I recently gave an interview about our activities at Sequenza 21 to the blog A Closer Listen. I also curated a mix for them, consisting of selections by composers who participated in our 2011 concert. You can read the article and hear the mix here.
Read moreI prefer to say that I consider myself a writer of music more than a composer. I just try to tell stories through the music narrative. I do this in the simplest, almost naive way possible. However, if there is something that leads me when I start writing a piece, it is to avoid communicating something tiring and boring. I want people to find my music sentimental and moving and also, as far as possible, to fancy listening to it again. I am talking about being accessible to the listener and the performers. In other words, I do not write
Read moreNew music pianist Jenny Q. Chai is making a special appearance at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall on April 19th at 7:30 PM playing some great pieces by Ligeti, Marco Stroppa, György Kurtág, Messiaen, and even Schumann (guess they’re trying to make him sound young again) as well as two world-premiere pieces by composers Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang and Inhyun Kim. She had some time to talk with me about that upcoming show and her musical path.
Read moreIt’s one of those evenings when you wish you could be at two New York concert venues at once! Mohammed Fairouz’s opera, Sumeida’s Song, will be performed at Zankel Hall on 4/2 at 7:30. The work is based on playwright Tawfiq El Hakim’s Song of Death. Presented by the Mimesis Ensemble (conducted by Scott Dunn), the cast features soprano Jo Ellen Miller, mezzo Rachel Calloway, tenor Robert Mack, and baritone Mischa Bouvier. (Ticket info here). Also on Monday at 7:30 PM, Cutting Edge Concerts Festival kicks off its fifteenth season at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space. Monday nights in
Read morePlaying music takes a toll on the body. How does a musician, working grueling schedules over a long career, avoid injury? You are invited to attend CMA’s next First Tuesdays seminar, led by cellist Janet Horvath, author of Playing (Less) Hurt—An Injury Prevention Guide for Musicians. In addition to discussing susceptibility, danger signals and risky postures, Horvath will present specific injury-prevention strategies, ergonomic solutions, instrument modifications, orthotics, chairs, and other resources for all musicians –string, wind, and brass players, pianists and percussionists. She will also delve into rehabilitation strategies for those already hurting. Associate principal cello of the Minnesota Orchestra,
Read moreIgudesman & Joo, Carnegie Hall, April 17
Read moreHow awful is the dystopia in The Hunger Games? Well, if you listen to one cue in the movie, you might be led to believe that only pitch-drifting analog synthesizers are available, and multitrack recordings are made with the greatest of difficulties. At least that’s what one might believe encountering Laurie Spiegel’s 1972 composition, Sediment, during the cornucopia scene in the Hollywood blockbuster. (Steve Reich’s music also makes an appearance!) Geeta Dayal has the full story, along with an interview of Laurie Spiegel, here.
Read moreIn December 2010, as I was still adjusting to the climate change between Houston, Texas and Ann Arbor, Michigan, I heard a piece that has stuck with me ever since. I wrote about it here, along with two others, and called this particular work, which was performed with video and dance, “the most well executed student production of ANY KIND I have seen.” This piece is Music in Pluralism by William Zuckerman, a former University of Michigan composition student who is currently freelancing in New York. On April 11th at 8 PM, in the Kaufman Center’s Merkin Hall, Music and
Read moreBy now, the members of the San Francisco Symphony, their director Michael Tilson Thomas, and the rest of the musicians responsible for the orchestra’s magnificent “American Mavericks” Festival have left Ann Arbor for New York and the next stop on their tour: Carnegie Hall. In immediate relection, I’m confident the concerts lived up to the title bestowed upon it by Alex Ross: “the major musical event of the winter/spring season” – though, in Ann Arbor, I argue the “Mavericks” share that spotlight with January’s presentation of Einstein On The Beach. Immeasurable credit is due the Symphony and MTT for the
Read moreHelp me out here. A couple of my acquaintance are celebrating their 40th anniversary in New Orleans in a couple of weeks and asked me where they should go for a “special” night of music. I haven’t been there in years and don’t have a clue but I said I would ask around. I’m asking around. Bear in mind that these are folks who think that Al Hirt and Pete Fountain are probably the greatest jazz players who ever lived. And, I’m guessing that too loud or too grungy would not be good. Who has some recommendations? As long as
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