New York

Choral Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, New York

Concordance later, but first a saxy song

New and specialized ensembles, groups of composers and performers banding together, DIY concerts and record labels… All the stuff of now. But let’s pay a little respect to New York’s Composers Concordance, who’ve been DIY-ing it for a good 25+ years now.

Their latest outing is a marathon show, Jan. 31st (6:00 pm doors, 7:00-10:00pm performance time at the club Drom, 85 Avenue A, between 5th & 6th, New York, NY. 212-777-1157)

No less than 23 composers are on the bill: Roger Blanc, Thomas Bo, Luis Andrei Cobo, Charles Coleman, Dan Cooper, Larry Goldman, David Gotay, Patrick Grant, Franz Hackl, Don Hagar, Arthur Kampela, Alon Nechushtan, Daniel Palkowski, Milica Paranosic, Akmal Parwez, Joseph Pehrson, Gene Pritsker, Paola Prestini, Jody Redhage, Kamala Sankaram, William Schimmel, Andrew Violette, and Theodore Wiprud.

Gene Pritsker, Composers Concordance co-director, talks about the concept for this presentation:

“We are exploring the relationship composers have with their instruments and how they go about writing music in which they know that they will be the performer. Dan Cooper and I talked about assembling a large group of composers and requesting a four minute composition from each. We are programming them back-to-back in a marathon setting and constructing a performance that highlights the composer as a performer: short compositions as vehicles for direct expression, from the composer’s mind to body to the audience.

We selected 150 composers and e-mailed them all on a secretly chosen day and time. The first 23 to respond to this e-mail were programmed for the event. We created a random criterion as opposed to a competition for choosing the participating composers, though all 150 candidates were composers whom we, the Composers Concordance directors, knew and respected.”

Tickets are $10, but there’s a two-drink minimum, so the later pieces are likely to start sounding all warm and fuzzy…

…………………………………………………….

If you really want to make Jan. 31st a full-music day in the city, at 3pm prior you could head to St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church (552 West End Avenue at 87th Street) to hear The New York Virtuoso Singers, The Raschèr Saxophone Quartet and conductor Harold Rosenbaum take on a concert of works for winds and choir. On the program is the US premiere of BMI Young Composer Award recipient Rafael Nassif ‘s piece for for three choirs and three trombones [wait, I thought we were talking saxes here?…], and a world premiere by our own S21 contributor and great pal Rob Deemer, plus works by Stefan Thomas and Jouni Kaipainen.

Tickets: $20; Students and Seniors: $15 TDF vouchers accepted. Tickets available at the door one hour and 15 minutes before concerts, or call Ticket Central at 212-279-4200. And there’s a 2pm pre-concert talk for you earlybirds, with the Raschèr Quartet.

by Steve Layton
ACO, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Interviews, New York, Philadelphia

Conversations

nextatlantiswebWe heard from Christian Carey last week that the American Composers Orchestra has brought on George Manahan as their new Music Director but that’s not until next season.  Fortunately you don’t have to wait until next season to hear the orchestra – they are performing THIS weekend in New York (Friday, January 29th – Zankel Hall. 7:30pm) and Philadelphia (Saturday, January 30th – Annenberg Center. 7:30pm) with Conductor Anne Manson.  I was able to get her on the phone for a few minutes last night to talk about the program, you can listen to our short conversation here.

The program includes two world premieres: Sebastian Currier’s Next Atlantis, inspired by New Orleans and written for string orchestra and pre-recorded sound, with video by Pawel Wojtasik; and Roger Zare’s Time Lapse, a piece for orchestra influenced by photographic techniques, commissioned by ACO as part of its Underwood Composers Readings for Emerging Composers.

Latin jazz innovator Paquito D’Rivera’s Conversations with Cachao is the centerpiece of the program, and receives its New York City and Philadelphia premieres in these performances. A tribute to Israel “Cachao” López, the Havana bass player who made Cuban Mambo a worldwide phenomenon, the piece is a double concerto featuring D’Rivera’s clarinet and alto sax in dialogue with the double bass, played by Robert Black.

