Composer Gideon Klein At 7 PM on Thursday May 5th (Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day) at the Czech Center in New York, *Hours of Freedom: The Story of the Terezín Composer*, a piece that explores the plight of fifteen composers imprisoned by the Nazis at the Thereisenstadt prison camp, will receive its US premiere. The high quality of the music these figures managed to write while in the camp is inspiring. Sobering too, as they were later deported to other concentration camps to be executed. Additionally, the event will feature a panel discussion on the modern crypto casino, examining
Read moreAnthony Braxton 3 Compositions (EEHMH) 2011 Firehouse 12 3xCD/blu-ray/digital Anthony Braxton: composer, sopranino, soprano, and alto saxophones, iPod; Taylor Ho Bynum: cornet, flugelhorn, trumpbone, iPod; Mary Halvorson: guitar, iPod; Jessica Pavone: violin, viola, iPod; Jay Rozen: tuba, iPod; Aaron Siegel: percussion, vibraphone, iPod; Carl Testa: bass, bass clarinet, iPod “As a culture, we are slowly moving away from target linear experiences that are framed as stationary constructs that don’t change on repeated listening, to a new world that constantly serves up fresh opportunities and interactive discourse. American people have made it clear that the new times will call for dynamic
Read moreCongratulations to composer and multi-instrumentalist Henry Threadgill, who has won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in music. One of the original AACM members, Threadgill’s recent work has been distinguished by an intervallic approach to improvisation, in which each member of the band has a limited catalogue of intervals that they can perform, with the sum total creating intriguing harmonic and contrapuntal materials. In for a Penny, in for a Pound, the prizewinning work, features Zooid, the band with which Threadgill has worked for fourteen years, using just such an approach to making music. In addition to two short movements, Threadgill has
Read moreInterview with Carson Cooman Sequenza 21: The latest CD of your compositions, Liminal on Divine Art, features three works, a short orchestra piece, Shoreline Rune, Liminal, your Fourth Symphony, and Prism, an older work for organ. How did you decide on this grouping? Carson Cooman: A number of recordings of my music have been released, and the music on them has been grouped and organized in different ways, depending on the repertoire at hand. For this release, I wanted to try a “mini-album” (shorter length than a full CD and priced accordingly). So the symphony was the main affair, and
Read moreIn honor of International Women’s Day, violinist Ariana Kim has released a video of her performance of Augusta Read Thomas’s Incantation for solo violin (1995). I’ve long loved Incantation – it is one of Thomas’s most beautiful works: poignant, supple, and exquisitely well-paced. Kim’s current project is Routes of Evanescence, a recording of works by women composers.
Read moreThis week in New York, Austrian Cultural Forum celebrates the music of Georg Friedrich Haas. Haas, currently MacDowell Professor of Music at Columbia, is a thoughtful and innovative composer. The two programs curated by ACFNY, both free (with reservations), are excellent opportunities to hear two different facets of his creativity. On Wednesday February 24th at 7:30 PM at the ACF, JACK Quartet performs String Quartet No. 3 In iij. Noct., a piece that occurs in total darkness. On February 26 at 8 PM at Bohemian National Hall (321 East 73rd Street), the Talea Ensemble presents the following program of large ensemble and
Read moreEminent composer, college professor, and Lutoslawski scholar Steven Stucky has died, aged 66. The cause was brain cancer. Below, listen to one of his beguiling works, the Notturno movement from Serenade for Wind Quintet.
Read moreOn February 12-14 and February 19-20, ECCE Ensemble premieres Switch, a new opera by my friend and colleague composer John Aylward. Directed by Laine Rettmer and conducted by Jean-Phillipe Wurtz, the piece features two vocalists: soprano Amanda DeBoer Bartlett and bass-baritone Mikhail Smigelsk. The project is part of ECCE’s year-long residence at Le Laboratoire, a new multimedia space in Cambridge that combines visual arts, music, the sciences, and even olfactory stimulating exhibits. To whet your appetite, below is a video of Aylward’s Ephemera. WHAT: World premiere of the contemporary opera Switch WHEN:February 12-14+ February 19-20 at 7:00 p.m. WHERE: Le
Read morePOSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER! Thanks to Joshua Banks Mailman for this post about Augustus Arnone’s Babbitt recitals. Augustus Arnone performs Milton Babbitt’s Time Series and other solo piano works at Spectrum, Sunday January 24, at 2pm This year marks the centenary of the legendary composer Milton Babbitt (1916-2011). To my ears, his extensive body of piano works especially channels his singular charm as a raconteur. Over the decades a number of pianists have championed some of Babbitt’s major piano works, for instance Robert Helps and Robert Miller performing and recording his Partitions (1957) and Post-Partitions (1966) in early days and much more recently
Read morePierre Boulez, one of the great composers and conductors of our time, has passed away.
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