Jay C. Batzner is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida where he teaches theory, composition, and technology courses as well as coordinates the composition program. He holds degrees in composition and/or theory from the University of Missouri – Kansas City, the University of Louisville, and the University of Kansas.
Jay's music is primarily focused around instrumental chamber works as well as electroacoustic composition. His music has been recorded on the Capstone, Vox Novus, and Beauport Classical labels and is published by Unsafe Bull Music.
Jay is a sci-fi geek, an amateur banjoist, a home brewer, and juggler.
I can't say it. I just can't. Opportunities have been coming to me lately, from unexpected places, and I cannot seem to turn them down. Questions like "when do you need something" or "what is the latest deadline for this piece" have become parts of my vocab, sure, but saying n-? I can't say it. I feel like I need to seize upon every opportunity that comes along.
This is good and bad. Good because I have written a lot this year, all stuff that other folks have requested. Since the start of 2008, I've done a flute and tape piece, a marimba suite, a mixed instrument quartet, two short works for cello and piano, and a cello duet. I've put off a percussion quartet until next May but I have a movie score to do and yesterday I was asked to write something for an octet by mid-December (2 ob, 2 cl, 2 hn, 2 bn). I've started the octet and I've spent time watching the silent movie trying to find a good way in. The bad part is in being so busy I can hardly see straight. Things have suffered, but luckily nothing has suffered fatally so (except the podcast, which is in a better place now).
Don't get me wrong, "ich grolle nicht." I'm excited about all this stuff happening. I'm just afraid it might all disappear at some point. That would be bad. And, in my experiences, bad things are rarely good.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
10/25/2008
60x60 at World Financial Center
Rob Voisey asked me to share this with folks that might be interested. If you are reading this, you should be interested. If you aren't reading this, you should still be interested in it. I'll just hope you find out about it some other way.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
60x60 Dance pairs 60 composers with 60 choreographers for an electrifying one-hour multimedia performance
60x60 will take place at the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden, NYC on November 14
New York, NY – arts>World Financial Center is pleased to present 60x60 Dance – a multimedia extravaganza pairing 60 composers with 60 choreographers for a thrilling one-hour surfing of today's music and dance scenes. Envisioned by 60x60 project director Robert Voisey and choreographer Jeramy Zimmerman, this one-of-a-kind performance consists of 60 modern dance pieces set to 60 different and brand-new one-minute compositions. Dance influences range from ballet and tango to postmodern movements, while music includes medieval chant, neo-romantic chamber music, jazz, pop, electronica and everything but the kitchen sink. 60x60 Dance will take place on Friday, November 14 at the WFC Winter Garden at 12:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. The event is free.
"We're living in a world of information overload where channel surfing has become an aesthetic onto itself," explains Robert Voisey, founder and director of the new music consortium Vox Novus, which initiated the 60x60 project in 2003 with one-hour concerts featuring one composer per minute. "How short can a composition be for it to get its message across? Our goal is to disseminate the largest amount of music and dance to a broad spectrum of people."
Eclectic by nature, 60x60 Dance offers an unmatched diversity of aesthetics, styles and techniques, making for a fast-speed, exhilarating event which never ceases to surprise. Music selections for the WFC event have been culled from an international pool of emerging and established composers, and then assigned to an equally varied mix of New York-based choreographers assembled by Jeramy Zimmerman. During the event, the compositions will be played in succession over loud speakers. A large analog clock will keep track of time, with each minute marking the end of one dance and the beginning of another.
The 60 composers include Laurie Spiegel, Maggi Payne, Gene Pritsker, Christian Alequin, Robert Allaire, Nathan Asman, Gilberto Assis Rosa, Benjamin Boone, Adrian Borza, Courtney Brown, Paul Burnell, Russell Cannon, Nicholas Chase, David Claman, Jesse S. Clark, Adam Di Angela, Massimo Fragalà, William Francis, funf, Marji Gere, Josh Goldman, Alejandro Guerro, David Hahn, Cheyenne Henderson, Joel Hickman, Tilman Kuntzel, HyeKyung Lee, Cyprian Li, Sean Luciw, Gilles Maillet, Mike McFerron, Jordan McLean, Leslie de Melcher, Todd Merrell, Justin Merritt, Jeff Morris, David Morneau, Tim Mukherjee, Julia Norton, Junya Oikawa, Milicia Paranosic, Jeff Pfaumbaum, Bob Pollio, Schahram Poursoudmand (Lichtschrei), Jeffrey Raheb, Reconsiderate, Prent Rodgers, Paul Russell, Mark Scarpelli, Thorsten Scheerer ("Lilienweiss"), Dan Sedgwick, Louis Sellers, David Ben Shannon, Alex Shapiro, Nivedita ShivRaj, Alan Shockley, Patrick Smith, Mingzhu Song, Anthony St. Pierre, Robert Voisey, and Michael Wittgraf.
The 60 choreographers include Mary Cochran, Guta Hedwig, Pascal Rekoert/Flexicurve, Dixie FunLee Shulman, Marcella Alvarez, Germaul Barnes, Hettie Barnhill, Denise Binder, Samir Bittar, Deborah Black, Kim Blanchard, Jessica Bonenfant, Emily Bufferd, Preston Burger, Bryan Campbell, Veronica Carnero, Elana B Cohen, Ginger Cox, Alberto Denis, Jessica Desmond, Kathleen Dyer/KDNY Dance, Caron Eule, Julie Fotheringham, Marisa Jane Gruneberg, Alaine Handa/ A.H. Dance Company, Jen Harmer, CJ Holm, Lauren Holstein, Kaoru Ikeda, Erin Jennings, Beth Jucov/Dance Visions, Eun Jung and Guillermo/Da•Da•Dance Project, Lindsey Dietz Marchant, Jordan Marinov, Kate Patchett and Melina Gac-Artigas, Amiti Perry, Becky Radway, Cathy Richards, Dana Reed, Eryn Rosenthal, Lynn Marie Ruse, Laura Shapiro, Leanne Schmidt, Carrie Stern, Roses Taveras, Astrid von Ussar, Mojca Ussar, Raegan Wilson/The Luvley Rae, Yin Yue, Jeramy Zimmerman/CatScratch Theatre, Courtney Zbinden, and Rishauna Zumberg.
