Chamber Music America has announced the following spring grant opportunities.

· New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development offers support for the creation and performance of new chamber works by U.S. jazz ensembles. This program also funds activities that extend the life of the work and encourages the development of career-related business skills. Deadline: March 9, 2012

· Classical Commissioning provides support to U.S. ensembles and presenters for commissions of new chamber works. Grants are made for commissioning fees, copying costs and ensemble rehearsal honoraria. Compositions must be written for small ensembles (2 to 10 musicians) performing one to a part, and may represent a diverse musical spectrum, including contemporary art music, world music, and works that include electronics. Deadline: April 6, 2012

Grant preparation workshops are offered in CMA’s New York City office, and nationally via teleconference, in advance of deadlines.

Upcoming workshops are: New Jazz Works (February 22) Classical Commissioning (February 29 and March 7)

All workshops take place from 3:00-4:00 PM (Eastern Time). RSVP by email is required (please indicate if attending in person or via teleconference). For more information or to reserve for a workshop, please contact: Susan Dadian, program director, CMA Classical/Contemporary Jeanette Vuocolo, program director, CMA Jazz.

We in the West like to think that music is a series of narrative events about me.  How did I, the composer or performer, feel today? Was I happy or sad? It’s more or less high drama all the time and the romantic tradition is, of course, all about the individual.  In the East things are different.  Or are they? These ideas came to mind when I caught the the Silk Road Ensemble Iranian kamancheh (spike fiddle) virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor and his drummer Behrouz Jamali, on tombak, performing a demanding 88 minute intermission-less program of Persian classical music, which the California Institute of Integral Studies presented on a crisp February evening at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre.  Philip Glass performed a similar marathon feat when he gave a 70 minute interval-free recital of his piano pieces at the city’s Novellus Theatre last year.

In both cases the music was clearly about time and its uses. Persian music operates as a very specific and highly balanced calibration of time as a fleeting yet permanent force. The closest thing in our tradition is the Baroque which demands an acute sensitivity to touch and line from the performer. How one realizes the unfolding melodic gestures in Persian modes–one, as in raga, is explored up close–separates the men from the boys. Kalhor, who’s been performing his country’s music since age 7, clearly knows his way around this block. His smooth and sustained bowing exploited the music’s quarter tone resonances–each mode contains 24 tones–and suggested a viola da gamba at times, with harp-like and reedy effects which he played as ornaments near his instrument’s double pegged top. Slow passages alternated with infrequent vigorous ones, though Jamali, who spent most of the time on the rug-draped space they shared like an enthralled devotee, supplied no gravitas and precious little rhythmic charge. Contemplative music from the West or East can pull the audience in, as did Jordi Savall and late great singer Montserrat Figueras and artists from both traditions as they did in their astonishing concert DVD/CD Jerusalem–City of Two Peaces,  recorded in Fes Morocco.  Drama–meaning something that excites the nerves and awakens the heart–should not be relegated to the legit stage.

The program’s ostensible subtext was the great Sufi poet Rumi whose poems chart the soul’s separation from and desire to connect with human love in order to reach the all-encompassing divine. The audience here responded warmly though not with the same ardor with which they embraced the  great Iraqi oud player and composer Rahim Al Haj at a previous CIIS concert. And audience response is always the litmus lest. As my late composer friend Virgil Thomson quipped when someone asked him what the best criticism is: “Loud and continued applause.”  Music should take us to heaven, and if we don’t feel it fully we’re just on a smaller, less exalted cloud.

He looked like a movie star, perfectly handsome and so elegant in every way. As a kid growing up in Cleveland with parents in the orchestra there under the great George Szell, I heard Rudolf Firkušný play almost every season. I remember several Mozart and Beethoven concerti, Dvořák, Janáček and Martinů, always played with great beauty of sound and unimpeachable conviction and style.

Rudolf Firkušný was a remarkable artist. Superb touch and sense of rhythm, and such a beautiful line was always evident in his playing. I remember as a child splashing with him in the pool in Aspen, where he was a colleague of my parents. He was Uncle Rudi to me then.  Many years later when my agent suggested that we play duo recitals, I was delighted but was a little apprehensive about if I would be able to have a true grown-up relationship with him. He made it so easy! I was treated with acceptance from him as though I was on his level as an artist. This was remarkable because, in fact, he was light years ahead of me in experience and musical knowledge. Years before, when I was in the Cleveland Orchestra with George Szell, Rudi would come almost every season to play Mozart and early Beethoven concerti as soloist. I remember thinking distinctly then that he was ideal in this repertoire and that he perhaps just wasn’t up to playing the big romantic concertos. Boy, was I surprised to hear him, years after I left the orchestra, play in New York the Brahms D minor concerto! It was huge and powerful beyond measure. I saw a completely new side of this great artist. Touring and playing with this gentle giant was one of the most memorable experiences of my early career.

