Just imagine the impression you will leave with your guests, as you drop sparkling bon mots on combinatoriality, pitch accumulators, harmelodics, and gradual phase shifting!… If they haven’t fled for the door yet… I’m really just reminding you that the American Music Center, as part of its absolutely wonderful and essential web-service Counterstream Radio, has the first four podcasts in their “Crash Course” series available. Each gives you a quick, expert-led introduction to some facet of American contemporary music: Matthew Guerrieri on American serialism, Kyle Gann on minimalism, Tom Lopez on acousmatic music, and Lara Pellegrinelli on post-jazz jazz. If you’ve
Read moreYesterday I got an e-mail from a PR person at The Rebel Media Group. One of her clients, John Wesley Harding, has a new album and it’s being promoted with a somewhat unorthodox tiered pricing scheme which ranges from CD plus download plus live disc for $15.98 to a package which includes the aforementioned plus a bunch more swag plus the artist coming to your house and putting on a show for you and your friends, all for $5,000. BoingBoing posted about it, and The Rebel Group’s Stef Shapira sent me a brief personal e-mail with that link and the
Read moreIt’s pretty easy to drive by Fredonia, NY without realizing you’ve done so…it’s one of the many small communities that dot the I-90 Interstate between Cleveland and Buffalo, practically on the shores of Lake Erie. The surrounding countryside is known for grapes and snow…Norman Rockwell would feel right at home in the town square, and it’s often found in the dictionary illustrating the definition of “quaint”. Not exactly the place you’d expect to find a new music series, but that’s just the way we like it. Over 30 years ago the composition students at SUNY Fredonia began to fund their
Read moreI’ve been trying for maybe a more “genteel” word, but keep coming back to it… What I’m talking about is the composer, pianist and conductor Ketty Nez and her music. Born (1965) in Macedonia but quickly whisked away to the States, the whisking has continued through studies at Bryn Mawr, Curtis, Tokyo, UC Berkeley, Amsterdam and a couple passes through Paris, as well as teaching first at the University of Iowa and now Boston University. Ketty is a ferociously talented pianist (though currently working mostly in tandem with violinist Katie Wolfe), and also conductor of BU’s Time’s Arrow new music ensemble.
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Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music
Interpretations continues its twentieth season of provocative programming in New York City. 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. The concert on 12 February 2009 brings us back to Roulette for an evening of Annea Lockwood and Larry Austin, two distinguished composers in the electro-acoustic tradition. Both composers collaborated to tell
Read moreBest Classical Contemporary Composition Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems Of Bob Dylan John Corigliano (JoAnn Falletta) Track from: Corigliano: Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems Of Bob Dylan [Naxos] Best Classical Album Weill: Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny James Conlon, conductor; Anthony Dean Griffey, Patti LuPone & Audra McDonald; Fred Vogler, producer (Donnie Ray Albert, John Easterlin, Steven Humes, Mel Ulrich & Robert Wörle; Los Angeles Opera Chorus; Los Angeles Opera Orchestra) [EuroArts] Best Orchestral Performance Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 Bernard Haitink, conductor (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) [CSO Resound] Best Opera Recording Weill: Rise And Fall Of The City
Read moreKeys to the Future is presenting an evening of contemporary four hand piano works this coming Monday, February 9 at 8PM, at a free concert at Mannes College’s Concert Hall. As the date approaches, I thought I’d write a few words about a couple of the pieces on this concert, both of which will be premieres: The first is a piano duet version of Arvo Pärt’s 1976 organ piece Pari Intervallo. Manon Hutton-DeWys and Evi Jundt will give the this version of Pari Intervallo its U.S. premiere. I heard them rehearse it earlier in the week, and it’s similar to his other works
Read moreHahn. Hilary Hahn. The violin superstar is about to premiere a new work by Jennifer Higdon tomorrow (Friday) night, attend the Grammy Awards this Sunday with two chances to win for Best Classical Album and Best Instrumental Performance with Orchestra, and then go on a recital tour playing Ives and Ysaye. She took out a few minutes to talk about the new piece and about the Grammys. Part 1 (having a piece tailor made for her) Part 2 (attending the Grammy Awards) She has also just updated her YouTube Channel with Schoenberg’s grandson Randy: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjW4aDQa0Vg[/youtube] She mentioned that she’ll interview
Read moreIf you’ve been following the stimulus bill, you probably know two things: It includes $50 million for the NEA, and on Tuesday the Senate Democrats announced that they don’t have the votes to pass it and they’re looking a ways to cut it down. John Gizzi at the conservative publication Human Events reported tuesday that, in a press conference on Monday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs indicated that cutting the NEA funding was not likely. I’m not sure about Gizzi’s interpretation of Gibbs’s statements, but as they say: interesting if true. Also on Tuesday, according to the best FL sportsbooks Reviewed on Thesportsdaily,
Read moreVicki Ray put together an imaginative, clever program which was beautifully performed in last night’s Piano Spheres concert at Zipper Hall of Colburn School. She’s a marvel; she seems to be able to do any work in any style. In December she gave a tremendous concert, “Vic Ray Electric”, of electro-acoustic music. In January she was pianist for this Monday Evening Concert. I’ve never heard her play any Mozart, but this clip implies she just might do so some time. The theme of last night’s program was piano concertos without an orchestra; her program notes described her selections as forming
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