Flutist Peter H. Bloom to Perform World Premieres by Mark Harvey, Karl Henning, Charles Turner

SOMERVILLE, Mass. - May 31, 2014 - PRLog -- Flutist Peter H. Bloom, acclaimed for his virtuosity and versatility, will perform June 6 and June 7 with The 9^th Ear, a composers’ consortium, featuring two world premieres: Le Tombeau de W.A.G. by Karl Henning and Flute Dances by Charles Turner. The concerts will be June 6, 2014 at 8:00 pm at The Nave Music Series, Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, 155 Powderhouse Boulevard, Somerville MA 02144 (suggested donation $10); and June 7, 2014 at7:30 pm at Holy Trinity United Methodist Church, 16 Sylvan Street, Danvers, MA 01923.  The concerts will include other works by Henning and Turner, and music by Nancy Rexford.  Ensemble members are Peter H. Bloom, flutes; Karl Henning, clarinet; Dan Meyers, percussion; Nancy Rexford, piano; Charles Turner, voice and double bass; and guest artists Patchtax (Mary Joy Patchett, saxophone and Eve Boltax, viola).  For information:  9th.ear at musician.org

On June 28 at 8:00 pm, the legendary Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, one of the longest running large jazz ensembles in the world, will make its debut in the Nave Music Series, Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, 155 Powderhouse Boulevard, Somerville MA 02144. Suggested donation $10 to $15; information delamotte-amw at comcast.net or 617-776-8778.  The band will perform originals by director Mark Harvey, including the world premiere of Mo-Joe in honor of Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone.  Also on tap:  Harvey’s 2014 composition Spaceways, celebrating the Sun Ra Centennial and his piece Dreaming, featuring vocalist Grace Hughes.  Rounding out the show:  rarely heard selections from the Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn Far East Suite:   the exotic Mount Harissa and the raucous Blue Pepper.

Founded in 1973, The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra has been a force in the international jazz scene for more than 40 years.  The Boston Globe called the band “a genuine musical treasure,” while Jazz Review (UK) praised the band’s “exuberance, imagination and sheer brio,” and CultureJazz.Fr (France) wrote, “expansive harmony, brilliant music, discipline, openness, and freedom…an exceptional big band.”  The band has premiered more than 150 works for jazz orchestra; has released 11 CDs to worldwide acclaim; and performs widely in festivals, clubs, concert halls, colleges and universities, and other venues. Guest artists who have appeared with Aardvark include jazz luminaries Jaki Byard, Sheila Jordan, Jimmy Giuffre, Geri Allen, Lewis Porter, Vinny Golia, Dominique Eade, Jay Clayton, Paul Lovens, Rajesh Mehta, Matt Savage and Walter Thompson.

Mark Harvey is Aardvark’s founder, music director, and principal composer/arranger.  He has performed as trumpeter in the U.S., Mexico and Europe; has recorded with George Russell (Blue Note) and Baird Hersey (Arista/Novus); and performed with Gil Evans, Claudio Roditi, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers, Joe Carroll, Kenny Dorham and others.

Peter H. Bloom, flutes and saxophones, whose playing has been called “a revelation for unforced sweetness and strength” (The Boston Globe), performs diverse chamber music from period-instrument concerts to premieres of new music. He is also a noted jazz artist, praised for “exquisite melody” (JazzImprov) and “hip, jazzy flute work” (allaboutjazz.com).  He concertizes in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand; is featured on 40 recordings (Sony Classical, Dorian, Newport Classic, Leo Records, and other labels); and is a winner of the American Musicological Society’s Noah Greenberg Award.  He has given lectures, workshops and master classes across the globe on such wide-ranging topics as contemporary music, improvisation, exploratory jazz, historical performance and masterworks of the classical flute literature.

A champion of new music, Mr. Bloom collaborates extensively with composers and has given premieres of works by Richard Nelson, Mark Harvey, Elizabeth Vercoe, Peter Aldins, Richard Cornell, John Felice, Paul Brust, Narong Prangcharoen, Marianela Maduro, Len Detlor, Karl Henning, Pamela Marshall, Joseph Fear, Charles Turner, Matt Samolis, and others.  Original compositions, including numerous works written for him, have been a vital part of his concert tours for more than three decades, across forty states and four continents. He has performed in festivals and series for adventurous music, including the Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival, the Autumn Uprising Festival of New Music, Todd Brunel’s Vortex Series for New and Improvised Music, the Ninth Ear Composers Collective, Composers in Red Sneakers, and Underground Composers, among others.  In a collaboration spanning 20 years, Peter Bloom and pianist/harpist Mary Jane Rupert (the duo “2”) have toured the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand,  performing recent works by U.S, New Zealand and Thai composers.

Mr. Bloom’s career in jazz encompasses free improvisation, jazz standards, blues, bebop and the avant-garde.  He has appeared with Charles Neville, Jaki Byard, Sheila Jordan, Geri Allen, Taylor Ho Bynum, Walter Thompson, Raj Mehta, Mark Harvey and other notables.  A 37-year veteran with the internationally acclaimed Aardvark Jazz Orchestra (“a bracing walk on the wild side of the big band spectrum” JazzTimes), Bloom has performed at hundreds of venues and appears on eleven Aardvark CDs, including six discs on Leo Records, one of the world’s leading adventuresome music  labels. With members of Aardvark, he recorded improvised music for the National Film Preservation Foundation’s DVD series Treasures from the American Film Archives, which The New York Times called “one of the best sets of the year.”

Mr. Bloom is a noted interpreter of early music, and has given period-instrument concerts in the United States, Canada and Europe, appearing chiefly with Ensemble Chaconne (28^th season, praised for “vitality and character, style and verve” – MusicWeb International). He has served as historical performance consultant to The American Museum in Britain, The New-York Historical Society, The American Antiquarian Society and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (25 years), where he has given numerous lecture-demonstrations and recorded for the audio guide to historical woodwinds.

Mr. Bloom is a Board member of the James Pappoutsakis Flute Competition and serves as contributing editor for Noteworthy Sheet Music. www.noteworthysheetmusic.com  His arrangements and compositions are available on the NSM website.  Mr. Bloom is managed by Americas Musicworks, Rebecca DeLamotte, managing director.