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Hazak Calendar

Events for 2023/2024 (event details coming soon):
2024: January 7, February 18, March 17, April 14, May 5, June 9, July 14

Hazak April Special Music Event

Sunday, April 14 at 2:00 PM.
     Registration is required. Click here or on the image below to register.

Come and see what Hazak is all about. For any questions, please contact Betty Clark.

About Foundation for Modern Music
Second only to the Houston Symphony in the number of composers featured annually the Foundation for Modern Music (FMM) provides a uniquely dedicated and growing performance platform for modern day composers and performing artists. Founded in 1986, with concerts beginning in 2002 at one central location and audiences initially averaging only 300 per year, FMM now presents citywide concerts in venues such as the MFAH, Zilkha Hall, Miller Outdoor Theatre, Rothko Chapel, and others with annual attendance of over 6,000 and growing.

Though FMM’s performances have expanded beyond Houston to reach as far as New York’s La MaMa Theatre and London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall, FMM also presents programs that draw international attention and talent to Houston, as exemplified by the Robert Avalon International Competition. Entries from multiple continents make this an international event unique to the region, positioning Houston as an important center for new composers on a par with cities such as New York, Chicago, and Paris. FMM also has engaged in numerous partnerships with other vibrant organizations such as 14 Pews, Blaffer Gallery, Greenbriar Consortium, MECA, Miller Outdoor Theatre, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Piping Rock Singers, and Rothko Chapel; most recently creating a new chamber music series for Galveston called “Bridging the Bay” in collaboration with Moody Mansion and Greenbriar.

We are gratified by these past and current accomplishments, excited by the phenomenal growth our program has experienced, and looking forward to the expansion of FMM’s mission while making Houston a better place where the arts continue to thrive and improve our communities.

About the Musicians:
Internationally acclaimed musicians Hankus Netsky (piano and accordion) and Eden MacAdam-Somer (violin, voice, and percussive dance) have been performing together since 2013, presenting Yiddish and Hassidic song and Klezmer dance tunes, drawing on their diverse backgrounds of Western classical music, jazz and international folk traditions.

Hankus and Eden collaborate with several top world musicians including a living legend Itzhak Perlman with whom they most recently performed at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.

A multi-instrumentalist, composer, and ethnomusicologist, Hankus Netsky is co-chair of New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Musical Arts Department and founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, an internationally renowned Yiddish music ensemble. He has composed extensively for film, theater, and television, collaborated closely with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robin Williams, Joel Grey, Theodore Bikel, and Robert Brustein, and produced numerous recordings, including 10 by the Klezmer Conservatory Band. He has also recorded with Ran Blake, Marty Ehrlich, Rosalie Gerut, Linda J. Chase, Theodore Bikel, Margot Leverett, and Cantor Jeff Warschauer. He received the Yosl Mlotek Award and a “Forward Fifty” award for his role in the resurgence of traditional Eastern European Jewish ethnic musical culture. He was also awarded a New England Conservatory Outstanding Alumni award, along with the school’s Louis Krasner and Lawrence Lesser awards for Excellence in Teaching. Netsky is a sessional lecturer at McGill University and has taught at Hampshire College, Wesleyan University, and Hebrew College. His essays on Jewish music have been published by the University of California Press, the University of Pennsylvania Press, the University of Scranton Press, Hips Roads, Indiana University Press, and the University Press of America, and Temple University Press published his book Klezmer, Music, and Community in 20th Century Jewish Philadelphia in 2015. Dr. Netsky is on the faculty of Silk Road’s Global Musician Workshop and performs regularly with violinist and vocalist Eden MacAdam-Somer, gospel singer Janice “Octavia” Allen, cantor George Mordecai, and in former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky’s “PoemJazz” project. He served as vice president for education at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass., and has been a key figure in Jewish cultural education workshops, including Klezkamp, KlezKanada, Paper Bridge, Yidstock, Aleph Ordination Week, Me’ah, and Circle Lodge. Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, Wesleyan University. B.M. with honors, M.M. with honors, NEC. Studies at Carnegie Mellon University. Jazz with Jaki Byard and George Russell; contemporary improvisation with Ran Blake. Former faculty of the Yiddish Folk Arts Institute ("Klezcamp") and Hebrew College.

Composer/performer/improviser Eden MacAdam-Somer is one of today’s most exciting and versatile artists. Hailed by the New York Times as reflecting "astonishing virtuosity and raw expression" her music challenges the boundaries of composition and improvisation and transcends genre, weaving in and out of the many cultures that have formed her experience. Eden has written numerous works for solo artists on voice, violin, and body percussion, such as Rumi Songs, a partially composed, partially improvised song cycle. Her works are performed internationally, and she has received commissions by such groups as the New Gallery Concert Series, Cuatro Puntos Resident Artists, the Providence Mandolin Orchestra, and the AURA Ensemble. Her 2015 live solo album, My First Love Story, was listed as one of the top ten jazz albums of the year in the Boston Globe. Eden is a full-time faculty member at the New England Conservatory, where she teaches courses, ensembles, and studio lessons, in addition to serving as Co-Chair of the Department of Contemporary Improvisation. A dynamic and passionate teacher, Eden works with each student to attain the skills they need to become creative and successful artists, strengthening unique personal style with a good foundation in aural skills and technical facility. Outside of the classroom, Eden maintains an active, eclectic international performance and recording career as a soloist and with such bands as Notorious Folk and the Klezmer Conservatory Band. She lives in Boston with her husband, (trombonist, artist manager, and videographer Aaron Hartley) and tree children.

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784