Ensemble for These Times Announces the Third Interview in its 2021 #MeetTheArtist Interview Series

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 24, 2021

Ensemble for These Times Announces the Third Interview in its 2021 #MeetTheArtist Interview Series
with Month-long Spotlights on BIPOC Artists: March 2021, with Anthony R. Green

San Francisco, CA—San Francisco contemporary music chamber group Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) is proud to continue its greatly expanded, ambitious second season of its “#MeetTheArtist” interview series, which started on January 4, 2021, and focuses on BIPOC composers and musicians.  Each month, E4TT’s 2021 “#MeetTheArtist” interview series spotlights a single composer or musician, who will be featured every Monday of their respective month with posts on social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) introducing them on the series and then providing  information about their website, upcoming projects, specific works we’re currently listening to, link(s) to their music channels, etc. The highlight of the month will be the full interview (audio, video, or pdf, depending on the artist’s preference) on YouTube, Instagram,  and E4TT’s website on the third Monday of the month, followed by a recap to bring the artist’s month to a close.

After inaugurating the series in January with Pamela Z and following up in February with Jonathan Bailey Holland, E4TT is honored to continue the series in March with composer, performer, and social justice artist Anthony R. Green (b. 1984), whose interview with us will be posted on Monday, March 15.

Why Focus E4TT’s 2021 Interviews on BIPOC Artists?
Historically, privilege, power, and access have been granted unequally in our nation, particularly in the arts. As an artist-led group, Ensemble for These Times acknowledges that racial equity is essential for keeping contemporary classical chamber music connected to the 21st century. With a history of giving voice to the voiceless and championing less-heard creative artists, particularly women, E4TT is committed to an inclusive, equitable, and diverse practice, and to ensuring that all communities—including those that have been historically underrepresented based on race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other factor—are represented in our artistic decisions and programming.

About E4TT’s 2021 “#MeetTheArtist” Interview Series
Following the Summer 2020 success of a smaller set of curated interviews focusing on women creative artists—composer Elinor Armer, visual artist Corinne Whitaker, and soprano Chelsea Hollow—E4TT will expand its “#Meet the Artist” interview series in 2021 with month-long spotlights on individual BIPOC composers and musicians.  Beginning on Monday, January 4, 2021, #MeetTheArtist will feature a different BIPOC creative artist each month, with each featured every Monday of their respective month via posts on social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn), first introducing the artist into the series and then featuring information about their website, upcoming projects, specific works we’re currently listening to, and/or link(s) to their music channels, etc. The highlight of the month will be the full interview (audio, video, or pdf, depending on the artist’s preference) on YouTube, Instagram and E4TT’s website  on the third Monday, followed by a recap to bring the month to the close.

“#MeetTheArtist” began in January with composer and performer Pamela Z (b. 1956) and continues in February with composer and educator Jonathan Bailey Holland (b. 1974). Subsequent artists scheduled are Anthony R. Green (b. 1984), inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993), Nicolas Lell Benavides, Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1978 (b. 1987), Marcus Norris (b. 1974), Shannon Sea, and Brice Smith. (Schedule subject to change.)

#MeetTheArtist in March: Anthony R. Green
E4TT is honored to continue the series in March with composer, performer, and social justice artist Anthony R. Green whose practice includes the creation of original works of music for various vocal and instrumental forces, collaborations, and performances as a pianist, music-based performance artist, improvisor, and conductor. A 2018 McKnight Visiting Composer with the American Composers Forum, Green has had original works performed in over 20 countries, including premieres in the American Composers Alliance Summer Festival, the Gaudeaumus Music Week, the 2015 World Sax Open, and the 2018 Omaha Under the Radar Festival. As a performer, he has presented in venues across the US, as well as in the UK, Europe, Israel, Cyprus, and South Korea. He has been a resident artist at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Escape to Create, the Visby International Centre for Composers (Sweden), Space/Time (Scotland), atelier: performance (Germany), and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, among others. He has lectured about his research and presented his works at various conferences and institutions across the US and the UK, and has been recognized by the Argosy Foundation, Meet the Composer, and ASCAP, among others.

ABOUT ENSEMBLE FOR THESE TIMES
Awarded second place in 2019 for Chamber Music Performance by The American Prize and 2019 Finalists for the Ernest Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music, E4TT consists of award-winning soprano and Artistic Executive Director Nanette McGuinness, cellist Anne Lerner, season guest pianist Margaret Halbig, and Artistic Advisor and 2015 American Prize-winning composer David Garner. The group focuses on 20th and 21st century music that is relevant, engaging, original and compelling—music that resonates with today and speaks to tomorrow, that harnesses the power of artistic beauty, intelligence, wit, lyricism, and irony to create a deep understanding of our times and the human condition. E4TT performed at the 2016 Krakow Culture Festival, at the Conservatorio Teresa Berganza in Madrid in 2017, was sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Budapest in 2014 for a four-city tour in Hungary, and made its international debut in Berlin. E4TT has performed locally at the German Consulate General, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Old First Concerts, JCC Peninsula, Trinity Chamber Concerts, and Noontime Concerts, among other venues, and has commissioned 25 works and two arrangements.

E4TT’s critically acclaimed debut CD, Surviving: Women’s Words (Centaur, 2016) won a Silver Medal in the 2016 Global Music Award. Its second CD, The Hungarians: From Rózsa to Justus (Centaur, 2018) won a Gold Medal in the 2018 Global Music Awards in three categories: chamber music, ensemble, and album. The group released its third CD, Once/Memory/Night: Paul Celan, in June 2020; it was awarded a Silver Medal in the Global Music Awards and was chosen as the Center for New Music’s Album of the Week for July 17. Writes curator Kurt Rohde, “The members of Ensemble For These Times are longstanding, expert champions of forgotten work by those nearly lost to history, as well as bringing up new voices who have meaningful new work to share. Their newest recording, “Once/Memory/Night: Paul Celan,” released in June 2020 in honor of this seminal poet’s centennial, is further evidence of this mission.

For more information about E4TT’s 2020/21 Bay Area Home Season, please visit our website.
High resolution jpgs are available for download http://www.e4tt.org/presskit.html. 

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