New York

Broadcast, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Music Events, New York, Performers, Video

Trance Talking

Michael Gordon‘s huge and hugely wonderful, 50+ minute riff- and throb-fest Trance, composed in 1995, is being dusted off for what promises to be a memorable performance by the ensemble Signal, 7:30pm April 22nd at Le Poisson Rouge.

The fun and games begin at 6:30 pre-concert in the bar, however; Gordon himself, along with Ronen Givony (from Wordless Music and Le Poisson), Signal director Brad Lubman, bandmate/composer Ken Thomson (who also does duty in Gutbucket) and others, will talk about producing and performing new works with emphasis on the whys and whats of a piece after their first presentation. Trance was premiered at Bang on a Can in 1997, and hasn’t been played in New York since. Who owns the problem of presenting new works after their premiere?

Not only that, but S21’s own fearless leader Jerry Bowles will be moderating, and the whole roundtable will be videotaped and YouTubed shortly after for your viewing pleasure. Space in the bar isn’t huge, so come early to catch the conversation or join in.

Last but not least, we’re actively soliciting questions and comments for the panel from you, our loyal readers. Something you want to know or share about the perils of performance, premieres, getting that work into a second or third production… Just pass them along to sequenza21@gmail.com, and we’ll try and add you to the dialogue.

by Steve Layton
Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Music Events, New York, Performers, Piano

Interpretations Season #20: Artist Blog #8 — Teresa McCollough

Interpretations continues its twentieth season of provocative programming in New York City. Founded and curated by baritone Thomas Buckner in 1989, Interpretations focuses on the relationship between contemporary composers from both jazz and classical backgrounds and their interpreters, whether the composers themselves or performers who specialize in new music. To celebrate, Jerry Bowles has invited the artists involved in this season’s concerts to blog about their Interpretations experiences. On 9 April 2009, pianist Teresa McCollough presents a recital of music by Alvin Singleton, Sam Pluta, Gabriela Lena Frank, John Adams, and George Crumb.

In Tribute

I have been asked to write about my upcoming concert on the Interpretations Series, in celebration of its 20th season. As this is my first time playing on this series, I want to talk not only about the upcoming concert and my connection to the program and its composers, but also about my connection to Tom Buckner, its founder and musical director, with whom I share a passion for commissioning and playing new music. It is a tribute to Tom, and his considerable vision and spirit, that Interpretations is reaching the milestone of its 20th year, and I am honored to be a part of this exciting anniversary observance.

Tom and I met a few years ago through our mutual friend and fabulous composer, Alvin Singleton. Both Tom and I had commissioned Alvin for different works, and Alvin thought we might want to get to know each other. Tom and I spoke on the phone for nearly an hour about our shared passion for new music and support for composers, and at the end of that conversation, we had arranged for Tom to bring Alvin’s latest composition Say You Have this Ball of Meaning, to the 2006 Santa Clara New Music Festival, where it received its West coast premiere to great success.

Tom has visited Santa Clara University (his alma mater) several times, and most recently after a very inspiring guest recital, he gave a talk to the students about his experience with new music and improvisation, that was both passionate and realistic. He spoke at length about his artistic process, which included a commitment to learning new works through regular improvisation and rehearsal sessions as a young man honing his craft, living and studying in the Bay area. Tom gathered other artists and composers at his house, where he held regular reading and improvisation sessions, followed by monthly concerts of those works that had been discovered so thoroughly. Along the way, he met many great composers, such as Robert Ashley and Roscoe Mitchell, and other experimental artists who were living and making up the fabric of west coast new music at that time. He created a life in experimental art that is almost forgotten in today’s professional world of learning a new piece just well enough to race to the next gig. Tom suggested a method for hearing and creating new music that recalled a slower time of deeper listening. The students could relate all too well to this leading artist and advocate who mirrored their current image of creating new compositions. Their sound world is as fresh as Tom’s was thirty-five years ago, and with more resources and outlets for communication. The weekly jam sessions that they hold with their bands and ensembles are explorations of new music with living composers and artists whom we will hear from in a few years. Making great music takes time, and it’s one’s process with that art form that makes the journey worthwhile. A venerable series, like Interpretations, didn’t spring up overnight, and great artists become so only after developing a life in music that is not only dedicated, but open to change. Contemporary music can be most accessible, if it is communicated with passion and supported with great resources. The continued success of a series such as Interpretations depends upon its artistic vision and leadership, as well as many years of dedication and hard work. My hat is off to Tom, without whom there might not be so many great works in this genre, or so many artists and composers who have received such generous support.

