Signings

Choral Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Dance, Interviews, Los Angeles, Recordings, Signings

iDrink @ iTunes

Nico Muhly is set to appear at the Santa Monica Apple Store on the Third Street Promenade Wednesday, September 8th to mark two new releases from Decca. “A Good Understanding” will be released exclusively on iTunes on September 7, with physical copies available on September 21 alongside “I Drink the Air Before Me”.

Composer Nico Muhly

Muhly along with Los Angeles Master Chorale conductor Grant Gershon will take part in a Q&A session – where Muhly will demonstrate how he creates his compositions with GarageBand on his MacBook Pro. The talk will end with a performance by members of the Los Angeles Master Chorale featuring two works from “A Good Understanding” and two related works, “Like as the Hart” and “Wayfaring Stranger”.
John Clare spoke with Muhly about the works and event: mp3 file
Nico Muhly and Los Angeles Master Chorale conductor Grant Gershon appear at the Santa Monica Apple Store on Wednesday, September 8, 7:00 p.m.
Bonus – listen to the rest of the conversation as Muhly interviews Clare: mp3 file

by John Clare
Concerts, Music Events, Signings

Lay Around the Shack ’til the Mail Train Comes Back

Chris Thile, the best bluegrass mandolin player alive except for maybe Mike Marshall and Sam Bush is having a joint CD release party with some girl fiddle player named Hillary Hahn next Tuesday night starting at 7 pm at Housing Works Used Book Cafe, 126 Crosby Street, NYC 10012 (212-334-3324). 

What makes this an unusual CD release event is that tickets are being sold to the public for $15 with the proceeds going to charity, specifically Housing Works which does a lot of good things.  

The kids have a lot in common; both were child prodigies.  They will performing both classical and bluegrass music which seems about right since that’s what they do.  I’m hoping they’ll play a couple of things together.  Love to hear Hillary cut loose on “Billy in the Low Ground” or “Black Mountain Rag.”

Master Salvage and I are planning to go and I expect that other great bluegrass fiddle player, Frank J. Oteri, will probably be in attendance, too. 

And, who wants to go to the American Modern Ensemble Midtown Sound concert at Tenri on October 14 and review it for S21?  I can get you a pair of free tickets. 

by Jerry Bowles
Signings

Naxos Dreaming

If you happen to be around my local Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Triangle (which is what the real estate developers call the area around Lincoln Center these days), around 7 pm on Monday, you’ll want to stop in and visit with José Serebrier, his wife Carole Farley, and Ned Rorem who will be signing their latest releases which just happen to be on the Naxos label.

Serebrier’s recording of Rorem’s three symphonies at the time of the composer 80th birthday garnered three GRAMMY nominations and their latest collaboration, Rorem’s  Flute Concerto (world premiere), performed by Jeffrey Khaner, principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Violin Concerto with Philippe Quint and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Serebrier, is simply outstanding.   

Farley will be on hand to sign copies of her new DVD on VAI of the fully-staged operas  La Voix Humaine  by Francis Poulenc and The Telephone  by Gian-Carlo Menotti with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by busy José.

Meanwhile in another part of the forest, Glenn Freeman writes: 

Brief report from Bratislava, Slovakia.  OgreOgress productions is completing its first orchestral recording project. The repertoire is Alan Hovahenss’s Shambala, Janabar and Talin. The performers are the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Rerastislav Stur.  The musicians and conductor are first rate and the studio of the Slovak Philharmonic along with its recording technician, staff and equipment, are at the highest level. We are excited about the planned release of this recording on high resolution Audio DVD (96kHz/24bit) in the Spring of 2007. If you want this recording, or any of our future recordings, on CD then ask Naxos to release it in this format…we’ll work out a deal with them they  cannot refuse. 

Memo to Glenn:  Probably should have gone with José Serebrier.

by Jerry Bowles