Our weekly listen and look at composers and performers that you may not know yet, but should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer a good chunk of listening online: Johnny Chang (US / L.A.) Violinist/composer/provocateur and eternally-hopeful Dodgers fanatic, Chang brings his amazing awareness and technique to everything from the toughest scores to the freest sonic explorations. Some of this exploration goes far enough to make you wonder “where’s the violin?”; but once you realize the point isn’t so much listening to the violin as it is to the violinist, you’ll be fine. This
Read more
Classical Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, Music Events, Other Minds, San Francisco
Our friends at the Other Minds new music community have announced the program for their 12th Other Minds Music Festival and, as usual, it is a dandy. This year offers a rare opportunity to hear important works by eight of today’s most innovative composers, invited by Other Minds Executive Director and Festival Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian. On the program are American premieres from two of contemporary classical world’s elder statesmen, Per Nørgård of Denmark and Peter Sculthorpe of Australia, as well as guest composers Maja Ratkje (Norway), Joëlle Léandre (France), Ronald Bruce Smith (Canada), Daniel David Feinsmith (U.S.), Markus Stockhausen (Germany), and Tara Bouman (Netherlands).
Read moreHey Folks — Don’t know how we managed to scoop the Times on this one. But here’s an interview with violinist Jeffrey Phillips, who’s doing many honors on next month’s Sequenza21 concert. The interview has to do with a certain set of violin solos by a composer who will be familiar to those who wander these parts. Enjoy! Q. You’re going to be giving the U.S. premiere of two works for solo violin by Tom Myron on the first-ever Sequenza21 Concert. Are they hard? A. “They are as difficult as one would expect two pieces that were written for Peter
Read moreAnthony Tommasini has a eulogy today for the much-loved and soon to be gone forever classical music department at Tower Records at Lincoln Center. It was probably the last place in the universe where a perfect stranger would come up to you as you were reading the back of a CD and say “I happened to catch the Sawallisch performance when it was recorded in Vienna. It’s much better.” Sometimes, that person was Sawallisch. Strange story here about a Texas grandmother who was convicted in New York yesterday of purloining some Glenn Gould memorabilia about 20 years ago and was caught after selling them last
Read more
Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Music Events, S21 Concert
Third installment of a series of Composer Perspectives previewing the November 20th Sequenza21 Concert. First of all, many thanks to all the people doing the behind-the-scenes work to make the upcoming Sequenza21 concert happen. It’s a daunting task, bringing all of these disparate voices together. I wonder if concertgoers don’t routinely underestimate the headaches that are hidden behind any successful performance. I’m very curious to hear the music on this concert, having come to know all of the composers a bit online and not at all in person. But I’m uncertain which pieces I will actually be sitting in the
Read moreAn awesome recording of Frederic Rzewski’s “Coming Together” in a live performance by the Crash Ensemble with Gavin Friday. Picked up directly from Rzewski himself in Kansas City by Scott Unrein. Not available commercially. Rzewski says it’s his favorite recording of the work. And you can listen to it, or download it, here. Update: I cheated and fixed the spelling of Fred’s name. Be sure to check the Workspace for a new commissioning prize.
Read moreThe always reliable Pliable tells me that Charles Griffin’s Sequenza21 blog From the Faraway Nearby: An American Composer in Latvia was chosen blog of the week (or some such) by no less than The Times in London. He couldn’t find a Times link online and neither can I but if someone comes across it, pass it along. Maybe this will encourage Charles to do a second post. My copy of the Gramophone Awards 2006 arrived by post this week and I was somewhat bemused to discover that my local radio station, WQXR – The Classical Station of the New York Times, has now created (at considerable
Read moreOur weekly listen to and look at composers and performers that you may not know yet, but should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer quality listening online: Recordings of New Music from Indiana University Rather than a single composer, here’s a whole gaggle of them all in one tidy location. For the past decade, Indiana University in Bloomington has been actively exploring ways to get work out of their halls and on to a wider public by using the internet. One result is this page, which will take you to MP3s by many members
Read moreKeys to the Future is a festival of contemporary music for solo piano that began here in New York in 2005. Season 2 takes place November 7-9 (Tues., Wed. and Thurs.) at Greenwich House’s Renee Weiler Concert Hall. (If you haven’t been there, this intimate hall is ideal for listening to piano music.) If you’re interested in checking out pertinent information, the website is http://www.keystothefuture.org/, or you can contact me directly at joe@keystothefuture.org. The six pianists involved are: Lisa Moore, Blair McMillen, Tatjana Rankovich, Lora Tchekoratova, Polly Ferman, and myself. I thought I’d talk briefly here about the Festival and
Read moreAchtung! If you read something contrary here previously, consider this an update. The Lily Pad in Cambridge has been closed temporarily to obtain proper codes and licenses; they hope to re-open soon. Therefore, the Earle Brown FOLIO event scheduled for tomorrow night, Oct. 20, by the Callithumpian Consort will be rescheduled on a future date. * * * * * One conclusion that a body might draw from the Callithumpian Consort’s outing last week in Boston is that what some contemporary music needs — and richly deserves — is a near-empty concert hall. No, seriously. Would Earle Brown’s “Sign Sounds”
Read more