Tag: Contemporary Classical

Classical Music, Commissions, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Events, Lincoln Center, Music Events, New York, Orchestral, Women composers

NY Philharmonic – Unpacking the Spring 2024 Season for New Music Lovers

A few months ago, I wrote an article that distilled the New York Philharmonic Fall 2023 season into enticing programs for contemporary music lovers. “When you see New York Philharmonic’s glossy brochures and online ads, you might be hard pressed to spot the new music offerings that are in nearly every program. For instance, “Trifonov Plays Schumann” hides the fact that there is a work for strings by the Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnytė, a composition which Gidon Kremer referred to as ‘the calling card of Baltic music.’” Here is my annotation of Philharmonic concerts in Spring 2024 for the tiny

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by Gail Wein
BAM, Classical Music, Composers, Concert review, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, New York, Opera, Strings, viola, Violin, Vocals

“Angel Island” by Huang Ruo at the Prototype Festival

The special sauce that has made Prototype, the annual opera/theater festival, a success for over a decade is a straightforward formula: socially relevant, edgy vocal works that are high on drama. Angel Island, a theatrical work with music by Huang Ruo, fits that description. The speck of land in the middle of San Francisco Bay known as Angel Island served as an immigration port in the first half of the 20th century . Hundreds of thousands of hopeful migrants from Asia were interrogated and detained, some of them for years, in the decades from 1910 to 1940. It’s not a

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by Gail Wein
Classical Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Lincoln Center, Music Events, New York, Orchestral

NY Philharmonic: Unpacking the fall season for new music lovers

When you see New York Philharmonic’s glossy brochures and online ads, you might be hard pressed to spot the new music offerings that are in nearly every program. For instance, “Trifonov Plays Schumann” hides the fact that there is a work for strings by the Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnytė, a composition which Gidon Kremer referred to as “the calling card of Baltic music.” I mentioned this in passing to a staffer at the Philharmonic, and referred to it as a slam on marketing. I immediately regretted uttering that phrase, because it’s not really about that. Marketing managers do what they

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by Gail Wein
Classical Music, Contemporary Classical, Events, Music Events, New York

Where’s the Music? A Guide (New York Edition)

At a TIME:SPANS concert at DiMenna Center this summer, I sat next to a gentleman who asked me, “How do you find out about concerts like this one?” It used to be easy, but…..over the past decade or so we’ve seen the demise of New York Times’ “Guide to the Lively Arts”, Time Out New York‘s extensive performing arts listings, and The New Yorker’s classical and opera Goings On Around Town section decimated to a mere one or two events per issue. I have long wanted to create a classical events calendar for New York City, but my own limited resources

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by Gail Wein
Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, New York, Strings, Violin

TIME:SPANS Hits Calder and other hard surfaces August 12-26, 2023 at Dimenna Center

I don’t know when else you’d have a chance to see expert musicians interact with a sculpture by one of the most iconic American artists of the 20th century.  This rare event, on August 20 at the Dimenna Center in New York, is part of the annual TIME:SPANS festival. In Earle Brown’s Calder Piece the artist’s mobile is an essential part of the piece. The artwork will “conduct” the Talujon Percussion Quartet as its sections sway from their pivot points. And, yes, you will also get to see the instrumentalists “play” the sculpture, though the artist himself initially expected a

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by Gail Wein
CD Review, Chamber Music, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, Rock

Balmorhea – Pendant World on DG (CD Review)

Balmorhea Pendant World Deutsche-Grammophon   In recent years, Deutsche-Grammophon has been releasing crossover albums incorporating the work of pop/electronic artists, particularly those who sit in the post-rock and ambient pockets. Balmorhea, the band name for the trio Rob Lowe, Michael A. Muller, and Aisha Burns are an ideal grouping for this type of project. Their work has long been influenced by classical music and their arrangements are well wrought. In 2021, their first recording for DG, The Wind, made a strong impression. If anything, their latest for the imprint, Pendant World, is even stronger.    Guests artists from the A-list

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by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Timothy Schwarz – The Living American (CD Review)

  Timothy Schwarz The Living American Albany Records   Violinist Timothy Schwarz has commissioned, performed, and recorded a number of pieces by contemporary composers. His latest release on Albany, The Living American, is a collection of recent pieces by American composers.    Schwarz takes a “melting pot” approach to his program. It opens with the solo Fantasy on Lama Badaa yatsana,  written by Stephen Sametz, which explores alternate scales with frequent double-stops and harmonics alongside virtuosic melodic writing. Pianist Charles Abramovic joins Schwarz on a set of pieces by musical theater composer Joseph Goodrich. Indeed, C-minor Jam leans much closer

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by Christian Carey
Contemporary Classical

FOR PHILIP GUSTON: A MEDITATION AND PRACTICE

Would you spend four and a half hours listening to this long piece? Would you enter the concert hall and embark on this unknown auditory journey? BY Di Fang On April 12th at 2 p.m., in the Conrad Prebys Concert Hall at the University of California, San Diego, renowned percussionist Steven Schick, flutist Alexander Ishov, and pianist Liam Wooding performed together to interpret the work of 20th-century American composer Morton Feldman—”For Philip Guston” (1984). The initial experience of a four-and-a-half-hour concert with a slow, continuous pace, led by one of the world’s leading percussion masters, Steven Schick, left the audience

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by Di Fang
Bang on a Can, Brooklyn, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, Music Events, New York

Long Play Festival 2023

In a culture in which we are constantly reinventing ourselves, any event can be the first annual anything. And so it is with Bang on a Can’s Long Play Festival, whose inaugural edition was launched in Spring 2022. The organizers clearly found Long Play to be a success: The 2023 edition is May 5, 6 and 7 with events spread over ten venues in downtown Brooklyn: Pioneer Works, Roulette, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Public Records, Littlefield, BRIC, Mark Morris Dance Center, The Center for Fiction, and Fort Greene Park. Over 50 performances are scheduled; most are accessed via a one-day or

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by Gail Wein