Andy Akiho may have started out as a performer only, but his heart has driven him to become not only a wonderful composer in his own right, but a composer/performer that creates some of the most wonderful and compelling sounding pieces combining steel pans with a variety of instruments from other great new classical musicians. Having studied composition with such greats as Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Ezra Laderman, and Martin Bresnick among others, Akiho had just recently won eighth blackbird’s inaugural Finale National Composition Contest. Andy talked to me about that and some of my favorite works of his.

CM: Can you talk about your beginnings as a musician and how it led to composing?

AA: I started when I was about 9 years old. My sister had a drum set, and she wanted to be a rock drummer. I wanted to be like my sister, so I really enjoyed playing the drums–it was a lot of fun! I just started playing the drum set, and my older sister would teach me the different grooves and different patterns of her favorite songs. I took it seriously, and I played rudimental snare drum throughout middle school and high school–I used to do drumline and stuff like that, and I ended up going to school for it. That’s how I got started with music and percussion.

Composition came later on. I didn’t consider myself a composer until I was 28. So, about 2007 was when I was trying to compose for other instruments besides what I was playing or teaching at the moment. I did a Bachelor’s at the U of South Carolina for percussion, where I was introduced to all types of ensembles: West African drumming, orchestral percussion, steel band, concert band, and drumline. Anything they had to offer, I was excited about because I wanted to learn everything about percussion. I always tried to create stuff, but I didn’t consider myself a composer yet. I moved to NY after that. I went to Trinidad a few times. I would teach steel bands in NY, and I would do arrangements for people. I started to do a few original things with steel bands–That was a lot of fun, but eventually I was telling Baljinder Sekhon II, a really good friend of mine and a great composer, that I wanted to start writing for other instruments–not just steel pan solos for myself. I was starting to write pan solos back then [2003-06], and he encouraged me to write for other instruments by going back to school to meet classical musicians that are into playing new music and are interested in what I was trying to do with the steel pans. I wanted to incorporate steel pans with other instruments, not just within jazz, but also within western classical contemporary music. So, I auditioned for the Manhattan School of Music contemporary program the first year they had it [2007]. I hadn’t played percussion for 6 or 7 years, only steel pans, so I had to work really hard for the audition–that was my door to start writing for the other instruments. I had many opportunities to perform, and had a lot of pieces written by other composers for the steel pan and other ensembles, but I was also given many opportunities to write them–that’s how I got more involved with composition.

By the following year, I just went crazy with composing! I didn’t sleep–I never slept, but I really didn’t sleep then! I was the only percussionist in that program at the time because it was a brand new thing, and I would play in all the ensembles and work really hard to try to learn my music, and then go home and compose all night. From there, that’s what really got me motivated to keep going with it. I was working with Julia Wolfe at the time, and she was a big inspiration for me to really push this and really go for it. Then in 2009, I ended up going to Yale. That was the first time I was actually going to school for composition, and that’s when I felt like this is my life from now on. Without giving up performing completely, I still wanted to be a composer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

CM: One of my favorite pieces of yours is “21″, and it had been played brilliantly by you and Ashley Bathgate–I loved the story she told about the two of you performing it and her having the lion’s share of the mechanics in that performance, but it had also been played by Mariel Roberts. Can you talk about this piece and their association with it?

AA: I met Mariel in 2008 at the Bang On a Can Summer Festival at Mass MoCA. When I was there in 2007, I was a percussionist, but in 2008 I got in as a composer, and I wrote a piece to be played there called “to wALk Or ruN in wEst harlem”. While I was there, I took every opportunity to have other pieces played and to perform with the other performers. We did a piece of mine called “I falleN TwO” for steel pans and string quartet–It was the first time I had written for strings. This wasn’t the premiere, but it was the second time the piece was played. Mariel was playing cello, and I thought she was amazing–Her timing, her rhythms–it was incredible for a string player to have such good timing, and I felt like she related to what I was trying to do with my music, especially with rhythm. We also played a show at The Stone that summer, and she asked me to write a piece for her recital at Eastman, so that’s how that piece started. I wrote it that October, then we played it at The Stone in November, and then in December we played it at her recital. When I met Ashley, I introduced her to the piece. I said to her “If you think this is something you are ever interested in doing, I’d love to play this with you sometime”, and she took it on and did a great job. I also performed it once with Dave Sedlins for the American Composers Forum New Music Salon in 2009.

