On Saturday I’m going to this 5 PM concert, AMOC AT THE RESNICK PASSLOF FOUNDATION

MATTHEW AUCOIN, arr. EMI FERGUSON / Three Études
CHARLES IVES / Piano Trio
ROBERT HONSTEIN / Unwind
SCOTT WOLLSCHLEGER / Secret Machines, Nos. 1 & 2

I’m a fan of composers Aucoin and Wollschleger, am curious about Honstein, and think the Piano Trio is one of Ives’s best pieces.

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On a related topic, I’m slowly becoming a little more aware of composer Harold Meltzer. His Virginal is strikingly attractive.

Sara Laimon is the harpsichordist; Laimon’s CD American Piano Music of the 1940’s is one of my treasured documents, especially her recording of Leon Kirchner’s piano sonata.

I learned about Meltzer from Miranda Cuckson, who is performing with AMOC on Saturday. Everything in Cuckson’s email blast looks fabulous, I encourage DTM readers to go if these events are nearby! There’s even a gig a Shapeshifter!

This Saturday, January 11, I’m playing in a chamber program at the Resnick Passlof Foundation with my amazing friends in AMOC.

AMOC is a collective of artists making discipline-colliding work combining theater, music, dance, opera but our musicians also like to play together and just get into the music. We’ll be playing music by Ives, Aucoin, Wollschleger, and Honstein. Students tickets are available for $15.

If you’re upstate on Jan 26, Conor Hanick, Coleman Itzkoff and I are playing the Ives Trio there as well, on the Union College Concerts series in Schenectady, on a program also featuring AMOC’s brilliant tenor Paul Appleby with Conor performing songs by Schubert, Aucoin and Berg. I’ll be playing transcriptions of three early Berg songs as well.

On Jan 30 at 2pm, I’m playing at Merkin Hall on the PREformances series, which presents artists performing music they’re about to play on other concerts. With my colleagues and longtime friends violist Dan Panner and cellist Sophie Shao, I’ll be playing trios by Kodaly and Beethoven and a duo by Xenakis.

This is in preparation for the “Miranda Cuckson and Friends” concert at the Library of Congress in Washington on Feb 21. In addition to those three works, we’ll be joined by pianist Stephen Gosling for the Schumann Op. 47 Quartet and for Harold Meltzer’s violin/piano duo “Kreisleriana” (which I play on Harold’s currently Grammy-nominated album with Blair McMillen). I’ll also play the US premiere of a violin piece written for me by Iranian composer Aida Shirazi. The concert honors Leonora Jackson McKim, whose fund supports the LOC’s McKim commissions (Harold’s piece among them) and I’ll play some of the concert on her Stradivarius violin. Tickets are apparently already “sold out” but please check back in case spots open!

On Jan 31, my new-music group counter)induction celebrates its milestone 20th anniversary with a concert at Shapeshifter Lab in Brooklyn. I’ve been playing with the group for ten of those years and we’ve done a lot of very exciting music. The program will feature pieces by four of c)i’s nine members: Douglas Boyce, Kyle Bartlett, Ryan Streber, Jessica Meyer.

Amid all this, I’m doing a weeklong residency at Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Jan 13-19. I visited there two years ago and the quality of music-making there is outstanding. I’ll be playing Scelsi’s incredible work Anahit for violin&ensemble with the student ensemble and conductor Jerry Hou on Jan 15 8pm. Jan 16 I’m joined by a wonderful group I’m bringing from NYC – Emi Ferguson, Sammy Resnick, Blair McMillen, Jeff Zeigler – for a concert of works by Chris Trapani, Jürg Frey, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Franco Donatoni and Magnus Lindberg. The following day we’re doing readings of works by nine student composers. Jan 18 I’m giving a violin masterclass and Jan 19 7:30pm I’m playing a solo concert of fantastic pieces by Aida Shirazi, Reiko Füting, Rozalie Hirs, Anthony Cheung, Anna Meredith, and Xenakis. All the concerts are open to the public, so please tell your Houston-area friends!