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Continuum performs "Conjuration" at the Americas Society in New York City (680 Park Avenue, at 68th St.) On May 7, 2008 at 7 p.m. on a program called "The Latin Legacy" celebrating the younger generation of Latin-American born composers in the U.S.

NEW DATE! Mssrs. Jonathan Hays and Craig Ketter will reprise their tour-de-force performance of the hour-long song cycle "The Glass Hammer" as part of the Long Leaf Opera Festival in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on June 28, 2008. This is a very exciting young festival that is devoted to new American work in English. Check them out!

The Vermont Symphony Orchestra is celebrating its 75th anniversary next season and is reviving the score it commissioned, "Romance," in a program titled — "Romance" (!) — January 24 and 25, 2009 on their Masterworks Series. For the occasion the VSO has asked me to expand the orchestration, and I have complied! The work was originally performed ten times around the state as part of the "Made in Vermont" tour, and featured a Mozart-size orchestra. This time Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" is on the program ("Romance," get it?!) and although I didn't use all the instruments Sergei did, I did avail myself of several of them, beefing up the work for a larger hall, and even adding a few measures.... Details of the concerts will follow.

The Vermont Philharmonic too is celebrating an anniversary, its 50th, and has commissioned a work to celebrate next season in 2008-09. Stay tuned for details.

Baritone Marcus DeLoach just made a demo recording with Warren Jones of the song Marcus commissioned, "Spoken With the Hands," (poem by Dan Bellm) as a first step towards making the recording of all ten or so songs he commissioned for a performance project. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

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Close Encounters With Music presented "Recuerda" (for solo cello, world premiere) Saturday March 15, 2008 at 6 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Theater in Great Barrington, MA; and also in Scottsdale AZ on Saturday April 12 at 8 p.m. at Theater 4301. Yehuda Hanani performed the 10-minute work.

"The Glass Hammer" was performed by baritone Jonathan Hays on March 6, 2008 at Brooklyn College, with pianist Craig Ketter.

2007 events:

On November 2: mezzo-soprano Jessica Grigg sang "Frutas" and "Before Words" with Jennifer Matthews accompanying at 46 Barrow Street, the Greenwich House Music School in NYC, on a program of new American art songs, "8 singers, 13 composers, 15 poets and 25 songs."

Clarinetist Eric Mandat and pianist Jeanne Golan went on a southern tour with "Three Nocturnes" — Sept. 30 at Columbus State University in Georgia, Oct. 3 at the University of Florida at Tallahassee and Oct. 5 at the University of North Florida at Jacksonville.

Pianist Jeanne Golan and violinist Margaret Leenhouts tried out "Carnaval, a Cuban Suite" at the Eastman School on Monday July 30 in Kilbourne Hall.

Close Encounters With Music performed the work they commissioned from Jorge, called “Ropa Vieja,” for cello, accordion and percussion in Great Barrington MA on Saturday March 17 and in Scottsdale AZ on Saturday March 24. The commission stipulated that the music should have a cross-over feel between classical and Latin music.

The Monmouth Civic Chorus performed the world premiere of “Stronger Than Darkness,” a cantata of music from Jorge’s opera Before Night Falls, on Sunday March 18 in Red Bank NJ at the Count Basie Theatre. Barbara Dever, a Met Opera singer, and Angela Meade, who went on to win the Met Auditions, were among the soloists.

Pianist Jeanne Golan has been quite busy with Jorge’s music, accompanying mezzosoprano Mary Nessinger as part of their “Cycles and Sequels” project, for which Jorge wrote the song “La Soga,” and accompanying clarinettist Eric Mandat in “Three Nocturnes,” which they performed in Victoria last October. Jeanne and Eric performed the Nocturnes on Sunday March 4 in Summit NJ at the Unitarian Church. Please visit Jeanne’s website for upcoming concerts including these works, and for updates on the release of the recording with Mary on the Albany label.

Award-winning soprano Elizabeth Caballero sang the West Coast premiere of the song cycle "A Cuban in Vermont" with pianist Leesa Dahl on May 20 in Berkeley, CA at St. John's Presbyterian Church. Elizabeth has been singing leading roles with the Met and New York City Opera, and will be starring with Florida Grand Opera and Seattle Opera as well. Keep an eye out for this Cuban-American soprano!

The Sequitur concert on January 8 featuring the music of composers awarded a Cintas fellowship included Jorge’s work, “Conjuration” for piano, clarinet, violin and cello. The New York Times published a review on January 10 with a big photo from the performance. The musicians of Sequitur were hugely impressive.

Earthy Cuban Sounds, Rendered With an Urban Complexity
By ALLAN KOZINN, New York Times
Published: January 10, 2007

If you've been curious about the state of new music in Cuba, Sequitur offered an answer of sorts in its program at Merkin Concert Hall on Monday evening. But it was an answer with an asterisk, for although the six composers on the program were all born in Cuba, and most began their musical training there, they live elsewhere now.

Still, most of the music keeps its Cuban roots clearly in focus, even when techniques and textures are as eclectic as can be. In ''Conjuration'' (2003), Jorge Martín begins with an alternation of slow, tolling sections and bursts of manic energy, but the score melts into an essay in transformed folk melody. Lyrical clarinet lines and rustic violin themes are accompanied by piano and cello figures steeped in Latin rhythms, yet the more acerbic writing of the opening section is always close at hand.....