BERTOLOZZI PREMIERES NEW WORK FOR SOLO GONG

I will perform new work for solo gong “an eye illumined by another sun…” Feb 25, 2023 at 8pm at Ramapo College, in Mahwah, NJ. Tix here: https://rcnj.ludus.com/index.php?show_id=20515

This 12 minute work probes the unexpected musical profiles of the solo gong. After years of gigantically public statements in composing Bridge Music upon New York’s Mid Hudson Bridge and Tower Music upon the Eiffel Tower in Paris, I telescoped down to a strongly limited sonic palette in search of new expressions. Not the sonorities of a new age “gong bath,” this isn’t that; It is fully composed, an articulate, eloquent engine of ideas and musical exchange. The expectation of a gong as a loud, one-trick pony is upended in this atmospheric, introspective opus. Come re-discover with me the things we thought we knew.
Joseph Bertolozzi is a Zildjian and Vic Firth Artist.

Also on the program are Marylou & Jerome Bongiorno, whose work experiments with transforming paintings into immersive 3D video images, and Tessa Brinckman & Jane Rigler, whose interactive film and sound performance draws from mixed media, sound, movement, and contemplative practices.

Image by Rob Penner © 2012

A nice narrative for a composer…

This narrative comes from Wayne Lempka, a listener on Classical WMHT, travelling to Poughkeepsie from nearby New Paltz, NY

“Well, today I had to go to a meeting in Poughkeepsie.  I got in my car in the parking lot of SUNY-New Paltz, turned on WMHT and heard “coming up next will be Joseph Bertolozzi’Suite Poughkeepsie….

Needless to say I was excited to listen…but here is the best part of it: all your Suite Poughkeepsie guided me through New Paltz…down (Rte) 9W…..over the Mid-Hudson Bridge…and believe it or not, when I pulled into the parking lot at my destination in Poughkeepsie, your composition ended and (disk jockey) Mary Darcy return(ed) to the airwaves!

How great was that and what were the chances that the Suite Poughkeepsie would end as I pulled into my Poughkeepsie destination and it was the only music on the radio for my entire trip???”

I get nice notes from people about my music, and this one, wholly unexpected as I didn’t know it was airing, is extra special.

The Wolfman, Halloween…and Joseph Bertolozzi!

This Halloween I’ll be playing the organ and providing other chilling sound effects for this immersive showing of Lon Chaney Jr’s classic 1941 film “The Wolfman“, Oct 29 & 30 at The Chapel Restoration in Cold Spring, NY. Watch out for creepy puppets and wolfmen lurking about! Tix info below.#horror_movie, #horrormoviefan, #hudsonvalley, #hudsonvalleyevents, #coldspringny