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"A protest song is a song that's so specific that you cannot mistake it for bullshit”
- Phil Ochs
For Immediate Release - New York, NY - On Sunday, March 16, 2025, at 5 PM, at the world-famous Stonewall Inn in the West Village, Composers Concordance presents Protest Songs. We are living in perilous times, where our freedoms, our democracies, and our artistic expressions are being threatened by far-right radicals and an unhinged dictator wannabe in the White House. This is when artists need to stand up and protest.
Protest music has a long history in this country, with songs addressing social injustice, war, and civil rights. At this event, we will present brand-new songs of protest at the most fitting location: the Stonewall Inn—the site of the 1969 Stonewall riots, which ignited the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBTQ+ rights in the United States. The event will feature the Bowers Fader Duo, Laurie Towers/John Pietaro Duo and many composer/performers in works by Lynn Bechtold, Seth Boustead, Frank Brickle, Shanan Estreicher, Gilbert Galindo, Patrick Grant, Eugene W. McBride, Carman Moore, Gene Pritsker, Carolyn Steinberg, Randall Woolf
Featured compositions include: 'Voters' with words & music by Carolyn Steinberg which will contain an audience participation sing along, 'Lock Him Up' with words & music by Eugene W. McBride, 'Despair Plus Action' with words & music by Patrick Grant and Gene Pritsker's 'Protest Songs Cycle' on three poems of John Pietaro.
This event will be Live-streamed on the Composers Concordance FB page
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Listing Information
Composers Concordance Presents
Protest Songs
Featuring Mezzo Soprano Jessica Bowers Singing New Political Protest Songs
Sunday, March 16th, 2025 at 5pm
The Stonewall Inn
53 Christopher St, NYC
TICKETS
Facebook
Live Stream
Composers:
Lynn Bechtold, Seth Boustead, Frank Brickle, Shanan Estreicher, Gilbert Galindo, Patrick Grant, Eugene W. McBride, Carman Moore, Gene Pritsker, Carolyn Steinberg, Randall Woolf
Performers:
Bowers Fader Duo
Jessica Bowers - mezzo soprano, Oren Fader - guitar
The Red Microphone
John Pietaro: poetry and percussion, Laurie Towers: lead electric bass, Others TBA
Robert C. Ford - poet / narrator, Eugene W. McBride, Carman Moore, Seth Boustead,
Kathleen Supové - piano, Gene Pritsker - guitar, Shanan Estreicher, Lotte Arnsbjerg - voice,
Tessa Brinckman - flute, Thomas Piercy - clarinet, Kebra-Seyoun Charles - bass,
Premik Tubbs. - sax
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Staying in rotation for 41 years in NYC is a rare feat. In the case of a new music presenting organization, it requires not only diligence and cognizance of achievements of the past but also an ethic of keeping one's ear to the ground for emerging stylistic and technological developments, as well as talented new composers on the scene. Composers Concordance, founded in 1984 by Joseph Pehrson and Patrick Hardish, advised by Otto Luening, strives to present contemporary music in innovative ways, with an emphasis on thematic programming. Directors Gene Pritsker and Dan Cooper co-curate the programs and lead the CompCord Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, String Orchestra, and Big Band. Associate Directors are Milica Paranosic, Peter Jarvis, Debra Kaye, and Seth Boustead. Composers Concordance has also created a Naxos-distributed record label: Composers Concordance Records. Composers Concordance's overriding vision is to promote contemporary music, composers, and new works as a rightful and respected part of society. Good music performed and recorded well, pushing the boundaries of sound and composition.
"Composers Concordance..a veritable New York new music institution of concerts, album production and multiple ensembles under a sweeping, tenacious brand, thriving on the emulsion of contemporary classical, free improv, jazz and rock, overt humor and fearless political statements, all very much in evidence..The ensemble..was masterful throughout.”- John Pietaro, The New York City Jazz Record
"An unwavering force in giving composers exposure through concert bookings and its own record label, the intrepid new-music organization Composers Concordance” - The Brooklyn Rail
"The Composers Concordance folks are unpredictable and at times refreshingly irreverent in a reverent sort of way....ingenious fun" - Classical-Modern Music Review
“Enterprising new music organization” - The New York Times
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