Chamber Music

Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Microtonalism, New York

Pick a tone, any tone

The American Music Center’s NewMusicBox-meister Frank J. Oteri dropped by, with word of an upcoming gig of his own this Saturday:

“Just wanted to alert you folks that Tonally Perplexed, my trio devoted to improvisation with just noticeable differences (featuring moi on the custom built 6-octave ‘tonal plexus’ tuned to 205-tone equal temperament) will be performing on Saturday night at 7PM in Harlem for an art opening featuring new paintings by the wonderful Lisa Taliano (Chashama 461 Gallery, 461 West 126th St, between Amsterdam and Morningside). Since our last outing at the Cornelia Street Cafe, the group has taken a somewhat jazzier direction, no doubt urged on by the amazing bass playing of Ratzo Harris and the blues sensibility and sensitivity of Jeffrey Herman as well as my getting somewhat more comfortable on that beast of an instrument (which looks like a Lego assortment).”

Here are the full details. Meantime why not take a listen and a gander at Frank and crew, from a November 2008 outing?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzUXP1rCJyE[/youtube]

by Steve Layton
Chamber Music

Control’s Been Seen..at the Jo Berg Airport

The nice people at Chamber Music America have invited your humble correspondent (that’s me) to discuss “Using Social Networking to Promote Your Ensemble or Series” next Tuesday, February 2, at St. Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Avenue at 54th St. from 3 pm to 5 pm.  It’s free but seating is limited so to make sure you get a seat, you should contact Marc Giosi, Program Associate, by 12 noon, Monday, February 1st at (212) 242-2022, ext. 14; or mgiosi@chamber-music.org   (The CMA folks are being overly optimistic, I suspect.)

Of all the things I know a little bit about, social marketing is one of my better topics, having started one of the more popular social media websites on the web.  Not to mention the Sequenza21 community which is not huge but has one of the most loyal followings around.  Come on over and I’ll try to say something useful about how to use the web to generate some promotion for your group or series.  I seldom leave the house to go further than Starbucks so this is a rare opportunity to confirm that there really is a person named Jerry Bowles

And, I could use some examples to show of groups or musicians who have particularly nice pages on Facebook and MySpace or who have done something clever with YouTube.  Ideas, please?

by Jerry Bowles
Chamber Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, San Francisco

Unwrapping Small Packages on a Saturday Night

Gyorgy Ligeti
Gyorgy Ligeti

I like to plan ahead.  But does that just mean I’m too old to decide where I’m going at the last minute, like the Generation Y and Z impulsives we hear so much about at arts participation conferences?  You know, the ones who don’t know where they’re going until somebody they’re following tweets their destination on the night of?

Mid-life insecurities and fuddy-duddiness aside, I know where I’ll be this coming Saturday evening: in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s sweet new Concert Hall, taking in new short works by ten local composers, all presided over grandly by Gyorgy Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto for 13 instruments.  sfSound is the presenter, and they’ve cast a wide commissioning net to figures from our many micro-scenes.  Including, as my colleague Christian Carey reported earlier this month, Greg Saunier from avant-prog adventurers Deerhoof; plus Heather Frasch, a Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley, Canner MEFE of underground harsh noise fame, Mills College Contemporary Music Co-Director Maggi Payne, and composer/improviser/performance artist Theresa Wong.

All of the composers were commissioned to make new works especially for this concert, entitled Small Packages. Some works are inspired by, and others are meant to contrast with, the regal Ligeti Chamber Concerto. The eight core sfSound performers, plus seven other veterans of the series, will spread their expertise around from the Ligeti work to each of the new pieces.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concert Hall can be found at 50 Oak Street in San Francisco’s Civic Center neighborhood, convenient to the eponymous BART station.  Admission is $15.00, although those of us who are “underemployed” can take advantage of an $8.00 price.  If you don’t want to take your chances at the door, you can order tickets online from Brown Paper Tickets.

by Polly Moller
Chamber Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals

Way up North

The Barracuda is swimming a little farther afield now, so I think it’s safe for all you liberal arty types to venture up… to Alaska!  It’s time once again for the minor miracle that is the CrossSound Festival (28 Aug – 6 Sep). Alaska native, Harvard grad and Asian zither performer extraordinaire Jocelyn Clark is the driving force behind this truly unique yearly series; concerts that not only bring living contemporary music into this far corner, but as well building bridges between Eastern, European and American musics and performers. This is the festival’s 10th year — no mean feat and worth big kudos to all involved.

