If you know this gentleman or his work and have some original thoughts about same, and you want to write (for real, now) a decent sized post about said mystery person and work, and you are not Frank J. Oteri or Samuel Vriezen, leave your reasons for wanting to write said post below with your mailing address (or if you’re squemish about the internets, send me an e-mail. Winner will get in the mail about three pounds of CDs of said person’s work.
Read moreNext to the Mountaineers winning the NIT (okay, so it’s the tournament of losers…we won), the most exciting news in the world today is that our lil’ buddy Ian Moss is having his second annual Capital M world premiere extravaganza at Tonic next Wednesday. The concert will feature new works by Ian Dicke, Mike Gamble, Caroline Mallonée, Ian Moss, Edward RosenBerg III, Jonathan Russell, and Kyle Sanna. Noted provocateurs and ne’er-do-wells Anti-Social Music will follow with their particular brand of “punk classical” madness.
Read moreThe nice folks at the American Music Center had a launch party for their latest cool initiative–Counterstream Radio–last night. If you haven’t checked it out yet, click on the toilet seat icon in the right column and some incredibly fine and varied music will follow you around the internets all day. Some members of the Counterstream team above, foreground: AMC president Joanne Hubbard Cossa, with Trevor Hunter, Lyn Liston, Lisa Taliano and Molly Sheridan. Sorry for the crummy picture, guys, and apologies to Frank J. Oteri and Randy Norchow whose picture didn’t work out at all.
Read moreOn the Verge Chamber Music by Sebastian Currier Music From Copland House Koch International With last year’s magnificent New World release Quartetset and this equally outstanding recording of four fairly recent chamber pieces (including the Grawemeyer-awarding winning Static), Sebastian Currier has elbowed himself into the honorary “little music” seat at the big table where the Glasses, Adamses, and Reichs go to chew the fat. So he’s a minaturist, but would Vermeer have been Vermeer on a Frank Stella-sized canvas? Currier is something of a music jokester, with performance directions like “almost too fast,” “almost too much,” “almost too little” and “bipolar” but it is his uncanny
Read moreOkay, I started making a list for friends called 13 great movies that you probably never heard of. Here’s what I’ve got so far: 1. Leolo (Canadian) Young French-Canadian kid named Leo believes his mother was impregnated by a Scilian tomato which is why he only answers to Leolo. And he’s the sanest member of his family. The filmmaker Jean-Claude Luzon died at 43 with his girlfriend when the Cessna he was piloting crashed but he lived long enough to tell Norman Jewison to go fuck himself when offered the chance to direct a Gene Hackman thriller and to tell Jamie Lee
Read moreWell, okay, so it’s recorded but we now have in-house music for your dining, dancing and surfing pleasure thanks to our friends at the American Music Center and their new Counterstream Radio. Click on the blue thing with the white toilet seat in the right column and up will pop a dandy little player that delivers an amazing variety of “new” music–in the broadest possible sense. If your tastes run from Judith Lang Zaimont to Cecil Taylor to Miguel Frasconi, you’ve come to the right place. Nice going Frank, Molly, Ian and gang. Lots of neat things happening involving some of our favorite
Read moreI have the following CDs available for review: Philip Corner – Extreme Positions – The Barton Workshop Stirling Newberry – Xaos and Capricorn -Two string quartets on each. (Steve Hicken not eligible since he wrote the intro) Terry Riley – In C – Ars Nova – First version with voices Da Capo package (3 CDs) – Langgard, Pettersson, Romantic Trombone Concertos Huang Ruo – Chamber Concerto Cyle – ICE John Adams – Complete Piano Music Recipients must accept (and review) a second CD of my choosing. Serious inquiries only.
Read moreTired of playing with yourself? Well, you don’t have to anymore. Take a look at e-jamming, a web site that lets you hook up with other musicians online to write, rehearse, record and play together in real-time. Who is Nico Mulhy and should I care?
Read moreSebastian Currier has won the 2007 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for “Static,” a six-movement piece for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. Currier, who teaches at Columbia University, studied at the Manhattan and Julliard schools of music. His winning work was commissioned by Copland House of Cortlandt Manor, N.Y., for its resident ensemble, Music from Copland House, with funds from Meet the Composer, a national organization supporting new works by composers. The ensemble premiered the piece at Columbia’s Miller Theatre in February 2005 and recorded it for Koch International Classics. Frank has details over at NewMusicBox. And
Read moreLet’s go to the old mailbag and see what’s happening in the exciting world of new music. Ah, here’s something. Our friends at the American Music Center are launching Counterstream Radio, a showcase for new music by U.S. composers, on March 16 at 3 p.m. EST. To mark the official station launch, Counterstream Radio will broadcast an exclusive conversation between Meredith Monk and Björk. No word on who gets to wear the chicken suit. Actually, the station is streaming right now so you don’t have to wait until the 16th to try it out. Any chance of getting a popup player
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