60x60 Dance is a collaboration with 60x60, a series conceived by Vox Novus, whose mission is to produce and disseminate new music to a large and diverse audience. 60x60 debuted in New York in 2003 as an electroacoustic "tape" concert featuring 60 short electronic works. Since then 60x60 has organized dozens of concerts in the U.S. and around the world, promoting the work of more than 1000 composers. It has also expanded to include yearly collaborations with other media, including video, photography, films, sculpture, and dance. Among recent concerts and collaborations are Canadian Mix (October 2008, Toronto's Nuit Blanche and Halifax), Midwest Mix (October 2008, Electronic Music Midwest), 60x60 Video (September 2008, French TV), and 60x60 Dance (September 2008, Galapagos). Every year, a CD is released to archive and preserve the music. The current discography includes 60x60 (2003) on Capstone, and two double-albums (2004-2005 and 2006-2007) on Vox Novus.
60x60 Dance is presented by arts>World Financial Center, which is sponsored by American Express, Battery Park City Authority, Brookfield Properties and Merrill Lynch, and is part of Arts World Financial Center's series New Sounds Live, curated by John Schaefer, host and producer of the popular WNYC Radio shows New Sounds and Soundcheck.
"Arts World Financial Center is engaging the public like never before," said Arts World Financial Center's Executive and Artistic Director Debra Simon, who recently expanded the program to Brookfield Properties' buildings in Los Angeles. "For over two decades we've engaged and entertained the public with hundreds of free events in one of the world's grandest public spaces, the World Financial Center Winter Garden. At 20, it is only going to get better."
Arts World Financial Center is sponsored by American Express, Battery Park City Authority, Brookfield Properties and Merrill Lynch.
For more information on Arts>World Financial Center, call (212) 945-0505 or click www.worldfinancialcenter.com.
For more information on Vox Novus and 60x60, go to: posted by Jay C. Batzner
10/22/2008
What a weekend!
I'll talk about Electronic Music Midwest (which was last weekend) in a future post. This coming weekend, though, has many Batzner-oriented activities. Feel free to mix and match based on your geography.
Friday, Oct 24, the Kansas City Electronic Music Alliance is presenting Carnival Daring-Do at la Esquina in Kansas City, MO.
Sunday, Oct 26, the Cadillac Moon Ensemble is playing Goodnight, Nobody at the Jan Hus Church (351 E. 74th Street) in NYC as part of the Vox Novus Composer's Voice Series.
Sorry about the shameless self-promotion, but this getting performances thing is pretty cool. I'm all for it. Tune in next time when I talk about other people's music.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
10/16/2008
Just in case
It is quite possible that this is the end of the Unsafe Bull Podcast. I've been having some hosting issues and if they can't get resolved soon, the podcast will be silent from now on.
It is rather prophetic that I run into these problems today as I try to post this week's episode. Give it a listen.
I find it also disturbing that this happens on number 86. Has the podcast been 86ed? Could be...
posted by Jay C. Batzner
10/11/2008
The word
This week I was at Southeastern Louisiana University doin' the Guest Composer thing. It was fun. I stayed with my friend Jeremy Sagala, a composer whose life seems to be on a parallel track to my own. We have experienced a lot of similar things in similar ways even though our music bears almost no relationship to each other. It is interesting how much sameness there is even when the music is totally different.
Anyhow, Jeremy said The Word to me. No, nothing religious. Nothing like that. This word was basically the single word summary of my musical language: recontextualization. My music runs on changing relationships between various amounts of material. It could be throwing very different things into a piece and showing how they connect or it could be moving quotations through various levels of ambiguity.
I've been saying for a while that the more I compose the less I really understand what I'm doing. Jeremy's observation was incredibly astute. I don't think I would have seen it, even though it has been starting at me for the last decade or so.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
10/03/2008
The Golden Path
I'm riding the wave today. I've been working on some cello and piano pieces for a performance in late November and I think I've finally done it. By "it" I mean stay out of my own way. The music is just being what it is going to be. I'm hardly fussing with it at all. Right now, at this very moment, this is the most gorgeous music in the known universe. And all I'm going to do is let it do what it needs to do.
I get in my own way a lot. I overthink. I "overwork the material" to use a Project Runwayism. My music is more successful when I just sit back and let the music simply "be."
This makes teaching composition a little harder for me. I think younger composers need to get in their own way for a while in order to discover their own road. Or, to use a Dune-ism, their Golden Path. There is a flow state in my composition lately that I've had to work hard to achieve. And working hard has allowed me to tap into this flow state more easily. But I had to work hard to make composition easier. I feel like there is a certain amount of hypocrisy in that philosophy. "Work hard so you can learn how to not work so hard."
Gah. I feel like I'm rambling. I'm just in the midst of writing some really beautiful music and I felt the need to share. The best part of this process is: I know that tomorrow I'll still think this is the most gorgeous music in the known universe.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
