Chronological Biography
Petr Kotik was born in Prague, the Czech Republic, in 1942. Studied flute with František Čech at the Prague Conservatory and Academy of Music, and with Hans Reznicek at the Music Academy in Vienna, Austria. Studied composition privately in Prague with Jan Rychlík and Vladimír Šrámek, and at the Vienna Music Academy with Karl Schieske, Hans Jelinek, and Frederich Cerha. In 1961, he founded and directed the ensemble Musica viva pragensis, and in 1966, the QUaX Ensemble, both based in Prague. In 1969, Kotik came to the United States upon the invitation from Lejaren Hiller and Lucas Foss to join the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In January, 1970, Kotik founded the S.E.M. Ensemble. In 1983 Kotik relocated to New York City where he continues to direct the S.E.M. Ensemble. From 1971 to 1977, Kotik taught flute at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He taught composition at York University in Toronto in 1975-76, and at the State University in Buffalo in 1976- 77. In 1992, Kotik founded the Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, which became recognized as one of the foremost large-scale new music groups. Since its debut in Carnegie Hall in 1992, the SEM Orchestra has been performing major concerts and tours at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center (1993,1996,1998, 2000, 2002), Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall (2005), Konzerthaus Berlin (1993), the 1995 and 1999 Prague Spring festivals, Oji Hall in Tokyo (1997), Spanish Hall at Prague Castle and Kunstmuseum Bonn (1997). Kotik is the founder and artistic director of the biennial summer institute and festival Ostrava Days, in Ostrava, Czech Republic, which was realized in 2001, 2003 and 2005. |
| Detailed Professional Background: |
| 1961-69 | Kotik performed as composer, director and soloist throughout Europe -with "die Reihe" and "les Percussions de Strasbourg," among others- as well as directing "Musica Viva Pragensis" and "QUaX Ensemble." Both groups toured extensively throughout Europe. |
| 1964 | In May, Kotik meets and performs with John Cage. Performs with Cage, David Tudor, and Frederich Cerha in Merce Cunningham Dance Company Event #1.
In September, Kotik performs with Musica viva pragensis at events by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in Prague and at Warsaw Autumn Festival. Among other pieces, performs Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra, Cage conducting, David Tudor at the piano. Following these performances a lifelong professional and personal relashionship evolved between Cage and Kotik. At Warsaw festival, the premiere of Kotik's Music for 3 in Memoriam Jan Rychlík to protests from the audience. Cage and Tudor were present at the concert. |
| 1966 | Commissioned by the Electronic Music Studio of the West German Radio in Cologne, Kotik created a live electronic piece Kontrabandt and a four channel tape piece PIUP. |
| 1967 | January-March residency at the Electronic Music Studio of the West German Radio in Cologne, realizing Kontrabandt.
May, touring with QUaX Ensemble with performances at WDR Cologne - premiere of Kontrabandt as part of a WDR "Music der Zeit" concert, also featuring premieres by Stockhausen and Johanes Fritch, QUaX Ensemble concerts in Rotterdam, Den Hag, and Amsterdam. |
| 1969-74 | Member of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at the State University of New York at Buffalo as a composer and performer. |
| 1970 | Founded the S.E.M. Ensemble. |
| 1971 | Started to compose There is Singularly Nothing (1971-1973), an extended work consisting of 23 parts without a general score. There is Singularly Nothing contains first vocal parts on texts by Gertrude Stein, written for Julius Eastman who joined the S.E.M. Ensemble at that time.
Touring with Frederic Rzewski through the North-East and Mid-West. |
| 1972 | First European tour with the S.E.M. Ensemble with concerts in Cologne, Aachen, Dueren, Berlin, and Geneva. |
| 1973 | Solo concerts in Buffalo, New York City and Europe.
Organized and directed (with support from The Rockefeller Foundation) Chocorua '73, a summer music school in New Hampshire, with David Behrman, Julius Eastman, Petr Kotik, Gordon Mumma, Frederic Rzewski, and David Tudor as faculty. |
| 1974 | Researched and prepared for performances the musical work of Marcel Duchamp. This led to performances and lectures on Duchamp's music, including those at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Detroit Institute of Art; the St. Louis Art Museum; the Nelson Art Gallery, Kansas City; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; La Jolla Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Kunsthalle Dusseldorf; Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Museum Bochum, Stadtisches Kunstmuseum Bonn, Centre George Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art ARC 2, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Wallraf-Richardz Museum, Cologne, Kunst und Ausstellungshalle Bonn.
