Chamber Music

Chamber Music, Classical Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, File Under?, New York, Uncategorized

The 2009 Ditmas Park Concert Series

The Ditmas Park Concert Series is up and running for its second season. Curated by Jody Redhage, there will be five concerts in the series.

Friday, May 1 / 9:00 pm Erica von Kleist Trio, 10:30 pm John Ellis Trio / Sycamore Bar & Flower Shop, 1118 Cortelyou Rd. at Westminster Rd., Brooklyn, NY (Q to Cortelyou Rd) $10

Sunday, May 10 / 4:00 pm Janus / Temple Beth Emeth, 83 Marlborough Rd. at Church Ave., Brooklyn, NY (B/Q to Church Ave) $10

Saturday, May 23 / 9:00 pm Dan Pratt Organ Quartet / Sycamore Bar & Flower Shop, 1118 Cortelyou Rd. at Westminster Rd., Brooklyn, NY (Q to Cortelyou) $10

Saturday, May 30 / 3:00 Botanica String Quartet / PS 217 Auditorium, 1100 Newkirk Ave. at Coney Island Ave., Brooklyn, NY (B/Q to Newkirk Ave.) Free Family Concert

Friday, June 12 / 8:00 pm Gabriel Kahane and Friends / PS 139 Auditorium, 330 Rugby Rd. at Cortelyou Rd., Brooklyn, NY (Q to Cortelyou Rd.) $10

Sponsored by the Brooklyn Arts Council and numerous local businesses, the Ditmas Park Concert Series connects the world class musicians living in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn with the students and residents of the community. Featuring band leaders who live walking distance from the venues, the DPCS strengthens the community through live creative performance.

Chamber Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, New York, Performers

The S.E.M. All-Stars

The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, founded and directed by Petr Kotik, joins forces with the acclaimed FLUX Quartet and the international chamber orchestra Ostravská banda for an evening of adventurous music: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 8:00 PM, Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater. Tickets are a steal, only $15 for a real wealth of music.

Highlights include three new pieces by self-taught composers: the premiere of Christian Wolff’s Trio for Robert Ashley (2009), performed by members of the Flux Quartet; the American premiere of Sicilian-born composer Salvatore Sciarrino’s Vento D’ombra (2005), performed by The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble; and the premiere of Petr Kotik’s String Quartet No. 1, Erinnerungen an Jan (2007–09), performed by the Flux Quartet. The program also features renowned Belgian pianist Daan Vandewalle in Elliott Carter’s Dialogues for Piano and Orchestra (2003), and award-winning Czech violinist Hana Kotková in György Ligeti’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1990–92) — both making their debuts at Alice Tully Hall. Petr Kotik conducts The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble as well as Ostravská banda.

Kotik writes: “To me, Ligeti’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra always sounded strange, as if something were out of place. When I was asked by the Prague Spring festival to conduct the piece last May, I worked to solve the puzzle, but to no avail. Then moments before the start of our first rehearsal with Hana Kotková and the Ostravská banda, I suddenly got an idea. I walked up to Hana and said, ‘You’ve got to play the piece like a gypsy would. That’s how it should sound, I think.’ She looked at me and immediately understood what I meant. Hana grew up in a family that made folk music for generations. She has participated in performances since the age of four, often alongside fiddlers and cimbalom virtuosos, who were often Romani. She comes from the Silesian part of Moravia, right next to the Carpathian region from which most of Ligeti’s melodies come. No one can understand this music better than Hana. It was a thrill to conduct Ligeti Concerto with her as the soloist and I am delighted that she was able to accept this appearance at Alice Tully Hall.

