2005-2006 MELA CALENDAR


 

The Just Alap Raga Ensemble

 

Pandit Pran Nath 10th Anniversary Memorial Tribute

Concerts in the MELA Dream House

Saturdays, June 17 and 24, 9 pm

La Monte Young, voice
Marian Zazeela, voice
Jung Hee Choi, voice

Da'ud Constant, voice

Brad Catler, tabla
The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath from the Just Dreams CD


MELA Foundation Dream House
275 Church Street, 3rd Floor, between Franklin & White Streets in Tribeca
Saturdays, June 17 and 24, 2006, 9 pm

Admission $24.  MELA Members, Seniors, Student ID, $18.
Limited seating.  Advance reservations recommended
.  

Two Concerts of Evening Ragas in the contemporary Kirana Style of North Indian Classical Music will be performed by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela with The Just Alap Raga Ensemble in a memorial tribute honoring Pandit Pran Nath on the 10th anniversary of his passing, Saturdays, June 17 and 24, at 9 pm in the MELA Foundation Dream House light environment, 275 Church Street, 3rd Floor.  PLEASE NOTE:  The Dream House will be closed on Thursdays and Saturdays, June 15, 17, 22, and 24  to prepare for the scheduled concerts.  

More Information...

 

Two Telecasts from the MELA Archives

Pandit Pran Nath

Ragas Pat Dipak & Raga Darbari  “91 X 18 PM NYC”

Mantra TV

Fridays, June 9 & 16, 2006, 9:30 pm

Time Warner Cable Channel 57

RCN Cable Channel 109

Without Cable Box Channel 69

Digital Channel 85

 

In celebration of Pandit Pran Nath’s extraordinary life and work, MELA Foundation is presenting two memorial tribute telecasts.

 

Pandit Pran Nath’s 1991 performances of Ragas Pat Dipak and Darbari will air on public access cable television on Friday evenings, June 9 and 16 at 9:30 pm on the Mantra TV program on Time Warner Cable Channel 57; RCN Cable Channel 109; Without Cable Box Channel 69; Digital Channel 85.  

 

The performances of Ragas Pat Dipak and Darbari were part of A Concert of Evening Ragas presented by MELA Foundation at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on October 18, 1991.  Pandit Pran Nath was accompanied by La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela and Terry Riley, voices and tamburas, Michael Harrison, tambura, and Krishna Bhatt, tabla.  The MELA Archive video of this rare gathering of the master Indian vocalist with some of his closest disciples transports us back to his last years performing in one of New York's most majestic spaces.

 

Pandit Pran Nath, who passed away on June 13, 1996, virtually introduced the vocal tradition of North Indian classical music to the West in 1970.  His 1971 morning performance at Town Hall, New York City, was the first concert of morning ragas to be presented in the U.S.  Subsequently, he introduced and elaborated to Western audiences the concept of performing ragas at the proper time of day by scheduling entire series of concerts at special hours.  Many students and professional musicians came to him in America to learn about the vast system of raga and to improve their musicianship.  He performed frequently in New York City and in 1972, established his own school under the direction of his disciples La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, the Kirana Center for Indian Classical Music, now a project of MELA Foundation.  In Fall 1993, Pran Nath inaugurated the MELA Foundation Dream House with three Raga Cycle concerts and continued to perform here annually during his lifetime.

 

Pran Nath's majestic expositions of the slow alap sections of ragas combined with his emphasis on perfect intonation and the clear evocation of mood had a profound impact on Western contemporary composers and performers.  Following Young and Zazeela, minimalist music composer Terry Riley became one of his first American disciples.  Fourth-world trumpeter Jon Hassell, jazz all‑stars Don Cherry and Lee Konitz, composers Jon Gibson, Yoshimasa Wada, Rhys Chatham, Michael Harrison and Allaudin Mathieu, Sufi Pir Shabda Kahn, mathematician and composer Christer Hennix, concept artist and violinist Henry Flynt, dancer Simone Forti, and many others took the opportunity to study with the master. 

