Year: 2011

Contemporary Classical

Free Workspace for 8 NYC-Based Composers

Exploring the Metropolis, an organization that helps  performing artists get workspace, administers  a 3-month musicians’ residency for composers based in NYC.   Composers who are selected receive three months of free workspace at a cultural or community facility and a $1,000 stipend.  This year, the organization is expanding the program to 8 NYC-based composers and four facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

Heading into its third year, the Con Edison Musicians’ Residency: Composition Program serves three constituencies: composers, who get consistent, long-term, private creative space; host cultural facilities, who fill underused space and also present the composer in a public program; and, the community, which  is invited to at least one free program – a master class, an opera-in-progress, etc.   All composers must complete one public program in cooperation with the host facility

If you’re a composer and this sounds like something you’d like to do, you’re invited to apply.  The guidelines and online application are here.

by Jerry Bowles
Contemporary Classical

The Premiere of Bernard Rands’s VINCENT: Operatic Meditations on the Life of An Artist

It is a dangerous business to write new operas, but equally thrilling to produce them. Bernard Rands’s VINCENT, a work exploring the life and art of Vincent van Gogh, was premiered last Friday April 8 and 9 at the Musical Arts Center of Indiana University in Bloomington. Two other performances are scheduled for next April 15 and 16. The production was a major success for the university’s Jacobs School of Music, offering to the world something for which it is uniquely suited. A major center for musical performance and research, the Jacobs school has an unmatched capability for producing and testing new works with very high production values.  Even though the School has not embraced this role in a regular manner, its trajectory has been distinguished by ambitious productions of new works and collegiate premieres. The list includes the famous microtonal operas of MacArthur-award winner John Eaton (Danton and Robespierre, The Cry of Clytemnestra, The Tempest); the collegiate premieres of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, William Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge, and John Adams’s Nixon in China. (I still think that their airplane arrival in the first scene of Nixon is the best ever….). Besides the main stage productions in the Musical Arts Center, the School has presented collegiate premieres of Adams’s opera-oratorio El Niño, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, along with the premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s video-opera ¡Unicamente la verdad!.

The premiere of Vincent represented another kind of breakthrough for the Jacobs School Opera Theater.  Known for the size of its stage and for lavish scenery built in its own workshops, this time the Jacobs School designed a new style of production for Vincent that focused on projections and digital images. After seeing two performances of Vincent with both casts, I had pre-scheduled to go to Chicago to see the last performance at the Harris Theater of Death and the Powers, the well-received opera by Tod Machover. This gave me an opportunity to gain yet another perspective on Vincent. I will not comment on Machover’s wonderful work here, except to say that it also featured original technological components in the form of musical robots and light sculptures expressing aspects of human thought and emotion. Clearly, digital technology is gaining ground as an expected expressive element in opera and other interdisciplinary genres. Soon it will need to be contemplated as a regular element in the training of musicians, especially since other musical genres beside opera are beginning to be treated in an interdisciplinary manner.

Bernard Rands’s Vincent will be judged unavoidably from diverse perspectives. As a conductor a new operas, I have been aware of the complexities of the reception of new operatic works, and I have concluded that success depends as much on a game of audience expectations as on the intrinsic structural characteristics of the composition. During the panels on the future of opera arranged around the world-premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s ¡Unicamente la verdad!, certain tensions became apparent. For some opera fans, opera is about a dramatic narrative with a continuous musical architecture that carries the listener to a point of climax and a denouement, and that (most importantly!) features singers in the central expressive role. This concept arguably peaked in the late 19th and early 20th century with the works of Verdi, Wagner and Puccini.

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by Carmen-Helena Tellez
Composers, Contemporary Classical, Dance, Houston, Opera, Premieres

Interview with Opera Singer Misha Penton


Opera Singer Misha Penton as Klytemnestra (photo by Kerry Beyer)

(Houston, TX) Houston based opera singer Misha Penton opens her unique performance space Divergence Vocal Theater this Friday, April 15th. Located at Spring Street Studios, home to many of Houston’s finest visual and mixed media artists. Divergence Vocal Theater will bring together Ms. Penton’s team of singers, musicians, composers, dancers, and lighting and costume designers to present new chamber opera repertoire. Klytemnestra, a collaborative opera dance theater work featuring music by composer Dominick DiOrio, sung text by Misha Penton, spoken text by John Harvey, and choreography by Meg Brooker, is receiving a great deal of positive press in advance of its premier April 15th and 16th at Divergence Vocal Theater.

