The Present Music Sunday afternoon Thanksgiving concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist was thoughtful, engaging, and even inspiring, emphasizing choral music and featuring various performers from the community, as has been the custom for this event. The premiere of a stirring new piece commissioned by Present Music was the highlight. Brooklyn based composer Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984) chose lyrical poetry full of imagery by James Wright to set for the seven mov

Pop in to the first day of any music theory course, and you’ll learn that the three elements of all music are melody, harmony, and rhythm. If you’re precocious, raise your hand and request to add timbre to the list (“Row Your Boat,” after all, doesn’t sound quite the same on a kazoo as on a Stradivarius). But ask Present Music’s Kevin Stalheim, and he won’t hesitate to add “space” to the roster. After hearing PM’s annual Thanksgiving Concert, performed Sunday, as usual, at th

If the program features Native American singing and drumming, 12th-century chant, African-American spirituals, the world premiere of a commissioned piece and the wonderful bombast of 20th-century French organ music, it must be the annual Present Music Thanksgiving concert. Playing to nearly full Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, the Present Music Ensemble and artistic director Kevin Stalheim were joined by a host of professional and student musicians in a program that was