Sequenza21

The Keys to the Future festival, at Greenwich House’s Renee Weiler Concert Hall, presents 3 consecutive nights of recent solo piano music – each concert features 4 pianists. The fundamental premise of this festival is that the contemporary scene is characterized by unprecedented diversity, and that that is a good thing. On these poly-stylistic programs, sometimes the only thing that two given pieces on one of our programs have in common is that they are notated and contemporary. I prefer this to a concert of works all in the same style – when a post-minimalist work follows an atonal modernist work on the same program, they tend to highlight characteristics in each other in interesting and unexpected ways. Audiences have really responded to this aspect of the shows.

On Evening 2, Amy Briggs Dissanayake, David Friend (winner of our first young artists competition), Stephen Gosling and I will play works of Chester Biscardi, Hans Otte, David Rakowski, Martin Kennedy, Charles Wuorinen, William Bolcom, John Musto, Elena Kats-Chernin, John Halle and Derek Bermel. Now a few words about a couple of the pieces.

Pianist Amy Briggs Dissanayake has become the leading new music pianist in Chicago, and is a great performer and protégé of Ursula Oppens. On the first half of Wednesday’s concert, she will play four etudes of David Rakowski. She has recorded two CDs of them, and is about to do a third. Two of them marry jazz styles (stride piano in “Strident” and bop in “Bop it”) to harmonies that sound post-Schoenbergian. One of them (“Plucking A”) has Amy doing all kinds of things inside the piano – in addition to occasional notes played normally on the keys, it exploits, in an eerily beautiful way, harmonics, plucked strings, and stopped (or muted) tones, in which one hand damps the strings near the pins while the other strikes the keys. The fourth Etude (“Martler”) is about hand crossings, and makes a stunning musical and visual effect on stage.

On the second half, Amy will close the concert with five contemporary ragtime pieces by Bolcom, Musto, Kats-Chernin, Halle and Bermel. All five of these talented composers take the basic ragtime concept in five different directions. Derek Bermel’s “Carnaval Noir” is summarized by the composer as “Ragtime meets South American street fair.” This set will be a lot of fun, and will cap a very diverse program – Otte’s piece combines minimalism with improvisatory elements, Charles Wuorinen’s “Bagatelle” is quiet and haunting, and the rest…well, hopefully you will see and hear for yourself. For more detailed info, please check our website www.keystothefuture.org. Hope to see you at the shows! Please look for some notes on Evening 3’s program in a day or two…

Joseph Rubenstein
Artistic Director, Keys to the Future

The Keys to the Future festival, at Greenwich House’s Renee Weiler Concert Hall, presents 3 consecutive nights of recent solo piano music – each concert has 4 pianists. The fundamental premise of this festival is that the contemporary scene is characterized by unprecedented diversity, and that that is a good thing. Each of the 3 evenings presents some strange juxtapositions of styles – sometimes the only thing that two pieces on one of our programs have in common is that they are notated and contemporary. I prefer this to a concert of works all in the same style – when a post-minimalist work follows an atonal modernist work on the same program, they tend to highlight characteristics in each other in interesting and unexpected ways. Audiences have really responded to this aspect of the shows.

A few words about a couple of the pieces. On Evening 1, Marina Lomazov, Blair McMillen, Tatjana Rankovich and I will play works of Louis Andriessen, Poul Ruders, Joan Tower, John Fitz Rogers, Joseph Rubenstein and Henry Martin. Andriessen’s “The Memory of Roses” presents a particularly intimate and personal side of the composer’s work. Over the last 4 decades, Andriessen has written short pieces for family and friends, often performed at birthdays. He decided to collect 20 of these pieces, and I will be playing the 7 of these works that are for solo piano. These are very small-scale charming works with all kinds of stylistic influences, from Chopin and Chabrier to Stravinsky and Cage. Speaking of the latter, one of these short works (“Chorale”) was written and completed the day John Cage died and is a moving tribute. There is another piece that can be played on music box or piano (I’ll play it on piano), that uses exclusively the highest register of the piano, to beautiful effect.

Closing Evening 1, the phenomenal virtuoso and new music champion Tatjana Rankovich will play 4 Preludes and Fugues by Henry Martin. Henry has composed Preludes and Fugues in each key – obviously, they look back to Bach but they are also firmly rooted in the present – particularly the Preludes, but even the Fugues manage to sound contemporary. (This is not easy to do.) There isn’t any way to pigeonhole these pieces – neo-Baroque and neo-Romantic both apply to some extent, but none capture the totality of the music. The final Prelude and Fugue, in one movement and subtitled “A Slow Drag,” is a technical tour de force and a lot of fun – it closes Opening Night of our little festival down at Greeenwich House.

