Month: September 2011

Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York, Percussion, S21 Concert

Laurie San Martin on Linea Negra

Laurie San Martin

Laurie San Martin teaches at UC Davis. She’s one of our featured composers on the fast approaching Sequenza 21/MNMP Concert (October 25 at Joe’s Pub). In the guest post below, she talks about her work Linea Negra, which will be performed on the program.

Linea Negra

The faint, dark, vertical line that appears on a very pregnant woman’s belly in the weeks before she bursts is called the linea negra.  So it seemed like a fitting title for the solo marimba piece that I was writing during the final weeks of my first pregnancy in the summer of 2004. Real-life deadlines work in my favor as a composer. That is to say, the countdown leading up to a big life change is an intensely productive time for me. Linea Negra is a piece I always associate with that particular time in my life. When most mothers would have been preparing the baby’s room or redecorating the house, I was making deals with my daughter while she was still in the womb. “How about you wait a few more days to come out and I can finish this piece.  Really, it’ll be much better that way.” She arrived a few days late, so I was able to finish the piece on time; I have the greatest daughter one could ask for (and the piece isn’t bad, either).

I compose from left to right. That is to say, I start at the beginning and pretty much write the musical events in the order that they happen. It probably comes as no surprise then that my music is very linear.  Linea Negra is just under five minutes in length, with an ABA structure. The outer sections are a fast and repetitive moto perpetuo while the middle section is slow and lyrical. The piece is quite virtuosic–the marimba player is asked to play very fast runs, leaps, and chords; audience members often describe the piece as “acrobatic.”

Linea Negra is written for percussionist Chris Froh, who premiered the piece in October, 2004 at the American Academy in Rome. Chris is an exhilarating performer, and I was very lucky to be able to work with him while writing the piece. Hearing the work in progress influenced the direction of the piece and helped me iron out some of the technical difficulties, and clarify the musical gestures.  Working with a musician of Chris’s dedication and commitment is such a privilege for a composer, not to mention, inspiring and rewarding.

by Christian Carey
Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, New York, Opera

Life Is Hectic; Missy Mazzoli Keeps Me Interested.

[Ed. note: Please welcome one of our newest S21 shipmates, violinist/ composer Cornelius Dufallo. The New York Times‘ Steve Smith writes “As a violinist and a composer in the string quartet Ethel and the collective ensemble Ne(x)tworks, Cornelius Dufallo has made substantial contributions to New York’s burgeoning new-music scene.” I couldn’t agree more, and look forward to his contributions to come. So take it away, Neil!]

Missy Mazzoli

Life in ETHEL is frantic these days. In the midst of meetings, emails, conference calls, and intense rehearsals, I sometimes (sadly) lose touch with the sense of wonder that originally drew me to a life in contemporary music. Missy Mazzoli is one composer whose music always brings me back to a fundamental excitement about what I do. I have been working with Missy on her solo violin piece, Dissolve, O my Heart, which I will be performing at Bargemusic on October 5th (8PM) as part of my ongoing Journaling series.

Originally written for Jennifer Koh, the piece is essentially Missy’s emotional reaction to J. S. Bach’s D minor Chaconne (one of the great masterworks of the solo violin literature). She starts the piece with the same iconic d minor triad, in which, she explains,  the listener immediately “acknowledges the inevitable failure of the assignment.” Missy is referring to the impossibility of achieving the structural perfection of Bach’s work, and how, from her perspective, the only way to create her  own piece was to embrace it as a “failed Chaconne.” It’s a gorgeous failure, if you ask me. The version that I will be performing in October includes live electronics (three different kinds of digital delay), which Missy and I have been developing together.

Abigail Fischer in "Songs from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt" (photo by Lindsay Beyerstein)

One of Missy’s massive new projects is to create three operas, each one about “a fascinating female character from the 20th or 21st century.” Part one of this trilogy, Song From The Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt, is sure to be spellbinding. The libretto, co-written by Royce Vavrek and Missy, is based on the journals of Isabelle Eberhardt, and depicts more than a dozen scenes from Eberhardt’s life. The opera begins at the moment of Eberhardt’s death, and continues as a series of flashbacks.