Click here to view the embedded video.

CM: How did the CD No One to Know One come about?

AA: I wanted to make a CD for years. It was always my dream to record the Synesthesia Suite. I wanted to have the movements as different colors associated with each of the 12 key centers—plus white and black. It was always my dream to do all 14, and it ended up just being 6, but this worked out for the best. It was a better representation of who I was and where I came from at the time. While I was at Yale, I still wanted to have a performance outlet, whether it was a jazz or a chamber music setting. I went to this sushi restaurant called Misos, and I got to know the owner Ming Lau really well–he was like an uncle to me. He really looked out for us, especially the music students at Yale. I played a piece called “Aka” for his birthday, and when he heard it, he liked it and invited me to come play at the restaurant. Samuel Carl Adams was another composer I knew from Yale, so he and I got together and just started playing there twice a month, and we would invite other musicians from the school. Our main group included Sam Adams on bass and myself on steel pan. We had different drummers come in–Charlie Dye from Hartford, Sean Dixon or Kenneth Salters from NY–every now and then Mariel would come in. Maura Valenti would also play harp with us, and Domenic Salerni would play violin. Ming was the one that kicked-off the CD–he encouraged me to record it and he helped fund the making of the CD. I just didn’t have the resources to make that happen and still don’t to this day, so I’m very fortunate that it worked out.

CM: Another great piece you wrote is “Vick[i/y]” for prepared piano, and it was dedicated to and written for 2 pianists: Vicky Chow and Vicki Ray. Can you tell us about this piece and the 2 dedicatees?

AA: Vicky Chow and I started at Manhattan School of Music together in the contemporary program, and I was extremely impressed by her. I never heard piano played like that! She premiered the first piece I ever wrote that wasn’t just about steel pans, and my first piece that included other instruments besides percussion. It was called “Subconscious Inconsistency” and was written for the new music ensemble at Manhattan School. It was scored for 3 flutes–flute, alto flute and contrabass flute, soprano voice, trumpet, 2 percussionists (I was one of them, and my part had a lot of steel pan), piano (played by Vicky), and bass clarinet. Vicky blew me away with how she played, and I knew that I’d write something for her down the road–I knew it would be an honor to collaborate with her.
This was the same year (2007) that I went to that summer’s Bang On a Can festival as a percussionist, and I met Vicki Ray, who was a phenomenal player and a wonderful teacher too. She did a masterclass on prepared piano that just blew my mind. I’d heard the Cage pieces but I never really understood what was going on. She gave a masterclass on preparing the piano and all the different things that can be done with it. The thing that caught my ears the most was threading the dimes between the strings–when you played it, it sounded like a cross between a bell, a steel pan and/or a Balinese gamelan. It’s still one of my favorite sounds to hear, and that’s what inspired me to write the piece with the dimes in the strings, so I dedicated the piece to both Vicky Chow and Vicki Ray.
There are only eight notes in the whole piece inside a symmetrical scale. If you look at the title of it, ‘V’ would be the center of that scale, and it kind of mimics the spelling of their name going in either direction, but the ‘i’ or the ‘y’ can be, depending on the chord that was used, either B-flat or A-sharp. It was just a way to have fun with the sketches, and the process of coming up with the piece.

CM: Vicky [Chow] told me that piano technicians hate dealing with prepared pianos for concerts!

AA: Yes, I’ve gotten yelled at a lot for that piece, but that’s why we used dimes, so that it wasn’t too destructive to the piano.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

CM: Then this really great thing with eighth blackbird just happened with the Finale Composition Contest–Your piece “ERASE” was the chosen winner. Can you talk a bit about this event?

AA: It was hosted by American Composers Forum and MakeMusic, the makers of Finale. There was an anonymous call for scores–you had to send in 3 representative scores, and it was like many composer competitions. I was fortunate enough to make it into the finals, and I was in great company. I was really inspired by Eric Lindsay and Kurt Rohde. We got to go to Chicago to workshop the piece, and we had a good amount of time to work with them as well. I think each of us had 2 1/2 hours to workshop the piece with them, and the next night we had a concert where they played the piece in its entirety. We even got to interact with the audience. “ERASE” was originally titled “thE stReAm of conScious machinEry”, with capitals spelling “ERASE”, but we ended up just going with “ERASE” because we liked it better. It sounds like a bunch of machines taking over this nostalgic melody, and they kind of take over with their own conversation. I thought eighth blackbird did an amazing job, and it was an incredible experience working with them. I would be so happy if they recorded it!

