I must confess that I had never heard of pianist Bruce Levingston until he called me a couple of weeks ago. That is clearly an oversight on my part since a couple of minutes of googling reveals him to be a man of considerable resources, owner of a celebrity-stuffed Rolodex and impeccable taste–a kind of latter day combination of Paul Sacher and Peter Duchin.  Which would explain, of course, why he’s been under my radar for so long. Levingston is the force behind the Premiere Commission, Inc., a non-profit organization that, as the name implies, supports the commissioning and first performances of new works. The organization was founded in 2001 with

 Music by Lee Hoiby, performed by Andrew Garland and Lee Hoiby  [youtube]5wqnPjkqu20[/youtube] 550,000 views and counting. 

After Austrian born composer and conductor Peter Paul Fuchs died about a year ago in North Carolina our English home Pliable wrote two short tributes to him On An Overgrown Path with John McLaughlin Williams. Fuchs’ widow saw the tributes and supplied Bob with previously unpublished biographical material and photos.   To mark the first anniversary of Fuchs’ passing, Pliable published a new profile at On An Overgrown Path and on Wikipedia (which had no entry for him) using this material.  And here’s some good news:  Scott Unrein has revived his Nonpop Music podcast and blog.  We alll know Brian Eno but how many of you

Elizabeth Brown and other cutting-edge stuff coming up at the Issue Project Room… All kinds of funny business going on at the Brooklyn Philharmonic, world premiere by Susan Oetgen coming up there… Philadelphia Biblical University pays tribute (5 April) to the late composer Harry Hewitt (no better link, I’m afraid)… 13 April–tribute to women composers from Musique a la Mode – some GREAT performers on this one… Alarm Will Sound has a call for scores for NYC-area composers. Huzzah! Deadline: 1 April, y’all… Okay, my conscience (and inbox) is clear.

The Keys to the Future festival, at Greenwich House’s Renee Weiler Concert Hall, presents 3 consecutive nights of recent solo piano music – each concert features 4 pianists. The fundamental premise of this festival is that the contemporary scene is characterized by unprecedented diversity, and that that is a good thing. On these poly-stylistic programs, sometimes the only thing that two given pieces on one of our programs have in common is that they are notated and contemporary. I prefer this to a concert of works all in the same style – when a post-minimalist work follows an atonal modernist

The world has always been violent, hence the classical desire to restrain the beast within.   But is this kind of art enough when the world seems to spin out of control more and more each day, with headlines soaked in blood, and anger and distrust every way you turn? Should art address disjunction/disconnection, or should it act like Bocaccio, who entertained his guests with stories while the plague raged outside his door? These are essential questions, and The San Francisco Ballet’s four- work Program 5, which I caught Saturday evening 15 March at the Opera House, seemed whether consciously or not,

Eclairs Sur L’Au-dela.  Messiaen.  Simon.  Berlin.  Joshua Light Show. And to all Blue Devils fans:  Sorry, suckers.

The Keys to the Future festival, at Greenwich House’s Renee Weiler Concert Hall, presents 3 consecutive nights of recent solo piano music – each concert features 4 pianists. The fundamental premise of this festival is that the contemporary scene is characterized by unprecedented diversity, and that that is a good thing. On these poly-stylistic programs, sometimes the only thing that two given pieces on one of our programs have in common is that they are notated and contemporary. I prefer this to a concert of works all in the same style – when a post-minimalist work follows an atonal modernist