Ukrainian American Composer Virko Baley in New York City this May at The Cornelia Street Cafe

May 16, 2012 - PRLog -- The Cornelia Street Cafe welcomes Ukrainian-born American composer, conductor and pianist, Virko Baley, where he will perform recent work Monday evening May 28th for Serial Underground, New York’s premier New Music series, hosted by Jed Distler, composer, pianist, and artistic director of ComposerCollaborative, Inc.  Baley received the prestigious Academy Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2008 and a Grammy Award as recording producer for his TNC record label in 2007. The program will include a sneak preview of “Not Medea,” Baley’s forthcoming mono-opera, his collaboration with librettist Yuriy Tarnawsky and stage director Melissa Weaver.

Distler who in 2002 met Baley in New York describes the artist as “the complete musician. Virko’s wide-ranging and imaginative compositions, his energetic and practical leadership from the podium, the effortless keyboard facility have been sources of inspiration and learning for me, not to mention his insights and advice on living a full productive artist life.”

Monday’s May 28th program will also feature selections from Baley’s Emily Dickinson Songbooks (2001–2008), Et lux perpetua (Rest in Peace) for piano (2004), Pajarillo (from Cante Hondo) for piano solo (2002), Persona III (Luisa Triana) for flute and castanets (2008), and Palm of the Hand (from Dreamtime Suite No. 4) for chamber orchestra (1999-2000) with performances by some of his longtime champions.  Performers for this evening with Baley include the composer at the piano, host pianist Jed Distler, soprano Laura Bohn, violinist Tom Chiu, and the renowned New York New Music ensemble Continuum with clarinetist Moran Katz and pianist Cheryl Seltzer

Doors open at 5:45 p.m. Showtime from 6:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. The Cornelia Street Café is located at 29 Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village. Cash-only $20 admission at the door includes a $10 food/drink credit. Reservations are strongly recommended. Space is limited and the concert expected to sell out. Please call 212.989.9319 for reservations or additional information.

Born in 1938 in Radekhiv, former Soviet Union (now Ukraine), Virko Baley emigrated to the United States in 1949, receiving both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Arts (now California Institute for the Arts). Writing for orchestra, chamber, instrument and vocal, including films, Baley co-produced and composed the score for Yuri Illienko’s “Swan Lake: the Zone,” winner of two top awards at Cannes in 1990. A founder and, for many years, conductor and musical director of the Nevada Symphony, Baley co-directs Nevada Encounters of New Music (N.E.O.N.), often collaborating with the New Juilliard Ensemble in New York. As principal guest conductor and music advisor to the Kiev Camerata in Ukraine, Baley has released a series of CDs through his record label TNC containing rare recordings of Ukrainian pianist Sviatoslav Richter and of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the latter earning him a Grammy Award as recording producer in 2007 for Best Instrumental Performance with Orchestra. The Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University commissioned Baley in 2007 to complete “Red Earth: Hunger,” his opera on the Holodomor or “genocide- famine in Ukraine,” 1932–33. “Red Earth: Hunger” will be performed in concert in New York in February 2013. Baley is Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.

Called “an altogether extraordinary pianist” (Newark Star-Ledger), and New York's “Downtown keyboard magus" (The NewYorker), Jed Distler has hosted Serial Underground, a New Music variety series at The Cornelia Street Café since 2004. He is also occasional host and composer-in- residence for Q2‟s “Hammered!” (WQXR).   A Yamaha artist, Jed Distler has premiered works by Frederic Rzewski, Lois V. Vierk, Virko Baley, and Wendy Mae Chambers, among others -- many written especially for him. In addition to recent commissions from Jenny Lin, IonSound, and Song in Music, his works have been recorded by Margaret Leng Tan, Guy Livingston, and Quattro Mani, among other New Music luminaries. His new CD, “Meditate with the Masters” (Musical Concepts) was released January of last year.

ComposersCollaborative Inc. promotes new music as an integral part of our lives and culture. We help artists connect with audiences by encouraging big ideas, fueling vital collaborations, and producing innovative multidisciplinary performances.