Concerts

Chamber Music, Classical Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, Improv, Music Events, New York, Performers

Interpretations Season #20: Artist Blog #7 — Thomas Buckner

Interpretations continues its twentieth season of provocative programming in New York City. 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. The concert on 12 March 2009 is a recital by the producer himself, baritone Thomas Buckner. He took time out of his busy schedule to tell us in his own words about the series and his concert on it:

On Thursday March 12, the Interpretations series continues its twentieth season. As the series founder and artistic director, I am grateful to Sequenza 21 for featuring our series. The series was founded to nurture community of new music composers and their interpreters. Sequenza 21 nurtures our community by allowing us to communicate with one another.

I am often asked what draws me to the music I present and perform. An answer I have often given is that, whereas many people can make music that sounds like music, I am interested on people who make music that sounds like them. It is a criterion well met by the music I have chosen to present in my concert of new music for voice. Each or the composers is a true original.

The first half of the concert will feature an extended work written for me by composer/pianist “Blue” Gene Tyranny, whom I got to know through our work in the operas of Robert Ashley. The piece, “Somewhere Songs”, has an original text by the composer and is for voice and electronically reproduced sounds. The three songs concern friendship in extraordinary circumstances and are “based on true stories about hidden places, depicted physically, psychologically and socially in specific word idioms.” There is a natural musicality and a sense of mystery in these songs. They have been released on a recent CD of “Blue”s music on the mutable music label.

The next piece in the concert, “T-Language”, made by Tom Hamilton and me, is an improvisation for voice and electronics. We have sought to give the work a clear identity by using recorded vocal improvisations to shape the electronic sounds. Tom and I have worked together for years, and this piece has been developing really well. Our previous recordings include Tom’s “Off Hour Wait State” and our collaboratively created “Jump the Circle, Jump the Line.”

The concert ends with “Beats”, composed by Stuart Saunders Smith for me and my long time collaborator, pianist Joseph Kubera. The texts are from Jack Kerouac and Walt Whitman. It is not a song cycle. Rather, the texts are spoken with piano accompaniment, and the voice sings wordlessly. The music is extremely complex rhythmically. A friend of mine characterized one of Stuart’s pieces as sounding like Roscoe Mitchell, Mallachai Favors and Lester Bowie improvising, but exactly notated. This music is challenging and enjoyable to perform and listen to. It also requires us both to play percussion and has a theatrical flair characteristic of Stuart’s music.

Those of you who have seen the publicity for this concert know that I was also to perform a work by Fred Ho for baritone saxophone and baritone voice. Fred has been waging a courageous war against cancer. He is doing very well, but is presently indisposed, so we will perform his work in a future season.

I hope you will join us at this concert and at the remaining concerts in our twentieth season.

Thomas Buckner is in recital at Roulette on Thursday 12 March. For more information:
Interpretations
Roulette

by Tom Bucker
Classical Music, Click Picks, Competitions, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Music Events, Uncategorized

Casting a Wide Net for the Three Bs

If you believe that the importance of the arts in these times is inversely proportional to the economic news, than there’s never been a better time for YouTube’s Symphony Orchestra. YouTube announced today the winners of the world’s first orchestra selected entirely through video auditions on-line, a process yielding more than 3,000 videos from all over the world, and 200 finalists.

Since I work in the social media aspects of business software marketing, it’s been a fascinating experience to see my husband, Bill Williams,  in his role as the Music Coordinator for the YouTube project, examine many of the nuances and applications of social media’s power.

The global YouTube community, and Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, selected from the finalists more than 90 musicians playing 26 different instruments from 30 different countries including: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States.  Many of the winners have played professionally but a number of them have not.

The musicians will travel to Carnegie Hall in April for a summit and for a concert under the direction of Tilson Thomas. Selected submissions will be compiled into a mashup video, which will premiere at the Carnegie Hall concert on April 15. The concert will uniquely cover the 1200 year span of classical music and many surprises are in store for the concert-goer. Tickets are on sale now.

Since the launch of this initiative in December 2008, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra’s channel has received more than 13 million views worldwide. To further demonstrate the commitment of YouTube to this genre, new features to improve the site quality and functionality are present on the Youtube.com/symphony channel. According to the press release, The YouTube Symphony Orchestra marks the first program on YouTube to welcome submissions from nearly every country in the world, and the channel continues to be available in 16 different languages.  YouTube has partnered with more than 40 major classical music organizations and institutions to bring this initiative to musicians around the world.

