Composers

Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Experimental Music, Improv, Music Events, New York, Piano

Interpretations Season #20 Artist Blog #4 — JB Floyd, Raphael Mostel

This Fall marks the twentieth season of provocative programming in New York City brought to you by Interpretations. Founded and curated by baritone Thomas Buckner in 1989, Interpretations focuses on the relationship between contemporary composers from both jazz and classical backgrounds and their interpreters, whether the composers themselves or performers who specialize in new music. To celebrate, Jerry Bowles has invited the artists involved in this season’s concerts to blog about their Interpretations experiences. Our fourth concert this season, on 20 November, features composer-performers JB Floyd and Raphael Mostel at Roulette. JB Floyd: My concert on the Interpretations Series on November 20th will mark

November 17, 2008November 17, 2008 by JB

Boston, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, Orchestral, Orchestras, Photographs

Break a Leg?!?

Wendy plays Ken’s viola concerto with BMOP! Hear harmonies analyzed from Wendy’s ankle bone! Friday, November 14, 2008 / 8:00pm – 10:00pm Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA The amazing violist Wendy Richman plays Ken Ueno’s concerto Talus, with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the incomparable Gil Rose. Here’s the program: Martin Boykan Concerto for Violin and Orchestra / Curtis Macomber, violin Robert Erickson Fantasy for cello and orchestra / Rafael Popper-Keizer, cello Arnold Schoenberg Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra / BMOP Principals Elliott Schwartz Chamber Concerto VI: Mr. Jefferson / Charles Dimmick,

November 13, 2008November 13, 2008 by Christian Carey

Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers

NÜÜDISMUUSIKA

He doesn’t sing or play the cello (as far as I know) but one of my favorite composers in the whole wide world is Erkki-Sven Tüür, another of those masterful Estonians we hear a lot about. I would say that even if I didn’t know that he is a faithful and longtime reader of Sequenza21. But, I digress. The Estonian Philharmonic Choir, with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste, will be performing two of Erkki-Sven’s choral pieces next Monday night at The Community Church of New York, 40 East 35th Street. There are also pieces by Tõnu Kõrvits

November 12, 2008November 12, 2008 by Jerry Bowles

Bang on a Can, Chamber Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Just Intonation

Interview with Terry Riley

Thursday morning I talked with composer Terry Riley, who is in New York this week to collaborate with the Bang on a Can All-Stars in the US premiere of his work Autodreamographical Tales at Le Poisson Rouge on 8 November. Riley is famous for being one of the “Big Four” of American minimalist composers (the others: LaMonte Young, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass). But while his early works, such as A Rainbow in Curved Air, Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band, and the seminal In C, were musical rallying cries during minimalism’s ascendance in the 1960s, Riley’s been involved with

November 7, 2008November 7, 2008 by Christian Carey

Bang on a Can, Chamber Music, Composers, Downtown, Minimalism, Music Events, New York

Watch Out for David Lang

David Lang, who you will recall won this year’s Pulitzer with his piece The Little Match Girl Passion, will be submitting himself to the hard-hitting S21 interview next week. I’ll be asking him what he plans to do about the financial meltdown, the war in Iraq, and whether he stands by his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Or something–I haven’t written the questions yet. In the meantime, those of you who live in New York may want to know that Wordless Music is presenting a concert of Lang’s music next Wednesday, November 5th, at Le Poisson Rouge

October 30, 2008November 5, 2008 by Galen H. Brown

Chamber Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Quartet for the End of Time at Merkin on Tuesday

Charles Neidich and friends are performing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time and music by Israeli composers. The program is below, and you can check out the notes over at my blog. Moshe Zorman – Hora Arnaud Sussmann, Violin; Vincent Balse, Piano Menachem Wiesenberg – Like Clay in the Potter’s Hand Gal Nyska, Cello; Vincent Balse, Piano Paul Ben Haim – Pastorale Variee Op. 31b Moran Katz, Clarinet; Vincent Balse, Piano Olivier Messiaen – Quartet for the End of Time Charles Neidich, Clarinet; Arnaud Sussmann, Violin; Gal Nyska, Cello; Vincent Balse, Piano

October 27, 2008October 28, 2008 by Christian Carey

Composers, Contemporary Classical, Exhibitions, Scores

I Like to Look

My first year in college (1974-5), we were treated to an exhibition of the original score pages selected by John Cage and Alison Knowles for their highly influential 1969 book Notations (currently available as a free PDF download at UbuWeb). For young composers at the time, these bits and pieces of anything-but-standard notation were eye- and ear-opening, sent us scouring the library stacks for more, and led us all to go a little crazy trying to mimic or out-write what we saw there. Then as sequel this year, Theresa Sauer carried the idea up to our own time with Notations 21, an updated

October 11, 2008October 13, 2008 by Steve Layton

CDs, Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Recordings

Sampling your way through Sunday brunch

Sunday Music: CD Samplers in the Era of Pandora Sunday Music Volume 4 Big Helium Records BHRSM004 / www.bighelium.com Unlike the album driven days of yore, today it’s all about the mix. From purchasing single tracks digitally at online stores such as Itunes and Amazon to the internet radio sensation Pandora, which tailors ‘stations’ to a listener’s preferences, music is presented as eminently accessible; instant gratification, inevitable. While all aforementioned methods of mix are exciting in their potential for discovery, surfing the impossibly commercial Itunes or using Pandora’s efficient but sometimes ham-fisted engine is unlikely to provide the enlightening swerves

October 11, 2008October 13, 2008 by Christian Carey

CDs, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Music Instruments, Violin

Mutter Modern (An Interview with Anne-Sophie)

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is continually creating something new – from concerti by Krzysztof Penderecki and Andre Previn to works by Sebastian Currier and Henri Dutilleux. Mutter’s latest project is a recording of Sofia Gubaidulina’s In Tempus Praesens, written in 2006-07 and premiered with the Berlin Philharmonic in August 2007. Selke Harten-Strehk has more background here on Mutter’s website. I spoke with Mutter about the new concerto recording and about working with composers, and even if she composed herself. Listen to our conversation here. That morning it was very difficult to get an international connection, and then about 10 minutes into

October 1, 2008October 4, 2008 by John Clare

CDs, Composers, New York, Opera

An Adams’ Baritone

Baritone Eric Owens is busy this fall – his Met debut as General Leslie Groves in John Adams’ Dr. Atomic is just a start to his performances this season in New York, Atlanta, London and Los Angeles. Today is the release of A Flowering Tree on Nonesuch Records with Owens as the storyteller, another role he created. I spoke with Eric Owens about this new recording, his Met debut and about working with composers. MP3 file

September 23, 2008September 23, 2008 by John Clare