At 66, baritone Thomas Buckner says he’s busier now than he was when in his forties. Last month, when we sat down to chat, he had just come back from a week of master classes and music making at Mills College. Next week, he has a terrific-sounding concert at Greenwich House, and, in June, he’ll play a leading role in a festival featuring Robert Ashley’s operas in Ferrara, Italy. This is all in addition to the Interpretations concert series, which he curates, and running his record label, Mutable Music. Though growing up he was an enthusiastic participant in family holiday

Elizabeth Brown and other cutting-edge stuff coming up at the Issue Project Room… All kinds of funny business going on at the Brooklyn Philharmonic, world premiere by Susan Oetgen coming up there… Philadelphia Biblical University pays tribute (5 April) to the late composer Harry Hewitt (no better link, I’m afraid)… 13 April–tribute to women composers from Musique a la Mode – some GREAT performers on this one… Alarm Will Sound has a call for scores for NYC-area composers. Huzzah! Deadline: 1 April, y’all… Okay, my conscience (and inbox) is clear.

The Columbus Symphony Orchestra (OH) is in dire straits. It is possible the orchestra could fold in the very near future. The problems are financial and organizational, and management and labor are not seeing eye-to-eye at all. According to principal clarinetist, and Sequenza21 friend, David Thomas, the press coverage has been terribly one-sided, and the musicians’ point of view is not getting out. Here’s a website where you can show your support, and here’s another where news is always coming in. David has kindly forwarded me his version of events, and I am posting it in the comments section. Growing

This Saturday night at Greenwich House, composer Ted Hearne pays loving tribute to the glorious achievements of state and federal officials in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. An hour long song cycle, Katrina Ballads enshrines the immortal words of Barbara Bush, Dennis Hastert, Anderson Cooper and others in all the dignity they deserve. Or (ahem) roasts the above named folks to a crisp. Either way, tickets are $15 and $8 depending on your social status – so it’s cheap. Workers around the world unite.

I. Early in our conversation yesterday, Hilary Hahn, loquacious and genial throughout, was chatting openly about music and athleticism; about how half her practice time was geared towards staying in shape; how solo recitals were more physically draining than chamber and concerto performances; how different halls, players, even A’s demanded great flexibility; and how flexibility and one’s ear were integral to the athleticism she strove to maintain. I commented on how some pieces were meant just to be big flashy fluffs, and that this was fine; have fun, play fast, show ’em you can hit those notes – not everything’s

Quick–whodunnit? Classical music; in the twentieth century; with the… twelve-tone row?  PhD?  Rock music? New York Phil? Wrong!!! (The corpse he’s mistaking for classical music is in fact his idea of what classical music was. I say: Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!) And go support our pal Jeffrey Phillips tomorrow. His Cadillac Moon Ensemble is making their NYC debut at the Nicholas Roerich Museum. They will be rendering works by Berio, Christian Wolff, and some guy named Jeffrey Phillips. Hmm…

Wordless Music packed The Church of St. Paul the Apostle last night by offering what was a surprisingly snoozy program. The chief somnambulists were Gavin Bryars and John Adams. Bryars’s The Sinking of the Titanic and Adams’s Christian Zeal and Activity both underscore pre-recorded tape tracks with autumnal, string-choir textures. Passive and reflective, both pieces are pretty; but, as sometimes happens when reflecting, the same tracks get tread over and over again, and the process, if drawn out for too long, becomes an essay in narcissism. To that end, Bryars’s Sinking lasts a lip-smacking forty minutes; Adams’s Zeal clocks in

Emerging from Elliott Carter’s “What Next?” for me paralleled uncannily the experience of the characters onstage, all of whom have just endured “some kind of accident” whose significance and impact, however powerful, remain baffling. Details from the libretto and the set design suggest a multi-car collision has occured, and, amid the wreckage, the victims intermittently soliloquize about their plight and attempt to comfort each other, though all — physically, at least — are unhurt. But an absurd, profound interpersonal disconnect ultimately predominates, and the opera ends with a pair of oddly fastidious road workers who, after they clear the debris,

The versatile performing duo known as “The Kenners” played a terrific concert Saturday night at the Tenri Cultural Institute. The program featured works by Charles Wuorinen, Toru Takemitsu, and Jason Eckhardt, and premieres of one form or another by Kate Soper, David Brynjar Franzson, and Petr Bakla. The Kenners’ catch is that each musician plays more than one instrument. Saturday’s program required Eliot Gattegno to switch between alto, tenor, and soprano saxophones; Eric Wubbels alternated between piano and accordion. (Sometimes he performs live electronics as well.) Soper and Franzson provided the world premieres. I liked Soper’s I Had a Slow

Two contemporary African-American composers shared the spotlight with Bach, Turina, Ellington, and Piazzolla at the Sphinx Organization Gala at Carnegie Hall last night. Cellist Tahirah Whittington held a sold-out Stern captive with Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s “Perpetual Motion” from his Lamentations Suite for solo cello. A fierce, prolonged flourish perfect for a charismatic performer, its aggression contrasted nicely with the similarly Bluegrass-inspired Delights and Dances for string quartet and string orchestra by Michael Abels. Performed by the Harlem Quartet, Delights is a pleasant work which Edgar Meyer fans will find plenty congenial. The zippy, high-flying finale had the audience on their feet