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re reading this, eighth blackbird…

BONUS TRACK:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Andy Akiho.com
Andy’s offical website

Andy’s YouTube Channel

Bang on a Can is celebrating twenty-five years of music making in generous fashion. Between now and Jan. 25th, you can download their new album, Big Beautiful Dark and Scary, via bangonacan25.org. In exchange, they ask for an email address and a memory of a BoaC moment: the former is kept confidential, the latter is published in a scrapbook commemorating the album.

Think this is marketing against one’s own self-interests? Probably not. The iTunes version is for sale from 1/31, and features a bonus track of the ensemble performing Philip Glass’s Closing, with Glass, live. When the physical streets on 2/28, it will be a double disc of premiere recordings that will also feature films of the ensemble. So, instead of a “loss leader,” I tend to think of this release as downtown’s answer to Radiohead’s In Rainbows. In the meantime, Happy New Year, and happy downloading, all!

His latest recording on Cantaloupe, this was written by hand, was officially released yesterday.  The album is made up of two compositions, the title work this was written by hand and memory pieces, both performed by the gifted pianist Andrew Zolinsky, who gave the first performances of both them some years ago. Perhaps because they are played so beautifully on a solo piano, both works have a directness and approachability that make them among the most user-friendly and enchanting that Lang has ever written, IMHO.  What you have here, folks, is a mature composer in total command of his craft and his musical soul.

Ah, but you want to know about those extra hands, right?   One of the works on the album, wed, is  the subject of an online contest that some really talented but perhaps underappreciated pianst will win.  The sheet music for wed is available for free here and you are are invited to download it. Pianists can then post videos of themselves playing the work onto YouTube with the tag “david lang piano competition 2011″. After January 1, all of the submissions will be judged by an all-star pianist panel consisting of Vicky Chow, Jeremy Denk, Lisa Moore, Andrew Zolinsky, and the composer himself. The winner will be flown to New York, and Lang will compose a new work for four hands to be played by him/her and Zolinsky at (le) poisson rouge on May 6. The winner will also play his or her rendition of “wed” at (le) poisson rouge. The full rules can be found here.

Good luck.  I’m pulling for you.

Between November 15, 2011 and December 31, 2011, download the score to wed from David Lang’s memory pieces without charge from http://digital.schirmer.com/lang-contest
Learn the music and make a video of yourself playing it.
Post the video on YouTube.com by midnight (Eastern Standard Time) on December 31, 2011.
**IMPORTANT** you must tag the video with the following phrase: David Lang Piano Competition 2011

I spoke with David when he was in South Texas just last year about composition: http://vimeo.com/11256163

Tom Cipullo's The Husbands in Rehearsal

11/4 at 8 PM at Weill Recital Hall: Opera Shorts 2011

The third annual installment of the Remarkable Theater Brigade’s Opera Shorts program is this Friday. These mini-operas – ten minutes or less – are an emerging composer’s dream: a chance to hear a brief slice of their work on the stage. But Opera Shorts draws some heavy hitters to the mini-opera game as well. The 2011 installment features works by prominent songsters Jake Heggie, William Bolcom, and Tom Cipullo, as well as emerging creators Marie Incontrera, Mike McFerron, Davide Zannoni, Anne Dinsmore Phillips, Patrick Soluri, and Christian McLeer. Given the length of that list, it’s lucky that none of them have Wagnerian ambitions — this time out at least!

11/4 at 8 PM on the water: Bennett Brass at Bargemusic

BoaC. Photo: Pascal Perich and Julien Jourdes

Gorecki. Photo: ©Gerry Hurkmans

Don’t you love the one pound wooden box they’ve packaged the CD in? Don’t you love saying Slagwerk den Haag three times fast?

Below is a video with more information about the piece, including interviews with performers and the composer. If you’re in NYC and want to beat the heat, check out an iPad, and hear six percussionists knock wood, amble on over to Apple tonight.

Click here to view the embedded video.

TED’s slogan: “Ideas worth spreading.” We’re glad that Maya’s getting the chance to spread the word about Steve Reich’s Cello Counterpoint and David Lang’s World to Come far and wide!

