Month: April 2010

Composers, Concerts

Sequenza21 Concert in Peru? ¿Por que no?

Caught up with our old amigo Marco Antonio Mazzini on Skype the other night and discovered that he has been touring the U.S. with his Belgian group, Thelema Trio, promoting its new Innova recording Neither From Nor Towards…, and that he’s moved back to Peru and founded a New Music ensemble called  LiPiBRePe whose debut concert next Friday, April 23,  will feature the Peruvian premier of “In C” by Terry Riley, as well as “Charisma” by Xenakis,  Steve Reich’s “Clapping music” and La Monte Young’s “Composition 1960 #7.”   Marco is, indeed, an adventuresome lad.

He and I had talked a couple of years ago about the possibility of doing a Sequenza21 concert in Belgium but it never happened for one reason or another.  So, the other night we decided to do a makeup with a change of venue.  Assuming our pool of composers can come up with some good stuff, Marco has agreed to dedicate a future (probably October) LiPiBRePe concert in Lima to music from the Sequenza21 community.

Here’s what you have to work with:

  • Violín
  • Viola
  • Cello (doubling electric guitar)
  • Flute
  • Bb Clarinet
  • Clarinet bass clarinet, conductor
  • Fagot (doubling alto saxophone)
  • Soprano
  • Theremin (doubling flute and electric bass)
  • Bb Trumpet (also C trumpet)
  • Small percusión (drums available and we can get marimba)
  • Piano
  • Electric bass
  • Laptop, controller

“We are looking for a second violin, oboe and French horn player,” Marco said.  “A charango and Pna flute player will be added to our group too. This is the first ensemble dedicated to New Music in Peru and we will only perform new music and free improvisations.”

The rules are:

– a minimum of 3 musicians, in any combinations
– pieces structure like “Les Moutons de Panurge”(Rzewski) or “In C” (Riley) are very welcome!
– stretches/graphics for improvisation are welcome too.

“We can prepare an instructional video about the possibilities of the Charango, pan flute and theremin, in case someone wants to write something,” he adds.

Lot of resources to play with there so if  you’ve been wanting to channel your inner Golijov, this is an opportunity.  Questions and scores to Marco at marcomazzini@clariperu.org

Who’s game?

by Jerry Bowles
Contemporary Classical

Huck Hodge & Paul Rudy awarded 2010 Rome Prize

University of Washington Professor Huck Hodge and University of Missouri at Kansas City Professor Paul Rudy have been awarded the 2010 Rome Prize in Music. Hodge, a graduate of Columbia University, was awarded the Luciano Berio Rome Prize to compose two works: Augurios for ensemble and Scenes from Faust for symphonic wind ensemble. Rudy, a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Colorado at Boulder, was awarded the Elliott Carter Rome Prize for his 2012 Stories Nos. 5-7 and a Saxophone Concerto for the jazz saxophonist Bobby Watson.

Hot off the wires:

The American Academy in Rome is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010-2011 Rome Prize. The Rome Prize is awarded annually through an open national competition that is juried by leading artists and scholars in the fellowship categories. Forty-eight individuals were invited to make up nine peer juries to review the applications this year. Recipients of the 114th annual Rome Prize Competition are provided with a fellowship that includes a stipend, a study or studio, and room and board for a period of 6 months to 2 years in Rome, Italy.

Adele Chatfield-Taylor, FAAR’84, President of the American Academy in Rome, stated: “We are delighted to announce that Trustees of the American Academy in Rome awarded the Rome Prize fellowships earlier today, honoring a tradition that has supported artists and scholars for over 116 years. We look forward to welcoming the 33 Rome Prize recipients this September in Rome.”

