Experimental Music

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

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

Birthdays, Experimental Music, Festivals, Interviews, Music Events

2012 Avant Music Festival: Preview and Interview with Randy Gibson

The Avant Music Festival, a 5-night event being held at The Wild Project in NYC between Friday, Feb 10th and Saturday the 18th, promises to be a compelling series of shows of music in the vein of avant-garde. Along with music by living composers Randy Gibson (whom you are about to hear from), Eve Beglarian (Songs From The River and Elsewhere) and Jenny Olivia Johnson (After School Vespers), there is a performance of Schoenberg‘s ground-breaking work Pierrot Lunaire and a 2-part show on Saturday the 11th celebrating the 100th Birthday of John Cage at 4 PM and 8 PM respectively

February 8, 2012February 8, 2012 by Chris McGovern

Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Premieres, Washington D.C.

Cygnus Ensemble at the Library of Congress

Washington, D.C. readers may have noticed that the new music scene in the District has been exploding lately. This week brings another significant event when New York’s Cygnus Ensemble makes its Washington debut at the Library of Congress. The concert, part of a mini-residence by Cygnus at the Library, is presented as a tribute to legendary violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler. Rarely heard music by Kreisler from the Library’s Fritz Kreisler collection will be performed, featuring guest violinist Miranda Cuckson on Kreisler’s own Guarneri del Gesù violin. Most notably for new music fans, the concert features the world premiere of Harold Meltzer’s Kreisleriana,

February 1, 2012 by Armando Bayolo

Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Festivals, File Under?, New York, Opera

Hope on the Horizon for New Opera in New York

Many of us waited with bated breath during the recent breakdown of talks between management and the orchestra at NYC Opera. Even though the season is proceeding, the company’s plan to keep themselves afloat (if not artistically viable) seems dubious at best. No music director, draconian cuts for the players and chorus, and no base of operations. Instead NYCO will present a truncated season at several venues. After hearing how shabbily the company has treated its employees – while George Steel continues to make in excess of $300,000 – why would they expect their audience to follow them around town?

January 25, 2012January 26, 2012 by Christian Carey

Brooklyn, Experimental Music, File Under?, Recordings

Long Distance Poison … On Cassette!

Long Distance Poison Gamma Graves Ecstatic Peace Cassette Gamma Graves is a prime example of the kind of release that has helped to fuel the cassette resurgence on the indie/experimental music scene. Produced by a variety of sources, from bedroom DIY collectives and small tape-only labels to established imprints like Ecstatic Peace, the audio cassette format, long thought extinct, is back. Tapes have been unassumingly encroaching their way onto the shelves of connoisseur collectors and music critics (no less than Steve Smith is a devotee): even record sellers such as Insound and Other Music have made room for them again.

January 21, 2012April 27, 2023 by Christian Carey

Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Music Events

Einstein is Coming

This weekend, Ann Arbor’s University Musical Society is putting on its most ambitious project since I’ve been in town: Philip Glass‘s legendary opera Einstein On The Beach. The production is directed by Robert Wilson with choreography by Lucinda Childs and includes a stunning cast hand-picked by Mrs. Wilson and Glass for the revival. Performances are this Friday (7 PM), Saturday (7 PM) and Sunday (2 PM) at the downtown Power Center performance space. Alas, the shows are sold out at this point, but if you are a diehard fan, or just an interested individual in the area, there is always

January 19, 2012January 20, 2012 by Garrett Schumann

Bang on a Can, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Performers

Andy Akiho: An Interview

Andy Akiho may have started out as a performer only, but his heart has driven him to become not only a wonderful composer in his own right, but a composer/performer that creates some of the most wonderful and compelling sounding pieces combining steel pans with a variety of instruments from other great new classical musicians. Having studied composition with such greats as Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Ezra Laderman, and Martin Bresnick among others, Akiho had just recently won eighth blackbird’s inaugural Finale National Composition Contest. Andy talked to me about that and some of my favorite works of his.

January 15, 2012January 16, 2012 by Chris McGovern