Cued Up On Q2 streams Sundays at 2PM on Q2; encores Tuesdays at 8PM and Thursdays at 4PM on Q2

The Fierce Champion of New-Music, Violinist Mary Rowell, Joins Q2 Music
Sunday, February 05, 2012

“This Sunday, February 5 at 2 pm ET, the co-founder and former violinist of the string quartet ETHEL lends her voice to the internet airwaves to share two hours-worth of her favorite New York City in-concert recordings. Featured composers include Jefferson Friedman, Christine Southworth, Caleb Burhans, Julia Wolfe, among others.

Considered by critics to be one of the most important and exciting performers on the contemporary scene today, the violinist Mary Rowell cannot be classified. Known for her work with the Grammy Award-winning Tango Project, the indie band The Silos and pop icon Joe Jackson, she has carved an indelible place in the contemporary classical music world with the post-classical quartet ETHEL.

Rowell has appeared as violin and electric violin soloist with the National Symphony, Houston Symphony, New York Chamber Orchestra, and Warsaw Philharmonic, among others and has stunned the dance world with her solo electric violin performances of Richard Einhorn’s Maxwell’s Demon. Rowell is an ensemble member of the Tribeca New Music Festival specializing in the “Avante-Pop” and is half of the experimental Americana duo BRIM with composer/performer Eve Beglarian.

A graduate of the Juilliard School, she is currently the concertmaster of both the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra and the Palm Beach Pops.

This edition of Cued Up is hosted by Mary Rowell.

MusicSprings

Artspace is developing 30 similar places around the country, but this is its first in New York City, according to Will Law, its chief operating officer. The anchoring cultural institutions will be chosen a year before the building opens.

“We have been in discussions with a lot of groups already; I can’t say who,” Mr. Law said. “But there will be a flexible-use theater space, offices and classes for workshops.”
Arts – Crain’s New York Business News Feed

NYT > Theater

How many of you out there have dreams of developing your own business and being your own boss? We’re going to meet people who are taking risks and turning their ideas into business ventures.

Q2 is the 24/7 New Music Stream from New York Public Radio

An Evening of Musical Curiosity and Cross-Pollination at The Greene Space
Wednesday, February 01, 2012

“On Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 7 pm in The Greene Space, Q2 Music presents a live concert and videocast with a star-studded lineup of composer-performers from this season’s hotly-anticipated Ecstatic Music Festival 2012. Hosted by WQXR’s Terrance McKnight, the show includes performances by composer-percussionist Jason Treuting of So Percussion, multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negron of Arturo en el Barco, and musical polymath Jherek Bischoff of bands including Xiu Xiu and Parenthetical Girls. The evening also features conversation with composer and Ecstatic Music Festival curator Judd Greenstein.

Terrance McKnight

At the nexus of the active, New York-centric indie-classical scene, Merkin Concert Hall’s Ecstatic Music Festival made a name for itself in its inaugural year as a ground-breaking series emphasizing vibrant, adventurous ensembles and unlikely collaborations between composers from the pop and classical realms. In this its second year, the festival returns with an exciting new line-up of artists from diverse musical backgrounds and its signature emphasis on curiosity, risk and discovery.

See the full post here.

MusicSprings

A report released Tuesday by the Asian American Performers Action Coalition shows that the number of Asian-Americans cast in productions on Broadway and by the 16 largest not-for-profit theaters in the city is dropping.

Though Asian-Americans comprise 12.9% of New York City, Asian-American actors accounted for only 1.6% of available roles in new productions on Broadway, 3.2% of roles at nonprofit companies and 2.3% of the roles industry-wide. Already minuscule, the number of Asian-Americans on stage is below what it was five years ago—making them the only minority group not experiencing an increase.

“There are Asian-Americans who have dedicated their lives to theater who have never been seen by mainstream audiences,” said Pun Bandhu, an actor and member of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition steering committee. “We really feel invisible.”

Overall, the percentage of minority actors in relation to the total number of roles has increased, hovering at around 21% for the past four years compared to 14% five years ago, the report found. And the number of minority actors cast in non-minority specific roles grew year to year.

But much of those gains came from an increase in productions about minority groups. Only 10.6% of all roles this past year were cast without regard to race.

African-Americans faired the best of all the minority groups. The percentage of African-American performers of the total number of roles jumped to 14% this past year from 8% five years ago. Latino performers doubled their visibility, accounting for 4% of total roles this past season, compared to 2% five years ago.

In contrast, Asian-American performers saw their numbers drop, from 3% of all roles five years ago to 1% in the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons with a slight uptick to 2% last season. There were only 18 principal Broadway contracts for Asian-American actors in the last five years.

Mr. Bandhu said the impetus for the study started with a Facebook post. An Asian-American actor posted a message about getting his first audition at a certain theater in 10 years, and it created an outpouring of similar experiences.

“We had to take a hard look at the facts to see whether our fears can be validated or not,” Mr. Bandhu said.

The Asian American Performers Action Coalition is holding an industry roundtable on Feb. 13 to discuss how to make casting more inclusive.

Maria Somma, a spokeswoman for Actors Equity, said, “We hope this study will encourage producers to re-imagine their hiring practices and to embrace non-traditional casting.”
Arts – Crain’s New York Business News Feed

NYT > Theater

A five-minute video markets the appeal of Lower Manhattan’s “stunning water vistas and skyscraper canyons” and features Bloomie as tour guide. Downtown Alliance sponsored the video.