Contemporary Classical

Chock Full o’ New Music at the Cleveland Orchestra

If you happen to be in the Lake Erie neighborhood tomorrow night, the Cleveland Orchestra will be showcasing several new works by American and British composers under the baton of Oliver Knussen. The concert will include a world premiere of Wanderlust by Cornell doctoral student Sean Shepherd, a US premiere of Helios Choros III by Augusta Read Thomas and performances of works by Julian Anderson, Luke Bedford and Knussen himself (his Requiem: Songs for Sue featuring the talents of soprano Elizabeth Keusch).

The concert will begin at 8pm in Severence Hall, 11001 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, with tickets being available online or at the door (for more information call (216) 231-1111 or (800) 686-1141). Shepherd and Thomas will be giving a pre-concert talk at 7pm and you can read about each work ahead of time in their program notes.

by Rob Deemer
CDs, Chamber Music, Contemporary Classical, Netlabel, Online, Recordings

SHSK’H

While online culture increasingly favors a posture of transparent, even mundane personhood, Igor Ballereau and Jody Pou buck this trend with the enigmatic netlabel SHSK’H.

The name, the presentation, and the music all project a common esthetic: hushed, cryptic, reverential and sensual.  This singularity of vision makes the experience compelling.  Both the performances and recording quality are awesomely good.

There are currently three releases, presenting works by Ballereau, Kenneth Kirschner, Aaron Siegel, Giuliano D’Angiolini, and Etsuko Chida performing traditional Japanese koto kumiuta.  Recordings of Webern by Jody Pou and Emily Manzo are planned for this summer, and something for Garth Knox will go up this winter.

The recordings are made available free under a Creative Commons license, but donations are invited.

I’m inspired by both the music and the model; SHSK’H makes a persuasive case for the website as performance space.

by Elliot Cole
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, Mexico

New Music in Morelia

Morelia (in the State of Michoacan, Mexico) will be hosting its Fifth Contemporary Music Festival from June 1-6. Although relatively young, the festival has gathered prestige and generated enthusiasm in the course of a few years, thanks in part to a list of distinguished composers and performers. Just a few names: Helmut Lachenmann, International Contemporary Ensemble, Robert Platz, Nicholas Isherwood, Carlos Sánchez Gutierrez, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Manuel Rocha, Dynamis Ensemble.

This year Morelia will be listening to some world-renowned composers and performers such as Philippe Manoury (France), Jack Body (New Zealand), S21-well-known Wilfrido Terrazas (Mexico), Orlando Jacinto García (Cuba), Eddie Mora (Costa Rica), Ekaterina Shatskaya (Russia), Iracema de Andrade (Brazil), and Christophe Desjardins (France). Concerts, lectures, and workshops will be given in the course of the week.

If the musical guests intrigue you, it should be mentioned that Morelia is known to be one of the most beautiful cities in Mexico. Its colonial architecture and rich cultural life make it an attractive destination. But now I’m beginning to sound like a promoter of tourism for the State of Michoacán.

The festival is organized by the Government of the State of Michoacán, the Mexican Center for Music and Sound Art (CMMAS, after its spanish abbreviation and whom I thank for the information) and the Conservatorio de las Rosas. It promises to be another interesting edition.

by Iván Sparrow
Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, New York

Go Toward the Light

…That would be the light emanating from New York’s P.S. 122 this Friday and Saturday night, where the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), choreographer Yvan Greenberg and stage director Emma Griffin will be partnering with our old (well, young actually) friend Corey Dargel in his latest set of sweetbittersweet songs, Thirteen Near-Death Experiences. Fourty-five minutes ostensibly about hypochondria and, well, death; just like Tristan they’re always at the same time really about love and, well, life.

You could and should have been following the birth of the work through Corey’s special blog devoted to just that; we’ll forgive you this time (and every time, damn it!… though we know you’ll just break our heart again), if you’ll just wander over their way, plunk down your money, and prepare to weep, squirm, sigh and smile. If that weren’t enough, ICE is rounding out the program with three premieres by other young and notable composers; Stephen Lehman, Nathan Davis and Mario Diaz de León. The show’s at 8pm; P.S. 122 is at 150 First Ave. at E. 9th St., NYC; Phone: 212-477-5829.

by Steve Layton
Awards, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Oliveros Wins Big Uptown

Congratulations to PAULINE OLIVEROS. Columbia University announced today that she is the recipient of the 2009 William Schuman Award: a $50,000 prize which recognizes “the lifetime achievement of an American composer whose works have been widely performed and generally acknowledged to be of lasting significance.” The previous award-winner was John Zorn in 2006.

Columbia will celebrate Oliveros with a concert and reception at 8 PM on March 27, 2010 at Miller Theatre.

by Christian Carey
Bass, Cello, Concerts, Experimental Music, Improv, jazz, Percussion, San Francisco, Violin

Rova Saxophone Quartet and friends channel Buckminster Fuller

Rova Saxophone QuartetSan Francisco is famous for its innovations, its open minds, and its spirit of protest.  In 2005, according to Rova Saxophone Quartet member Larry Ochs, “our government was committing all sorts of crimes against humanity in all of our names. I wanted to create some art that flew in the face of those acts – but not overtly political because that’s not what we do.”