Since the premiere of John Cage’s complete Atlas Eclipticalis by then newly formed The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble (86 musicians) at Carnegie Hall in 1992, S.E.M. has made a significant contribution to new music here in the U.S. and in Europe. And with Ostravská banda, founded at Ostrava Days 2005, a group which combines musicians from both sides of the Atlantic was a natural thing (Ostrava Days is a new music institute and festival taking place every other year at Ostrava in the Czech Republic). Ostravská banda consists of young musicians from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, Holland and the United States, who are focused on the performance of new music. It is not necessary to introduce the New York-based FLUX Quartet. At Alice Tully, they will be performing the pieces by Wolff and Kotik. In January, when I asked Christian for a piece for this concert, he decided to compose Trio for Robert Ashley as there was my new string quartet on the program. He had recently attended Robert Ashley’s opera Dust and was very moved by the work. The title reflects his admiration for Ashley’s music, its rhythms and structural movements.”

— If you can’t make it, S21’s own Christian Carey will be there and will be filing a report post-concert.

Chamber Music, Concerts, Downtown, Experimental Music, Improv, jazz, Music Events, New York, Performers

Interpretations Season #20: Artist Blog #9 — John Lindberg of S3NY

We’ve reached the final concert of Interpretations’ twentieth season of provocative programming in New York City! Founded and curated by baritone Thomas Buckner in 1989, Interpretations focuses on the relationship between contemporary composers from both jazz and classical backgrounds and their interpreters, whether the composers themselves or performers who specialize in new music. To celebrate, Jerry Bowles has invited the artists involved in this season’s concerts to blog about their Interpretations experiences. Our last concert is also an anniversary celebration: The String Trio of New York has been going strong for 31 years. Guitarist James Emery and bassist John Lindberg have invited some of the most innovative jazz violinists to work with them: Billy Bang, Regina Carter, Diane Monroe, and Charles Burnham. Since 2001, violinist Rob Thomas has more than ably filled those shoes. While the trio has had many works written for them, and does perform the “classics” of jazz, this concert will feature the music of Emery and Lindberg. John Lindberg explains in his own words, below. We hope to see you at Roulette this Thursday, 23 April and stay tuned for next season.

This particular concert of the String Trio of New York, now 31 years running, is a unique opportunity to present a retrospective of works that have in some ways defined the development of the group, and highlights its diverse repertoire. My three pieces on the program — The Anticipator (1987), Nature,Time, Patience (2001), Journey Platz (2007) represent different side of my mucical personality as a composer, and extremely varied approaches to the collective utilization of the improvising and interprational talents of the trio members, in effect being a voyage through the time/space continnum of the s3ny, while offering up renditions that lie solidly “in the moment” that they are being performed.

Interpretations has been, in my view, the most vital and compelling series for creative music in New York city for some two decades, due to its great breadth of music it presents, and remaining one of he very few ongoing series that offer composers free reign to present their music as they wish it to be presented.

It is with great pleasure I have another opportunity, with this landmark concert for the trio, to perform as part of the Interpretations series.

The String Trio of New York performs at Roulette on Thursday 23 April at 8pm.

For more information:

The String Trio of New York

Interpretations

Roulette

Chamber Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Interviews, Music Instruments, New York, Percussion, Performers, Podcasts

My Ears Are Open. This week on the podcast: Alex Lipowski

It’s hard to imagine a percussionist that you would want to perform your music more than Alex Lipowski. Alex has a passion for the new, the challenging and the unusual and I find him to be one of the most inspirational musicians I’ve ever met. He spent much of our time together explaining how important it is to take risks and to find new and innovative sounds — good advice. You can see Alex and the Talea Ensemble on April 28 at the Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, NYC.

Looking ahead, there will be three episodes in May and I’ll be devoting the month to violists. Check back on May 3 and see what Beth Weisser of the iO Quartet has to say.

Not sure where to find the podcast?

– Subscribe in iTunes here

– Subscribe with your RSS reader here

– Find it on InstantEncore here

P.S., If you were not able to make it to the bake sale then you missed out on a very special event. Even if you don’t care for all the music it’s hard to deny the sense of community from having so many different groups all in the same room – we are all in this together! Tip of the hat to Newspeak and Ensemble de Sade for making it happen.

Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, Music Events, New York, Performers, Piano

Interpretations Season #20: Artist Blog #8 — Teresa McCollough

Interpretations continues its twentieth season of provocative programming in New York City. Founded and curated by baritone Thomas Buckner in 1989, Interpretations focuses on the relationship between contemporary composers from both jazz and classical backgrounds and their interpreters, whether the composers themselves or performers who specialize in new music. To celebrate, Jerry Bowles has invited the artists involved in this season’s concerts to blog about their Interpretations experiences. On 9 April 2009, pianist Teresa McCollough presents a recital of music by Alvin Singleton, Sam Pluta, Gabriela Lena Frank, John Adams, and George Crumb.

In Tribute

I have been asked to write about my upcoming concert on the Interpretations Series, in celebration of its 20th season. As this is my first time playing on this series, I want to talk not only about the upcoming concert and my connection to the program and its composers, but also about my connection to Tom Buckner, its founder and musical director, with whom I share a passion for commissioning and playing new music. It is a tribute to Tom, and his considerable vision and spirit, that Interpretations is reaching the milestone of its 20th year, and I am honored to be a part of this exciting anniversary observance.

Tom and I met a few years ago through our mutual friend and fabulous composer, Alvin Singleton. Both Tom and I had commissioned Alvin for different works, and Alvin thought we might want to get to know each other. Tom and I spoke on the phone for nearly an hour about our shared passion for new music and support for composers, and at the end of that conversation, we had arranged for Tom to bring Alvin’s latest composition Say You Have this Ball of Meaning, to the 2006 Santa Clara New Music Festival, where it received its West coast premiere to great success.

Tom has visited Santa Clara University (his alma mater) several times, and most recently after a very inspiring guest recital, he gave a talk to the students about his experience with new music and improvisation, that was both passionate and realistic. He spoke at length about his artistic process, which included a commitment to learning new works through regular improvisation and rehearsal sessions as a young man honing his craft, living and studying in the Bay area. Tom gathered other artists and composers at his house, where he held regular reading and improvisation sessions, followed by monthly concerts of those works that had been discovered so thoroughly. Along the way, he met many great composers, such as Robert Ashley and Roscoe Mitchell, and other experimental artists who were living and making up the fabric of west coast new music at that time. He created a life in experimental art that is almost forgotten in today’s professional world of learning a new piece just well enough to race to the next gig. Tom suggested a method for hearing and creating new music that recalled a slower time of deeper listening. The students could relate all too well to this leading artist and advocate who mirrored their current image of creating new compositions. Their sound world is as fresh as Tom’s was thirty-five years ago, and with more resources and outlets for communication. The weekly jam sessions that they hold with their bands and ensembles are explorations of new music with living composers and artists whom we will hear from in a few years. Making great music takes time, and it’s one’s process with that art form that makes the journey worthwhile. A venerable series, like Interpretations, didn’t spring up overnight, and great artists become so only after developing a life in music that is not only dedicated, but open to change. Contemporary music can be most accessible, if it is communicated with passion and supported with great resources. The continued success of a series such as Interpretations depends upon its artistic vision and leadership, as well as many years of dedication and hard work. My hat is off to Tom, without whom there might not be so many great works in this genre, or so many artists and composers who have received such generous support.