I was also able to spend some time talking with Robert Black last spring about working with composers.  It has nothing to do with the ACO concert this weekend, but if you want to listen to him talk about some of his experiences working with composers you can get the audio here.

by James Holt
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Los Angeles, New York, Online, Premieres, Radio

Incoming

Head’s up on a couple things this coming week that caught my eye:

WPRB’s Marvin Rosen is doing a special edition of his Classical Discoveries radio show this Wednesday, Jan. 27th. From 5:30 until 11:00 AM EST. Titled “East Meets West“, the entire five-and-a-half  hours will be devoted to works by Middle and Far Eastern Composers, as well as to works by Western composers inspired by these regions. A special treat in the 10-o’clock hour will be the world premiere broadcast of the Sonata for solo viola Op. 423 (1992) by Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000), performed by Christina Fong (from a brand-new OgreOgress release).  Then from 11AM until 1PM, Marvin’s guest will be composer/improviser/percussionist Lukas Ligeti. A swell time all around, and as always no matter where you are your computer can bring you the broadcast live.

If you happen to be on the other coast that same day (Jan. 27th), you’re in for a treat if you head to the Pasadena Central Library (Donald R. Wright Auditorium, 285 E. Walnut St.) at 6PM PST, for a concert presented by Cellogrill (über-cellist Jessica Catron) and the Pasadena Creative Music Series.  The concert opens with the world premiere of composer Cat Lamb’s Branches for just-intoned female choir assembled especially for this occasion. Next up, MISSINCINATTI follows with folk songs of land and sea; forgotten tales about fantastical crocodiles, maritime ghosts and work in the mines illuminated before your very eyes with the assistance of many special musical guests. And finally, the compositions of RATS can confound and delight like a musical retelling of The Wizard of Oz by Captain Beefheart. And all this for the princely sum of FREE.

by Steve Layton
ACO, Conductors, File Under?, New York, Opera, Orchestras

Manahan takes the reins at ACO

Big news in the orchestra world. Starting next season (2010-’11), George Manahan will become the American Composers Orchestra’s Music Director. He will continue as Music Director at the New York City Opera.

George Manahan
George Manahan

In my view, this is good news indeed. Manahan is a superlative musician; he’s conducted some excellent performances of contemporary fare at NYCO. One hopes that his name will entice new audience members to check out the ACO.

Kudos as well to outgoing director Steven Sloane, who’s done an admirable job with the ensemble since 2002.

Thoughts on the shakeup? The comments section is open below!

by Christian Carey
Composers, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Exhibitions, Experimental Music, Festivals, New York

Gone but not, not forgotten

PhilipsPavilion1958-450

An illegal immigrant with a civil engineering degree in Paris, fugitive from his native Greece for his WWII resistance activity (for which he nearly died, and lost one eye) Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) eventually found himself working for the famed architect Le Corbusier, first as one of any number of assistants but soon enough as collaborator. Yet he was always drawn above all else to the need to compose music. Nadia Boulanger, Arthur Honneger, Darius Milhaud –all were either rejecting or rejected. It wasn’t until Xenakis stumbled upon Olivier Messiaen that he found a teacher that saw past the inexperience and willfullness:

I understood straight away that he was not someone like the others. […] He is of superior intelligence. […] I did something horrible which I should do with no other student, for I think one should study harmony and counterpoint. But this was a man so much out of the ordinary that I said… No, you are almost thirty, you have the good fortune of being Greek, of being an architect and having studied special mathematics. Take advantage of these things. Do them in your music.

Thrown almost at once into the hotbed of post-WWII modern music, surrounded by the likes of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, Jean Barraqué, and Pierre Schaeffer, yet still working for Le Corbusier, Xenakis soon found ways to integrate his love of mathematics and architecture with new musical forms based on points and masses, curves and densities, later even physics and statistics — but somehow always tied to a deeply Greek historical and humanistic root system. During this transformative period, he stumbled upon a fascinating discussion about trang web cá cược bóng đá hợp pháp, which piqued his interest and added a unique dimension to his multidisciplinary explorations.

In the late 1950s Le Corbusier received a commisson to create the Phillips Pavillion for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. Le Corbusier made a preliminary sketch, but it was Xenakis who would develop and see the structure through to completion. Not only that, Xenakis (along with Edgard Varèse) would create music to inhabit the space, complementing a multi-projection visual program by Le Corbusier himself.

While only standing a short time, the echo of that space, event and music would continue well past 1958; it was constantly mentioned in all the books while I was a university student, and the pieces made for it have become “classics” in the field of early electronic music, still listened to and loved today. (There’s a small documentary on the Pavilion that you can see on YouTube.)