Ms. Penton’s mission is to subvert the social mores and business paradigms preventing singers from creating their own works. In the wake of reality after graduate school, more and more classical instrumentalists are creating their own business and career models, going further and further out into what is, for many musicians, uncharted territory. Violinist Todd Reynolds, the ensemble Alarm Will Sound, and Houston based pianists Jade Simmons and Kris Becker are a few examples of musicians who are each developing a sustainable means for commissioning, performing, and deriving an income from playing contemporary classical music. Their approaches are as varied as their personalities, and there is much to discuss when it comes to what is actually working for one musician as opposed to another. But in the near future, these intrepid instrumentalists are going to find that more and more singers, including Misha Penton, are “out there” with them.

Misha and I met shortly after my relocating to Houston and I quickly recognized a kindred spirit. This interview took place via email in advance of the premier of Kyltemnestra.

Chris Becker: In a recent interview you said: “One of the things I want to do…is restructure the way people think about who does opera, how it’s done, who makes it, and who performs it…What I do with Divergence is…create my own works and I sing in them. It’s very much something actors and dancers do, but singers are not encouraged to create their own products.” Do you think this model that you’re describing is the future of classically trained musicians?

Misha Penton: Actually, I do – but it’s already happening. And it really isn’t anything new…instrumentalists in particular have been savvy to this model for a long time – the success of independent ensembles like Eighth Blackbird comes to mind immediately. Some conservatories are starting to take entrepreneurship seriously. Opera America has a great feature about entrepreneurship in its spring magazine and about singer-led initiatives, and entrepreneurship is the theme for the conference this year as well. Obviously rock and jazz musicians work this way and always have. I’m seeing more classically trained singers take on their own projects, but it doesn’t seem to be as encouraged by the vocal teaching tradition as it could be…but again, that is all changing. The more opportunities we, as artists create, the better we’ll be able to define success for ourselves. As a singer, I’m only partly an interpretive artist. I’m a theater artist and writer too, so I’ve always done creative work. I think of myself as an independent artist who happens to create work collaboratively.

Opera Singer Misha Penton (photo by Kerry Beyer)

CB: Who are some of your peers among singers that are doing something similarly subversive?

MP There are more and more small opera companies popping up that singers are joining forces to create – that’s absolutely fantastic. And classically trained singers are branching out into all sorts of music projects. I meet singers all the time who say, “Hey I have this idea for a project” – I just love that. Go do it!

In general, I question the traditional company and nonprofit structure – so I’m not sure that’s the best survival tactic nor the best creative model. There are so many options for funding work now without forming a nonprofit (fiscal sponsorship, crowdfunding, etc). The last thing I want on my back is an “organization”. I work project-to-project and I’m aspiring to a Robert Fripp-ian model – a “small mobile intelligent unit”.

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by Chris Becker
Chamber Music, Commissions, Competitions, Concerts, File Under?, Music Events, New York

Cuckson on the Cutting Edge



I’m looking forward to hearing violinist Miranda Cuckson premiere a new chamber concerto by Jeffrey Mumford tonight at Symphony Space.



Cuckson is a tremendous talent. Her recent CDs of music by Ralph Shapey, Donald Martino, and Michael Hersch are required listening for anyone interested in post-tonal chamber music.


The concert also includes works by Harold Meltzer, Victoria Bond, and Brian Ferneyhough. Cuckson is joined by the Argento Ensemble; the Da Capo Chamber Players will also perform (details below).


Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival Program
Monday, April 11, 2011, 7:30 pm; $20/Seniors $15
Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater in Peter Norton Symphony Space
Ticket information here

Jeffrey Mumford: through a stillness brightening (world premiere)
Argento Ensemble

Commissioned by the Argento New Music Project through the generosity of Marianna Bettman (in memory of Judge Gilbert Bettman) and Sonia Rothschild.

Brian Ferneyhough: La Chute D’Icare
Argento Ensemble

Harold Meltzer: Exiles
Da Capo Chamber Players, Mary Nessinger, mezzo soprano

Victoria Bond: Instruments of Revelation (NY premiere)
Da Capo Chamber Players

by Christian Carey
Contemporary Classical, New York, Strings

ETHEL!

ETHEL, acclaimed as America’s premier postclassical string quartet, will be giving a great show at Le Poisson Rouge tomorrow night. The concert is part of the Meet the Composer’s 3 CITY DASH FESTIVAL, and it features music from composers from San Francisco. Below is an email Q+A with Ralph Farris, ETHEL’s magnificent violist.

