Cellos Add Wordless But Lyrical Voices
by Allan Kozinn, New York Times
03/04/2008

Stylistic Wanderings and Flirtations With Multimedia And Jazz
by Allan Kozinn, New York Times
04/18/2007

Earthy Cuban Sounds, Rendered With An Urban Complexity
by Allan Kozinn, New York Times
01/10/2007

A Menu Of Familiar Signposts And A One-Woman Opera
by Anne Midgette, New York Times
04/02/2005

American Piano of the 1940s
by Jack Sullivan, American Record Guide
01/01/2005

Sequitur-Concertos
BBC Music Magazine
04/01/2004

Sequitur-Concertos
by Ian Quinn, American Record Guide
01/31/2004

Sequitur-Concertos
by Ken Smith, Gramaphone Magazine
01/01/2004

Sequitur-Concertos
by Steve Smith, Time Out New York
11/20/2003

Eclecticism and Humor in Works by Lewis Spratlan
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
11/14/2003

Meditations on Power, Old and Freshly
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
05/22/2003

Sequitur's new-music cabarets offer contemporary classics with theatrical flair
by Brian WIse, Time Out New York
05/15/2003

Music In Review: Sequitur
by Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
05/24/2002

A High-Energy Romp Through The Raucous 1940's
by Anne Midgette, New York Times
10/27/2001

Seasons of Squawks on the Crows' Calendar
by Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
03/01/2001

Two Flutists Explore the 20th-Century Repertory
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
10/28/2000

Concert Connects New With Newer
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
04/28/2000

Poetry as the Setting for Meditations on a Child's Death
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
11/16/1999

The Sound of the City
by Robert Hilferty, The Village Voice
01/26/1999

Music: Classical and New
by Rose Martelli, newyork.citysearch.com
01/18/1999

New Songs Spring Forth In a Lively Mixture
by Paul Griffiths, The New York Times
01/13/1999

A Cozy Cabaret Of Comical Sultriness
by Justin Davidson, New York Newsday
01/12/1999

Sequitur: George Crumb Concert
by Kenneth Goldsmith, New York Press
11/18/1998

Clash Of The Titans: Two Legendary Composers are Feted
by Ken Smith, Time Out New York
10/22/1998

Sequitur: Kaye Playhouse Concert
by Mark W. Greenfest, The New Music Connoisseur
05/18/1997

New Works Teeming With Fauna
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
02/22/1997

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Music: Classical and New
by Rose Martelli, newyork.citysearch.com
01/18/1999

Here's testimony to the fine showmanship that was on hand at Tuesday night's "Sequitur: Songs of Sex and Solitude," a new music concert at the Knitting Factory featuring original texts by such wordsmiths as Bertold Brecht and Tennessee Williams (and Special Prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr - we'll get to him later) set to original orchestral compositions. While half of the program was sung in German, and translation sheets provided to the audience, rarely did anybody refer to them during the performance. Everyone was too engrossed in a highly entertaining evening to bother with such minor inconveniences.

However, if anyone did take a look at their programs, they would have noted that this evening was an opportunity for several important modern composers to offer their take on the state of the serious song. Among the scribes represented were Thomas Adès (the French composer whose opera, "Powder Her Face," recently bowed at the BAM NextWave Festival), Harrison Birtwistle (the British operatic composer whose magnum opus, "The Mask of Orpheus," just snagged a Gramophone Award), and Hanns Eisler, one of the brilliant German composers whose best work ("Ein Deutsches Sinfonie") was brutally goose-stepped on by the Nazis.

The three singers - Dora Ohrenstein, Richard Lalli, and Kristin Norderval - met the challenges of inflecting foreign languages, switching cleanly between lightheartedness and true melancholy, with flying colors. The Eisler pieces - with texts by Brecht - carry sobering titles such as "Über den Selbsmord." These - especially when paired with Dominic Muldowney's "On Suicide" - made for a solid, anchoring counterpoint to such cutesy works as "Amorous Anagrams," which couples the writings of Unica Zurn with real-life personal ads set to music by Sequitur soprano Kristin Norderval, and "Under Oath" (music by Richard Adams), a cheeky, gushing rendition of Monica Lewinsky's testimony, recited by a black-beret-clad Norderval.

The musical accompaniment by Sequitur (two clarinets, viola, cello, bass, piano, violin, percussion) was sparse in texture but always maintained at least a thread of melody. Indeed, as most of the instrumental work was done with just a few strings and a clarinet or two (with a little help from the piano at times), the musicians' solid abilities were on constant display; you could almost hear the fingering during particularly wispy moments. Such intimacy proved that the Knitting Factory was the perfect venue for such a curiously appealing evening.

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