For my own part, I have chosen a program that I hope will be a tribute to this long-lasting series and which communicates that spirit which I believe exists when composers and artists share an admiration and respect for each other’s unique sound worlds. I have a passion for this music, and a desire to share it with an audience. Whether it is the musical mystery of George Crumb’s music played on the strings of the piano, or the experimental sounds of Sam Pluta’s crushed soda cans interwoven with a palate of piano jazz and improvisation, it is meaningful to me, and related in one way or another. Gabriela Frank’s Requiem explores the symbolism of the Day of the Dead ritual, while John Adams’ Hallelujah Junction is a work with a title that might seem to mean more than it does. Greed Machine by Alvin Singleton explores the timbres of vibraphone and piano through sound and time, while China Gates explores time through its sound repetition and displacement. All of these pieces explore the full range and capabilities of the piano and its inherent percussive possibilities played against a backdrop of various drums, gongs, chimes, and mallet instruments. It is playing, plucking, pounding, and improvising. It is a journey though music which might be inspired by spiritual sources, and inspired music that is musically unique and perhaps, spiritual. It will be a performance open to interpretation for all its listeners, prompted by an anniversary that is a true cause for celebration.

Teresa McCollough performs at Roulette on Thursday 9 April 2009.
For more information:

Teresa McCollough
Interpretations
Roulette

Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York

Poul Ruders 60th Birthday Concert and Celebration

Poul Ruders and David Starobin

Thursday, March 26, 2009, at 7:30 pm

Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue at 38th Street

Scandinavia House and Bridge Records are hosting a birthday concert for Poul Ruders tomorrow night. The program features the world premiere of Pages I-X (2008) performed by guitarist David Starobin, and the US premiere of Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean, performed by avant-accordionist Mikko Luoma and the iO String Quartet.

Also on the program are:

Regime (1984), Juilliard Percussion Ensemble

Star Prelude and Love Fugue (1990), Vassily Primakov, piano

New Rochelle Suite (2005), David Starobin, guitar; Daniel Druckman, percussion.

Ruders will be in attendance and will speak about his music and the works on this program. Tickets for the Ruders Birthday Concert are $15, and $10 for American Scandinavian Foundation members. 212-879-9779 for tickets reservations and sales.

Chamber Music, Classical Music, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, Improv, Music Events, New York, Performers

Interpretations Season #20: Artist Blog #7 — Thomas Buckner

Interpretations continues its twentieth season of provocative programming in New York City. Founded and curated by baritone Thomas Buckner in 1989, Interpretations focuses on the relationship between contemporary composers from both jazz and classical backgrounds and their interpreters, whether the composers themselves or performers who specialize in new music. To celebrate, Jerry Bowles has invited the artists involved in this season’s concerts to blog about their Interpretations experiences. The concert on 12 March 2009 is a recital by the producer himself, baritone Thomas Buckner. He took time out of his busy schedule to tell us in his own words about the series and his concert on it:

On Thursday March 12, the Interpretations series continues its twentieth season. As the series founder and artistic director, I am grateful to Sequenza 21 for featuring our series. The series was founded to nurture community of new music composers and their interpreters. Sequenza 21 nurtures our community by allowing us to communicate with one another.

I am often asked what draws me to the music I present and perform. An answer I have often given is that, whereas many people can make music that sounds like music, I am interested on people who make music that sounds like them. It is a criterion well met by the music I have chosen to present in my concert of new music for voice. Each or the composers is a true original.

The first half of the concert will feature an extended work written for me by composer/pianist BlueGene Tyranny, whom I got to know through our work in the operas of Robert Ashley. The piece, “Somewhere Songs”, has an original text by the composer and is for voice and electronically reproduced sounds. The three songs concern friendship in extraordinary circumstances and are “based on true stories about hidden places, depicted physically, psychologically and socially in specific word idioms.” There is a natural musicality and a sense of mystery in these songs. They have been released on a recent CD of “Blue”s music on the mutable music label.

The next piece in the concert, “T-Language”, made by Tom Hamilton and me, is an improvisation for voice and electronics. We have sought to give the work a clear identity by using recorded vocal improvisations to shape the electronic sounds. Tom and I have worked together for years, and this piece has been developing really well. Our previous recordings include Tom’s “Off Hour Wait State” and our collaboratively created “Jump the Circle, Jump the Line.”

