Contemporary Classical

Concerts, Contemporary Classical, New York

From “Quasi Una Fantasia” to “Our Basic Nature”

Here in New York we are on the cusp of another great week of concerts.  Check out as many of these as possible.

Sunday, December 5th – Two concerts at Galapagos:

1) at 4:30 the Chiara Quartet will play Gorecki’s 2nd quartet, Quasi Una Fantasia, and will premiere a new piece by Huang Ruo, Calligraffiti, which features projected video art by Seattle-based video artist Juniper Shuey.  2) and at 7:00, American Opera Projects and Opera on Tap present a show titled Sex, Cigarettes and Psychopaths (a Night of Laughs).  There will be scenes from Matt Marks’ serial killer song-cycle The Adventures of Albert Fish, Daniel Felsenfeld’s collection of comedic sex songs called La BoneMe, among other sex(y) scenes.  More information about each of these shows here.

Monday, December 6th at Miller Theatre:

First the good news: The Talea Ensemble performs the music of Boulez for the Miller Theatre Composer Portrait concert at 8pm.  Now the bad news: it’s sold out!  However, if you weren’t lucky enough to get your Boulez tickets in time, you can check out the MIVOS quartet at 9:30 at The Tank.  They’ll be performing Wolfgang Rihm and Carl Bettendorf, which is pretty cool, too!

Wednesday, December 8th at Zebulon:

The bagpipe master Matt Welch, and his group Blarvuster will release their self-titled CD at 8pm.  This show is free, folks, so make sure you pick up the new disc while you’re there.  More info here.

Thursday, December 9th on the Upper West Side:

The Metropolis Ensemble (who were just nominated for a Grammy!) will be presenting an intimate performance called, It takes a long time to become a good composer, featuring Timo Andres on piano.  You’ll want to get your tickets for this one early if you can; they’ve already added extra shows on the 10th and 11th and one night is already sold out.  More information about the show here.

Friday, December 10th at WNYC’s Greene Space:

American Opera Projects presents a workshop performance of John Glover’s one-act monodrama opera, Our Basic Nature.  Fans of WNYC’s Radiolab might recall an episode entitled “Lucy”; this opera was inspired by that show, and the libretto (by dramaturg Kelley Rourke) is taken from the memoir written by the scientist that raised a chimpanzee as his daughter.  The music will be performed by Redshift, pianist Jocelyn Dueck, and baritone Andrew Wilkowske, with projections by Erik Pearson.  More information about the show here.

by James Holt
Concerts, Contemporary Classical, New York

CDE Grooves

Its not often I leave a new music concert and my ears are ringing, but Friday night’s performance of the University of Michigan Contemporary Directions Ensemble (CDE) pumped up the volume with works by Jefferson Friedman, Stephen Hartke and Bang-On-A-Can founders Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon.

The evening started off with Mr. Friedman’s 78 for pierrot ensemble, an upbeat mixed meter groove centering around a repetitive riff alternatively appearing in minor and major modes. As CDE conductor Christopher James Lees explained in his pre-concert remark, the program was designed to explore the “New York” sound, because the featured composers either live in New York now or grew up there. Maestro Lees noted the confluence of rock, jazz and contemporary music that surrounded these composers as they developed their mature sound. 78 clearly connected to these roots with its syncopated, pentatonic theme juxtaposed against the inside-the-piano techniques and extended tertian harmonies of a soft chorale. The work proved to be an excellent starting point for the concert because its successors carried these populist and eclectic tendencies to opposite extremes.

For example, Stephen Hartke’s violin duo Oh Them Rats Is Mean In My Kitchen amplified the allusion to jazz and other improvised music with a free-flowing structure and a textural dichotomy of solo-accompaniment or rhythmic/melodic unity. Oh Them Rats most elegant demonstrates the connection between these composers and the modernism of the 1970s and 60s with its balance between bluesy melodies and dissonant harmonies. The arc of the work, in fact, expressed a subtle emergence of the blues scale as a primary melodic source from beginning to end. Accordingly, the piece climaxed with a smeared blues-scale melody played by both violins but out of tune and asynchronously such that it sounded like shoddy overdubbing on an old Muddy Waters record.

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by Garrett Schumann
Contemporary Classical

The Guerilla Orchestra!

‘If the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain’.

To rephrase less eloquently, if people won’t go to concert halls bring the concert hall to them. Here in a snowy UK The Guerilla Orchestra plan to do just that.

