[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb50kHf7Tw0[/youtube] Carles Santos has been a force on the Spanish “downtown” scene (taking musicians like Santos, Llorenç Barber and Maria de Alvear in opposition to the “uptown” likes of Cristobal Halffter, Joan Guinjoan and Tomás Marco) since the early 1970s. This “downtown” movement had a huge impact on Spanish musicians in the 80s, and still carries through to today. Starting as a formidable young pianist who’d breeze through the Second Viennese school, Santos turned his attention to a combination of minimalism and theatrical spectacle (often with himself as protagonist). But aside from his fanfare composed to open the 1992 Barcelona
Read moreOn June 5, 2003, SF Bay Area musician Matthew Sperry was killed by an inattentive driver while riding his bicycle to work. Grieving friends in the Bay Area music community gathered spontaneously at 21 Grand at that time to play together in his memory, and every year since then, there’s been a Festival in honor of Matthew. It’s grown to include national and international artists drawn from Matthew’s wide circle of inspiration and collaboration — Tom Waits, M.C. Schmidt, Johannes Bergmark, Sean Meehan, Ellen Fullman, and many others have contributed to SperryFest in past years. I was first invited to
Read moreMonday last week I headed over to San Antonio to hear a house concert hosted by composer and San Antonio Symphony bassist Doug Balliett. The program included two new pieces by P. Kellach Waddle, “Louange a l’Eternite de Jesus” from Messiaen‘s Quartet for the End of Time, and selections from Balliett’s arrangements and reinventions of Schumann‘s Dichterliebe for ensemble and tape. Balliett also contributed three new songs and arrangements of two by Mendelssohn, sung by Ken-David Masur. It was hot. The audience, which ranged from symphony players to kids and families, made do with hand-fans but, now that I think
Read moreSince Christian Carey’s wonderful post on June in Buffalo sounded so enticing, I figured it was time I see what all the hubbub was about. From getting there just in time to hear the first piece on the afternoon’s concert to eating wings with many of the participants at the Tap Room to thoroughly enjoying the evening concert to literally closing the seemingly popular Tap Room with the Meridian Arts Ensemble…methinks I got a good taste of it. The overall structure of each day during the festival seems to be a lecture by one of the guest faculty, followed by
Read moreIt’s sometimes said that composers are either German or French, and American vanguard one Frederic Rzewski, with his much vaunted admiration for Beethoven, is clearly on the German side. But how could he not be when some of his composition teachers like Dallapiccola and Babbitt forsook a flowing lyric line for a jagged dramatic one, whose aim is not to seduce the ear, but to wow with intellectual rigor? But that doesn’t mean that Rzewski’s work is insincere, or lacks power — it has that in spades — but that it tends to be aimed at the mind and not
Read moreThis week on the podcast, I wrap-up the month of violist interviews with John Pickford Richards. For those of you not sure who John is, he’s best known as the violist in Alarm Will Sound and the JACK Quartet. Our three violists in May posed some important questions, not just for composers, but for performers as well. Beth Weisser asked, “What is the core of what we do?” Nadia Sirota encouraged us to embrace who we are. John Richards asks, “What is the opposite of a cheerleader?” Also, have you ever wondered if John has been hit by a composer?
Read moreGood gravy, how could I have forgotten to post this…Armando Bayolo’s Great Noise Ensemble will be performing their Kennedy Center debut TONIGHT with the Congressional Chorus at 7:30 pm in the Terrace Theatre at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Works featured include the world premiere of Daniel Felsenfeld’s “The First Time I Saw Snow”, and Armando Bayolo’s concerto for violin and orchestra, Musica Concertante, with violinist Jameson Cooper. Sorry for the tardy posting, but if you’ve got time tonight, check ’em out!
Read more[We previewed this concert a couple weeks ago, and were hoping to file a quick review following the performance. Due to unforseen circumstances it’s a few days later than we’d like, but reviewer Eric Johnson came through in the end:] .. .. .. .. Xiayin Wang offered two world premieres on her May 18 recital at Alice Tully Hall. Ms. Wang’s career is on the rise, with a number of orchestral appearances, solo recitals, and her new CD release of music by Scriabin on Naxos. The New York Sun recently praised her for
Read moreNecessity being the mother that it is, it’s always intriguing to find folks within the new music community who see a need and break out the grindstone. Here’s two examples of online entrepreneurs who have created their own niche markets: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quQnNpt6kDE[/youtube] The brainchild of pianists Hugh Sung and SoYoung Lee, the AirTurn wireless page turner removes one of the major difficulties in piano performance – dealing with page turns (Galen mentioned this back in December). They offer a universal wireless device and several choices in pedals as well as a music scanning software that allows for digital annotations on the
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Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Festivals, File Under?, June in Buffalo
Two of the happiest experiences I’ve had as a composer were back to back summers (’98 and ’99) at JUNE IN BUFFALO. Held at SUNY Buffalo in upstate New York, the weeklong festival is a chance for ‘emerging’ composers to hear their music performed by top notch musicians and to have it critiqued by master composers. By the end of the festival, they’re likely to have gotten a good tape of their piece, met performers and new music ‘movers and shakers,’ listened to nigh a hundred hours of contemporary fare, gathered tons of ideas for new works of their own,
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