The countertenor and recording artist Darryl Taylor will perform ACA's bestselling "Nightsongs" a cycle of art song settings composed by H. Leslie Adams, to poetry of African-American poets, with Maria Corley, pianist, Sunday, October 21, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. in Baird Auditorium at the Smithsonian Institution; 10th Street & Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC. Concert is presented by the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The Salisbury Symphony Orchestra Children's Concert features In the Beginning, a Native American legend from the Tlingit Tribe of the Northwest Coast, composed for narrator and orchestra by Minnesota-based composer Jan Gilbert. The concert is in Holloway Hall at 3pm on Saturday, Oct. 27th. 1101 Camden Ave. · Salisbury, Maryland. Jeffrey Schoyen will conduct the orchestra, with Jackie Lew, narrator.

The story of Raven and Ganook comes from the Alaskan Native culture of the Tlingit Tribe. This story centers on how Raven tricks Ganook and brings water to the earth people.

Robert Stallman

Jordan Hall: at New England Conservatory

Burr Van Nostrand's Fantasy Manual for Urban Survival, a trio for alto flute, prepared piano, and cello, will be performed at New England Conservatory's historic Jordan Hall, on Tuesday, October 16th, at 8pm. Admission is free. This performance will feature performers from the premiere performance in 1972, including flutist Robert Stallman, and pianist Herman Weiss. Other works on the program, curated by Malcolm Peyton, include music by Herman Weiss, John Mallia, and Robert Jones.  Cellist Emmanuel Feldman will join the Van Nostrand trio for a memorable event.

Elliott / Fancher Duo, Alex Kotch Dance Band, and Jil ChristensenElectroacoustic Chamber Music of Lawrence Dillon will be performed by the Elliott/Fancher Duo on August 30 in Durham and August 31 in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Lawrence Dillon’s Sparkling in the Dark for saxophone, bassoon and electronics (score and CD audio available from ACA) will be performed in two North Carolina performances - Thursday, August 30 – 9:00 PM at The Pinhook, 117 W. Main St. in Durham and Friday, August 31 – again at 9:00 PM at Mack and Mack, 220 S. Elm St. in Greensboro.

Alex Kotch will DJ, interleaving electronic dance beats throughout the sax and bassoon electro-chamber set. Clogs’ bassoonist Rachael Elliott (Durham) and Red Clay saxophonist Susan Fancher (Greensboro) plug in and join DJ/producer Alex Kotch for an exuberant set of chamber-electronica by NC composers, Alex Kotch and Lawrence Dillon.

The composer Lawrence Dillon explains, “In the Winter of 2010, I started hearing an elusive sound in my mind. When I analyzed what I was hearing in my imagination, I realized that it was a combination of bassoon and soprano saxophone over a constantly shifting, ringing accompaniment. It became clear that the only way this aural idea could be shared would be through an electroacoustic presentation. With the patient assistance of my colleague Michael Rothkopf, I dove into unfamiliar waters during the Summer of 2011 – waters I hadn’t splashed in for over thirty years -- and the result was Sparkling in the Dark.”

Golden Fleece Ltd. - The Composers Chamber Theatre - Lou Rodgers, Producing Artistic Director presents its 20th Annual Commissioned Music Theater Program:

LETTER TO A DAUGHTER Music by Gary M. Schneider Lyrics by Arnold Wesker

BOMBA AND THE COQUI A tale of a young girl and her relationship with the coqui, the magic frog of Puerto Rican legend. A Concert Reading Music and story by Ana Garcia Book by Ana Garcia and Lou Rodgers Selected lyrics by Lou Rodgers

Composer Allan Blank has written two song cycles for voice and piano with double bass, both of which are given world premiere recordings on this disc. One cycle uses poetry from the Holocaust and the second is based on poetry by Jane Kenyon. Allan Blank is Professor Emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Many of his more than 300 compositions have been published and recorded. Three of the performers are affiliated with West Virginia University (Catharine Thieme, mezzo-soprano, Robert Thieme, piano, Andrew Kohn, double bass). Soprano Jennifer Miller is an active performer in the Pittsburgh area and pianist Robert Frankenberry is a member of New York's Phoenix Players.

John Eaton's 2010 "Pocket Opera" The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with libretto by Estela Eaton, after the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been released on DVD by Albany Records. The cast includes Chris Pedro Trakas and Dominic Inferrera in the lead role(s), with Linda Larson and Jennifer Roderer. The video is taken from the premiere performance, produced by the Center for Contemporary Opera. The disc can be purchased at Amazon.com.

Robert Carl (b. 1954) has long been interested in Japanese music and culture, and in the spring of 2007 he received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council to travel to Japan to interview Japanese composers between the ages of thirty and sixty—his contemporaries, whom he describes as the “post-Takemitsu” generation. The complex interplay of history, culture, and memory has long occupied Carl’s thoughts, and forms the basis of his musical exploration of Japan.

His latest CD release, "FROM JAPAN" from New World Records, includes A CLEAN SWEEP, for shakuhachi and fixed audio media; BULLET CYCLE for 2 players and electronics; BROWN VELVET for bassoon and electronics; and a second version of A CLEAN SWEEP, for two shakuhachi and fixed media.

Performers on the recording include Elizabeth Brown and Robert Carl, shakuhachi; Ryan Hare, bassoon; Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn, laptop; Katie Kennedy, cello; Bill Solomon, vibraphone; and Sayun Chang, percussion.