Our own Lawrence Dillon’s The Infinite Sphere will be given its World Premiere performances by the Daedalus Quartet tonight, Friday, January 15 – 8 PM as part of the Discovery Series at The Barns at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia and on Saturday, 7:30 PM at Watson Chamber Music Hall of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. Commissioned by the Daedalus Quartet in conjunction with the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, Dillon’s fourth quartet takes Pascal’s reference to “an infinite sphere, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere” as the inspiration
Read moreTechnology has democratized music in ways that are surprising even to me, revolutionizing access to any music anytime with iPod and iTunes, opening interactive musicmaking to amateurs with Guitar Hero and Rock Band (which both grew out of a group I lead at the M.I.T. Media Lab), providing digital production and recording facilities on any laptop that surpass what the Beatles used at Abbey Road, and redefining the performance ensemble with initiatives like the Stanford iPhone Orchestra and YouTube Symphony. – Tod Machover in today’s New York Times
Read moreThere are a lot of older men–myself included–who have had a crush on Hilary Hahn for an unwholesome length of time so I was not surprised when a couple of my best friends–professional photographers who normally wouldn’t pick up a camera unless there was money involved–volunteered to run down to the Village Gate…ur, Le Poisson Rouge for those of you with no respect for history–and shoot some pictures for free at her Bach Party last night. The occasion was the release of Hilary’s newest album, Bach: Violin and Voice on Deutsche Grammophon. “Ms. Hahn is even more enchanting in person
Read moreLast night on The Colbert Report, Steven Colbert brought in Philip Glass to assist him in a parody of. . . Philip Glass. The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c We Are at War – Philip Glass www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy It’s clearly a spoof of Einstein on the Beach–or “Einstein on the Beeyotch,” as Colbert says at the end of the show when he thanks Glass and mentions the recently released recording of Glass’s A Toltec Symphony. Colbert is one of the most knowledgeable television hosts on the air when it comes to
Read more
Composers, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Exhibitions, Experimental Music, Festivals, New York
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
Read moreIn a city like New York, with so many first-rate musicians moving to town every year to try to “make it,” promising new chamber ensembles spring up all the time, and I think this is a great thing. One of 2009’s most promising new groups was the Syzygy New Music Collective, which gave their debut concert at St. Anthony of Padua church, in the West Village, on December 4th. Founded by Jessica Salzinski and Danielle Schwob, two composers who recently graduated from NYU, Syzygy is dedicating itself to the presentation of music by young and emerging composers, and indeed most
Read moreGreg Saunier is in the indie band Deerhoof, but he’s also a composer of concert music. sfSound commissioned a work from Saunier as part of an upcoming concert centered around György Ligeti‘s Chamber Concerto (Jan. 23 at SF Conservatory). Apparently, this isn’t the first time sfSound has paid tribute to Ligeti. Last time around, in 2002, they ran afoul of the composer’s representatives. You can read a passel of legalese between Ligeti’s lawyers and the group’s bass clarinetist here. Hopefully this time out, they’ll be allowed to go ahead with what looks to be a fascinating concert and appropriate tribute
Read more…Is that it’s happening in California, and not spreading the wonderful work and word in some navel-gazing opposite coast (NYC, I’m talkin’ to youz!). But even those who are or might be L.A.-bound, what better place to be on a Monday night (January 11 2010, 8:00pm; Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School), than taking in this absolutely fine mix of the old and the new?: California has always attracted innovators. Three composers from Los Angeles, Berkeley and San Diego confirm this is still the case. In a program showcasing the variety of activity in our own backyard, Michael Pisaro’s
Read moreA new year finds our roving reporter/virtuoso violinist (there’s a movie idea in there someplace) Hilary Hahn back with the next round of her self-made interviews with composers various and not-so-sundry. Definitely in the non-sundry camp, David Lang has been firing on all cylinders the past few years; snagging the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his Little Match Girl Passion (the recording of which is also up for a performance Grammy this year) is likely keeping gas in that tank for a good while to come. Hilary and David have a nice long chat about his life & work in
Read moreMy 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
Read more