Eberhardt, who was a Swiss writer and explorer of the early 20th century, has been alternately idolized and shunned as a symbol of female liberation. Missy points to Eberhardt’s relentless search for personal freedom and independence, her complicated love life, and her gender ambiguity (as a cross-dressing female artist) as themes that continue to be relevant to women today. Another interesting through-line of the opera is how Eberhardt navigates the conflict between Eastern and Western cultures. Eberhardt moved to North Africa and converted to Islam when she was a young woman. “She fought in street battles in Algiers against the French,” Missy explains, “but she was also working for the French as a journalist, so she was caught between these two worlds.”

The opera, directed by Gia Forakis, has already been workshopped at Galapagos in Brooklyn, New York City Opera’s VOX, and Bard College, and will be premiered at The Kitchen on February 24, 25, and March 1-3. Performers include singer Abigail Fischer and NOW ensemble; with films by Stephen Taylor.

Missy has some other exciting projects coming up, including two new pieces – one for the Albany Symphony, and one for cellist Maya Beiser. Her all-star band Victoire (Olivia De Prato, violin; Eileen Mack, clarinet; Lorna Krier, keayboards; Elenore Oppenheim, bass; and Missy on keyboards), whose CD Cathedral City was one of NPR’s top ten classical albums of 2010, will be performing at the Bell House in Gowanus on October 17. Not to be missed!

This post was also published in Urban Modes

by Cornelius Dufallo
Brooklyn, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, jazz

Joel Harrison premiere at the new Roulette

The newly revived Roulette (on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn) is the site for a premiere this coming Friday (details here). Guitarist-composer Joel Harrison’s Still Point – Turning World (a veiled reference to a line in “Burnt Norton,” one T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets) is a polyglot work for diverse forces. In addition to Harrison’s jazz quartet, it also features the Talujon Percussion Quartet, and Anupam Shobhakar, who plays the sarode, an Indian stringed instrument.

Still Point… requires its performers to be in a flexible collaboration, reveling in polystylism. “Crossover” is a term that’s overused and sometimes misused these days. All too often the results of less cohesive collaborations find the musicians from multiple styles working at crossed purposes or, worse, musicians from different traditions uneasily try on each others’ chops for size.

One doesn’t get this sense from Harrison’s creative activities. Instead he seeks likeminded musicians who are interested in creating a sophisticated synthesis of different genres, based on mutual support, respect, and plenty of listening to one another.

He says, “I’m willing to bet that in ten years time, many more musicians will be comfortable playing both jazz and classical, and performing music from many traditions.”

Harrison’s ensembles aim to be pathfinders in this regard. Come to Roulette on Friday and witness these musical frontiersmen!

by Christian Carey
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York, S21 Concert

Christina Jensen writes a great press release…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact: Christina Jensen PR
646.536.7864 | christina@christinajensenpr.com

 

ACME: American Contemporary Music Ensemble

The Sequenza21 Concert 

presented by S21 & Manhattan New Music Project

 

Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 7pm
Joe’s Pub | 425 Lafayette Street | NYC
Tickets: FREE. Reserve tickets & tables at 212.539.8778 or www.joespub.com.

ACME: www.acmemusic.org
Sequenza21: www.Sequenza21.com 
MNMP: www.mnmp.org  

 

New York, NY – ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble) will perform a free concert at Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette St., NYC) on Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 7pm presented by online contemporary classical community Sequenza21.com and theManhattan New Music Project. The works to be performed were selected through an open call for scores by ACME artistic director Clarice Jensen, composer and Sequenza21 senior editor Christian Carey, and composer Hayes Biggs.

 

The concert includes James Stephenson’s Oracle Night (UK); Robert Thomas’ Sixteen Lines (NJ), Jay Batzner’s Slumber Music (MI), Rob Deemer’s Grand Dragon (NY), Sam Nichols’ Refuge (CA), David Smooke’s Requests (MD), Dale Trumbore’s How it Will Go (CA), Laurie San Martin’s Linea Negra (CA), and James Holt’s Nostos Algea (NY). In addition, Christian Carey has contributed an opening work called Wily Overture (the Looney Toons/ACME reference is deliberate) and Hayes Biggs has contributed a closing work.

 

ACME players for October 25 include Caroline Shaw, violin; Nadia Sirota, viola; Clarice Jensen, cello; Timo Andres, piano; and Jonathan Singer, percussion.

