For Immediate Release
Appalachian Chamber Folk:
Multi-media, Murder Ballads &
an All-Star Cast of Folk & Classical Performers
==Wednesday, October 2 at 7:30pm==
Studio G3 at The College of Saint Rose
William Randolph Hearst Center for Communications & Interactive Media
996 Madison Ave. Albany, NY 12203
Folk art meets fine art in old-time and classical music double-feature with NYC-based NOW Ensemble, performing “Rounder Songs” for banjo and chamber ensemble by Emily Pinkerton and Patrick Burke. Multi-media projections by painter Joanne Wiggins.
*FREE ADMISSION*
==CONTACT: Emily Pinkerton | 412-999-3443 | emily@emilypinkerton.com==
WATCH Trailer for Rounder Songs, featuring original artwork of Joanne Wiggins
LISTEN Live recording of Emily Pinkerton and NOW Ensemble, featuring original artwork of Joanne Wiggins
DOWNLOAD COMPLETE ALBUM here | Hard copy of CD available on request
HI-RES IMAGES: Artwork by Joanne Wiggins | Emily Pinkerton and Patrick Burke | NOW Ensemble
LONG FORM PRESS RELEASE
Appalachian Chamber Folk: Multi-media, Murder Ballads & an All-Star Cast of Folk & Classical Performers
Wednesday, October 2 at 7:30pm
Studio G3, William Randolph Hearst Center | The College of Saint Rose
996 Madison Ave. Albany, NY 12208
Folk art meets fine art in old-time and classical music double-feature with NYC-based NOW Ensemble, performing Rounder Songs for banjo and chamber ensemble by Emily Pinkerton (songwriter/ethnomusicologist) and Patrick Burke (composer and co-founder of NOW Ensemble).
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Fresh from their win at the 2019 Independent Music Awards (Best Eclectic EP), Patrick Burke and Emily Pinkerton celebrate Rounder Songs, an album they released on New Amsterdam Records in late 2017. Based on songs from Kentucky and West Virginia, the movements tell stories of a forsaken lover, a gambler, a murderer, and a mill laborer who strikes a deal with the devil. The folksongs go hand in hand with original art projections by painter Joanne Wiggins (joannewiggins.com), exploring narrative threads of violence against women and environmental degradation.
Rounder Songs has its first incarnation at the University of Pittsburgh’s MOTE series (Music on the Edge) in 2013, but Pinkerton and Burke later expanded the piece in to a multi-movement song cycle, releasing an EP with grammy-award winning producer Jesse Lewis and NOW Ensemble. After 13 years in the steel city, Pinkerton and Burke just moved to Albany, New York last year to teach songwriting, composition and music theory at The College of Saint Rose.
Rounder Songs has been performed at National Sawdust, Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series, Tutti Fest at Denison University, and has had multiple features on WNYC’s New Sounds with John Schaefer.
“HONEST AND INTRIGUING, ROUNDER SONGS UNITES THE TRADITIONAL WITH THE MODERN IN A STUNNING, BEAUTIFUL FASHION. “
--ANDY JURIK, POPMATTERS
www.emilypinkerton.com | facebook.com/patrickburkecomposer
Funding for Rounder Songs was provided by the Investing in Professional Artists Grants Program, a partnership of The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Heinz Endowments. It was also supported by New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Francis Goblet Charitable Lead Trusts, The Fidelity Foundation, The Rogers & Hammerstein Foundation, Anonymous.
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NOW Ensemble is a dynamic group of performers and composers dedicated to making new chamber music for the 21st century. With a unique instrumentation of flute, clarinet, electric guitar, double bass, and piano, the ensemble brings a fresh sound and a new perspective to the classical tradition, infused with the musical influences that reflect the diverse backgrounds of its members.
NOW Ensemble has brought some of the most exciting composers of their generation to national and international recognition. In recent seasons, they have performed at Lincoln Center, the Apples and Olives Festival in Zurich, Switzerland, Town Hall Seattle, Da Camera Houston, and in Carnegie Hall’s Neighborhood Concert Series. From 2016-2018 they were the inaugural ensemble in residence at San Diego’s Art of Élan.
One of NOW Ensemble's main goals has been to create a musical paradigm in which continuous collaboration between composers and the performers is taken as a given. This philosophy has been put into practice in residencies at numerous institutions including Yale, Princeton, University of Virginia, and the New College of Florida. NOW Ensemble's performances have been featured on NPR's “All Things Considered” and live on WNYC, and its sophomore album “Awake” charted at #1 in Amazon's Classical Chamber Music Charts.
“…THE FORMAL ELEGANCE OF CHAMBER MUSIC WITH A POP-HONED CONCISION AND RHYTHMIC VITALITY.”
—TIME OUT, NEW YORK
“NOW…IMPORTS A CATCHY INFLECTION TO CLASSICAL FORMS… STRIKING A BALANCE BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW HAS RARELY SOUNDED THIS GOOD.”
—NEWSWEEK