Press Release

June 12, 2023

For Immediate Release

Due to positive COVID-19 tests in the production staff, the remaining dates of Sono Fest! at Soapbox Gallery have been canceled.

This includes tonight's concert (June 12) with the Momenta Quartet, the concerts June 13-18 and the "Coda" concert with tenor Mark Padmore on June 23.

Canceled: Soapbox Gallery presents Sono Fest! June 6-18 & 23, curated by Ethan Iverson

"among the best chamber music shows I'd heard all season" – Seth Colter Walls

Sono Fest! in the news:

• Feature article in the New York Times.
• Soapbox Gallery owner Jimmy Greenfield speaks with The Best is Noise host Ben Gambuzza in an interview on Radio Free Brooklyn.
• Ethan Iverson speaks about Sono Fest! in an Insider Interview.

Mark Padmore

Ethan Iverson, curator

Aaron Diehl

Program descriptions written by curator Ethan Iverson

All concerts are at Soapbox Gallery (636 Dean St., Brooklyn, NY)

Live-stream and in-person tickets available here

There are two hour-long concerts every night at 7:30 and 9 pm EDT, more like jazz practice than classical convention. We expect to turn the room over (there are only 60 seats) so most of those who are performing formally notated works will probably play the same program twice (a comparatively rare opportunity to enjoy such a liberating sequence).

Canceled: Sono Fest! June 6-18 & 23

Monday, June 12: Momenta Quartet

The Momenta Quartet (Emilie-Anne Gendron, Alex Shiozaki, Stephanie Griffin, Michael Haas) has recently released a wonderful recording of Alvin Singleton quartets. I have interviewed Singleton and regard him as one of the true living masters, with the four string quartets being a major contribution to this hallowed form. Momenta will play Singleton’s quartets no. 2 “Secret Desire to Be Black” and no. 4 “Hallelujah Anyhow” at Soapbox, alongside Meredith Monk’s lovely “String Songs.” 

Program:

Alvin Singleton Quartet no. 2 “Secret Desire to Be Black”

Meredith Monk String Songs

Alvin Singleton Quartet no. 4 “Hallelujah Anyhow”

Tuesday, June 13: Judith Berkson

Judith Berkson: singer, pianist, composer, cantor. My first exposure to Judith was at a rare NYC concert by the late Joe Maneri, an epic event that lives in my mind as one of the finest avant-garde jazz gigs I’ve ever seen. Judith has diverse capabilities. She creates electronic re-toolings of Robert Schumann; her solo ECM album Oylam is hypnotic; when she unleashes her full cantorial vocal style, the hair on the back of my neck stands up.

Program:

Berkson electroacoustic pieces

Schubert lieder

Wednesday, June 14: Pianist Marta Sánchez 

Marta Sánchez has a bright future. I have written liner notes for two of her records and dig David Murray’s current quartet with Marta in a heavily-featured role. Her intricate and contrapuntal jazz compositions are in the modern style, but, crucially, they are also informed by the long musical lineage of her native country, Spain.

Program:

Marta Sánchez new etudes for prepared piano

Thursday, June 15: Pianist Aaron Diehl

Aaron Diehl has grown into being not just a pianist of the first rank but an ambassador across several disciplines. Aaron swings Gershwin with the symphony, he smartly updates James P. Johnson and John Lewis for the modern taste, he casually deals out correct Bach at a recital, and rages into atonality with Tyshawn Sorey at the club. One of a kind. 

Friday, June 16: Composer Scott Wollschleger

Scott Wollschleger possesses an ear for fresh notes, and delivers them in a slow and almost terrifying manner: Morton Feldman meets Thelonious Monk meets H.P. Lovecraft. His pianist is the stellar Karl Larson, who will supply mostly solo Wollschleger for the first set, with Miranda Cuckson joining on viola for one piece. In the second set, Miranda will play a Wollschleger violin premiere; other solo and chamber music will include Miranda, Larson, John Popham and Kevin Sims.

Saturday, June 17: Pianist Han Chen

Han Chen is a major virtuoso and has carved out a vital place in the NYC scene. When Thomas Adès gave a master class at New England Conservatory several years ago, I canceled my own NEC students in order to go check it out. Chen played Adès’s “Traced Overhead” and the composer told him, “You play it better than me.” The whole Naxos recital of Adès by Chen is marvelous. At Soapbox, Chen will play “Traced Overhead” alongside further masterpieces by Berg, Corigliano, and Ravel.

Program:

Alban Berg Piano Sonata Op. 1

John Corigliano Etude-Fantasy

Thomas Adès Traced Overhead

Maurice Ravel Gaspard de la nuit 

Sunday, June 18: Composer Robert Cuckson (first set)

Robert Cuckson is another great NYC composer who lives a bit below the radar. When Miranda told me her dad was really good I demanded aural evidence, and, of course, Miranda was right. His style features long form structures that unfold in an unforced manner, high on lyricism and swept with chromaticism. For Father’s Day, Miranda will join a cast of elite chamber musicians including Haodong Wu, David Ordovsky, and Blair McMillen for a set of flute, violin, viola, and piano music. 

Program:

Robert Cuckson

  Objets de vertu

Haodong Wu, piano

  Lines from Vergil

Wu, piano; David Ordovsky, flute

 The Ballad of Camden Town

Ordovsky, flute

 Boat of Ra

Miranda Cuckson, violin; Blair McMillen, piano

  Six Piano Pieces

McMillen, piano

  Fantasia on a Song by Delius

Miranda Cuckson, viola; Blair McMillen, piano

Sunday, June 18: Pianist Ethan Iverson (second set)

To conclude the festival I will play a solo set of surprises, undoubtedly influenced by all the sounds I’ve taken in from the previous two weeks. Dancer Reggie Parker also plans to make an appearance….

"Coda" Concert

Friday, June 23: Tenor Mark Padmore

with Ethan Iverson, piano and poet Sarah Deming

Mark Padmore is visiting America to join the summer session of Marlboro Music under Mitsuko Uchida. On his way there, Padmore will be stopping by Soapbox to give his Songs of the Earth program, featuring lieder from Britten, Schubert, Ives, and many others, alongside poetry from Mary Oliver, Lawerence Durrell, Philip Larkin, and many others. Sarah Deming will recite the poetry and I will play the piano. We performed this program last season and it was a hit with audiences; it also an extremely rare opportunity to hear Padmore in such an intimate space. 

Program:

Billy Collins As if to demonstrate an

eclipse

Franz Schubert Im Abendrot

Mary Oliver Mysteries, Yes

Gustav Mahler Ich atmet’ einen

linden Duft

Kathleen Jamie Perfect Day

Aaron Copland Nature, the

Gentlest Mother

Hanns Eisler Sprinkling of Gardens

Robin Robertson Keys to the Door

Gabriel Fauré Prison

Philip Larkin Going, going

Reynaldo Hahn Chanson d’automne

Tansy Davies Destroying Beauty

Seamus Heaney Clearances

Benjamin Britten The auld Aik

Charles Ives The Cage

Rainer Maria Rilke The Panther

Rebecca Clarke The Tiger

D H Lawrence The Snake

Sally Beamish O Hoopoe

Wallace Stevens Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Charles Ives Housatonic at

Stockbridge

Franz Schubert Die Mutter Erde

Hayden Carruth Essay

Ralph Vaughan Williams Nocturne

Mary Oliver When Death Comes

Gustav Holst Betelgeuse

Thomas Hardy To Meet or Otherwise

Franz Schubert Frühlingsglaube

Program descriptions written by curator Ethan Iverson