[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OX_4cJyhgI[/youtube]
Read moreLast month at Columbia University’s Italian Academy, I was formidably impressed by an evening of madrigals old and new performed by the vocal ensemble Ekmeles. One of the revelations of the evening began with an idea ofensemble director Jeff Gavett. He thought that the madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo might benefit from Nichola Vicentino’s 31-tone equal tempered scale, most famously employed in the tuning of an instrument of his design, the archicembalo. While, as Gavett admitted in the concert’s program notes, there is not direct evidence that they were ever performed this way in the presence of Gesualdo, there is some documentary
Read morePaul Jacobs performs at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City this Wednesday, November 16 at 7:30 PM. Famed as an “evangelist for the organ”, Jacobs will play a 20th/21st century program that highlights not only the instrument’s traditional grandeur and sublimity, but also its range of emotion and insight. John Clare spoke to Paul about the program, teaching organists new music plus composers about the organ, and some new works by Mason Bates and Michael Daugherty: mp3 file An extraordinarily expressive performer and an intensely intelligent musician, Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs is helping the King
Read moreHere’s a contest for pianists with the music of David Lang. Read all about it here. David explains more in this video: http://youtu.be/BrmQqX_Qs5o Between November 15, 2011 and December 31, 2011, download the score to wed from David Lang’s memory pieces without charge from http://digital.schirmer.com/lang-contest Learn the music and make a video of yourself playing it. Post the video on YouTube.com by midnight (Eastern Standard Time) on December 31, 2011. **IMPORTANT** you must tag the video with the following phrase: David Lang Piano Competition 2011 I spoke with David when he was in South Texas just last year about composition:
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Composers, Concert review, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Events, Experimental Music, Festivals
Judith Berkson performing “Vor an Sicht” (Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Reddin) Vital Vox: A Vocal Festival (Vital Vox 2011) Roulette Brooklyn, NY Sat, Nov 5 & Sun, Nov 6, 2011 I guess there was no better way to kick off the Vital Vox Festival than with a primal scream. Gelsey Bell and her partner for this performance, composer/performer Paul Pinto, actually gave us several of them separate and together at the start of the song cycle Scaling, and they seemed to be the sound that signified both the power of vocal performance and the experimental nature of the festival as
Read more[Ed. Note: Please welcome composer (and long-time S21 supporter) Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, and sit back as he spins a tale for the ages (and yet all quite true!), of how he managed to conceive, write, and finally produce his very own opera in the (semi) wilds of Vermont.] In the past week I’ve received emails from other composers, many of whom had doubted that my opera Erzsébet would ever be mounted. After two decades of promises, nearly two years of faltering fundraising, three directors, and a flood that pushed us out of our home, opening night seemed distant and dim. How
Read moreRehearsing Tom Cipullo’s The Husbands Opera Shorts Presented by Remarkable Theater Brigade Weill Recital Hall, NYC Fri, Nov 4, 2011 Seeing the Remarkable Theater Brigade’s production Opera Shorts, it is clear that on a small stage like the one at Weill Recital Hall, it is very much a theatrical production that cannot escape that trapping, but the pieces that resulted from the 9 composers (Two of the shorts were composed by musical director Christian McLeer) were mostly comical in nature, thus making it a cheerful night for patrons and a kick in the pants for the opera world.
Read moreI’ve never been a Twitter fan. Very few people have ever said anything worthwhile in 144 characters and I’m not one of them. The chances are good that you aren’t either. But, I LOVE Google+ Easy to share music and all kinds of neat stuff, have real conversations that you can actually follow, and an incredible filtering system for us passive aggressives. For example, I “circle” everyone who circles me but the people I don’t really want to follow (relatives, people who might vote for Herman Cain, people who were home-schooled or sell real estate) I put in a circle
Read moreThe following are extended versions of the interviews I had with Toby Twining and Iva Bittova, who are both appearing at the 2011 Vital Vox Festival (Both will be performing on Night 2: Vocals + Strings) First up, Toby Twining talks about his beginnings and inspiration as well as the new and current material. CM: How did you go from roots in country-swing to rock to the other-worldly music you’ve been making for various instruments, including voices and chamber ensemble? TT: This is a long story—I’ll attempt a Reader’s Digest version. I grew up in Houston and my maternal grandparents
Read moreThe following is the extended interview I had with singer/composer Judith Berkson, who will be appearing at the Vital Vox Festival this Saturday at Roulette in Brooklyn (She’ll be appearing on Night One: Vocals + Keys). Here she talks about her beginnings, and the preview of selections from her upcoming opera. CM: Can you give sort of a small recap of how you got from your musical beginnings to your current status as a composer/performer? Was there a significant a-ha moment or was this something that was gradual? JB: My father who is a cantor taught me to sing when
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