I caught the second of “In Your Ear Redux” concerts at Zankel Hall with The Tensions Mountain Boys Saturday night, and I was happy I did! 1. Chris Thile (mandolin, voice and composer) is clearly a masterful musician. His new group The Tensions Mountain Boys (Chris Eldridge, guitar/vocals; Greg Garrison, Bass; Noam Pikelny, Banjo; Gabe Witcher, violin (nee fiddle)/vocals; and Thile) is a perfect match. They all connect with astounding playing abilities and a certain nonchalance on stage. Thile was downright comedic in his delivery: “You’re all so kind to come here tonight, but why are you in your underwear?
Read moreSpeaking of great American operas, Tobias Picker has written two of them; Emmeline, which is an unqualified masterpiece, and An American Tragedy, which I think history will regard more dearly than its contemporary reviews might suggest. Between those two landmarks, Picker wrote a kind of “forgotten” opera called Thérèse Raquin, an epic based on the Zola novel which, like Tragedy, involves an unwanted lover being chucked overboard in favor of a more attractive alternative. Picker’s psychiatrist, if he has one, could probably make something of that. Thérèse Raquin premiered at The Dallas Opera in 2001 and is now having its New York premiere run, in a revised
Read moreBecause I find myself suddenly and inexplicably old I will not be attending the great two-band, no waiting show at the Bowery Poetry Club this Sunday night, featuring Industrial Jazz Group and Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society. Well, the first episode of the new season of Rome on HBO is this Sunday so I probably wouldn’t be able to make it anyway. But, if I were not suddenly and inexplicably old and if the new season of Rome were not beginning on Sunday night, I would definitely be there. The festivities commence at 8 pm with Industrial Jazz Group, followed at 9:30 by Secret
Read moreDecember 5, 2006 — One of the great things about the internet is that several of the pieces on this concert were available for preview on the Bang On A Can website, and in fact you can still hear those previews to get a flavor of what I’m talking about. New music concerts are so hit-or-miss, it’s a shame more organizations don’t offer this service to help potential audience members pre-screen their events. If you’re listening to that preview, you will already have figured out that this concert was one of the good ones.
Read moreMartin Bresnick turned 60 last month and he’s celebrating the event with two events at Zankel Hall this week. One piece will be on the Bang on the Can All-Stars program on Tuesday night and, on Saturday, the Yale School of Music will devote an entire evening to Bresnick’s music, including choral songs, a concerto for two marimbas, and a multimedia piece for solo pianist. Steve Smith has a splendid profile of Bresnick in the Sunday New York Times which acknowledges the perhaps unfortunate fact that Bresnick is best-known for being the teacher of other composers who are more famous than he
Read moreOn the Friday before Thanksgiving, the Argento Chamber Ensemble took the audience at Symphony Space on a little transatlantic trip with an evening featuring four contemporary French composers: Fabien Levy, Gérard Pesson, Tristan Murail, and Philippe Hurel. Of course for many readers, the phrase ‘contemporary French composers’ will evoke one word (especially with Murail being one of the composers in question) – spectralism. For those of you how aren’t familiar with the term, spectralism is an approach to composition that arises from the analysis of the partials of a particular sound or sounds (its spectrum). How this information relates to
Read moreThe Can Banger All-Stars are playing Zankel Hall on Tuesday, December 5, beginning at 7:30 pm, in a program called American UnPop What is American UnPop? This is how Evan Ziporyn, clarinetist for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, describes it: “Vox populi, vox pop, the voice of the people, or rather the voices of many different peoples, filtered through radio, record companies, market testing and the iTunes…pop culture is today synonymous with corporate culture, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The music industry may be a nightmare, but the sound of pop music, in the broader sense, is
Read moreFans of old-timey and bluegrass music are in for a rare treat on Monday night when the legendary and seldom seen York brothers–Fiddlin’ Frank and Mandola Joe–bring their String Messengers to the Cornelia Street Café in a Schizoid Music program devoted to Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, an indispensible compendium of ballads, blues, hymns and dance tunes from the days of the Great Depression. The Yorks will be joined by their extended family of Jeff York (slide guitar), Jon York (vye-o-la), Sharon (harmony vocals) and Pete York (harmony vocals and guitar), Ratzo B. York (bass), and Jim Murphy (guitar, vocals and string
Read moreThe kids done good. I was proud. Thanks to all of you who came out–we actually had a crowd–and to all the wonderful musicians who played their hearts out. It was a great evening. David Toub has the early bird report here. See Jeff Harrington’s pictures from the concert.
Read moreTonight’s the big night. The kids have worked hard and it’s going to be a great show. I hope to see you all this evening at the first ever Sequenza21 Concert, CUNY Graduate Center, Elebash Recital Hall, 34th and Fifth Avenue. 7:30 sharp. The street address, by the way, is 365 Fifth Avenue.
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