When he went to work for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center a few years ago, Ronen Givony knew very little about classical music. Not himself a musician, but a passionate music fan, his tastes inclined to Indie-rock. He listened to Radiohead, David Byrne, Björk, and other, more obscure eclectics. At CMS he discovered classical music and was quickly smitten by old fogies like Bach, Mendelssohn, and Ligeti. Seeing his fellow Indie fans as a natural audience for classical music, he proposed a series of joint rock/classical concerts at Lincoln Center. He now works at Nonesuch. For a series

I’m sure I wasn’t the only S21 reader pleased when Ennio Morricone received a lifetime achievement Oscar earlier this year.  Recently he chatted with CNN.  At one point he advises young composers to focus on writing absolute music:  if you’re a film composer without a film, you’re not really a composer at all.  Which begs the question:  any film-less film composers peddling their misconceived craft these days?  Play nice, now.

Lincoln Center Festival presented last night the North American premiere of George Benjamin’s first opera, Into the Little Hill. Hill tells a version of the “Pied Piper of Hamelin” story, wherein a mysterious stranger drives the rats from an infested town with his beguiling music. When the mayor reneges on his promise to pay him, the stranger kidnaps the mayor’s little daughter. Martin Crimp’s libretto assigns all roles – the stranger, the mayor, the mayor’s wife, the little girl, the crowd, and the narration – to two singers, a soprano (Anu Komsi) and a contralto (Hilary Summers). Benjamin and Crimp

Peter Maxwell Davies let loose some fightin’ words a few months ago at the annual meeting of Britain’s Incorporated Society of Musicians. Music education has been unavailable in schools for two generations; the hegemony of commercial music is unchecked; and students now graduate high school with vocabularies insufficient to express the complexity of experience. Surprised? It’s all the same trend. Let’s start teaching kids to notate music, sing Palestrina, and go to new music concerts. (So Max.) A related personal anecdote: Around the same time Davies was giving this speech, I asked the faculty of the Harvard Music Department if the

May 14th, 2019 CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) – President Bush looked tired as he sat down one last time in his famous beige easy chair in the Green Room of Lone Star Auditorium. His mind seemed elsewhere, and he was silent for a few minutes. Slightly impatient to begin our interview, however, I gently pointed out he was still holding his baton. “Oh!” he said, giving it a fond look and setting it aside. “It’s gonna be hard to let go.” Crawford audiences feel the same way. No one knew exactly what George W. Bush was going to do after two terms

This Mother’s Day, show her you care.  Nothing says “Thanks Mom” like a high-octane concert of Lachenmann, Ades, Nono, Alex Mincek, and Kyle Hillbrand.  And — just your luck — such a beast is roaring our way with David Hanlon’s Hold the Applause concert at Gallerie Icosahedron this Sunday at 5:30pm.  Of course, if you don’t love your Mom — or you live outside the Eastern timezone — your presence can be excused.  Otherwise, troops, forward march!  The various links will give you all the details you need.

Thursday, May 3rd: CUNY Composers Alliance. It’s more than collegial loyalty that compels me to mention last week’s student composers’ concert at the CUNY Graduate Center. We presented a great program of ambitious works ranging from a pocket violin concerto in the Romantic tradition, to a multi-media electronic sound-scape, to an insouciantly postmodern large-ensemble work, to gritty European modernism, and beyond. (There was also some tinkly, diatonic piano improvisation.) Programs do not get more pluralistic than this, and the performances were solid. Friday, May 4th: Serge Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet, NYC Ballet. Ballet, take two. Certainly the more accessible of

It’s starting to look like the end of the season, and there are even more concerts than usual here in the Center to Universe to feel bad about missing. My own concert-going tends to come in unpredictable binges, the most recent of which began last weekend, resumed last Wednesday, and ended this afternoon (and continues this coming weekend). It’s not all new music, but I thought I’d chime in anyhow to share some highlights. Saturday, April 28th: Doug Wright, Scot Frankel, Michael Korie, Grey Gardens. So The Mom was in town, we couldn’t get tickets to the Met, and we

Starting Wednesday night, the ICE is going to be all over town like it’s no one else’s business. Among the considerable damage they’re rendering is our own Evan Johnson’s piece Supplement for clarinet and electronics. Gareth Davis will be doing the honors at Rosenberg+Kaufman Fine Art this Friday. The folks at Linked Musicians have been recognized as an “Official Honouree” by the “Webby” awards. Membership to Linked Musicians, which is free, enables you to find jobs, bands, and just generally link up with others dedicated to live music.  And they tell me a Webby is a big deal.  So —

The Guggenheim Foundation recently divulged its latest crop of worthies. Click here for a complete list of the winners by category. Editorial bias compels me to extend a special mention of Tania Leon, Paquito D’Rivera, and Dmitri Tymoczko (orbifolds — remember?  Quiz Monday, y’all.).  The other music folks are, unfortunately, news to me.  Though something tells me they aren’t to many of you . . .