Our weekly listen and look at living, breathing composers and performers that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer so much good listening online: John Mark Sherlock (b. 1970 — Canada) I first discovered John’s work years ago on the venerable MP3 site Vitaminic. It’s often intimate, long, subtle and irrational; from some other things I’ve heard out of there, I think the breath of Feldman blew out of Buffalo, took a detour around Montréal, and ended up finding a home in Toronto. From an
Read moreWe’re just hours away from the first real-world Sequenza21 concert which begins promptly at 7:30 on Monday night at the Elebash Recital Hall at the CUNY Graduate Center, 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. Admission is absolutely free and there will be wine and cookies. I hope to see you there. We are enormously grateful to the following folks for their financial contributions which have made it possible to actually pay the musicians and put together a program. Concert Sponsors: Bridge Records Metropolis Ensemble Contributors: Activist Music Anonymous Carrie and Yorke Brown Mr. Galen H. Brown Mr. Eric Bruskin Mr. Jeffrey
Read moreAll too often today, appealing menus of new music turn out to be measly meals relying heavily on technical gimmickry, self-serving cliques, bitchiness and cynicism. By contrast the Britten Sinfonia at Lunch project is a nourishing meal whose courses include imaginative commissioning, innovative and open-minded programming, a truly international perspective, and some damn hard work from the musicians.. But don’t take my word for it. Here are the words of clarinettist Joy Farrall (above) as she introduced the Huw Watkins first performance at today’s Britten Sinfonia at Lunch concert – ”It is great to see such a large audience for
Read moreFresh from the lede in a New York Times article this very morning (“provocative star turn”), Corey Dargel is performing tonight at The Tank, 279 Church Street btw Franklin and White in Manhattan. Corey will perform new and unreleased material including “policy-anthems” in alternative tuning systems and a set of songs about the Virgin Mary. Joining Dargel are composer/violinist Jim Altieri and expert videographer Oleg Dubson. Kamala Sankaram and Squeezebox will present bloodletting, an original horror film with live music, depicting (it says here) the tension between artmaking and the daily survival of young working artists. Borrowing from the stylistic sensibilities of
Read moreWhen BMOP (the Boston Modern Orchestra Project), now in its 10th season, says “Project,” that’s exactly what they mean. Everything on their recent (Nov. 3) Jordan Hall concert — some six works by four composers — was slated for commercial recording immediately afterward. This done, the BMOP discography will have rolled up an impressive 20 releases. They’re strong on the “Orchestra” part too. One reward (or even danger) in a program like this one, where everything was so “for” such an ensemble — BMOP’s personnel positively drips with class — — is that a listener could sit back mindlessly, pull
Read moreI know I haven’t contributed much to the intellectual discourse on these pages since the new format of the site went live, but–believe me–it hasn’t been that I’ve lost interest. In one of life’s strange convergences, the reformat of Sequenza21 occurred almost simultaneous with my return from China at which point I have plunged myself into a torrent of freelance writing assignments in order to pay for the 82 CDs and suitcase of books I brought back. I’m only now starting to get unburied. Plus, of course, the NewMusicBox deadlines never go away but that’s the same no matter what
Read moreTania León, a wonderful composer and musician and one of the nicest people in this crazy business of ours, is the featured composer this week at a spectacular new classical music space called the Gatehouse, a beautifully renovated old Romanesque Revival building that once served as a pumping station for water flowing from the Croton Reservoir to the taps of New York City. The new space is operated by Aaron Davis Hall Inc., Harlem’s long time center for the performing arts, which has been re-named Harlem Stage. Of course, the actual Aaron Davis Hall, which is just across the road
Read moreThe moment you’ve all been waiting for has arrived. I refer, of course, to Robert Fripp’s 4-second start-up theme for the Windows Vista operating system. Soon to be the most played musical signature of all time. On the Window Vista blog, Jim Allchin writes that the new intro is “made of dual ascending ‘glassy’ (Edit note: as in Philip Glassy) melodies played on top of a gentle fading Fripp ‘AERO’ Soundscape.” Win-dows Vis-ta…(Click on play under the photo)
Read moreThe demise of Tower Records mean tough times ahead for the independent record labels, so it’s great to welcome an unlikely new label which was launced this month with real fighting talk. The FRED label is the brainchild of Fred Mann. Following the success of his contemporary art gallery, Fred [London] Ltd Mann decided to look at his other great love, Music. The label will work as a sister company to the gallery and, like the gallery, will respond in a close knit and creative way to the recording artists it seeks to nurture and promote. FRED has been set up to record, produce,
Read moreHow about a nice round of applause for Jeff Harrington who blogged all three nights of the Keys to the Future Festival. Bravo, well-done and many thanks for giving me an excuse to focus on more lucrative (hopefully) projects this week and to gloat over certain current events. I refer, of course, to the beginning of the return to sanity of American government and the exciting Rutgers victory over Louisville. When West Virginia knocks off Rutgers on December 2, revenge will be complete. Ten days and counting until the Sequenza21 concert.
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