Author: Steve Layton

Classical Music, Conductors, Los Angeles, Media, Online, Orchestras, Websites

Forget the “Maestro” and “Dudamel”, just call me Gustavo

Received a blurb from the LA Phil the other day, which in all caps proudly declares “LA PHIL LAUNCHES MICROSITE CELEBRATING INCOMING MUSIC DIRECTOR GUSTAVO DUDAMEL”  … Kaboom!… Here’s the relevant bit (my bolds):

On September 24, 2009, the LA Phil launched a microsite celebrating the arrival of incoming Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. Introducing audiences worldwide to Gustavo in new and engaging ways, the comprehensive microsite, located at http://www.laphil.com/gustavo, features videos such as Gustavo’s first rehearsal with the YOLA Expo Center Youth Orchestra, the LA Phil’s video tribute “Welcome Gustavo,” and the press conferences unveiling Gustavo’s inaugural season and appointment as 11th Music Director of the LA Phil.  Visitors can also take a multimedia journey through Gustavo’s life with tiling photographs, video and biographical text.  The latest Gustavo-related news and newly recorded audio and video content will be added to the microsite as Gustavo’s exciting inaugural season progresses.

The Gustavo microsite prominently features a brand-new interactive online game and iPhone application, Bravo Gustavo, designed by Hello Design to simulate the experience of conducting an orchestra.  The Bravo Gustavo online game invites users to interact with Gustavo and the LA Phil performing Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique (music courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon).  The Bravo Gustavo iPhone application adapts the mobile device into a conducting baton, utilizing the accelerometer to directly affect the overall tempo and note duration of the music – just like a real conductor.

Wow, conductor as new “my best friend forever”, and it seems like the only thing missing from the package is the action figure. I suppose if the classical world had been cool enough to do a “Bravo Herbert” or “Welcome Antal” back in the day, the crowds would never have left.

by Steve Layton
Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Events, Festivals

All Points Bulletin

A few great concerts you might be able to catch, or might be missing:

Carlsbad, CA:  (25-27 Sept.) Sure, everybody goes here, about midway between LA and San Diego,  just for Legoland California… But for the next few days, everyone should forget Legoland and instead head to the sixth annual Carlsbad Music Festival. The Calder Quartet and California EAR Unit will be playing all kinds of new music, including pieces by John Luther Adams, Daniel Wohl, Keeril Makan, Matt McBane, Ryan Brown, and Yannis Kyriakides. Premieres abound! And the weekend is given over to these ensembles supporting their special guest, guitarist extraordinaire Fred Frith. All that and a nice stretch of beach to boot! Full details on schedules, prices and directions are there on the website.

Columbia, SC: (Friday, 02 October at 7:30PM, the Univ. of SC School of Music Recital Hall, 813 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC) The award-winning Southern Exposure New Music Series presents a performance (and world premiere) by the dynamic ensemble Real Quiet. Composed of percussionist David Cossin, cellist Felix Fan, and pianist Andrew Russo, Real Quiet is dedicated to hard-edge acoustic and electric music that often blurs the borders between genres.

The concert will feature the music of Marc Mellits, with the composer in attendance. Also on the bill are the world premiere of Jacob ter Veldhuis’ Things Like That, a work that weaves together both live performance and fragments of recordings by jazz legend Anita O’Day); Annie Gosfield’s Wild Pitch, inspired by the 2004 World Series; Phil Kline’s Last Buffalo, a tribute to Hunter S. Thompson; and Lou Harrison’s Varied Trio, a piece influenced by music from Indonesia, India, and the European pre-Baroque.

United Kingdom:  (25 Sept- 12 Oct) Guitarist Simon Thacker and his group The Nava Rasa Ensemble (Carnatic violin virtuoso Jyotsna Srikanth, Birmingham-based tabla master Sarvar Sabri, Scotland’s string quartet the Edinburgh Quartet, Brazilian bassist Mario Caribé and multi-percussionist Iain Sandilands) will be touring their concert titled “Inner Octaves”. Their website will give you full information on all the dates, times and venues.

The concert includes Terry Riley (b.1935, USA): Cantos Desiertos (1996); Tabla solo by Mr. Sabri; Nigel Osborne (b.1948, UK): Chamber concerto, (new commission); Tan Dun (b.1957, China): Eight Colors for string quartet (1988); Shirish Korde (b.1945, India/Uganda): Chamber concerto (new commission).

