BAMA is an organization that evolves according to the needs and aesthetics of its members. During the past 26 years, many ambitious and successful projects happened when one member opened an initiative to everyone, or just threw out a suggestion that caught fire. With that in mind, you are invited to suggest up to five ideas for concerts, events, guest artists, etc. Each proposal should be something that, if realized, you would participate in and somehow help to facilitate. Otherwise, any ideas are welcome, from the practical to wildly aspirational.
Please send to by August 17. Proposals will be compiled for a subsequent survey, the results of which will inform future programming.
Here are a few examples:
* String orchestra (4/3/2/2/1 or larger) * A series of concerts featuring new works for pipe organ, programmed in several regional churches, ideally in collaboration with the American Guild of Organists. * Trombonist specializing in new music, who, in addition to bringing repertoire, would consider new submissions (notated, improv, and/or electronic), and play solo or with BAMA performing members. * Iron Giant Percussion Quartet + Piano, in collaboration with choreographers and dancers
Concert location: Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts
Instrumentation: Any combination of string quartet, piano, mezzo-soprano, and soprano
Duration: No specific duration, though the concert will last one hour
Overview: BAMA is partnering with the UAB series “Chamber Music @ AEIVA” and the Alys Stephens Center’s “EMERGE Fest” to present a concert featuring “emerging artists” that connects chamber music with the art on display at the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts.
Eligible composers: This call is open to students and composers in the early stages of their careers. Submitting composers (1) must be full-time students or (2) must have had no commercial recordings, publications of their works, or ticketed performance by an orchestra or other large ensemble.
Art exhibit: Compositions must relate in some way to one or more of the following exhibits: Mary Frances Whitfiled “Why?”; Quention Morris “Meditations on Black”; Christina West “Unscene”. See below for descriptions of each exhibit and visit https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8ppdxvu0vcrzy8a/AABk1e_NA5A4B8H2sFD8ITHda?dl=0 for visual examples. The West and Morris images aren’t necessarily what will be displayed, but they give a sense of the artists’ work. The Whitfield is what will be on display.
Submissions: Send a PDF of your score plus parts to or mail a hard copy to:
Laura Usiskin 950 13th Street South, HC 231 Birmingham, AL 35294
Recordings are welcome but not required.
Submissions must include the following information:
Composer
Title
Duration
Date of composition
Instrumentation
Brief description of how the piece relates to the art
Co-curated by AEIVA Curator John Fields and
Dr. Brandon Wolfe, Assistant VP of Campus and Community Engagement in the
Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at UAB, Mary
Frances Whitfield: Why? is a collaborative exhibition between UAB’s
Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts the Birmingham Civil Rights
Institute.
This exhibition was developed in conjunction with the Jefferson County Memorial Project (JCMP), a grassroots coalition of community leaders working with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to retrieve Jefferson County’s memorial from the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. The mission of the JCMP is to bear witness to the country’s painful past and change the historical memory of Jefferson County to better include its history of racial terror and the legacies of racial injustice.
One of the most significant of Alabama’s
‘Outsider Artists’, Mary Frances Whitfield uses painting to create intimate
windows into her cultural past. Inspired by the rich and illuminative ancestral
history offered in the stories told by her grandmother, Whitfield’s paintings
present an affecting portrayal of daily existence for African Americans living
in the Southern United States during the 18th and 19thcentury.
WHY? presents paintings inspired by the artist’s first visit to
the BCRI. These works graphically depict horrific racial terror lynching
perpetrated against African Americans. This is the first time these works have
been exhibited in Whitfield’s hometown of Birmingham, Alabama
Quentin Morris: Meditations on Black
Exhibition
Description: Philadelphia-based artist Quentin Morris uses a variety of
mediums to explore issues surrounding identity, race, spirituality, and
cultural mythologies. What’s most interesting about this work is that for
nearly 60 years, Morris has explored these themes through an astoundingly
focused and prolific series of black monochrome paintings. These paintings are
wonderfully subversive and deceptive in their depth. This will be Quentin
Morris’ first major exhibition in the South.
Christina West: Unscene
Exhibition Description:
Christina West is an Associate Professor of Art at Georgia State University. West creates immersive sculptural installations that utilize figurative sculptures and the alteration of space to create psychologically charged environments. These installations explore notions of what the artist refers to as “individual subjectivity in our experience of reality, and the ways our physical encounters with spaces and with representations of bodies can affect perceptions of our own bodies.“
BIRMINGHAM ART MUSIC ALLIANCE PRESENTS IRON GIANT PERCUSSION
Percussion Powerhouse Performs Music by Local Composer
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Birmingham Art Music Alliance (BAMA) presents Iron Giant Percussion in a concert of music by regional composers.
