Indaba Music has announced the winners of the Steve Reich 2×5 Remix Contest. As one of the judges of the competition (along with Mr. Reich), let me offer my congratulations to the winner – Dominique Leone – and runners-up: Vakula and David Minnick. I’d also like to congratulate the rest of the entrants. Selecting the winner was a very difficult process: the pool of remixes from which to choose was excellent! Below are the winners’ remixes. Enjoy!
Read moreMikel Rouse’s song cycle Gravity Radio is given its New York premiere at Brooklyn Academy of Music on Tuesday and Thursday evening. The nice folks at BAM have offered for Sequenza 21 to give away four pairs of tickets to the event on the 7th or 9th. The first four folks to email me with the name of one of Rouse’s bands/ensembles will be our winners! Gravity Radio Part of the 2010 Next Wave Festival Dec 7 & 9—11, 2010, 7:30pm NY Premiere Conceived, written, and directed by Mikel Rouse BAM Harvey Theater 60min, no intermission Tickets: $25, 35, 45 Set
Read moreThis Friday, December 3rd, is the second concert of the season by the American Composers Orchestra at Zankel Hall. This concert “explores composers’ reactions to specific moments, pinpointed and analyzed, which have inspired them to create something entirely new.” The program is titled A Time & Place and includes four world premieres commissioned by ACO. There is a new piece by Douglas J. Cuomo entitled Black Diamond Express Train to Hell that features cellist Maya Beiser as soloist. The Fire at 4 a.m. is Jerome Kitzke’s homage to both the creative and ceremonial fires he has tended. Christopher Trapani explores
Read moreRemixers start your … laptops. Some hot-off-the-presses news about a contest beginning at noon TODAY! Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Steve Reich, Nonesuch Records, and Indaba Music have launched a search for collaborators to remix the third movement from Reich’s 2×5. Paired with his Pulitzer prizewinning Double Sextet, the work appears on Reich’s new Nonesuch CD. For four weeks beginning October 12, 2010 at noon, remixers can visit Indaba’s website to create their own version of the movement. From November 9 to 23, fans and a panel of judges including Reich will review the submissions. Winners will be announced on December
Read moreCongratulations to Joseph Rosenzweig, the first correct answerer to yesterday’s Ligeti question. Yes, Ligeti’s Poeme Symphonique is for 100 metronomes, and with that Mr. Rosenzweig & friend will be attending The New York Philharmonic’s May 27th production of Le Grand Macabre. But there is still one more pair of tickets to give away, and one more question for some speedy answerer to, well, answer: In 1986 Ligeti was an early winner of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award. For what work was it given? Answers to: sequenza21@gmail.com Will you be the first person e-mailing us the correct response? Will you be the lucky
Read moreThat was György Ligeti speaking about his opera Le Grand Macabre, in a 1978 interview with Herman Sabbe. Almost sounds sweet, doesn’t it? One little snag: to get to that end, you’re going to have to endure — or better yet, revel in — the hellish, absurd and grotesque. But Ligeti leads you through all this with a gleam, wink and half-smile, and the end result is a hellishly good time. Since its 1978 premiere Le Grand Macabre has had a wealth of performances all around the world; yet it’s only now that New York is getting its first full and fully-staged presentation.
Read moreThis month kicks off the New York Philharmonic’s Contact! series. Concerts in December and April feature seven composers and seven premieres, played first at Symphony Space and then a day or two later at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Phil tells us that “performances will include personal introductions to the music from the composers themselves, in a less formal and more intimate setting.” The list is a really great mix of styles and careers from a few different continents: The December 17 and 19 concerts feature music by Marc-André Dalbavie, Arthur Kampela, Lei Liang and Arlene Sierra, conducted by
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