Wednesday, January 04, 2006
...So that happened.
I have decided to join the band wagon and make a post for the new year and recapping last year.
First congratulations to Jerry on the first anniversary of the new Sequenza21 New Music community. (and a little thing called the Deems Taylor award.)
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2005 was a good year. I joined S21 in March after being a frequent visitor for a couple years.
In May my wife and I moved from Illinois back to Mississippi. (From the Land of noodles and potatoes to the Land of Gumbo and Crawfish....mmmmmm.)
There were a couple fine performances of my wind sextet and my Figment No. 2 for Violin.
Then the worst natural disaster that has ever hit the US came ashore basically down the road from me, it wasn't that bad of a year.
At least one of the worst things ever to happen to me was follow up by one of the greatest. My son, Asa was born on October 28. Since that day I have wondered why the hell I did not compose more music before Asa was born because I obviously had much more free time.
December brought a fine performance of my Figment No. 1 for Alto Saxophone. Which should be posted on the Listening room shortly.
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2006 already promises to be a good year. Premieres scheduled for February and two in May.
And I have already deemed my apartment a Mozart-Free Zone because of the overkill that will be the 250th anniversary of his birth.
So Happy New Year to the S21 family.
posted by Everette Minchew
11:38 AM
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Composer Everette Minchew (born 1977) is consistently active in the creation, performance, and promotion of contemporary music. Moderately prolific, his catalogue includes small chamber pieces for violin, piano, various wind instruments, harpsichord and electronic music. Current commissions include a string trio and an opera based on an 11th-century crusades tale.
His earliest musical training came at the age of eleven when he began playing alto saxophone; it wasn’t long until he began his first attempts in composition.
He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music History from the University of Southern Mississippi, where he studied saxophone under world-renowned soloist, Lawrence Gwozdz.
Fearing that traditional university training would hinder his development as a progressive composer, he abandoned the idea of formal lessons in favor of an intense private study of modern masterworks.
Minchew's works are characterized by their intense timbral explorations and brutal dissonance. That is not to say, however, that the compositions are devoid of beauty. In the first of the Two Brief Pieces, for example, the harpsichord chimes stringent yet haunting chords evoking a sense of loss.
Other pieces, like the Figment No. 2 "Juggler's Fancy" play upon the kaleidoscopic interaction between timbres and tones. The rapid alternation of pizzicato, arco bowing, and extreme glissandi remind the listener of Xenakis coupled with a Berio Sequenza. Minchew's Invention "Two-Part Contraption" for piano owes much to Ligeti's etudes and boogie-woogie jazz.
His music has been performed around the United States, and he was the featured composer at the 2005 Intégrales New Music Festival in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
He currently resides in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with his wife, Cheryl.
CONTACT INFORMATION
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