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» Selected reviews:
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Musical Themes, Covering Landscapes, Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, 10/7/2011
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In “The Night Mare” Christopher Cerrone uses an electronic drone and sudden mezzo-piano instrumental thwacks — actually toneless string and woodwind attacks with no follow through — to suggest the dark, eerie atmosphere of a dream gone wrong. With that as backdrop he builds gentle but anxiety-drenched themes from delicate, treble piano figures and fills out the texture with a blend of vibraphones and electronic timbres that together create the impression of a distant, wordless chorale. Mr. Cerrone’s scoring is skillful and economical, and he captures the spirit of a nightmare without diving into a sea of cinematic clichés. His piece was the program’s highlight.
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Honoring a Mentor, Muse and Colleague All in One, Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
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The second half of the program opened with chamber arrangements of Ives songs by Red Light’s composer-directors, Scott Wollschleger, Vincent Raikhel, Christopher Cerrone and Liam Robinson. Each made inventive use of the full lineup of the Red Light Ensemble, a woodwind, string and piano septet conducted by Ted Hearne. Mr. Wollschleger and Mr. Raikhel were the boldest in their textural reconfigurations, but the gentler pieces — Mr. Cerrone’s soft-hued version of “Serenity (A Unison Chant)” and Mr. Robinson’s cheerful “Memories” — proved the most effective.
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New Music New Haven [print edition], Daniel Stephen Johnson, The New Haven Advocate, 12/3/2009
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Perhaps the most satisfying piece on the program was Christopher Cerrone’s opera. . . Invisible Cities, a series of arresting musical moments exploring Italo Calvino’s novel. The harmonies were consistently rich and the music thoughtfully illuminated the text.
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Review: New York Youth Symphony, Jack Angstreich, Film Festival Traveler
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On this program we heard the world premiere of Christopher Cerrone's haunting Still Life with Violin and Orchestra. The eccentric, up-and-coming virtuoso Hahn-Bin -- perhaps as much a performance-artist as an outstanding musician -- brought a flamboyant theatrical dimension to the space as he took the stage to play, exquisitely, the beautiful solo-violin line.
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Music in Review [scan from the print], Nutida Music (Sweden), 3/2010
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Christopher Cerrone's album is characterized by a raw, unpolished sound. Cerrone is a doctoral student at Yale and the five short tracks are like little sonic fragments from every day life – the title "Five Days" thus feels appropriate. The timbres have a directness about them, whether it's the wind playing in chimes or atmospheric piano improvisations with superimposed textures. There's something mischievously "casual" about the whole production, while the combination of structural and unplanned elements result in a remarkable everyday poetry. [trans. Adrian Knight]
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SONiC Afterhours – Innovocal @ 92Y Tribeca, Jeremy Howard Beck, I Care if You Listen,
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…[T]he music didn’t disappoint. A short, tight program, Innovocal presented music by three composer-performers which falls somewhere between art song and singer-songwriter. Chris Cerrone’s Requiem [for KV]—a setting of a short, enigmatic text by Kurt Vonnegut, the piece’s namesake—layered Christiana Little’s delicate soprano on top of, below, and around itself, mainly on only three pitches: the first two notes of a C minor scale, and then the third an octave higher. The text hints obliquely at the planet’s response to the end of the world, or at least the end of life, and was written in response to the legendary author’s death in 2007. Remarkable, then, was the airy lightness and deep calm in the music, with the composer on live electronics.
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Red Light New Music at Rockwood Music Hall, Meg Wilhoite, Meg's New Music Blog, 11/7/11
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"Christopher’s piece, Hoyt-Schermerhorn, inspired by night-time NYC, and named after the subway station, combines warm, mournful chords in the lower register of the piano with jarring, sharp outbursts in the higher register. Having also spent quite a bit of time waiting in that particular station, I can say that Christopher’s piece captures beautifully the sense of desolation inherent in a sleepy local stop in Brooklyn."
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» Other Interviews and Articles:
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The Mix: 100 Composers Under 40, NPR, 4/17/11
Christopher Cerrone's Invisible Cities Gains Visibility This Weekend, WQXR, 5/13/11
Sleeping Giant Plays Well With Others, Residency at WQXR, 12/12/11
Invisible Cities Premieres Tonight!, Sequenza 21, 5/13/11
Chris Cerrone Interview, Composition Today, 4/06/10
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