Bang on a Can, Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Festivals, New York

Marathon Meets Twitterthon

Yes, it’s that time of year again… The Bang On A Can Marathon is about to take flight once more, this Sunday, May 31 from noon to midnight at the World Financial Center Winter Garden (220 Vesey Street, NYC).  And yes, it’s all FREE.

Knowing we can’t all be every place at once, a band of nine volunteers will all be tweeting their reactions and observations in real time! — @anastasiat, @talkmusic, @sethcolterwalls, @espyem, @ogiovetti , @memilybk, @cryfok, @dotdotdottweet and @elimaniscalco.  To simplify things, you can follow all in one centralized spot (even if you’re not an active twitterer) by checking this link (or searching the tag “bangonacan”). Should be oodles of fun, especially for us folk out in the hinterland.

Acting as kick-off for the larger, citywide River to River Festival, the BOACM packs so much great music and so many great performers that even 12 hours can end up flying by (maybe in a haze, but what a glorious haze!). Why not just quote a bit from their own press release?…

The Marathon features two world premieres commissioned especially for the occasion – one from Oscar winning-pianist, composer, producer and actor Ryuichi Sakamoto and the other from innovative guitarist Bill Frisell. Both works will be performed at the Marathon by the Bang on a Can All-Stars with Sakamoto and Frisell as guest soloists. Sakamoto, who began his career with the synthpop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra, has gone on to release numerous albums with artists as diverse as David Byrne, Iggy Pop, Brian Wilson, Youssou N’Dour, and DJ Spooky, and score films including The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Little Buddha, Wild Palms, Snake Eyes, and Femme Fatale. Bill Frisell has been recognized as one of the world’s leading guitarists since the late 1980s, and his eclectic music touches on jazz, progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more. The Marathon will also feature post-rock band Tortoise, bringing their signature merging of dub, dance, jazz, techno, rock, and classical minimalism to the Winter Garden. Tortoise will perform selections from their upcoming album, Beacons of Ancestorship (Thrill Jockey, June 2009), their sixth full-length album and first release of new material in five years.  (more…)

by Steve Layton
Experimental Music, Music Events, San Francisco

Note to Self: Find that FM Radio

Middle Harbor Shoreline ParkI write that note to myself about four times a year, and I forget every time, and every time I miss out on a key aspect of the Illuminated Corridor – “a collision of public art, music and film” that persistently crops up in different San Francisco Bay Area locations to work its site-specific magic.

On May 30th the Illuminated Corridor will manifest in Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, at 7th Street and Middle Harbor Road in West Oakland. The public is invited to show up between 7:00 and 9:30 p.m. to hear and admire sounds and visuals created by 30 artists inspired by Oakland’s history and habitat.  Organizers recommend early arrival (since park gates close when the parking lot is full) and layers of clothing against the unpredictable Bay breeze.

Oh, and why do I need an FM radio?  Because every Illuminated Corridor features live music especially for the FM airwaves.  On May 30th the name of the station is Port Radio featuring Zachary James Watkins mixing live input from musicians and sound artists Sean Clute, Phog Masheen, Biggi Vinkeloe, and Michael Zelner.

Other featured installations will be The Shallow Tide, by Cheryl E. Leonard and Rebecca Haseltine, in performance with Ann Dentel and Karen Stackpole; and Building 122, by Artists’ Television Access luminaries Gilbert Guerrero and Kathleen Quillian. Alfonso Alvarez, Keith Arnold and Kahlil Karn will team up with Steven Dye, Ian Winters and Evelyn Ficarra to offer Triangulation; and the Killer Banshees have knit together their newest tour-de-force, The Subtidal Goals.

Naturally you have questions!  Get answers to all of them by reading the Illuminated Corridor FAQ, and don’t forget your FM radio.

by Polly Moller
Books, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Exhibitions, Scores

New, Newer, Newest Notations

from Notations 21Last year I mentioned seeing an exhibition here in Houston, “Every Sound You Can Imagine“; a compilation of all kinds of newer musical manuscripts and scores.  Then just yesterday I was reading of a show at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, “Notation, calculation and form in the arts“.  All, of course, continuing the tradition of John Cage’s and Alison Knowles’ seminal 1969 book Notations (available complete online right now as a PDF download).

Which seems all the more reason to mention the long-awaited Notations sequel just released: Notations 21, brought together by Theresa Sauer.  Besides the book, the Notations 21 project has its own website with even more information.  Between all these links you can feast, gawk and marvel at snippets of the highest, subtlest, strangest and most elegant musical and extra-musical explorations of the last 50 years.

by Steve Layton
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