Rova dreamed up an international collaborative work in honor of the visionary genius of Buckminster Fuller and his “Spaceship Earth” global perspective.  “Good works by people brought together from different countries – if only to point out that it was possible for people to meet for the very first time and in a week of collaboration, create something positive for the spirit, and something that was more than any one of the collaborators could create on his/her own,” Ochs explains.  Berlin-based multimedia artist Lillevan, Swedish-born percussionist Kjell Nordeson, Canadian contrabassist Lisle Ellis, cellist and Kronos Quartet alumna Joan Jeanrenaud, and violinist rock star Carla Kihlstedt make up the international dream team that will join Rova in presenting Fissures, Fixtures: for Buckminster Fuller.

The set of pieces combines live music and digital animation in a continuous feedback loop, with the music influencing the creation of the film in real time, and the film images inspiring the music.  Improvisation, as Larry Ochs declares, will ensure that the piece transcends the individuals involved and becomes more than the sum of its parts.  Rova and friends offer up the piece to honor “someone who over 40 years ago was stating categorically that mankind had to find a way to work together to create a one world-system that benefitted everyone.”

Since both performances will be recorded for future DVD release, this is your chance to immortalize your own applause for contemporary music posterity.  The concert happens twice, on May 22 and 23 in Kanbar Hall at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco located at 3200 California Street.  Tickets are $24.00 general, $21.00 for JCCSF members, and $16.00 for students.  Get them online at www.jccsf.org, and by phone at (415) 292-1233.

by Polly Moller
Contemporary Classical

Mantra Percussion Premieres

Mantra Percussion has a gig this Tusday in Manhattan–at 8pm at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church (619 Lexington Ave @ 54th).  It sounds like a promising program, with new piece by Eric Km Clark, Aaron Siegel, and Craig Woodward, and a new arrangement of David Lang’s “Little Eye.”  Mantra member Mike McCurdy (how’s that for alliteration?) helpfully put together some audio notes on the program, which you can hear here:

David Lang, Little Eye: http://homepage.mac.com/mccurdymike/Sites/mantra/lang.mp3
Eric Km Clark, Deprivation Music #7: http://homepage.mac.com/mccurdymike/Sites/mantra/clark.mp3
Aaron Siegel, Our Reluctance is Overstated: http://homepage.mac.com/mccurdymike/Sites/mantra/siegel.mp3

Enjoy!

by Galen H. Brown
Composers, Interviews, New Amsterdam, Performers, Podcasts, viola

My Ears Are Open. This week on the podcast: Nadia Sirota

For those of you keeping track, this week’s episode is the second of three highlighting violists. Last week, Elizabeth Weisser; this week, Nadia Sirota. Nadia has some good advice for musicians: it may sound obvious, but that thing that makes you unique is the thing that makes you special. Not only is this good advice for performers but it’s good for composers to remember as well. The more we can embrace our “craziness”, the more comfortable we can be with ourselves. Musicians on the podcast talk a lot about working and collaborating with composers, but Nadia actually has some suggestions for making these relationships work in mutually respectful ways. Nadia also has a new CD, first things first, which will be released on New Amsterdam Records on Tuesday, May 19 (Steve had a nice pre-release-party-post last week).

Looking ahead, the week of May 31 will feature violist John Pickford Richards, and during the month of June I’ll be talking with pianist Seda Röder and conductor/composer Brad Lubman.

May 31 also happens to be the annual Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City– are there any musicians you would like me to try and track down for an interview? I will also be in Chicago in early June – is there anyone in the second-city I should be in touch with? If you have suggestions please email them to:

podcast@jamesholt.net

And for those of you new to the show, you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes by clicking here, point your blog-readers here, or find it on InstantEncore by clicking here.

by James Holt
Contemporary Classical

Xiayin Wang Premieres Works by Hickey, Danielpour

The brilliant young pianist Xiayin Wang will perform back-to-back world premieres of Sean Hickey’s Cursive and Richard Danielpour’s Enchanted Garden, Preludes Book 11, two new works for piano,  in her performance at Alice Tully Hall Monday night, May 18th at 8 PM. Included in the program are works by Haydn, Chopin, Ravel, Scriabin and Liszt. 

Of Cursive,  Hickey says “The piece begins with a seven-note ostinato in the right hand which serves as a fixed idea throughout the entire work. But the nature of this falling pattern is such that it immediately spawns other related figures. The piece concludes with a flurry of arpeggiation and hand over hand runs, as if this were the denouement of an agitated story, written in a florid prose.”

Danielpour says of Enchanted Garden:  “The “garden” in question refers to the garden of the mind. In [this] second book, the preludes are evocative of memories in real life, which, when recalled, have their own “dreamlike” quality. To the philosopher, the question, “what is reality” will come to mind, while to musicians and music lovers, both our dreams and realities celebrate life.”

Wang’s debut CD on Naxos arrives May 26th and is devoted to the piano works of Alexander Scriabin arcing his early, middle and late period compositions. 

by Jerry Bowles