Indianapolis News
Program (subject to change):
Faure Requiem in D minor, Op. 48*
Ravel Valses Nobles et Sentimentales M.61*
N. Boulanger “To The new life” (Vers la vie nouvelle) (1918)
L. Boulanger Theme and Variations (1913)
Pie Jesu for Soprano, Organ and Strings (1918)*
Bach Organ Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582*
Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Overture Fantasy, TH 42*
Naoumoff Passacaglia Fugata from Piano Sonata (1980, revised 2011)
*Piano transcriptions by Emile Naoumoff
Emile Naoumoff has been likened to both Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubinstein as a pianist, displaying — as one critic remarked — the fire of the former and the poetry of the latter. He was also signed as a composer at age 18 — the youngest on their roster — with the music publisher Schott, Mainz. Emile revealed himself as a musical prodigy at age five, taking up the piano and adding composition to his studies a year later. At the age of seven, after a fateful meeting in Paris, he became the last disciple of Nadia Boulanger, who referred to him as “The gift of my old age.” He studied with her until her death in late 1979. During this auspicious apprenticeship, Mlle. Boulanger gave him the opportunity to work with Clifford Curzon, Igor Markevitch, Robert and Gaby Casadesus, Nikita Magaloff, Jean Francaix, Leonard Bernstein, Soulima Stravinsky, Aram Khachaturian and Yehudi Menhuin. Lord Menhuin conducted the premiere of Emile’s first piano concerto, with the composer as a soloist when he was ten years old. At the same time, he pursued studies at the Paris Conservatory with Lelia Gousseau, Pierre Sancan, Genevieve Joy-Dutilleux, as well as at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris with Pierre Dervaux (conducting).
Upon the death of Mlle. Boulanger, Emile took over her classes at the summer sessions of the Conservatoire d’Art Americain in Fontainebleau. He was later appointed at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, Paris.
Emile is regularly invited by the world’s premier orchestras: the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony in Washington, Moscow Symphony, NHK Symphony, the Residentie Orkest of the Hague, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Camerata Bern, and has worked closely with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Igor Markevitch, Leonard Slatkin, Mstislav Rostropovich and Eliahu Inbal. He has also collaborated with musicians including Jean-Pierre Rampal, Gerard Souzay, Yo-Yo Ma, Gary Hoffman, Olivier Charlier, Patrice Fontanarosa, Regis Pasquier, Philippe Graffin, Philippe Bernold, Gerard Caussé, Jean Ferrandis, Dominique de Williencourt and the Fine Arts Quartet.
Some highlights of his performing career include a performance of the Grieg Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and his own piano concerto version of Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. under the baton of Mstislav Rostropovich. In recent years Emile has been invited to numerous music festivals such as San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music’s Menuhin Seminars, Santander Summer Masterclasses, Verbier Academy Festival, the Banff Center, and residencies at Conservatory of Barcelona (ESMUC). In 1996, he opened his own summer academy at the Château de Rangiport in Gargenville, France, in the spirit of Nadia Boulanger.
Since 1998, Emile is a professor at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is an avid composer of French mélodies, and is known for his mastery in transcribing music for the piano. Emile maintains a video journal of daily improvisations on his YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/user/dafeneo
Rosanne Cash with John Leventhal – Tuesday, November 14, 7:30 PM Tickets: $44, $37, $32, $25
Beloved singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash and her collaborator, musical director, guitarist and husband John Leventhal, present an acoustic evening celebrating her prolific and deeply-rooted catalog of music. In BLACK LIST RIVER Rosanne Cash offers a sweeping song cycle culled from her award-winning southern and soul trilogy of works Black Cadillac (2006), The List (2009) and The River and The Thread (2014). BLACK LIST RIVER celebrates the American experience and what is at the heart of Rosanne’s journey as a songwriter and singer, her devotion to her southern roots and family lineage.
Rosanne Cash, a four time Grammy-winner and a member the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, has recorded fifteen albums and has charted twenty-one top forty country singles, eleven of which reached number one. In addition to continual touring, Cash has partnered in programming collaborations with Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, San Francisco Jazz, The Country Music Hall of Fame, Minnesota Orchestra and The Library of Congress. A Chicago Tribune reviewer describes Composed, her 2010 memoir, as “one of the best accounts of an American life you will likely ever read.” She is “a storyteller and singer of exceptional grace and grit” (Boston Globe).
Sō Percussion – Wednesday, November 15, 2017, 7:30 PM Tickets: $34, $29, Student Ticket $10
For over a decade, Sō Percussion has redefined the modern percussion ensemble as a flexible, omnivorous entity, pushing its voice to the forefront of American musical culture. Praised by the New Yorker for their “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam,” Sō’s adventurous spirit is written into the DNA passed down from composers like John Cage and Steve Reich, as well as from pioneering ensembles like the Kronos Quartet and Nexus Percussion. Sō Percussion’s career now encompasses over 20 albums, touring throughout the USA and around the world, a dizzying array of collaborative projects, several ambitious educational programs, and a steady output of their own music.
When the founding members of Sō Percussion convened as graduate students at the Yale School of Music, their initial goal was to present an exciting repertoire of pieces by 20th century luminaries such as Cage, Reich, and Iannis Xenakis. An encounter with David Lang, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and co-founder of New York’s Bang on a Can organization, yielded their first commissioned piece: the 36 minute, three movement the sō-called laws of nature. Since that first major new work, Sō has commissioned some of the greatest American composers of our time to build a new repertoire, including Steve Reich, Steve Mackey, Paul Lansky, Martin Bresnick, and many others.
Over time, an appetite for boundless creativity lead the group to branch out beyond the composer/interpreter paradigm. Since 2006 with group member Jason Treuting’s amid the noise, the members of Sō Percussion have been composing in their own right within the group and for others. In 2012, their third evening-length work Where (we) Live premiered at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and travelled to the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 30th Next Wave Festival. Where (we) Live followed on the heels of 2009’s Imaginary City, a fully staged sonic meditation on urban soundscapes.
Sō Percussion’s artistic circle extends beyond their contemporary classical roots. They first expanded this boundary with the prolific duo Matmos, whom the New York Times called “ideal collaborators” on their 2010 combined album Treasure State. Further projects and appearances with Wham City shaman Dan Deacon, legendary drummer Bobby Previte, jam band kings Medeski, Martin, and Wood, and Wilco’s Glenn Kotche drew the circle even wider. In 2011, the rock band The National invited Sō to open one of their sold-out shows at New York’s Beacon Theater.
Sō Percussion is heavily involved in mentoring young musicians and will offer a free education outreach program before their performance at the Hall. Educators interested in learning more, please contact Maureen Neufeld at maureen@troymusichall.org or 518-273-8945.
Tickets are available to all these performances now, via phone, (518) 273-0038, in person, or online at www.troymusichall.org. The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Box Office is located at 30 Second Street in downtown Troy, and is open Monday through Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. More information on the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and upcoming programs is available on the website at www.troymusichall.org.
