Contemporary Classical Archives - Page 94 of 230

Composers, Contemporary Classical, Events, Experimental Music, Festivals, Los Angeles, Recordings, Twentieth Century Composer

John Cage events in Los Angeles

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcHnL7aS64Y[/youtube] We had just seen John Cage recite his mesostic/theater work, James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet. My composition teacher, a tenured faculty member who had won many awards including a Pulitzer Prize, told us, “Everyone should see John Cage once.” And then, as if to underscore the idea that one only needed to see Cage once, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer added, “But of course, his ideas are much more important than his music.” At that time (the early 1980s), there weren’t many recordings of Cage’s music available, and I rarely encountered any performances of his music, so

February 25, 2012February 28, 2012 by Christian Hertzog

Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Dance, Experimental Music, Festivals, File Under?, New York

Curation by Subtraction

Many of us love to see musical works created to accompany choreography performed with dancers involved. But this weekend finds musicians approaching these pieces from another vantage point. Ne(x)tworks, Greenwich Music House’s ensemble-in-residence, presents “Music Without Dance,” a festival of works originally written for dance that are abstracted from movement and performed as absolute music. What’s revealed about these pieces by listening to them while imagining (or even avoiding thinking about) the dances to which they were originally attached? Curation by subtraction: I like it! Ne(x)tworks Presents the “Music Without Dance” Festival Saturday, February 25th: 7:30PM concert Sunday, February 26th:

February 25, 2012 by Christian Carey

Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Festivals, File Under?, New York, Percussion

So Percussion Goes Maverick, Gets Remixed, Celebrates Cage!

So Percussion recently released remixes of tracks from Amid the Noise, their recording of music by Jason Treuting. You can grab it for free via their Bandcamp site (embed below). Treuting recently released sheet music for Amid the Noise, which can be purchased at Good Child Music. Amid the Noise Remixes by So Percussion This year, a great number of artists and ensembles are celebrating John Cage’s centenary – even Jessye Norman and Meredith Monk are getting in on the act as part of Michael Tilson Thomas’s revival of the American Mavericks series with the San Francisco Symphony. While it

February 25, 2012 by Christian Carey

Contemporary Classical

My Annual Off-Topic Oscar Prognostigation Post

It was not a great year for movies, in my humble opinion. But like they say in the most obnoxious Bud commercials yet: here we go. The Top Ten Movies I Saw in 2011 The Trip – Two prominent English comics eat and impersonate their way through the Lake District in a film that is barely a film at all but manages to be both hysterically funny and oddly touching. Submarine – Young Oliver gets laid. A coming of age film that will make you forget that you ever saw one of those before. Memo to Woody Allen: This is

February 24, 2012February 24, 2012 by Jerry Bowles

Composers, Contemporary Classical

Down the Rabbit Hole of “Sidereus”

Today marks a week since Tom Manoff and Brian McWhorter attended an infamous performance of the Osvaldo Golijov’s Sidereus by the Eugene Symphony Orchestra in Eugene, Oregon. The duo’s story – that they recognized substantial sections of another piece, Michael Ward-Bergeman’s Barbeich, in Mr. Golijov’s work – has, by now, practically become legend in music circles. Nearly every outlet covering Classical Music in the country, from The New Yorker to various individuals’ twitter feeds, have focused heavily on the ethics of Mr. Golijov’s musical borrowing. To me, the question of whether what Mr. Golijov did is right or wrong doesn’t

February 23, 2012February 24, 2012 by Garrett Schumann

Auction, Commissions, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Opera, Strange

Because Opera Directors Look for New Operas on Ebay

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oOj1EKSS6M[/youtube] This has got to be a first. Luis Andrei Cobo is offering his services to compose a grand opera to the highest Ebay bidder. For $150,000 you can buy a grand opera over 2 hours in length. Cobo estimates that he’ll need 2 years of full-time work to complete the project, so $75K/year will enable him to maintain the lifestyle to which he has become accustomed as a software programmer. Don’t have $150K? That’s OK, he’s open to other offers. For as little as $32,000 he will write a half-hour long chamber opera for 3 to 5 singers. The

February 21, 2012 by Christian Hertzog

Commissions, Contemporary Classical, Copyright, Orchestras, The Business

Osvaldo Golijov: Thief? Collaborator? Genius?

Seems like it’s been a while since we had some Golijov bashing (and defending) on our site. What do you think about this story about a Eugene Symphony premiere, with its disturbing allegations of extended theft of another composer’s work? The reporter doesn’t mention that Golijov’s m.o. these days is to collaborate with pop/folk musicians, making the question of authorship in works such as Ayre particularly murky. Nevertheless, if nearly 50% of the work is music by another composer, shouldn’t that composer get a conspicuous co-credit on the composition? Golijov does credit his collaborators, but you usually have to dig down

February 20, 2012February 21, 2012 by Christian Hertzog

Contemporary Classical

David Lang Concert at Cal Lutheran

On Sunday, February 19, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang brought his music to Samuelson Chapel for the 10th Annual New Music Concert at California Lutheran University. The concert was well-attended and performed by the students, faculty and friends of the CLU music department. David Lang participated in a Q&A session with department chairman Wyant Morton and offered a number of observations on his life as a composer and how it had changed – mostly for the better – by winning the Pulitzer. His easy conversational style and helpful remarks about his music connected well with the audience. The concert opened

February 20, 2012 by Paul Muller

Chamber Music, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Film Music, Percussion, Piano, Sound Art

2012 Avant Music Festival: Review – Celebrating John Cage at 100

Vicky Chow performing with Ekmeles at the Avant Festival about a year ago; 2/12/11 (Photo courtesy of Avant Media) Celebrating John Cage at 100 Avant Music Festival The Wild Project, NYC February 11th, 2012 The Wild Project (a tiny venue that is kind of like The Stone with bleachers) is where the Avant Music Festival is going on from now (it started on Fri, Feb 10) until Saturday the 18th. This is the third annual festival, and on this particular night, I witnessed a program that I never dreamed I would have been able to sit through when I was

February 14, 2012February 14, 2012 by Chris McGovern

Contemporary Classical

Who Knows the Sound of Opportunity Knocking

Chamber Music America has announced the following spring grant opportunities. · New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development offers support for the creation and performance of new chamber works by U.S. jazz ensembles. This program also funds activities that extend the life of the work and encourages the development of career-related business skills. Deadline: March 9, 2012 · Classical Commissioning provides support to U.S. ensembles and presenters for commissions of new chamber works. Grants are made for commissioning fees, copying costs and ensemble rehearsal honoraria. Compositions must be written for small ensembles (2 to 10 musicians) performing one to a

February 13, 2012 by Jerry Bowles