By Christina Jensen
On Sunday, April 19 at 7:30 pm, ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble) will give the world premiere of ACME member Caleb Burhans’ Super flumina Babylonis for choir, viola, cello, celesta and percussion with Westminster Kantorei led by Andrew Megill in a concert entitled “Counterpoint and Counterplots: Music and Espionage in Elizabethan England” in Bristol Chapel on the campus of the Westminster Choir College (101 Walnut Lane, Princeton). Super flumina Babylonis takes as its text the Latin setting of Psalm 137 vs.1-4. The concert also features music by Protestant and Catholic composers including William Byrd and his contemporaries – Thomas Tallis, John Dowland, and Peter Phillips – as well as a performance of O! Vengeance! by Westminster faculty member Stefan Young. Westminster Kantorei is a chamber choir specializing in music of the Renaissance and Baroque eras, with occasional forays into later repertoire (including new works), and is composed of 16 of Westminster’s most talented students.Tickets are $20 for adults, and $15 for students and seniors, available at 609.921.2663. For more information about the concert, visit www.rider.edu/888_15398.htm.
ACME is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries in programs that are both avant-garde and archetypal. The ensemble aims to present cutting edge contemporary literature by living composers alongside the “classics” of the contemporary. Core members of ACME include cellist and artistic director Clarice Jensen, violist Nadia Sirota, violinists Miranda Cuckson and Caleb Burhans, pianist Eric Huebner, flutist Alex Sopp, clarinetist Gilad Harel, and percussionist Chris Thompson. ACME members are graduates of The Juilliard and Eastman Schools of Music.
The New York Times describes ACME’s performances as “vital,” “brilliant,” and “electrifying,” while Time Out New York refers to them as “one of New York’s brightest new music indie-bands.” Recent highlights include ACME’s Carnegie Hall debut in March 2009 performing the world premiere Timothy Andres’ Senior with the New York Youth Symphony in Stern Auditorium. In February 2009, ACME performed the world premiere of Jefferson Friedman’s On In Love with rock vocalist Craig Wedren at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre for Mr. Friedman’s Composer Portrait concert. The work received a repeat performance the following evening at (Le) Poisson Rouge in a joint concert featuring ACME and Craig Wedren as part of the Wordless Music Series. Other recent engagements include a month-long residency at the Whitney Museum of American Art in June 2008, presented by Wordless at the Whitney Live. For each concert, ACME tailored a contemporary classical program to complement the indie-rock or electronica performer sharing the concert.
Upcoming performances include appearances at (Le) Poisson Rouge on May 14, 2009 with German composer-pianist Hauschka, and on June 25, 2009 with Icelandic recording artist Johann Johannsson in his US debut. May 2009 will see the release of the band Grizzly Bear’s new album, Veckatimest (Warp), featuring strings by Nico Muhly performed by ACME. ACME also appears on the electronica duo Matmos’ album entitled The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast (Matador).
In addition to regular concerts at (Le) Poisson Rouge and appearances at Carnegie Hall and Miller Theatre, ACME has also performed at the Tenri Cultural Institute, Smack Mellon Gallery in DUMBO, The Noguchi Museum, the Cornelia St. Café, and BAMcafé at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
ACME does not subscribe to one stylistic movement or genre; its concerts present all genres of contemporary music in the same light and with the same conviction. ACME programs are created from a sonic and dramatic perspective with the audience’s live experience as the central motivating factor and inspiration. Ensemble members approach every piece, no matter the style or composition date, with the same musicality, intensity and dedication. For more information, please visit www.acmemusic.org.
About Andrew Megill, Westminster Kantorei conductor
Andrew Megill is recognized as one of the leading choral conductors of his generation, known for his passionate artistry and unusually wide-ranging repertoire, extending from Renaissance music to newly commissioned works. He is also artistic director of Fuma Sacra, chorus master for the Spoleto Festival USA, and associate conductor and director of choral activities for the Carmel Bach Festival. For more information, please visit www.rider.edu/864_5763.htm.
About Caleb Burhans, composer and performer
Composer, violinist/violist, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Caleb Burhans has been heralded by The New York Times as, “animated and versatile”, being a “sweet voiced countertenor” as well as a “new music virtuoso.” Caleb’s early musical influences were widespread, ranging from his father (who in the 60’s and 70’s played with Ray Charles, Kenny Rogers and the Everly Brothers), to his training as a boy soprano, to his early studies in violin, piano, music theory and composition, viola, cello, bass, percussion, mandolin, guitar, electric bass, and conducting. He attended Interlochen Arts Academy as well as the Eastman School of Music, where he received a bachelor’s degree in viola performance and composition.
His compositions include settings of Psalm 118 (for mixed choir, children’s choir, brass, and organ) commissioned by Trinity Church, Wall Street for Easter 2008; his arrangement of John Adams’s Coast from Hoodoo Zephyr commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Alarm Will Sound (and premiered at Carnegie Hall by AWS in 2006); and oh ye of little faith… (do you know where your children are?) commissioned by Lincoln Center for the re-opening of Alice Tully Hall in March 2009. Other compositions include An Advent Song, commissioned by Trinity Wall Street; In a distant place, commissioned by the Bloomingdale School of Music; and Amidst Neptune, commissioned by Brad Lubman and premiered by Eastman’s Musica Nova. Caleb has also been commissioned by the Albany Symphony, clarinetist Bill Kalinkos, Dogs of Desire, Fuma Sacra, Janus, the King’s Park High School String Orchestra, mezzo-soprano Abby Fischer, percussionist Payton MacDonald, Scalene, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (Rochester, NY), Tarab Cello Ensemble, trombonist James Hirschfeld, violinist Yuki Numata, violists John Graham, Eric Nowlin, and Nadia Sirota. Caleb was recently the featured soloist, playing violin with Alarm Will Sound in Lou Harrison’s Suite for Violin, Piano and Small Ensemble, as well as singing countertenor on Steve Reich’s Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ on WNYC’s show “New Sounds Live” with John Schafer. For more information visit www.calebburhans.com.