 

About the Presenters: Sequenza21 contains commentary, reviews, features, a concert calendar, and composers’ forum, and is both a resource and meeting place for performers, composers, and listeners. In 2005, ASCAP awarded Sequenza21 its prestigious Deems Taylor Award.

Manhattan New Music Project (MNMP) seeks to cross traditional musical boundaries and catalyze imaginative projects involving the creation of new work through performances, collaborations and educational activities. Our arts-in-education programs emphasize skills-based, hands-on learning and are custom designed to engage students and educators in the creative process.

 

About the Composers:

 

Jay C. Batzner is a composer, sci-fi geek, home brewer, burgeoning seamster, and juggler on the faculty of Central Michigan University, where he teaches music technology and electronic music courses. (www.jaybatzner.com)

 

Hayes Biggs, born in Huntsville, Alabama and raised in Helena, Arkansas, has taught at Manhattan School of Music since 1992. This season his Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs, composed for soprano Susan Narucki and pianist Christopher Oldfather, and Three Hymn Tune Preludes, commissioned by organist Gail Archer, will receive their first performances. (www.hayesbiggs.com)

 

Composer Christian Carey is Senior Editor at Sequenza 21 and an Assistant Professor of Music at Rider University. The New York New Music Ensemble, Cassatt String Quartet, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Locrian Chamber Players, and others have performed his music. He blogs regularly at File Under ? (www.sequenza21.com/carey)

 

Rob Deemer, a composer and conductor, is head of music composition at SUNY Fredonia, a member of the composition faculty at Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, and is the composer-in-residence with the Buffalo Chamber Players. He writes frequently about new music for Sequenza21 and NewMusicBox. (www.robdeemer.com)

 

James Holt is a composer, podcaster, and arts administrator. His music has been performed across the country and internationally including recent performances in New York, Boston, St. Paul and San Francisco. Holt is originally from Seattle and now lives and works in New York City.  (www.myearsareopen.net)

 

Laurie San Martin’s compositions combine her classically trained background with the sounds of today in music for acoustic chamber ensembles and orchestra. She has also enjoyed writing for video, dance and theater. She is currently working with soprano/actor Haleh Abghari on a theatrical work setting Farrid ud-Din Attar’s Conference of the Birds. (www.lauriesanmartin.com)

 

Sam Nichols is a composer; he teaches composition, music theory, and electronic music at UC Davis. He lives with his wife, the composer Laurie San Martin, and their two daughters in Woodland, CA. (www.samnichols.net)

 

Composer David Smooke (b. 1969) currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland, where he teaches music theory, rock music history and composition, and chairs the department of music theory at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. In addition to his composition activities, Smooke founded and co-curates League of the Unsound Sound (LotUS), performs improvisations on toy piano, and writes a weekly column for NewMusicBox, the online magazine of the American Music Center. (www.davidsmooke.com)

 

British composer James Stephenson (b.1981) studied at the University of York (BA, MA) and University of Manchester (PhD Composition, with Philip Grange and John Casken). His compositions have been performed across the UK and Western Europe, but never previously in America. Stephenson is also an active conductor, improviser and educator, and directs contemporary music ensemble Chiasmus. (www.jamesstephenson.org.uk)

 

Robert E. Thomas teaches music at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. His music has been presented around the country, including performances at the June In Buffalo and MusicX festivals and at the Conductor’s Institute at Bard. (http://retmusic.com)

 

An active composer on both coasts, Dale Trumbore has won numerous awards for her compositions. The Kronos Quartet premiered her string quartet as part of their residency at the University of Maryland in 2009. Trumbore currently resides in Los Angeles; she recently graduated with her M.M. in Composition from USC. (www.daletrumbore.com)

 

About ACME: Led by artistic director and cellist Clarice Jensen, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, primarily the work of American composers. The ensemble aims to present cutting-edge contemporary literature by living composers alongside the “classics” of the contemporary. Known for their work with the Wordless Music Series as well as indie music icons such as Grizzly Bear, ACME’s dedication to cutting-edge contemporary literature extends across genres, and has earned them a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. Time Out New York calls them “one of New York’s brightest new music indie-bands.” ACME has performed at (Le) Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Tenri Cultural Institute, the Noguchi Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the Flea Theater, and Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, among others.

