American Modern Ensemble Presents 'BLUE' at SubCulture with Pianist Stephen Gosling and Blair McMillen, Works by Margaret Brouwer, Amanda Herberg, George Crumb and Frederic Rzweski

American Modern Ensemble will be performing “BLUE” at SubCulture featuring pianist Stephen Gosling and Blair McMillen. “BLUE” will celebrate the release of AME’s newest album, Powerhouse Pianists II.

Gosling and McMillen will perform tracks from the groundbreaking new album of all-American piano duos. The show includes Amanda Harberg’s Tenement Rhapsody, Robert Paterson’s Deep Blue Ocean and Frederic Rzewski’s "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" from Four North American Ballads.

Other members of AME will also be including in the performance, playing Margaret Brouwer’s sound poem Lonely Lake, George Crumb’s Vox Balanae and Laura Kaminsky’s Full Range of Blue.

The show opens with Brouwer’s Lonely Lake, an homage to a reflective walk in the woods in the first light of dawn to a tranquil Canadian Lake. It will continue with Crumb’s work, first performed in 1971, drawing inspiration from the recordings of whale songs. Harberg’s Tenement Rhapsody is a take on mass transit, and uses music to explore the flow underneath New York City. Kaminsky’s work explores “blueness” in the natural setting of British Columbia and the Washington Cascades. Deep Blue Ocean is a three-movement rumination on the sea by AME Artistic Director Paterson, inspired by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The performance comes to a close with a two-piano arrangement off Rzewski’s reflection on the role of technology in shaping human experience “Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues” from Four North American Ballads.

According to a press release, American Modern Ensemble is now in its 10th season and continues to spotlight American music via lively thematic programming, performing the widest possible repertoire, particularly by living composers. AME always includes on-stage chats with featured composers, presents premieres, and conducts three annual competitions for young, emerging and professional composers.

“BLUE” will performed on March 3 at 8 p.m. at SubCulture in New York. Click here to purchase tickets for the show.