I took this picture at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica around 3 a.m. on December 25, 1966 as some of my shipmates and I made our way back from the McMurdo “Playboy Club” to the U.S.S. Atka, a Navy icebreaker that no longer exists. Given the other military options available to young men on that date, it was not a bad place to be. This rather surreal tableaux of drunken comraderie illustrates, I think, a dirty little secret known to all men and a few women and that is that men–especially hetrosexual men who have worked, lived and played together under difficult
Read moreI hesitate to repost this again, but I find that the links that Google turns up are mostly dead, and some of you seem to like it. So, with best wishes for a happy holdiay season, and without further ado, I give you: A Visit From J.S. Bach By Galen H. Brown, (With apologies to Henry Livingston, Jr.) ‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the city The critics were trying their best to be witty; They printed their lists of the past year’s best fare, In hopes that their trendy young readers would care; But the readers were
Read moreIt was a time of list-making and so they made a list–the most important new musical works of an otherwise shitty, miserable decade. I’ll begin: 1. La Pasión según San Marcos (2000) Osvaldo Golijov 5. The Little Match Girl Passion David Lang 10. Paradiso Jacob ter Veldhuis Your turn. Update 1: 3. September Canons (2002) Ingram Marshall – An incredibly powerful 9/11 remembrance made transcendent by Todd Reynolds’ performance.
Read moreWNYC’s acquisition of New York radio’s stalwart WQXR was a win/lose proposition. Win, in that a major classical station would stay alive; lose in that the new assigned frequency (which can conflict with a powerful Connecticut station on the same frequency) and reduction in broadcast power (from 6,000 watts to only 600 watts) reduces its reach by some millions of potential listeners. Not that it matters much to me, parked on my hiney here in Houston; I and so many others simply go online to hear the station’s stream, anywhere and anytime. And a further win: Besides the station’s main
Read moreMusical America is honoring Louis Andriessen as their 2010 Composer of the Year. Seems a fitting tribute in his seventieth birthday year. That said, there’s been much activity in the contemporary classical arena in 2009. Who would the Sequenza 21 community like to see getting lauded for their achievements? The comments section is open for nominations.
Read moreElliott Carter turns 101 today. By all accounts, he’s hale, hearty, and busily composing!
Read moreThe S.E.M. Ensemble will open its 40th anniversary season with its annual Christmas concert at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York City on Tuesday, December 15. SEM has performed a holiday concert at the gallery for the last 25 years, and this year’s program will feature two N.Y. premieres by new-music icon Christian Wolff (above left), the first public performance of Petr Kotik‘s (above right) new percussion work performed by TimeTable Percussion, and Lejaren Hiller‘s rarely heard String Quartet no. 5, along with a work by J.S. Bach. Christian Wolff is also marking his 75th birthday this year, and has
Read moreThis month kicks off the New York Philharmonic’s Contact! series. Concerts in December and April feature seven composers and seven premieres, played first at Symphony Space and then a day or two later at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Phil tells us that “performances will include personal introductions to the music from the composers themselves, in a less formal and more intimate setting.” The list is a really great mix of styles and careers from a few different continents: The December 17 and 19 concerts feature music by Marc-André Dalbavie, Arthur Kampela, Lei Liang and Arlene Sierra, conducted by
Read moreLast night’s Green Umbrella concert was programmed as part of “West Coast, Left Coast”, and it certainly sounded as if almost all of the 1500-or-so of us had as much fun as I did. The program ended on a high with five selections from Frank Zappa‘s The Yellow Shark album (1992), conducted by John Adams, our festival curator (and conductor, and occasional composer, and friendly guide). You can read Adams’ comments made during rehearsals here (just read the second half of yesterday’s entry and then scroll down to the November 25 entry). The concert ended with a riotous (orgasmic?) performance
Read moreIt’s hard enough delivering an orchestra commission when you’re hale and hearty; but despite losing most of his vision during the course of its lengthy gestation (2001-06) York Höller managed to complete his work Sphären. His efforts amidst considerable adversity have garnered him the 2010 Grawemeyer Award. Although now almost completely blind, Höller continues to compose. Abetted by assistants, samplers, and a new software called Jaws, he is soldiering on. One hopes that the Grawemeyer’s $200,000 prize will assist in this endeavor. So, composers, next time you’re planning to tell your commissioner why the piece isn’t done, you’ll need a pretty
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