The concert ends with “Beats”, composed by Stuart Saunders Smith for me and my long time collaborator, pianist Joseph Kubera. The texts are from Jack Kerouac and Walt Whitman. It is not a song cycle. Rather, the texts are spoken with piano accompaniment, and the voice sings wordlessly. The music is extremely complex rhythmically. A friend of mine characterized one of Stuart’s pieces as sounding like Roscoe Mitchell, Mallachai Favors and Lester Bowie improvising, but exactly notated. This music is challenging and enjoyable to perform and listen to. It also requires us both to play percussion and has a theatrical flair characteristic of Stuart’s music.

Those of you who have seen the publicity for this concert know that I was also to perform a work by Fred Ho for baritone saxophone and baritone voice. Fred has been waging a courageous war against cancer. He is doing very well, but is presently indisposed, so we will perform his work in a future season.

I hope you will join us at this concert and at the remaining concerts in our twentieth season.

Thomas Buckner is in recital at Roulette on Thursday 12 March. For more information:
Interpretations
Roulette

Chamber Music, Contemporary Classical

Last Night in L.A.: Concerto without Orchestra

Vicki Ray put together an imaginative, clever program which was beautifully performed in last night’s Piano Spheres concert at Zipper Hall of Colburn School. She’s a marvel; she seems to be able to do any work in any style. In December she gave a tremendous concert, “Vic Ray Electric”, of electro-acoustic music. In January she was pianist for this Monday Evening Concert. I’ve never heard her play any Mozart, but this clip implies she just might do so some time. The theme of last night’s program was piano concertos without an orchestra; her program notes described her selections as forming a rondo with two cadenzas sandwiched between three concertos.

The program opened with Igor Stravinsky’s seldom-programmed Concerto for Two Solo Pianos (1935) which he wrote to play with his son in money-making concerts. Julie Steinberg came south from the Bay Area to provide the second pianist. The performance sparkled; many of us were smiling with pleasure as we listened. The “cadenza” following this was awhirl (2008) by Rand Steiger; Ray gave the world premiere of this piece in her December concert in REDCAT. It’s a duet for single piano, in which electronics take the piano sound and use it to extend, supplement, and challenge the pianist. It was even more enjoyable to hear the second time.

A sure way to win a bet in a “who wrote THIS?” contest would be to play Eros Piano (1989) by John Adams. It’s a work for piano with orchestral accompaniment, written as a tribute to the jazz great Bill Evans, to composer Toru Takemitsu, and to pianist Paul Crossley. There’s not a single Adams machine chugging away in this work. You’ll find the piece recorded in “American Elegies” with Adams as conductor, along with typically great Upshaw performances of five Ives songs and a delightful Feldman piece. Vicki Ray played the work as written and asked Adams if she could transcribe a few orchestral elements to enable the work to be played for solo piano, and we heard the premiere of this version of the work last night. This would have served as the high point of many another concert.

But Vicki Ray closed the program with a work by Julia Wolfe, my lips from speaking (1993). This tribute to Aretha Franklin was written to be played by six pianos in a British festival for mutiple pianos. It was then rearranged for Lisa Moore in a version for piano solo and tape. Ray’s performance was invigorating, thrilling. We could have stayed as long as she was willing to keep giving us encores, but she closed the evening with her own arrangement of “My Funny Valentine”, for toy piano. A treat.

CDs, Chamber Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, File Under?, Music Instruments, New York, Performers, Recordings

Various Artists: the language of

Various Artists – the language of

QUIET DESIGN RECORDS


the language of is a compilation CD of ten pieces by eight emerging composers in NYC, many of whom are associated with the Wet Ink Ensemble.  Released by Quiet Design Records in Austin, TX, this compilation is a forward-thinking treatise on a constantly evolving new music scene.  The production, recording, and design chores were undertaken by the composers and their colleagues, thus comprising a very personalized aesthetic. the language of is an essential purchase, not only for its DIY approach, but because it contains a variety of exciting, well executed compositions.  And due to the wobbly legs of the music industry, resourceful composers could do well by using this CD as a business model.

