I’ve been working so hard today I’ve forgotten to eat, and it’s in that spirit of lightheadedness and poor impulse control that I share with you the following San Francisco Bay Area new music scene update.
The Lab’s 25th anniversary performance series is well underway, and in just one night, they’ll run the gamut of styles [...]

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Continuing a theme: earlier this week I mentioned a gig by composer Matt McBane’s “not-quite-neo-alt-rock-chamber-folk-etc” ensemble Build. The pattern continues this Sunday at The Stone in NYC (corner of 2nd street and Ave. C, $10), when two more “NQNARCFE” groups show us what they’ve got (is this the true wave of classical music’s future? — [...]

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Fresh on the heels of their excellent BoaC Marathon appearance, composer Matt McBane’s alt-avant chamber-whatever group Build is doing a collaborative concert with another twisted sister, Former-Aussie songstress Greta Gertler. It’s all going down Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 7:00pm at Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette Street, NYC); tickets are $15.
In addition to performing separately, Greta and [...]

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The San Francisco Bay Area  has a unique way of celebrating the first day of summer.  Our most popular new music event, the Garden of Memory, comes around every summer solstice, and reliably attracts more than 1,000 visitors while creating a parking nightmare for miles in every direction.  In 2007 I was forced, like many [...]

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[We previewed this concert a couple weeks ago, and were hoping to file a quick review following the performance. Due to unforseen circumstances it's a few days later than we'd like, but reviewer Eric Johnson came through in the end:]
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Xiayin Wang offered two world premieres [...]

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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 [...]

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Yes, it’s that time of year again… The Bang On A Can Marathon is about to take flight once more, this Sunday, May 31 from noon to midnight at the World Financial Center Winter Garden (220 Vesey Street, NYC).  And yes, it’s all FREE.
Knowing we can’t all be every place at once, a band of [...]

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Morelia (in the State of Michoacan, Mexico) will be hosting its Fifth Contemporary Music Festival from June 1-6. Although relatively young, the festival has gathered prestige and generated enthusiasm in the course of a few years, thanks in part to a list of distinguished composers and performers. Just a few names: Helmut Lachenmann, International Contemporary Ensemble, [...]

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…That would be the light emanating from New York’s P.S. 122 this Friday and Saturday night, where the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), choreographer Yvan Greenberg and stage director Emma Griffin will be partnering with our old (well, young actually) friend Corey Dargel in his latest set of sweetbittersweet songs, Thirteen Near-Death Experiences. Fourty-five minutes [...]

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Congratulations to PAULINE OLIVEROS. Columbia University announced today that she is the recipient of the 2009 William Schuman Award: a $50,000 prize which recognizes “the lifetime achievement of an American composer whose works have been widely performed and generally acknowledged to be of lasting significance.” The previous award-winner was John Zorn in 2006.
Columbia will celebrate [...]

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