Author: Jerry Bowles

Contemporary Classical

To the Moon, Alice

The awesome Ensemble Pi is performing the latest collaboration between artist William Kentridge and composer Philip Miller at Arts World Financial Center on March 21 and 22 at 8 pm

Sounds From the Black Box will feature the world-premiere live performance of Miller’s new compositions for Kentridge’s recent film animations. Joining Ensemble Pi will be the South African vocalist Tshidi Manye (who plays Rafiki in Broadway’s  The Lion King) and Miller will also be onstage sampling sound clips to create the audio landscapes that are so integral to his scores.
Here’s a two-minute preview clip of one of the films, Journey to the Moon:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA9318mNyHg[/youtube]

by Jerry Bowles
Awards

CMA Commissioning Program Deadline – April 9

Our friends at Chamber Music America would like you to know that the deadline for their Classical Commissioning Program deadline is fast approaching. Applications must be received no later than Friday, April 9, 2010, 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

CMA is offering support to U.S.-based classical/contemporary ensembles, presenters and festivals for commissioning American composers to create new chamber works.  The program provides funding for the composer’s fee, the ensemble’s rehearsal honorarium, and copying costs.

For these purposes, chamber music is defined as music for small ensembles (2–10 musicians) whose members perform one to a part, generally without a conductor. Compositions may represent a diverse musical spectrum, including contemporary art music, world music, and works that include electronics.

New works created through this program must be performed a minimum of three times in the U.S.

Guidelines and application forms, in MS Word and Adobe formats, can be downloaded and printed from the CMA website.  (Applications must be submitted in hard copy.)

For more info, contact Susan Dadian, Program Director at (212) 242-2022, ext. 13 or
sdadian@chamber-music.org

by Jerry Bowles
Broadcast, Composers, Concerts

We Get Stacks and Stacks of Letters

Hi Jerry,

Wanted to share two recent interviews:

1. Paul York, cellist and professor at the University of Louisville, has a new CD (Cello Vision – Centaur 2989) featuring new music by Stefan Freund, Aaron J. Kernis, Steve Rouse, Frederick Speck, Paul Brink and Marc Satterwhite.  The Kernis is a world-premiere recording of Ballad for solo cello and seven cellos.  Freund’s Toccata is also a premiere recording.  The interview is here.

2. George Tsontakis was in town last week for a world premiere with the Louisville Orchestra.  Impetuous was commissioned for the LO by a fellow Yaddo board member, Nana Lampton.  The interview with George is here.

One more note, you can hear the premiere broadcast of Impetuous by George Tsontakis on Sunday, February 28 at 6pm (EST) online at www.wuol.org.

Hope all is well!

Daniel
Daniel Gilliam, Station Manager
Classical 90.5 – Louisville’s Fine Arts Station
Louisville, KY 40202
(502) 814-6540

by Jerry Bowles
Chamber Music

Faking It on 54th

fakebookMet lots of really nice people at my little social media presentation for the Chamber Music America folks at St. Peter’s yesterday.   As promised, here’s the slide deck I used.  If there is anything you’d like more information about, send me an email and I’ll try to answer.  My thanks to the extraordinarily well-organized CMA program director Susan Dadian for inviting me and for being the kind of gal who will quietly tell you that your fly is unzipped before you begin your talk.

by Jerry Bowles
Contemporary Classical

How to Become Rich and Famous and Get More Attractive Lovers

Well, maybe not.  But, if you have time on your hands tomorrow don’t forget that I’m leading a seminar called  “Using Social Networking to Promote Your Ensemble or Series”  at St. Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Avenue at 54th St. from 3 pm to 5 pm. Contact Chamber Music America Associate Marc Giosi  at (212) 242-2022, ext. 14; or mgiosi@chamber-music.org to reserve yourself a seat.   Come on over and I’ll show you how to use the internets and the Google and all those silly tubes to get more publicity for your group or program

Here’s a quick tip specifically for our senior editor Christian Carey who I notice has become active on Twitter but you can use it too, if you don’t already.  You only get 140 characters on Twitter so rather than use up a bunch of them on a link that looks like this:   https://www.sequenza21.com/2010/01/prism-quartet-celebrates-25th-anniversary-at-lpr-on-131/ go to a URL shortener like http:/bit.ly and paste in the long link and get a short one that looks like this:  http://bit.ly/b2nfT0 They both take you to the same place.

