PRISM Quartet and Uri Caine at Symphony Space

Grammy-nominated pianist and composer Uri Caine, “A musical polymath with abundant improvising skills” (NPR), and the PRISM Quartet join forces for a concert of adventurous new music. PRISM and Caine will premiere Caine’s “The Book of Days,” a work that fuses modern jazz and new classical styles. The program also features music by Dutch avant-pop composer Jacob TV from PRISM’s Pitch Black CD, and recent solo piano music by Caine.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Uri Caine was born in Philadelphia and began studying piano with Bernard Peiffer. He played in bands led by Philly Joe Jones, Hank Mobley, Johnny Coles, Mickey Roker, Odean Pope, Jymmie Merritt, Bootsie Barnes and Grover Washington. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and studied music composition with George Rochberg and George Crumb. Caine has recorded 25 albums as a leader, including his most recent, a solo CD, Callithump. He has also recorded albums featuring his jazz trio, his Bedrock Trio and his ensemble performing arrangements of Mahler, Wagner, Beethoven, Bach and Schumann. Recently Caine has received commissions from the Vienna Volksoper, The Seattle Chamber Players, The Beaux Arts Trio, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, Concerto Koln and the American Composers Orchestra. Caine was the Director of the Venice Biennale for Music in September 2003. From 2006–2009 he was composer in residence for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and premiered his Concerto for Two Pianos and Chamber Orchestra with Jeffrey Kahane in May 2006. In 2009 he was nominated for a Grammy Award for The Othello Syndrome. During the past several years, Caine has worked in groups led by Don Byron, Dave Douglas, John Zorn, Terry Gibbs and Buddy DeFranco, Clark Terry, Rashid Ali, Arto Lindsay, Sam Rivers and Barry Altschul, the Woody Herman Band, Annie Ross, the Enja Band, Global Theory and the Master Musicians of Jajouka.

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PRISM Quartet: Intriguing programs of great beauty and breadth have distinguished the PRISM Quartet as one of America’s foremost chamber ensembles. Two-time winners of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, PRISM has been presented by Carnegie Hall, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and as soloists with the Detroit Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra. Champions of new music, PRISM has commissioned over 200 works, many by internationally celebrated Pulitzer Prize-winning composers. PRISM’s discography includes fourteen recordings for the Albany, Innova, Koch, Naxos, New Dynamic, and New Focus labels. PRISM may also be heard on the soundtrack of the film Two Plus One and has been featured in the theme music to the weekly PBS news magazine “NOW.” PRISM performs exclusively on Selmer saxophones and mouthpieces.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This program is presented with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University; and Conn-Selmer, Inc. Uri Caine’s new work was commissioned by LiveConnections with support from the Presser foundation. PRISM Quartet, Inc. also receives generous annual support from the Amphion Foundation, New Music USA’s Cary New Music Performance Fund, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., and individual donors.