On Friday December the 10th at 6pm orchestras will spontaneously appear in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff and Liverpool, perform Lalo Schifrin’s Mission Impossible, pack up and leave. The venues will be shopping centres, squares, high streets, parks, wherever.

The aim isn’t just to confront ordinary folk with something mysterious and unfamiliar (an orchestra) but to protest against wide ranging cuts in music education in the UK (the new Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government have targeted virtually every public expense in attempt to reduce our somewhat paunchy deficit).

Guerilla-in-chief Heather Bird, an orchestral musician and teacher, studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. She’s concerned about how future generations will be able to afford a music degree without the government subsidies she benefited from. If the planned cuts go ahead university tuition fees are expected to rise from around £3000 ($4700) to between £6000-9000 ($9450-$14,200) per year and many local arts organisations and music outreach projects will lose their funding.

“What the axing of all funding to higher education arts institutes says is that art is not important. What we do is not valid. That music plays no valuable part in this society. Of course this is ludicrous. There is no incentive for kids to practice, put in the hard work and dedication if they have no possibility of paying tens of thousands of pounds to go to somewhere like the RNCM.

I went to the RNCM and there’s no way I would have been able to go if I’d had to pay such fees. I had free double bass lessons as a kid and would not have been able to play or attend the heavily subsidised Cumbria Youth Orchestra courses if I’d have had to pay for them. So I would not have been doing what I love today, or teaching kids to do the same.”

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by Ed Lawes
Competitions, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York

Sequenza 21/MNMP Call for Scores

Call for Scores:

Deadline: January 31, 2011

The contemporary classical music website Sequenza 21 (https://www.sequenza21.com), in partnership with Manhattan New Music Project (http://www.mnmp.org/), is pleased to issue a call for scores. Composers of any age may submit a single work with the following instrumentation: violins (2), viola, cello, piano, and percussion. Works for smaller groupings (solos, duos, trios, etc.) that employ the above instruments are especially welcome.  In the interest of performing as many entries as possible, pieces that are shorter in duration may be preferred.

Several pieces will be selected from these entries for our 2011 concert in New York City (date/location TBA), performed by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble – ACME (http://acmemusic.org). The program committee will include Christian Carey (Sequenza 21), Clarice Jensen (ACME), and Hayes Biggs (Manhattan School of Music).

There is no entry fee. There is also no remuneration apart from the performance. Those composers selected for the concert will be responsible for their own travel and accommodations should they wish to attend the event.

Scores with CD recordings (if available) will be accepted at the address below until 5 PM on Monday, January 31, 2011. Please do not send parts at this time. Materials will be returned if accompanied by an SASE with appropriate postage.

Sequenza 21/MNMP 2011 concert

c/o

MNMP

243 West 30th Street,

Suite 500,

New York, NY 10001

Summary

Deadline: 5 PM on January 31, 2011 (receipt of materials; not postmark deadline)

Age limit: none

Entry fee: none

Limitations: only one (1) work per entrant will be considered.

Instrumentation: vlns (2), vla, clo, pno, perc

Prize: a New York performance by ACME, sponsored by Sequenza 21 and MNMP.

Return of materials: With SASE

Submitted works that do not conform to the above guidelines cannot be considered for inclusion on the program.

by Christian Carey
Awards, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

And the Grammy nominees are…

The 53rd Annual Grammy nominations have been announced (list of nominees in the Classical category here). Lots of contemporary classical represented, even in the more general categories.

Congratulations to Steve Mackey and Michael Daugherty: both are up for Best Classical Album. The ensembles that recorded their works, BMOP and the Nashville SO, respectively, are also up for Best Orchestral Performance.

Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin was nominated in the Opera category, while Magnus Lindberg’s Graffiti and Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No. 4 were both nominated for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

Also glad to see the Sherry Quartet’s recording of Schoenberg and the Parker Quartet’s Ligeti disc (both on Naxos) receiving nominations.

There’s much more. And, of course, there will always be omissions that dismay us. Particularly so in 2010: this was a good year for recordings!

by Christian Carey
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Live From Ann Arbor: Chapter 2A

The University of Michigan’s final student composers’ concert of 2010 took place this last Monday, November 29, in Stamps Auditorium, part of the University’s Walgreen Drama Center. This collection of performances was unexpected; so many composers submitted material for November 15’s composers’ concert, a brief third concert of the term was necessary.