Providence, RI:  (24 Sept- 11 Oct) Rhode Island’s FirstWorks Festival hosts Pixilerations [v.6], a series of new media arts installations, concert performances and film/video screenings. This Friday and Saturday there are two free concerts in the URI Shepard Auditorium (80 Washington St.): Friday at 8PM Matthew Peters-Warne plays a gourd-based digital controller to transform Portuguese and Umbundu languages into music; Todd Winkler makes an immersive audio/video  environment, Kristen Volness has a piece for laptop and string quartet; Peter Bussigel creates a “shivers-inducing audio journey”; Alex Dupuis works the guitar and electronics; bedtime stories (with video) from Lucky Leone; Alex Kruckman in an  audio-visual feedback loop; and Ed Osborn creates an “audio microworld” with  live electronics and table-top guitar.  Then on Saturday, also at 8pm, “In elements/response Aesthetic Evidence explores 600 spoken human voices through audio, visual and traditional percussion. The intersections continue with: computer-as-instrument with traditional Chinese string instrument (Jing Wang), percussionists with robots (David Bithell), and vocalist with computer musician (Christie Lee Gibson and Arvid Tomayko-Peters). Also performing equally mysterious work: asynchronous stochastic cloud structures from Shane Turner in Crash Test.”  There’s  plenty more good (including Pauline Oliveros next week), so give the website a good look.

Eganville, Ontario:  Those of you tired with the same old venues could do worse on Saturday the 26th, than strike out from Ottawa and find the Bonnechere Caves. Deep inside, at 5PM and again at 7PM, Katelyn Clark and Xenia Pestova will provide their consummate playing on toy pianos while Toronto composer Erik Ross provides the electroacoustic soundscape.

by Steve Layton
Broadcast, Contemporary Classical, Radio

They heard you

Apropos our earlier news about the cutbacks to Marvin Rosen‘s “Classical Discoveries” and “Classical Discoveries goes Avant-Garde” programs on WPRB radio:  I’ve just received the good word from Marvin himself that — due in large part to all your messages of support —the station has decided to keep “Classical Discoveries goes Avant-Garde” in the schedule, each Wednesday from 11AM until 1PM ET. Marvin also writes: “I’ve been asked by the Classical Director to let you all know how WPRB feels. Please see her quote to me below”:

“Please thank your listeners for me and for the whole of WPRB management, for letting us know what they think and for showing support for the programming they love. It’s well-deserved.”

“P.S. – I would like to remind you all that the WPRB Listeners Survey is still on until the end of this month.  This is your opportunity to express your preferences in the programming and give your opinion. I would like to thank Sequenza 21 readers for overwhelming  support.  It is incredible to see the power of the written word. These 2 extra hours for more modern works is exciting news for me and hope for everyone else!” — Marvin Rosen

Go team go! Way to make a difference. (The show resumes next week, and remember that even if you can’t listen through the air you can still catch it anywhere in the world with WPRB’s live internet audio stream.)

by Steve Layton
Broadcast, Contemporary Classical, Radio

From Marathon to No Moreathon

Wasn’t it just a couple weeks ago we were singing praises to WPRB’s Marvin Rosen for his annual all-day, all-modern radio marathon — not to mention how great his year-round advocacy for promoting new and lesser-known music in general was?

So imagine the shock to learn just this week, that WPRB is suddenly cutting Marvin’s regular Wednesday 5:30AM to 11:00 “Classical Discoveries” show to run only from 6:00 to 8:30, and deleting his afternoon “Classical Discoveries Goes Avant-Garde” program altogether!

For more than a decade Marvin has been sharing his wide listening experience and deep enthusiasm with all kinds of listeners; not only in New York, but through internet streaming with fans from Seattle to Singapore to Seville. And with some room in the airspace to be able to range fairly freely, offering up things like guest composers in the studio, and deeper explorations of everything from “Music of Jewish Insipration” to “The Negro Speaks of River – Music for Kwanzaa” to “Spotlight on Women Composers”. His own connections with the classical community are strong; this is the guy after all, that just two days ago spent the morning with composer Derek Bermel, and that afternoon had George Crumb in the studio for an 80th-birthday celebration! To think that a public radio station would trim all that good work connecting living music with its audience to little more than a shadow seems more than misguided.

I know there are a lot of you out there, who at some time or other have encountered something truly wonderful thanks to a regular or even chance listen to Marvin’s show. WPRB is still a public radio station, reliant on your opinions (and your dollars). If you’re one of those many who’ve been on the receiving end of the good that Marvin spreads, maybe make a little effort on his behalf and write directly to the station and make your voice heard: whether to the Program Director (program@wprb.com) or to the Station Manager (manager@wprb.com), let them know how you feel.

