Hilary Hahn, the only combination stellar violinist/S21 roving reporter on the block, checks in with an up-close sit-down with composer Mark Adamo, on what being a composer means to him, latest projects, etc: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLnHTz-henc[/youtube] Follow the rest here, just scroll down the list on the right. Hilary will be back in September chatting up Nico Muhly, so stay tuned!
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Chamber Music, Concert review, Contemporary Classical, Criticism, Post Modern, Review, Twentieth Century Composer
Older readers may recall with fondness Edgar Bergen, a very popular American entertainer who poured his comic routines through ventriloquist dummies named Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. Edgar so loved the performing arts, that he created an annual celebration to showcase classical music, dance, opera, and theater, which continues and thrives to this very day: the Bergen Festival. Okay, that’s not really what the Bergen Festival is, but after hearing a modern composer with a strong Chinese musical identity—Bright Sheng—prop up Scandinavian folk tunes on his knee, and manipulate them to entertain the public, the spirit of Charlie McCarthy—a bourgeois
Read moreI’m looking forward to the West Coast premiere of Christopher Rouse’s String Quartet no. 3 by the amazing Calder Quartet. The enthusiastic gentlemen in the Calder Quartet have worked closely with Rouse, having recorded his first 2 quartets and his chamber ensemble work, Compline on this terrific CD. I know there’s been Rouse-bashing by some visitors here in the past, but I admire some of his music, especially when he’s writing in his Sturm und Drang mode (as he did in the 1st Quartet and the middle movement of the 2nd). The 3rd Quartet promises to be his ultimate ultraviolent
Read moreAn overly self-conscious trip to a store with a flyswatter in hand inspires Christopher Penrose to create this gentle and humorous parody of Alvin Lucier’s I am Sitting In a Room.
Read moreVictoire, a Brooklyn based quintet of female alt-classical performers, is currently doing a mini tour in the Midwest to support the impending September release of their album Cathedral City on New Amsterdam. Matt Marks and Mellissa Hughes are taking their show on the road, performing selections from Matt’s opera Little Death Vol. 1. Missy Mazzoli and company have been kind enough to allow us to share the title track from the LP on File Under ?’s Tumblr here. The track combines vocalizing courtesy of Missy with skittering glitchy percussion and a somewhat jazzy harmonic background. Kind of like Julee Cruise meets BoaC
Read moreXin Wang & Alvin Crawford in the 2008 world premiere of Sanctuary Song, presented by Tapestry & Theatre Direct in association with Luminato. Turns out the Hartford Opera Theater folks are not the only group that creates short operas through a collaborative process. In fact, they may have “borrowed” the idea from a Toronto-based organization called Tapestry New Opera, which has been holding an annual Composer-Librettist Laboratory (known affectionately as the LibLab) every year since 1995. LibLab is also the model for the English National Opera Studio’s All In Opera, as well
Read moreWhat to enjoy on those flights to festivals, composing on the beach or just to unwind this summer reading? Dick Strawser has been busy writing the sequel to “The Schoenberg Code” over on Thoughts on a Train – another pun filled parody called “The Lost Chord.” Fans of Dan Brown beware, Strawser outdoes the fiction writer and adds unbelievably hilarious names to a modern composition based thriller. (You might also enjoy his “Stravinsky’s Tavern” as well!)
Read more[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdkGaNQVOFs&feature=related[/youtube] I was checking out video performances of Christopher Rouse compositions, when I came across the lively exchange excerpted below from the comments section of the above performance of Ogoun Badagris. I love reading this kind of discussion about new music. Strip away all the jargon and citations, add some internet acronyms and sarcasm, and a lot of the back-and-forth on musical aesthetic issues in scholarly journals boils down to pretty much what these gentlemen are discussing below: • TheKingBolden 5 months ago What a useless piece. I’m sure the composer thinks he’s conveying something deep and spiritual, lol. •
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CDs, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Festivals, Lincoln Center, Music Events, New York, Performers
In this space just a year ago we told you about Asphalt Orchestra‘s Lincoln Center Out of Doors hit-the-streets, in-you-face debut last summer. Well, what a year they’ve had! In August they performed during lunchtime at Philadelphiaʼs 30th Street Amtrak Station; it’s a testament to the band’s transcendence of genre that The Philadelphia Inquirer named that show one of the 10 Best Classical Performances of 2009, even though it took place in a train station and featured almost no classical music! In late 2009 the band was selected to play the official opening of Lincoln Centerʼs newest space, the David
Read moreOutside the Eldorado Ballroom, Houston, TX (Photo by Chris Becker) “ …(Houston is) one of the epicenters of noise bands and experimental music. Nobody even knows that, you know? ” Dan Workman of Houston’s Sugarhill Studios. Here’s an excerpt of a recording I made of a Houston thunderstorm using a Zoom H4 recorder positioned just behind the front screen door to our house. You might want to turn down the volume about half way through if you listen to this headphones: Houston rain and thunder Part One New York City – the city where I lived for twelve years before
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