10:50am. Just saw Asphalt Orchestra walking out their “march” right in front of me…have wanted to see these guys for quite some time and now they’ll be in my lap.

11:00. Not very many concerts ask you to go outside first, but here we are in the courtyard watching Asphalt Orchestra playing one of their opening numbers [update: Carlton by STEW and Heidi Rodewald]. The tourists who are here visiting are getting a real treat…watching Alex Hamlin blow a solo while running around the sousaphone player demonstrates how much fun they’re having.

11:10. Asphalt is now wandering away from the audience as they start the second piece (program’s inside, I’ll update titles in a sec – this one is the Yoko Ono work [update: Opus 81] she wrote for them last year)…everyone scatters to different areas of the courtyard, in the middle of the audience, etc…the light squealing of the revolving doors sounds like seagulls and adds to the subdued nature of the work. First long tones, then a skittering group improv, then a long succession of percussion hits and finally a long crescendo bring the work to a close…this is much more than just a marching band, folks.

11:20. Now they’ve led everyone back inside to a rousing rendition of…something funky. Carl Stalling would have loved it.

11:25. Bagpiper Matthew Welch is performing the 1st & 3rd movements of his work The Self and The Other with the Queens College Percussion Ensemble. Welch describes this work as taking its’ inspiration from Indonesian Gamelan, and the result works surprisingly well; the bagpipes’ nasal quality sounds very similar to indigenous reed instruments from Southeast Asia, so if you closed your eyes you would have a hard time recognizing the anachronism. The ensemble is capably under the direction of Michael Lipsey and the student performers are performing the intricate work quite well.

11:50. Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz has brought her flutist husband Alejandro Escuer to BOAC to give the NY premiere of her solo work Códigos secretos. Based in Mexico City, her works and talents are gradually being recognized here in the States. Beginning with a rhythmically complex barrage of key clicks, pops and overblown wind noises, the work bursts into a curiously-flavored lyrical passage that is accompanied with some of the tastiest electro-acoustic I’ve heard to date (and more or less in good balance with the flute – bass end is a bit much, but it’s a huge hall/mall we’re in, so maybe they’re trying to compensate). Escuer is a first-rate flutist and gives a very natural performance to the work.

12:00. Anthony Gatto’s Portrait of Eva Hesse is performed behind the audience by the Queens College Percussion Ensemble again with the professional group Iktus Percussion. Just when you thought it was just going to be drums, out comes the brake drums and gamelan-like metalliphones – lots of sound, lots of color…a very dramatic work. Percussion ensembles should check this one out…but make sure y’all have a LARGE hall, ’cause it’s freakin’ loud…

12:10. JACK Quartet, this generation’s answer to the Arditti Quartet, gives a heartfelt rendition of Richard Ayres‘ Three Small Pieces for String Quartet. The second movement is kicking my ass….parallel lines a half-step apart fly on top of ostinati. Third  movement is a tongue-in-cheek jig/waltz/freak-out…I wish I had written this. Strike what I said before…this generation’s answer to Kronos may be more apropos. The turn-on-a-dime performance was spot on.

12:25. Waiting for the Prism Saxophone Quartet to start performing…must give huge props to Christina Jensen for allowing me to hide my luggage so I don’t have to deal with it today. Thanks, Christina!

12:30. Kati Agócs is a fantastic composer who just started teaching at the New England Conservatory a few years ago and has been getting noticed all over the place as of late. Prism is performing a work of hers, Hymn, that they just released on their new album “Breath Beneath“…slowly unfolding, Hymn shows off the dynamic range of the quartet in a short but powerful work.

12:40. Word to the wise…if you want to come watch for a long time, bring your own chair. I’m pretty sure these folding chairs are against the Geneva Convention…

12:45. Violinist Todd Reynolds has been a mainstay on the new music scene for a very long time and has been focusing on works for solo violin and electronics for several years. His work Transamerica is a world premiere today; Reynolds wrote this work in collaboration with the DJ artist Kid Beyond and it’s found on his new CD Transamerica. A complex layering of loops from both Beyond (pre-recorded) and Reynolds (live), the work kicks into high gear from the get-go. Col legno-with-a-pencil effects contrast nicely with traditional fiddle techniques all on top of raucous DJ loops. I’m liking this a lot, but the kickdrum is a bit loud and overbalances the violin at times…it’s tough to tell whether or not that’s intended or not in this room.