S21 Q + A w/ ETHEL:

ETHEL focuses on the repertoire of the the past four decades. While all of that music is classified as “contemporary,” it is extremely diverse compositionally. Is there any particularly style you prefer personally or as a group and enjoy working on?

We do love tunes that groove! If there is some infectious rhythmic element in a piece, it’s probably going to spark something with us.

We particularly enjoy working in person with composers. Having the experience of being together with a composer as the music comes to life is very special.

And of course, we are always thrilled to present the work of young composers!

Despite the extreme variety in contemporary classical music, do you have one sort of goal you hope to communicate generally with all the music you play?

Music is a language, a profound connector of cultures and ideas.

With our work, we aim to link people together in a shared experience, to inspire and celebrate our common humanity.

Along that line, when you receive a new work by a composer, likely something you’ve never heard or seen before, do you approach each piece differently, or with a sort of rehearsal routine?

We endeavor to learn as much as we can about a composer before we read their work, in an effort to open our ears, minds and hearts.

On the nuts-and-bolts side, we prefer to receive both a score and parts. And a MIDI file or recording is always helpful.

As to rehearsal routine, there are some tried-and-true techniques that we advocate:

•           If there’s a measure that is giving us trouble, we’ll put an imaginary repeat sign around it and loop it until the physical feel of it is locked.

•           Slow practice is invaluable, of course, but we also spend good amounts of time at medium speed, galvanizing ensemble and overall feel.

•           Once a piece is almost feeling solid, but just needs a little push, we may turn ourselves away from each other for a run or two, in an effort to feel each others’ lines and intentions. Pretty tough exercise, but it has helped us greatly.

Do you approach pieces primarily with a sort of ETHEL quartet style? The group is notoriously charismatic– how do you translate that into an extremely minimalistic piece, for instance?

LOL. We are four people having a great time making music together. I would hope that this translates through any music that we approach.

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by Tema Watstein
Contemporary Classical

Help Wanted: Composer-in-Residence, Opera Company of Philadelphia

Hello Jerry Bowles,

Kyle Bartlett here, I am a composer and also the New Works Administrator for the Opera Company of Philadelphia. I am hoping you may post information about our Composer In Residence search (press release attached). In short form, the selected composer will be given free access to the resources of the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Gotham Chamber Opera, and Music-Theatre Group, for the purposes of learning and experimentation, as well as a salary of $60K per year plus benefits, for three years. For real.

The deadline for entries is coming up very quickly: April 22, 5PM Eastern time.

Here is the call for entries : http://www.operaphila.org/about-us/call-for-entries.shtml

If you have any questions or need more information, please be in touch.

Thanks very much,

Kyle

Kyle Bartlett

New Works Administrator

Opera Company of Philadelphia

www.operaphila.org

by Jerry Bowles
CDs, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Piano, Websites

Listening to Istanbul

Turkish pianist Seda Röder has been around these parts more than a few times; sometimes for her wonderful playing and sometimes for her wonderful podcasts. Now an Associate at Harvard, since coming over to the U.S. in 2007 (after graduating the Mozarteum in Salzburg) Seda has been a bit of a whirlwind when it comes to new music. Not content to take the standard performer’s trajectory, Seda gives almost equal measure to not onlyconcertizing, but also informing and promoting on behalf of the lesser-known — both newer and older — corners of modern classical music.  Of course, in one of the corners most dear to her lies the work of living Turkish composers, a corner most of us have never paid any attention to.

Now Seda has taken a pretty big step on the way to rectifying that gap in our awareness: first, with the release of her new CD Listening to Istanbul, a collection of six newly-commissioned piano works by Turkish composers both established and emerging; and second, through a marvellous accompanying website that amplifies the CD and the works on it with all kinds of extra information, background, notes and interviews with the composers themselves.

Here composer Tolga Tüzün talks about his work Permanence:

by Steve Layton
Contemporary Classical

Two Short Concerts, One Long Review

photo courtesy Patrick Harlin

This past Friday and Saturday gave Ann Arbor new music seekers two compact and powerful concerts: the final concert of the year for the University of Michigan Contemporary Directions Ensemble (CDE) and a series of 8-minute operas created by graduate students in Music Composition and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan.  The CDE concert – directed by charismatic conductor Christopher James Lees – was about an hour in length, and packed into that time four vibrant works from Pulitzer Prize winners Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom, Jennifer Higdon and Shulamit Ran. Similarly, it took an hour to see all the brief operas performed on Saturday, which were on display at the beautiful Univeristy of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA).