Whereas the concert earlier this month was unique with its multiple composer-performers, Monday’s event possessed a more subtle distinction: a strong stylistic dichotomy emerged among the works, essentially pitting modernist and traditional forces in opposition to each other. From a qualitative standpoint, I found this duality inconsequential because all of the evening’s acoustic works had something in common: they expressed their structures with the recurrence of clearly identifiable themes. Although the two electronic pieces on the concert used different formal techniques, they also contained clear and satisfying dramatic lines. As a result, I felt the evening’s music was tied together despite the starkly contrasting musical tastes presented on the program.

First on the concert was Bret Bohman’s she comes back as fire (2010), a three-movement work for string quartet. This piece is the complete version of something I heard, and reviewed, in October at Michigan’s and I was happy to reacquaint myself with the first movement’s unforgettable midsection – an aria where the first violin saunters in its highest register above a placid accompaniment. The rest of the piece explores and culminates material from the first movement, varying the music’s atmosphere little even though new content is introduced. Ultimately, Mr. Bohman references the memorable first violin solo in she comes back as fire’s final movement, but the surrounding music is too chaotic for its reappearance to establish a sense of repose. Mr, Bohman used his themes economically, which illuminated much of the work’s structure on the first listen. I am also sure further interaction with she comes back as fire would, more deeply, reveal a tightly wound and efficient network of musical material.

Next on the program was Patrick Behnke’s viola and violin duet, Miranda at the Edge of the Water (2010). Mr. Behnke currently studies viola at the University of Michigan and delivered a fine performance alongside violinist Jordan Broder. Loosely based on certain Indian rhythmic modes, Miranda at the Edge of the Water proceeded in a pseudo-improvisatory manner from an opening drone through a variety of dance-like passages and finally back to the static beginning, which evoked Mr. Behnke’s South Asian influences. I say “pseudo improvisatory” because the piece progressed like a stream-of-conscientiousness, and the violin and viola alternated the responsibility of leading the duo to its next musical destination, often via imitation. Mr. Behnke’s note explained connections not just to Indian music, but to Bela Bartok and Jimi Hendrix as well; yet, I heard another association – Arvo Pärt’s tintinnabulation. One of the few recurring sections featured a modal melody accompanied by its supporting triad. Particularly at the end of Miranda at the Edge of the Water, this technique gave the music a reverent and meditative quality, fitting Mr. Behnke’s description, “the violin ascends to the heavens. All is over.”

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by Garrett Schumann
Contemporary Classical, File Under?, The Business

Stocking stuffers online: Sony’s Ariama

The latest vendor to wade into the online sales arena is Sony’s Ariama. The site’s “public beta” version was recently unveiled. That means that the store is up and running, although they’re still tweaking things and making additions.

More than fifty major and indie classical labels have already signed up to sell their catalogs on Ariama. There are several purchasing options available, including MP3, lossless digital (at a higher price), CDs, and SACDs. This past week, I went on to the site to “kick the tires,” making a few purchases and checking on its search engine and offerings. A few observations:

The interface is attractive and updated regularly. Andriessen’s Grawemeyer win is currently featured on the splash page.

Reviews and artist data are provided by one of my favorite database sites: Allmusic.

Searches ran easily and quickly. You can search through a variety of categories: Conductors, Performers, Orchestras, Periods, etc. A label search, like you find on Naxos, might be a nice addition.

There is also a consumer-friendly “Recommendations” section. It includes listings for the BBC Music Magazine Awards, Gramophone’s Basic Library, and even “Classical for Kids.” I was impressed with the way that Ariama incorporated features like this, which will help the classical neophyte to get started building a collection, with lots of other detailed information.

Downloading MP3s went smoothly: the Ariama tool is similar to the downloader one uses on Amazon or eMusic. It’s very straightforward to set up and use.

As an aside, I’m not quite sure why labels insist on charging a higher price for lossless. When the industry is still struggling to convert classical music buffs and audiophiles to the digital domain, it seems like a pennywise pound foolish decision.

There’s a very good selection of contemporary music. On my visit, I got a contemporary recital disc by pianist Mario Formenti, a Marco Stroppa disc, and Yvar Mikhashoff’s Tango album as a download.

Some imprints, like Kairos and Mode, only offer physical recordings (CD, SACD). While I love having physical copies of recordings, it’s best for vendors to be versatile and have both on offer. Hopefully, as Ariama gets more established, it will be able to offer downloads by more of the participating labels.

Pricing is fair. Most searches I ran side by side with Amazon ended up with identical prices. Ariama is currently offering free shipping as an introductory offer, which is a nice perk.

