Dr. William Schimmel will perform in two new operas on May 1 and 2 at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York University, New York as part of New York City Opera’s Vox Festival, a yearly festival that promotes the development of new innovative operas and presents them in the form of staged readings. He is performing in “Ratland” by Gordon Beeferman-an opera about a dysfunctional family and “Crescent City” by Anne LeBaron – an opera about New Orleans focusing in on Hurricane Katrina. Both parts were written especially for Dr. Schimmel.
“Ratland ”is a brutal modernistic piece which requires much physical and psychological energy in performance and “Crescent City” was written in such a way that Dr. Schimmel could utilize his many eclectic skills through various style shifts as well as improvisations.
On April 25, William Schimmel performed in Gerard Grisey’s Partiels with the Ensemble ACJW conducted by Mathais Pintscher at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. The work is scored for chamber ensemble with accordion and features the accordion in a highly textural manner. The late Gerard Grisey, whose early career in the 1960’s included being a Coupe Mondiale third place winner, was the forerunner of the Spectral School of music composition which is to create music based on the overtone series producing an end result which makes acoustical instruments almost sound electronic.
On May 16, William will perform a series of songs by composer Eric Salzman to texts by Bertolt Brecht set in French. Eric Salzman was the producer of the Tango Project, a series of hit recordings that included Dr. Schimmel on accordion. The performances will take place at the Southampton Public Library in Southampton, New York.
William also is featured in the upcoming film: “New York, I Love You” which should be in theatres in May. The music is by Paul Cantelon, composer of such films as “W” and “Everything is Illuminated”. The film is a series of short films by various directors. Shekhar Kapur directed the segment starring Julie Christie in which Dr. Schimmel can be heard. A new book on Tom Waits entitled “Lowside of the Road” by Barney Hoskyns will be released in May. It will contain some interviews with Dr. Schimmel and his time with Mr. Waits.
For further info: billschimmel@billschimmel.com
