"Pritsker's music is not designed for easy listening or to melt into the background. It is insistent. It demands attention and curiosity.”
- Chuin-Wei Yap, New York Newsday,
February 19th, 2003

“...audacious ‘Reinventions’ mixed hip-hop turntable scratching (played on a laptopcomputer), flamboyant tango rhythms, an art-metal guitar solo and occasionally clubfooted beats, yet its Bach-derived framework was always evident. ‘Smaller Gates,’ ‘Circuit’ and ‘Lost Illusions 3,’ all by Mr. Pritsker, made strikingly idiomatic use of tricks from techno and hip-hop. The multitalented Mr. Pritsker even rapped capably during the first of two encores.”
- Steve Smith, The New York Times,
April 13, 2009

"Barring the obvious exceptions, much of 21st century composition appears to be thinning in significance, but this might be about to change. Gene Pritsker is one of a very spare handful of composers effecting this change, and evidence of this is found in the Varieties of Religious Experiences Suite"
- Raul d'Gama Rose, All About Jazz, June 2010
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"Gene Pritsker's music is much more than the sum of the elements involved. It's one of the more unusual works-performances I've heard in some time. It will no doubt appeal to those who look for rock that moves deeply into the "serious" music category. Those enthusiasts of contemporary classical and improvisation will find something very different here. No matter what camp you may be a part of, this recording will stretch the boundaries of what you expect."
- Grego Applegate Edwards
Gapplegate Guitar & Bass Blog, Aug. 2010
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“Pritsker dissolves the artificial boundaries between high brow, low brow, classical, popular musics and elevates the idea that if it’s done well it is great music, regardless of the style or genre.”
- Joseph Pehrson, The Music Connoisseur,
Fall 2001

“If they don’t send him (Pritsker) into an insane asylum, then he will be recognized as a genius”
- Dmitry Radyshevski, Insight
(Russian Newspaper), Jan. 1994

“A highlight of the evening was a rendition of a pulsating duet called Cauldron of Unsatisfied Hatred, composed by Gene Pritsker.”
- Brian Wise , New York Times, Oct. 2006

“Of the new works Mr. Pritskers Self Laceration (2006) was the most immediately striking. It begins with a rhythmically insistent, irresistibly zesty movement in which the focus moves briskly around the ensemble. The clarinet, violin, cello, flute and piano each have exposed lines that capture the character of the instrument and create a lively dialogue. The individual instruments speak in distinct, idiomatic voices. ”
- Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, November 2006

“Very original in approach”
- Barry L. Cohen, The Music Connoisseur,
Fall 1996

Read full press article in Newsday, by Chuin-Wei Yap here: Gene Pritsker's Unconventional Music

Other clips:

Pritsker is a rule-breaking composer-guitarist (and rapper) who impresses funk and rock beats onto classical structures.
- The New Yorker, Jan. 2010

"Anyone interested in contemporary guitar music and playing who has the versatility to appreciate both the classical acoustic and electric genre should be in possession of this CD......This piece (Quaalude & Fugues) is an incredibly imaginative, accomplished, and varied work for electric guitar. So far, I have encountered nothing like it for this instrument."
- Joseph Pehrson, The Music Connoisseur, Summer/Fall 2009
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Gene Pritsker's aptly named Sound Liberation are afraid of nothing, mixing rhythm and genre to the point where the listener simply gives up on labels and enjoys the ride! The quintet of guitars, cello, bass and drums generate a truly unique sound with plenty of group and solo improvisation building on Pritsker's strong compositions - comparisons with Sonny Sharrock are apt, but don't tell the whole story - grab this indie gem now!
- RootdownFM.com, 2010

“Lost Illusions is a fascinating and virtuosic soundscape...music to which one could not remain indifferent.”
- Brett Allen-Bayes, dbmagazine.com.au, March 2004

“Never had I heard Pritsker try to put all these elements together in one composition. Here, in Money, he does, and it is the apotheosis of his form. This is the best Pritsker work I have ever heard. We can only hope that Gene Pritsker, in his perfection of this very personal and idiosyncratic form and the strength of his exceptional talent, can reach the very pinnacle of the compositional mound.”
- Joseph Pehrson, The Music Connoisseur, Fall 2006

“Gene Pritskers Quartet Silence is Unhealthy shows how dull punches can look like musical enlightment. This is definitely more artful, but I'm not sure if it is healthier.”
- Ivona Jelcic, Kultur, Austria, Aug. 2007

