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  • Christian Carey

    Christian Carey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Music Composition, History, and Theory at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. Degrees: Juilliard School (B.Mus. in Voice), Boston University (M.M. in Composition), and Rutgers University (Ph.D. in Composition and Theory); his teachers included Charles Wuorinen and Lukas Foss. He is active as a composer, performer, and music theorist.

    Dr. Carey’s research focuses on contemporary American music; his dissertation discussed Elliott Carter’s Fifth String Quartet. He has written about Babbitt, Wuorinen, Rakowski, and Feldman, and is currently at work on an article about the late works of Ralph Shapey for Contemporary Music Review. His articles and reviews have been published in Signal to Noise, Muso, Musicworks, Sequenza 21, Copper Press, All About Jazz, Pop Matters, and several other publications.

    His compositions have been performed by the New York New Music Ensemble, the Cassatt String Quartet, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Ionisation, and the Helix New Music Ensemble, at Lincoln Center, the June in Buffalo Festival, the Music Academy of the West, the Aspen Music Festival, Two River Theater Company, the Montclair Art Museum, the Progressions Series in Baltimore, Maryland, and Music ‘99 at the University of Cincinnati. Mourning Madrid, a work for orchestra and live locomotive, was commissioned by the Music Festival of the Hamptons and performed in July, 2004 by the Atlantic Chamber Orchestra and the Long Island Railroad in Bridgehampton, New York.

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Archive for the “Downtown” Category

Sep 11 2009

Evan Parker Residency at the Stone: October 1-16

Posted by Christian Carey in CD, Concert announcements, Downtown, ECM, ECM Records, File Under?, Improv, NYC, Uncategorized, experimental, jazz, live events, tags: , , ,
Evan Parker

Evan Parker

John Zorn’s The Stone is affording New York experimental and improvisation audiences an extraordinary opportunity this October. Saxophonist Evan Parker will play over twenty concerts in an extended residency at the new venue.

Parker is well known both for his solo concerts and for his work in a variety of group contexts. On June 30, he released Moment’s Energy, ECM’s fifth recording of the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, a group of more than a dozen improvisers from a number of disparate musical traditions.

Moments Energy

Moment's Energy

Thus, if you’re not in the area, you still have a chance to hear some of his recent music-making. But if you’re in striking distance of NYC next month, one imagines there will seldom be so many opportunities to hear this vital and fascinating artist at work.

Evan Parker Residency at the Stone: Dates

10/1 Thursday 8 pm
Evan Parker Solo (soprano and tenor saxophone)
The legendary saxophonist begins his two week Stone Residency with his ear bending solo music.

10/1 Thursday 10 pm
Evan Parker & Richard Teitelbaum
Richard Teitelbaum (electronics) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophones)

10/2 Friday 8 and 10 pm
Evan Parker, Okkyung Lee and Peter Evans
Okkyung Lee (cello) Peter Evans (trumpet) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/3 Saturday 8 pm
Evan Parker & Milford Graves
Milford Graves (drums) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/3 Saturday 10 pm
Evan Parker & George Lewis
George Lewis (trombone) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/4 Sunday 8 pm
Evan Parker, Mark Dresser and Gerry Hemingway
Gerry Hemingway (drums) Mark Dresser (bass) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/4 Sunday 10 pm
Gerry Hemingway, Mark Dresser, Evan Parker and Herb Robertson
Herb Robertson (trumpet) Gerry Hemingway (drums) Mark Dresser (bass) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/6 Tuesday 8 pm
Evan Parker & Sylvie Courvoisier
Sylvie Courvoisier (piano) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/6 Tuesday 10 pm
Evan Parker & Ikue Mori
Ikue Mori (electronics) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/7 Wednesday 8 pm
Evan Parker & Wu Fei
Wu Fei (guzheng) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/7 Wednesday 10 pm
Evan Parker & Henry Kaiser
Henry Kaiser (guitar) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/8 Thursday 8 pm
Evan Parker & John Zorn
John Zorn (sax) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/8 Thursday 10 pm
Evan Parker & Ned Rothenberg
Ned Rothenberg (reeds) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/9 Friday 8 pm
Evan Parker & Suzie Ibarra
Suzie Ibarra (drums, percussion) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/9 Friday 10 pm
Evan Parker & Cyro Baptista
Cyro Baptista (percussion) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/10 Saturday 8 and 10 pm
Evan Parker, Matt Shipp and William Parker
Matt Shipp (piano) William Parker (bass) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/11 Sunday 8 and 10 pm
IMPROV NIGHT—A STONE BENEFIT
Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone) John Zorn (sax) Ned Rothenberg (reeds) Okkyung Lee (cello) Ikue Mori (electronics) Sylvie Courvoisier (piano) Shanir Blumenkranz (bass) Eyal Maoz (guitar) and many special surprise guests.
Come out for this extra special Improv Night and help the Stone survive through its monthly Musical Rent Party—an East Village tradition!

