Month: May 2014

Contemporary Classical

About Irving Fine, Twelve-Tone Music, and BMOP’s A Fine Centennial

Irving Fine was a Boston boy through and through. Born on December 3, 1914, in East Boston to Latvian Jewish immigrants, he grew up in Winthrop and went to Harvard. The Boston in which Fine grew up was, through the influence of the Boston Symphony and its conductors Pierre Monteux and Serge Koussevitzy and the Harvard Music Department and its composition professors Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston, among other factors, a world center of new music (or at least francophile new music) activity, and the work of Harvard’s choral conductor Archibald T. Davison at Harvard also made it the

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Concert review, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, Festivals, Los Angeles

Electroacoustic Concert in Santa Monica

The City of Santa Monica was the scene Friday, May 2, 2014 of HEAR NOW Goes Electroacoustic, the first in a series of three consecutive concerts featuring music by contemporary Los Angeles composers. Presented by HEAR NOW and People Inside Electronics the six works in the program all included some kind of electronic accompaniment. The Miles Memorial Playhouse was filled and the cozy, Spanish Colonial style performance space with its wooden ceiling beams and stucco walls provided good acoustics and excellent viewing. This concert was dedicated to William Kraft and the composers offered a few remarks prior to the performance

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Chamber Music, Contemporary Classical

The Donald Sinta Saxophone Quartet’s 2014 Composition Competition

Hey composers! Dan Graser, the soprano saxophonist of the award-winning Donald Sinta Saxophone Quartet, asked me to help announce the group’s 2014 Composition Competition. This looks like a very exciting opportunity! Here are the basic facts (taken from the group’s online posting): Eligibility: All student composers enrolled in the United States as of Spring 2014. Piece requirements: An un-premiered work for SATB saxophone quartet, 6-10 minutes in length. Application fee: None! Prize(s): One first-prize winner will receive $500 and have their piece premiered at the quartet’s Carnegie Hall recital in November, 2014. Five composers receiving honorable mention will have their

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Contemporary Classical

Speaking of Christopher Rouse…

Sign up for the New York Philharmonic’s eNews for a chance to win   a pair of tickets to hear the New York Philharmonic in a concert featuring the World Premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 4 and Violinist Midori on your choice of Thursday, June 5, 2014, at 7:30 PM or Saturday, June 7, 2014, at 8pm at the first-ever NYPHIL BIENNIAL!   2 winners will be selected on May 31, 2014.   The winners will be notified by the email address provided on the form. One entry per email address. Register here. Read about the concert here. Read about Christopher

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