The 2010-2011 Rome Prize winners are Seth G. Bernard, M. Shane Bjornlie, Dike Blair, Casey Lance Brown, Thomas J. Campanella, Felipe Dulzaides, Holly Flora, Fritz Haeg, Huck Hodge, Stephanie Malia Hom, Jay Hopler, Lauren M. Kinnee, Ersela Kripa, John Matteo, Heather McGowan, Jeremy Mende, Kathryn Blair Moore, Stephen Mueller, Stephanie Nadalo, Barbara Naddeo, Sarah Oppenheimer, Mark Rabinowitz, Andrew M. Riggsby, Elizabeth C. Robinson, Paul Rudy, Laurie W. Rush, Jennifer Scappettone, Joshua G. Stein, Carly Jane Steinborn, Tyler T. Travillian, Adrian Van Allen, Michael J. Waters, and Karen Yasinsky.

by Rob Deemer
Contemporary Classical

When Jennifer Met Hilary–More on Higdon’s Violin Concerto

Jennifer Higdon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Violin Concerto, written especially for her former student Hilary Hahn, was co-commissioned in 2009 by the Indianapolis, Toronto, and Baltimore symphony orchestras, as well as by the Curtis Institute of Music, where both Hahn and Higdon studied, and where Higdon has been a faculty member since 1994. They first met at Curtis where Higdon was Hahn’s professor of 20th-century music history.

“I was overjoyed by this news,” Hilary said. “It was both artistically and intellectually rewarding to collaborate with Jennifer on this concerto, and she put so much energy into the work. She has been a wonderful colleague throughout the whole process, attending nearly every performance of the piece as well as the recording sessions in Liverpool last spring. From a performer’s perspective, there’s no substitute for that kind of support. Congratulations, Jennifer!”

Violin Concerto was premiered on February 6, 2009 in Indianapolis, where it was met with great critical acclaim. To date, Hahn has performed Higdon’s Violin Concerto with the commissioning orchestras; with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (May 29 and 30, 2009), with whom she also recorded the piece; with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra (January 7-9, 2010); and with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (January 21-23, 2010).  Hahn will play the work with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra on May 13-16, 2010, and with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra on February 14, 2011 at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and February 15, 2011 at New York’s Carnegie Hall. These performances will mark the concerto’s Dallas, Philadelphia, and New York premieres, respectively.

Hahn’s recording of Higdon’s Violin Concerto will be released internationally, paired with the Tchaikovsky concerto, by Deutsche Grammophon in September 2010.

After the premiere in Indianapolis, Hahn interviewed Higdon about the composition process and the first performances.   Part 1 is above.   You’ll find more of Higdon interview on Hahn’s YouTube channel.

by Jerry Bowles
Contemporary Classical

Jennifer Higdon wins the Pulitzer Prize in Music

From the Pulitzer site:

For distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the year, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to “Violin Concerto” by Jennifer Higdon (Lawdon Press), premiered on February 6, 2009, in Indianapolis, IN, a deeply engaging piece that combines flowing lyricism with dazzling virtuosity .

Finalists

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: “String Quartet No. 3,” by Fred Lerdahl, premiered on December 8, 2009, in Cleveland, Ohio, a remarkable work that displays impeccable technical facility and palpable emotion; and “Steel Hammer,” by Julia Wolfe (G. Schirmer, Inc.), premiered on November 13, 2009, in Gainesville, FL, an innovative composition that, with voices and old-time instruments, turns the old folk tune “John Henry” into an epic distillation of Appalachia.

Judges included Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Joseph Schwanter, South Dakota Symphony conductor Delta David Gier, composer and USF professor of jazz studies Chuck Owen, author and NY Times dance critic John Rockwell and composer Maria Schneider.

by Rob Deemer
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Premieres

Dillon’s baby comes home

Fresh off its German premiere, composer and S21 blogger Lawrence Dillon‘s newest string quartet begins making its rounds of the U.S. this week, under the completely able fingers and bows of the Emerson String Quartet.