Nothing this ambitious has ever been undertaken in the world of classical music in such a short period of time.    One  perspective is that the discovery of hidden talent can mean the difference between just another orchestra assembled by conventional means and a orchestra chosen in part by us, by subject matter experts, and by the crowd, providing a point of reference for the way we participate in the arts in the future.

In addition to marketing software, Margot also plays a mean jazz piano and is the only person I know who has Giant Steps as a ringtone. JB

by Margot Heiligman
Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, Music Events, Performers

Jarvis at TCNJ

It might be a small, unassuming, and verdantly appointed campus, but within lurks a strong new music contingent! The College of New Jersey is having a faculty composer recital next week.

Peter Jarvis, director of the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, will be performing the premiere of Carlton Wilkinson’s piece for drum set Jungle 5-7675, a work he commissioned, on the program this coming Thursday. Four other composers on faculty will also be featured.

Music Faculty Composers Recital

Featuring works by Robert Young McMahan, Teresa Nakra, Ralph Russell,

William Trigg, and Carlton Wilkinson.

Thursday, March 5, 2009 @ 8 PM

Mildred & Ernest E. Mayo Concert Hall, Music Building

Free and open to the public.

For more information, please email music@tcnj.edu or visit www.tcnj.edu/~music

TCNJ is located at 2000 Pennington Road, Ewing, NJ 08628-0718.

Parking for music events is available in lots 3-6.

by Christian Carey
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York

Monday at Merkin: Six premieres by the New York New Music Ensemble


Two of New York New Music Ensemble’s members, clarinetist Jean Kopperud and pianist Stephen Gosling, will be premiering six new pieces at Merkin Concert Hall on Monday, Feb. 23 at 8 PM.

The pieces were composed for the duo by Eric Moe, Paolo Cavallone, Steve Ricks, David Felder, James Primosch, Jason Eckardt, and Harvey Sollberger.

Apparently they’re calling this the Rated X Project, but we’re hoping everyone at Merkin keeps their clothes on. Really.

by Christian Carey
Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music

Interpretations Season #20: Artist Blog #6 — Annea Lockwood and Larry Austin

Annea Lockwood & Larry AustinInterpretations continues its twentieth season of provocative programming in New York City. 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. The concert on 12 February 2009 brings us back to Roulette for an evening of Annea Lockwood and Larry Austin, two distinguished composers in the electro-acoustic tradition. Both composers collaborated to tell you more about their concert:

“The Outlanders” concert at 8 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 12, at Roulette:

Composers Annea Lockwood and Larry Austin present recent octophonic compositions as part of the twentieth season of the Interpretations Series. We have named ourselves “The Outlanders”, because both of us grew up and established our musical personalities in the “outlands”, that is, outside of New York City: Annea from New Zealand, Larry from Texas. We feel that our music thrives because it is neither uptown nor downtown: it is “out-of-town”. This is not to say that we aren’t cosmopolitan composers, for both of us have had our music performed around the world in installations, new music festivals, symphony concerts, galleries, computer music conference/festivals, chamber and solo concerts, the whole lot. Our compositions have been recorded and released on major labels; our academic careers have been fulfilling at major universities around the USA. The concert on Feb. 12 features two world premieres: Austin’s “ReduxTwo”, for piano and octophonic computer music, performed by pianist Joseph Kubera; and “In Our Name”, a collaborative composition by Lockwood and Buckner for baritone voice, cello, and electronics, performed by baritone Thomas Buckner and cellist Theodor Mook. Other works on the concert feature New York premieres of Austin’s “Redux”, for violinist Patricia Strange, and his “Tableaux”, for saxophonist Stephen Duke, also including a new video component by Kevin Evensen. Lockwood’s recent music for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company,”Jitterbug”, for David Behrman, John King, Stephan Moore and electronics, is included as well.

It is an honor to be participating in the celebration of the Interpretations Series twentieth year. Guided by Thomas Buckner’s expansive vision, the series’ range is refreshingly broad and many new works have been created for it through his commissioning program over the years. For Annea this program is particularly exciting because it involves collaboration with two people who have been a strong influence on the shape of her life as a composer, Larry Austin and Thomas Buckner. As one of the editors of Source Magazine, Larry’s support was a major influence on her decision to move to the US in the early 70’s; and Annea and Tom have worked together since 1989 in one of the core collaborations of her life as a composer.

We congratulate Thomas Buckner, Gladys Serrano and her colleagues at Mutable Music on twenty years of superb presentations, and invite you to attend our concert and enjoy!

For more information: Interpretations  /  Roulette

by Annea Lockwood
Chamber Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Be There or Be Ionian!

