The Original New Music Community
Indaba Music has announced the winners of the Steve Reich 2×5 Remix Contest.
As one of the judges of the competition (along with Mr. Reich), let me offer my congratulations to the winner – Dominique Leone – and runners-up: Vakula and David Minnick.
I’d also like to congratulate the rest of the entrants. Selecting the winner was a very difficult process: the pool of remixes from which to choose was excellent!
Below are the winners’ remixes. Enjoy!
Part of the 2010 Next Wave Festival
Dec 7 & 9—11, 2010, 7:30pm
NY Premiere
Conceived, written, and directed by Mikel Rouse
BAM Harvey Theater
60min, no intermission
Tickets: $25, 35, 45
Set design by Jeffery Sugg
Sound design by Christopher Ericson
Musical direction by Matthew Gandolfo
Commissioned by BAM for the 2010 Next Wave Festival.
This Friday, December 3rd, is the second concert of the season by the American Composers Orchestra at Zankel Hall. This concert “explores composers’ reactions to specific moments, pinpointed and analyzed, which have inspired them to create something entirely new.”
The program is titled A Time & Place and includes four world premieres commissioned by ACO. There is a new piece by Douglas J. Cuomo entitled Black Diamond Express Train to Hell that features cellist Maya Beiser as soloist. The Fire at 4 a.m. is Jerome Kitzke’s homage to both the creative and ceremonial fires he has tended. Christopher Trapani explores the concept of “the West” through country guitar timbres, West African music, and psychedelic California rock in his piece, Westering. And Ryan Francis rounds out the new ACO commissions with High Line, winner of the ACO/LVMH “A Greener New York City” commission, which was inspired by New York City’s newest park.
Speaking of the High Line, you can submit your favorite photo of the High Line Park to win two free tickets to the concert. There is more information about the contest here and here but the deadline it 11Pm Monday, November 29th (sorry for the late notice!).
The orchestra will also perform another piece inspired by New York’s iconic landscape: Charles Ives’ Central Park in the Dark, which depicts what one might hear on a summer night in the park.
Remixers start your … laptops. Some hot-off-the-presses news about a contest beginning at noon TODAY!
Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Steve Reich, Nonesuch Records, and Indaba Music have launched a search for collaborators to remix the third movement from Reich’s 2×5. Paired with his Pulitzer prizewinning Double Sextet, the work appears on Reich’s new Nonesuch CD.
For four weeks beginning October 12, 2010 at noon, remixers can visit Indaba’s website to create their own version of the movement.
From November 9 to 23, fans and a panel of judges including Reich will review the submissions. Winners will be announced on December 7th. In addition to a grand prize and 2 runners-up selected by the jury, 10 honorable mentions will be selected by the public.
All jury selections will receive prizes, as follows:
Grand Prize (1)
$500
Signed copy of Double Sextet/2×5 CD
Signed copy of Double Sextet score
One-year free Platinum membership to Indabamusic.com
Runners-Up (2)
Signed copy of Double Sextet/2×5 CD
Signed copy of Double Sextet score
3-month Platinum membership to Indabamusic.com
Honorable Mentions (10)
Signed copy of Double Sextet/2×5 CD
Signed copy of Double Sextet score
3-month Pro memberships to Indabamusic.com
__________________________________________________________
Written for the Bang on a Can All Stars, 2×5 is Reich’s most overt foray into rock instrumentation to date. In my preview of the album, I noted that Reich’s collaboration with BoaC was “An intergenerational summit – minimalist elder statesman meets post-minimal/totalist ace performers – that, in terms of importance, is more or less the Downtown version of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane.”
Now, another layer of creators will season the mix – I’m excited to hear the results!
Congratulations to Joseph Rosenzweig, the first correct answerer to yesterday’s Ligeti question. Yes, Ligeti’s Poeme Symphonique is for 100 metronomes, and with that Mr. Rosenzweig & friend will be attending The New York Philharmonic’s May 27th production of Le Grand Macabre.
But there is still one more pair of tickets to give away, and one more question for some speedy answerer to, well, answer:
In 1986 Ligeti was an early winner of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award. For what work was it given?
Answers to: sequenza21@gmail.com
Will you be the first person e-mailing us the correct response? Will you be the lucky soul taking a friend for free to see this wonderful, riotous spectacle? Can there be any doubt it’s going to be you? — whoever you may be…
[Update: And that “you” turned out to be Whitney Ashe, the correct answer being Ligeti’s first book of piano Etudes. Congatulations Whitney, enjoy the show, and thanks to all you other readers for participating!]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjN0reA5p84[/youtube]
That was György Ligeti speaking about his opera Le Grand Macabre, in a 1978 interview with Herman Sabbe. Almost sounds sweet, doesn’t it? One little snag: to get to that end, you’re going to have to endure — or better yet, revel in — the hellish, absurd and grotesque. But Ligeti leads you through all this with a gleam, wink and half-smile, and the end result is a hellishly good time.
Since its 1978 premiere Le Grand Macabre has had a wealth of performances all around the world; yet it’s only now that New York is getting its first full and fully-staged presentation. Three nights only, May 27 to May 29, at Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center, NYC). The New York Philharmonic has quite a page devoted to the whole event with information on the full cast, all kinds of special information on the production, and plenty of preview sound clips. It’s also where you can buy tickets — except for a couple lucky couples…
That’s right, we here at S21 have been blessed with two pairs of tickets that we need to give away to some happy readers, for the Thursday May 27th performance . All you need to do is be the first person to email the correct answer to one of two questions, the second of which will come tomorrow, but the first of which is here right now:
There is a notorious piece by Ligeti, for 100 of the same ‘instrument.’ What is that instrument?
Answers to: sequenza21@gmail.com
If you miss out on this one, be watching for tommorrow’s post and your second question and chance. Good luck!
This month kicks off the New York Philharmonic’s Contact! series. Concerts in December and April feature seven composers and seven premieres, played first at Symphony Space and then a day or two later at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Phil tells us that “performances will include personal introductions to the music from the composers themselves, in a less formal and more intimate setting.”
The list is a really great mix of styles and careers from a few different continents: The December 17 and 19 concerts feature music by Marc-André Dalbavie, Arthur Kampela, Lei Liang and Arlene Sierra, conducted by Magnus Lindberg; then on April 16 and 17 Alan Gilbert leads the musicians and baritone Thomas Hampson, with works by Nico Muhly, Matthias Pintscher and Sean Shepherd.
And the New York Philharmonic would like a few lucky souls to come hear it for free! We have three pairs of tickets to the Dec 19th 7p.m. concert at the Met Museum, and we’d like to give them away to the first three correct answerers of these five questions:
1) In 1998 Marc-André Dalbavie was named “Best Young Composer of the Year” by what rather surprising U.S. source?
2) Which Arthur Kampela piece did pianist Jenny Lin record for her Koch CD “The Eleventh Finger”?
3) At what age did Lei Liang begin composing?
4) Arlene Sierra‘s first orchestral work won the 2001 Takemitsu Prize and was performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic; what was the title of the piece?
5) In 1980 Magnus Lindberg and Esa-Pekka Salonen together formed an experimental performance ensemble; what was its name?
Send your five answers directly to me at: stevelayton@niwo.com (not to the S21 email, or they could be lost in the administrative shuffle!). The three winners will have tickets waiting for them at the box office.
I have links to all the answers of course, but I’ll only post them next Tuesday (hey, they’re not hard at all, and I think a little effort on your part is a darn good thing!).
And for those that miss out, I think we’ll be able to do the same thing all over again in April. Happy hunting!