Mobtown Modern, the most way-out-there music organization in Baltimore, has announced another boldly unconventional lineup for the 2009-2010 season, along with a new venue.
The concert series will still be presented by the Contemporary Museum, where Mobtown started out, but performances will relocate to a larger space at Metro Gallery.
The ensemble's third season opens Sept. 16 with a program that emphasizes works written since 2002 that incorporate looping and layering, composed by the likes of Todd Reynolds, Michael Lowenstern and Mobtown co-curator Erik Spangler. For an extra kick, choreography will be provided by the Fluid Movement Hula Hoopers.
The season goes for "Low Art" (Oct. 7), with Mobtown co-curator Brian Sacawa performing a recital of works by David Lang and others exploiting the deep notes of baritone and bass sax. There's "High Art," too (March 17), when flutist Katayoon Hodjati and clarinetist Jennifer Everhart head into the upper register through music by Philip Glass, Kaija Saariaho, Pierre Boulez and more.
The season also includes concerts devoted to a new Sacawa/Spangler arrangement of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Zodiac (Jan. 20); works by Washington-based composer Alexandra Gardner (Feb. 3); John Zorn's Cobra, an improvised "game piece" (Feb. 24); the premiere of Spangler's Mandala of the Four Directions, a "mythic ritual cantata for four singers and four ensembles" (April 1); and Igor Stravinsky's iconic Rite of Spring in a jazz version newly arranged for Mobtown by Darryl Brenzel (May 12).
Outside of its indoor space, Mobtown will present the third annual Unsilent Night holiday parade of boombox-wielding revelers (Dec. 12), concluding with an indoor concert of pieces by John Cage and others.
Meanwhile, the call has also gone out for bike-riding volunteers to participate in a new summer project tied to Artscape - a performance of Mauricio Kagel's Eine Brise (A Breeze), subtitled "Fleeting Action for 111 Cyclists." The work employs carefully coordinated cyclists to produce music by means of bells, whistles and voices as they pedal around. The performance is set for July 18.
For more information on the 2009-2010 season or the cyclist project, go to mobtownmodern.com.
Series at the Lyric
The Lyric Opera House has put together a "family miniseries" for the 2009-2010 season that includes Broadway and ballet.