Two European tours with the S.E.M. Ensemble, through France, Austria, and Germany. |
| 1975 | Started to compose Many Many Women, a major work on text by Gertrude Stein (novella of the same title) for six voices and six instruments (completed in 1978, complete performance lasts six hours).
Toured with the S.E.M. Ensemble through France, Holland, Norway, and Germany.
A mini-festival of four S.E.M. Ensemble concerts at "The Kitchen" in New York City. |
| 1976 | LP of Kotik's music entitled First Record on Cramps label, Milan. Also on LP of Multhipla label, Milan, the complete music of Marcel Duchamp with the S.E.M. Ensemble.
S.E.M. Ensemble tours through Germany and Italy.
National Endowment for the Arts compositional grant (to compose Many Many Women). |
| 1977 | January, residency with the S.E.M. Ensemble as part of the opening of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
First excerpt performance of Many Many Women at the Museum of Modern Art (ARC II) in Paris.
Performances with the S.E.M. Ensemble at Dokumenta in Kassel (Many Many Women), and at festivals in Como, Bolzano, and Lugano. |
| 1978 | Solo tour through South America, with performances and lectures in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Lima and Caracas. Also participated on the Symposium of Composers at the University of Sao Paulo.
Solo concert at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. |
| 1979 | Performances with the S.E.M. Ensemble at the HOT Music Festival in den Haag, Holland.
First complete performances of Many Many Women by the S.E.M. Ensemble at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, the Whitney Museum of American Art and Paula Cooper Gallery, both in New York City.
Many Many Women performed in London, Bochum, Berlin, and Prague.
Kotik started to work with texts by R. Buckminster Fuller. Two compositions with Fuller's texts were created: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking (1978-82) ca. 4 hours duration, and Commencement (1981) ca 30 min. duration. |
| 1980 | Many Many Women recorded and issued on Labor Records (New York) label (5 LP set).
South American tour with S.E.M. Ensemble through Lima, Santiago, Valparaiso, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Bogota and Panama City.
Italian tour with the S.E.M. Ensemble, performing at the Como Festival, with additional performances in Torino, Florence, and Bolzano. |
| 1981 | First excerpt performance of Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Many Many Women performed at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. |
| 1982 | Kotik initiated and participated on projects relating to the 70th birthday anniversary of John Cage: an exhibit of scores at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Centro Colombo-Norte Americano in Bogota, and the Centro de Arte y Comunication in Buenos Aires.
Kotik prepared with the assistance of John Cage the first complete performance of Song Books I, II by the S.E.M. Ensemble at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and at the Witten Festival in Germany. Kotik also conducted, as part of events honoring John Cage, the Concert for Piano and Orchestra and Atlas Eclipticalis in New York, Buffalo, Witten, and Cologne, Germany.
Solo tour through South America with performances and lectures in Bogota, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Sao Paulo.
Two major performances of Kotik's music at "The Kitchen" in New York: complete (6 hours) Many Many Women and complete (4 hours) Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking with Chamber Music (9 singers and 6 musicians), both performed by the S.E.M. Ensemble.
After more than a decade of compositions emphasizing the use of voices, Kotik returns to writing instrumental music. The compositional method also changes: works consisting of independent parts, Kotik composes complete scores again. Started to work on Solos and Incidental Harmonies. |
| 1983 | Premiere of Solos and Incidental Harmonies at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, and at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
Two European solo tours with concerts and recordings in Belgium and Germany. |
| 1984 | Solo tour through Holland and Germany.
New version of Solos and Incidental Harmonies performed at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and at the "New Music America" festival in Hartford, Connecticut. |
| 1985 | European tour with Pauline Oliveros through Austria (Wiener Fest Wochen) and Germany.
