s e q u i t u r




		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

		For the most recent articles and review archives click here


	Sequitur's new-music cabarets offer contemporary classics with theatrical flair by Brian WIse, Time Out New York 05/15/2003 For decades, performances of contemporary classical music in New York took place in cloistered, solemn settings, in which musicians satisfied the rigorous demands of elite composers for audiences of connoisseurs. Recent years, however, have seen the mood perk up considerably, as ensembles have begun to break out of the concert hall in search of new audiences in nightclubs, lofts and other alternative performance spaces. Normally found in such conventional venues as Alice Tully Hall and the Miller Theatre, the New Yorkubased chamber ensemble Sequitur has also drawn inspiration from an unlikely historical precursor: the vibrant European cabaret tradition that emerged in French and German nightclubs during the 1880s and flourished throughout Europe until World War II. Canonized in literature, theater and film, European cabarets served as gathering places for composers, artists, poets and political satirists; avant-garde experimentation mingled with a decadent, wryly comic atmosphere. Since 1999, Sequitur has regularly appropriated the casual setting and visceral sub-ject matter of cabaret (past programs have been devoted to "Sex and Solitude" and "Money") and put them to the service of new vocal music. For "Power," the new cabaret program that will be unveiled on Sunday 18 at Joe's Pub, Sequitur commissioned eight contempo-rary American composers--Ned Rorem, Victoria Bond, Robert Carl, Stephen Coxe, Elena Kats-Chernin, Robert Maggio, William Rhoads and Frances Thorne--to write new songs for the program, which will also include popular standards by Blitzstein, Weill and Gershwin. The entire program will be sung by baritone Richard Lalli and mezzo-soprano Mary Nessinger, backed by an instrumental ensemble that includes the veteran cabaret pianist Gary Chapman. "Sequitur's identity lies in exploring new music as it interacts with other art forms, and so we need to perform in a variety of venues to adapt to the art form that we're engaging," says Harold Meltzer, the lawyer-turned-composer who cofounded the ensemble in 1995. "One of the advantages is that we reach new audiences that way: Often, people who are regulars at one venue come see us perform something completely different at a very different performance space." The broad appeal and aesthetic diversity of the cabaret concept appealed to Bill Bragin, director of Joe's Pub. "We reach people who might not want to go to a traditional concert-hall setting but do come out because it's in a cabaret context," Bragin says. "When people are sitting casually and having a cocktail, there's an openness and receptiveness to relating to the music in a different way." (The mix of venue and program seems to work: "Money," Sequitur's 2000 cabaret at the club, was completely sold out.) According to Meltzer, the "Power" theme of this year's event inspired many of the composers to write political songs. (A companion event, "Protest," is due next season). Still, the program also addresses personal power struggles, from the romantic abandon of Harold Arlen's "That Old Black Magic" to Weill's ode to New World individualism, "How Can You Tell an American." Lalli, who teaches voice at Yale University and has recorded several discs of popular standards, says "Power" recalls the days when cabaret still had a topical edge. "This is probably what happened during the earliest days of cabaret, in which people would stand up and give political speeches," he says. "In that sense, we are more authentic than a performance you might see in the Rainbow Room or the Algonquin Hotel, because this is new material and the topics are very impassioned." Unlike the ivory-tickling revues in New York's upscale hotel bars, there is also less between-song banter. "We won't be discussing our home lives or the time our picture appeared on a Life magazine cover," Lalli says. That's not to say that the singers don't engage the audience, however--especially in comparison with conventional presentations. "The tradition of the song recital is such that the singer almost ignores the audience," says Lalli. "In the cabaret medium, a singer is required to establish eye contact with the audience. It's an eye-to-eye medium."

	For the most recent articles click here