The brilliant and talented piano and TabletPC genuis Hugh Sung has a terrific post about the Sequenza21 concert where he was a star performer. Hugh is also one of the nicest people alive. Kyle Gann, who drove two hours down and two hours back to Bard for the concert, has some nice words about the concert here. Kyle turned 37 yesterday. Our congratulations to regular Darcy James Argue who is one of the 29 recipients of the latest round of the American Music Center’s Composer Assistance Program (CAP). The complete list is here. Altman was one of the best. Update: Speaking of
Read moreThere are three anniversaries today of important events connected by a fascinating thread. November 22nd is remembered by many for the assassination of John F Kennedy in Dallas in 1963, while on a happier note Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft on this day in 1913, and quite appropriately today is also the name day of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians. The connection between these three anniversaries also involves folk singer, political activist and pioneering conservationist, Pete Seeger. The full story is at Benjamin Britten – We Shall Overcome
Read moreThe kids done good. I was proud. Thanks to all of you who came out–we actually had a crowd–and to all the wonderful musicians who played their hearts out. It was a great evening. David Toub has the early bird report here. See Jeff Harrington’s pictures from the concert.
Read moreTonight’s the big night. The kids have worked hard and it’s going to be a great show. I hope to see you all this evening at the first ever Sequenza21 Concert, CUNY Graduate Center, Elebash Recital Hall, 34th and Fifth Avenue. 7:30 sharp. The street address, by the way, is 365 Fifth Avenue.
Read more‘If you’re talking about “relevance to the wider culture” and “speaking to our times“, and all that Greg Sandowian stuff, I couldn’t possibly care less … People seem to forget that there’s always going an audience for whom Beethoven’s 5th or La Boheme is a brand new experience’ – writes Henry Holland today in Killing classical music in the US. Well worth the click, and my photo is of the audience queueing for core classical repertoire at the 2006 BBC Proms.
Read moreWe’re just hours away from the first real-world Sequenza21 concert which begins promptly at 7:30 on Monday night at the Elebash Recital Hall at the CUNY Graduate Center, 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. Admission is absolutely free and there will be wine and cookies. I hope to see you there. We are enormously grateful to the following folks for their financial contributions which have made it possible to actually pay the musicians and put together a program. Concert Sponsors: Bridge Records Metropolis Ensemble Contributors: Activist Music Anonymous Carrie and Yorke Brown Mr. Galen H. Brown Mr. Eric Bruskin Mr. Jeffrey
Read moreAll too often today, appealing menus of new music turn out to be measly meals relying heavily on technical gimmickry, self-serving cliques, bitchiness and cynicism. By contrast the Britten Sinfonia at Lunch project is a nourishing meal whose courses include imaginative commissioning, innovative and open-minded programming, a truly international perspective, and some damn hard work from the musicians.. But don’t take my word for it. Here are the words of clarinettist Joy Farrall (above) as she introduced the Huw Watkins first performance at today’s Britten Sinfonia at Lunch concert – ”It is great to see such a large audience for
Read moreFresh from the lede in a New York Times article this very morning (“provocative star turn”), Corey Dargel is performing tonight at The Tank, 279 Church Street btw Franklin and White in Manhattan. Corey will perform new and unreleased material including “policy-anthems” in alternative tuning systems and a set of songs about the Virgin Mary. Joining Dargel are composer/violinist Jim Altieri and expert videographer Oleg Dubson. Kamala Sankaram and Squeezebox will present bloodletting, an original horror film with live music, depicting (it says here) the tension between artmaking and the daily survival of young working artists. Borrowing from the stylistic sensibilities of
Read moreI know I haven’t contributed much to the intellectual discourse on these pages since the new format of the site went live, but–believe me–it hasn’t been that I’ve lost interest. In one of life’s strange convergences, the reformat of Sequenza21 occurred almost simultaneous with my return from China at which point I have plunged myself into a torrent of freelance writing assignments in order to pay for the 82 CDs and suitcase of books I brought back. I’m only now starting to get unburied. Plus, of course, the NewMusicBox deadlines never go away but that’s the same no matter what
Read moreTania León, a wonderful composer and musician and one of the nicest people in this crazy business of ours, is the featured composer this week at a spectacular new classical music space called the Gatehouse, a beautifully renovated old Romanesque Revival building that once served as a pumping station for water flowing from the Croton Reservoir to the taps of New York City. The new space is operated by Aaron Davis Hall Inc., Harlem’s long time center for the performing arts, which has been re-named Harlem Stage. Of course, the actual Aaron Davis Hall, which is just across the road
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