12:55. What do you follow up the Reynolds’ hard-rockin’ violin-with-electronics piece with? Xenakis, of course. Prism comes back and performs his seminal 1987 work Xas, known throughout the saxophone world as one of the most challenging works in the quartet repertoire.

12:57. I’m sure I’ll mention this throughout the day, but it’s fun watching the reaction of folks who are just walking through the mall complex when they’re suddenly presented with something like Xenakis.

12:59. Multiphonics on a baritone saxophone. Some things just make you smile…

1:03. The orchestration books will tell you that the saxophone has a range of 2 1/2 octaves. These guys are so fluent in the altissimo register that they need to re-write the books.

1:08. An Italian new music ensemble performing works by British & American composers up next.

1:10 Glenn Branca just walked by. More about him later tonight (and I thought it had already been loud…)

1:20 Sentieri Selvaggi is presenting works by Michael Nyman and Michael Daugherty…two composers rarely paired up together. Love Always Counts is a work that uses material from an opera by Nyman entitled Love Counts that deals with Love and Mathematics that Nyman put together for this ensemble – an updated version of the Nyman music I’m used to from earlier periods, this is a nice bouncy piece that most Pierrot+Perc ensembles should be able to easily add  to their repertoires.

1:29. Michael Daugherty introduces his work Sinatra Shag by alerting us to the quotation of Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made For Walking. This piece is pure Daugherty, with a similar 1960′s feel that he incorporates into Dead Elvis and other works, complete with maniacal violin solos (he does love some violin from time to time). Sentieri Selvaggi performs both Nyman and Daugherty works with the right amount of technical finesse and musical freedom…one of many new discoveries for today.

1:35. Roshanne Etezady just took a picture of the audience from the stage. If you’re in the room, tag yourself on Facebook. Go ahead…I’ll wait.

1:45. Prism returns for a third time to perform Roshanne’s beautiful work Keen…she’s not afraid to single out soloists within the quartet and weave a canonic texture into something living & breathing. Fine performance by what’s got to be one of the best quartets in the world today…have never got to hear ‘em live before and I’m very glad I did today.

2:00. Sentieri Selvaggi comes back and introduces the audience to three new works by Italian composers. Fillippo Del Corno’s Risvegliatevi!, Mauro Montalbetti’s Brightness and Carlo Boccadoro’s Zingiber all show off the talents of this ensemble…Del Corno’s grooves contrasted nicely with Montalbetti’s lush and subtle soundscapes, while Boccadoro’s playful romp through the countryside (with many cowbells, natch) ended the trifecta nicely.

2:05. Just realized I’m sitting in front of Steven Swartz of dotdotdotmusic. Check out his tweets of the marathon here.

2:10. Asphalt Orchestra comes down both escalators on either side of the stage…sweet! Just performed two newer works – one by David Byrne & Annie Clark (Two Ships) and Thomas Mapfuno (Ngoma Yekwedu). You. Must. Check. Them. Out.

2:25. Next up: The All-Stars.

2:27. Composer Christine Southworth asks everyone to go to the website pooch.es as they listen to Concerning the Doodle by the Bang on a Can All-Stars.

2:31. Evan Ziporyn has a wind controller…more to come.

2:41. Not sure what to make of Southworth’s piece yet…it’s gone in several directions, each one interesting but not sure exactly how they relate. Asks pianist Vicki Chow and cellist Ashley Bathgate to sing while playing…and guitarist Derek Johnson to get all Peter Frampton-y. Pretty cool stuff.

2:52. Kudos to the folks who re-booted the network server…much better now.

2:56. Currently listening to O Shut Your Eyes Against The World by longtime BOAC collaborator Bryce Dessner…nore singing (not lyrical stuff, just textural) from Chow again…slowly evolving harmonic palettes over a constant 8th-note ostinato rhythm. Some balance issues again…so far the acoustic+electronic/amplified works are not faring as well as the strictly acoustic. I’d heard this is a hard room to work sound in, but I’m not sure it’s the room…

3:40. Next up – Young People’s Chorus of New York City with Maya Beyser on cello, Payton MacDonald on tabla and the composer of the work Hijaz by Michael Harrison, on a digital piano that’s been adjusted into just intonation.

3:43. Young soprano and cello in octaves. Yumba.