 


CELEBRATING MELA’s 20th YEAR & La Monte Young’s 70th BIRTHDAY YEAR

May 1 October 31: The Just Alap Raga Ensemble video installation world premiere, La Monte Young, “05 II 05 PM NYC” Raga Sundara ektal vilampit khayal set in Raga Yaman Kalyan;  DVD installation of The Well-Tuned Piano in The Magenta Lights, Kunst im Regenbogenstadl Dream House, Polling, Bavaria

May 27 – September 25:  Music & Light Box installation, Summer of Love, Art of the Psychedelic Era, Tate Liverpool

September 14 - December 31:  Dream House installation, 2005 Biennale d’Art Contemporain, Lyon, France

September 17 & 24: Trio for Strings, Just Intonation Version, World Premiere
The Theatre of Eternal Music String Ensemble, MELA Foundation Dream House, 9 pm

September 29:  MELA Foundation Dream House reopens 2 pm – midnight
continues Thursdays and Saturdays 2 pm - midnight

October 14: Performance Tribute for La Monte’s 70th Birthday
Jung Hee Choi, Rice, a video and sound installation
audio Composition in the style of La Monte Young's 1960 sustained friction sounds
MELA Foundation Dream House, 8 pm, Installation continues to 12 midnight


The Just Alap Raga Ensemble performances
October 29
November 5
MELA Foundation Dream House, 9 pm

November 9: Performance
Jung Hee Choi, Rice, a video and sound installation
audio Composition in the style of La Monte Young's 1960 sustained friction sounds
MELA Foundation Dream House, 8 pm, Installation continues to 12 midnight
November 11, 16, 18, 23, 25installation 7 pm - midnight


Waking States

Concert series / Charles Curtis, cello

December 3: La Monte Young   Marian Zazeela Just Charles & Cello in the Romantic Chord
MELA Foundation Dream House, 8 pm

December 5: Eliane Radigue Naldjorlak
Tenri Cultural Institute, 9 pm

December 7: Alvin Lucier Cello and Pure Waves
Diapason, 9 pm

December 10: La Monte Young   Marian Zazeela Just Charles & Cello in the Romantic Chord
MELA Foundation Dream House, 8 pm

December 11 (24th anniversary of the death of Terry Jennings): Terry Jennings Piece for Cello and Saxophone
Tonic, 8 pm

December 14: Morton Feldman Patterns in a Chromatic Field
Double Knot Carpet Gallery, 9 pm

December 17: La Monte Young   Marian Zazeela Just Charles & Cello in the Romantic Chord
MELA Foundation Dream House, 8 pm

 

waking states

charles curtis interprets 
la monte young  /  éliane radigue  /  alvin lucier  /  terry jennings  /  morton feldman


 

December 3-17, 2005
New York

A survey of singular works for solo cello, presented in seven concerts over fifteen days in intimate New York venues: works created for cellist Charles Curtis by La Monte Young, Eliane Radigue and Alvin Lucier; a major composition by early Minimalist Terry Jennings; and Morton Feldman's "Patterns in a Chromatic Field". These mostly concert-length works treat time, frequency and human experience as an undivided state of awareness; over the long durations of the individual works, and the series, sound elicits unique qualities of sentience, focus and attentiveness.

Waking States lays out, first and foremost, the special body of interpretive work developed by Curtis as one of the key performers of American experimental music. Waking States invites the listener to participate in a sequence of intense perceptual experiences, unfolding as complementary stations in an immersive whole.

 

La Monte Young    Marian Zazeela
Just Charles & Cello in The Romantic Chord (2002-2005)
in a setting of Abstract #1  (2003) from Quadrilateral Phase Angle Traversals with Dream Light

for solo cello, pre-recorded cello drones and light projection
3 hours, 30 minutes

An extraordinary solo of more than three hours continuous length, and the only solo work composed by La Monte Young for a performer other than himself. Combining elements of Young's magnum opus The Well-Tuned Piano with raga and Dream Music, and a beautiful, subtly changing light projection by Marian Zazeela, this is one of the definitive statements of these great artists' work. Charles Curtis is the leading intepreter of Young's music; in performance he realizes the highly abstract just intonation interval ratios with unprecedented precision. Of Curtis' premiere performance at the MaerzMusik festival in Berlin 2004, Wire magazine writes: "Playing to a hypnotic cello drone issuing from the loudspeakers beside him, he built up a shimmering minimalistic tableau that made for compulsive listening throughout his three hour performance."

These performances represent the American avant-premiere, following World Premieres and performances in Paris, Lyon, Berlin, Dijon and Polling, Germany.

December 3, 10, 17 / Saturdays at 8
MELA Foundation Dream House
275 Church Street (between Franklin and White)
$24 / $18
Reservations:  mail@melafoundation.org 212-925-8270

More Information...


