 Current
Activities
A NEW PHOENIX ENSEMBLE RECORDING IS NOW AVAILABLE!!
We have signed with PARMA Recordings Navona label to release our new album featuring the music of Henri Marteau and Alexander Zemlinsky. Marteau's music is wonderfully charming and is widely unknown. We are happy to introduce his work to the public, including a world premiere recording of his Serenade Op 20 for winds, as well as his Clarinet Quintet, Op 13, and a beautiful early work by Alexander Zemlinsky, his Trio Op. 3.
PHOENIX ENSEMBLE: CHAMBER WORKS OF HENRI MARTEAU & ALEXANDER ZEMLINSKY is now available in CD format, digital download, or streaming, everywhere fine music is sold: Amazon.com, iTunes, ArkivMusic, Google Play, Spotify, and many others.
Click here to listen to a selection from Henri Marteau's Serenade: MARTEAU SERENADE OP 20 MOVEMENT 3
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Listen to recent live performances of our Phoenix Ensemble
Please click the links below:
 Mozart: "Non piu di firori" from La Clemenza di Tito, K621 St. Peters Church, December 2016
Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Quintet Op 115 Movement 3 St. Peters Church, December 2015
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Serenade No 11 K375 Movement 5 St Peters Church, November 2015
Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time Movement 7 St. Peter's Church, December, 2014
Aram Khachaturian: Trio Movement 3 St. Peter's Church, April, 2015
Johannes Brahms: Trio Op 114 Movement 1 St. Peter's Church, April, 2015
Oliver Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time Movement 1 St. Peter's Church, December, 2014
Robert Schumann: Violin Sonata No 1 Movement 1 St. Peter's Church, October, 2014
Bela Bartok: Contrasts Movement 3 St Peter's Church, October, 2014
Franz Schubert: Octet Movement 2 St. Peter's Church, October, 2013
You can also listen to full length Phoenix Ensemble live performances on our YouTube Channel:
PHOENIX ENSEMBLE YOUTUBE CHANNEL
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Phoenix Ensemble Performance Calendar
All of these concerts and events are free to the public
2017
Tuesday, December 12, 2017, 11:00am
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Monday, December 18, 2017 2:00pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Interactive Performance Workshop - Elliott Carter: Quintet for Clarinet and Strings
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Friday, December 15, 2017 2:00pm
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Tuesday, December 19, 2017, 1:00pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Thursday, December 21, 2017 2:00pm
Center on the Square
20 Washington Square North
(Wind trio works to be announced)
Elliott Carter: Quintet for Clarinet and Strings
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Monday, August 28, 2017, 2:00pm
Center on the Square
20 Washington Square North
Tuesday, September 5, 2017 11:00am
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Wednesday, September 13, 2017 2:15pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Interactive Performance Workshop - Elliott Carter: Esprit Rude / Esprit Doux
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Thursday, September 7, 2017, 2:00pm
Center on the Square
20 Washington Square North
Friday, September 8, 2017 2:00pm
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Tuesday, September 19, 2017 1:30pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Elliott Carter: Esprit Rude / Esprit Doux
Johannes Brahms: Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, Op 115
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Tuesday, April 25, 2017 11:00am
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Wednesday, May 3, 2017 2:15pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Interactive Performance Workshop - Poulenc Sextet for Piano and Winds
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Friday, April 28, 2017 2:00pm
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Tuesday, May 2, 2017 2:00pm
Sirovich Community Center
331 East 12th Street
Friday, May 5, 2017 1:00pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Francis Poulenc: Sextet for Piano and Winds
Claude Debussy: Three Selections from his Piano Preludes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quintet for Piano and Winds, K452
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2016
Wednesday, November 30, 2016 4:00pm
Sirovich Community Center
331 East 12th Street
Wednesday, December 7, 2016 2:15pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Tuesday, December 13, 2016 11:00am
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Interactive Performance Workshop - Music of Victor Babin and Maurice Ravel
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Wednesday, December 14, 2016 4:00pm
Sirovich Community Center
331 East 12th Street
Friday, December 16, 2016 2:00pm
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Tuesday, December 20, 2016 1:00pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Victor Babin: Hillendale Waltzes
Franz Schubert: Three Piano Pieces, D. 946
Maurice Ravel: Vocalise-etude en forme de Habanera
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: "Non piu di fiori" from La Clemenza di Tito
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: "Parto! Ma tu ben mio" from La clemenza di Tito
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Tuesday, September 6, 2016 11:00am
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Wednesday, September 7, 2016 2:15pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Monday, September 12, 2016 4:00pm
Sirovich Community Center
331 East 12th Street
Interactive Performance Workshop - Witold Lutoslawski: Dance Preludes
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Friday, September 9, 2016 2:00pm