The reason I’m telling you all this? Because from January 15th through April 8th, The Drawing Center in New York City is hosting the show Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary. And in conjunction with this show, the Electronic Music Foundation is sponsoring a number of Xenakis events, including on the 15th a virtual recreation of the experience of the Phillips Pavilion at the Judson Church (55 Washington Square South).

We’ve asked The Drawing Center’s Carey Lovelace and the EMF’s own Joel Chadabe to give us some background and info, which follows just after the jump:

(more…)

by Steve Layton
Conductors, Contemporary Classical, Interviews, New York, Online

Spinning tunes with Alan Gilbert

My long-time favorite MP3 download site eMusic has its own little online magazine. One of its features is “Jukebox Jury”, where a musician sits down with the interviewer to chat while listening to and commenting on various tracks played. The latest guest is none other than the N.Y. Philharmonic’s new Music Director, Alan Gilbert. The interview covers a lot of ground in a nicely casual way, with Gilbert listening and then giving his take on everything from his own conducting of Mahler’s 9th Symphony, to tracks featuring Christopher Rouse, Magnus Lindberg, Art Tatum, Uri Caine, John Adams, even The Field and Radiohead.

by Steve Layton
Click Picks, Contemporary Classical, New York, Radio

Q2 to you too

WNYC’s acquisition of New York radio’s stalwart WQXR was a win/lose proposition. Win, in that a major classical station would stay alive; lose in that the new assigned frequency (which can conflict with a powerful Connecticut station on the same frequency) and reduction in broadcast power (from 6,000 watts to only 600 watts) reduces its reach by some millions of potential listeners. Not that it matters much to me, parked on my hiney here in Houston; I and so many others simply go online to hear the station’s stream, anywhere and anytime.

And a further win: Besides the station’s main — and predictably staid — broadcast stream, WQXR also carries another, different  internet-only stream called Q2. The music there reverses the current classical-radio standard: i.e., instead of mostly old and safe with a few tiny nuggets of the new, Q2 plays quite a bit new with far fewer chestnuts from classical music’s Ancient Dead Guys Club.

In the past few hours of this morning you could have been listening to Glass, Rautavaara, Ter Veldhuis, Torke, Greenstein, Part, with a just bit of Falla, Palestrina and Chopin sprinkled through for good measure. I know this because they have a great real-time updated playlist page, so you’ll never have to wonder what that work you just heard was. Q2 is just finishing a week-long Steve Reich celebration, and while you’re a bit late for the music you can still read and hear all kinds of interviews about the music from a range of artists, as well as tons from the “old man” himself.

Q2 also has a blog, “Do You Q2“, where you can learn about what’s on any number of musicians minds, and generally stay abreast of upcoming features.

Perfect? No; the new music programmed generally skews closer to the middle of the new road, while I — and I’m sure quite a few others — might like a veer toward the edge more often (or occasionally even off the path altogether!). But still, Q2 should definitely be a daily stop for new-music lovers.

by Steve Layton
Composers, Contemporary Classical, New York, Premieres

Christian Wolff and friends, S.E.M.

wolff-kotik

The S.E.M. Ensemble will open its 40th anniversary season with its annual Christmas concert at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York City on Tuesday, December 15. SEM has performed a holiday concert at the gallery for the last 25 years, and this year’s program will feature two N.Y. premieres by new-music icon Christian Wolff (above left), the first public performance of Petr Kotik‘s (above right) new percussion work performed by TimeTable Percussion, and Lejaren Hiller‘s rarely heard String Quartet no. 5, along with a work by J.S. Bach.

Christian Wolff is also marking his 75th birthday this year, and has put together a kind of celebratory all-Wolff concert at Roulette on Dec 12th. Christian was kind enough to write a bit about  his music on both of these concerts:

On December 15, the S.E.M. Ensemble will perform two New York premieres of my work: “Flutist (with percussionists)” and “For John”, as part of their annual concert at Paula Cooper Gallery (NYC). This will be one more in a long line of performances of my music by Petr Kotik and the S.E.M. Ensemble, beginning, I think, in the early 1970s, not long after Petr came to Buffalo – he had already organized the first performance of an early piece of mine in Prague in the 60s. There has been an extraordinary continuity of support. And, with this encouragement, I’ve also written pieces for the ensemble, as well as for the orchestra associated with it (the S.E.M. Orchestra in New York).

