And NYTIMES WIN, as the kids like to say. That’s right, Monday night’s S21 concert at Waltz Astoria was a big success.  Lost Dog played wonderfully, and I can vouch for the fact that the program is every bit as good as we’ve been claiming.  And of course a good review in the Times by our pal and internet neighbor Steve Smith is a nice bonus. This Friday at the Good Shepherd Church (152 West 66th Street in Manhattan) should be even better, and I’m told that most of the composers will be in attendance, many having traveled hundreds or

As we watch the inexorable approach of the Sequenza21 concerts (December 1 and 5.  Those dates are in your calendar, right?  Go ahead and take care of that now, I’ll wait.  All set?  Great.) you may be thinking to yourself “What can I do to help?”  Obviously you can come to the concert, and you can spread the word, but there’s another thing too. Both of these concerts are going to be free to the public, but we have a variety of expenses to pay for, from the cost of the performance venues to paying the fabulous Lost Dog musicians. 

On November 3rd, I sat down with David Lang at a cafe in Downtown Manhattan. I recorded the interview (on my iPod) intending to transcribe it, but the audio, while still marred by a lot of background noise, is actually listenable. Here it is:

New York’s NPR station WNYC has been doing a bunch of programming on Leonard Bernstein, and the other night when I was moving my car I heard a great story: Lenny was backstage in a greenroom in Vienna, and a little old lady approached him.  She introduced herself as the widow of Alban Berg, and Bernstein told her how honored he was to meet her.  Now Berg, as you will recall, died without completing his opera Lulu, and there was some question about who would finish it.  Helene Berg, Alban’s widow, initially offered the job to Schoenberg, who accepted but

Congratulations to our pal Alex Ross, one of this year’s 25 MacArthur Fellows. There were three other music-related “Genius Grants,” as they’re more commonly called, for 2008: Violinist Leila Josefowicz, instrument maker and composer Walter Kitundu, and saxophonist Miguel Zenón. According to the MacArthur Foundation website “There are three criteria for selection of Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.” Prospective fellows are nominated anonymously by a group of Nominators, and are selected by an anonymous Selection Committee.

This is the score for “Piece in the Shape of a Square” spread out across the stage at the Players Theatre. Tonight in Manhattan at 8:00 PM we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of the birth of Minimalism with a concert of Steve Reich’s “Piano Phase,” two “Piano Pieces” by the obscure but great Terry Jennings, Terry Riley’s “In C,” and this piece by Philip Glass. The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, Greenwich VIllage, Manhattan. Tickets are $20 ($15 with Student ID). Be there or be a person in the shape of a square.

This is just a friendly reminder about our upcoming concert next Wednesday, September 17th. Sequenza21 and Music On MacDougal are teaming up to present a concert of early Minimalism in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the genre. M50: Minimalism Turns Fifty When: September 17th, 2008 at 8:00 PM Where: The Players Theatre, in Greenwich Village, Manhattan 115 MacDougal Street, New York, NY 10012 Tickets: $20 (Student tickets $15 with Student ID) By Phone: 212-352-3101 or Online. Program: Steve Reich — “Piano Phase” (1967) (Version for two Marimbas) Philip Glass — “Piece in the Shape of a Square” (1967) Terry

There’s been a certain amount of breathless reportage about a new study linking personality and musical taste done by Adrian North at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK. It’s hard to be sure where things went awry, but by the time the media got a hold of the results they were badly exaggerated. The BBC, for instance, says the research “suggested classical music fans were shy, while heavy metal aficionados were gentle and at ease with themselves.” North himself, interviewed by the BBC, makes similarly bold claims: “If you know a person’s music preference you can tell what kind of