Locrian Chamber Players

Have you heard the Locrian Chamber Players yet? If not, you’re missing out. The group has a unique mandate: they only play pieces less than a decade old. This results in stimulating, varied, and stylistically catholic programs.

With members that include some of New York’s finest performers of contemporary music – pianist Emily Wong, flutist Diva Goodfriend-Koven, and violinist Calvin Wiersma among them – the music is exquisitely well-prepared. Admission: FREE.

Locrian’s next show is this weekend, Saturday, January 31 at 8 PM, 10th Floor Performance Space, Riverside Church, and features these works:

Milton Babbitt: Little Goes a Long Way

Earle Brown: Special Events

Nils Vigeland: Aurochs and Angels

David Dzubay:  Kukulkan

To reach Riverside Church by subway, take the 1 or 9 train to 116th street. By bus, take the M4 or M104 to Broadway and 120th Street. Enter Riverside Church at 91 Claremont Avenue (one block west of Broadway, between 120th and 122nd streets). Parking is available at the Riverside Church garage, located at 120th Street and Riverside Drive.

by Christian Carey
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Orchestral

Five Things about Absolute Ocean

I heard the world premiere of Absolute Ocean by Augusta Read Thomas in Houston Thursday night at Jones Hall.
1. Thomas spoke before the concert about her compositional process and specifically about Absolute Ocean. Her talk was engaging, direct and charming; Thomas included showing the audience some of the manuscript score, and explained how 15 seconds of music might take five hours to score by hand!
ART talking before the concert
2. Absolute Ocean is a work for Soprano, Harp and Orchestra in three movements from poetry by ee cummings commissioned by the Houston Symphony. The soloists, soprano Twyla Robinson and harpist Paula Page, performed with conviction and panache – putting the music first without extraneous movement or distractions. The texts were projected (not always coordinated, but hey, they were there!) on each side of the stage and added to the performance.
3. The opening “Graceful” movement was pointilistic and bright. Robinson pulled pitches from nowhere and was matched beautifully by Thomas’ instrumental colors and combinations. Page was often backed by four percussionists and divisi solo strings.
4. Perhaps the most charming of all was the second movement, “Playful, spry and jazzy.” Hans Graf was direct and precise with the orchestra, making it easy for the musicians to move in and out of the lines deftly. Again Robinson caught the feeling perfectly of cummings text and Thomas’ frolicsome and vivacious score. Page was purely color for the most part, but had a chance to shine with a cadenza between this movement and the finale. Evidently this cadenza was added later at Page’s request – which certainly went more to weigh the harp part…I would not call Absolute Ocean a double concerto, but rather an orchestral work for soprano with a prominent harp part. I had heard it referred to as a concerto – and would be disappointed as such – luckily it is such a wonderful work, the nomenclature is not important.
5. “Resonant and elegant” finished the 18 minute work and the short first half (the second half was Mahler’s Fourth Symphony) of the concert. The finale paints the words with creative combinations, and has a satisfying and direct ending. Absolute Ocean is a complete success for the Houston Symphony, and kudos to Graf for adding such a gorgeous work to the symphonic world.
There are two more performances of Absolute Ocean, Saturday night at 8pm and Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm. There is another pre-concert talk Saturday at 7:10pm open to all ticket holders. The 2009-10 season has just been announced for the HSO, and includes another Houston Symphony Commission, for chorus and orchestra by Kevin Puts.

by John Clare
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, Music Events, New York, Opera

Interpretations Season #20: Artist Blog #5 — Robert Ashley

Robert AshleyInterpretations continues its twentieth season of provocative programming in New York City. 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. Produced in tandem with La Mama ETC and Performing Artservices, the centerpiece of the series this year is a two-week, three opera, 10 performance, mini-retrospective of the recent works of Robert Ashley: Dust, Celestial Excursions, and Made out of Concrete.

Robert Ashley’s operas will be at La Mama ETC from 15-25 January 2009.
For more information:
S21 Calendar
Interpretations

Mr. Ashley has been kind enough to take some time from his busy rehearsing schedule to write about the ensemble he’s gathered over the past thirty years or so, as a sort of self-interview:

WHO ARE THE ENSEMBLE MEMBERS?

The ensemble now is (alphabetical order in singers / in slight order of importance in technical)

ROBERT ASHLEY: voice
SAM ASHLEY: voice
THOMAS BUCKNER: voice
JACQUELINE HUMBERT: voice
JOAN LA BARBARA: voice

TOM HAMILTON does audio engineering in all stages of the opera, assists me in realizing the composition in the electronic studio prior to performance; he’s the mixing engineer and advisor in rehearsals; he does performance sound processing and mixing of the performance; he’s in charge of recording of the performance and mixing the sounds from the performance for the CD recording.

