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
Read moreThe Hilary is Hahn, with her monthly installment of a video chat with a composer; the Harold is Meltzer, one of those composers with lots of great awards and commissions (finalist for the Pulitzer this year, no less), whose work always grabs my ear with interesting things unfolding, but whose recorded output is pitifully small! The awards and concerts are wonderful; but the few thousand who’ve had the chance to experience his inventive music could easily be multiplied by some factor of ten, with just a few more good recordings released. Here’s hoping… In the meantime, you can watch all
Read moreSome notable NY concerts worth taking up space for: 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
Read moreOver at La Folia (for all its simplicity still the most interesting online source for contemporary CD reviews), Grant Chu Covell gives an illustrated account of his visit to the great composer Giacinto Scelsi‘s (1905-1988) house in Rome — now the Fondazione Isabella Scelsi. No, don’t expect to get any images of the famously photo-shy composer; but there are a number of other great pics and observations.
Read moreThis Monday night (July 27), 7PM the 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia, South Carolina hosts a concert devoted to a potent movement active on the fringes of (or maybe quietly threading its way all through?) the current classical scene: the Wandelweiser Group. Described as “the evaluation and integration of silence(s) rather than an ongoing carpet of never-ending sounds,” Wandelweiser was formed in 1992 by Dutch flautist Antoine Beuger and German violinist Burkhard Schlothauer. Their ranks have slowly grown over the years, and include Swiss clarinetist Jürg Frey and pianist Manfred Werder, American guitarist Michael Pisaro and trombonist Craig
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Chamber Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, Improv, Music Events, San Francisco
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
Read moreAnd you thought the master was gone?… Nooo no no, not that easy… His foundation and famous summer courses in Kürten continue — even stronger, if that’s possible. Starting today, July 10th, and continuing every day through July 26th, at 8pm there’s a concert featuring Stockhausen’s work (interspersed with course participants, which spiritually is very much the same thing). It’s a crazy insane compendium of S.’s music, spanning decades; there’s just too much to put on the main page, so I’ll list it all after the jump (and why the hell isn’t German Radio or the BBC camped out for
Read moreHilary Hahn doesn’t need much introduction; as one of the leading violinists today, many of you have any number of her recordings or have been lucky enough to catch her in concert. Usually we put our stars up on some pedestal, always with that remove of the stage between us. But Hilary herself has a different idea of what a star should be up to in between wowing folks at those concerts. She happens to love to talk to people, especially other musicians, and is genuinely interested in what makes them tick. And she loves to share what she hears
Read moreContinuing 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
Read moreS21 friend Peter Mueller passed along the good news that: The Library of Congress has completed digitization of another batch of the compositional sketches of Elliott Carter. These are now available on our web site. This current release consists of the following material: Pocahontas (18*) Symphony No.1 (224) Piano Sonata (20*) Minotaur (108) Emblems (192) Woodwind Quintet (141) Eight Etudes and a Fantasy (140) Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello & Harpsichord (51) Variations for Orchestra (771) Double Concerto (161*) For technical reasons, these are not all complete yet. Numbers in parens indicate page (image) counts; an asterisk indicates digitization is
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