The Met Announces Concerts from the Asphalt Orchestra, 1/20; TENET, 2/3

The Met announced concerts from the Asphalt Orchestra and TENET.

On Friday, January 20, 2012, at 4:00, 6:00, and 8:00 p.m., the Asphalt Orchestra marches through the Met.

To mark the final stage of the renovation of the Metropolitan Museum’s New American Wing Galleries for Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts, Asphalt Orchestra, the “radical new street band that brings ambitious processional music to the mobile masses,” in the band’s own words, will present a program, free to Museum-goers, in the American Wing’s Charles Engelhard Court choreographed specifically for that space by Mark DeChiazza and Susan Marshall. The performance features a world premiere arrangement by Ben Holmes of the hymns Cavalry by Daniel Read and Sons of Sorrow by William Hauser from the distinctly American shape note singing tradition, inspired by field recordings from the 1940s-1960s; Carlton by Stew and Heidi Rodewald, a work commissioned by Bang on a Can for the Asphalt Orchestra; an arrangement by Stephanie Richards of the Laneville-Johnson Union Brass Band’s Wild About My Daddy; and an arrangement by Peter Hess of Frank Zappa’s Zomby Woof.

The approximately 30-minute program will be performed three times in The Charles Engelhard Court, at 4:00, 6:00, and 8:00 p.M. Shortly before each performance, a few members of the orchestra will walk through nearby galleries to attract audience, Pied Piper-style, into the Engelhard Court.

Asphalt Orchestra liberates innovative music from concert halls, rock clubs and jazz basements and takes it to the streets. With movement direction from internationally acclaimed choreographer Susan Marshall and dressed by designer Elizabeth Hope Clancy, the 12-member band brings together some of the most exciting rock, jazz and classical players in New York City: Jessica Schmitz (piccolo), Alex Hamlin, Peter Hess and Ken Thomson (saxophones), Ben Holmes and Stephanie Richards (trumpets), Tim Vaughn and Jen Baker (trombones), Kenneth Bentley (sousaphone), and Adam Gold, Nick Jenkins and Yuri Yamashita (percussion). Ken Thomson and Jessica Schmitz are co-directors. For more information visit www.asphaltorchestra.com.

The concert is at The Charles Engelhard Court of The American Wing and is Free with Museum admission.

On Friday, February 3, 2012, at 7:00 p.m., TENET performs “Portraits in Song: Renaissance Italy from Ciconia to Petrucci.”

One of New York’s pre-eminent ensembles devoted in great part to early music, TENET, performs “Portraits in Song: Renaissance Italy from Ciconia to Petrucci,” a program of songs and instrumental music by 15th-century Italian composers in the Metropolitan Museum’s Vélez Blanco Patio. Jolle Greenleaf, soprano and the ensemble’s artistic director, is joined by Ryland Angel, countertenor; Jason McStoots and Aaron Sheehan, tenors; Jesse Blumberg, baritone; Grant Herreid, plectrum lute; Scott Metcalfe, vielle and harp; and Debra Nagy, recorder, douçaine, and harp.