GROUP
an interactive iPhone symphony
12:45 PM at Broad and Wall Streets

The morning of Make Music New York, audiences are invited to download the iPhone app GROUP and press "play." This collective sound work starts as a dense drone on individual mobile devices that sheds layers throughout the day, and ends when participants come together in a large-scale gathering, creating a monumental sound as each individual part joins the others. This meeting of the iPhones is scheduled for 12:45 pm at the intersection of Broad and Wall Streets.

GROUP is a collaborative project between Aaron Siegel and Larry Legend.

Hoketus
minimalism from the balconies
1 PM in front of the New York Stock Exchange

Immediately following GROUP, a performance of Louis Andriessen's Hoketus will begin from the outdoor balconies of the New York Stock Exchange building, co-presented with Darmstadt "Classics of the Avant Garde." Hoketus is a pioneering minimalist piece by Dutch composer Andriessen, written in 1976 for two spatially-separated quintets. For 25 minutes these two groups of musicians - one on the balconies and one on the street - will alternate notes, never playing simultaneously, but creating melodies through the interactions between them, using a "Hocketing" technique developed in the 14th century. A successful performance of this exciting, energetic piece requires great concentration and split-second timing. Contemporary music specialists Yarn/Wire will lead the ensemble.

Ian Antonio & Russell Greenberg - congas
Laura Barger & Ning Yu - pianos
Michael Gallope & Jacob Rhodebeck - keyboards
Erin Lesser & Christa Van Alstine - pan flutes
Tony Gedrich & Joe Higgins - electric bass

Aaron Siegel is a composer and percussionist who makes experimental work that raises questions about the relationship between performers, audience members and the space they occupy together. His work ranges from acoustic chamber music to improvised ensembles and collaborative theater pieces. In Spring 2011, Aaron will celebrate the release of Science is Only a Sometimes Friend (LockStep Records), which was premiered in Central Park, with public participants, as part of Make Music New York 2009. He is also developing Brother Brother, a new opera based on the relationship between Orville and Wilbur Wright. For more information, visit aaronsiegel.net.

Larry Legend is a software developer, musician, and engineer who strives to make technology indistinguishable from magic. Larry is the founder of House of Legend, an iPhone and iPad app development company based in Brooklyn, NY. Larry graduated from the Berklee College of Music and engineered over two dozen commercial recordings, for clients as diverse as Xzibit, GZA, DJ Logic, Ron Carter, and Spin Magazine, before getting back in touch with his computer nerd roots. For more information, visit houseoflegend.com.

Louis Andriessen is widely regarded as the leading composer working in the Netherlands today and is a central figure in the international new music scene. From a background of jazz and avant-garde composition, Andriessen has evolved a style employing elemental harmonic, melodic and rhythmic materials, heard in totally distinctive instrumentation. His acknowledged admiration for Stravinsky is illustrated by a parallel vigor, clarity of expression, and acute ear for color. The range of Andriessen's inspiration is wide, from the music of Charles Ives in Anachronie I, the art of Mondriaan in De Stijl, and medieval poetic visions in Hadewijch, to writings on shipbuilding and atomic theory in De Materie Part I. He has tackled complex creative issues, exploring the relation between music and politics in De Staat, the nature of time and velocity in De Tijd and De Snelheid, and questions of mortality in Trilogy of the Last Day. In 2011, Louis Andriessen won the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his opera La Commedia.

Yarn/Wire is a chamber quartet specializing in the performance of 21st century music. A unique instrumental combination of two percussionists (Ian Antonio and Russell Greenberg) and two pianists (Laura Barger and Jacob Rhodebeck) allows Yarn/Wire to interface with both traditional performance practice and emergent stylistic trends with ease. Founded in 2005 at Stony Brook University, Yarn/Wire has presented a number of US premieres by some of Europe's leading composers such as Stefano Gervasoni, Georg Friedrich Haas, Enno Poppe, and Paul Usher. For more information, visit yarnwire.org.