The S21 Conquest of Astoria
And NYTIMES WIN, as the kids like to say. That’s right, Monday night’s S21 concert at Waltz Astoria was a big success. Lost Dog played wonderfully, and I can vouch…
The Final Countdown
As we watch the inexorable approach of the Sequenza21 concerts (December 1 and 5. Those dates are in your calendar, right? Go ahead and take care of that now, I’ll…
Building the Waiting Room: An Interview With David Lang
On November 3rd, I sat down with David Lang at a cafe in Downtown Manhattan. I recorded the interview (on my iPod) intending to transcribe it, but the audio, while…
Watch Out for David Lang
David Lang, who you will recall won this year’s Pulitzer with his piece The Little Match Girl Passion, will be submitting himself to the hard-hitting S21 interview next week. I’ll…
Lenny and Lulu
New York’s NPR station WNYC has been doing a bunch of programming on Leonard Bernstein, and the other night when I was moving my car I heard a great story:…
2008 MacArthur Fellows Announced
Congratulations to our pal Alex Ross, one of this year’s 25 MacArthur Fellows. There were three other music-related “Genius Grants,” as they’re more commonly called, for 2008: Violinist Leila Josefowicz,…
Minimalism: Tonight in Manhattan
This is the score for “Piece in the Shape of a Square” spread out across the stage at the Players Theatre. Tonight in Manhattan at 8:00 PM we’re celebrating the…
M50: Not Just A Crosstown Bus Anymore
This is just a friendly reminder about our upcoming concert next Wednesday, September 17th. Sequenza21 and Music On MacDougal are teaming up to present a concert of early Minimalism in…
Burn down the disco, Hang the blessed DJ, because the music that they constantly play, It says nothing to me about my life
There’s been a certain amount of breathless reportage about a new study linking personality and musical taste done by Adrian North at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK. It’s hard…
M50: Minimalism Turns Fifty
This September marks the 50th anniversary of musical Minimalism, an artistic revolution which critic Kyle Gann has described as “the most important musico-historical event of my lifetime.” I’m delighted to…