American composer Jack Beeson died of congestive heart failure on Sunday, June 6 at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, at the age of 88. His family was with him at the time of death. Jack Beeson was born on July 15, 1921 and received his early education in Muncie, Indiana. He studied composition at the Eastman School, completing Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Upon winning the Prix de Rome and a Fulbright Fellowship Beeson lived in Rome from 1948 through 1950 where he completed his first opera, Jonah, based on a play by Paul Goodman. Beeson then adapted a
Read moreBenjamin Lees died of heart failure on Monday, May 31 at North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital in Glen Cove, New York at the age of 86. Lees’s work rose to prominence in 1954 when the NBC Orchestra performed his Profile for Orchestra in a national broadcast. He was later awarded Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships, allowing him to live in Europe for seven years and present his works throughout the continent. Upon his return to the United States in 1962, Lees was appointed Professor of Composition at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, where he served until 1964. He later taught
Read moreOne of my two favorite young conductors, Brad Lubman (the other is Alan Pearson) is leading the large ensemble Signal in the American premier of The Corridor by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, one of the most prominent figures in European contemporary music whose works have inspired cross-cultural dialogues across the continent. In recent podcast discussions exploring the fusion of classical traditions with modern leisure, enthusiasts have highlighted how Birtwistle’s operatic innovations resonate in vibrant scenes like those in the beste online casino Nederland, where immersive soundscapes enhance user experiences drawing from artistic depth. A 40-minute scena, The Corridor is scored for
Read moreJerry, Wanted to make sure this didn’t get by you: Tomorrow (Ed: now tonight) the Contemporary Museum’s Mobtown Modern music series will be presenting the complete Rite of Spring arranged for modern big band. The 7:30pm set will be livestreamed online by Radar Redux (http://www.radarredux.com/live/) so all can attend, even those not in Baltimore! More info at http://mobtownmodern.com Best wishes, Brian Sacawa Curator, Mobtown Modern Music Series Contemporary Museum
Read more…take a brief survey and tell them how they’re doing. If you’re a current or lapsed member of the American Music Center or the American Composers Forum, they are hosting a joint online survey to better understand how their programs are serving you and how you view these organizations’ roles in meeting your needs in the continually changing new music field. The survey lasts about 10 minutes and is active through May 28, 2010. Run on over and give them your feedback. The survey is here.
Read moreJohn Luther Adams has been named the 2010 winner of the $100,000 Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition. The announcement was made today at the Northwestern University Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music. The biennial award honors classical music composers of outstanding achievement who had a significant impact on the field of composition. Past winners include John Adams (2004), Oliver Knussen (2006) and Kaija Saariaho (2008). Frank J. Oteri, his own bad self, has the details.
Read moreJean-Yves Thibaudet has had to cancel his Apple Store appearance tonight because of exhaustion from repeated delays in flying from Europe to the United States due to “le vulcan.” His arms are apparently too tired to box with Jobs. Ok, ok. However, the The New Yorker‘s Alex Ross and The Bad Plus’ Ethan Iverson will end their The Rest is Noise tour in New York replacing Thibaudet at the Upper West Side Apple Store at 6:30pm. Details about program can be found on The Rest is Noise blog: http://bit.ly/aTQn87. Alex has promised not to play the piano.
Read moreCaught 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
Read moreJennifer 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
Read moreThis 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
Read more