ELLIOTT CARTER DOCU-CONCERT THURS., MAY 6 ALAN LICHT'S DIGGER CHOIR FRI., MAY 7 EX ...
Getting points in the double-take department, a concert of music by the most uptown of uptown composers, Elliott Carter, will be presented at Prada Soho. I'm not sure who's piggybacking on whose cachet here, but the event, presented as part of the Tribeca Film Festival, will include performances of Carter's Con leggerezza pensosa, Figment No. 1, Figment No. 2, Gra and Hiyoku, the Piano Sonata, and Duo for Violin and Piano with film interludes by Frank Scheffer, whose new documentary on Carter, A Labyrinth of Time, receives its world premiere the previous evening.
Friday night, get psyched for Alan Licht's third Digger Choir, an event designed to smash up audience/performer divide-so be ready to take part. The program line-up includes Licht's own Your Back Pages, Laurie Anderson's famed O Superman and John Steven's rarely performed Sustained Piece. This is not just audience participation where a few suckers get dragged up on stage-everyone walking through the door is part of the show. A previous Digger Choir performance asked participants to simulate riding the subway while reading aloud from any media they had on them at the time. No prior performance experience or musical talent required. Bring friends if you think you'll need moral support-it's free.
Then, before you can catch your breath, it'll be time to get ready for the big Music at the Anthology Festival next week. Kicking things off, Nicholas Brooke (one of the coolest, quirkiest people I have met lately) starts with EX MACHINA, a program featuring composers and performers who work with machines. Starting with a reconstruction of Stravinsky's Etude pour Pianola, the program also features music-box guru John Morton manipulating and processing dozens of the tiny machines. I'm also intrigued by Ryan Torchia's "Forced Perspective," billed as a live piano solo that goes in and out of phase with a ghostly prerecorded version of itself. In all, 10 pieces along this machine-age theme will be performed. The show will go down at the Paula Cooper Gallery with the performers surrounding an audience seated on cushions in the center of the room.
Alan Licht's Digger Choir, ISSUE Project Room, 619 E. 6th St. (betw. Aves. B & C), 212-598-4130, 8, free.
EX MACHINA, Paula Cooper Gallery, 521 W. 21st St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-563-5124, 8, $15, $12 st./s.c.