Miscellany

The GVSU New Music Ensemble, which won nationwide notice back in 2007 with their buoyant recording of Music for 18 Musicians, have launched a project celebrating the centennial of the National Park Service. Eight composers — Alexandra Gardner, Molly Joyce, Betsey Biggs, Patrick Harlin, Rob Deemer, Jeff Herriott, Paula Matthusen, and Phil Kline — have been commissioned to write works related to one or another of the parks; performances at the designated sites will begin on July 1. Watch a video preview.... On a similar theme, Michael Gordon's Natural History will receive its first performance on July 29 against the backdrop of Crater Lake National Park, in Oregon. Teddy Abrams, the director of the Britt Festival, will conduct.... The twelfth edition of the Dog Star Orchestra, Michael Pisaro's annual festival of experimental music, is under way in Los Angeles....  The happy pandemonium of Make Music NY descends again on June 21; this year's Mass Appeal events feature accordions, bagpipes, cymbals, harmonicas, mandolins, and music boxes, among others.... The New England Conservatory's Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP), affectionately known as Sick Puppy, runs this year from June 19 to 25, with Vinko Globokar as composer-in-residence.... The NY Phil Biennial's Ligeti Forward series — the master's three concertos alongside various other works — can now be seen and heard online. Don't miss Pekka Kuusisto's furiously vibrant account of the Ligeti Violin Concerto, with Alan Gilbert leading alumni of the Lucerne Festival Academy.... Pierre-Laurent Aimard has added the Étude No. 2, "Cordes à vide," to his online project exploring Ligeti's piano music.