Concerts

Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Dance, Experimental Music, Festivals, Seattle

The 2010 NW New Works Festival

We covered some great shows coming up this month in the Bay Area and NYC, now it’s Seattle’s turn. For the next two weekends (June 4-6 & 11-13) On the Boards will be hosting the 2010 NW New Works Festival which features “emerging and established artists from a variety of performance disciplines” and “highlights artists who are pushing themselves to take on new challenges.” Looking over the list of showcases it seems that the festival is primarily focused on new theater and dance, but there are a few music related sets in there if you look hard. The Mint Collective,

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Chamber Music, Commissions, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, Interviews

Decisions, decisions, decisions

[Polly writes about great events happening in the Bay Area, here.  And, I’ll have a few cool things happening in Seattle soon.  In the meantime here are some interesting performances coming up in NYC ] It looks like the first couple weeks of June are going to be full of tough choices.  Like, on Saturday, June 5th will I check-out, a) The JACK Quartet on the opening night of the Tribeca New Music Festival, b) Wet Ink meets Yarn/Wire at Roulette, or c) Feldman performed by Flux Quartet and Evan Ziporyn? Here’s what’s coming up, choose wisely: June 2: Da

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Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Events, Festivals, Improv, San Francisco

It’s that time of year again.

The beginning of June has taken on a certain meaning to the San Francisco Bay Area new music community, and every single one of us would erase that meaning if we could.  It’s once again time for the Matthew Sperry Memorial Festival, held every year around this time in memory of one of our own, lost to us in a tragic accident on June 5, 2003. The eighth annual festival happens this week, and the theme is “Homegrown”, since organizers are taking a break from the out-of-town headliners who’ve graced the event each year up till now. First up, on

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Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York, Songs, Women composers

Short Chat with Elizabeth Ziman

Brooklynite singer/songwriter Elizabeth Ziman is probably best known for her work with the indie pop band Elizabeth and the Catapult. But Ziman, a trained pianist who studied film scoring, was recently involved in composing music for a crossover “art song” project. The commission was premiered last Thursday at New Sounds Live, a concert hosted by John Schaefer at Merkin Hall in New York City. Elizabeth and the Catapult, Gabriel Kahane, and Ed Pastorini all appeared, performing new works that demonstrated their own particular takes on the ‘art song’ concept. After the gig, Elizabeth was kind enough to share some thoughts

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Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Events, Orchestral, Orchestras, Washington D.C.

The Dharma on the Potomac

  The National Symphony Orchestra has been hosting composer John Adams over the past two weeks in presentations of his own works as well as works of the 20th century American, Russian and English repertoires.  Last week he presented works by Copland, Barber, and Elgar as well as his own The Wound Dresser.  This week, Adams and the NSO were joined by violinist Leila Josefowicz for a performance that included Adams’ electric violin “concerto,” The Dharma at Big Sur, and the Washington premiere of the Dr. Atomic Symphony.   The program began with Benjamin Britten’s “Four Sea Interludes” from his

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Chicago, Concerts, Premieres

Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles “Ghost Towns”

In Chicago?  There’s a concert this week I wish I could attend — maybe you’ll be my proxy — The Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles (named for a colorful bit of Ives invective), is a hub for an enthusiastic community of young Chicago performers and composers. Their upcoming concert, “Ghost Towns,” will feature two premieres: Brian Baxter‘s mountainous Lulu City and Eric Malmquist’s take on the traditional Irish Folksong, The Wind that Shakes the Barley.  Luke Gullickson’s epic Terlingua Meditations, Ben Hjertmann’s raucous Dakruvoso, and James Klopfleisch’s miniature for two violins, Cairn, round out the evening. Thursday, May 20, 2010 7:30pm Curtiss Hall,

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CDs, Chamber Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, New York, Piano, Violin

Mozart, Eno, Andres, Clyne, Norman, & seat yourself even!

I don’t normally quote press releases wholesale, but I don’t know what I could better in my own account (though be sure to read the last paragraph for some extra sweet deals). So… ………………. On Thursday, May 20th, Metropolis Ensemble will present Home Stretch, in two performances featuring the compositions of composer/pianist Timothy Andres presented alongside two composers who have inspired his unique style: Wolfgang Mozart, and the father of ambient music, Brian Eno.  Also featured will be the New York Premiere of Anna Clyne’s elegiac work for string orchestra, Within Her Arms. In keeping with Metropolis Ensemble’s mission to re-imagine the concert

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Canada, Chamber Music, Commissions, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, Music Events, Performers, Post Modern

Out there. And there. And there. And…

A few of the of the unusual and interesting events coming up soon, soon soon: Victoria, B.C. : Wednesday May 12th, 8pm at Knox Presbyterian Church (2964 Richmond Road, Victoria / $10), LaSaM (Luminosity and Sounds by adventurous Musicians) is presenting a program titled “And Beethoven Heard Nothing“. As they tell it, the show will be “exploring Beethoven’s inherent belief systems, his deafness and the sonorities of his later work. Sonic phenomena; tinnitus and deafness; acoustic space, climax and stasis; memory and silence… The ensemble has pulled experiences of Beethoven’s thought and music through the filters of contemporary soundscape and

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