In Marvin’s own words from his website:

“I try to prove on every show that there is much beautiful music of our time that deserves to be heard. Composers are working hard today. Their works deserve to be presented to the public. Listeners often tell me that they didn’t know that new music could be so melodious and beautiful. Although I play recent works by well-known composers I emphasize the little-known ones that are recorded on the small record labels. I will periodically invite various composers to be guests on my program. Sometimes a program will have a particular theme as, for example, ‘Music by Turkish Composers’ or ‘Music composed in the 1990s’. ‘Classical Discoveries’ seems to be the answer for all who are just simply tired of the boredom that appears on so much classical radio today. Personally, I feel, that this type of programming may be the answer if classical radio is to survive in the future. Classical music is a great thing. It should not be allowed to go to pot.”

No it shouldn’t Marvin, no it shouldn’t.

by Steve Layton
Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Magazines, Online, Publications, Websites

Meeting in the Open (web) Space

open space

Some years back I stumbled across The Open Space website, a creation of Perspectives of New Music stalwart Benjamin Boretz. PoNM was one of those forbidding obstacles every composition student of the 60s, 70s and 80s had to traverse and come to terms with; a journal more like a fair-sized paperback book, seemingly filled with discussions of Babbitt, Boulez, Webern, Carter, terrifyingly dense theories of pitch-class, set theory & etc. — many of us felt like we budding composers were suddenly expected to be quantum physicists rather than simply artists… Yet tucked into many issues might also be some nugget from the likes of Roger Reynolds or J.K. Randall, that read more like pure poetry; conceptual play that seemed light-years removed from the normal run of PoNM article.

Being up there on the masthead most of the journal’s life, Boretz’s name seemed to put him firmly in the “uptown theory” group. But what our young eyes couldn’t see for the forest was that his influence was one of the main reasons those other, more intuitive and free-form articles were studded amongst the hard theory. Boretz the artist has always nurtured a deep interest in a more purely “humanistic” brand of musical thinking and creation, which only became more pronounced as the years have passed.

As a more personal outlet for these interests Boretz, along with fellow composers J.K Randall and Elaine Barkin, in 1999 began The Open Space. Not only to get their own works to a wider audience, but to offer a diverse group of contributors a place and publication to run parallel or even counter to the standard PoNM fare. A glance through the contents of current and back issues of The Open Space Magazine will show a nicely bewildering variety of both contributors and subjects.

While The Open Space has had a web presence for ten years, it’s really been an afterthought to the physical magazine, CDs & etc.  But that’s changing starting now: composer Dean Rosenthal is taking over the helm of  the semi-languishing The Open Space Webmagazine, a fully online and independent branch of the larger Open Space. In Dean’s own words, the webmagazine will be “devoted to interaction and community that extends the breadth and reach of our print journal. The web magazine is a forum for actualizing content like interactive web art, experimental video, articles including audio, video, or other supplements, and related endeavors to encourage a multivalent culture that is possible only beyond print.”

The call for submissions is out; to learn more you only need to e-mail Dean (contact@deanrosenthal.org) with your idea or to receive more information.

by Steve Layton
Awards, Competitions, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Gaudeamus

Ted Hearne wins the Gaudeamus

Bit of a streak for American composers: this time last year we were congratulating Huck Hodge for winning the Netherland’s Gaudeamus Composition Prize. Now it’s Ted Hearne‘s turn, for his Katrina Ballads. From the press release:

This prize is € 4,550 and is meant for writing a new composition to be performed in the Gaudeamus Music Week 2010.

The Gaudeamus Prize and the honorable mention were awarded by jury members Huba de Graaff (Netherlands), Anne La Berge (Netherlands), and Akira Nishimura (Japan). For this year’s International Gaudeamus Music Week, which was open to composers under 31, the Gaudeamus Foundation received almost 400 scores from all over the world; the jury subsequently selected fifteen works to compete for the Gaudeamus Prize 2009.

Ted Hearne received the prize for a selection from Katrina Ballads, performed on September 10, 2009 at the Conservatory of Amsterdam by `the ereprijs with Wim Boerman conducting. Hearne himself was vocal soloist in this piece.

Hearne’s own website (linked above) has audio of some of the Ballads and a number of other works. We talked about these pieces here at s21, back in September last year; good to see this recognition as well.

