Okay, let’s put it another way.  How important is a top-of-the-line musical education to success as a composer? Can a composer who went to, say, Houston Baptist University, Western Michigan University, and the University of Iowa be as good as your typical Sequenza21 Eli? I ask the question because I was listening to WNYC2 (the best source of contemporary music on the Internet, if you don’t know already–playing Tehillim right now) and I heard a terrific piece called Edges by a composer named Luke Dahn, whom I’d never heard of before.  Awfully damned good piece.  So I googled him and

And so it came to pass that our Gaucho Amigo Marvin Rosen was abidin’ over his flock in a starry meadow high in the Cuspadores when an angel appeared unto him and said:  “Marvin, remember last year when you did that fabulous 24-hour music marathon on WPRB in Princeton — available around the world via the miracle of the Internet?  Man, that was cool.  You ought to do it again.”  And lo, Marvin agreed and the time and date were set. I’ll wait while you get a pencil. The second Marvin Rosen Post-Christmas Classical Discoveries The Hits Keep Coming Musical Marathon

I first wrote and posted this two years ago, but maybe it will lighten the mood as everybody in the Northeast freaks out about their travel plans and the current and impending meteorological conditions.  Stay safe out there. 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 nestled all snug in their

Gilbert Kaplan is a Wall Street billionaire who has devoted much of his idle rich time over the past 30 years to studying and conducting Mahler’s great Second Symphony.  It has become his passion, one might even say his “Rosebud” if one were unkind (as we most certainly are not).  He has led some of the world’s best symphony orchestras through its rigorous paces more than 100 times at last count and while the Resurrection itself seems to have suffered no permanent damage, the reaction to Mr. Kaplan’s conducting has been decidedly mixed.  Not bad enough to be really awful

Such is my devotion to you, dear reader, that last Wednesday in spite of a bad cold I went to the latest installment of the Music On MacDougal series at the Players Theatre in downtown Manhattan.  Music on MacDougal, as you may recall, is the concert series that S21 helped kick off with our M50 concert celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Minimalism.  Wednesday’s bill was split between Mantra Percussion and the Talea Ensemble [Talea shown above, in a recent performance of Daniel Iglesia‘s Contrapositive Antidote; how cool is it to get to wear 3D glasses while playing? -ed.]. Mantra opened

We are tardy in adding our voice to the vast chorus of congratulations that have greeted Elliott Carter’s attainment of centenarian status.  Getting old is not in itself an achievement, but what makes Mr. Carter’s milestone all the more remarkable is that he remains so amazingly productive and healthy in mind and body.  He has produced more music in the last decade than most composers do in a lifetime and his work has become deeper, richer and more complex (some would say unlistenable) with the passage of time.   We can’t top Willard Scott but we do want to do

Standing, left-to-right: Garth Sunderland, Emily Brausa, Thomas Piercy, Samuel Andreyev, Jeremy Podgursky, Alex Kotch, Rodney Lister, Rusty Banks, Samuel Vriezen. Kneeling, left-to-right: Christina Perea, Galen Brown, Miranda Cuckson, Laura Barger, David Salvage. The hall was cold; the music was hot. We hope to share the sounds with you soon.