"Open up Your Ears and Get Some: A glorious result it truly is..... This is the best Sound Liberation product so far." "There is something for every kind of music enthusiast in this album. This is part of the Sound Liberation philosophy." "Nerve Crashes is an amazing tour-de-force of harmonic and rhythmic writing. Harmonically it explores new places in progression. Pritsker gets away with this and still has, essentially, a pop song. Likewise, the rhythms are unusual"
- Joseph Pehrson, The Music Connoisseur,Winter/Spring 2009
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“Kinetic music, drawing heavily on jazz and rock styles.”
- Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, July 2000

“The prelude was loaded with pole-vaulting leaps between peals of mocking laughter. But it was that unbelievable ‘Blues Fugue’ that made me want to fasten my seat belt. Wild! ‘Essentially a Tragic Chaccone’ enabled me to recover, thanks to its contrastive mood, followed by an eclectic ‘Postlude’.”
- Richard Clark, The Northern Light, Jan. 2005

“Gene Pritsker's Serenade for Clarinet and String Quartet, performed at the Festival "Europe-Asia 2005" by the Lumina String Quartet and clarinetist Philip Bashor is a serious composition where the expressive idiomatic clarinet line is a part of an alive, flowing stream of sound. This line is clearly distinguished on the canvas of the composition. Also impressive is a successful realization of form, which is not necessarily the case with some other composers, who while announcing a certain structure give us in fact something entirely different. Pritsker's music has one immediately distinctive feature, particularly for a European ear: its musical language is peculiarly American. First of all the energy, density of texture, rhythmic variety and drive, constant tonal harmonic and enharmonic exchanges, sometimes with great frequencies. Excluded are conventional ways of developing, instead, it is an unending flow of changes of melodic and polyphonic elements. Pritsker's fantasy is unending and all these various elements are logical and convincing. Even when the elements seem unrelated, still one almost immediately can see strong connection. Gene Pritsker managed to create a well-proportioned dynamic composition that strongly represents the American school.”
- Writer and composer Oleg Lubivetz, Kazan

“The audience seemed to like the Music immensely - as did this listener - and gave the seemingly spirited performance a most enthusiastic and well deserved welcome.”
- Harris Goldsmith, New York Concert Review, March 1995

“Funny and fast, (the Music) required the soloists to switch from jazz to Beethoven, blues to bossanova, the Marseilles to improvisation with
split-second timing”
- Anemona Hartocollis, New York Newsday, Feb. 20th, 1995

“Talented composer”
- Vladimir Zak, New Russian Voice, April 1995

Pan(ic) displays a good deal of energy and is quite idiomatically written.”
-Hubert Culot, musicweb.uk.net, July 2004

Composer/performer Gene Pritsker’s Poetic Subjects Eternal II for ensemble, presented at New York University’s Frederick Loewe Theatre, off Washington Square, in New York City, on May 29, 2003, represents serious important work, employing the vernacular of our times, and fusing the best of that idiom with classical elements. What Pritsker is doing is using the technique of rap as a dynamic element of artistic creation. Performed by members of Mr. Pritsker’s eclectic hip-hop band: Sound Liberation, the series of poetic sound pieces were refreshing, exciting, ‘in-your-face’ real, and the music tracks were like nothing this reviewer has ever heard before (totally fascinating) and, clearly, superior to and occupying a different level than what is commonly heard in rap genre pieces as one walks the streets of the city, rides its subways, or just tries to get some sleep as a boombox with wheels passes by one’s bedroom window late at night.
-John de Clef Piñeiro, The Music Connoisseur

“A vivid, Exciting piece (“All I Want Now Is To Look At Life”) it is one I want very much to hear again.
- Paul Somers, The Star Ledger, November 29, 1995

“This is large audience music, and a lot of people would like it”
- Joseph Pehrson, The Music Connoisseur, Summer 1999

“Gene’s rap songs are clever, complex, and very interesting musically, exactly what the market stuff is not.”
- Barry L. Cohen, The Music Connoisseur, Fall 2001

NEWSDAY ARTICLE:

Gene Pritsker's Unconventional Music
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Composer combines classical, hip-hop and heavy metal sounds
By Chuin-Wei Yap
STAFF WRITER
Newsday, Inc.
February 19, 2003
In one corner of composer Gene Pritsker's studio in his Manhattan apartment, nestled in a jumble of equipment and scores, stands a Fender Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Stratocaster guitar. It is an aficionado's instrument, and it takes a second look for a layman to understand its sly, seductive subversion."It's an upside-down Strat," Pritsker, 31, explained. "Jimi used to play a right-handed Strat, re-strung for a left-handed person. This is a left-handed-looking Strat made for a right-handed player."