There is an immediacy and yearning to the music featured on this CD.  The emotional content (which, of course, varies from piece to piece) is enhanced by the recording techniques used to create the myriad sound-worlds, an approach that is both startling and engaging.  There is not one ounce of sonic sterility that one might find on pristinely recorded chamber music CDs.  Many of the recording techniques used are in-your-face, close mic’d, compressed, and manipulated to each pieces’ ambient requirements.  Some of the pieces that most represent traditional chamber music are ambient mic’d, a representation that provides a bird’s-ear-view (sorry about that one) for the listener, or an aural realism, if you will.   The variety of production from piece to piece is therefore more akin to the world of rock, jazz, and experimental music.  The packaging, designed by composer Clara Latham, is an attractive and environmentally friendly cardboard cover that features nothing in the form of liner notes (this may be one of my only complaints, but it definitely adds a veil of mystery to the release).

A brief overview of each piece follows after the break: (more…)

CDs, Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, File Under?, Los Angeles, New York, Orchestras

Tonight at BAM: US Premiere of work by Enrico Chapela at Brooklyn’s Nuevo Latino Festival

Saturday night at 8 pm, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, under the direction of Michael Christie, gives the US premiere of Enrico Chapela’s Noctámbulos, a piece for rock trio and orchestra. Chapela will also participate in a panel discussion on Latin American Identity in Music at 4:30 (details below).

Chapela is a composer on the rise; Boosey and Hawkes added him to their roster in 2008 and he’s recently received several high profile commissions. I spoke with him on Thursday about the BAM event and his other activities. Born in Mexico, he started out his musical career as a rock guitarist, playing SXSW with a band in the nineties. He currently resides in Paris, where he’s finished a Master’s degree at the University of Paris and is pursuing a Ph.D. His dissertation topic is the two-hundred year history of symphonic music in Mexico.

An earlier version of Noctámbulos, titled Lo Nato es Neta, can be heard on Chapela’s debut CD, Antagonica. Lo Nato es Neta is scored for rock trio and acoustic quintet. Chapela readily acknowledges the cross-pollination present in the work, “It explores a wide range of rock styles – everything from metal to Pink Floyd to King Crimson.” I hear a fair bit of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in its juxtaposition of rock solos with angular melodic fragments, spiky post-tonal verticals, and Stravinskyian ostinati.

The piece was entered in a composition competition, but didn’t place. Happily, one of the judges dissented from the majority and separately arranged a commission for the Dresden Sinfoniker. The result: Noctámbulos, a revisioning of Lo Nato es Neta that features the rock trio as concerto soloists. It also incorporates more improvisation.

This is an exciting time for Chapela. He’s playing the guitar part in the premiere. Simultaneously, he’s working hard to finish a commission for the LA Philharmonic. “At first, I thought it would be too much to be the solo guitarist at the Brooklyn Philharmonic performances while trying to finish the piece for LA. But then I realized, who could ask for a better gig than this? Between practicing and writing, I told my wife to not expect to see me much for a couple of months!”

CROSSING BORDERS: A discussion on Latin American identity in music

Saturday, January 31, 2009 / BAM Hillman Attic Studio, at 4:00PM

Moderated by Carmen Helena Téllez / Invited panelists: Gabriela Lena Frank, Enrico Chapela, and Paul Desenne

NUEVO LATINO MAINSTAGE – Saturday January 31, 2009 at 8:00 PM

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House

Michael Christie, conductor; Virginie Robilliard, violin; Chapela Trio; Enrico Chapela, guitar; Jesús Lara, bass; Luis Miguel Costero, drums

Gabriela Lena Frank: Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout (NY Premiere of string orchestra version)

Paul Desenne: The Two Seasons (NY Premiere)

Enrico Chapela: Noctámbulos (US Premiere)