During the last decade of the 20th Century and of the 2nd millennium I have organized a concert series of contemporary music in New York, called the "Bridge" Series, which was dedicated to performing new works by composers of various countries and continents, chiefly focusing on bridging together the musical cultures of Europe and America. I have obtained experience in concert producing during one of my trips to Moscow, Russia, when in May, 1990, I set up a concert of works by young American composers in the Big Hall of the Composers' Union Building in Moscow and, subsequently, in New York in 1991-1992, when I have set up a few concerts of contemporary composers at the Christ and St. Stephen's Church and the Nicholas Roerich Museum, in conjunction with a few colleagues.
The Bridge Series was formally begun with its first concert at the Bruno Walter Auditorium in the Performing Arts branch of the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, on March 10, 1993. That was the first of fourteen concerts, which I have arranged in that venue. In these concerts I have included compositions by many notable American and European composers. In the 1996-1997 season, the series essentially moved to the Nicholas Roerich Museum in uptown Manhattan, where I arranged two more concerts of the Bridge Series.
Though having a moderate slant towards the contemporary European avant-garde musical style, the Bridge Series was in fact interstylistic, presenting some of the best examples of the most diverse type of music, tonal and atonal, twelve-tone and microtonal, traditional and avant-garde, academic and bordering on pop music. One feature of the Bridge Series was to present, in addition to famous, well-known composers, who have received a deserved type of international success, composers of high quality who are still neglected and did not (yet) receive their due success, although they deserve to.
Another feature of the Bridge Series was to present well-known composers of the early 20th century, who have by now become classics of contemporary music, since those could be perceived as the necessary musical basis for the later composers. Thus, the Bridge Series has also featured works by Claude Debussy, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Igor Stravinsky, Carl Ruggles and Bela Bartok.
Among the (later 20th century) contemporary American composers, I could name Charles Wuorinen, Morton Feldman, Andrew Thomas, Dennis Riley, Johnny Reinhard, Ursula Mamlok, Steven Gerber, Robert Erickson, Meyer Kupferman, John Cage, Henry Cowell, Eric Ewazen, Dace Aperans, Scott Hawkinson, George Warren, George Crumb, Milton Babbitt, Jacob Druckman, Patrick Hardish and Joseph Pehrson.
Among the European composers I have included the works of Italians Luciano Berio, Luigi Dallapiccola, German Bernd Alois Zimmermann, French Olivier Messiaen, Dutch composer Jan-Bas Bollen, Swiss composer Jean-Luc Darbellay and Rumanian composer Liviu Danceanu. In the next-to-last concert at the Nicholas Roerich Museum, in fact, Swiss composer Jean-Luc Darbellay came over to New York to perform with his wife Elizabeth Darbellay on the basset horn, his son Olivier Darbellay on the cello and horn and French saxophonist Marc Sieffert and presented a program of music of Darbellay with other composers from Europe and Russia. Several composers from other continents (some of them presently residing in the USA) have included Tot-Thiet-Tat from Vietnam, Woo Shing-kwan from Hong-Kong, Mayumi Reinhard and Toru Takemitsu from Japan and Arthur Kampela from Brazil. During the last ten years I have been frequently traveling to Moscow, Russia, where I have established the connection with some of the most important Russian composers and making connections with musicians and composers in other cities as well as other former Soviet republics (Latvia, Ukraine and Moldova, to name but three), so I have used this opportunity to program some of the works by these composers on the Bridge Series.
Among the important Russian composers, performed in my series, I can name Dmitri Capyrin, Vladislav Shoot, Alexander Nemtin, Yuri Kasparov, Alexander Vustin, Victor Ekimovsky, Vladimir Tarnopolski, Edison Denisov and Vadim Karassikov. Composers from other former Soviet republics have included Leonid Hrabovsky, Alexander Grinberg, Alexander Shchetynsky and Alexander Gugel from the Ukraine, Peteris Vasks from Latvia and Ghennadie Ciobanu from the Ukraine. Finally I have included a few piano pieces by a set of early 20th century Russian composers, unduly forgotten by mainstream audiences, whose works have been suppressed by the Soviet regime and are experiencing a belated moderate amount of revival during the last ten years: they are Nicolai Roslavetz, Sergei Protopopoff, Alexander Mosolov and Vladimir Deshevov. Ensembles presented in the Bridge series ranged from solo to five or six musicians (15 in one unique case). In one case I have arranged a concert of all Polish music at the Kosciuszko Foundation in February, 1995: the program included music by Karol Szymanowski, Witold Lutoslawski, Henryk Gorecki, Jerzy Kornowicz, Andrzej Nikodemowicz and (Polish American) Marta Ptaszynska. Lastly I could list some of the more famous performers, who have performed at the Bridge Series: violinist Marc Steinberg, violinist Pavel Berman (son of Lazar Berman), pianist Nancy Garniez (director of the Alaria Chamber Ensemble), bassoonist and composer Johnny Reinhard, pianist and musicologist John MacKay and the "Helix!" Ensemble from Rutgers University, directed by Paul Hoffman.
Though,unfortunately I had to suspend activities of the Bridge Series while temporarily relocating to Moscow, Russia, having found a job here for the time being, I have lately been able to continue my concert series while in Moscow. On October 16th, 1999 I have set up a concert in the Big Hall of the Composers' Union Building in Moscow, featuring entirely the music of Moscow composer, Alexander Nemtin, who passed away in early February of this year. Nemtin has become famous for completing Scriabin's unfinished projected mystical piece, the "Prefatory Action" for orchestra, chorus, solo piano and color organ, set about to transform humanity and it was successfully premiered in Finland in March, 1997. Nemtin's own music has been sadly neglected and not given its due exposure, both by the neglect of the composer and by the hostility of the Soviet authorities and the Composers' Union. This concert, featuring Nemtin's piano and vocal-piano music, as well as video presentations and reminiscences by his friends, was the first concert devoted entirely to his music and a sequel concert is planned for October 28th, planned to take place at the Countess Shuvalova Hall in Moscow. On December 6th, there will be the first "Bridge series" concert in Moscow, as part of the "Music of Friends" Festival, sett up by the Russian Composers' Union. The concert will follow the format of the New York Bridge concerts though, in this case, will consist only of American music), and will feature pieces by such composers as Patrick Hardish Joseph Pehrson, Marc Grant, Joan Tower and Henry Cowell.
In addition to my concert arranging success, I have been lucky in having had my music performed in New York, Russia and Europe. My pieces have recently been performed at the Composers' Concordance concert series and the American Festival of Microtonal Music in New York, at the Alternativa Festival, Moscow Forum Festival and Moscow Autumn Festival as well as by the Russian-Swiss "Spectrum" Ensemble in Moscow, at the "Contrasts" Contemporary Music Festival in Lviv, Ukraine, at the "Europe-Asia" Festival in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia, at the "Days of New Music" Festival in Chisinau, Moldova, as well as a recital by Russian violinist Rodion Zamuruyev at the Sorbonne in Paris France. I also contribute articles, concert reviews and interviews to "Muzykal'naya Akademiya journal published in Moscow, Russia and to "20th Century Music" (San Francisco, CA) and "Ex Tempore" (Sunderland, MA) published in the United States.
Anton Rovner