For my own part, I have chosen a program that I hope will be a tribute to this long-lasting series and which communicates that spirit which I believe exists when composers and artists share an admiration and respect for each other’s unique sound worlds. I have a passion for this music, and a desire to share it with an audience. Whether it is the musical mystery of George Crumb’s music played on the strings of the piano, or the experimental sounds of Sam Pluta’s crushed soda cans interwoven with a palate of piano jazz and improvisation, it is meaningful to me, and related in one way or another. Gabriela Frank’s Requiem explores the symbolism of the Day of the Dead ritual, while John Adams’ Hallelujah Junction is a work with a title that might seem to mean more than it does. Greed Machine by Alvin Singleton explores the timbres of vibraphone and piano through sound and time, while China Gates explores time through its sound repetition and displacement. All of these pieces explore the full range and capabilities of the piano and its inherent percussive possibilities played against a backdrop of various drums, gongs, chimes, and mallet instruments. It is playing, plucking, pounding, and improvising. It is a journey though music which might be inspired by spiritual sources, and inspired music that is musically unique and perhaps, spiritual. It will be a performance open to interpretation for all its listeners, prompted by an anniversary that is a true cause for celebration.

Teresa McCollough performs at Roulette on Thursday 9 April 2009.
For more information:
Teresa McCollough
Interpretations
Roulette

by Teresa McCollough
Competitions, Downtown, New York

Care to Try Your Hand(shake)?

Elizabeth Ferguson is a coordinator for this year’s Make Music New York event, and has a little offer for NYC-based composers/musicans. I’ll let her take it from there:

Make Music New York is a unique, free outdoor celebration performed by anyone who wants to play, and enjoyed by everyone who wants to listen.  Last year, some 875 performances took place on streets, sidewalks and parks in all 5 boroughs on the first day of summer, June 21st.

MMNY is now accepting submissions for this year’s “musical handshake“: a single melody serving as the secret lingua franca for musicians on Sunday June 21st, 2009. As part of the third annual festival, hundreds of musicians are taking part in “Mass Appeal” performances, playing pieces written for single types of instruments. Huge ensembles of clarinets, crotales, French horns, hub caps, violas, accordions, saxophones, and more will perform across NYC’s five boroughs.

The “musical handshake” will allow these musicians to greet one another throughout the day, beyond their own bands of instruments, with the hope that momentary handshakes will turn into longer, improvised musical conversations. In the evening, the composition will receive its public premiere at the Mass Appeal afterparty in Central Park. The winning handshake will be selected by a panel of judges and announced in
May.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Participants must be residents of the New York City area and in attendance on June 21st.  [Ed. note: this is the one rule that we don’t get at all. Tons of composers living in NYC didn’t start out there, so who cares where the tune comes from, really?]
• A musical handshake is a short melody, up to 10 seconds long, consisting of two phrases, so that two musicians can use it to greet each other with a call and response.
• Nearly all instruments and all musicians – from amateurs to professionals – should be able to play the musical handshake.
• No more than two submissions per composer will be accepted.
• Entries are due by midnight on Friday May 1st, 2009.
• Entries must be submitted in standard musical notation.
• Please email submissions as PDF attachments to musicalhandshake@makemusicny.org.
Or mail your composition, on a single 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, to:
Mass Appeal “Musical Handshake”
c/o Make Music New York
PO Box 1164
New York, NY 10013
• Include your name, address, phone number, and email address on the same page as your composition. (Judges will not see this information when choosing a handshake.)
• By submitting a musical handshake, you affirm that the composition is your own, and agree that, if selected, your submission will become the property of Make Music New York, Inc.

by Steve Layton
Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York

Poul Ruders 60th Birthday Concert and Celebration

Poul Ruders and David Starobin

Thursday, March 26, 2009, at 7:30 pm

Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue at 38th Street

Scandinavia House and Bridge Records are hosting a birthday concert for Poul Ruders tomorrow night. The program features the world premiere of Pages I-X (2008) performed by guitarist David Starobin, and the US premiere of Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean, performed by avant-accordionist Mikko Luoma and the iO String Quartet.