Initiated "New Music for High School Students," an educational project in collaboration with Herman S. Gersten of John Dewey High School in Brooklyn, New York. The objective is to work with a group of high school students, lecturing on and performing pieces by avant-garde composers. Guest composers participating in the program included, among others John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Elliott Sharp, Ben Neill, David Behrman, Fast Forward, Leroy Jenkins, George Lewis, and others. |
| 1986 | Solo European tour: A residency and performances with Group 180 in Budapest and Szeged, as well as solo recordings and concerts in Holland and Germany.
Appearance at "Mondays at Diane Brown" (a series of solo concerts featuring composers Elliott Sharp, John Cage and Petr Kotik), at the Diane Brown Gallery in New York City. Integrated Solo premiered at Diane Brown and at "New Music America 1986" festival in Houston, Texas. |
| 1987 | Ensemble piece Wilsie Bridge commissioned by WDR, Cologne.
European tour with the S.E.M. Ensemble through Holland, Germany and Switzerland, including performance prepared in collaboration with John Cage at WDR, Cologne, celebrating the 75th birthday of Cage.
New CD recording of the entire musical work of Marcel Duchamp for "Renee Block Edition," Berlin with performances by the S.E.M. Ensemble and John Cage.
Solos and Incidental Harmonies performed at Lincoln Center in New York.
Wilsie Bridge premiered in New York and Buffalo in a version with instruments and eight percussionists (S.E.M. Ensemble with the percussion ensemble Grupo PIAP from Sao Paulo). |
| 1988 | Solo and ensemble concerts in West Germany.
Solo performances at the Rotterdam Festival, Dusseldorf Kunsthalle and Kulturni Dum in Prague. Discusses with Vaclav Havel plans to use excerpts from his book "Letters to Olga" in a new composition.
All-Kotik CD (Wilsie Bridge, Solos and incidental Harmonies, Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking [15 min. excerpt]) on Ear-Rational label, Berlin, Germany. |
| 1989 | S.E.M. Ensemble Merkin Concert Hall performance with the complete ensemble (13 players) performance of Wilsie Bridge.
European tour with S.E.M. Ensemble through Germany and Italy including a 12-hour performance (8:30 pm to 8:30 am the following day) at the Mudima Foundation in Milan. First performances of Letters to Olga (on text by Vaclav Havel) at the Witten Festival in Germany and at the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. |
| 1990 | European tour with SEM Ensemble to Berlin, Prague, Munster, Bochum, and Dusseldorf. S.E.M. Ensemble performs Letters to Olga in Czech version in Prague.
S.E.M. Ensemble moves to its own facility at 25 Columbia Place in Brooklyn. |
| 1991 | Letters to Olga recorded in German for WDR Cologne. Final version of Letters to Olga performed at Paula Cooper Gallery in Manhattan. 3 European tours with concerts in Dusseldorf (and recording in Cologne with SEM), Prague (Soloist at the opening of Jan Koblasa exhibition organized by Vaclav Havel's office), and Helsinki (with SEM). |
| 1992 | Founded The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble. Conducted The SEM Orchestra in a 3-hour performance of Atlas Eclipticalis by John Cage and Fluxus pieces (Higgins, Mac Low, Yoko Ono, Watts, Shiomi, Wada) at Willow Place series in Brooklyn. Recorded with The Orchestra Atlas Eclipticalis and Concert for Piano and Orchestra by Cage for Wergo label.
Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking performed in 4-hour version at the Willow Place series in Brooklyn.
S.E.M. Ensemble CD, Virtuosity with Purpose, on Ear-Rational label, Berlin, Germany: includes Integrated Solos III (Also on the CD, pieces by Neill, Gibson and Behrman).
The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble (86 musicians) under Kotik performing 2-hour version of Cage's Atlas Eclipticalis October 29 at Carnegie Hall in New York. Atlas Eclipticalis was performed simultaneously with Winter Music, a solo piano piece performed by David Tudor. It was more than 25 years since Tudor performed such a major concert on an acoustical instrument. |
| 1993 | In May, Kotik conducted The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble in two concerts in Berlin, Carnegie Hall program repeated (this time two and a half hour long), at the Konzerthaus Berlin and music by Christian Wolff, Earle Brown, John Cage, Edgard Varese and Morton Feldman at the Akademie der Künste. David Tudor was the soloist at both concerts.