The 2009 edition goes by the moniker “Refugium” (def: “a small, isolated area that has escaped the extreme changes undergone by the surrounding area“), and Jocelyn and crew have put together a really nice mix:

CrossSound’s 2009 project Refugium demarcates and prepares the ground on which two string ensembles historically separated by geography and culture meet. IIIZ+ (“three zee plus”), a plucked zither ensemble founded by Jocelyn Clark, and UnitedBerlin, a string quartet out of Germany, through interplay of the instruments and traditions of East and West, promise to grow new musical forms on Alaska’s isolated soil, where musicians from around the world are free to try new things. The project features two world premiers, in addition to reprising two earlier CrossSound and UnitedBerlin commissions for reconsideration by Alaskan audiences.

The world premieres are Hwang-Long Pan‘s (b.1945, Taiwan) East—West V for zheng and string quartet, and Stefan Hakenberg‘s (b. 1960, Germany) Moments in Human Life: Perching, Soaking for 2 violins, viola, cello, koto, kayagûm, percussion and zheng. This main concert also includes works by Yunkyung Lee (Korea), Il-Ryun Chung (Germany), Shiaw-Wen Chuang (Taiwan) and Matthew Burtner (Alaska), and will be given twice in Juneau (3 & 4 Sept.) and once in Sitka (5 Sept.)

Prior to this main concert, each of the performer groups will have their own solo concert in Juneau, too: 28 Aug. the wonderful zheng player Lai Yi-Chieh will give a solo recital of both traditional and contemporary works; 29 Aug. the Quartet United Berlin puts on a show featuring music of Terry Riley (Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector), Astor Piazzolla, and George Crumb (Black Angels); 30 Aug. Ensemble IIIZ+ (Jocelyn Clark, kayagûm; Lai Yi-Chieh, zheng, Naoko Kikuchi, koto; Il-Ryun Chung, Korean percussion) essay a number of pieces written for them.

Last but not least, 6 Sept. has Anchorage playing host to “Rebound”, a concert of chamber music, sound, and video art with Jaunelle Celaire (soprano), Morris Palter (percussion), and Matthew Burtner (metasax), featuring all new music by Alaskan/Northwestern composers: Burtner (Anchorage), John Luther Adams (Fairbanks) and Owen Underhill (Vancouver, B.C.).

The website has tons of information on each of the pieces, composers and performers, so take some time to check it all out. And if you can’t be there this year, maybe start planning next year’s little Great North getaway.

by Steve Layton
Cello, Chamber Music, Concerts, Electro-Acoustic, Exhibitions, Experimental Music, Music Events, San Francisco

Good herb!

redwall

That’s what early settlers said about the wild mint growing all over the peaceful hills and oceanside that would one day be paved over and known as San Francisco.  In fact, for many years starting in 1835, that’s what the settlement was called, only in Spanish: Yerba Buena.

History lives on in the name of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, located on 3rd Street between Mission and Howard. YBCA’s New Frequencies performance series, curated by Performing Arts Manager Isabel Yrigoyen, is well underway, and offers a couple of intriguing choices in coming days.

First on Saturday evening, August 22, we have local avant-cabaret luminary Amy X Neuburg, backed up by the Cello ChiXtet of Jessica Ivry, Elaine Kreston and Elizabeth Vandervennet.  Their set consists of selections from The Secret Language of Subways, a song cycle for voice, cello trio, electronic percussion and live electronic processing which Neuburg conceived of while riding New York City subways.  It begins promptly at 8:00 p.m. in the YBCA Forum, and serves as an opener for Argentine singer/composer Juana Molina, who’ll take the stage at 9:05.  Tickets are $25 general and $20 for YBCA members, students, seniors, and teachers.

If visual art is your thing, you can have that plus contemporary music on the same evening on Thursday, August 27. Gallery visitors will find that’s one of the nights musicians have been called in to respond directly to the work of the eight visual artists commissioned for the Wallworks exhibition.  The August 27th contingent will be composer, pianist, and electronic musician Chris Brown, Mason Bates (as DJ Masonic), and upright bassist David Arend. Their sounds are free with gallery admission: $7 regular, or $5 for seniors, students, and teachers. (And non-profit employees, KQED members, and folks carrying a valid public transportation pass or a public library card.)

by Polly Moller
Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Minimalism, Music Events

In C can you say, by the midnight light

in cFor all you Angelenos and outlying: word from Paul Bailey that this Thursday evening there’s a midnight performance of Terry Riley‘s In C, and you’re all invited to come on over and participate. Bailey’s eponymous ensemble will be joined by the Los Angeles New Music Ensemble and others — now, said others can include you! The place is Juanita’s (5930 York Blvd., Highland Park); there’s a 10:30pm load-in, 11:30pm rehearsal, and the midnight performance.