Also on the program are:

Regime (1984), Juilliard Percussion Ensemble

Star Prelude and Love Fugue (1990), Vassily Primakov, piano

New Rochelle Suite (2005), David Starobin, guitar; Daniel Druckman, percussion.

Ruders will be in attendance and will speak about his music and the works on this program. Tickets for the Ruders Birthday Concert are $15, and $10 for American Scandinavian Foundation members. 212-879-9779 for tickets reservations and sales.

by Christian Carey
Chamber Music, Classical Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, Improv, Music Events, New York, Performers

Interpretations Season #20: Artist Blog #7 — Thomas Buckner

Interpretations continues its twentieth season of provocative programming in New York City. Founded and curated by baritone Thomas Buckner in 1989, Interpretations focuses on the relationship between contemporary composers from both jazz and classical backgrounds and their interpreters, whether the composers themselves or performers who specialize in new music. To celebrate, Jerry Bowles has invited the artists involved in this season’s concerts to blog about their Interpretations experiences. The concert on 12 March 2009 is a recital by the producer himself, baritone Thomas Buckner. He took time out of his busy schedule to tell us in his own words about the series and his concert on it:

On Thursday March 12, the Interpretations series continues its twentieth season. As the series founder and artistic director, I am grateful to Sequenza 21 for featuring our series. The series was founded to nurture community of new music composers and their interpreters. Sequenza 21 nurtures our community by allowing us to communicate with one another.

I am often asked what draws me to the music I present and perform. An answer I have often given is that, whereas many people can make music that sounds like music, I am interested on people who make music that sounds like them. It is a criterion well met by the music I have chosen to present in my concert of new music for voice. Each or the composers is a true original.

The first half of the concert will feature an extended work written for me by composer/pianist “Blue” Gene Tyranny, whom I got to know through our work in the operas of Robert Ashley. The piece, “Somewhere Songs”, has an original text by the composer and is for voice and electronically reproduced sounds. The three songs concern friendship in extraordinary circumstances and are “based on true stories about hidden places, depicted physically, psychologically and socially in specific word idioms.” There is a natural musicality and a sense of mystery in these songs. They have been released on a recent CD of “Blue”s music on the mutable music label.

The next piece in the concert, “T-Language”, made by Tom Hamilton and me, is an improvisation for voice and electronics. We have sought to give the work a clear identity by using recorded vocal improvisations to shape the electronic sounds. Tom and I have worked together for years, and this piece has been developing really well. Our previous recordings include Tom’s “Off Hour Wait State” and our collaboratively created “Jump the Circle, Jump the Line.”

The concert ends with “Beats”, composed by Stuart Saunders Smith for me and my long time collaborator, pianist Joseph Kubera. The texts are from Jack Kerouac and Walt Whitman. It is not a song cycle. Rather, the texts are spoken with piano accompaniment, and the voice sings wordlessly. The music is extremely complex rhythmically. A friend of mine characterized one of Stuart’s pieces as sounding like Roscoe Mitchell, Mallachai Favors and Lester Bowie improvising, but exactly notated. This music is challenging and enjoyable to perform and listen to. It also requires us both to play percussion and has a theatrical flair characteristic of Stuart’s music.

Those of you who have seen the publicity for this concert know that I was also to perform a work by Fred Ho for baritone saxophone and baritone voice. Fred has been waging a courageous war against cancer. He is doing very well, but is presently indisposed, so we will perform his work in a future season.

I hope you will join us at this concert and at the remaining concerts in our twentieth season.

Thomas Buckner is in recital at Roulette on Thursday 12 March. For more information:
Interpretations
Roulette

by Tom Bucker
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York

Monday at Merkin: Six premieres by the New York New Music Ensemble


Two of New York New Music Ensemble’s members, clarinetist Jean Kopperud and pianist Stephen Gosling, will be premiering six new pieces at Merkin Concert Hall on Monday, Feb. 23 at 8 PM.

The pieces were composed for the duo by Eric Moe, Paolo Cavallone, Steve Ricks, David Felder, James Primosch, Jason Eckardt, and Harvey Sollberger.