The program for Friday’s concert featured a disparate set of pieces, which began with Jennifer Higdon’s Zaka for pierrot ensemble, written for and made popular by Eighth Blackbird. This was my first time hearing this piece – or any by Ms. Higdon, for that matter – and I was struck by how many other, later pieces I’ve heard by other composers, which resemble it strongly. With two opposing groups of material, Zaka is principally focused on rhythm and color, and – on its largest scale – contrasts incessant rhythmic drive with a placid chorale-like middle section, which she references towards the end.

Other writing about Zaka I’ve encountered likens the piece’s orchestration to Igor Stravinsky’s and notes how the work focuses on Ms. Higdon’s own instrument, the flute. I suppose the constantly shifting colors can be vaguely connected to the mischievous and convivial timbres of Petrushka or L’histoire du Soldat, but Zaka’s unusual sounds actually led my attention to a different member of the ensemble: the piano. For much of the work’s fast music, the pianist plays inside the piano, intermittently hitting open fifth ‘power chords’ along the way. Though the rest of the ensemble is subjected to similar extended techniques – none more remarkable than the clarinetist’s futile tapping on the mouthpiece-less opening at the top of his instrument – it seemed like the piano’s role in the piece was most significantly shaped by these uncommon colors, particularly because it leads the group in the work’s slow contrasting  midsection.

After Zaka whirled itself into nothingness, the audience was treated to Leslie Bassett’s Brass Quintet, a stark contrast to the Higdon in its traditional materials and nearly uniform instrumental color. The instigator in this work is the Tuba, which – from the outset – tends to challenge the textural status quo of the rest of the ensemble. Unexpectedly, only one movement uses mutes, but this overall stable timbre  suits the narrow scope of material transformation from the piece’s beginning to end. Brass Quintet stays close to home for much of its duration, and often references previous material sometimes for the purpose of establishing a landmark in unfamiliar musical territories or also developing earlier ideas a few movements later. Although the most reserved work on the program, Mr. Bassett’s Brass Quintet still shone brightly with its elegantly spaced sonorities, allusions to jazz and puckish Tuba part.

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by Garrett Schumann
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York, Strings, Twentieth Century Composer, Video

Reich on Reich

Steve Reich turns 75 this coming October, and the celebrations have already begun. Later this month is a concert at Carnegie Hall on April 30th. It features the Kronos Quartet in a new piece commemorating a more sombre anniversary: WTC 9/11.

In the lead up to the Carnegie concert, there will likely be countless interviews, features, etc.; but this YouTube video is a terrific five-minute distillation of Reich’s interests, influences, and musical style.

I love the segue early on from bebop ii-V-I changes to Steve Reich’s pulsating ostinati.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO_WVD6Dt6E[/youtube]

by Christian Carey
Contemporary Classical

Anne-Sophie Gives an Award (and I was there)

Sunday was a big day for the brilliant young Slovakian contrabassist Roman Patkoló.  First, he played two new works commissioned especially for him by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation–Duo concertante for Violin and Contrabass by Krzysztof Penderecki and Dyade for violin and contrabass by Wolfgang Rihm–at Avery Fisher Hall with the dazzling Frau Mutter on violin. Then, after the concert, Mutter presented him with the first ever Aida Stucki Award, a new honor for gifted musicians named for her beloved childhood teacher.

“Aida is 90 now and we wanted to do something to honor her while she is still around to enjoy it,” Mutter told me.  “Good teachers don’t always get the recognition they deserve.  She was a wonderful violinist, one of the last students of Carl Flesch, and a keeper of that pedagogical tradition which she passed on to me.”

Mutter says the Foundation does not plan to give the award–which has a 10,000 euros prize–annually because “that would put too much pressure on us to find somebody deserving every year and be too time-consuming.”  Her plan is to give the award whenever she finds a young musician she believes deserves a little extra recognition and support–something she has been doing for a long time. Roman Patkoló is hardly a new discovery–her Foundation has been helping him since 1999.

I had a chance to ask Mutter a question I’ve always wondered about which is why she has been the most steadfast and enthusiastic supporter of new music among the top roster of violinists.  “I like to challenge myself and a lot of new music is like learning a new language,” she says.  “Older works can be challenging too but I love having the ability to work directly with composers, to sit down with them, and understand what they are trying to say.  Imagine having the opportunity to sit down with Mozart.”

Personally, I’d rather spend another hour or two with Anne-Sophie Mutter.

by Jerry Bowles