Concerts

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,

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by Christian Carey
Cello, Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical

Fire in July Gig on Nov. 12

This just in from singing cellist Jody Redhage: Hi friends, I’m excited to announce that my new website is up and running!  Please visit www.jodyredhage.com. Also, Fire in July is playing a really fun show this Wednesday, Nov. 12 at the Players Theatre in the Village. We’re sharing the night with fellow chamber pop band alice. Please see the details below. Hope everyone is well! All best, Jody FIRE IN JULY Wed., Nov. 12, 2008 8:00 pm alice 9:00pm Fire in July Music on MacDougal Series The Players Theatre 115 MacDougal St. (between W 3rd and Bleeker) New York, NY  10012 212-475-1449

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by Christian Carey
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

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by Christian Carey
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

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by Christian Carey
Concerts, Contemporary Classical

Being, Nothingness and Morton Feldman

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TEWQZ5tLD0[/youtube] Some people like to think that music is always somehow about something… usually them.  My bad love affair, the world will never understand me, much less remember me.  And lots of music — from the troubadours with their songs of courtly love  to the meditations and dramas of the romantics to the skitterings and upheavals of the New Vienna School — have been a kind of narrative of this beleaguered self, or if you will, the audience’s identification with the composer’s ups and downs. But the New York School  of Earle Brown (1926-2002), Christian Wolff (1936-  ),  John Cage

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by Michael McDonagh
Concerts, Contemporary Classical

Sex and Sanskrit

I must confess that composer Douglas J. Cuomo has only recently appeared on my radar screen.  That may mean that I’m not paying enough attention or it could mean that I never watched Sex and the City and thus avoided the theme, which is Cuomo’s most famous, and probably lucrative, credit.  In any event, Cuomo is currently having a career season in “serious” music.  A few months ago, Allan Kozinn selected Cuomo’s Arjuna’s Dilemma–which previewed this summer at the Pepsico Theater in Purchase–as one of the top picks for the new season, describing the 70-minute multimedia work as “a compelling

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by Jerry Bowles
Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Experimental Music, Improv, New York

Interpretations Season 20: Artist Blog #1 — Michael Lipsey

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 first concert this season on 2 October, features the Myra Melford Quartet and Henry Threadgill’s Zooid + Talujon Percussion Ensemble. Michael Lipsey of Talujon has

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by Michael Lipsey
Composers, Concerts, Music Events, Orchestral

August 4, 1964: Five Things

I heard the world premiere of Steven Stucky’s August 4, 1964 with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and soloists with Jaap van Zweden last night in Dallas. 1. Not since the golden age of Handel oratorios has something like August 4, 1964 been so touching and well crafted; from the amazing libretto by Gene Scheer to the vocal soloist’s costumes, the evening was thought provoking and emotional. Supertitles brought clarity to the work, but with the diction of the soloists, it wasn’t needed but certainly appreciated. Still, small details like the italics for the Stephen Spender poem used in the

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by John Clare
Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Minimalism, Music Events, New York

M50: Minimalism Turns Fifty

This September marks the 50th anniversary of musical Minimalism, an artistic revolution which critic Kyle Gann has described as “the most important musico-historical event of my lifetime.” I’m delighted to announce that Sequenza21, in collaboration with the exciting new concert series Music On MacDougal, will be celebrating this important milestone with a concert of early Minimalist music. When: September 17th, 2008 at 8:00 PM Where: The Players Theatre, in Greenwich Village, Manhattan 115 MacDougal Street, New York, NY 10012 Tickets: By Phone: 212-352-3101 or Online. Program: Steve Reich — “Piano Phase” (1967) (Version for two Marimbas) Philip Glass — “Piece

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by Galen H. Brown