Major props to young Master Salvage for his outstanding work attending to the front page over the past couple of weeks while I attended to some pressing matters of commerce. Big up yourself, David. Well done. So, let’s go to the mailbag and see what’s happening. Ah, here’s something. Our regular Rob Deemer has just launched a new radio program called The Composer Next Door on Oklahoma City’s classical radio station KCSC-FM. Rob, who lives and teaches in OC, approached the general manager of the station last summer with the idea of a locally-created show that focuses on living composers and new
Read moreJohn Ogdon was born, seventy years ago, on January 27th 1937. The following words were written by him in 1981. “Here then…are some of the harsh facts behind the words ‘severe mental illness’ and ‘serious nervous breakdown’ which the press has been using about me so often lately. Not that I am complaining about the press! – I was thrilled by the sympathetic and wide spread media interest that came my way both before and after my return to the … concert stage”. Ogdon (photo above) was an extraordinary pianist, composer, and new music visionary whose close friends and musical influences included Peter Maxwell
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, since they’re nice enough to offer so much good listening online: Hidayat Inayat-Khan (b.1917 — India / Europe) Taken mostly from the 1981 Cambridge International Biographical Centre entry, I just have to give you a good taste of this very interesting bio: Hidayat Inayat-Khan’s great-grandfather, Mula Bux, founded the first Academy of Music in India in the 19th century, and also invented the music notation system carrying his name. Born in
Read moreWell, I see Chamber Music America is having its annual conference in the Center of the Universe this week, beginning on Thursday. I wasn’t invited this year. Last year, Alex Shapiro and Drew McManus and I did a dynamite panel on blogging to an SRO room. Alex and Drew were wonderful and, frankly, I thought I was pretty damned clever but three or four people complained on their evaluation sheets that I had said rude things about our esteemed President. Or, maybe, it was the part where I took a picture of the room and said I had been asked
Read moreBack in July, nine students associated with AAIR, the independent radio station of London’s Architectural Association School of Architecture, spent several days recording natural and man-made sounds to create an extensive sonic map of Capri, the island, not the car or the pants. The result is Radiocapri. Now they’re inviting all of us to “remix” the sounds of the island in their cleverly named “International Remix Competition A.” Here’s the best part: the winning entry will be picked by Brian Eno, Arto Lindsay and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The winner will get fame, fortune and more attractive lovers, plus a spot on an
Read moreMark Swed wrangled himself a trip to Budapest and came back with a brilliant piece on the world that shaped György Kurtág.
Read moreFrom the CBC: Toronto composer James Rolfe has won the $7,500 Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music for his contemporary work raW, the Canada Council for the Arts announced Thursday. raW, written during the buildup to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, won the award designed to encourage the creation of new Canadian chamber music. It was chosen from a field of 115 new compositions. The work “was written by filtering J. S. Bach’s Second Brandenburg Concerto through Bob Marley’s War (first movement), Burning Spear’s The Invasion (second movement), and John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever (third movement),” Rolfe
Read moreOur friend Marco Antonio Mazzini is inviting all clarinetists to participate in the first “Musical Marathon – Prize for Most Creative Interpretation” contest that will take place on the web, from January 10th to August 10th, 2007. Each contestant must make and submit a recording of “Convalescencia“, a solo clarinet piece by Argentinean composer Juan María Solare. This score is available HERE. All the details are here. “The title of this event focuses on the ‘creative’ word: the piece we selected can be played (technically) by any average clarinet student, but the fun is…what to do with it,” Marco says. “Also, it can be
Read moreFinally, my top 10 for the year. Okay, so I’m a conservative old fart…but these are the recordings I enjoyed most during the year. I gave most of the more adventuresome stuff to our crackerjack reviewers whom I hope will weigh in with their own choices. Number One Rilke Songs; The Six Realms; Horn Concerto Peter Lieberson Lorraine Hunt Lieberson mezzo soprano, Peter Serkin, piano William Purvis, horn, Michaela Fukacova, violoncello Odense Symphony Bridge Lorraine Hunt Lieberson’s untimely death this year adds a bittersweet note to this extraordinary Grammy-nominated recording of husband Peter Lieberson’s settings of five Rilke poems, recorded live at the
Read moreOur friend Marvin Rosen will be airing the entire 6 hour seven minute version of Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No. 2, by the Flux Quartet, beginning at 11 am, EST on Friday, December 29, as part of a special 9 hour Classical Discoveries program devoted to American contemporary music. Two members of Flux–Tom Chiu and Dave Eggar–will join Marvin to discuss the work after the performance. I believe it is safe to say that Marvin is the only broadcaster in America who both can and would undertake such a mission. Classical Discoveries is broadcast via WPRB 103.3 FM in Princeton, NJ. and over
Read more