To paraphrase a comment I spotted once on Myspace, “We would have got you a card or something but we spent all of our money on booze, speed, and hookers”… So let’s just do with this shout-out to NewMusicBox, the American Music Center, the whole unsung crew and of course the one-and-only Frank J. Oteri, for seeing this most vital and consistently important modern classical site through its first decade. Before appearing May 1st, 1999 there had never, ever been such a resource for living composers, performers and their music-hungry audience. Ten years on, there’s still no equal. It’s our
Read moreChristopher O’Riley performs his final recital in the 2+2=5 Series tomorrow night at Miller Theatre. Each of the programs has featured a pairing of a classical composer and O’Riley’s transcriptions of songs by a pop musician. Thus far, the recitals have featured Shostakovich / Radiohead & Debussy / Nick Drake. Tomorrow’s program pairs Schumann and Elliott Smith. Yesterday, O’Riley released a digital single on iTunes of his interpretation of Kurt Cobain’s Heart Shaped Box. It’s featured on the iTunes’ “Rock” page! On May 5th the digital single will be widely released to other music download sites. A Heart Shaped Box ring tone can
Read moreI’ve known Terry Riley‘s seminal Minimalist piece In C for a while, and last fall I even produced a performance of it as part of the M50 concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of Minimalism, but I left Carnegie Hall on Friday Night feeling that I hadn’t really understood the piece until then. That’s how remarkable the concert was. David Harrington, of the Kronos Quartet, was asked to curate this performance in celebration of the 45th anniversary of In C, and he assembled an enormous, star-studded cast, playing just about every instrument you can think of and several that you probably
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Chamber Music, Classical Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, File Under?, New York, Uncategorized
The Ditmas Park Concert Series is up and running for its second season. Curated by Jody Redhage, there will be five concerts in the series. Friday, May 1 / 9:00 pm Erica von Kleist Trio, 10:30 pm John Ellis Trio / Sycamore Bar & Flower Shop, 1118 Cortelyou Rd. at Westminster Rd., Brooklyn, NY (Q to Cortelyou Rd) $10 Sunday, May 10 / 4:00 pm Janus / Temple Beth Emeth, 83 Marlborough Rd. at Church Ave., Brooklyn, NY (B/Q to Church Ave) $10 Saturday, May 23 / 9:00 pm Dan Pratt Organ Quartet / Sycamore Bar & Flower Shop, 1118 Cortelyou
Read moreThe Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, founded and directed by Petr Kotik, joins forces with the acclaimed FLUX Quartet and the international chamber orchestra Ostravská banda for an evening of adventurous music: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 8:00 PM, Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater. Tickets are a steal, only $15 for a real wealth of music. Highlights include three new pieces by self-taught composers: the premiere of Christian Wolff’s Trio for Robert Ashley (2009), performed by members of the Flux Quartet; the American premiere of Sicilian-born composer Salvatore Sciarrino’s Vento D’ombra (2005), performed by The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble; and
Read moreElsie Driggs’ Queensborough Bridge, 1927. Pictures 2009 Concert: New Jersey students explore the intersection of music and visual art. Sunday, April 26, 2pm (Pre-concert Panel at 1:30pm) Montclair Art Museum/NJAC 3 South Mountain Avenue, Montclair, NJ $15 Adults / $10 Students / Online Tickets Available here. For the fourth annual edition the Pictures Composition Contest, New Jersey students were asked to compose music inspired by visual art exhibited in the Montclair Art Museum. EXIT 9 Percussion Group will perform quartets written by the students. In addition, they will premiere the 2009 Ionisation Commission, SPAN, by Darren Gage.
Read moreSwiss oboist/composer/conductor extraordinaire Heinz Holliger will be in New York City for two concerts on April 21st and 22nd, honoring both his 70th birthday and the recent 100th birthday of Elliott Carter . The concerts are at the 92nd Street Y. Wednesday’s show features a “preconcert” concert at 6:30 with several recent shorter works by Carter. To celebrate Holliger’s 70th (which occurs May 21st), ECM will release Romancendres on May 19th. Two important Holliger pieces, both of them inspired by Robert Schumann, are combined with a chamber work by Clara Schumann. They all intersect in the year 1853, when 20-year-old
Read morePeople have been wondering for years when Steve Reich would finally be given a Pulitzer prize. He has been a finalist three times (for You Are (Variations) in 2005, for Cello Counterpoint in 2004 , and for Three Tales in 2003) and this year he finally won. The piece is Double Sextet, and it was premiered March 26, 2008 in Richmond, VA. The New York premiere was on April 17th. Here’s a video of Eighth Blackbird in a recording session for the piece: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60Rji3yhRs8[/youtube] The jury for the music Pulitzer this year was John Schaefer (WNYC), Dwight Andrews (Emory University)
Read moreApropos this Wednesday’s Michael Gordon Trance performance mentioned just a few posts previously: Besides the pre-concert talk and videotaping, we’ve got a bit more fun for you all… Along with the good folk at Bang On A Can and Cantaloupe Records, Michael Gordon himself had the idea of offering the tracks to Cantaloupe’s Trance CD, performed by Icebreaker, as free downloads for you all. The only catch: Each of the seven tracks are hosted at a different blog, and it’s up to you to follow the clues to find all seven. Besides the music itself, there’s a further reward for the quick: the
Read moreSunday afternoon was the final concert provided by Esa-Pekka Salonen as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has consistently said that he’ll be back with us on a regular basis, but before the start of the concert, the administrative management and the Board came on stage to announce to us the Salonen now has the title of Conductor Laureate and will return on a regular and “significant” basis in the future. The nature of the continuing role was not announced, but it is consistent with how well the Phil (and Salonen) have handled this transition that the details
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