3:47. Sumptuous piece by Harrison…the just intonation gives it a bit of an other-worldly quality without being distracting, and the choir is amazing. Hearing Beyser live for the first time was reason enough to come to the marathon…awesome. Having the choir voice the tabla syllables was a great touch.

3:53. By the way, the YPC is under the damn fine direction of Francisco Nuñez. #concertprogramfail

4:01. 1/2 of the guitar quartet Dither, Taylor Levine and James Moore are performing a new work by David Lang entitled warmth. It’s a duet in the sense that there are two instruments playing, but they’re both playing the same line, so as Lang says, the interest lays in how the lines stay together and diverge naturally. Interesting concept…will have to chew on that one for a bit…

4:07. Someone’s gonna have to do some ponderin’ on the electric guitar as a concert instrument (I’m sure they have, I’m just sayin’…)

4:10. Next up – two great sounds that sound great together. JACK Quartet and the Young People’s Choir of NYC performing a work by Michael Gordon.

4:30. After waiting 20 minutes for the internet to get working again, now I can tell you how good that was. Small amount of material, but huge creative use of such…extremely powerful work, with choir parts easily sung (and masterfully performed) by the children’s choir, and intense string parts for the quartet. Woof.

4:40. Athelas Wind Quintet with the accordionist Frode Andersen giving the US premiere of a new work Songs and Rhapsodies by Poul Ruders up next.

4:45. Not at all what I was expecting…very slow moving chords at first, within which the accordion (technically a Bayan) blended extremely well with the rest of the winds, giving it an organ-like flavor. When things started to pick up, the work ran off in several different directions, but it all came across well. One can’t help but focus on the bayan within the ensemble, but it was never distracting, just such a new and unique combination of colors…if you don’t know this Danish ensemble, you should (they have a new CD coming out on Bridge soon that features this Ruders work).

5:04. Something you will rarely see: A woodwind quintet being conducted…by an accordion player.

5:13. And now, some Zappa love from the Asphalt Orchestra in the back of the house. They’re using the space quite well today…

5:21. Getting Bjork’s Hyper Ballad full-frontal like (Asphalt Orchestra 5 feet in front of you)…and here they end with Goran Bregovic’s Champagne. Nice moves, wonderful arrangements…hopefully they can rest now after a long day o’ playing.

5:31. Talea’s up in five minutes…which is technically 25 minutes ahead of schedule. Curious how many folks are timing their attendance to catch certain groups…hopefully not too many.

5:39. And now I find out that the next piece, Index of Metals, Fausto Romitelli’s last work before he passed away about 10 years ago, is gonna be an hour long. Luckily, soprano Tony Arnold is singing in it, so hours will seem like minutes.

5:47. Talea Ensemble’s sounding good tonight…I’m curious what relationship they have with Romitelli (they played his Professor Bad Trip at last year’s marathon).

5:55. Definition of an optimist = a composer who scores a work with an electric guitar, electric bass, and a bass flute.

6:06: From Romitelli’s bio on the Casa Ricordi website:

In his last work, ‘An Index of Metals’ (2003), the musical experimentation and literary suggestions that accompanied his real-surreal approach to compositional work were fulfilled in a grand abstract narration. Based on the “desire to create a total perceptive experience, uniting with the musical aspect its visual double to immerse the spectator in an incandescent, enveloping material”, this work was conceived by Romitelli as “an initiatory celebration of the metamorphosis and fusion of matter, a light show, in which an extension of the perception of the self beyond the physical limits of the body is provoked by means of techniques of transference and fusion in an alien material. It is a path towards perceptive saturation and hypnosis, one of total alteration of the habitual sensorial parameters.”

6:11. Tony Arnold…has a megaphone. And she’s ready to use it. Hide the chillun’s…

6:24. The constant bombardment of sound and music is makin’ my brain a little mushy, but this piece is one of those that as soon as you think you’re going to shut down, it throws you another curveball and your interest is piqued again.

6:30. There’s something poetic of a big chamber ensemble sitting for 2 minutes listening to guitar feedback die away…

6:36. I’m going to apologize ahead of time…I doubt I’ll be able to make it to midnight or even to 8pm…hunger, my back, and too many friends may win out.