Apparently they’re calling this the Rated X Project, but we’re hoping everyone at Merkin keeps their clothes on. Really.

by Christian Carey
ACO, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Electro-Acoustic, File Under?, New York, Orchestral, Orchestras, Philadelphia, Uncategorized

Short chat with David Schiff: ACO premieres Stomp (re-lit) Friday at Zankel and Sunday in Philly

David Schiff

While well-known for his writings about music, including books about Elliott Carter and George Gershwin, David Schiff is also a prolific and active composer. A professor at Reed College, he’s visiting New York this week to hear the American Composer’s Orchestra premiere a revamped version of Stomp, a piece that celebrates the music of James Brown. The concert, part of the Orchestra Underground series, also includes premieres by Margaret Brouwer and Kasumi, Rand Steiger, Fang Man, and Kati Agócs.

 Carey: Stomp was written in 1990 for Marin Alsop. How did you decide to write in homage to James Brown?

Schiff: I was asked for a concert opener and somewhere in the process I realized that one of my rhythmic motives was from James Brown’s “I Feel Good” (as recorded Live at the Apollo). I then re-conceived the piece as a tribute.

Carey: Have other rock or jazz legends figured in your music?

Schiff: There’s a big Motown section in my Scenes from Adolescence (1987) and my Slow Dance for orchestra (1989), written for the Oregon Symphony, has a lot of Charles Mingus in it, but I have also had the great honor of working with two living legends in jazz, Regina Carter and Marty Ehrlich.

Carey: What’s “re-lit” about this new version for the ACO?

Schiff: ACO asked me to reduce the size of the orchestra slightly to fit in Zankel Hall. This gave me the opportunity to re-score the entire piece. The wind section now is much better suited to the style of the piece: flute, E flat clarinet, two saxes, trumpet horn, trombone and tuba. But there are also a lot of musical changes everywhere. I think that in the years since I first wrote Stomp I have become more experienced with the style. The new version is much hotter than the original–even though the orchestra is smaller.

Carey: You’re currently at work on a book about Duke Ellington. Is that research infiltrating your composing at all?

Schiff: Ellington’s music influences everything I do. I go to school with his music every day and I find his melodies, rhythms, harmonies and instrumentation endlessly inspiring.

by Christian Carey
CDs, Chamber Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, File Under?, Music Instruments, New York, Performers, Recordings

Various Artists: the language of

Various Artists – the language of

QUIET DESIGN RECORDS


the language of is a compilation CD of ten pieces by eight emerging composers in NYC, many of whom are associated with the Wet Ink Ensemble.  Released by Quiet Design Records in Austin, TX, this compilation is a forward-thinking treatise on a constantly evolving new music scene.  The production, recording, and design chores were undertaken by the composers and their colleagues, thus comprising a very personalized aesthetic. the language of is an essential purchase, not only for its DIY approach, but because it contains a variety of exciting, well executed compositions.  And due to the wobbly legs of the music industry, resourceful composers could do well by using this CD as a business model.

There is an immediacy and yearning to the music featured on this CD.  The emotional content (which, of course, varies from piece to piece) is enhanced by the recording techniques used to create the myriad sound-worlds, an approach that is both startling and engaging.  There is not one ounce of sonic sterility that one might find on pristinely recorded chamber music CDs.  Many of the recording techniques used are in-your-face, close mic’d, compressed, and manipulated to each pieces’ ambient requirements.  Some of the pieces that most represent traditional chamber music are ambient mic’d, a representation that provides a bird’s-ear-view (sorry about that one) for the listener, or an aural realism, if you will.   The variety of production from piece to piece is therefore more akin to the world of rock, jazz, and experimental music.  The packaging, designed by composer Clara Latham, is an attractive and environmentally friendly cardboard cover that features nothing in the form of liner notes (this may be one of my only complaints, but it definitely adds a veil of mystery to the release).

A brief overview of each piece follows after the break: (more…)

by Jeremy Podgursky
CDs, Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, File Under?, Los Angeles, New York, Orchestras

Tonight at BAM: US Premiere of work by Enrico Chapela at Brooklyn’s Nuevo Latino Festival

Saturday night at 8 pm, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, under the direction of Michael Christie, gives the US premiere of Enrico Chapela’s Noctámbulos, a piece for rock trio and orchestra. Chapela will also participate in a panel discussion on Latin American Identity in Music at 4:30 (details below).

Chapela is a composer on the rise; Boosey and Hawkes added him to their roster in 2008 and he’s recently received several high profile commissions. I spoke with him on Thursday about the BAM event and his other activities. Born in Mexico, he started out his musical career as a rock guitarist, playing SXSW with a band in the nineties. He currently resides in Paris, where he’s finished a Master’s degree at the University of Paris and is pursuing a Ph.D. His dissertation topic is the two-hundred year history of symphonic music in Mexico.

