After we arrived in New York in 1968, my first freelance gig was writing previews of upcoming art exhibitions for Arts Magazine. For five bucks a review, I would trot around the area that is now Soho, climbing rickety, dangerous stairs to look for the next Jackson Pollock. Lofts were illegal for living in those days so I learned a lot about fake walls and how to cleverly hide bedrooms and kitchens from prying building inspectors. I thought of those days this morning when I read the strange news of the lady who besmirched a bone-dry white Cy Twombly painting on exhibition in France by planting a lipstick-drenched kiss
Read moreOver the past couple of years, ISSUE Project Room has become one of the hot spots for contemporary music in the city and earned a well-deserved reputation for presenting new and artistically challenging work. It has outgrown its funky silo on the Gowanus Canal and has just launched a $350,000 capital campaign with the goal of expanding its programs and moving to a larger, more centrally-located home. As often happens, though, a great opportunity has come along and the group needs to raise a bundle of cash by July 24 to take advantage of it. ISSUE is one of two finalists
Read moreMarvin Rosen’s Classical Discoveries program is a special one this week involving, as it does, several members of the S21 community. Marvin’s doing the first radio broadcast of OgreOgress’s world premiere recording of Alan Hovhaness’s Janabar, a 37-minute Sinfonia Concertante for Piano, Trumpet, Violin & Strings. The recording features Christina Fong on violin, Paul Hersey on piano, and Michael Bowman on trumpet, with the Slovak Philharmonic, conducted by Rastislav Stur. The piece is scheduled for Wednesday, July 18th during the 10am EST hour. The program, from Princeton, NJ, can be heard locally on 103.3 FM or online. Lots of details about the new recording here. Also scheduled is the one hour Symphony
Read moreI wasn’t able to make the premiere screening on July 4 but I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about a new documentary film called The End of New Music, which follows Judd Greenstein, David T. Little, and Missy Mazzoli, the founders of Free Speech Zone, as they tour the East Coast with the groups Newspeak and NOW Ensemble, playing concerts in unlikely venues like clubs and bars and bringing new music to audiences that might not otherwise be exposed to it. The film, directed by Stephen S. Taylor, takes a verite approach to the tour, combined with interviews and various
Read moreBernard Holland has a funny piece in today’s Times about setting out to listen to Marc-André Dalvavie’s new CD and getting mugged instead by an roving gang of French musical poseurs. A couple of choice bon mots: So breathless were the revelations contained in this essay, called “Space, Line, Color,” it seemed for a moment the music could wait. Expounding on hearing, space and your stereo system, it reads: “while right/left movement can be recreated, front/back movement is replaced by a sensation of sound advancing or receding.” So it’s true that sound is softer when it is farther away than when it is in front of
Read moreFor your dining and dancing pleasure–through the miracle of YouTube–Club Sequenza21 is delighted to present the talented violinist/composer Piotr Szewczyk performing short solo violin pieces by regulars Lawrence Dillon and Jeff Harrington, live and in color, as part of his Violin Futura program at Spoleto. Roll ’em, Pete. [youtube]xJGdeOUNokM [/youtube] [youtube]z5yBrIFZIcs [/youtube]
Read moreSo, the wonderful Serbian film director Emir Kusterica’s new opera Time of the Gypsies (based on his zany film of the same name) opened last night in Paris. Woody Allen is directing Puccini and David Cronenberg is prepping The Fly for L.A. Anthony Minghella, Michael Haneke, Zhang Yimou. What is happening here? Have we run out of opera directors? Have film directors done operas in the past? Are opera companies just hoping that a high profile director can pack the seats?
Read moreJoshua Bell tells the Korea Times that he’s working toward writing his own stuff in a few years. Could work, I suppose. His pal Edgar Myers is a decent composer and fine musician. But, you pretty much have to go back to Rachmaninoff to find someone who was “great” as both a performer and composer. (Or, I’m sure someone will remind me that you don’t have to go back that far.) Same thing for conductors. Okay, Lenny was great at both but most are not. The most excruciating half hour I ever spent in a concert hall (and this includes
Read more[youtube]H31YzXCq0Sg[/youtube] [youtube]bfPcu_buWkg[/youtube] Performed by the Rubio String Quartet. Photography by James Archambeault
Read moreThe indispensible Alex Ross is back from a fact finding mission to gauge the state of serious music making in the provinces and his report, in this week’s New Yorker (yes, the New Yorker) finds cause for optimism. What’s the state of serious music making in your city?
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