December 4th, The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, under Kotik, performs, at the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Program of music by Monteverdi, Cage (w. Tudor as soloist), Varese and Feldman. |
| 1994 | June 21, first performance of an early version of Quiescent Form by the SEM Orchestra, Kotik conducting, at the Willow Place Auditorium in Brooklyn Heights.
October 30, the 12-hour marathon 400 Years of Music in Prague at the World Financial Center in New York. Kotik designed the program of the event and prepared several segments as conductor and flutist. Kotik's Spontano (1964) for piano and 10 instruments received its New York premiere there. |
| 1995 | Revised Quiescent Form performed by the SEM Orchestra, Kotik conducting, on May 23 at Merkin Concert Hall in New York.
In April/May conducts the opera by David First The Manhattan Book of the Dead in a two-week run at the LaMama Theater in New York.
Conducts two concerts of the SEM Orchestra at the Prague Spring Festival, including Quiescent Form. S.E.M. Ensemble performances of Morton Feldman's For Philip Guston in New York (May 9) and Mainz, Germany (June 3).
Premieres works by Amina Claudine Myers, Roscoe Michell, Gerorge Lewis, and Wadada Leo Smith with the SEM Orchestra on June 17 and Sep. 16 in New York (concert produced by AACM).
In December, S.E.M. Ensemble records the 5-hour long For Philip Guston by Morton Feldman. |
| 1996 | Conducts the SEM Orchestra on March 25 at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Final version of Quiescent Form premiered.
In June/July, tours twice in Germany and The Czech Republic with S.E.M. Ensemble, performing in Bonn, Berlin, Bochum, Prague, and Southern Moravia works by Kotik, Cage, Niblock, and Duchamp, as well as Feldman's For Philip Guston in Bonn, Berlin and Bochum.
In August, conducts The Manhattan Book of the Dead by David First (new) production at the Waschhaus in Potsdam, Germany.
Conducts SEM Orchestra in premieres of music by Leroy Jenkins and Joseph Jarman in New York on November 2 (concert produced by AACM).
Composition award from the Foundation for the Contemporary Performance Arts. |
| 1997 | Records The Turfan Fragments by Morton Feldman with SEM Orchestra in March.
Conducts SEM Orchestra at the Toru Takemitsu Memorial Concerts at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York City (March 11) and at Oji Hall in Tokyo (March 18).
On May 15, conducted The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, premiering works by Maria de Alvear, Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Lucier, and Adagio by Petr Kotik.
In May/June performed Feldman's Why Patterns?, Crippled Symmetry, and For Philip Guston with S.E.M. Ensemble at Prague Spring Festival and at Triennale Köln.
September 25 to October 11, directed and programed the Music of Extended Duration festival at the Prague Castle with additional concert at the Kunstmuseum and Bonn. Conducted the SEM Orchestra in Prague and Bonn in a program of music by Cage, Feldman, and La Monte Young (Bonn only). In Prague performed the complete (6-hour) Many Many Women (S.E.M. Ensemble) and conducted the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra in the closing concert of the festival: 103 by Cage, Four Meditations for Orchestra (premiere) by Pauline Oliveros (Oliveros as soloist on accordion), and Canon (premiere) by Vlastislav Matousek.
November/December conducted SEM in premieres of works by Henry Threadgill, Frank Gordon, and Muhal Richard Abrams at AACM concerts at the Ethical Society in New York. |
| 1998 | On May 20th, premiered new work for orchestra Fragment at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble concert included, besides Kotik's Fragment also premiere of Fallen Heroes by Roscoe Mitchell, an excerpt form Handel's Solomon and Morton Feldman's For Samuel Beckett.
June 14 conducted The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble at the Willow Place Auditorium in Brooklyn, premiering, among others, Phill Niblock's Disseminate, and Sinan Savaskan's Symphony No. 3.
Conducted a fully staged production of the opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis by Viktor Ullmann at the Guggenheim Museum September 2 & 3 (excerpt) and September 15-19 at the Miller Theater at Columbia University.
Recorded with the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra 103 by John Cage for the Asphodel label (San Francisco).