The Rogers “Variations” is a monumental neo-Romantic work of ‘face-melting’ virtuosity – Marina plays the hell out of it. Tower’s “Throbbing Still” is aggressive and viscerally powerful, and Blair plays the hell out of it. The Ruders has minimalist and jazz influences. My “Romance No. 2 (aurora)” is a flowing, hybrid work in which I express my love for the instrument. For more info, please check our website www.keystothefuture.org. Hope to see you at the shows! I’ll write some more notes tomorrow about Evening 2.

Joseph Rubenstein
Artistic Director, Keys to the Future

Nadia Boulanger

Mademoiselle

A film by Bruno Monsaingeon

Ideale Audience (www.ideale-audience.com)

Mademoiselle, the DVD release of Bruno Monsaingeon’s 1977 film about renowned pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, is a fascinating document. It includes footage of Boulanger from the 1970s, still teaching as she neared ninety years of age. Her exacting standards, detailed criticism, and keen analytical mind are all on display.

Igor Markevitch and Leonard Bernstein are interviewed, discussing Boulanger’s impact on 20th century music. Markevitch shares his formative experiences as a student of Boulanger. Bernstein recounts Boulanger’s criticisms of one of his songs, including a suggestion that he had included “the wrong note.” Although he had never previously studied with Boulanger, the then 58 year-old felt as if he was “back in school” and receiving a composition lesson!

Most fascinating are Monsaingeon’s conversations with Boulanger. Her steadfast devotion to teaching is an inspiration. Any composer or educator who needs an antidote to their creative malaise or writer’s block should listen to what she has to say about the restorative and ineffable power of music.

The Columbus Symphony Orchestra (OH) is in dire straits. It is possible the orchestra could fold in the very near future. The problems are financial and organizational, and management and labor are not seeing eye-to-eye at all. According to principal clarinetist, and Sequenza21 friend, David Thomas, the press coverage has been terribly one-sided, and the musicians’ point of view is not getting out. Here’s a website where you can show your support, and here’s another where news is always coming in. David has kindly forwarded me his version of events, and I am posting it in the comments section.

Growing up in central Ohio, I have some important musical memories because of the CSO: hearing Respighi for the first time, taking lessons from their second-chair clarinetist, and, more recently, having had a terrific performance led by Peter Stafford Wilson, their assistant conductor. Central Ohio without the CSO is hard for me to imagine, but all too easy, one supposes, for most people who live there.

I am all about my music, and my music is all about me… It flows from what I’ve been through, what I’ve seen and how I feel. I live in New York and am on top of the world. Been here since 2004 and I love this city, I love my life here. But, my path has not been easy.   – Ashley Alexandra Dupre

For the prurient minded.

Anybody up for seeing, and reviewing the New York debut of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project on April 1st at the 10th Annual MATA Festival? They’re doing Lisa Bielawa’s Double Violin Concerto, On a Sufficient Condition for the Existence of Most Specific Hypothesis by Ken Ueno (throat singer), The Conscious Sleepwalker Loops by Alejandro Rutty, MATA’s first orchestral commission, and Clades by Derek Hurst

I can get you a pair.

Remember how you bought a bunch of Yahoo! stock at $13 per share when they went public in April of 1996, and how by January of 2000 those shares peaked at $475 per share, making you fabulously wealthy, which is why you now have so much time to spend reading our humble little website?  Wait, you didn’t do that?  Yeah, me neither.  It’s hard to get in on the ground floor of a good thing, which is part of why I’m excited to have lucked into discovering the Matrix Music Collaborators.  In truth, I went to their March 1st concert at the Tenri institute  more out of professional obligation than anything else, but what I found there was a dynamite group of young musicians who are muscling their way into the New York music scene with surprising speed.  The March 1st concert was the first of a three concert mini-series, and I also went to the third concert, on March 6th at the Nabi Gallery.  Here’s what I found.

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Dear Sequenza21 folks,

I enjoy your site immensely.  It is really a wealth of information and opinions – a kind of lively gathering of the diverse personalities that inhabit contemporary music.

I am a musicology grad student and I am working on a project this semester about classical music on the internet – the way new technologies affect how the music is disseminated, received, perceived, etc. – and the ways new and changing audiences are interacting with the music.

I am not sure who responds to emails at this address, but I was wondering if anyone could answer a few questions for me.

Basically, I was interested to find out a little bit about the history of Sequenza21 – how it came together and its stages of development.

Also, I would love to hear any thoughts about the place of a site like Sequenza21 in the world of contemporary classical music:  What is the significance of the kind of community it fosters?
Does it help to reach new audiences – is it an effective means of promotion – or does its main value lie elsewhere?

Does it have some role in altering the perception of contemporary classical music in contemporary society?

…or any other thoughts.

I am sure everyone involved with the site is extremely busy.  Please do not feel pressured to reply if you simply do not have the time.  I would, however, truly appreciate any information and thoughts you could offer.

Many Thanks,
Will Boone

JB Note:  So, what do we think?