10/13 Tuesday 8 pm
Evan Parker & Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell (bass) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/13 Tuesday 10 pm
Evan Parker & Chris Corsano (drums)
Chris Corsano (drums) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/14 Wednesday 8 and 10 pm
Evan Parker & Dave Holland
Dave Holland (bass) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/15 Thursday 8 and 10 pm
Evan Parker & Fred Frith
Fred Frith (guitar) Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

10/16 Friday 8 pm
Evan Parker, Tim Berne and Earl Howard
Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophones) Tim Berne (alto sax) Earl Howard (alto sax)

10/16 Friday 10 pm
Evan Parker Solo
Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)
The legendary saxophone innovator ends his two week Stone run with another virtuosic solo saxophone concert.

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Aug 21 2009

Glass on critics and adversity

Posted by Christian Carey in DVD, Downtown, File Under?, dvd review, minimalism
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts

Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts

Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts

Koch Lorber DVD

Composers need thick skins: critics can be brutal. One of the many virtues of Scott Hicks’ film Glass: a Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts is Glass’s candor with regard to the criticism he’s received throughout his career.

Indeed, when speaking with visual artist Chuck Close, Glass says, “I still have a very strong ‘hate’ faction.”

Close responds, “That’s good!” The two come to the conclusion that if an artist is too lauded, it means that they may not be doing original work.

Although he’s known for phenomenal successes and a mainstream reputation that’s unusual for contemporary composers, Glass has experienced plenty of privation, frustrations, and adversities along the way.

Whether you love his music or fall into the “hate faction” (Glass’ advice: “You have my blessings – go listen to something else!”) it is heartening to learn more about his early training, artistic trajectory, and creative process. Glass has developed a thick skin, but he’s willing to reflect on his critics without rancor, and often with witty humor.

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Jul 27 2009

Local Customs

Posted by Christian Carey in Analog Synthesizers, CD Review, Downtown, File Under?, Mutable, Uncategorized, Uptown, composer, contemporary classical, electronica, minimalism

Tom Hamilton
Local Customs
Mutable CD 17533-2
 Tom Hamilton

 Composer and electronic musician Tom Hamilton has been active for over forty years. Beginning his investigations with early analog synthesizers, he’s continued to explore the parameters of technology with instruments of his own devising. Developed during a residency in Italy in 2005, Hamilton’s “electronic harmony generator” is now his synth of choice. He deploys it in a mixed chamber setting on Local Customs, an album-length five-movement work.

Hamilton has appeared on more than sixty recordings, becoming primarily associated with Downtown, rather than Uptown, circles. But his music isn’t so easily pegged. Whereas much minimal electronica tends to limit the pitch palette, avoiding overt atonality in favor of an extended triadic vocabulary, Local Customs allows for a wide range of harmony. This includes Webernian pointillism as well as triadic synth pads and overlapping modal wind ostinati.

On “Corral,” points of stillness and tart intervals set against triadic underpinnings give one the sense of a slightly filled-in Morton Feldman. There are places, especially in the third movement, “Counterpoint Four,” where the gradual evolutions sound like Steve Reich’s phase patterns in slow motion. Noteworthy here are the low-register members of the ensemble, trombonist James Martin and bassist Terry Kippenburger, who keep up lithely with their wind section counterparts.

The final movement, “All the Mapping Shifted,” imbues the proceedings with a belated urgency; percussion interjects, while angst-filled intervals are articulated in the clarinet and flute. Disjunct melodies are given to each instrument in turn, while Hamilton’s generator provides a subliminal, yet oddly insistent, harmonic background. Local Customs is all the more interesting for its unusual place in the contemporary classical universe, bridging a range of playing manners and stylistic conventions to make a singular, satisfying, hybridized music.
 

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