The American Modern Ensemble presents the New York premiere of Lingua Franca, a new composition by David Feurzeig.

From the program notes: "Longfellow’s romantic notion that music is the “universal language of mankind” is not supported by modern scholarship, which suggests that English is today the world’s most widely understood language. Non-native outnumber native speakers almost 3 to 1, so in a sense those who fancy themselves English’s experts are only conservators of a minority dialect. This idea delights me. These five settings of found texts from around the world are an appreciation of the range of global English expression."

This work was premiered by the duo Low & Lower in 2016. Its Northeast premiere will be on Nov. 1, 2017 by the American Modern Ensemble at National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY.