First Impression: The Busiest Month of a Musician’s Year
Happy December, everyone! If you are a professional musician, this means you (hopefully) have lots of holiday-related work to do this month. This also means that a lot of the music going on is of the traditional variety, in the holiday spirit, but there is still new music to be heard this month, and there are a couple things happening tonight!
ADVENT MUSIC BY CANDLELIGHT
Bridge presents their annual candlelit concert this evening (December 2) at Church of the Redeemer titled Drop Down Dew, an opportunity to reflect in quiet stillness upon the approaching holiday season in an intimate and historical environment. The program will feature music for Advent by William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Toivo Tulev, Andrew Smith, Melissa Dunphy, and Caleb Burhans. Concert begins at 7:30.
CLASSICAL SAXOPHONE AT AN DIE MUSIK
Saxophonist Tae Ho Hwang and pianist Teodora Adzharova present a recital this evening (December 2) at An die Musik in Mount Vernon. On the program will be Sun-Young Park’s 2011 work Haru for solo saxophone, along with works by Isang Yun, Ned Rorem, Robert Muczynski, and William Albright. Music starts at 7:30.
RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW AT ZISSIMO’S
This Wednesday, December 4, at Zissimo’s in Hampden, three ensembles will perform programs of improvised music; the Erin Connelly Quartet goes on at 8:30, the Je Ne Se Quartet plays at 9:15, and the Dominic Fragman SoloTrio will be on at 10 PM. Doors are at 8.
L’ENFANCE DU CHRIST WITH IN SERIES
As you might glean from the title, this is not new music, but rather a look at a standard piece from a new perspective, as IN Series has been doing so expertly for the past couple seasons. For the Christmas holidays, they will perform Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ, staged as a community exploration of human migration and the power of hospitality to those fleeing persecution. Performances are on December 7 (Saturday), 8, (Sunday), and 14 (Saturday); at 8 PM on the Saturdays and at 3 PM on the Sunday.
HOPKINS SYMPHONY PERFORMS SHELLEY WASHINGTON
The Hopkins Symphony’s upcoming concert this Saturday, December 7, will include familiar works by Sibelius and Prokofiev along with Shelley Washington’s The Third Colossus. There will be a talk with WBJC’s Jonathan Palevsky at 6:30 PM, and the concert is at 7:30 at Shriver Hall Auditorium.
AMERICAN BRASS QUINTET AT SHRIVER HALL
Shriver Hall Concert Series present the American Brass Quintet on Sunday, December 8, featuring a Shriver Hall-commissioned work by Nina C. Young and a pre-concert discussion with the composer and WBJC’s Jonathan Palevsky. The concert is at 5:30 and the discussion starts at 4:30.
IN THE STACKS PART 8
The In the Stacks series at the George Peabody Library’s next performance will feature Mind on Fire exploring how light and sound move through space through the music of Cat Lamb, paired with an original light installation that will project celestial objects moving throughout the room. The concert is on December 12 and doors open at 6 PM.
PIQUE PLAYS CNSNC
Pique Collective presents a concert of new works by the composer cooperative CNSNC, each work highlighting the diverse sonic possibilities of the Pique instrumentation. This will be at the Undercroft in Remington on Saturday, December 14 at 7:30. This will follow a meetup at the Undercroft hosted by New Music Baltimore.
PALE BLUE DOT
Keeping on the celestial theme, saxophonist Derrick Michaels presents Pale Blue Dot, a concert of improvised music inspired by the wisdom of Carl Sagan, the text of which can be found on the Facebook event, where you’ll also find that this will happen on December 18 at An die Musik, and the first set begins at 8 PM.
As always, let me know if I’ve missed anything, and happy December!
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