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Wednesday, September 14, 2016 4:00pm
Sirovich Community Center
331 East 12th Street
Friday, September 16, 2016 1:00pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Witold Lutoslawski: Dance Preludes
Frederic Chopin: Polonaise in F-sharp minor, Op 44
Frederic Chopin: Polonaise in A-flat major, Op 53
Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Sonata in E-flat major, Op 120 No 2
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Wednesday, July 13, 2016 2:15pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Opera Workshop Performance: From Mozart to Bellini
Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart: Excerpts from Cosi fan Tutte
Vincenzo Bellini: Excerpts from I Capuleti e I Montecchi
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Wednesday, May 18, 2016 2:15pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Opera Workshop Performance: Bel Canto in Context
Robert Schumann: Kennst du das Land
Franz Schubert: Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt
Giuseppe Verdi: Excerpts from Rigoletto
Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart: Excerpts from Magic Flute
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Wednesday, April 20, 2016 2:15pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Opera Workshop Performance: Belllini
Vincenzo Bellini: Excerpts from La sonnambula
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Friday, January 22, 2016 2:00pm
92nd Street Y (Weill Art Gallery)
1395 Lexington Avenue
Darius Milhaud: Pastorale
Erwin Schulhoff: Divertissment
Jacques Ibert: Five Pieces for Trio
Ludwig van Beethoven: Duet WoO 27 No 3
Darius Milhaud: Suite d'agpres Corrette
George Auric: Wind Trio
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2015
Sunday, February 15, 2015 2:00pm
Lenox Hill Neighborhood House
331 East 70th Street
Darius Milhaud: Suite d'apres Corrette, Op 161
Ludwig van Beethoven: Duo No. III for Clarinet & Bassoon, WoO 27
Darius Milhaud: Pastorale, Op 147
Witold Lutoslawski: Trio for Winds
George Auric: Trio for Winds
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Friday, March 27, 2015 2:00pm
92nd Street Y (Weill Art Gallery)
1395 Lexington Avenue
Friday, April 10, 2015 1:00pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Gian Carlo Menotti: Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano
Aram Khachaturian: Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano
Johannes Brahms: Trio, Op 114
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Tuesday, September 8, 2015 11:00am
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Thursday, October 15, 2015 1:30pm
Sirovich Community Center
331 East 12th Street
Wednesday, October 21, 2015 2:00pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue (54th and Lexington Ave)
Interactive Performance Workshop - Alban Berg: 4 Pieces for Clarinet & Piano, Op . 5
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Friday, October 9, 2015 2:00pm
92nd Street Y (Weill Art Gallery)
1395 Lexington Avenue
Friday, October 16, 2015 1:30pm
Sirovich Community Center
331 East 12th Street
Friday, October 23, 2015 1:00pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue (54th and Lexington Ave)
Claude Debussy: La Fille Aux Cheveux de Lin
Andre Messager: Solo de Concours
Johannes Brahms: 6 Klaverstucke, Op 118
Alban Berg: 4 Pieces for Clarinet & Piano, Op. 5
Franz Schubert: Der Hirt auf dem Felsen
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Monday, November 9, 2015 2:00pm
Center on the Square
20 Washington Square North
Interactive Performance Workshop - Igor Stravinsky: 3 Pieces for Solo Clarinet
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Friday, November 13, 2015 2:00pm
Center on the Square
20 Washington Square North
Sunday, November 15, 2015 2:00pm
Lenox Hill Neighborhood House
331 East 70th Street
Darius Milhaud: Pastorale
Erwin Schulhoff: Wind Trio
Ludwig van Beethoven: Duo for Clarinet & Bassoon WoO 27 No 3
Jacques Ibert: Five Pieces for Trio
George Auric: Wind Trio
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Tuesday, November 17, 2015 11:00am
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Wednesday, November 18, 2015 2:00pm
Saint Peter's Church (Music Room at the Theater Level)
619 Lexington Avenue
Interactive Performance Workshop - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Serenade in E flat major K 375
Henri Marteau: Serenade, Op 20
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Tuesday, December 15, 2015 11:00am
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
Wednesday, December 16, 2015 2:15pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Interactive Performance Workshop - Mozart: Clarinet Quintet, K 581
Brahms: Clarinet Quintet, Op 115
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Friday, December 11, 2015 2:00pm
Center on the Square
20 Washington Square North
Monday, Decermber 14, 2015 4:00pm
Sirovich Community Center
331 East 12th Street
Friday, December 18, 2015 2:00pm
92nd Street Y (Weill Art Gallery)
1395 Lexington Avenue
Tuesday, December 22, 2015 1:00pm
Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major, K 581
Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Quintet, Op 115
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Phoenix Ensemble Recording
Music of Stockhausen and Schoenberg
Our Composer Workshop announces the release of a new recording on the Albany Records label. Our Phoenix Ensemble presents the first American recording of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Zeitmasze, and a fresh reading of a very important work of Arnold Schoenberg, his Wind Quintet, Op 26. Schoenberg's Wind Quintet was his first ensemble work written in the strict 12-tone method, and stands as a monumentally influential piece in the history of 20th and 21st century art music.
