Christopher O’Riley performs his final recital in the 2+2=5 Series tomorrow night at Miller Theatre. Each of the programs has featured a pairing of a classical composer and O’Riley’s transcriptions of songs by a pop musician. Thus far, the recitals have featured Shostakovich / Radiohead & Debussy / Nick Drake. Tomorrow’s program pairs Schumann and Elliott Smith. Yesterday, O’Riley released a digital single on iTunes of his interpretation of Kurt Cobain’s Heart Shaped Box. It’s featured on the iTunes’ “Rock” page! On May 5th the digital single will be widely released to other music download sites. A Heart Shaped Box ring tone can
Read moreElsie Driggs’ Queensborough Bridge, 1927. Pictures 2009 Concert: New Jersey students explore the intersection of music and visual art. Sunday, April 26, 2pm (Pre-concert Panel at 1:30pm) Montclair Art Museum/NJAC 3 South Mountain Avenue, Montclair, NJ $15 Adults / $10 Students / Online Tickets Available here. For the fourth annual edition the Pictures Composition Contest, New Jersey students were asked to compose music inspired by visual art exhibited in the Montclair Art Museum. EXIT 9 Percussion Group will perform quartets written by the students. In addition, they will premiere the 2009 Ionisation Commission, SPAN, by Darren Gage.
Read moreTo celebrate the 45th anniversary of In C, the Kronos Quartet is “curating” a star-studded gathering of musicians who will perform In C in Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall for the first time tomorrow (Friday) night. This once-in-a-lifetime concert has an ensemble that includes Kronos Quartet, Terry Riley, and original In C performers Stuart Dempster, Jon Gibson, Katrina Krimsky, and Morton Subotnick. Not to mention: Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan, Sidney Chen, Dennis Russell Davies, Loren Kiyoshi Dempster, Bryce Dessner, Dave Douglas, Trevor Dunn, Jacob Garchik, Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Harrison, Michael Hearst, Scott Johnson, Joan La Barbara, Saskia Lane, Alfred Shabda
Read moreSteve Reich has been awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Double Sextet. Frank J. Oteri has details here. To which I say: it’s about damned time. UPDATE: NPR’s story is here. Boosey & Hawes press release is here.
Read moreApropos this Wednesday’s Michael Gordon Trance performance mentioned just a few posts previously: Besides the pre-concert talk and videotaping, we’ve got a bit more fun for you all… Along with the good folk at Bang On A Can and Cantaloupe Records, Michael Gordon himself had the idea of offering the tracks to Cantaloupe’s Trance CD, performed by Icebreaker, as free downloads for you all. The only catch: Each of the seven tracks are hosted at a different blog, and it’s up to you to follow the clues to find all seven. Besides the music itself, there’s a further reward for the quick: the
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Chamber Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Interviews, Music Instruments, New York, Percussion, Performers, Podcasts
It’s hard to imagine a percussionist that you would want to perform your music more than Alex Lipowski. Alex has a passion for the new, the challenging and the unusual and I find him to be one of the most inspirational musicians I’ve ever met. He spent much of our time together explaining how important it is to take risks and to find new and innovative sounds — good advice. You can see Alex and the Talea Ensemble on April 28 at the Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, NYC. Looking ahead, there will be three episodes in May and I’ll be devoting the
Read moreMichael Gordon‘s huge and hugely wonderful, 50+ minute riff- and throb-fest Trance, composed in 1995, is being dusted off for what promises to be a memorable performance by the ensemble Signal, 7:30pm April 22nd at Le Poisson Rouge. The fun and games begin at 6:30 pre-concert in the bar, however; Gordon himself, along with Ronen Givony (from Wordless Music and Le Poisson), Signal director Brad Lubman, bandmate/composer Ken Thomson (who also does duty in Gutbucket) and others, will talk about producing and performing new works with emphasis on the whys and whats of a piece after their first presentation. Trance was premiered
Read moreEnglish imprint NMC is celebrating its twentieth anniversary with a special 4-disc CD boxed set. NMC Songbook features vocal music by a number of the UK’s finest and most prominent contemporary composers: Birtwistle, Davies, Weir, Goehr, Finnissy, Bryars, Harvey, Turnage, and many, many more. These are interspersed with galliards by British Renaissance composer Thomas Morley, arranged for modern forces by Colin Matthews. For those who’d like to perform some of this repertoire, it’s available for download at Sheet Music Direct. Featuring both composers associated with vocal music and those for whom song is a comparatively rare venture, the songbook
Read moreThings have been pretty quiet over at the S21 Naxos blog for awhile but there is a terrific post up now by Collin Rae, Naxos of America’s Marketing and Special Projects Manager, who recently started a series of email discussions with composers, all of which which have been posted on PMS #286 Appreciation Society, the Naxos of America blog. This discussion with composer David Lang yielded some interesting answers— including a list of terrific musical favorites. Harold in Italy? And, speaking of blogs, Charles Colman has a splendid new one called The Downtown Interlude. Any man who loves Sweet Pea’s
Read moreFirst, a quick introduction and thank you are in order. My name is James Holt and I am a composer living in New York. I started a podcast where I interview musicians specializing in performing contemporary music, and I ask them about their experiences with composers. Simple. I want to thank Sequenza21 for inviting me to come on the site every couple weeks as a recurring feature to tell you about the new episodes. This week is my interview with Evan Ziporyn…I’m sure that he’s someone who needs no introduction to most of the s21 audience, but just in case:
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