Birmingham Art Music Alliance presents
Iron Giant Percussion
Thursday April 28, 7:30 pm
Hoover Library Theatre
200 Municipal Drive
Hoover, AL 35216
The concert will include music by Drew Pendergrass, Tom Reiner, Mark Lackey, Jody Landers, Monroe Golden and works by Iron Giant Percussion. In recognition of the 20th anniversary of BAMA, the group will revive Holland Hopson’s Quartet 60x88x120x208 for 4 metronomes. This piece was premiered during the first season of BAMA’s activity.
Iron Giant Percussion, or abbreviated in the most confusing manner possible, FeGP, is a contemporary ensemble based in Birmingham, consisting of Sam Herman, Brett Huffman, Seth Noble, and Justin Wallace. Established in 2011 to perform a collaborative piece with Sanspointe Dance Company, they subsequently presented four ambitious concerts in Alys Stephens Center’s Sirote Theater – each featuring some of the most influential and challenging percussion music from the 20th and 21st centuries. The group won the 2013 Clefworks Festival competition in Montgomery, where they performed with internationally acclaimed So Percussion group for the premiere of Jason Treuting and Josh Quillen’s Montgomery Double Music. FeGP’s acclaimed concert for the Birmingham Art Music Alliance’s 2012-2013 season featured an evening of world-premiere works by local and international composers. In addition to formal concerts, Iron Giant regularly participates in community and outreach programs through organizations such as BAMA, The Dance Foundation, Alabama Public Library Service, and Metropolitan Youth Orchestra’s Scrollworks. With each performance, Iron Giant aims to bring an answer to the most common question regarding percussion music: “Is that actually a thing?” That answer is a resounding, unequivocal “Yes it is!”
The Birmingham Art Music Alliance mission is to promote music by Alabama composers and present concerts of recently created art music to communities in Birmingham and beyond. Members include local composers, professional performers, students, and enthusiasts who wish to preserve and maintain the long tradition of music as a living art form.
The Birmingham Art Music Alliance presents Sursum Corda conducted by Lester Seigel in a concert of choral music featuring music by regional composers. This is Sursum Corda’s second collaboration with BAMA and their first performance at Southside Baptist Church.
Birmingham Art Music Alliance presents
Sursum Corda
Thursday April 7, 7:30 pm
Southside Baptist Church
1016 19th Street South, Birmingham, AL 35205
Free Admission
Sursum Corda will perform pieces by Birmingham Art Music Alliance composers including
I Sing – Ed Robertson
Cantate Domino – Adriana Perera
Grant Us Peace – William Price
I am a little church – Timothy Banks
Remember – Joseph Landers
Other works on the program include
Missa Brevis in Honorem Beatae Mariae Virginis – Kristina Vaskiliautskaite
Song to the Moon (La Luna) – Z. Randall Stroope
Absalom, My Son – Robert Sieving
Open My Eyes, That I May See – Lester Seigel
Wayfaring Stranger – American folk song, arr. Daniel Seigel
Lester Seigel, Sursum Corda’s director, says “The work of BAMA in the Birmingham area is a sign of the robust health of new music in Alabama and support given to these skilled composers. The works that were chosen are largely sacred in nature, and, though Sursum Corda no longer restricts itself to its original mission of performing only sacred works, such pieces remain at the heart of our programming and goal as an ensemble.” He continues, “…we are looking forward to our first performance in the beautiful atmosphere and acoustics of the Southside Baptist Church, which is becoming well-known for the diversity of its arts-oriented presentations.”
The Birmingham Art Music Alliance mission is to promote music by Alabama composers and present concerts of recently created art music to communities in Birmingham and beyond. Members include local composers, professional performers, students, and enthusiasts who wish to preserve and maintain the long tradition of music as a living art form.
Up next for The Birmingham Art Music Alliance
An Afternoon of Music for Wind Quintet and Piano
Sunday April 10, 2:30 pm
Brock Recital Hall
Samford University
800 Lakeshore Dr
Homewood AL 35209
New Music for Young Ears
November 8, 2014 at 4PM
STEP Birmingham (1101 18th Street South)
Music by Mark A. Lackey, Cynthia Miller, William Price, and Ron Wray. Click here for more information about this event.
Tim Feeney/Wendy Richman/Osiris J. Molina
Wednesday January 21, 2015 at 7:30PM
Moody Music Building Recital Hall, University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa)
Music for sundry combinations of clarinet, percussion, and viola/voice by Lori Ardovino, Monroe Golden, Holland Hopson, Jody Landers, Adriana Perera, William Price, and Ron Wray. Click here for more information about this event.
Beyond Twelve 2015 Tour
Wednesday, April 1, 7:30PM: Hoover Library Theater
Thursday, April 2, 7:30PM: Jacksonville State University
More dates TBA. Click here for more information about this event.
