A few people asked me which works would I would recommend to serve as a starter course for Milton Babbitt’s work. That’s a tricky one: I’d say String Quartets Nos. 2 & 6 Partitions Around the Horn Piano Concerti Philomel All Set. Any other suggested Babbitt samplers out there? Here’s a wonderful essay in remembrance of Milton by David Rakowski. Over at my blog File Under ? , I’ve shared some of my own memories of Milton.
Read moreComposers Concordance is hosting a Composers Play Composers Marathon tonight featuring 21 participants. Peter Jarvis has sent word that, in honor of Milton Babbitt’s recent passing, he’ll be performing Milton’s Homily for snare drum on the event. The organizers have shared more details in a promotional video (below). Tickets are $20, but you get a free beverage along with a dynamic evening of music-making. Sunday, January 30 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm Drom 85 Avenue A (between 5th & 6th Sts.) New York, NY Director: Sound Liberation Co-director: Composers Concordance (& CC Records) International Street Cannibals
Read moreComposer Paul Lansky writes at his Facebook page: “I’m sorry to report that Milton Babbitt died this morning at age 94. He was a great and important composer, and a dear friend, colleague and teacher.” Whether as a pillar of strength, or a pillar to push in opposition to, Babbitt was one of the most dominant presences in American classical music these past 50 years. As news and appreciations pop up, we’ll try to give you links. Meantime, there’s this wonderfully human interview from just about 10 years ago, with NewMusicBox’s Frank J. Oteri.
Read moreWhile the Weather Channel might only associate our flyover community with snow & cold every year, here in western New York at SUNY Fredonia things are heating up with the onset of the yearly NewSound Festival sponsored by the student-driven Ethos New Music Society. Since I started teaching here in 2007, we’ve continued a 30+ year tradition of spectacular guest composers and performers, and this year looks to be our largest festival to date. Since Fredonia is in driving distance (3 hrs or less) of so many different arts centers, including Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Syracuse & Toronto, it seemed
Read moreHi Jerry, Hope you are well, Happy New Year! Because of the snow, we’ve set up a 2 for 1 ticket code and private link for your readers to our concert tonight…please feel free to offer it up if you like: http://lepoissonrouge.inticketing.com/private/ The code is: 2for1 Tonight’s concert, Hallucinations, is at LPR at 8PM (7PM doors) featuring an electro-acoustic remix by Ricardo Romaneiro of John Corigliano’s Three Hallucinations based on his Academy Award-nominated film score to “Altered States,” paired with new works by Du Yun, Gity Razaz, Enrico Chapela, and Ricardo Romaneiro. John, Ricardo, and Enrico’s works are in surround sound (6.1!!!)
Read moreOver the last two weeks I’ve been intensely involved in the final stages of preparations for the annual New England Conservatory Preparatory School Contemporary Music Festival, other known as Today’s Youth Perform Today’s Music, which happens this coming Saturday and Sunday. My friend and colleague John Ziarko and I started the festival almost twenty years ago because we figured that the best way to get kids to like new music was to get them to play it, working on it in a serious way with people who understood and believed in it. I have to say that experience seems to
Read moreBefore any of the musical gadgetry could be used on night three of the Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin concert hall, the audience rang the evening’s first notes by singing “Happy Birthday” to So Percussion member Jason Treuting, joyfully absent due to the birth of his child earlier in the day. In jeans and t-shirts, the present members (plus Jason’s skillful stand-in) then gathered around a large bass drum stage right and began the evening with a wonderful introduction to their music: chimes mixed with frenetic drumming rhythms I dare not describe. The young men were then joined onstage by
Read more2011 got off to a slow start in terms of new music in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Don’t get me wrong; there have been plenty of great individual and chamber recitals so far this semester, but the first concert solely programming 20th and 21st century music was Saturday afternoon’s performance by the University of Michigan Percussion Ensemble, dubbed ‘Crescendos’. With the oldest piece on the program a two-marimba arrangement of György Ligeti’s harpsichord solo, Continuum (1968; score above), I expected to see composers and new music enthusiasts filling the seats of the intimate McIntosh Theater located on the lower level of
Read moreA positive review by Dana Astmann of Richard Wilson’s opera, Aethelred the Unready, over at Parterre Box. It’s scheduled for a Symphony Space performance on Tuesday, Jan. 25.
Read moreI had never heard of David Bruce until I was assigned to review a concert by Art of Elan, a local concert series affiliated with the San Diego Museum of Art which presents lots of 20th-21st century music. Bruce had a world premiere on the concert. From what I can tell in my far-off corner of the United States, David Bruce is racking up an impressive concert track record on the East Coast: Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center commissions, performances by new music princemaker Dawn Upshaw, etc. Bruce’s new piece, The Eye of Night, is simply one of the greatest
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