In C is shaping up to become this century’s new Messiah — except we don’t need no stinking Christmas to trot it out and have a go. So why not get into the spirit, and do your bit for communal music-making?  To give you a head start, Paul’s thoughtfully included a PDF of the score, so you can spend a little time beforehand brushing up on your chops.

by Steve Layton
Chamber Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical

A few for the week that will be

Some notable NY concerts worth taking up space for:

wedren & acme

Tuesday, Aug 4th, at Joe’s Pub ( 425 Lafayette Ave., NYC / Tickets: $15 at joespub.org or 212.967.7555) ACME (the American Contemporary Music Ensemble) is teaming up again with vocalist Craig Wedren, to present composer Jefferson Friedman’s genre-bending 3-song set titled On in Love, written for the ensemble and singer/songwriter Wedren (formerly of the band Shudder To Think). ACME and Wedren premiered On in Love in February at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, and you can see video of that performance at Friedman’s own website.  The concert at Joe’s Pub will also include John Cage’s String Quartet in Four Parts (performed by ACME) and his Aria (performed by Wedren). Wedren will also perform a set with his band and ACME strings.

And on Sunday afternoon, Aug 9th ACME‘s back in action at the Isamu Noguchi Museum (9-01 33rd Rd., L.I.C., NY / Info: www.noguchi.org or 718.204.7088 / FREE w/ $10 Museum admission), this time with the premiere of a new string quartet by ACME’s ace composer/violinist Caleb Burhans. You also get selections from J. S. Bach’s Art of the Fugue (arr. for string quartet), Jefferson Friedman’s String Quartet No. 3, and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in F, Op. 80, so all-in-all a mighty nice deal.

Speaking of nice deals, nothing’s nicer than FREE! Which is just what it’ll cost you to experience the Asphalt Orchestra (Jessica Schmitz, piccolo; Alex Hamlin, Peter Hess and Ken Thomson, saxophones; Shane Endsley and Stephanie Richards, trumpets; Jen Baker and Alan Ferber, trombones; Ken Bentley, sousaphone; Sunny Jain, Nick Jenkins, and Yuri Yamashita, percussion) as they open Lincoln Center Out of Doors Wednesday, August 5. The band will perform the next four nights, Thursday-Sunday, August 6-9. Performances will take place nightly at 7:00 P.M. in different locations across the Lincoln Center campus.

The scrappy group’s debut program spans an amazing range of material, including new commissions by Tyondai Braxton of Battles, Stew and Heidi Rodewald of The Negro Problem and Passing Strange, and celebrated Balkan musician-composer Goran Bregovic, plus music by Björk, jazz legend Charles Mingus, Swedish metal pioneers Meshuggah, and those classic instigator/composers Conlon Nancarrow and Frank Zappa.

For those of you who’d love to slouch off to play at the Hamptons (though has it ever stopped raining enough to think about sea and sand?), yet want to stay moderately ‘culturefied’ while you’re at it, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival is off and running. In addition to the warhorses, there are two actually quite wonderful contemporary concerts taking place:

Real Quiet will be heard on Aug 6th in a program featuring the US premiere of Pimpin’ by Jacob Ter Veldhuis as well as works by Evan Ziporyn, Chinary Ung and Brett Dean.

Then on Aug 11th , Brooklyn Rider performs “Crosstown” and “Plume” by composer Ljova (Lev Zhurbin) along with works by Philip Glass, Toiva Karki and Komitas Vardapet.

by Steve Layton
Chamber Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, Improv, Music Events, San Francisco

Outsound New Music Summit kicks off on Sunday

San Francisco’s Mission District, home of so much that is cool, is a natural neighborhood for the arts.  The San Francisco Community Music Center located at 544 Capp Street is the the Bay Area’s oldest community arts organization and San Francisco’s largest provider of low-cost, high quality music education.  In 2008, 2,300 students of all ages, ethnicities and income levels enrolled in Music Center programs and over 16,000 people enjoyed musical performances at no or low cost.

