Who’s the first (ahem) “downtown contemporary classical ensemble” to be added to the videogame Rock Band? Bang on a Can All Stars host their annual Marathon this Sunday (6/26) at the World Financial Center Winter Garden in Manhattan from noon-midnight.
Read moreFor the past eight years, Graham Parker has been the Executive Director of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Now, he’s going to work for New York’s classical music radio station. It was announced today that Parker will be the new Vice President of Classical WQXR 105.9 FM and WQXR online. It appears that he’s been tasked with helping the station to develop its brand identity. For those who aren’t “New Yawkers,” this may require some explanation. In 2009, New York’s National Public Radio Station WNYC acquired WQXR from the New York Times. WQXR’s frequency, 96.3 FM, was in turn traded to Univision’s
Read moreI’m still reveling in the memory of So Percussion’s appearance with the Orchestra of the League of Composers last week. And here’s a new recording of music of another sort altogether! So’s latest collaboration is with Baltimore electronica duo and frequent Björk collaborators Matmos. On Treasure State, a recording for the Cantaloupe imprint, they create a patchwork quilt of found object percussion, glitchtronica beats, synthetic signatures, and complex rhythmic structures. Despite the multifaceted nature of the proceedings, the underlying groove remains eminently danceable. Here’s a taste of their work: a YouTube clip from their recent show at Le Poisson Rouge.
Read moreRobert Dick in Recital Institute and Festival of Contemporary Performance Mannes College of Music (New School University) June 17, 2010 Robert Dick was a name we heard in graduate school, spoken by flutists and composers alike in hushed, almost reverent tones. His treatise on contemporary playing techniques, The Other Flute, has long commanded a hefty price at various online bookstores (which is somewhat puzzling, as the tome has remained more or less continuously available). I finally found one for less than a king’s ransom a few weeks ago: just in time to ‘study up’ before finally hearing Dick live in
Read moreIgor Stravinsky’s birthday is today. Check out this recording of Stravinsky’s own Greeting Prelude, which was played on the occasion of Louis Andriessen’s 70th birthday by Reinbert de Leeuw and the Radio Philharmonic.
Read moreRite Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor Deutsche Grammophon CD True, Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps is a watershed work. It serves as many a classical listener’s jumping off point when first exploring Twentieth Century repertoire. But can a work, no matter how seminal, have too many recordings? Can it get programmed so often on concerts that it loses its zing? I have several recordings of the piece myself, but I’d begun to wonder in the past couple years whether the Rite was in danger of being overexposed. And I’m not the only one… Enter young conductor Gustavo
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Concert review, Concerts, Conductors, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York, Philadelphia Orchestra
The Orchestra of the League of Composers (ISCM) presented the group’s “season finale” at Miller Theatre on Monday June 7, 2010. True, this is a pickup orchestra, but you’d never know it from listening. Composer/conductor Lou Karchin confidently led the group through a wide stylistic range of pieces, including New York and World premieres. WNYC’s Jonathan Schaefer hosted, engaging the composers in brief interviews between the various pieces. D.J. Sparr’s piece DACCA:DECCA:GAFFA featured ace new music guitarists William Anderson and Oren Fader playing steel string acoustic instruments alongside the ensemble. The title referred to a set of chord progressions that
Read moreEclectic in their programming and superlatively talented, the Locrian Chamber Players have a unique mandate: they are the only new music ensemble which limits their repertoire to works composed in the last decade. This has led them to give countless American and World premieres of works. LCP are giving a concert this Thursday at Riverside Church, uptown in NYC. I caught up with the group’s director, David Macdonald, who whets my appetite for what looks to be an exciting concert. CBC: How did you come to commission Malcolm Goldstein’s The Sky has Many Stories to Tell? DM: A long time
Read more[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zfHiloldtg[/youtube]
Read moreIn his 5/23 article for the NY Times, Daniel Wakin asked ,”A contemporary surrealist opera at the NY Philharmonic? About the end of the world? On Memorial Day weekend? What are they thinking over there at Avery Fisher Hall?” He then went on to report that “2/3 of the Philharmonic’s regular concert goers were having none of it… subscription sales averaged about 33 percent, the Philharmonic acknowledged…” When I went to the Philharmonic website last night, I was greeted with message that the entire run is SOLD OUT! Apparently, the NY Philharmonic was thinking that there might be other audience members interested in the
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