ABOUT NEWBAND
Artist-Ensemble-in-Residence
John J Cali School of
Music
Kasser Theater, Montclair
State University, New Jersey
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Widely regarded as the world's
preeminent microtonal music ensemble, NEWBAND was founded in 1977 by composer
Dean Drummond and flutist Stefani Starin who continue as
Artistic Directors. With Drummond's invention of the 31-tone
zoomoozophone in 1978, NEWBAND began to explore music using microtonality and
alternative tuning systems in an innovative and eclectic repertoire
influenced by classical, jazz and world music. In 1990, NEWBAND
received custodianship of the original Harry
Partch Instrument Collection. The typical NEWBAND concert
involves a stage filled with some of the world's most amazing musical
instruments performed upon by an ensemble of virtuosos who move from
instrument to instrument with incredible ease. NEWBAND
consists of a core of virtuosic multi-instrumentalists, equally at home in
concert performances and in productions involving theater, dance and
film. Newband productions have included: Harry Partch's Delusion of
the Fury (Directed by John Jesurun, with choreography by Dawn Akemi
Saito), Oedipus (directed by Bob McGrath with Ridge Theater), The
Wayward (directed by Tom O'Horgan); Daphne of the Dunes
(choreographed by Alice Farley); Henry Cowell's Trickster Coyote with
the Erick Hawkins Dance Company; and a live soundtrack by Dean Drummond for
F.W. Murnau's landmark silent film, Der Letzte Mann (The Last Laugh). NEWBAND
has performed throughout North America and Europe including at New Music
America in Houston, The Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center in
Washington, Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Walker Arts Center in
Minneapolis, World Music Days in Oslo, Festival de Lille in France, USARTS
Festival in Berlin and The Icebreaker in Amsterdam. In its New York
home base, NEWBAND has performed at the New York Philharmonic Horizons New
Virtuosity Series at Avery Fisher Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The
Museum of Modern Art, Bang on a Can Festival, La Mama Experimental Theater,
Merkin Concert Hall and Columbia University. NEWBAND has
premiered works by Harry Partch, Dean Drummond, John Cage, John Zorn, Ezra Sims,
Muhal Richard Abrams, James
Pugliese, Elizabeth
Brown, Anne Le Baron, Lois
V Vierk and Julia Wolfe and recorded on Mode, Music and Arts, Point, Aurora
and Wergo Records. The Harry Partch
Instrument Collection is the largest component of the Newband Instrumentarium, including
all of the instruments built by the composer-inventor during the period
1930-1974, as well as several instruments replicated by the Harry Partch
Foundation and Newband since 1974. Other instruments in the Newband
Instrumentarium are the zoomoozophone and juststrokerods, both invented by
Dean Drummond, a microtonally programmed synthesizer, and a large collection
of exotic percussion instruments. NEWBAND performs on the
Instrumentarium as well as standard Western instruments - flute, cello and
percussion regularly - voices, clarinet, brass and strings as repertoire
demands.
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