Composers Concordance Presents Charles Vs. Gene at Kostabi World

For Immediate Release - New York, NY - On Thursday, October 31st at 7pm, Composers Concordance presents 'Charles Vs. Gene'. Charles Coleman and Gene Pritsker have been friendly adversaries for over 30 years. On the friendly side, they have performed each other's music and have a genuine admiration and respect for each other's "awesome" craft. On the adversary side, Charles and Gene have argued about the purpose of music, how it should be composed, arranged, performed, "mistakes" in each other's scores, composers that suck, don't suck, etc. A lot of these issues between them usually come up when there are a few beers involved....

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For Immediate Release - New York, NY - On Thursday, October 31st at 7pm, Composers Concordance presents 'Charles Vs. Gene'. Charles Coleman and Gene Pritsker have been friendly adversaries for over 30 years. On the friendly side, they have performed each other's music and have a genuine admiration and respect for each other's "awesome" craft. On the adversary side, Charles and Gene have argued about the purpose of music, how it should be composed, arranged, performed, "mistakes" in each other's scores, composers that suck, don't suck, etc. A lot of these issues between them usually come up when there are a few beers involved.


In the end, they decided.....let's settle this! Who is the better composer?!

So, on Halloween Night at Kostabi World in NYC, it's going to happen!


Both of them have composed four works each, with the same titles and instrumentation (clarinet, violin & piano). One of which is an arrangement of a work by their friend Mark Kostabi. He will judge which of the two arrangements of his music he likes best.

Other works involve the poetry of Imelda O'Reilly (sung by the mezzo soprano Sishel Claverie) and Robert C. Ford (who will recite his words as their music is being performed), both poets will judge which composer did the best musical setting of their works.


And finally! Charles and Gene have also written a work called "Versus" for the aforementioned instrumentation and the AUDIENCE gets to vote on which "Versus" piece they like best!


Moderator Seth Boustead will sit between the two composers on stage and make sure it's a civil competition and no one gets hurt. The music will be performed by The CompCord Trio:

Michiyo Suzuki - clarinet, Lynn Bechtold - violin and Markus Kaitila - piano​.


The concert will also be live-streamed on Composers Concordance's Facebook Page.

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