Click to buy this Phoenix Ensemble recording available on Amazon.com
This new recording was featured on the March / April 2013 Fanfare Magazine issue. This feature includes a spotlight interview with Mark Lieb discussing the recording and the Phoenix Ensemble.
This project took two years to complete and we are very proud to present it to you. The CD is available on Amazon.com, iTunes, emusic and Rhapsody. All proceeds generated from this project will be used for the direct expenses of our programs.
Click to listen to the 4th movement of the Schoenberg Wind Quintet
Reviews:
The music may be tough sledding for some,
but with first-rate sonics and first-class performances such as these, even such challenging music becomes
no more arduous than a vigorous walk through an unfamiliar park. Art Lange, Fanfare Magazine
The Phoenix Ensemble is a cracker-jack band of New York-based wind, brass, string, and percussion players.
They play with passion, commitment, and superb technique. I already cherish this release as a splendid
display of but one face of the wonderfully multifaceted world of 20th-century music. Peter Burwasser, Fanfare Magazine
Morton Feldman / Milton Babbitt World Premiere Recording
Our new CD featuring the Phoenix Ensemble performing the Clarinet Quintet of Morton Feldman and the world premiere recording of Milton Babbitt's Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet was released on July 9, 2009 on the Innova Records label. This recording was put on the semi-finals ballot for the 2010 Grammies in two categories, Best Chamber Music Performance, and Best Engineered Classical Album.
The CD is available on Amazon.com, iTunes, emusic and Rhapsody. All proceeds generated from this project will be used for the direct expenses of our programs.
 Click link for CD Promo: Feldman Babbitt Promo
Link to Feldman / Babbitt Quintets on Amazon.com
Milton Babbitt was one of the 20th century's most preeminent composers. He was a principal developer of postwar musical thought and expression, theory, and pedagogy in the United States, and his influence on American musical composition has been enormously significant. With his approval, we are happy to present this first look at his important masterwork.
Reviews:
It would be hard to conjure up two more dissimilar bodies of late 20th century American music than those of Morton Feldman and Milton Babbitt - the one contemplative and elusive, the other frenetic and hyper-cerebral. Yet by juxtaposing their works for the same performing forces (clarinet and string quartet), this intriguing disc from New York's Phoenix Ensemble uncovers some telling connections, even if the contrasts are more overt. Feldman's 1983 work (titled "Clarinet and String Quartet") unfolds in a series of gentle sighing figures, almost like the breathing of a large, furry beast; Babbitt's Quintet, written in 1995-96, leavens its intricacy with plentiful nods to jazz. What binds the two pieces, perhaps surprisingly, is the gestural richness they share beneath their very different surfaces, and the way each of them forges a rhetorical style free from the prescriptions of tonality. The performances, led by clarinetist Mark Lieb, are at once tender and incisive.
Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
The Pheonix Ensemble does a brilliant job in capturing the specific character of such radically different pieces of music. The Babbitt, by the way, receives its premiere recording—one wonders why such an exhilarating piece was neglected for so long. Highly recommended.
Art Lange, Fanfare Magazine
Feldman's "Clarinet and String Quartet" is filled with lush chordal voicing and beautiful, almost pastoral clarinet sections. The work makes for both a relaxing and uplifting listening experience. Babbitt's almost unknown "Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet" is much denser, brimming with angular clarinet lines and deliciously dissonant string parts, which interact with a ballet ensemble's grace. The ensemble's dynamics and careful attention to timbre balance make even the subtlest interactions clearly perceptible. New music this accessible is a treat.
Glen Hall, Exclaim.ca
The performances here are impeccable. Clarinetist Mark Lieb and members of the New York-based Phoenix Ensemble play with absolute commitment; their care in putting each of these pieces over with the intent to sell listeners on each composer's work is evident in the energy and nuance of their performances.
Stephen Eddins, allmusic.com
The Phoenix Ensemble's commitment to these works is implicit; their intonation, precision and palpable enthusiasm is conveyed in each measure. Despite the seeming stylistic disparity of the two works, the album flows effortlessly.
Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com
Fanfare Magazine Spotlight Interview:
Mark Lieb and the Phoenix Ensemble were spotlighted in the May/June 2010 issue of Fanfare Magazine. Mr. Lieb was interviewed about our Phoenix Ensemble Feldman/Babbitt CD and the work of Ansonia Music Outreach. Please click the link below to read the complete interview:
 Link to Fanfare Magazine spotlight interview and review
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Music of Jonathan Dawe
Our first commercial CD, featuring the Phoenix Ensemble and the chamber music of Jonathan Dawe, was released in August of 2006. The recording was produced by the label Furious Artisans and co-funded by the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. Information on the recording can be found at www.furiousartisans.com.
Link to Jonathan Dawe release on Amazon.com
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