From the Invisible Cities String Quartet Cycle, String Quartet No. 5 combines elements of chaconne, passacaglia and theme-and-variations. The piece takes the Welsh tune “All Through the Night” through, as the Lawrence writes, “a dizzying and dazzling journey from twilight to twilight.”  The movements are Twilight – Variations; Dream – Chaconne; Dream – Passacaglia, and Variations – Twilight. The piece was commissioned by the Emerson Quartet and an anonymous donor, in honor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

The U.S. premiere performances will happen Saturday, April 10, 7:30 PM at Watson Chamber Music Hall of University of North Carolina School of the Arts (1533 S. Main Street in Winston-Salem) and then Wednesday, April 14 at Meany Hall, the University of Washington (15th Ave, NE and NE 40th St., Seattle). The programs will also include works by Schubert, Barber, Ives and Dvorak.  Future performances of the Quartet are scheduled for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Here’s wishing this particularly well-travelled baby a bright future.

by Steve Layton
Concerts, Contemporary Classical

Remembering

Readers who are reasonably close to Hattiesburg, Mississippi may enjoy two outstanding performances (including a world premiere) happening this week, involving the music of Edwin Penhorwood (Thursday, April 8 at 7:30 at Main Street Baptist Church).

Penhorwood is on the faculty of Indiana University, and is most known for his contributions to American art song and the comic opera Too Many Sopranos.  The University of Southern Mississippi Choral and Orchestral Departments joined forces to commission a new work from Penhorwood, An American Requiem.

Rather than commemorating a specific event, An American Requiem memorializes several (such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina), while also bringing attention to issues such as the environment.  As well, one of the movements is dedicated to the memory of five music students from the Jacobs School, lost in a 2006 plane crash.  The Requiem combines traditional mass texts (both Latin and English), American hymnsong and original poetry by Callum MacColl.  Dr. Gregory Fuller, Director of Choral Activities at Southern Miss, will be leading the orchestra.  The following night, Southern Miss faculty Taylor Hightower (tenor) and Kerrin Hightower (soprano) will give a recital of Penhorwood’s art songs.

by Steve Layton
Contemporary Classical

Can You Hear Me, Major Tom?

This is a post for sound freaks.

Some you may know David Chesky as an “orchestra urban composer” whose Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2007 or perhaps as the composer of the operatic satire The Pig, the Farmer and the Artist which was voted one of the Best New American Theater Works of 2009.  Some of you may be planning to attend the premiere of his Street Beats percussion concerto tonight at Alice Tully Hall.

What you may not  know is that Chesky has a day job as a record mogul and operates the online music store HDTracks, which  is the world’s only high-resolution music download web store that allows you to download CD quality (1411 kbps ) and DVD audio quality ( 4608 kbps) recordings.   (By contrast, a standard MP3 is only 128 Kbps)  It is probably the only download site that also provides you with liner notes.

The site features a big selection of modern classical labels such as ECM, Delos, Mode, Tzadik, New Albion, Cantaloupe, New World, Koch, Black Box, 2L, Harmonia Mundi, Pentatone, Chandos, and many more.

And because we’re giving him a little plug,  HDtracks is offering all Seqeunza 21 readers a 20 percent off coupon on their first order.  The discount code is HDseq21 and is good for one use per email address until May 31.  (If you tried it last night and it didn’t work, try again.  Should be fixed.)

by Jerry Bowles
Choral Music, File Under?

Some Eastern European Music for Easter


One of the grand things about teaching at Westminster Choir College is simply walking across campus. A choral ensemble always seems to be rehearsing – sometimes more than one. Last year, I got to hear some absolutely thrilling rehearsals of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s music: both the Te Deum and Berlin Mass. Above is one of my favorite movements from the piece. A bright E major essay that’s both zesty & syncopated, its guaranteed to help turn the corner from bleak Winter to blossoming Spring, and, for church goers, from the stations of Passion Week to the hopeful promise of Easter. Whether one is of a secular or spiritual bent, Pärt here seems to be a postmodern corollary to that other piece in E major that signifies Spring, by Antonio somebody… (grin)

by Christian Carey