Concerts

Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Events, Festivals, Interviews, Other Minds, San Francisco, Violin, Women composers

Let’s Ask Lisa Bielawa

2009 Frederic A. Juilliard/Walter Damrosch Rome Prize winner Lisa Bielawa has returned to her hometown of San Francisco to take part in the 2010 Other Minds festival. Her piece, Kafka Songs, will close the first night of the festival on Thursday, March 4th.  Violinist, vocalist and rock star Carla Kihlstedt, for whom Kafka Songs was written, will perform.  OM 15 takes place at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, and tickets can be purchased online here. Despite her whirlwind schedule leading up to the festival, Lisa was able to take time out to answer a few of my questions.

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by Polly Moller
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, File Under?, New York

Composers Now: An interview with Laura Kaminsky

Composer, arts administrator, educator, and now, festival curator, Laura Kaminsky is exactly the type of advocate contemporary music needs to ensure its survival. Until recently a dean at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College/SUNY (she remains on the faculty), she’s currently Associate Artistic Director at Symphony Space. Since her arrival, Kaminsky has done a great deal to enhance the music programming at the venue. “Symphony Space has long been known for its literary events. But in recent years we’ve been hard at work to create an increased role for music in our programming: both in terms of performances and

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by Christian Carey
Broadcast, Composers, Concerts

We Get Stacks and Stacks of Letters

Hi Jerry, Wanted to share two recent interviews: 1. Paul York, cellist and professor at the University of Louisville, has a new CD (Cello Vision – Centaur 2989) featuring new music by Stefan Freund, Aaron J. Kernis, Steve Rouse, Frederick Speck, Paul Brink and Marc Satterwhite.  The Kernis is a world-premiere recording of Ballad for solo cello and seven cellos.  Freund’s Toccata is also a premiere recording.  The interview is here. 2. George Tsontakis was in town last week for a world premiere with the Louisville Orchestra.  Impetuous was commissioned for the LO by a fellow Yaddo board member, Nana

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by Jerry Bowles
Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Percussion, Saxophone

Shout-out, South Carolina!

Columbia’s own Southern Exposure New Music Series and xMUSE (University of South Carolina’s Experimental Music Studio, directed by Reginald Bain) combine forces once again to present an evening of genre-bending music and technology. The Saturday, February 27th, 7:30 p.m concert features Odd Appetite, the New York based duo of performers/composers Ha-Yang Kim (cello) and Nathan Davis (percussion) in works for musically interactive computer software, spatial speaker configurations, amplified triangles, microtonal bells, drums, tuned aluminum pipes, and a de-tuned and amplified cello with stomp boxes and electronic effects, all played with dazzling virtuosity and passion. In addition to music by Davis

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by Steve Layton
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, File Under?, New York

Week long Composers Now Festival starts today!

Sure, the recession has caused for cutbacks in the arts. But composers are a resilient bunch. This week, New York City will be the site for the first Composers Now festival. Coordinated by Symphony Space Associate Artistic Director Laura Kaminsky and composer Tania León, the festival involves a host of area venues and organizations. The activities start Monday morning with a panel discussion and a marathon concert from 12-6. Tonight alone, there are events at Symphony Space, the Schomburg Center, the Morgan Library, the Jazz Gallery, and the Flushing Branch of the Queens Library. Composers Now will run throughout the

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by Christian Carey
Concerts

Music & Tragedy: The Killings in Huntsville

This weekend at U of Alabama Huntsville there was to have been a two-day symposium built around my second piano trio, ZONES. (The piece would  be performed on Friday evening, paired with the Ravel Trio in a  concert by Trio Appassionato.)  But  Friday afternoon,  just as I was driving in from the airport, came the terrible  murders on campus, shocking  the city to its core. I was emotionally dumbstruck by  this tragedy – and  the campus was  closed after   an hour-long lockdown. What to do? … Concert organizer Dr. Royce Boyer and the performers  decided to hold a truncated concert

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by Judith Lang Zaimont
Concerts, San Francisco

Fits and Starts — sfSoundSeries

Music has always come from two basic sources, and served two quite different masters — thought and emotion. The Western tradition, especially in its modern and contemporary permutations, has given the upper hand to thought, as if it was superior to feeling, and therefore inescapably deep. Hence our worship of Bach’s “pure” architectural lines and use of forms, and Schoenberg and his Second Viennese School and their satellites’ obsession with 12-note sets, have driven the wedge between the two even deeper . And that’s why some composers have claimed that that their music is music better than it sounds because

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by Michael McDonagh
Composers, Concerts, Conferences, Contemporary Classical, Minimalism

Blängen the Schlingen with Charlemagne Palestine

Pwyll ap Siôn is a composer and Senior Lecturer in music at Bangor University in Wales (UK). His strong interest in Minimalism (he’s written a book on Michael Nyman) led to his co-hosting of the first International Conference on Minimalist Music in 2007. He also made his way across the ocean for the second iteration of the conference, held last September in Kansas City, MO.  Pwyll asked if S21 might like to print a few of his reactions and thoughts from the conference, and we said sure thing: At the Second International Conference on Minimalist Music last September, hosted by

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by Steve Layton
Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Flute, Interviews, Music Events, Podcasts, Seattle

Seattle Chamber Players | On the Boards

Those of you who are familiar with the contemporary arts scene in Seattle know that there are two organizations which have been dedicated to presenting new and interesting works from around the world for over 20-years: On the Boards and the Seattle Chamber Players.  And those of you who are familiar with me know that I have a special love for Seattle and all the interesting musical and artistic projects that are embraced there.  So, if you are in Seattle I would encourage you to check-out some upcoming SPC performances at OtB (especially since I can’t be there!). February 26-28:

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by James Holt
Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Microtonalism, New York

Pick a tone, any tone

The American Music Center’s NewMusicBox-meister Frank J. Oteri dropped by, with word of an upcoming gig of his own this Saturday: “Just wanted to alert you folks that Tonally Perplexed, my trio devoted to improvisation with just noticeable differences (featuring moi on the custom built 6-octave ‘tonal plexus’ tuned to 205-tone equal temperament) will be performing on Saturday night at 7PM in Harlem for an art opening featuring new paintings by the wonderful Lisa Taliano (Chashama 461 Gallery, 461 West 126th St, between Amsterdam and Morningside). Since our last outing at the Cornelia Street Cafe, the group has taken a

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by Steve Layton