Fireworks combines the subtlety and depth of classical chamber music with the freedom of jazz and the power and energy of rock.

14 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Contemporary, ROCK: Instrumental Rock



Details:
"Dance Mix" presents a collection of social Dance Music throughout the ages, arranged especially for the group by Brian Coughlin and Dean Lentz. Armed with an instrumental arsenal of kazoos, slide whistles, vocoder, drum machines, a virtual big band, and more, Fireworks frolics, waltzes, swings, bounces, rocks, and grinds through of 700 years of party music.

Alex Ross of the New Yorker calls it "The Most Madly Eclectic Program of the Year"

Rooted in the classical tradition, Fireworks embraces great music from all cultures, periods, and styles as dialects of a single musical language, and as vital, living art. Fireworks' mission is to help masterworks from across the musical spectrum find new and larger audiences, and to create and nurture a canon of great new music by today's composers.

Cultivating the most diverse repertoire of any contemporary music ensemble, Fireworks is at home with any audience in any musical setting. The ensemble's remarkable arrangements and interpretations of music by composers from around the world, ranging from Bach to Ellington to Aphex Twin to Piazolla, provide a contemporary and unbiased entrée into these masterpieces for new listeners, and a fresh perspective on time-honored classics for established audiences.

A strong voice for today's composers, Fireworks actively commissions and fearlessly champions new works. Since its inception in 2000, the ensemble has premiered over 50 pieces by both established and emerging composers including Glenn Branca, Robert Carl, and Nick Didkovsky. Fireworks' flexible instrumentation, openness to music in all of its diverse forms, and dedication to presenting contemporary works at the highest level provides today's composers with the greatest freedom of expression for their ideas.

In addition to its regular concert series in New York, Fireworks performs throughout the United States each season. Engagements for the 2004-05 season included Carnegie Hall, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Deer Valley Music Festival, and a residency at the Oregon Bach Festival Composers' Symposium.

Intensely passionate about its work with students, Fireworks devotes a large portion of its time each season to outreach and residency activities. The ensemble collaborates with dozens of composition students from around the world in workshops, master classes, and reading sessions. At the 2005 Oregon Bach Festival, Fireworks worked with fifty emerging composers and premiered fifteen new works. Previous residencies include Williams College (2004), The Hartt School (2003 Resident Feldman Ensemble), The Hotchkiss School (Lakeville, CT), and The KLHT School (Stamford, CT).

Fireworks' acclaimed, rock-inspired recording of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" (2003) has enjoyed critical praise and radio play worldwide from Soundcheck on WNYC in New York, to La Otra Musica in Spain, to Radio Rock in Italy. The groupâs first recording, "First Tracks" (2002) was recently featured on John Schaeferâs New Sounds on WNYC.