Music for 3 performed at the Paula Cooper Gallery on December 22 as part of a concert in memory of Dick Higgins. |
| 1999 | Fragment performed by the SEM Orchestra, conducted by Kotik, at the Prague Spring Festival in a concert that included Varese, Cage, Roscoe Mitchell, and Telemann. At the festival, Kotik also participated as one of 3 conductors in a concert for 3 orchestras (Kotik conducted orchestra 1) which included Earle Brown's Modules I,II,III, the premiere of Diamonds by Alvin Lucier (commissioned by Kotik), Giovanni Gabrieli's Canzonas for 3 consorts (conducted by Kotik only) and Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen. |
| 2000 | In April, S.E.M. Ensemble celebrated its 30th anniversary with concerts at the Paula Cooper Gallery with the complete performances of Many Many Women and For Philip Guston by Morton Feldman.
On May 22, Kotik conducted, with Earle Brown, a concert at the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, "Tribute to Earle Brown," with five works by Brown, Varese, and Boulez. Kotik also conducted Improvisation 1 sur Mallarmé and Intégrales (Boulez and Varese) and with Earle Brown his works for 2 orchestras: Modules I,II, From Here, and Event: Synergy II.
On September 18, Kotik, together with Zsolt Nagy and Christian Arming, conducted a concert for 3 orchestras at the Warsaw Autumn festival in Poland: Martin Smolka's Nest (premiere), Alvin Lucier's Diamonds, and Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen.
SEM performs the opening concert of the series acoustICA at ICA London with Kotik's There is Singularly Nothing (90-minute version for soprano and 6 instruments) and works by Morton Feldman.
CD releases in 2000: Many Many Women (3-CD set) and For Philip Guston (4-CD set), both on Dog W/A Bone label (New York); a major release of orchestra music by John Cage conducted by Kotik: Atlas Eclipticalis with David Tudor performing Winter Music (2 hours 30 minutes long) - a live 1993 Berlin performance, and 103 recorded by the Janacek Philharmonic - 4-CD set on Asphodel, Ltd label (San Francisco).
Started to work on a new work for orchestra: Asymmetric Landing. |
| 2001 | Finished first version of Asymmetric Landing.
In February, premiere of Music for Cello and Piano, at Greenwich Music House in New York, a commission by the cellist Ariane Lallemand. Performed by Lallemand and Joseph Kubera.
In April, Kotik conducts SEM Orchestra in a major presentation of his compositions for orchestra at Merkin Concert Hall in New York. The program includes: Quiescent Form, Adagio, Fragment, and Asymmetric Landing (premiere).
In May, S.E.M. Ensemble performances of Letters to Olga on text by Václav Havel at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York and at the Prague Spring Festival and Janacek May Festival in the Czech Republic.
August 13-September 1, Director of Ostrava Days 2001 in Ostrava, Czech Republic, an Institute and Festival. Other participating composers were: Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff, Jean-Yves Bosseur, Somei Satoh, Maria de Alvear, Martin Smolka, Phill Niblock, and 30 students from around the world. At the Ostrava festival, Kotik conducted the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra (with Zsolt Nagy and Christian Arming) in premieres of works for 3 orchestras by Christian Wolff Ordinary Matter and Martin Smolka Observing the Clouds. Kotik also conducted JPO in the closing concert of the festival, which included the premiere of Kyokoku by Somei Satoh, by Morton Feldman and his own Asymmetric Landing.
In December, Dog W/A Bone label (New York) released a CD of orchestral works by Feldman performed by The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, Kotik, conducting: For Samuel Beckett and The Turfan Fragments. |
| 2002 | On April 24, Kotik conducts The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in a program which included the premiere of his Music in Two Movements, a combination of Fragment (as the first movement) and a finished version of Asymmetric Landing (as movement No.2). The combined duration of both movements is 55 minutes.
On May 14, Kotik conducts the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra at the Dům kultůry Vítkovice in Ostrava in a program which included Tristan und Isolde (Overture and Liebestod) and Coptic Light by Morton Feldman.
June 20 - 30, (10 performances) - conducts the opera Gilgamesh by Stephen Dickman at La MaMa etc. Theater (New York).
