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The Kronos Quartet is in residence at Carnegie Hall this week from Mar. 11-14, presenting four concerts in Zankel Hall and mentoring emerging string quartets.

I’m writing about their 3/11 concert for Musical America. Devoted entirely to the music of Terry Riley, it featured a number of new works by one of the founding fathers of the minimalist school of composition.

On Sunday I’ll be attending Kronos’ Music Without Borders concert, which features guest performers  Dohee Lee (Korea), rubâb master Homayoun Sakhi (Afghanistan), and Azerbaijani mugam performers Alim and Fargana Qasimov . The latter artists also perform on Kronos’ latest recording for Smithsonian Folkways, Music of Central Asia, Volume Eight (CD/DVD).

Sure, the recession has caused for cutbacks in the arts. But composers are a resilient bunch. This week, New York City will be the site for the first Composers Now festival. Coordinated by Symphony Space Associate Artistic Director Laura Kaminsky and composer Tania León, the festival involves a host of area venues and organizations.

The activities start Monday morning with a panel discussion and a marathon concert from 12-6. Tonight alone, there are events at Symphony Space, the Schomburg Center, the Morgan Library, the Jazz Gallery, and the Flushing Branch of the Queens Library.

Composers Now will run throughout the week – and so will our coverage on Sequenza 21. Steve Layton’s started things off with an interview of Michael Hersch. I’ll be posting an interview with Laura Kaminsky. We’d love to hear reports from attendees about the various Composers Now events: a truly ambitious undertaking that we hope lots of you will be able to enjoy.

For those readers who won’t be in the New York area this week: take heart. If all goes well, Composers Now hopes to create festivals in many more venues in years to come.

Wednesday night was the debut of the Orchestra of the League of Composers/ISCM — an improbable eighty-five years after the organization’s founding. As Jerry pointed out earlier, the NY Times included strangely sweeping and sadly misinformed coverage leading up to the concert. However, this did little to dissuade an enthusiastic audience from attending the performance. They were treated to quite an evening. Below are a few highlights:

-Lou Karchin: An excellent choice as conductor. Lou did a fine job leading the orchestra in a varied and challenging program.

-Musicians: Anyone acquainted with new music in New York was apt to recognize a number of the area’s finest participating. It showed.

-John Schaeffer: Despite appearing a bit rumpled onstage, the radio host lent star power, a sense of flow, and good-natured humor to the proceedings. His interviews with composers before each of their pieces were played combined user-friendly setups of the music with questions designed to let the audience get to know a bit about each composer’s approach and personality.

-Elliott Carter: Having one of the venerable co-chairs of League of Composers/ISCM’s represented on the concert was a classy move. The evening included a stunning performance of In the Distances of Sleep, Carter’s first settings of Wallace Stevens for mezzo-soprano and small orchestra. Soloist Kate Lindsey shined in these songs at the Tanglewood Carterfest last summer. If anything, her performance here was even more lovely; assured, nuanced, and tremendously attentive to every detail of diction and dynamic.  Schaeffer interviewed Carter before the performance. In response to a query about his continued productivity, Carter replied, “I’ve become fanatic about it. I don’t have any jobs to do any more. I can sit in a room and write music all day, and there’s nothing that pleases me more!”

 

-Gharra: Christopher Dietz’s sheepish admission that he knew little about ISCM prior to winning their composition competition(!) demonstrated that the organization still needs to do more to get out the word during this time of revitalization and re-branding. Still, Dietz’s captivating music is likely to have made the audience forget the gaffe rather quickly. He came up with the title (meaning “desert storm”) after composing the piece – with the help of Google and in consultation with an Egyptian-American cab driver. But Gharra’s strikingly dramatic formal design and fluidly varied pitch language – which encompassed everything from extended minor-key passages to supple microtonal bends – was worthy of the appellation.

 

-Alvin Singleton’s After Choice was simpler in design, but eloquently so. A string orchestra piece, it consisted of intertwining arco melodies and pizzicati, often in two-part counterpoint or – even starker – played in unisons or octaves. Written in homage to jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins, it didn’t feature anything so overt as jazz inflections. Rather, Singleton based the piece on string parts from a previous orchestral work that Jenkins had admired.

 

-Julia Wolfe’s The Vermeer Room is filled with beautifully sculpted, imaginatively scored verticals. The harmonic language and orchestration proved quite persuasive. I’m not sure I ‘grok’ the piece’s pacing just yet; I want to give it a second hearing before weighing in.

 

-Charles Wuorinen’s Synaxis featured four soloists in a sinfonia concertante that draws on the Orpheus myths as loose touchstones, Schaeffer was eager for Wuorinen to more precisely describe the connections between musical and extramusical inspiration; but the composer made it clear that this was no piece of program music.  Instead, the audience was treated to a showcase for four superlative soloists: oboist Robert Ingliss, clarinetist Alan Kay, French horn-player Patrick Pridemore, and double bassist Timothy Cobb. Cast in four movements, Synaxis gave each a chance to play with abundant virtuosity. The bass part displayed particular flair, and required more than a bit of courage: jaunty leaps, high-lying passages, and fleet bowed flurries. With its combination of careful ensemble coordination and bravura showmanship, Synaxis seemed an apt – and appropriately ambitious – way to end the 85th season of League of Composers/ISCM. Let’s hope for more orchestra concerts during their 86th year!

 

Two of the happiest experiences I’ve had as a composer were back to back summers (’98 and ’99) at JUNE IN BUFFALO. Held at SUNY Buffalo in upstate New York, the weeklong festival is a chance for ‘emerging’ composers to hear their music performed by top notch musicians and to have it critiqued by master composers.