One aspect of the site’s searches that may prove vexsome to Sequenza 21 readers is its categorization of contemporary classical. In addition to the aforementioned search categories, the site divides music into periods, with more recent music being categorized as either Modern (1900-2000) or Contemporary (1975-present) categories. While one can already see a conflict in dating, the pages for each of these eras reveal some quirks. A CD of Chopin Waltzes recorded by Ingrid Fliter has inexplicably made its way onto the featured selections in the “Modern” category.

Over on the “Contemporary” side, the list of “Essential Works” leads off with Bernstein’s West Side Story (1957) and Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes (1948). The first of its featured releases is Yo-Yo Ma’s Songs of Joy recording. Released in 2008, this ecumenical holiday album is certainly of recent vintage, but it seems strange to be billing it as “contemporary music.” There is a separate category for crossover albums; seems this one was inadvertently placed in the wrong bin! They might consider getting some curatorial help on the this side of the site.

But how can contemporary classical buffs complain when Ariama is offering Sequenza 21 readers a special coupon good for 10% off your order? Here’s how it works:

To mark the launch of Ariama, Sequenza 21 readers in North America can receive 10% off any purchase by using the code SEQUENZA21-1 (the offer expires on December 31, 2010). To visit the store click this link: Ariama.com

by Christian Carey
ACO, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Contests

A Time & Place

This Friday, December 3rd, is the second concert of the season by the American Composers Orchestra at Zankel Hall.  This concert “explores composers’ reactions to specific moments, pinpointed and analyzed, which have inspired them to create something entirely new.”

The program is titled A Time & Place and includes four world premieres commissioned by ACO.  There is a new piece by Douglas J. Cuomo entitled Black Diamond Express Train to Hell that features cellist Maya Beiser as soloist.  The Fire at 4 a.m. is Jerome Kitzke’s homage to both the creative and ceremonial fires he has tended.  Christopher Trapani explores the concept of “the West” through country guitar timbres, West African music, and psychedelic California rock in his piece, Westering.  And Ryan Francis rounds out the new ACO commissions with High Line, winner of the ACO/LVMH “A Greener New York City” commission, which was inspired by New York City’s newest park.

Speaking of the High Line, you can submit your favorite photo of the High Line Park to win two free tickets to the concert.  There is more information about the contest here and here but the deadline it 11Pm Monday, November 29th (sorry for the late notice!).

The orchestra will also perform another piece inspired by New York’s iconic landscape: Charles Ives’ Central Park in the Dark, which depicts what one might hear on a summer night in the park.

by James Holt
Composers, Contemporary Classical, Deaths, File Under?

RIP Ann Southam (1937-2010)

We’re saddened to hear the news of Ann Southam’s death this past Thursday after a long battle with cancer. Southam was one of Canada’s foremost composers, an influential teacher at the Royal Conservatory, and longtime arts advocate, active in several groups which fostered contemporary music.

She received numerous honors during her distinguished career. Earlier this year, she was named a member of the Order of Canada.

Southam’s oeuvre encompassed several compositional styles and genres: twelve-tone music, lyrical Neoromanticism, electroacoustic music, and postminimalism. I particularly admire her writing for the piano and have included two videos of contrasting works for piano soloist below.

by Christian Carey
Contemporary Classical

If you’ve maxed out on football and turkey…

…surf over to our sister ship, Chamber Musician Today, and check out today’s menu.  We have the latest installment in violinist Marjorie Kransberg-Talvi’s remarkable continuing memoirs of growing up as an almost child prodigy driven by the dreams of a needy and demanding mother.  Her story is as riveting as it is painful.  Alison Lowell, aka oboetoast, has a piece about what you can learn from negative critiques (as in when a teacher you respect says “Oh, no,  I don’t think you’re conservatory material.”)   On a lighter note, Elaine Fine tells you where you can find the free sheet music for  Oh Vere Iss Mine Leedle Tog Gone and Other Funny Sings for Ukelele and Andy Hollanbeck (with a little help from me in the comments) ponders Christmas music that isn’t quite as crappy as the usual fare.  We’re hoping  you’ll add some suggestions to the comments.

If you register at CMT, you can blog there directly when you feel like it or add your existing blog, post musical events to the calendar, create a profile to promote yourself or your group, and generally make yourself taller and more attractive.   I launched the site as a lark a couple of months ago and it’s already built a decent-sized, loyal following.  I have no idea what to do with it next–maybe find a sponsor?  I’d like to give it to the Chamber Music America folks (with some strings attached) but haven’t been able to get anyone there to talk to me.  Anybody got an idea?

by Jerry Bowles