NEWS FLASH

The 2012 Composers’ Competition is NOW OPEN! Click HERE to Enter

The League is saddened by the recent loss of board member David Chaitkin on December 15, 2011. Our hearts go out to his family during this difficult time. Click here to read his obituary in The New York Times.

Congratulations to Eric Nathan  - World Music Days 2012 has selected his piece, Walls of Light, for programming in Belgium 2012.

Check out upcoming concerts and other musical events in our Concert Announcements page.

league of composers/iscm

As the longest-serving American organization devoted to new music, the League is proud serve its mission to present new music written by emerging and established living composers alongside masterpieces from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Founded in 1923, the League draws on a remarkably rich history, including such groundbreaking premieres as Schönberg’s Die Glückliche Hand, Béla Bartók’s Village Scenes, Samuel Barber’s Piano Sonata and Anton Webern’s Symphony for Chamber Orchestra. The League also sponsored the American premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s ballet, Le Sacre du Printemps, many pieces by Aaron Copland, György Ligeti’s Horn Trio, and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Harlequin. The League has enjoyed long associations with some of America’s most important composers, from Aaron Copland to current honorary Board Co-Chairs Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt.

sneak peek of the 2011-2012 season

LEAGUE/ISCM PRESENTS: ELIZA GARTH CELEBRATES THE JOHN CAGE CENTENNIAL
Sunday, January 29 at 8:00 PM
Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Center | 129 W. 67th St New York, NY 10023
Tickets are available at the box office the night of the concert: $20 General Admission; $10 Students/Seniors
Box Office: 212-501-3330 | http://kaufman-center.org/merkin-concert-hall/buy-tickets

Acclaimed pianist Eliza Garth performs John Cage’s masterpiece for prepared piano, Sonatas and Interludes, in celebration of the centennial of the birth of Cage, one of the most influential American composers of the 20^th century.  Described by the writer James Pritchett as “a big piece with a quiet voice,” Sonatas and Interludes is meditative in its esthetic; the “preparation” of the piano transforms its sound into an ensemble of gongs and chimes. Ms. Garth’s performance will be presented in Merkin Concert Hall, chosen for its intimate atmosphere and exceptional acoustics. A student of trailblazers, including Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg, and in his mature years a disciple of Buddhism, Cage’s innovative work challenged conventional Western conceptions of the nature of sound and music. For more info about Eliza Garth, please visit www.elizagarth.com.

LEAGUE/ISCM PRESENTS: “BassoonMusic with Bassoonist Peter Kolkay and pianist Alexandra Nguyen
April 2, 2012 – 7:30 PM
Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Center | 129 W. 67th St New York, NY 10023
presented in collaboration with Concert Artists Guild
Tickets are available at the box office the night of the concert: $20 General Admission; $15 Students/Seniors
Box Office: 212-501-3330 | http://kaufman-center.org/merkin-concert-hall/buy-tickets

Winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, bassoonist Peter Kolkay presents a selection of 21st-century works that demonstrates the stylistic breath of current American composition. Each work explores its own rhetoric, yet all share the common thread of being composed for the bassoon, perhaps the most underappreciated of solo instruments. Kolkay, joined by pianist Alexandra Nguyen, explores this repertoire in the recently released disc “BassoonMusic” (CAG Records), and will present six works on this Merkin Hall concert.

The program includes:

Judah Adashi The Dark Hours (2007) NY premiere
Katherine Hoover Journey (2009) NY premiere
John Fitz Rogers Seven Desert Elegies (2008) NY premiere
George Perle’s BassoonMusic (2004)
Russell Platt’s Three Songs (2010)
Paul Moravec’s Andy Warhol Sez (2005).

THE ORCHESTRA OF THE LEAGUE OF COMPOSERS – CELEBRATING THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NYU MUSIC DEPARTMENT  (Presented by the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society)
Louis Karchin, Music Director
Soloists: Thomas Meglioranza, baritone; Madalyn and Cicely Parnas (Duo Parnas); Marianne Gythefeldt, clarinet; and  Ivan Goff, Irish Pipes
Monday, May 7, 2012 at 8:00 PM
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University – Washington Square South at LaGuardia Place