Beat Gene Pritsker! A Halloween Musical Showdown

Composers Concordance presents Beat Gene Pritsker: Think Beat Bobby Flay, but replace the kitchen with a concert stage, the secret ingredients with musical challenges, and the celebrity chef with composer Gene Pritsker.

This Halloween, Composers Concordance invites composers to enter the musical arena for 'Beat Gene Pritsker', an evening of competition, surprise, audience participation, and musical mayhem.

Four composers—Charles Coleman, Ginka Mizuki, Audrey Morse, and Will Rowe—will face off against Gene in a series of musical challenges. But this isn't your ordinary composition concert. The contestants won't always know which instruments will perform their music, and as the rounds progress, the challenges get bigger, longer, and more complicated.

The evening begins with solo pieces and moves through duos and trios before culminating in the ultimate Halloween musical showdown: Gene and the final remaining composer each writing a four-minute quartet. A panel of judges will score the works after each round, with composers eliminated along the way until only one challenger remains.

And there’s a twist: the audience gets involved! In the duo round, audience members help determine which instruments will perform the contestants' pieces. The composers must therefore write music capable of surviving whatever musical combination the audience summons.

The performers for the evening will be the CompCord Mixed Quartet:

Laura Patterson — flutes
Mark Zaki — violin/viola
Gottfried Stöger — tenor saxophone/clarinet
Sahara von Hattenberger — cello

Judging the musical battle will be:

Milica Paranosic — composer / designer
Linda Pehrson — dancer
Michelle Shocked — singer / songwriter
Dick Griffin — trombonist / composer

The rules are simple: write the music, face the challenge, survive the judges, and beat Gene. Each round raises the stakes, with composers eliminated along the way until one challenger reaches the final showdown.

And because it's Halloween, costumes are strongly encouraged! Come dressed as your favorite composer, musical instrument, terrifying avant-garde score, or whatever else you think might give you a competitive advantage.

Who will survive? Who will be eliminated? And, most importantly, can anyone actually Beat Gene Pritsker? Come to Gallery MC on Halloween and find out.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Bobby Flay, Food Network, or Beat Bobby Flay

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Event Details:
Beat Gene Pritsker!
A Halloween Musical Showdown

Date: Saturday, October 31 at 7:00 PM — Halloween!
Time: 7pm
Venue: Gallery MC
549 West 52nd Street, New York City

Composers:
Charles Coleman, Ginka Mizuki, Audrey Morse, Gene Pritsker, Will Rowe

Performers:
Laura Patterson - flutes
Mark Zaki - violin/viola
Gottfried Stoger - tenor sax/calrinet
Sahara von Hattenberger - cello

Tickets 
$20 in advance $30 at the door


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