 

ACME’s instrumentation is flexible, and includes some of New York’s most sought-after, engaging musicians. Current core ACME members include violinists Caleb Burhans, Laura Lutzke, Rob Moose, and Ben Russell, violist Nadia Sirota, cellist and artistic directorClarice Jensen, pianist Timo Andres, and percussionist Chris Thompson.

Since its first New York concert season in 2004, the ensemble has performed works by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Caleb Burhans, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Jacob Druckman, Jefferson Friedman, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Donald Martino, Olivier Messiaen, Nico Muhly, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Arnold Schoenberg, Ryan Streber, Toru Takemitsu, Kevin Volans, Charles Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis, Chen Yi, and more.

 

ACME does not subscribe to one stylistic movement or genre; its concerts present all genres of contemporary music in the same light and with the same conviction. Time Out New York reports, “[Artistic Director Clarice] Jensen has earned a sterling reputation for her fresh, inclusive mix of minimalists, maximalists, eclectics and newcomers.”

ACME has also collaborated with bands and artists including Grizzly Bear (in concert and on their best-selling album, Veckatimest, featuring strings by Nico Muhly); electronica duo Matmos (on The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast, with strings by Jefferson Friedman); Craig Wedren (former frontman of the avant-rock band Shudder To Think); prepared-pianist Hauschka; composers/performers Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, and Dustin O’Halloran, and Micachu & The Shapes.

 

Other recent highlights include ACME’s Carnegie Hall debut performing the world premiere of Timo Andres’ Senior with the New York Youth Symphony in Stern Auditorium; opening the TriBeCa New Music Festival at the Flea Theater performing works by young American composers Jefferson Friedman, Caleb Burhans, Ryan Streber and Nico Muhly; and a month-long residency at the Whitney Museum presented by the Wordless Music Series, for which ACME tailored a contemporary classical program to complement the indie-rock or electronica performer sharing the concert.

In addition to a January tour with chart-topping pianist Simone Dinnerstein, 2010 concert highlights included a performance of Gorecki’s String Quartet No. 2 opening for Polish electroacoustic musician Jacaszek; a concert of music by John Luther Adams and Kevin Volans; and a performance of the music of Louis Andriessen, all at (Le) Poisson Rouge. In spring 2011, ACME performed with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Nico Muhly’s new work Tell the Way in February; at The Kitchen during April’s 21c Liederabend produced in collaboration by Beth Morrison Projects, Opera On Tap, and VisionIntoArt; and as part of the MATA Festival in May.

 

ACME has planned an exciting and ambitious season in 2011-2012. The season opened in September, with performances presented by the Wordless Music Series in Boston at Jordan Hall and at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, opening two sold-out concerts by American rock singer and guitarist Jeff Mangum with performances of Gavin Bryars’ Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet and music by Erik Satie. In October, ACME performs works by American composers John Luther Adams, Jacob Druckman and Alex Freeman in Columbia, South Carolina at the University of South Carolina. In March 2012 presented by Stanford Lively Arts, ACME will give the world premiere of a new work commissioned from Ingram Marshall for ACME with acclaimed male a cappella group Lionheart, paired with Phil Kline’s beloved John the Revelator. That same month, ACME will also perform The Music of Phil Kline with legendary and Grammy-nominated vocalist Theo Bleckmann, an evening of new songs and chamber music composed by Kline as well as selections from past favorites Zippo Songs, John the Revelator, and Fear and Loathing at The Flynn Performing Arts Center in Burlington, VT.

ACME was founded in 2004 by cellist Clarice Jensen, conductor Donato Cabrera, and publicist Christina Jensen. The ensemble is managed exclusively by Bernstein Artists, Inc.

# # #

 

by Christian Carey
Contemporary Classical

Sometimes a Great Notion

Among the many interesting composers, groups and musicians who “syndicate” (a fancy way of saying “republish”) their blogs through Chamber Musician Today is the estimable eighth blackbird who are currently on tour in Australia.  Through the miracle of RSS, their latest post poured in earlier this evening and it contained some thoughts that seemed worth sharing with the keen minds who frequent this URL.   Written by cellist Nicholas Photinos, the post is titled Should Hard Music Sound Hard?  It was occasioned by Nicholas on a night off having heard Alban Gerhardt playing the tricky Shostakovich first cello concerto with the Tasmanian Symphony in Melbourne.  He writes:

Old Shosti has plenty of ground to cover and places to show off, culminating in a ginormous cadenza spanning the second to third movement, which he nailed. To the wall.

