this week in music

CHOPIN 200

Chopin bicentennial will feature 200 hours of music at the World Financial Center March 1-5

Chopin bicentennial will feature 200 hours of piano music at the World Financial Center March 1-5

AFICIONADO OPEN MIC
World Financial Center Winter Garden
220 Vesey St.
March 1-5, free, 9:00 am – 12 noon
212-417-7050
www.artsworldfinancialcenter.com

In honor of the 200th birthday of composer Frédéric François Chopin, the World Financial Center is hosting Chopin 200: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Composer and His Music, presenting 200 pianists playing 200 hours of Chopin music March 1-5, from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm. While they already have 150 virtuosos and highly praised students lined up, they have left 50 spots open to the general public. So if you’re still trying to figure out what to do with those piano lessons you took as a kid or your dreams of playing Carnegie Hall were shattered when you went to business school instead of conservatory, head on down to the WFC between 9:00 am and 12 noon and sign up to join in the fun, first come, first served. This unusual open mic will give music lovers the chance to play one of four grand pianos: a Sauter Omega 220, a Shigeru Kawai SK-6, a Wilhelm Steinberg W212, or an Art Case Steinway Model B. This is a great opportunity for mini-maestros to show off their Chopin chops, whether it be a sonata or a waltz, a rondo or a scherzo, a nocturne or an étude, a mazurka or a concerto.

METAL MAD

Tom Forget’s untitled painting is part of heavy-metal-inspired show at Giant Robot

AN ARMY OF ARTISTS PAYING HOMAGE TO HEAVY METAL
Giant Robot
437 East Ninth St. between First Ave. & Ave. A
Through March 3, free
212-674-4769
www.grny.net

Harder-edged than usual, Giant Robot’s current show, “Metal Mad,” features more than fifty works from twenty-six artists, all paying homage to the heavy metal aesthetic in their own unique ways. Skulls, violence, monsters, pentagrams, and paeans to the Prince of Darkness and Doom prevail, as well as a few pretty funny vignettes. French, Aeron Alfrey, Skinner, and Paul Lyons revel in evil demons, while Matt Nelson and Bigfoot turn to KISS for inspiration (an embroidered Gene Simmons?). Metalheads will also be proud of Aaron Brown’s homage to guitar god “Yngwie Mangosteen.” A wry sense of humor lies behind Matt Furie’s “Chainsaw Dad” and Albert Reyes’s untitled swordfight between Ronald McDonald and a guy on the run with his girlfriend, while Buff Monster goes for the jugular with his cyclopean nurse shooting laser beams out of her eye in front of a pink background. Among the more accomplished — and expensive — works are Prodip’s “Monster Pit,” Tom Neely’s “Wolves in the Throne Room,” and Tom Forget’s untitled portrait that is half beauty queen, half rotting skull, ranging from $800-$1,500. Meanwhile, we can’t believe that Joe the Artist is selling his excellent black-and-white works for a mere $60 to $100. As always when you visit Giant Robot, be sure to check out the latest graffiti books, cool T-shirts, Ugly Dolls, and Japanese toys.

TIBET HOUSE US BENEFIT CONCERT

A performance by monks is always part of Tibet House benefit

Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman stage
881 Seventh Ave. at 57th St.
Friday, February 26, $30-$85, 7:30
212-247-7800
www.tibethouse.org
www.carnegiehall.org

Tickets are on sale and going fast for the twentieth annual Tibet House US Benefit Concert, this year displaying another amazing, eclectic lineup, including artistic director Philip Glass, Gogol Bordello, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Tenzin Kunsel, Regina Spektor, Pierce Turner, and Jesse Smith & Michael Campbell. The Carnegie Hall show will be highlighted by one-of-a-kind collaborations and performances, all to raise money and awareness for Tibet House, whose mission is to protect, preserve, and promote Tibetan culture and heritage; the organization began at the behest of the Dalai Lama in 1987. Past shows have features such performers as the Drepung Loseling Monks, Ray Davies, Laurie Anderson, Steve Earle, Vampire Weekend, Angelique Kidjo, Band of Horses, Lou Reed, Sigur Rós, Sufjan Stevens, the Beastie Boys, Emmylou Harris, David Byrne, Debbie Harry, Allen Toussaint, Yo La Tengo, Moby, David Bowie, Allen Ginsberg, Gyuto Monks, and many others. We’ve been to a few of these benefits, and they’re always a wonderful mix of great music and cultural tradition.

FEBRUARY RESIDENCY: BLUEBRAIN

Bluebrain will play Monday-night residency at Pianos this month

Pianos
158 Ludlow St.
Monday nights at 10:00 through February 22
Admission: free
212-505-3733
www.pianosnyc.com
www.myspace.com/bluebrainbluebrain

Last June, Bluebrain — brainchild of brothers Hays and Ryan Holladay, formerly of the Brooklyn-based band the Epochs — played their first show ever, in their hometown of Washington, DC. In 2009 they also released a five-track EP, CULT FOLLOWING, which will be followed on February 9 by their debut full-length, SOFT POWER (both on Lujo Records). In celebration of the new disc, the brothers will be playing three free shows this month, in residency Monday nights at Pianos on the Lower East Side. Onstage, the Holladays each stand behind their own podium, as if they are holding a press conference or a debate, pumping out their dynamic, mellifluous electronic dance music while strange images are broadcast behind them, sort of the Yes Men meet the Butthole Surfers meet 1980s dreamy synth pop, or something like that. In “Ten by Ten,” which features a sweeping, swirling riff that will take over your whole body, the brothers repeat, “I can never make it alone”; in that vein, Bluebrain will be joined on February 8 by Riffle Recoil and on February 22 by Spiderfang and George Positive.

