The Commission for New and Old Art, and Riot Ensemble presents PIERROT.
Repertoire will be Arnold Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, and Hanns Eisler’s Fourteen Ways to Describe the Rain.
Line-Up:
Soprano – Lucy Shelton
Piano – Daniel Browell
Cello – Jonathan Pether
Clarinet – Elliot Gretsy
Violin – Marie Schreer
Flute – Amy Yule
Musicians are drawn from Riot Ensemble and the Halle Orchestra in Manchester. Lucy Shelton, a Californian living in Manhattan, pioneers techniques and approaches to 20th century post-tonal singing honed over her six decades of performance experience. She is making her Metropolitan Opera debut in the spring of 2026, at the age of 82. She is, quietly, a legend.
About Pierrot Lunaire
Pierrot has got an almost mythic reputation in certain music circles for being a complete game-changer in modern music; difficult to play, atonal, edged with magic, obscure, high brow. It is oft
en presented as a quite theatrical number, with its singer dressed as a clown, or nowadays with edgy visuals and mixed media presentations. Folklorically, people see it as one of the first pieces of “New Music’; music that apparently revolted against the 19th-century and ushered in angst-ridden, secular modernity.
About Us:
The Commission for New and Old Art is a non-profit CIC and collective of theatremakers, musicians, performers and writers based across Manchester, London and New York. Since 2022 we have been putting on concerts, centring an engagement with the 20th Century avant-garde in the hope that through an engagement with the old we might create the new.
About the musicians:
Daniel Browell enjoys a busy and varied performing career. Described as a pianist of “considerable intelligence and grace” (Tim Ashley, The Guardian), he has given concerts throughout the UK, Europe, China, and North America. His recital at London’s Purcell Room in the Southbank Centre and his concerto performance at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall received critical acclaim in the national press.
Jonathan Pether plays cello for the the Hallé Orchestra, Manchester Collective and Riot Orchestra.
Elliot Gresty is the principal bass clarinettist with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, joining the orchestra in 2023. Before joining the BBC Philharmonic Elliot enjoyed a varied freelance career, playing Bass clarinet with orchestras including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as guest principal clarinet with orchestras including the English National Opera, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Marie Schreer is Co-Artistic Director of Riot Ensemble/ Violin. Marie has given solo premieres at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Nordic Music Days. She holds the position of Section Leader Second Violins at The Hallé in Manchester.
Lucy Shelton is an American soprano and an internationally recognized exponent of 20th- and 21st-Century repertory, having premiered over 100 works by many of today’s preeminent composers. Notable among these are Elliott Carter’s Tempo e Tempi, Oliver Knussen’s Whitman Settings, Stephen Albert’s Flower of the Mountain. She has sung Pierre Boulez’s Le Visage Nuptial under the composer’s direction in Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Paris; performed György Kurtag’s The Sayings of Peter Bornemisza with pianist Sir Andras Schiff; and made her Aldeburgh Festival debut in the premiere of Alexander Goehr’s Sing, Ariel. Ms. Shelton has exhibited special skill in dramatic works, including Luciano Berio’s Passaggio with the Ensemble InterContemporain, Sir Michael Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage (for Thames Television), Luigi Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero (her BBC Proms debut).
Amy Yule is Principal Flute of the Hallé Orchestra, having previously held the same position with the Royal Northern Sinfonia in Gateshead. She has also appeared as guest principal flute with orchestras including the Philharmonia, Sinfonia of London, Academy of St Martin in the Fields and London Symphony Orchestra.
Commission presenters are Sam Fairbrother, Isaac Rose and Dex Chait Grodner.