Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Mississippi Burning.
Yesterday, Jerry has announced the coming of Autumn in NYC, but down here in Mississippi we are still hovering around 100 degrees.
(We don't really have Autumn down here, but we do have a few different seasons: shrimp season, crab season, crawfish season, hurricane season and Mardi Gras season.)
Ok, sorry about the non sequitur.
To get away from the heat I have been staying indoors and visiting different new music websites. I have found a few cool sites that allow you to listen to a wide variety of new music.
Here is a list of my favorites:
New Music Jukebox.
This one is one of my favorites. I can poke around and listen to cool American music all day on this site.
The Jerusalem Music Centre.
I was introduced to this site by a friend. You can access any of the performances from their 2001 season up to their current season. Just click on the live music button on the site. The music ranges from Bach and Brahms to new music concerts of Ligeti and Rihm.
American Mavericks.
This is probably my favorite site. Not only does it include the SF Symphony w/ Michael Tilson Thomas conducting American masterpieces by maverick composers, it also includes an enormous list of interviews with composers (which is what makes this site one of my favorite sites). American Mavericks is also a thirteen part radio show on American music hosted by the wonderful Suzanne Vega; each of the shows can be accessed as well.
http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/listening/
Art of the States.
Another goodie. This site is an archive of performances of new American music. It has a wide variety of composers, from Adams to Zorn.
posted by Everette Minchew
12:51 PM
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Composer Everette Minchew (born 1977) is consistently active in the creation, performance, and promotion of contemporary music. Moderately prolific, his catalogue includes small chamber pieces for violin, piano, various wind instruments, harpsichord and electronic music. Current commissions include a string trio and an opera based on an 11th-century crusades tale.
His earliest musical training came at the age of eleven when he began playing alto saxophone; it wasn’t long until he began his first attempts in composition.
He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music History from the University of Southern Mississippi, where he studied saxophone under world-renowned soloist, Lawrence Gwozdz.
Fearing that traditional university training would hinder his development as a progressive composer, he abandoned the idea of formal lessons in favor of an intense private study of modern masterworks.
Minchew's works are characterized by their intense timbral explorations and brutal dissonance. That is not to say, however, that the compositions are devoid of beauty. In the first of the Two Brief Pieces, for example, the harpsichord chimes stringent yet haunting chords evoking a sense of loss.
Other pieces, like the Figment No. 2 "Juggler's Fancy" play upon the kaleidoscopic interaction between timbres and tones. The rapid alternation of pizzicato, arco bowing, and extreme glissandi remind the listener of Xenakis coupled with a Berio Sequenza. Minchew's Invention "Two-Part Contraption" for piano owes much to Ligeti's etudes and boogie-woogie jazz.
His music has been performed around the United States, and he was the featured composer at the 2005 Intégrales New Music Festival in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
He currently resides in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with his wife, Cheryl.
CONTACT INFORMATION
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