And yet…standing ovation? No. A healthy applause, certainly, but no O, and barely even a hoot. Why? After it was done, I turned to Tim, who said tellingly: “I dunno, maybe the piece was too easy for him?”

It sure sounded that way—he seemed impatient, always a hair ahead of the orchestra, executing difficult passagework with barely a modicum of effort, always looking towards the next hurdle to jump. Some of the fast bits in the cadenza were faster than I’d ever heard them, and he barely seemed to be breaking a sweat. I noticed myself tuning out a little, and then asking myself why. Did it all sound too easy? Or is it that hard music sound hard?

Ok, so now here’s the money graph that requires some response:

Musically, we’re already living in a world of wonders, in that I can’t imagine any other time in history where so many people have had such a mastery of any instrument you can think of. Or, if you allow me to have a cello geek-out moment, we’re living in a time where Pablo Casals, still considered the best cellist who ever lived ever by many, would have struggled to get into an undergraduate conservatory (sorry Master P–you’re musical but too out of tune) and Prokofiev Symphony Concertante is the new Dvorak (ie 10ths are the new octaves). Even the Shostakovich concerto used to seem hard, but is now routinely learned by high school kids, and younger.

I think Nicholas has nailed it. What do you folks think?

by Jerry Bowles
Contemporary Classical

Corigliano al dente

Speaking of the very busy, very approachable John Corigliano,  Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic are finishing up  a month of 9/11 tributes and memorials on September 30 with a performance of  John Corigliano’s One Sweet Morning, a  four movement song cycle each set to a poem from a different age and country, sung by mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe. The first is Czeslaw Milosz’s “A Song on the End of the World,” written in Warsaw in 1944; though tranquil in feel, there is a hint of “chaos to come,” says the composer. A section of Homer’s Iliad provides the words for the brutal second movement: a description of a massacre led by the Greek prince, Patroclus. The 8th century Chinese poet, Li Po’s “War South of the Great Wall” seems coolly removed from the battle, until we realize that the narrator’s husband and sons are fighting on the field. “Her anguish, and the battle that is its cause, surge in an orchestral interlude,” explains Corigliano. “‘One Sweet Morning’ ends the composition with the dream of a world without war—an impossible dream, perhaps, but certainly one worth dreaming.” Best known as the lyricist ofT he Wizard of Oz and Finian’s Rainbow, E. Y. (“Yip”) Harburg’s poem evokes a beautiful time when “the rose will rise…spring will bloom…peace will come….one sweet morning.”    Also, on the September 30-October 4 program is Barber’s Essay No. 1 and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7.  (I am much indebted to Jeremy Beck for sorting out my confusion about another, earlier piece of Corigliano’s with the same name and inspiration.)

I have a couple of pairs of tickets to the September 30 performance which could be yours.  All you need do is leave a comment below about your favorite Corigliano piece and why.  Next Tuesday, I’ll put the names in a hat, shake it a couple of times, and pick a couple of winners.  I have a favorite but I’m not saying until the rest of you do.

by Jerry Bowles
Concerts, Piano

My Wounded Head at the Stone

I’m excited to share a piece of music that is very close to my heart: Marc Chan’s My Wounded Head cycle, the third installment of which will be performed this Sunday at The Stone.

The title comes from a set of five chorales from Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion, “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden” (“O Sacred Head Now Wounded”). These chorales have become an obsession for Marc, and each station of his cycle forges a new “road trip” through the notes, patiently spinning them out into strange and beautiful patterns. Number 3, for solo piano, pushes this patience into sublime territory — each bar is repeated ad libitum, with the premiere clocking in around 1:20 — but the rhythms mesmerize, and you may even feel it not long enough.

Pianist Rob Haskins, to whom the piece is dedicated, has deep roots in both Cage and, through the harpsichord, Bach, which goes a long way to explain the — I can only say understanding — that pervades his performance of this music.

Also on the program: Chan’s arrangement of Cage’s In A Landscape for piano, guitar and saxophone.

