New York, NY – 04/29/13 – Thalia Theater at Symphony Space – Cygnus Ensemble performs at the Cutting Edge Series at the Thalia Theater

This concert is the final program in Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival's 16th season. This year's festival features works by 18 composers and includes seven world premieres and a number of U.S. premieres performed by several of the country's top ensembles. Cutting Edge Concerts are on April 1st, April 8th and April 29th, all at 7:30.
Cygnus Ensemble, hailed as "electrifying" by Alan Kozinn of the New York Times takes the stage in the final concert of Cutting Edge Concerts 16th season. Cygnus will premiere two works, Estat ai en greu cossirer by Frank Brickle (winner of a 2010 NEA Artistic Excellence award) and Homage to Havel by Laura Kaminsky, Artistic Director of Symphony Space. Ms. Kaminsky has been praised for having "an ear for the new and interesting" by the New York Times. Also on the program are Mohammed Fairouz's Fragments of Ibn Khafajah, Faye Ellen Silverman's Pregnant Pauses, Andrew Waggoner's Souffrir/symphonier, and Larry Alan Smith's An Infant Crying.
Cygnus Ensemble has precipitated the creation of a substantial body of chamber music with plucked strings, while promoting work of living composers. Its members include guitarist/composer William Anderson, cellist Susannah Chapman, guitarist Oren Fader, oboist Robert Ingliss, flutist Tara Helen O'Connor, violinist Calvin Wiersma, and pianist Joan Forsyth.
About Cutting Edge Concerts:
Composer Victoria Bond launched Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival to bring together composers, performers and New York audiences in an intimate and inviting setting. Since its first season in 1998, it has blossomed into a multi-concert festival, attracting audiences from the tri-state area and performers from around the country. Since its inception, over 30 world premieres and dozens of New York premieres have been performed at Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival.
A significant feature of the festival is that all composers will be in attendance and speak briefly about their music on stage with CEC artistic director Victoria Bond. According to Bond, "having the composers at the concert presents a unique opportunity to share their inspiration and creative process as a prelude to the performance of their music."