An earlier version of Noctámbulos, titled Lo Nato es Neta, can be heard on Chapela’s debut CD, Antagonica. Lo Nato es Neta is scored for rock trio and acoustic quintet. Chapela readily acknowledges the cross-pollination present in the work, “It explores a wide range of rock styles – everything from metal to Pink Floyd to King Crimson.” I hear a fair bit of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in its juxtaposition of rock solos with angular melodic fragments, spiky post-tonal verticals, and Stravinskyian ostinati.

The piece was entered in a composition competition, but didn’t place. Happily, one of the judges dissented from the majority and separately arranged a commission for the Dresden Sinfoniker. The result: Noctámbulos, a revisioning of Lo Nato es Neta that features the rock trio as concerto soloists. It also incorporates more improvisation.

This is an exciting time for Chapela. He’s playing the guitar part in the premiere. Simultaneously, he’s working hard to finish a commission for the LA Philharmonic. “At first, I thought it would be too much to be the solo guitarist at the Brooklyn Philharmonic performances while trying to finish the piece for LA. But then I realized, who could ask for a better gig than this? Between practicing and writing, I told my wife to not expect to see me much for a couple of months!”

CROSSING BORDERS: A discussion on Latin American identity in music

Saturday, January 31, 2009 / BAM Hillman Attic Studio, at 4:00PM

Moderated by Carmen Helena Téllez / Invited panelists: Gabriela Lena Frank, Enrico Chapela, and Paul Desenne

NUEVO LATINO MAINSTAGE – Saturday January 31, 2009 at 8:00 PM

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House

Michael Christie, conductor; Virginie Robilliard, violin; Chapela Trio; Enrico Chapela, guitar; Jesús Lara, bass; Luis Miguel Costero, drums

Gabriela Lena Frank: Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout (NY Premiere of string orchestra version)

Paul Desenne: The Two Seasons (NY Premiere)

Enrico Chapela: Noctámbulos (US Premiere)

by Christian Carey
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, Music Events, New York, Opera

Interpretations Season #20: Artist Blog #5 — Robert Ashley

Robert AshleyInterpretations continues its twentieth season of provocative programming in New York City. Founded and curated by baritone Thomas Buckner in 1989, Interpretations focuses on the relationship between contemporary composers from both jazz and classical backgrounds and their interpreters, whether the composers themselves or performers who specialize in new music. To celebrate, Jerry Bowles has invited the artists involved in this season’s concerts to blog about their Interpretations experiences. Produced in tandem with La Mama ETC and Performing Artservices, the centerpiece of the series this year is a two-week, three opera, 10 performance, mini-retrospective of the recent works of Robert Ashley: Dust, Celestial Excursions, and Made out of Concrete.

Robert Ashley’s operas will be at La Mama ETC from 15-25 January 2009.
For more information:
S21 Calendar
Interpretations

Mr. Ashley has been kind enough to take some time from his busy rehearsing schedule to write about the ensemble he’s gathered over the past thirty years or so, as a sort of self-interview:

WHO ARE THE ENSEMBLE MEMBERS?

The ensemble now is (alphabetical order in singers / in slight order of importance in technical)

ROBERT ASHLEY: voice
SAM ASHLEY: voice
THOMAS BUCKNER: voice
JACQUELINE HUMBERT: voice
JOAN LA BARBARA: voice

TOM HAMILTON does audio engineering in all stages of the opera, assists me in realizing the composition in the electronic studio prior to performance; he’s the mixing engineer and advisor in rehearsals; he does performance sound processing and mixing of the performance; he’s in charge of recording of the performance and mixing the sounds from the performance for the CD recording.

CAS BOUMANS is the performance sound designer (audience loudspeaker placement and sound monitor arrangements for the performers. Microphone placement.)

DAVID MOODEY does stage and light design.

MELANIE LIPKA is the production stage manager (off-stage timing of what goes into the performance.)

“BLUE” GENE TYRANNY is the synthesizer performer in Dust and Celestial Excursions

JOAN JONAS is the dancer/performance artist in Celestial Excursions

WHEN DID YOU START WORKING WITH THEM?
It’s various, but compared to the life of most ensembles I’ve been working with all of them for a long time, not only in their jobs now with the ensemble, but as musicians and designers.

(more…)

by Robert