CAS BOUMANS is the performance sound designer (audience loudspeaker placement and sound monitor arrangements for the performers. Microphone placement.)

DAVID MOODEY does stage and light design.

MELANIE LIPKA is the production stage manager (off-stage timing of what goes into the performance.)

“BLUE” GENE TYRANNY is the synthesizer performer in Dust and Celestial Excursions

JOAN JONAS is the dancer/performance artist in Celestial Excursions

WHEN DID YOU START WORKING WITH THEM?
It’s various, but compared to the life of most ensembles I’ve been working with all of them for a long time, not only in their jobs now with the ensemble, but as musicians and designers.

(more…)

by Robert
Bang on a Can, CDs, Composers, Concerts, Festivals, Music Events, New York

Riding the Next Wave: Michael Gordon

Composer Michael GordonThis week the Next Wave Festival 2008 is raging at BAM, and there are several chances next week to hear Lightning at our feet, the latest from Ridge Theater and Michael Gordon at the Harvey Theater. (Dec 9, 11-13)

Gordon and I spoke on the phone about the new work that premiered in Houston. Listen to our conversation here – Lightning Interview with Gordon and Clare.
Here’s an added bonus, Gordon has a new EP coming out Tuesday, a fascinating “Purgatorio: Popera” on Canteloupe. We talked about it, as well as being married to a composer (Julia Wolfe) and everyone’s favorite 100 year old on Thursday, Elliott Carter! mp3 file

by John Clare
Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical

Musical Notes From All Over

The Manhattan edition of the Sequenza21/Lost Dog Ensemble concert–as seen in the New York Times–is happening tonight at 8 pm at the Good Shepherd Church, 152 West 66tth Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam).   Admission is free, as in you don’t have to pay to get in.  This is your last chance to see a Sequenza21 concert until we save up enough money to have another one so don’t miss it.

Our friends at Other Minds in San Francisco invented the New Music Séance in 2005, and after two sold-out editions, they’re back with a third.  The event will feature three concerts of hypnotic, spiritual and rarely-heard musical gems spanning the past 100 years, offered in the intimate candlelit surroundings of Bernard Maybeck’s 1895 Arts and Crafts-style Swedenborgian Church in San Francisco. Performers Sarah Cahill (piano) (you go girl) , Kate Stenberg (violin), and Eva-Maria Zimmermann (piano) will channel new music’s progenitors alongside composers of today, in works for solo piano and violin piano duet.

The  marathon features three distinct concerts tomorrow, December 6, 2008: Concert I, “Birds in Warped Time” at 1pm; Concert II, “Deep River Dreams” at 4pm; and Concert III, “Ruth Crawford and Her Milieu” at 8pm. The final concert will be preceded by a special discussion of Ruth Crawford by Professor Judith Tick of Northeastern University, Crawford’s biographer. All events take place at Swedenborgian Church, 2107 Lyon Street, San Francisco. Tickets are on a sliding scale (individual concerts / 3-concert series): SEER ($25 / $65), MEDIUM ($40 / $110), PSYCHIC ($60 / $170). (Forget it, Jake.  It’s Chinatown.) Complimentary refreshments are provided for all ticket-holders, and series tickets at the PSYCHIC level include 6pm buffet dinner with the artists. The first two editions of the New Music Séance were sold out, and seating is limited to 100 persons per show, so early ticket purchase is recommended. Tickets are on sale now, at www.BrownPaperTickets.com or by calling (800) 838-3006. For information, visit otherminds.org or call (415) 934-8134.

And Lower East Side Performing Arts, Inc. will present Zendora Dance Company and the music of the lovely and gifted Elodie Lauten in a special Holiday Benefit on Tuesday, December 9 – 7:30 PM at Lafayette Bar & Grill, 54 Franklin Street (between Broadway and Lafayette) in Manhattan.

The program will be a special avant-premiere with improvisations from the Zendora Dance Company based on the second act of The Two-Cents Opera, Elodie Lauten’s semi-autobiographical fantasy about writing an opera where real, surreal and supernatural co-exist.  Hmmm…. looks like a pattern developing here.  Suggested donation for this benefit event is $10. For reservations or more information, please call 212-388-0202 or visit http://www.geocities.com/lesperformingarts for program information.

by Jerry Bowles