Sunday, September 25
8pm: Margaret Leng Tan plays John Cage: Four Walls
10pm: In a Landscape, My Wounded Head 3
The Stone

by Elliot Cole
Contemporary Classical

Joe Gramley’s “Made in America”

Joseph Gramley

After a long summer, students have returned to the University of Michigan. With all the excitement surrounding a new year of school, I found myself most eager to resume my role as an audience member at the School of Music, Theater and Dance’s perennially fantastic concert and recital offerings. The season opened up in a big way last Friday evening when Joseph Gramley – Michigan’s beloved, charismatic and preeminent Professor and Coordinator of Percussion – graced the stage of the Moore Building’s McIntosh Theater with a program this concertgoer is not soon to forget.

The evening’s theme, “Made in America”, was designed to highlight the contributions of American composers the percussion repertory. First in the lineup was Meditation Preludes (1970) by William Duckworth, a friend of Steve Reich’s and pioneer of post-minimalist music. One of my favorite things about Mr. Gramley’s recitals is his preference for oral program notes, which note only reveal the thought process behind his decision to perform a given work but also offer many interesting facts about the music and its composer. The most relevant ‘tidbit’ for Meditation Preludes is the work’s use of bitonality, which Duckworth drew from Darius Milhaud’s piano work, Saudades do Brasil. The tonal areas are divided instrumentally between a set of tuned almglocken and marimba, creating harmonic and timbral tension between Duckworth’s opposing sets of musical materials. Unity is the ultimate goal of the piece, which – after ponderously exploring the conflicting harmonic areas – weds them together in a more upbeat, more melodically expansive concluding section.

Two premiere performances followed Meditation Preludes, with one work by Mr. Gramley’s friend Kojiro Umezaki and the other by esteemed University of Michigan Assistant Professor of Composition (and Mr. Gramley’s friend, too) Kristin Kuster. Ms. Kuster also performed the piano part to her new work Sweet Poison (2011), which was a musical illustration of how her knee ‘sounded’ when she was stung by a stingray in Mexico a few years ago. The piece reflects Ms. Kuster’s inspiration with extreme clarity by means of a dissonant, biting ostinato figure in the piano that first appears in the highest register of the instrument and then – in the final stages of the piece – spreads to cover a much wider range. Interrupting the ostinato’s growth is a beautiful interplay of instrumental colors, which, despite the presence of melodies and harmonies, all felt very percussive in character. Mr. Gramley alternates between vibraphone and unpitched instruments including drums and a woodblock, while booming low notes in the piano part ring out like a church bell combined with a tam-tam. It is only when previously opposing material merges that we hear the ostinato – just like the stringray poison coursing through Ms. Kuster’s leg – come back and take over the piano part and, ultimately, the final bit of  music.

(more…)

by Garrett Schumann
Composers, Contemporary Classical, Festivals

Ahh, Carlsbad Time Again

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/29161015[/vimeo]

About to turn the ripe old age of 8, Matt McBane‘s crazy idea of a 20-something composer/performer creating an annual new-music festival  in a bump in the road north of San Diego has not only survived but thrived. Something about a last late-summer outing, to an idyllic village parked right at a Pacific beach, seems to consistently draw a crowd from both Los Angeles to the north and San Diego to the south for this three-day affair. And, well, maybe it’s just a little about the music, too… Excellent string quartets, pianists and ensembles mix it up with rock bands, ethnic groups, open-air jams and units that fit into all and none of the above. Given that Matt’s main going concern is the genre-melding group BUILD, all this variety turns out to share threads of the same impulse: “Mr. Classical-Gorbachev, tear down this wall!!”

This year marks the biggest change to date: for the first time the entire Festival will be held completely in the Village of Carlsbad. As Matt tells it, this

means we can present a broader array of music than in the past: from the thoroughly modern classical music of the Calder Quartet and pianist Vicky Chow, to the chamber-music inflected indie-rock of My Brightest Diamond, to the genre-crossing music of Build, Florent Ghys, Lukas Ligeti, Sarah Kirkland Snider and Shara Worden, to the African electronica of Burkina Electric, to the site-specific installations of Red Fish Blue Fish and Terry Riley’s In C. Yet, while the scope of the music presented has expanded, the Festival maintains its traditions that I have found most appealing: the hand-picked artists, the tradition of musicians from different groups collaborating, the Composers-in-Residence (5 this year!), and the commissioning and presenting of new works.