 

CELEBRATING MELA's 20th YEAR & La Monte Young's 70th BIRTHDAY YEAR

 

The Just Alap Raga Ensemble

 

Pandit Pran Nath 87th Birthday Memorial Tribute

Concerts in the MELA Dream House

Saturdays, October 29 and November 5, 9 pm

La Monte Young, voice
Marian Zazeela, voice
Jung Hee Choi, voice

Da'ud Constant, voice

Rose Okada, sarangi
Naren Budhkar, tabla
The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath from the Just Dreams CD


MELA Foundation Dream House
275 Church Street, 3rd Floor, between Franklin & White Streets in Tribeca
Saturdays, October 29 and November 5, 2005, 9 pm

 

Admission $24.  MELA Members, Seniors, Student ID, $18.
Limited seating.  Advance reservations recommended
.  

 

Two Concerts of Evening Ragas in the contemporary Kirana Style of North Indian Classical Music will be performed by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela with The Just Alap Raga Ensemble in a memorial tribute honoring Pandit Pran Nath on his 87th birthday, Saturdays, October 29 and November 5, at 9 pm in the MELA Foundation Dream House light environment, 275 Church Street, 3rd Floor.  PLEASE NOTE:  The Dream House will be closed on Thursdays and Saturdays, October 27, 29, November 3 and 5 because of the scheduled concerts.  

More Information...


Jung Hee Choi

RICE video sound performances and installation

MELA Dream House

275 Church Street, 3rd floor, NYC 10013

(between Franklin & White Streets in Tribeca )

 

PERFORMANCES: Friday, October 14 & Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 8:00 pm

Admission $24.  MELA Members, Seniors, Student ID, $18.
Limited seating.  Advance reservations recommended.  646-613-8328, 212-925-8270 

 

INSTALLATION:  Wednesdays & Fridays, November 11 through 25, 2005, 7 pm - 12 midnight; $ 4

BROADCAST:  Friday, October 14, 9:30 pm, Mantra TV, MNN Ch. 57 - TWC; Ch. 109 - RCN

As a special tribute, MELA Foundation presents the La Monte Young 70th Birthday Celebration Live Performance by Jung Hee Choi of her Composition in the style of La Monte Young's 1960 sustained friction sounds in a setting of her video sound installation, RICE, in collaboration with Marian Zazeela's environment, Imagic Light, on Friday, October 14, at 8:00 pm, in the Dream House, 275 Church Street, 3rd floor, New York, NY.  An additional celebratory tribute concert will be presented on Wednesday, November 9, at 8:00 pm.  Concert Admission $24; $18, MELA Members, Seniors and Students with ID.  The RICE video sound installation will be open on Wednesdays and Fridays, November 11, 16, 18, 23 & 25, from 7 pm to 12 midnight.  Admission $4. 

RICE will be telecast on Friday, October 14 at 9:30 pm on Mantra TV, MNN Channel 57-TWC and channel 109-RCN.   

Choi's May-June 2003 presentation of RICE video sound performance and installation set in Marian Zazeela's Dream House Imagic Light environment was chosen as one of The 10 Best of 2003 in the December 2003 Artforum. 

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CELEBRATING MELA’s 20th YEAR & La Monte Young’s 70th BIRTHDAY YEAR

La Monte Young

Trio for Strings (1958)

Just Intonation Version (1984-2001-2005) World Premiere

 

The Theatre of Eternal Music String Ensemble

led by Charles Curtis

 

Gascia Ouzounian, violin and viola

Erik Ulman, violin and viola

Charles Curtis, cello

Reynard Rott, cello


MELA Foundation Dream House
275 Church Street, 3rd Floor, Between Franklin & White Streets in Tribeca
Saturday, September 17, 2005, 9 pm
Saturday, September 24, 2005, 9 pm

Admission $24.  MELA Members, Seniors, Student ID, $18.
Limited seating.  Advance reservations recommended.
 
646.613.8328   

Please conact MELA by email (mail@melafoundation.org) or phone as soon as possible regarding ticket availability.

On Saturdays, September 17 and 24 at 9 pm, MELA Foundation presents two world premiere concerts of the Just Intonation Version (1984-2001-2005) of La Monte Young’s classic Minimalist masterpiece, Trio for Strings (1958), performed by The Theatre of Eternal Music String Ensemble led by Charles Curtis, cello, with Gascia Ouzounian and Erik Ulman, violins and violas and Reynard Rott, cello.  Please note:  The Dream House will reopen for the 2005-06 season on Thursday, September 29, from 2 pm to Midnight; then it will continue during our regular hours, Thursdays and Saturdays, 2 pm to Midnight, through June 17, 2006. 


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