Join the Portland Chamber Music Festival for their final concert of the 2011 season, featuring Osvaldo Golijov's "Lullaby and Doina" and  Schubert's great masterpiece, the Octet in F major for Clarinet, Bassoon, French Horn, and Strings. Held at the Abromson Center at the University of Southern Maine, The festival's five-concert series has been broadcast on National Public Radio and WGBH in Boston and has been awarded two grants from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. Join in the excitement this Saturday, August 20th at 8pm. Check it all out at the Portland Chamber Music Festival's website  http://www.pcmf.org/

Stephen Cohn is internationally recognized for his music for the concert stage, as well as his scores for feature films and television. His concert works have been performed and recorded by the world's finest chamber music ensembles in the United States and Europe, such as the Kansas City Symphony, Arditti Quartet, the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chroma String Quartet. He has been Composer-in-Residence at The International Encounters of Catalonia in the south of France, and his commissions have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Brussels, France, and Prague. He has received an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Music", and his scores have been part of many award winning productions featuring such stars as Lily Tomlin, Joanne Woodward, Kathleen Quinlan, Colleen Dewhurst, William Shatner and Wallace Shawn. Watch the premiere performance of Stephen Cohn's chamber piece "Sea Change" (2011) . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

Insyn (Insight) is a dancefilm by choreographer Klara Elenius and composer Stefan Klaverdal where choreography and music creates a unique synergy, inspired by the Nordic mentality. The basic concept of the film is to create rifts in our perception of what is real and what is not. Do the characters in the film really live as we do, or are they caught in some kind of flux between dream and reality? The main characters live in a very still and unmoving house. They seem to have a somewhat strict relationship to each other. Everything just about normal, but everywhere seem to hold some abstract components that shifts the perception and creates a reality of its own. The music reflects on the quasi-normal view of reality using vocal samples somewhat transformed, gliding between recognizable patterns and more abstract sonic landscapes. The music was the winner in the 35th IMEB composition for electroacoustic music in Bourges 2008. The movie has also been awarded as a whole in the international competitions for short films in 2007 Cozmic Zoom Copenhagen (2 prizes) Cinedans Amsterdam Dancescreen the Haague. Watch the Elenius/Klaverdal dancefilm "Insyn" . . . it's our DANSES PYTHEUSES for the week.

Todd Goodman has been described as "one of America's promising young composers." Born in Bedford, Penn., he received his Bachelor of Music degree in composition at the University of Colorado at Boulder and his Masters of Music degree in composition at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His works have been played by principle members of the Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, Singapore and Seattle Symphonies. Goodman has received commissions from a wide variety of players and ensembles across the United States. With many performances in the United States his works have also been performed in Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia. Goodman currently serves as the resident composer for the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center. He feels that the audience connection and participation in his music is vital to its success. He wants people to leave a concert feeling that they experienced a work rather than just observing. Goodman has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for his work with the Altoona Symphony Orchestra, the American Music Center, as well as grants from the University of Colorado Entrepreneurship Center. Goodman is the founder and artistic director of the innovative contemporary art ensemble, Ensemble Immersion, which combines music, dance, literature, film, visual arts, drama, set design, and creative audience interaction to create artistic experiences unlike any other. Listen to a performance of Todd Goodman's "River of Sorrows" (2006) with the Duquesne University Wind Ensemble  . . . it's one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS for the week.

Stefan Weisman was born and raised in New Jersey, and now lives in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. Anthony Tommasini (New York Times) has called his music "personal, moody and skillfully wrought." His works include chamber, orchestral and choral pieces, as well as music for theater, video and dance. He is a recipient of a 2006 Bang on a Can "People’s Commission." Among his other commissions are works for Sequitur, the Minimum Security Composers Collective, the Empire City Men's Chorus with the Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Battell Chapel Choir, and the Oregon Bach Festival Composers’ Symposium, which commissioned a piece in honor of George Crumb on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Other groups who have performed his work include the Miro String Quartet, So Percussion, the Locrian Chamber Players, the New Millennium Ensemble, the Third Angle Ensemble, the Yesaroun' Duo, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Luna Nova, pianist Lisa Moore, flautist Patti Monson, mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn, male soprano Anthony Roth Costanzo, Newspeak, the NOW Ensemble, the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and the New Jersey Symphony. He is a recipient of awards from Meet the Composer, SCI, ASCAP, and the American Music Center. Listen to a Stefan Weisman's cello and percussion piece SuperSoft (2007) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.