“Flutist (with percussionists)” came about when Chris Nappi, longtime percussionist for the SEM ensemble and friend, asked me for a piece – in exchange for music copying he had done for me. He wanted something to play with another percussionist, so the music is for more than one player. Then Petr Kotik, composer, conductor and excellent flutist, had me at his Ostrava (Czech Republic) New Music Days in 2003. I can’t exactly remember, but I think he was looking for some additional music for one of the concerts, so I made solo flute music for him, and then, since Chris was also there, it occurred to me the two pieces could be done simultaneously. Each piece has pauses of free duration, determined in the process of playing by the performers, so that they can be free to space their material in relation to one another, improvisationally. In addition, the flute material consists of a collection of shorter units which can be played in any sequence, as the player decides, and sometimes repeated, so that’s another element in ‘improvising’ the relation of the two pieces.

“For John” was written as part of a collaborative piece titled “For John” in celebration of John Cage at Bard College a few years ago (when the John Cage Archive was relocated at Bard). My contribution was a small set of piano nocturnes and “Material”, music playable by any smaller collection of performers (instrumentation not specified). The others collaborating were David Behrman, John King and Takehisa Kosugi, who played their own work simultaneously with mine, and intermittently we all played from the “Material”.

Then on Saturday, December 12, at 8:30 pm there will be a concert of my music at Roulette. The main item on the program will be the premiere of a new piece “Quintet”, written especially for this occasion.

After an earlier New York concert of my music, which was ok, but not quite ideal, I thought why not try to collect some of my favorite musicians who might be available in the New York area. 2009 is also the year of my 75th birthday, so this might also be a kind of celebration. The musicians are Larry Polansky, composer, long-time friend and colleague in Hanover, New Hampshire (but we both grew up in New York), and fine guitar player; Robyn Schulkowsky, also a longtime friend with whom I’ve done a lot of music, regarded in Europe as the premiere percussionist for new music, but also long associated with people like John Cage and Morton Feldman, and a great improviser; Robert Black, double-bass, also someone with whom I’ve worked over a long time, probably best known as an anchor of the Bang on a Can All-Stars. We also have all been involved in recordings of my music (Robert a CD of all my music involving double-bass, Robyn a solo percussion CD and she and Larry more recently on a recording of 10 “Exercises”). The other player, along with myself (on piano and melodica) will be Joey Baron, drummer, associated for years with John Zorn, but even better known as jazz drummer in his own right. Joey had been hearing my music in the last years and said he liked it, so it occurred to me to ask him to join us, and he agreed – a challenge for both us, me writing for a ‘non-classical/new music’ performer, him playing such music. The element of improvisation, or structural flexibility in my music I hope will provide a bridge.

The rest of the program will consist of earlier pieces, a double-bass solo “Look She Said”, a solo snare drum “Peace March”, and an electric guitar piece “Another Possibility,” written to make up for my losing (it was stolen) the only existing copy of a piece by Morton Feldman, “The possibility of a piece for electric guitar.”

Thanks Christian, Happy (late) Birthday, and have a great show or two!  More information for the S.E.M. concert can be had here; for the the Roulette gig click here.

by Steve Layton
Concerts, New York

What’s up this weekend?

Here are a few concerts worth checking out if you’re near New York City.

Friday, December 4th:
Newspeak celebrates their 5-year anniversary at Public Assembly in Williamsburg, 6:00-9:00pm.  Also on Friday night in the West Village, Forecast Music spends the evening performing new works for voice at Greenwich House, 8:00pm.

Saturday, December 5th:
NYsoundCircuit is presenting an evening of “continuous music, food, visuals, drinks, and fashion” at the Brecht Forum, 8:00pm.

Sunday, December 6th:
The Knights are performing at the Church of St. Ann & the Holy Trinity in Brooklyn Heights, 3:00pm.

And I always like to mention shows happening OUTSIDE of New York City, so for those of you near Seattle this weekend… The Affinity Chamber Players have been around for just over ten years and on Saturday, December 5th they will be opening their season at the Good Shepherd Center, 8:00pm.  Just go.

by James Holt
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Contests, New York

New works, Free tix!

contact1

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!

by Steve Layton