Accidental Music Festival pays tribute to New York composers at Will’s Pub Friday

The northward pull of New York on Orlando’s creatives is, well, magnetic, and Chris Belt, founder of the Accidental Music Festival, wasn’t immune – despite the fact that the new music series has continued here in Orlando, Belt and his wife, oboe player Beatriz Ramirez, have lived in NYC since 2012. Perhaps that has some slight influence on this show: “One of the themes for this whole season is New York composers. Almost everything that we’re doing has some connection to New York,” says Belt.

AMF’s October presentation of New York-based quartet Yarn/Wire was rapturously received by those in attendance; like that concert, this week’s show includes a 21st-century piece by seminal New York composer Steve Reich (“2×5”) on its program, alongside other challenging modern compositions. Both Belts will perform as part of Ensemble AMF, along with percussionist Thad Anderson, drummer Nik Ritchie, pianist Jamila Tekalli and a player we’ve managed to wrest away from New York: new Orlando Phil music director Eric Jacobsen, on cello. Here’s to reversing magnetic north.

8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4 | Will’s Pub, 1042 N. Mills Ave. | willspub.org | $10-$12

This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2015.