Starting this Sunday, the SFCMC will host the eighth annual Outsound New Music Summit, a festival which for all its success and longevity has somehow stayed the Bay Area’s best-kept secret.  Sunday night’s “Touch the Gear” expo is free and open to the public, featuring 20 individual artists and ensembles and their homemade, customized, and startling instruments and electronic rigs.  All of them will be set up and ready to show you, the audient, how to make music and noise like they do.

Four concert nights follow on the subsequent Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. Artist Q & A sessions at 7:15 p.m. each evening set you up for performances starting at 8:00 p.m., starring:

  • Alicia Mangan & Spirit,  ROVA Saxophone Quartet, and Vinny Golia (solo and with locals in a mixed ensemble) in “Free Improvision/Free Composition”
  • Forms of Things Unknown, Peter Kolovos, Conure, Hans Fjellestad, and Thomas Dimuzio in “Industrial Soundscapes”
  • Jess Rowland & The Dreamland Puppet Theater, Kathleen Quillian & Gilbert Guererro, and Bonfire Madigan in “InterMedia”
  • Natto, Ghost In the House featuring Waterphone inventor Richard Waters, and Left Coast Improv Group in “Deep Listening and Introspection”

Full scheduling details and performer bios can be found in the online schedule. Tickets are available in advance from Brown Paper Tickets, or for $10.00 at the door.

by Polly Moller
Chamber Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, New Amsterdam, New York

I’m in a band…

Continuing a theme: earlier this week I mentioned a gig by composer Matt McBane’s “not-quite-neo-alt-rock-chamber-folk-etc” ensemble Build. The pattern continues this Sunday at The Stone in NYC (corner of 2nd street and Ave. C, $10), when two more “NQNARCFE” groups show us what they’ve got (is this the true wave of classical music’s future? — composers and performers each with their own group playing clubs? To try both sides of the pie, since our own side’s filling is getting decidedly skimpy?).

At 10pm Victoire takes the stage: “Brooklyn-based band founded by composer Missy Mazzoli (keyboards and compositions, with Olivia De Prato and Andie Springer, violins, Eileen Mack, clarinet, Lorna Krier, keyboards and Eleonore Oppenheim, double bass) has been dubbed an ‘all-star, all-female quintet’ by Time Out New York. This quirky ensemble combines strings, clarinets, keyboards and lo-fi electronics (including samples of sewing machines and answering machine tapes) to create their ‘minimalist, post-rock bliss’.”  Their EP has been getting a great reception, and chances are good that you’re going to hear about them far into the future.

Opening the night at 8pm, Odeya Nini stamps her own group with a rather different vibe. As Odeya tells me herself, “...my current work is a bit different – I guess its just a piling up of more experiences, mind tumbles and turns. My music could be categorized as indie chamber / electronic / folk — or simple music for folks to focus and indulge in what they might perceive as cohesive or opaque.”

Odeya “received her BFA in vocal performance from the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music where she studied voice with Theo Bleckmann and composition with Kirk Nurock and Gerry Hemingway. Today her work is characterized by skillful experimentation, integrating improvisation, acoustic composition and electro-acoustic sounds to create thought provoking works of art.”

She’ll be working with her own group of sidekicks : Alex Hills (piano), James Ilgenfritz (bass), Jake Wise (clarinet), Katie Young (bassoon), Elena Moon Park (violin) and Curtis Stewart (violin). This is one of Odeya’s last gigs in NYC before she relocates out West for grad school composition study.

by Steve Layton
Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, New Amsterdam, Songs

Joe’s Pub Builds Greta Gertler

Fresh on the heels of their excellent BoaC Marathon appearance, composer Matt McBane‘s alt-avant chamber-whatever group Build is doing a collaborative concert with another twisted sister, Former-Aussie songstress Greta Gertler. It’s all going down Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 7:00pm at Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette Street, NYC); tickets are $15.

In addition to performing separately, Greta and Build will join forces in premiering new string arrangements by McBane, for songs from Greta’s forthcoming album “The Universal Thump”.  The idea for this collaboration was inspired by Matt and Greta discovering that they were both listed on The Deli Magazine’s NYC Top 20 Orchestral Pop chart. With the knowledge that they were in fact supposedly working in the same genre, and sharing friends and sometime roommates, Greta and Matt decided fate was telling them to get together and do something, and so here it is.

I think this is going to be a decidedly lovely show, well worth catching.

by Steve Layton