“A Harvard Business School study looked at job satisfaction. Orchestra players came just below prison guards. Chamber musicians came in at number 1. What’s the difference? The presence of a conductor.” Boston Philharmonic Conductor Ben Zander, speaking at Leaders in London 2007
Read moreDear Jerry, You are cordially invited to a program featuring the music of Pat Muchmore as performed by the erstwhile and talented members of Anti-Social Music. The gala shall be held at the Ukrainian National Home at 2nd Ave between 8th & 9th streets on December the Thirteenth, where the finest beers and vodkas will be available to soothe the savage humours stirred by the oft-acrid tones emanating from the stage. Also available: pierogies and other Ukrainian delicacies–some of which may be forcibly shoved down the gullets of less attentive patrons. A number of works excreted by Muchmore’s fecund mind
Read moreHere’s some great news for the Sequenza21 community. The super-hot Philadelphia-based chamber ensemble Relâche is presenting a concert of new works, including the premiere of our own Galen H. Brown’s Waiting in the Tall Grass, at the Greenwich House Music School in downtown Manhattan on November 30, followed by a repeat performance the following night at the International House in Philadelphia. The concert will also include new pieces by Duncan Neilson, Brooke Joyce and, Paul Epstein. Says here in the press release (Galen is much too modest to make a call or send me a heads-up e-mail himself) that …Brown’s music has been
Read moreOur regular listen to and look at living, breathing composers and performers that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, with so much good listening online: sound. from SASSAS (Los Angeles) In 1998, L.A. artist Cindy Bernard and friends started a series of concerts and installations that became the non-profit organisation SASSAS, the Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound. Their goal is “to serve as a catalyst for the creation, presentation, and recognition of experimental art and sound practices in the Greater Los Angeles area”. Most of
Read moreDid you ever wonder why doctors think it’s a good idea for a bunch of sick people to wait together for their exams in a small, overheated, unventilated room? Or why drugstores invariably put the cough medications in the aisle where people are waiting to pick up their prescriptions? No? Well, I do. Think of these things, I mean. But, I digress and I’m late checking in today. Here’s a new rule for those of you with frontpage posting ability. If you don’t see something from me by noon Eastern, feel free to jump in there and mix and stir. If you don’t have frontpage posting rights, let me
Read moreThe Metropolis Ensemble is getting set to record the complete collection of chamber orchestra concerti of Avner Dorman with producer David Frost but you don’t have to wait to hear it; the best little orchestra in New York will be performing the same repertoire live and in color next Thursday night, October 11, at the Angel Orensanz Foundation Center for the Arts (172 Norfolk St, between Houston and Delancey), commencing at 8 pm. On tap are the American premieres of Dorman’s Concerto in A and Concerto Grosso, the New York premiere of Piccolo Concerto, and an encore performance of Mandolin Concerto. Soloists Mindy Kaufman of the New York
Read moreTurning 70 is a big deal for most people, and especially so for Philip Glass, whose birthday is being celebrated worldwide big time. He’s just been feted in New York by Music At The Anthology (MATA), and Groningen, Holland, is putting on a Glass Festival. The composer and The Philip Glass Ensemble performed his massive compendium of minimalist moves, Music in 12 Parts (1971-74), this summer in the Hague and the San Francisco Bay Area pays its homage with the world premiere of his SF Opera commission, Appomattox, this coming Friday, October 5. Glass is such a big name, and pervasive influence–I caught a chord progression in a dance
Read moreTomorrow would have been John Cage’s 95th birthday and to mark the occasion, Avant Media Performance is staging two multimedia realizations of works by Cage at the The Kitchen, 512 West 19th St. beginning at 8. Four6 (for any way of producing sounds) will be performed in an electro-acoustic realization featuring Patrick Davison, video; Randy Gibson, electronics and percussion; Mike Rugnetta, guitar; and Megan Schubert, voice. The second half of the concert promises to be a real hootenanny with Winter Music, Atlas Eclipticalis, and Song Books realized for singers, actors, videos, and lighting being performed simultaneously. Randy Gibson’s “One Wall – for
Read moreMarvin Rosen has a terrific Classical Discoveries program coming up next Wednesday. His guests from 8:30 am until 11 will be the legendary Frank J. Oteri and…umm, me. That assumes, of course, neither of us oversleeps and misses the train to Princeton. (Neither Frank nor I can operate an automobile, which is a hallmark of the true New Yorker.) As many you know, I’m sure, Wednesday is the birthday of an unlikely pair of composers–John Cage and Amy Beach. What only Frank would know is that it is also the birthday of 1952 Pulitzer Prize winner Gail Kubik and 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner Louis Spratlan. Marvin has
Read moreAs those of you who come round here regularly know, I’m not a composer or musician but I am an experienced listener with limited patience for things that take too long to get to the point. As a practical matter, that means that music I’ve never heard before has about 30 seconds to grab my attention. I’ll listen to the whole thing but if doesn’t have that “Holy shit” thing happening in the first few bars, chances are the earth is never going to move for me. Call it the Jerry Principle: musical masterpieces announce their masterpiece-ness in 16 bars or less. Go ahead, prove
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