Cutting Edge Concerts: final programs of 25th anniversary season
CUTTING EDGE CONCERTS New Music Festival
Victoria Bond, Artistic Director
Sept. 23: Philip Glass celebration with Pauline Kim Harris in collaboration with The Village Trip
Oct. 22: Songs by Victoria Bond presented in collaboration with Keyed Up Music Project
"...a gift to New Yorkers thirsty for new sounds" – Time Out New York
Composer Victoria Bond founded Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival to celebrate, support and promote the work of living composers. Over the past 25 years, works by more than 200 composers have been played by world-class ensembles and soloists in the country. Audiences have delighted to dozens of world premieres and hundreds of on-stage conversations with the composers themselves.
The 2022 season closes with two concerts in Manhattan:
At St. John's in the Village, Bond's string trio Dancing on Glass is featured on a program honoring Philip Glass at 85. Dancing on Glass is performed by Pauline Kim Harris, violin (pictured); Chieh-Fan Yiu, viola; and Coleman Itzkoff, cello, on September 23 at 7 pm. details and tickets
On October 22 at 7 pm at Tenri Cultural Center, Cutting Edge Concerts joins forces with Keyed Up Music Project, with a program that includes songs by Bond set to words by Albert Einstein and Walt Whitman, sung by Dennis Tobensky, and Illumination performed by pianist Marc Peloquin. details and tickets
CUTTING EDGE CONCERTS: A short history
Inspired by Pierre Boulez's series, "Perspective Encounters", the composer and conductor Victoria Bond founded Cutting Edge Concerts in 1998. With 25 years of concerts, Cutting Edge Concerts has presented over 300 new works by more than 200 composers. Each program highlights the music of living composers, all of whom attend the concert. Along with performances by world-class ensembles and soloists, each program features on-stage discussions between host Victoria Bond and the composers.
For the 20th anniversary, New Music Box published a feature on the festival and its many highlights and accomplishments. In it, Victoria Bond wrote "I launched the Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in 1998 with the purpose of presenting the music of living composers, including—but not limited to—my own work. I was eager to know what my composition colleagues were writing and to have a way of bringing their music to the public. I also knew many performers interested in new music, and the thought of putting these together was intoxicating."
Victoria Bond, Artistic Director
A major force in 21st century music, composer Victoria Bond is known for her melodic gift and dramatic flair. Her works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and opera have been lauded by The New York Times as "powerful, stylistically varied and technically demanding." Her compositions have been performed by the New York City Opera, Shanghai, Dallas and Houston Symphonies, members of the Chicago Symphony and New York Philharmonic, American Ballet Theater and the Cassatt and Audubon Quartets. Ms. Bond is also an acclaimed conductor, and is the principal guest conductor of Chamber Opera Chicago, and has held conducting positions with Pittsburgh Symphony, New York City Opera, Roanoke Symphony, and Bel Canto and Harrisburg Operas.