It seems that conceptual artist Jonathon Keats has created a cell-phone ringtone based on John Cage’s 4’33” called My Cage (Silence for Cellphone), which is exactly what it sounds like: “a continuous stream of silence produced on a computer, and compressed to standard ringtone format.”  It’s both hilarious and brilliant.  (Thanks to Kyle Gann for bringing it to my attention.) The point of Cage’s original piece is that during the time period the audience is forced to think about silence (and the lack thereof) and music’s relationship to silence in a new way.  Ambient environmental sounds are recontextualized and turned

There hasn’t been much contemporary music in Los Angeles over the past month.  (Does music over the holidays have to be so traditional?  Isn’t there much festive contemporary music?)  But we’re off to a decent start in January.  The first Philharmonic concert in 2007 had the hot, bright, young (25!) conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, conducting a program of Kodaly, Rachmaninoff (the 3rd, with Bronfman), and the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra.  Dudamel got great reviews when he first appeared at Hollywood Bowl, and his reviews of these concerts were raves.  The program was recorded and will be available next week on iTunes.  Mark

Hmm . . . The Kennedy Center Honors. Always forget about these things until December. Always find them exasperating and inspiring at the same time. Be nice to get one someday . . . Ah – there’s Zubin Mehta. Bet most viewers haven’t even heard of him; geez, I hope the awards continue to pay tribute to classical musicians in the future . . . Ug, couldn’t they have come up with something other than Fritz Kreisler for the tribute? Sigh. Suppose beggars can’t be choosers . . . Wouldn’t it be nice if the Kennedy Center honored Steve Reich

Anthony Tommasini here.  Manuela Hoelterhoff here.  An Unamplified Voice here.  Maury D’annato here.  Jonathan at Wellsung.  AP here.

Well, you’re too late for the $550 Center Parterre Premium seats or the $350 Orchestra Premium seats for tonight’s premiere of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor at the Met but if you hurry it looks like you can still grab one of the bargain $250 orchestra seats.  (I have a couple of mere $80 seats in the alpine section later.)  In the meantime, us poor people can read about the Mr. Tan’s opera foo young in the Met blog or perhaps lurk at the stage door for a glimpse of Placido Domingo or Elizabeth Futral or maybe even the great film director Zhang Yimou (To Live,

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the city The critics were trying their best to be witty;  They printed their lists of the past year’s best fare,  In hopes that their trendy young readers would care;  But the readers were nestled all snug in their beds, While vacuous pop idols danced in their heads;  And the Maestro in PJs, and I in my drawers,  Had just settled in to examine some scores,  When out on the lawn, such cacaphonous sound,  I sprang from my desk thinking Zorn was in town.

A while back, Stephen Colbert made fun of John Zorn on the Colbert Report, and I’m pleased to report that tonight he referred, if not by name, to La Monte Young.  At the beginning of a segment on Art, he talked about feeding hay to a piano, which as you know clearly refers to Young’s 1960 piece “Piano Piece for David Tudor #1.” The piece is one of several text instruction pieces from 1960 and its instructions read: “Bring a bale of hay and a bucket of water onto the stage for the piano to eat and drink. The performer may