Live Stage: American Festival of Microtonal Music [
NYC]

American Festival of Microtonal Music (AFMM) under the direction of Johnny Reinhard, presents a concert :: May 15, 2010; 8:00 p.m. :: Church of St. Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson Street, New York City.
Spotlights: Madeleine Shapiro‘s performance of Ge Gan-Ru’s YI-SENG (Lost Style) for solo amplified cello scordatura (Shanghai, 1968). 10-year old twin Gayageum players Sarah and Stephanie Yoon present the traditional Korean standard known as SANJO on their 12-string instruments in an ancient microtonal tuning (think “whammy-bar” zithers). Also, 25-string Gayageum virtuoso Rami Seo introduces her NEXUS in confluence with bassoon (Johnny Reinhard), cello (Madeleine Shapiro), and Terpstra synthesizer (Joshua Pierce). The Terpstra synthesizer, a honeycomb keyboard design of 55 tones per octave over 5 octaves designed by Siemen Terpstra (Amsterdam), is heard publicly in its debut this evening with support from Harvestworks. Pianist Joshua Pierce plays in a 53-tone equal temperament subset for DREI KLAVIERSTÜCKE, as imagined by composer Arnold Schönberg.