HOUSTON, TX – On February 17th, 6:30 pm at the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, the Houston music group Musiqa in collaboration with the Mitchell Center and CAMH present Answers to Questions with works by composers Bill Ryan, Michael Lowenstern, David T. Little, Ingram Marshall, and Nick Zammuto all performed by composer and violinist Todd Reynolds. The concert is produced in conjunction with and in response to the CAMH exhibition Answers to Questions: John Wood & Paul Harrison, the first United States museum survey of work in video by this British artistic team. Admission is free.

Composer, conductor, arranger and violinist, Todd Reynolds is a longtime member of Bang On A Can, Steve Reich and Musicians and an early member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project. His commitment to genre-bending and technology-driven innovation in music has produced innumerable artistic collaborations that cross musical and disciplinary boundaries. As a solo performer, Reynolds continues to develop and perform a repertoire of works for his instrument in combination with the laptop computer and his main software weapon of choice Ableton Live. His forthcoming double CD Outerborough (Innova) features a CD of original works paired with a second disc of works composed especially for Reynolds in the past year. Reynolds will include two of his own works from Outerborough on the Feburary 17th concert. Outerborough is due out in March.

(Outerborough design, photography, and artwork by Mark Kingsley)

Reynolds says that while certain violinists impressed and inspired him from his very beginnings as a musician, including Stuff Smith, Stephane Grappelli, and electric violinist Jerry Goodman, more relevant to him as composer and soloist is guitarist Robert Fripp (“The first looper!”) and his Frippertronics performances, as well as composer singer Meredith Monk. Like Fripp and Monk, Reynolds has absorbed the musical techniques of many musical worlds, including country, blues, Indian music, jazz, and rock. As an independent instrumentalist, he reaches to fellow composers to compose pieces that utilize his formidable technique in combination with the edges of what is possible with digital technology. Other composer/performer/composer collaborations like Dawn Upshaw with Osvaldo Golijov, Helga Davis with Paola Prestini, and Pat Metheny with Steve Reich have similarly helped “strengthen the art” of both new music and its interpreters.

This is Reynolds’ first visit to and performance in Houston, Texas. He admits he has little knowledge of Houston’s artistic output, and is tremendously excited to get to know the city. With a music and multidisciplinary scene that includes experimental music hosted by the Houston Museum for African American Culture, Nameless Sound, and the aforementioned Musiqa, to the recently lauded production of Dead Man Walking by the Houston Grand Opera, creative programming by several smaller opera companies, chorale ensembles and chamber groups including the Grammy nominated Ars Lyrica, Houston should be a destination of choice for experimental musicians from other parts of the U.S. and the world. H-Town is beating the drum loudly. The question is, are you listening?

Musiqa presents Answers to Questions with violinist Todd Reynolds. February 17, 2011, 6:30 pm, at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 5216 Montrose. Admission is Free.

Tonight (Tuesday, October 12), is your last chance to see the New York premiere of Kraft by Magnus Lindberg.  7:30pm, New York Philharmonic, Avery Fisher Hall.  If you somehow haven’t heard about this, you can read the s21 posts about it here, here, and here; the New York Times articles and videos here, and here.  You can even find some info over at Huffington Post.  Check on ticket availability here, and see you tonight!

Thursday (October 14), like most nights here, is full of fantastic concerts to check out.  Here are two that I strongly recommend: Option #1, Transit presents So Percussion, Tristan Perich, and Corps Exquis (a collaboration between Daniel Wohl and six video artists) at Galapagos (8pm).  Option #2, Talea Ensemble is presenting a concert called KINETICS (also at 8pm at the Rose Studio at Lincoln Center); they will perform music by Philippe Leroux, Luciano Berio, Frank Denyer, Manfred Stahnke, and a world premiere by Alexandre Lunsqui appropriately titled Kineticstudies.  Good luck choosing!

Friday (October 15) is the season opener for the American Composers Orchestra (7:30pm. Zankel Hall).  Their program is called “Mystics & Magic” and they will present John Luther Adams, Jacob Druckman, Wang Jie (winner of ACO’s 2009 Underwood New Music Readings Commission), Alvin Singleton, and Claude Vivier.  And they will also be welcome two truly amazing soloists: soprano Susan Narucki (for Claude’s piece), and pianist Ursula Oppens (for Alvin’s piece).

Saturday (October 16) I’ll be checking out A House in Bali over at BAM.  Of course, this is actually being presented the 14-16th, so take your pick.  There’s no need to go into details about it here, you can read my earlier post for more information.