Composers Concordance Presents Beat Gene Pritsker! A Halloween Musical Showdown
New York, NY — Composers Concordance presents Beat Gene Pritsker: Think Beat Bobby Flay, but replace the kitchen with a concert stage, the secret ingredients with musical challenges, and the celebrity chef with composer Gene Pritsker.
This Halloween, Composers Concordance invites composers to enter the musical arena for ‘Beat Gene Pritsker’, an evening of competition, surprise, audience participation, and musical mayhem.
Four composers—Charles Coleman, Ginka Mizuki, Audrey Morse, and Will Rowe—will face off against Gene in a series of musical challenges. But this isn’t your ordinary composition concert. The contestants won’t always know which instruments will perform their music, and as the rounds progress, the challenges get bigger, longer, and more complicated.
The evening begins with solo pieces and moves through duos and trios before culminating in the ultimate Halloween musical showdown: Gene and the final remaining composer each writing a four-minute quartet. A panel of judges will score the works after each round, with composers eliminated along the way until only one challenger remains.
And there’s a twist: the audience gets involved! In the duo round, audience members help determine which instruments will perform the contestants’ pieces. The composers must therefore write music capable of surviving whatever musical combination the audience summons.
The performers for the evening will be the CompCord Mixed Quartet:
Laura Patterson — flutes
Mark Zaki — violin/viola
Gottfried Stöger — tenor saxophone/clarinet
Sahara von Hattenberger — cello
Judging the musical battle will be:
Milica Paranosic — composer / designer
Linda Pehrson — dancer
Michelle Shocked — singer / songwriter
Dick Griffin — trombonist / composer
The rules are simple: write the music, face the challenge, survive the judges, and beat Gene. Each round raises the stakes, with composers eliminated along the way until one challenger reaches the final showdown.
And because it’s Halloween, costumes are strongly encouraged! Come dressed as your favorite composer, musical instrument, terrifying avant-garde score, or whatever else you think might give you a competitive advantage.
Who will survive? Who will be eliminated? And, most importantly, can anyone actually Beat Gene Pritsker? Come to Gallery MC on Halloween and find out.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Bobby Flay, Food Network, or Beat Bobby Flay.
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Event Details:
Beat Gene Pritsker!
A Halloween Musical Showdown
Date: Saturday, October 31 at 7:00 PM — Halloween!
Time: 7pm
Venue: Gallery MC
549 West 52nd Street, New York City
Composers:
Charles Coleman, Ginka Mizuki, Audrey Morse, Gene Pritsker, Will Rowe
Performers:
Laura Patterson – flutes
Mark Zaki – violin/viola
Gottfried Stoger – tenor sax/calrinet
Sahara von Hattenberger – cello
$20 in advance $30 at the door
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Staying in rotation for 43 years in NYC is a rare feat. In the case of a new music presenting organization, it requires not only diligence and cognizance of achievements of the past but also an ethic of keeping one’s ear to the ground for emerging stylistic and technological developments, as well as talented new composers on the scene. Composers Concordance, founded in 1984 by Joseph Pehrson and Patrick Hardish, advised by Otto Luening, strives to present contemporary music in innovative ways, with an emphasis on thematic programming. Directors Gene Pritsker and Dan Cooper co-curate the programs and lead the CompCord Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, String Orchestra, and Big Band. Associate Directors are Milica Paranosic, Peter Jarvis, Debra Kaye, Seth Boustead, and Audrey Morse. Composers Concordance has also created a Naxos-distributed record label: Composers Concordance Records. Composers Concordance’s overriding vision is to promote contemporary music, composers, and new works as a rightful and respected part of society. Good music performed and recorded well, pushing the boundaries of sound and composition.
“Composers Concordance..a veritable New York new music institution of concerts, album production and multiple ensembles under a sweeping, tenacious brand, thriving on the emulsion of contemporary classical, free improv, jazz and rock, overt humor and fearless political statements, all very much in evidence..The ensemble..was masterful throughout.”- John Pietaro, The New York City Jazz Record
“An unwavering force in giving composers exposure through concert bookings and its own record label, the intrepid new-music organization Composers Concordance” – The Brooklyn Rail
“The Composers Concordance fol
“Enterprising new music organization” – The New York Times
