COMPOSER KIRK NUROCK TO PRESENT 'CROSS-SPECIES CONCERT featuring Jazz artists JAY CLAYTON and ART BARON June 13 at Tenri Cultural Institute, NYC

Superb Jazz improvisers will interplay with both live and pre-recorded animal sounds. The music has a spiritual & spontaneous quality, as opposed to mere tricks or novelty. The premise derives from Darwinian theories of heightened sonic awareness in certain species.

(PRWEB) May 23, 2004 --Composer KIRK NUROCK will present a concert of voices and instruments interacting with the sounds of live animals and birds. The performance is Sunday, June 13, 7:30pm at the Tenri Cultural Institute, 43 W. 13th Street, NYC. Tickets are $25.

Featured on the concert are jazz vocalist JAY CLAYTON, Nurock on piano, and ART BARON, trombone, recorders and didgeridoo, and Finnish singer/soundmaker, SANNI ORASMAA. The program begins with works for the human ensemble, then expands to their interaction with live and pre-recorded creature sounds. One score also calls for barking audience.

Nurock presented 'cross-species concerts in the 1980s, including The Bronx Zoo Events in which his 'Natural Sound Ensemble sang with wolves, sea lions, a Siberian tiger and a screech owl. A documentary, Animalsong by Burrill Crohn, chronicles the events. His ensemble also performed at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New Music America and the Museum of Modern Art. After 20 years, Nurock has returned to this genre, intrigued by new findings on animal telepathy and bio-acoustics.

The compositions include fully-notated sections for the musicians as well as looser structures shaping the interspecies passages. None of the creatures is trained to follow cues. As in the jazz tradition, the animals and musicians will interact 'in the moment. The overall premise derives from Darwinian theories of heightened sonic awareness in certain species.

Composer/pianist Kirk Nurock orchestrated for both Leonard Bernstein and Dizzy Gillespie. He recently co-orchestrated the first symphonic work by Meredith Monk. A veteran of some 35 years in the music world, Nurock has recorded for Columbia Masterworks, Impulse, KochJazz, Tzadik, Sunnyside and numerous other labels. A Juilliard graduate, he was appointed Professor at Berlins Hochschule der Künste in 1993, and is currently on the composition faculty of New School Universitys Jazz and Contemporary Music Program.

Further info or reservations:
Animalsong@aol.com or 212 929-2707.
also visit www.kirknurock.com