By the end of the festival, they’re likely to have gotten a good tape of their piece, met performers and new music ‘movers and shakers,’ listened to nigh a hundred hours of  contemporary fare, gathered tons of ideas for new works of their own, and made some lifelong chums among the other emergent creators. To this day, I keep in touch with many folks I met at JiB.

This year’s festival runs from Monday, June 1 through Sunday, June 7. The senior composers are MARTIN BRESNICK, BERNARD RANDS, MATTHEW ROSENBLUM, HARVEY SOLLBERGER, and festival director DAVID FELDER. Ensembles include the Buffalo Philharmonic, Slee Sinfonietta (JiB’s in-house new music orchestra!), Meridian Arts Ensemble, Verge Ensemble, and the New York New Music Ensemble.

SUNY Buffalo has recently boosted its online presence in the new music community. The university’s Robert and Carol Morris Century for Twenty-first Century Music has launched a website offering programming from the past two years of JiB and other SUNY Buffalo new music activities. Alongside this is an addition to the blogosphere, entitled Edge of the Center.

There’s plenty to be excited about this year, but next year’s festival celebrates twin anniversaries: the thirty-fifth anniversary of JiB’s inception and its twenty-fifth since David Felder resurrected it from hiatus. Should be a loaded week!

While it’s been a while since I’ve gone to JiB, I have a few suggestions for attendees.

Bring extra copies of scores, parts, and recordings

 

Make enough business cards to share with performers, composers, etc.

 

That said, don’t force any of the above on anyone. Unlike some venues, the spirit at JiB is more about ‘building a new music community’ and less about ‘sharp elbowed angling for commissions.’

 

Bring non-perishable food: power bars, H2O, etc. Between lectures, seminars, rehearsals, concerts, and socializing, opportunities to eat are few and far between.

 

Leave yourself far more time to get out of the dorm than you think will be necessary. That place is a labyrinth!

 

Be polite to your performers and to the JiB staff. The week is a gauntlet: they are unbelievably busy!

 

Be a good colleague to your fellow composers. If you have something to say about their music, be constructive. Don’t use the masterclasses as an opportunity for one-upmanship.

 

Keep open ears. You may not like a certain style now, but getting a chance to hear all sorts of music at JiB may provide stimulus for projects or avenues of inquiry that you can’t yet foresee.

 

Don’t expect to get any new music written. The festival’s days start early and end late. Soak in the sounds. Get out and meet people.

 

Enjoy – you’ll never forget June in Buffalo.

Tomorrow, I’ll share some anecdotes from from JiB ‘98 and ‘99.

 

PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES BEIRUT, DOOM, FRIGHTENED RABBIT, LINDSTRØM & MORE TO PERFORM AT 2009 FESTIVAL!

As the Chicago winter reluctantly becomes the spring, and the charcoal grills and lawn chairs emerge from hibernation, the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival — to be held in Chicago’s Union Park Friday, July 17 through Sunday, July 19 — is pleased to be announcing even more undeniably unique and ground-breaking acts performing at this year’s event. Saturday will see performances by Beirut, DOOM, Lindstrøm, and Ponytail and on Sunday, the festival will be adding Frightened Rabbit, The Mae Shi, DJ/Rupture, and Dianogah to the ultimate festival lineup of the summer.

Those who remember the speed with which tickets sold out last year should not find it surprising that the number of 3-day passes is quickly diminishing and should be sold out within the week. Those who have not purchased tickets yet should visit the official festival website.

 Remember, ticket buyers can go online and “Write the Night” by voting for the set list of their dreams for the bands performing on Friday night. The ballot boxes are open until June 12. Those who have already purchased a ticket but have yet to vote should be sure to check their purchase confirmation email for a link to the polls. 

Friday – “Write the Night: Set Lists by Request”

Built to Spill

The Jesus Lizard

Yo La Tengo

Tortoise

Saturday

The National

Beirut *

DOOM *

Yeasayer

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

F**ked Up

Plants and Animals

Matt and Kim

Lindstrøm *

Wavves

Ponytail *

Charles Hamilton

The Duchess and the Duke

Disappears

Sunday

The Flaming Lips

Grizzly Bear

M83

The Walkmen

Pharoahe Monch

Blitzen Trapper

Frightened Rabbit *

The Mae Shi *

Black Lips

The Very Best

Mew

Vivian Girls

Japandroids

DJ/Rupture *

Women

Dianogah *

* Just added

About the Pitchfork Music Festival:

This year marks the fourth anniversary of the Pitchfork Music Festival — and the fifth time Pitchfork has presented a music festival in Union Park. The three-day event will once again showcase a wide range of global artists on three stages, with a focus on forward thinking programming at a reasonable price. Beginning with the music and continuing through all facets of its production, the Pitchfork Music Festival is dedicated to providing both attendees and musicians an overwhelmingly positive, comfortable, and fun experience. In years past the Pitchfork Music Festival has proven to be the best event to see indie stars in key, ascendant points in their careers, as well as a wide range of established and widely loved artists that appeal to a diverse audience.

An independently run, consistently sold-out festival, Pitchfork attracts more than 45,000 fans of all ages from 45 states and 11 countries. With over 50 individual vendors, as well as specialty fairs, the Pitchfork Music Festival offers attendees a wide range of activities on top of its stellar musical program. Additionally, the fest not only supports local businesses and the local economy, but also promotes the Chicago arts community as a whole.

Pitchfork Media is the premier destination for music criticism, news, features, and audio/video content. With more than 1.9 million unique readers per month and over 20 million page views, Pitchfork has earned one of the internet’s most loyal followings and a reputation as the music world’s primary tastemaker.

Tickets for the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival are on sale now. More bands will be announced in the coming weeks and further information can be found here.