Ensemble Pi’s Sixth Annual Peace Project concert "Echosystem: Protecting Our Water" March 19, 2011

New York, NY – New music collective Ensemble Pi is pleased to return to The Cooper Union’s Great Hall, for its sixth annual Peace Project concert, Echosystem, on Saturday, March 19 at 8 p.m. The evening will bring together works inspired by the environment, especially the earth’s supply of water and the dangers this vital element is currently facing.

Highlights include George Crumb’s masterpiece, Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale) for three Masked Players (1971), inspired from the singing of the humpback whale; the Premiere of Kristin Norderval’s Echo Systems (2011), composed in response to both the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the 1989 sinking of the Exxon Valdez tanker in Alaska; Pete Seeger’s classic song, Rainbow Race, in a new arrangement by Karl Kramer (2011); and Christopher Kaufman’s Hudson Valley (2010), capturing the world of the Hudson River Valley through music and film footage, including the dangers of natural gas drilling.

Echosystem: Protecting Our Water is presented as part of the Ensemble Pi’s Peace Project, which was launched by the collective in 2005 with the goal of opening a dialogue between ideas and music on some of the world’s current and critical issues. Performers will include Kristin Norderval, voice and laptop; Airi Yoshioka, violin; Idith Meshulam, piano; Clair Bryant, cello; Karl Kramer, French horn; Barry Crawford, flute; and Nick Gallas, clarinet.

Official Website: http://www.ensemble-pi.org