Keys to the Future is an annual festival of contemporary music for solo piano here in New York City. This year’s event will take place November 7-9 (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) at Greenwich House’s Renee Weiler Concert Hall. If you’re interested in checking out pertinent information, the website is http://www.keystothefuture.org/ or you can contact me directly at joe@keystothefuture.org. The six pianists participating this year are: Lisa Moore, Blair McMillen, Tatjana Rankovich, Lora Tchekoratova, Polly Ferman, and myself. I thought I’d talk briefly here about the Festival and then focus on one piece from each of the three programs. My goal as Artistic
Read moreHey Folks — Don’t know how we managed to scoop the Times on this one. But here’s an interview with violinist Jeffrey Phillips, who’s doing many honors on next month’s Sequenza21 concert. The interview has to do with a certain set of violin solos by a composer who will be familiar to those who wander these parts. Enjoy! Q. You’re going to be giving the U.S. premiere of two works for solo violin by Tom Myron on the first-ever Sequenza21 Concert. Are they hard? A. “They are as difficult as one would expect two pieces that were written for Peter
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Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Music Events, S21 Concert
Third installment of a series of Composer Perspectives previewing the November 20th Sequenza21 Concert. First of all, many thanks to all the people doing the behind-the-scenes work to make the upcoming Sequenza21 concert happen. It’s a daunting task, bringing all of these disparate voices together. I wonder if concertgoers don’t routinely underestimate the headaches that are hidden behind any successful performance. I’m very curious to hear the music on this concert, having come to know all of the composers a bit online and not at all in person. But I’m uncertain which pieces I will actually be sitting in the
Read moreAn awesome recording of Frederic Rzewski’s “Coming Together” in a live performance by the Crash Ensemble with Gavin Friday. Picked up directly from Rzewski himself in Kansas City by Scott Unrein. Not available commercially. Rzewski says it’s his favorite recording of the work. And you can listen to it, or download it, here. Update: I cheated and fixed the spelling of Fred’s name. Be sure to check the Workspace for a new commissioning prize.
Read moreKalevi Aho, Lowell Liebermann, Áskell Másson, Þorsteinn Hauksson, Haraldur Sveinbjörnsson, Eiríkur Árni Sigtryggsson, Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson, Atli Heimir Sveinsson, Atli Heimir Sveinsson, Björk, the Sugarcubes, Quarashi, Sigur Rós, Minus, Olga Bochihina, Caspar Johannes Walter, Nicolaus Richter de Vroe, Michael Hirsch, Juliane Klein, Vladimir Nikolaev, Moritz Eggert (photo above), and Iraida Yusupova are just some of the contemporary composers from around the globe who have featured On An Overgrown Path during the last week. New music comes in out of the cold in Iceland highlighted the flourishing new music scene in that remarkable country while A Who’s Who of contemporary composers featured
Read moreThe always reliable Pliable tells me that Charles Griffin’s Sequenza21 blog From the Faraway Nearby: An American Composer in Latvia was chosen blog of the week (or some such) by no less than The Times in London. He couldn’t find a Times link online and neither can I but if someone comes across it, pass it along. Maybe this will encourage Charles to do a second post. My copy of the Gramophone Awards 2006 arrived by post this week and I was somewhat bemused to discover that my local radio station, WQXR – The Classical Station of the New York Times, has now created (at considerable
Read moreKeys to the Future is a festival of contemporary music for solo piano that began here in New York in 2005. Season 2 takes place November 7-9 (Tues., Wed. and Thurs.) at Greenwich House’s Renee Weiler Concert Hall. (If you haven’t been there, this intimate hall is ideal for listening to piano music.) If you’re interested in checking out pertinent information, the website is http://www.keystothefuture.org/, or you can contact me directly at joe@keystothefuture.org. The six pianists involved are: Lisa Moore, Blair McMillen, Tatjana Rankovich, Lora Tchekoratova, Polly Ferman, and myself. I thought I’d talk briefly here about the Festival and
Read moreLast night’s Green Umbrella concert of new music was the first concert in Los Angeles solely comprising Australian music, and it was a real success. As the second part of the Phil’s recognition of Dean as composer, he was given freedom to select the program and his own role. So we saw Brett Dean as composer, as performer on viola, as conductor, as commentator, as programmer, and — in all of these — as effective communicator. This was an evening that deserved to be recorded and made available for download so that more than the thousand in Disney Hall last
Read moreSix years ago, Sequenza21 published an interesting interview with Brett Dean. The violist who was once the youngest member of the Berlin Philharmonic was beginning to be recognized as a composer. This was about the time he made his first appearance with members of the LA Philharmonic in a “Green Umbrella” concert of new music, performing his work “Intimate Decisions” for viola. S21, typically prescient, gave a lede to the interview stating that if you hadn’t heard of Dean yet, “You will. You will.” This season Dean is the first contemporary composer to be given a spotlight by the LA Phil,
Read moreThere seemed to be an universal agreement with Soho the Dog when he posted his famous 8 sentences, but on half of them, he was either being way too literal or just wrong. “Jazz is America’s classical music.” Yeah sure, Johns Adams & Corigliano and their peers are this continent’s contributions to the field of classical music, but this, dear fellow, is what we call a metaphor. In this case, it applies to the fact that jazz is an aesthetic that is entirely unique and has risen to the serious-minded plateau of traditional classical music. Why is that so
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