This year’s honorable mention went to young Japanese composer/performer Toru Nakatani, who sounds like he’s persuing some interesting work:

In 1996 Nakatani built a microtonal guitar with movable frets. Two years later he began to play with rock groups, jazz orchestras and improvisation groups. He subsequently went to both northern and southern India and Sri Lanka in 2000 and during his stay in New Delhi studied dilruba, a classical bowed Indian instrument. He has built original instruments such as a 19-stringed guitar with jawari, an instrument consisting of resonating strings only, and a guitar based on just intonation. He has had solo performances with these instruments since 2001. In 2008 his piece (16_1/32_1) was awarded the third prize at the Toru Takemitsu Composition competition.

Nakatani’s website is more placeholder than anything else; still a name to watch for in the coming years.

by Steve Layton
Classical Music, Click Picks, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Events, Radio

Radio Radio: all new, all the time

Well, that is if the time happens to be this Tuesday September 08 from 7:00pm EDT, ’till 7:00pm EDT Wednesday September 09, and you pin your ear to Princeton’s WPRB (103.3FM). I’m just reminding you of what Elodie Lauten has already so nicely plugged a little while back on her own blog: that it’s once again time for radio host Marvin Rosen to serve up his annual Classical Discoveries Marathon.

And by “all new”, I don’t mean just the stock & standard 20th-century stuff; this year’s adventure is titled “Viva 21st Century – American Edition” — music by almost 100 composers alive and working in the here and now! It’s safe to say that there’s just about nothing else on the airwaves that can match that achievement, so you’ve got every reason to be there and not be square.

If that’s not enough, on Wednesday September 16th Marvin is hosting an 80th birthday celebration of George Crumb. From 11:00am till 3:00pm Crumb himself will join Marvin, along with Orchestra 2001 conductor James Freeman. And just prior, from 8:30 am until 11am, Marvin’s guest will be composer Derek Bermel.

Tune in and hang on; your crash-course in what’s been happening the last 8.5 years is about to begin! Infinite thanks to Marvin and his commitment to the cause of our new music.

by Steve Layton
Contemporary Classical

Hilary and Missy

Our third “Hilary Hahn Interviews…” segment was actually the first recorded for S21; kind of like the first Star Wars was actually the third… or something…

I brought Missy Mazzoli to your attention as far back as 2006, when she’d just finished getting her Masters degree. More recently, just a couple months ago we were telling you about the popularity of the alt/classical/something group she’s now part of, Victoire. Those very few years out of school have been kind, with all kinds of projects and praise coming her way. As well they should; Missy’s work overflows with offbeat and surprising ideas, executed in creatively beautiful ways. Here’s part one of Hilary’s sit-down with Missy (as always, the other three parts can be seen by heading to Hilary’s YouTube page and searching the right sidebar there):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5PSH8oDvNU[/youtube]

by Steve Layton
Blogs, Classical Music, Click Picks, Contemporary Classical, Websites

Snap, Crackle, Pop (with a few Fizzles)

Up and running for a few weeks now, The Cereal List blog/website attempts to goose the arse of the always-just-a-little-too-sacrosanct classical music world. Run by the shadowy “Milton Blabber”, “Randall Scandall” and “Miss Information”, the blog’s posts have their share of flats mixed with a few good sharps. Though some jabs have veered just this side of awful or even libel, when they get it right, with such gems as “Generate a New York Times Review of your Work“, they’re pretty spot on. My current fave though, has to be “How to Design a Classical Music CD Cover”:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoqcHAdyiN4[/youtube]

Whoever they may be, and as low as they may occasionally go, it’s obvious that these are people who are definitely active  in “the scene” and know their target intimately. It may not be the first place I’m going to check each morning, but I don’t see much wrong with trying to knock a few bricks off the Temple of Art.

by Steve Layton
Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, Miller Theater, New York

Wordless Music meets Miller again

Miller TheaterRonen Givony’s Wordless Music is back at Miller Theater this Sept. 9-12, doing it’s indie-rock/electronic/classical/new-music thing. The 9th brings back the 802 Tour (Nico Muhly, Sam Amidon and Doveman, w/ special guest Nadia Sirota); the 10th welcomes Do Make Say Think and DMST founder Charles Spearin’s “The Happiness Project”; the 11th features Tim Hecker, Grouper, and Julianna Barwick; and the 12th caps it off with Destroyer and Loscil performing a rare collaborative set of original music from each artist’s catalog, then the JACK Quartet. All shows start at 8pm, with tickets setting you back $15-$20. Columbia University’s Miller Theatre is located north of the main campus gate at 116th St & Broadway, on the ground floor of Dodge Hall.

by Steve Layton