Pritsker's music, like that guitar, is about groundbreaking hybrids. Imagine three bars of a Bach cantata twirling faintly behind a hip-hop grind or Motown grooves trailing into a Puccini aria. Then imagine the heavy metal Black Sabbath classic "Paranoid," scored for a full orchestra. This latest venture from Pritsker has won the collaboration of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, which will deliver his composition as an encore at its American Lollapalooza festival Friday and Saturday.
Russian by origin, Pritsker labels himself a guitarist and rapper, but it is quickly apparent that these tags are a convenient concession. His appetite for marrying different sounds is insatiable. "Aesthetically, we should be able to appreciate music from any culture and genre," he said. "Stravinsky used jazz rhythms. Beethoven and Bach used drinking songs. Now it's all classical music. At that time, these were frat songs!"

The Brooklyn Philharmonic gig is far from Pritsker's debut. He's already had premieres of his compositions at Carnegie Hall and Athens Hall in Greece, as well as Sweden and Argentina. He plays in Manhattan clubs, like the Knitting Factory and Downtime, and has just completed a Canadian tour. But Pritsker never had it easy pushing his brand of music. He studied composition as an undergraduate at the Manhattan School of Music. The jazz and classical establishment there, locked in conservatism, had initially looked askance at Pritsker's work. One professor stormed out of a concert Pritsker held, and he was refused enrollment in the school's master's program. But Pritsker has his share of supporters at the school. "He's very gifted," said Giampaolo Bracali, a professor of classical composition there. "He was always a hard worker and very experimental. Those were the formative years."

Pritsker's music is not designed for easy listening or to melt into the background. It is insistent. It demands attention and curiosity. And it pays careful homage to the international roots it borrows from, down to the 12/8 African beats that he used for one piano and drum score.
Those more keenly attuned to new sounds recognize Pritsker's worth. "It's wicked, street-influenced New York, ahead of its time," said Kristjan Jarvi, conductor of the American Lollapalooza performance. "I'll approach performing Gene's arrangement like he does arranging it - as horror metal music, with an awesome groove."

Pritsker is no stranger to fording tough cultural boundaries. He grew up in a project in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Then more than now, it was a quiltwork of gangs, Italians, Asians, Russians and blacks, among others. The high school he attended made the headlines for shoot- outs. "I know people who got shot. I got jumped a couple of times," he said. "You grow up with this, it makes you stronger. It makes you see the darker side of life, and if you're smart, you don't stick to it, you see beyond it."
His father, a jazz saxophonist, and his mother, a pianist, escaped to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1978. In those difficult days, both parents struggled to land well-paying jobs in New York. His father became a piano tuner, while his mother took a succession of odd jobs.

Pritsker speaks of his parents with pride, letting on that his father now plays in a big band comprising fellow Russian musician immigrants who gave up their first loves for non-musical jobs. The Pritskers got their son on the violin when he was 4. But by 12, he'd switched to the guitar, "because I wanted to play metal." By 17, he had figured out how to write his own music and was immersed in a heady froth of jazz, classical music, pop and rap.

His parents' support carried Pritsker to the corridors of Manhattan's uptown conservatory. But the man remains a Brooklyn thoroughbred. "Brooklyn was my childhood," he said. "It's where I got my skills. It's an important part of my life."
An avid reader who can have six books - from Descartes to Dickens to Buddhist texts - going at once, Pritsker often allows literature and philosophy to sneak into his work. One composition, "Cancer Ward," takes its title from Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn's novel of the same name. The song's motif threads through a kaleidoscope of drumbeats, symbolizing the cancer in Solzhenitsyn's protagonist.
Today, Pritsker's output is prodigious, with more than 230 compositions under his belt. The musical styles on each new song shift as quickly as Pritsker can absorb new influences. "I'm a big filter," said Pritsker. "My whole thing is about anti-labeling. I just don't want people to say that my music sounds like something else."
Copyright (c) 2003, Newsday, Inc.