November 20, Kotik conducts the Earle Brown Memorial Concert at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
December 17, Kotik conducts The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble in a program which included the premiere of Christian Wolff's Peace March 8 in addition to Sweepers by Alvin Lucier, Overtures to Plateé and Nais by J.P. Rameau, and the final version of Asymmetric Landing. |
| 2003 | European tour in April with a concert at Podewil in Berlin. Music by Cage, Marcel Duchamp (realizations by Petr Kotik), and Instruments I by Morton Feldman (composed for S.E.M. Ensemble in 1974).
April 22, the entire (4-hour) performance of Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking on text by R. Buckminster Fuller at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York.
May 6, conducts the Janáček Philharmonic in a program of music by J.P. Rameau, Maria de Alvear, Somei Satoh , and the European premiere of Asymmetric Landing.
August 11-August 31, Director of Ostrava Days 2003 Institute and Festival in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Other participating composers were: Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff, Roscoe Mitchell, Tristan Murail, Phill Niblock, and 31 students from around the world. At the Ostrava Days Festival, Kotik conducted the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra (with Zsolt Nagy and Petr Vronsky) in premieres of works for 3 orchestras by Olga Neuwirth and an excerpt of his own Variations for 3 orchestras. Also conducted Violin & Orchestra by Morton Feldman with Hana Kotkova, Violin, among other works.
December 16, conducts and performs with S.E.M. Ensemble in a performance at Paula Cooper Gallery. Music by Christian Wolff, Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Sabrina Schroeder (a student at Ostrava Days 2003), Locus...doublure...solus by Olga Neuwirth (U.S. Premiere), and his own There is Singularly Nothing. |
| 2004 | January - March, Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) residency in Berlin.
March 21, conducts (with Zsolt Nagy and Petr Vronsky) the Janacek Philharmonic with members of the S.E.M. Ensemble at MaerzMusik 2004 Festival in Berlin, presenting the first major concert of music for 3-orchestras without Stockhausen's Gruppen. The program included Locus...doublure...solus by Olga Neuwirth, Ordinary Matter by Christian Wolff, Variations by Petr Kotik, and Three Orchids by Phill Niblock.
May - Concerts in the Czech Republic in Prague's Archa Theater and Brno's Exposition of New Music festival with the St.Vavrinec Quartet and Dama Dama Percussion Ensemble. Music by Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, and the premiere of the just finished Devin for female voices and 4 percussionists.
June 3, Kotik conducts the Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble with Thomas Buckner, Baritone in a performance at Merkin Concert Hall as part of the Interpretations concert series. Program includes music by Roscoe Mitchell, Christian Wolff, Alex Mincek, Phill Niblock and Quiescent Form by Kotik.
December 14, premieres of The Plains at Gordium for 6 percussionists and For ZS (performed by the ZS Ensemble) at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. |
| 2005 | March 14, Kotik conducts SEM Orchestra at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. The program includes J-P Rameau suite from Les Indes Gallantes, Webern's Symphony op. 21, Feldman's The Turfan Fragments, the premiere of Exploration of the House by Alvin Lucier and the American premiere of Kotik's Děvín.
May 28, Kotik conducts Morton Feldman's Violin and Orchestra with Hana Kotková and the Janacek Philharmonic at the Prague Spring festival. The program also included Five by John Cage, Suite from Les Indes Galantes by J-P Rameau and Overture and Liebestod by Richard Wagner with the soprano Sabine Hogrefe.
August 8 - 27, Artistic Director of Ostrava Days Institute and Festival in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Ostrava Days 2005 Festival premieres the final version of Kotik's Variations for 3 Orchestras and the European premiere of For Zs. At Ostrava Days, Kotik founded the international chamber orchestra Ostravská banda and conducts major works with both the Janacek Philharmonic and Ostavská banda, music by John Cage, Edgard Var´se, Morton Feldman, Alvin Lucier, Chritian Wolff and Louis Andriessen.
December 20, SEM premieres Spheres and Attraction for 2 voices, string quartet and percussion. The program also includes Vivaldi Flute Concerto "La Notte" (with Kotik playing the solo part) and music by Xenakis. |