Speaking of composers and commissioning, The video at the top of this story shows this year’s Composers Competition winner, Jacob Cooper. His Big Black Bottom Kind will be part of the grand-finale concert given by the Calder Quartet, which also includes quartets by Thomas Adès and Jacob TV.

Matt, you have a few more words?…

In addition to its hand-picked programming, a big part of the Festival every year is the interaction with the community. Prior to the festival weekend, many of the festival musicians give always-hugely-popular performance-demonstrations for music students in the Carlsbad middle and high schools. This year with the Festival’s new format there will also be many free events open to everyone including the Music Walk and the Picnic Concerts, and there will be many performances by musicians from the community around the Village throughout the weekend.

It all kicks off this Friday, September 23, running through Sunday, and everything you need to know about the who’s, what’s and where’s can be found here.

by Steve Layton
Chamber Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Houston, Interviews

In conversation with John Corigliano

John Corigliano (photo by J. Henry Fair)
Houston’s Musiqa opens its season with the Houston premiere of composer John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man for amplified soprano and chamber ensemble and texts by one of the most influential lyricists of all time, Bob Dylan. Karol Bennett is the soprano, and Robert Franz conducts. The concert also includes a performance of John Harbison’s Songs America Loves To Sing and a reading by Justin Cronin, the award-winning author of The Passage. Musiqa’s five member Artistic Board will also premiere a series of Musiqa Minatures in celebration of its 10th anniversary season.

The lyrics Corigliano chose for this song cycle, including Mr. Tambourine Man, Blowin’ in the Wind, Masters of War, All Along the Watchtower and Forever Young, are as timely today as they were when Dylan originally wrote them in the 60’s. “I felt the most important thing Bob Dylan did in the 60’s was raise political awareness of the situations around his time,” says Corigliano. “His time is not that dissimilar to our time.”

In an exclusive interview with Musiqa’s Chris Becker, Corigliano discusses the poetry of Bob Dylan, the challenges of composing for the voice, and the current state of music education.

Chris Becker: Have you had listeners come up to you, say people in their 20’s or students, and ask you about Bob Dylan? Do younger audiences know who Bob Dylan is?

John Corigliano: I think everybody knows who Bob Dylan is, 20 year olds too. Last season he was playing on the Grammys and he’s got new stuff coming out all the time. He’s an active artist as well as one who existed in the 60’s.

Chris Becker: Have you heard anything from Dylan himself about the piece?

John Corigliano: No, not a word. I sent him the CD when it came out, the orchestral vocal performance on Naxos. But I didn’t expect to hear anything for several reasons. He’s such a superstar this would probably be insignificant to him. I think he thinks that classical music is elitist music so he might not respond well and certainly he would probably have a response (like): “He’s setting it all wrong! That’s not the way it goes!”

Chris Becker: I wonder about that. I think it would be very intriguing to get a reaction from him at some point. I asked the first question I guess in part because I’d read that when you grew up when Dylan was first making the rounds…you weren’t really listening to his music? You were listening to other kinds of music.

John Corigliano: That’s correct. I wasn’t interested in folk music that basically dealt three or four chords and a melody that stayed the same verse after verse no matter what the words said. I was much more interested in more innovative things like what the Beatles were doing. If was at a coffee house and I heard Bob Dylan, I’d keep talking to my friend in the coffee house and I wouldn’t say: “What’s that?” It wouldn’t have drawn me. I think his words are magnificent, but when I finally did hear the music, I didn’t think it fit the words sometimes because that’s not how folk music goes. It has a single verse even if the mood and the whole tenor of the words change. When I heard the Beatles on the other hand, the orchestrations they do, the harmonies they do, the phrasing – it’s all very unusual stuff. I was much more drawn to that.

Read the entire interview here.

Special thanks to Jeremy Howard Beck for his help with coordinating this interview

Musiqa Presents: Play a Song For Me, September 24, 2011, 7:30 p.m. at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, Zilkha Hall, 800 Bagby, Houston TX 77002. Individual tickets: $40, $30 and $20. 50% off for students and seniors with ID. Individual tickets and subscriptions are available at the Hobby Center website.

by Chris Becker