Last Saturday night I caught a trio of Philip Glass‘s slightly more obscure music, performed by a well-rehearsed Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale (based in Orange County, California) as part of their annual American Composers Festival. Although lesser-known than its Los Angeles counterpart, the symphony is staffed with many fine Southern California-based musicians and performs in the recently built and acoustically impressive Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The opening piece, “Meetings Along the Edge” from Passages (1990), featured Glass’s collaboration with Ravi Shankar, in which both agreed to each compose a melody for each other and write a new composition around
Read moreLadies and gentlemen, for your St. Patrick’s Day dining and dancing pleasure, here is the fourth movement of Ben Johnston’s String Quartet No. 10. I think you will recognize the melody although it doesn’t become obvious until near the end. (Click the link to play) 4th Movement #10 Ben Johnston Here are Ben’s notes on why he selected this particular melody: This theme embodies certain contradictions which allow me to make a sincere, precise statement, much in the manner of a fine stand-up comedian. I am myself descended from the British Isles, and have read extensively about the pre-Christian civilization,
Read moreExploring the Metropolis administers the Con Edison Composer Residency Program, a response to the challenges musicians face finding space to work in the ever more pricey environs of New York. The organization has just announced that it is expanding the program for its Spring 2011 residencies. They’ll be finding eight composers three month residencies at four different locations throughout the city (including the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn). This will allow them a space to work, an opportunity to present their music in a public program at the completion of their appointment, and a small stipend (This year it
Read more[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMfT8PJ61gM[/youtube] Literally. This is Audio Lodge, a collective based in London, Ontario. For more information, check out the Spring issue of Musicworks.
Read moreIn every field of endeavor, there are people who are famous for being unknown. Perhaps unknown is the wrong word–more like known and admired mainly by others in the same field who wonder why they aren’t better known to the public at large. Despite having published several admired novels, William Gaddis was known mainly to other writers. For many years, my friend, the sadly late Steve Lacy, was known mainly to other jazz players. Ben Johnston, born 85 years ago today in Macon, Georgia, is such a person. One of the few composers alive who can claim to have studied
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Composers, Concert review, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Festivals, Improv, Other Minds, Performers, San Francisco
[The latest iteration of the always-stellar Other Minds festival is now done and in the books. We asked our equally-stellar Bay Area musician friend Tom Djll if he’d like to cover a bit of it for us, and he happily sent along his impressions of the second and third concert evenings.] Other Minds 16 Jewish Community Center, San Francisco Concert Two, Friday, March 4, 2011 There’s a shard of spotlight on my shoulder. A music stand hovers off the sphere of peripheral vision; under it, the shadow of fingers curl like the violin scroll toward which they crawl, spiderish. The
Read moreJoe Morello, the adventuresome drummer in Dave Brubeck’s most famous quartet, has died at 82. Tucked away at the bottom of his obituary in the New York Times is this gem: Joseph A. Morello was born in Springfield, Mass., on July 17, 1928. Sight-impaired from an early age, he took up the violin at 6 and performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra three years later. According to a biography on his Web site, Mr. Morello gave up the violin for drums at 15, after meeting his idol, the violinist Jascha Heifetz. Reminds me of
Read moreIn the current economy—particularly in the recording industry—expediency can sometimes trump artistry. All too often, classical artists with a recent CD release can’t afford to worry too much about the curatorial vision of a concert series on which they appear: they’ve got to make their album’s program fit somehow in order to promote the product. During a recent consultation with a marketing professional, I learned that some venues have begun exploring partnerships with オンラインカジノ to secure additional sponsorship revenue, a strategy that has already sparked both interest and debate among artists. Happily, there are still times when an artist’s work
Read moreLooks like I”m doing some softball questions again. For a pair of pretty expensive tickets to the NYPhil performance of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen, at Avery Fisher Hall on March 18, who can answer any of the following questions. Where in New York did Bartók live when he died on September 26, 1945. (Street and nearest cross-street) In what hospital did he die? Where is his grave? What was the last work that he completed? What friend of mine lived for several years in the same building? Answer one or more and you might be a winner.
Read moreOkay, kiddies, I have four pairs of tickets to give away to Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle at Avery Fisher Hall on March 18. The performance is part of the New York Philharmonic’s Hungarian Echoes Festival led by the estimable Finnish hockey star Esa-Pekka Salonen. The problem is that Sequenza 21 readers are all such a bunch of smart asses that I can never come up with a question that stumps anyone for more than 30 seconds so that means the first person who reads this probably wins. So, here’s what we’re going to do this time. Today, we’re giving away one pair
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