MUSIC FROM JAPAN

Reigakushu Gagaku Ensemble will perform music of Sukeyasu Shiba at Merkin Concert Hall

FESTIVAL 2010
Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Center, Goodman House
129 West 67th St.
February 20-21, $20/night, $35/both nights
212-501-3330
www.musicfromjapan.org

Music from Japan celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary of bringing traditional and new Japanese music to the rest of the world with two special programs at Merkin Concert Hall. On February 20 at 7:00, composer, teacher, researcher, and performer Sukeyasu Shiba will give a lecture on reconstructing lost gagaku music, the elegant, classical court music of ancient Japan, followed at 8:00 by “Sukeyasu Shiba’s Gagaku Universe,” featuring a new gagaku commission called “Mai FuJin 35,” dance pieces choreographed by Stephen Pier, and live music from the Reigakushu Gagaku Ensemble, with three American premieres and one world premiere. “Highlights of MFH Commissions II” on February 21 will include compositions by Hikaru Hayashi (“Lament”), Shin-ichiro Ikebe (“Bi-valance”), Sunao Isaji (“a lovleg day for mirrages on the sea”), and world premieres by Hitomi Kaneko (“Almost Dusk”) and Yasuko Yamaguchi (“Wurzeln”).

ARMORY SHOW

Brennan Girard and Ryan Kelly examine the military and social history of the Seventh Regiment Armory in site-specific two-night engagement

Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Ave. at 67th St.
February 20-21, $25, 8:00
347-463-5143
www.movingtheater.org
www.armoryonpark.org

Brennan Girard and Ryan Kelly, cofounders of the nonprofit, experimental Moving Theater, complete their stay as the first company-in-residence at the Park Avenue Armory with a multimedia performance in the historic building, designed by Charles Clinton in 1880 to house the Seventh Regiment of the National Guard, volunteer troops known as the Silk Stocking Regiment because of their ritzy members. The site-specific installation, which will take place in the armory’s fascinating period rooms, includes original music by Nathan Davis, Mario Diaz de León, and Du Yun and will be performed by Jonathan Drillet, Davon Rainey, Marlène Saldana, Jose Tena, Anthony Whitehurst, and ICE | International Contemporary Ensemble, incorporating dance, text, and video while commenting on the social and military history of the location and examining various aspects of the male identity. “This work maps our sense of loss at leaving a space we’ve worked in for such an extended period of time,” Gerard and Kelly explained in a statement. “Our attempts at capturing its complex history bring forth our own experience in this incredible building.”

SAVOIR ADORE FEBRUARY RESIDENCY

Savoir Adore will anchor Thursday night lineups at Cake Shop

Cake Shop
152 Ludlow St. between Stanton & Rivington Sts.
Thursdays in February through February 18, $8, 8:00
212-253-0036
www.cake-shop.com
www.myspace.com/savoiradore

Deidre Muro and Paul Hammer claim that they started a band as an “accident,” that they were fooling around with some songs, shared them with friends, and eventually became a little more serious about it. Briefly known as Les Frogs, Muro and Hammer renamed themselves Savoir Adore and are currently on tour supporting their debut full-length, the lush, adventurous IN THE WOODED FOREST (Cantora, September 2009), joined by David Perlick-Molinari (who, with Hammer, is part of YouTooCanWoo Prod.), bassist Sasha Brown, and drummer Tim McCoy (who leads the Papercuts). A mix of pure pop delights and sweet instrumental-heavy tunes that walk the fine line between nature and technology, the infectious album features two of the best-titled songs of last year, “The Scientific Findings of Dr. Rousseau” and “Transylvanian Candy Patrol,” but Savoir Adore is about a lot more than just unusual names (even though their first EP was called THE ADVENTURES OF MR. PUMPERNICKEL AND THE GIRL WITH ANIMALS IN HER THROAT). “We Talk Like Machines” has a hook most bands would kill for, with the chorus of “Early Bird” right behind it. “The fires burning bright, everyone’s out tonight! 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, the starry night’s our disco ball!” Muro declares on MERP, which is a good description of Savoir Adore itself. “Creatures of every kind, they all have lost their minds! Colors flying everywhere, a kaleidoscope in the air!” Savoir Adore is making the Lower East Side club Cake Shop its home this month with a February residency beginning on February 4 with Pocketknife, Magic Magic, and buzz band French Horn Rebellion. On February 11, SA will be joined by We Are Country Mice, North Highlands, and twi-ny fave Uninhabitable Mansions, followed by February 18 with Red Wire Black Wire, Ennui, and the Bloodsugars.