This "inventive, stylistically nondogmatic new-music festival" (NY Times) gets started with a kickoff party with live sneak preview performances and cocktails at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, then sets up shop at (le) Poisson Rouge for the rest of the week, May 10-12.

"This year's MATA festival sifted through nearly 500 submitted scores from under-40 composers around the world to present a veritable Tower of Babel of contemporary classical music. A bellwether of shifting tides in the genre's current scene--having helped launch the careers of Nico Muhly, Lukas Ligeti, and Annie Gosfield--MATA moves beyond the pale of mainstream institutions, a diverse summit of cosmopolitan voices continuing a lively musical conversation. Think Wagner with laptop-driven electronica. This year just might get Stockhausen rolling in his grave."

Head on over to the MATA BLOG for exclusive video presentations from each of the 2011 commissioned composers, and see below for information and links to purchase tickets! We can't wait to see you out at the Festival!

Sincerely,

David T. Little (ED) and Yotam Haber (AD), MATA

We kick off the festival with a very special intimate evening of wine and music at the Tyler Rollins Fine Art in Chelsea. Newly appointed director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Alan Pierson, will join our three MATA-commissioned composers to discuss their work process. We’ll present electronic and multi-media video work by three young MATA composers from England, France, and the U.S.,  and there will be tastes of music to come throughout the week by members of Metropolis Ensemble. Not to be missed!

MATA and Make Music New York present a workshop on creating public art, hosted by Phil Kline, composer of Unsilent Night. Composers have the opportunity to present and discuss proposals for projects with community leaders, artists, musicians. One composer will be chosen to be supported by MATA in producing a public art parade in 2012. We highly encourage all to attend and contribute to this fascinating event!

New York-based ACME joins L'arsenale, the Italian new music ensemble for an evening of premieres and stunningly fresh music by eight composers from seven countries, including Icelandic music by Gudmundur Gunnarsson, Christopher Adler's mesmerizing new work for Chinese mouth organ and oboe, and the first MATA commission of the Festival, Canadian Christopher Mayo's Of Trees & Fields & Men, performed as ACME and L'arsenale team together for the first time!

New music, performed by the people who wrote it!   Corey Dargel and Dither Electric Guitar Quartet premiere Say Yes, a new song cycle; Angelica Negron and Cantori NY - a 40-member chorus - present FONO,  a MATA commissioned work; Chris Danforth and the Danforths come from Minnesota to perform a unique set featuring songs with voice mail from the 1980s, found objects, and newly-created instruments; and Florent Ghys flies in from France to play new works for double bass and live electronics.

MATA co-founder and Rome Prize recipient Lisa Bielawa leads a roundtable conversation on living, surviving, and thriving as a composer today. All are welcome!

We feature the great Metropolis Ensemble with a full evening's worth of incredible new music! First, our final MATA commission, for the young New York composer, Ryan Carter; then Gaudeamus Prize winner Marko Nikodijevic's extraordinary Music Box, followed by the brilliant twenty-year old Chilean Remmy Canedo's Instantanea 6; and topping it all of: a hip-hopera, The Rake by Brad Balliett and Elliot Cole!