by Jerry Bowles
Chamber Music

Control’s Been Seen..at the Jo Berg Airport

The nice people at Chamber Music America have invited your humble correspondent (that’s me) to discuss “Using Social Networking to Promote Your Ensemble or Series” next Tuesday, February 2, at St. Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Avenue at 54th St. from 3 pm to 5 pm.  It’s free but seating is limited so to make sure you get a seat, you should contact Marc Giosi, Program Associate, by 12 noon, Monday, February 1st at (212) 242-2022, ext. 14; or mgiosi@chamber-music.org   (The CMA folks are being overly optimistic, I suspect.)

Of all the things I know a little bit about, social marketing is one of my better topics, having started one of the more popular social media websites on the web.  Not to mention the Sequenza21 community which is not huge but has one of the most loyal followings around.  Come on over and I’ll try to say something useful about how to use the web to generate some promotion for your group or series.  I seldom leave the house to go further than Starbucks so this is a rare opportunity to confirm that there really is a person named Jerry Bowles

And, I could use some examples to show of groups or musicians who have particularly nice pages on Facebook and MySpace or who have done something clever with YouTube.  Ideas, please?

by Jerry Bowles
Classical Music, Composers

Lawrence Dillon’s The Infinite Sphere Debuts

Our own Lawrence Dillon’s The Infinite Sphere will be given its World Premiere performances by the Daedalus Quartet tonight,  Friday, January 15 – 8 PM as part of the Discovery Series at The Barns at Wolf Trap  in Vienna, Virginia and on Saturday,  7:30 PM at Watson Chamber Music Hall of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem.

Commissioned by the Daedalus Quartet in conjunction with the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, Dillon’s fourth quartet takes Pascal’s reference to “an infinite sphere, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere” as the inspiration for a virtuosic wheels-within-wheels journey.

The fourth quartet in Dillon’s Invisible Cities String Quartet Cycle — a set of six quartets that explore connections between Classical forms and contemporary experience — The Infinite Sphere not only takes the form of a Classical rondo, it also adopts the rondo spirit, using popular dance music as material.

Winner of the 2007 Guarneri String Quartet Award from Chamber Music America, the Daedalus String Quartet is the resident quartet for the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.

Lawrence is Composer in Residence at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and currently has commissions from the Emerson String Quartet, the Mansfield Symphony, the Boise Philharmonic, the Salt Lake City Symphony, the Daedalus String Quartet, the University of Utah Philharmonia and the Idyllwild Symphony Orchestra.

by Jerry Bowles
Composers

Tod Machover on Music & Technology

Technology has democratized music in ways that are surprising even to me, revolutionizing access to any music anytime with iPod and iTunes, opening interactive musicmaking to amateurs with Guitar Hero and Rock Band (which both grew out of a group I lead at the M.I.T. Media Lab), providing digital production and recording facilities on any laptop that surpass what the Beatles used at Abbey Road, and redefining the performance ensemble with initiatives like the Stanford iPhone Orchestra and YouTube Symphony.

– Tod Machover in today’s New York Times

by Jerry Bowles
Classical Music, Concerts

Exclusive Photos From Hilary’s Bach Party

hilary hahn @petervidor
hilary hahn @petervidor

There are a lot of older men–myself included–who have had a crush on Hilary Hahn for an unwholesome length of time so I was not surprised when a couple of my best friends–professional photographers who normally wouldn’t pick up a camera unless there was money involved–volunteered to run down to the Village Gate…ur, Le Poisson Rouge for those of you with no respect for history–and shoot some pictures for free at her Bach Party last night.  The occasion was the release of Hilary’s newest album, Bach: Violin and Voice on Deutsche Grammophon.

“Ms. Hahn is even more enchanting in person than foretold,” Peter Vidor gushed in an e-mail to me today.  “Her every line and her every move bespeak surpassing eloquence and grace, and in speaking of her I feel like a stricken schoolboy.”

I haven’t heard from my other friend, Tomas Sennett.  He must have been too stricken to remember to snap a picture.

A couple of more photos after the break. (more…)

by Jerry Bowles