—Lynn Harrell, cellist

Firkušný grew up in the same city as Janáček and studied with him. He was also a close friend of Martinů and a champion of his music, some of which was written for Firkušný. He played Dvořák, Mozart and Beethoven as if he knew them personally, as well.

I met Rudolf Firkušný for the first time at Carnegie Hall in New York when I was travelling as an assistant conductor to Vaclav Neumann on a concert tour with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. I remember vividly how warm and friendly Rudolf ‘ s approach was to a young musician!  I immediately knew that I have met a wonderful soul and this impression was made even stronger later by our collaboration on stage — I was fortunate to accompany him in Dvořák’s and Martinů’s concertos. When he had learned that I was already an admirer of the work of Martinů, he gave me many precious impulses to a deeper understanding of his music. We met then in Prague also a few times privately and it was always a pure pleasure and delight to be in his company.

—Jiri Belohlavek, conductor

One of the great perks of playing in the Emerson String Quartet for 35 years is to have had the great honor and pleasure of making music with some of my childhood heroes. Rudolf Firkušný played with the Cleveland Orchestra under Szell during the years I was growing up, trying to learn how to play the violin and baseball (not necessarily in that order). Later, I was thrilled to have the chance to collaborate with Firkušný, but only twice. We performed a Mozart Piano Quartet and Dvořák’s Piano Quintet at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and we also performed together in Montpellier, France.

We did play with Firkušný more than once and I always loved his playing–an aristocratic musician. I attended a wonderful recital of his once in which the piano lid slammed down just as he played the very last chord of the program. That was only one reason the program was unforgettable. He was also a lovely guy and very well read. He turned me on to someone who became one of my favorite authors, Bohumil Hrabal. “Too Loud a Solitude” is about a man who compacts trash for 35 years and hides books in the trash from the government. Lovely idea to honor Firkušný. 

—Arnold Steinhardt, violinist, Guarneri String Quartet

He was a delight to work with, soft-spoken and very kind, but also very funny. Like every performer I’ve met (or seen on talk shows), he had great stories to tell and he spun them perfectly. This was quite early in our career and we were young and relatively inexperienced, but he treated us as equals and the performances went well. I remember we all went to dinner after the concert in Montpellier and listened to him talk about Szell, Janáček and Martinů. I wish we had had more opportunities to work with him.

I was fortunate to have studied with Mr. Firkušný for four years (1990-94) at the Juilliard School. This was a genuine privilege. Lessons with him were always in a relaxed atmosphere while Mr. Firkušný remained highly concentrated, attentive, and observant, his remarks most valuable and enlightening, his suggestions clear and revealing.  His understanding and interpretation of music were a blend of deep knowledge integrated with some enigmatic, inexplicable insight with which only few artists are endowed. The piano repertoire of Mr. Firkušný was wide and varied, but I had the impression that, above all, he loved Czech music, being the country of his origin and early education. He frequently spoke with fervor of its beauty, culture, and peculiarities of its music. Leos Janáček was his teacher and he loved to perform his works. Mr. Firkušný was for me the embodiment of an exceptional personality, and not only in the realm of music. He had a most agreeable mood, elegant demeanor, and great empathy to human needs, always ready to extend help, to meet others’ requests, to understand and to be considerate. His passing away symbolized the way of his life. Quietly and tacitly did he depart with the modesty and reticence that were so typical of his character and nature. 

—Avner Arad, pianist and student of Firkušný

I vividly remember hearing three great pianists play one after the other at the memorial concert for Isaac Stern in Carnegie Hall. Joseph Kalichstein, Yefim Bronfman and Emmanuel Ax each played a movement of chamber music, all from the classical and romantic periods, on the same instrument. Each of these pianists is known for his tone, his “touch.” Although they all played beautifully, it was striking how different each one sounded from the other.

To know Rudolf Firkušný was a rare privilege, especially for a younger musician: he was a shining proof that a great pianist can be elegant, aristocratic yet humble, kind and generous to his fellow musicians, young and old. He found the right path of speaking with conviction and expression, yet with astounding simplicity and lack of anything extraneous. A prince! 

—Joseph Kalichstein, pianist, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio

He was one of the most wonderful representatives of great European tradition, beautiful sound, and clear understanding of different styles. Not only Czech music, for which he was well known, but I also heard him in great performances of others, especially Beethoven!  Off stage he was a most generous and humble person.

—Yefim Bronfman, pianist and student of Firkušný

What is it that makes a finger depressing a key which sends a hammer to hit metal strings have a particular sound and color? When I hear recordings of Firkušný and remember how he sounded in concert, or how he sounded next to me in his apartment in New York, what I react to first and foremost is his sound. He clearly had his own voice and it was a gorgeous one.

Although music always came first, he loved having my brother and me around as much as possible. As a Dad he had a wonderful sense of humor and was extremely generous and supportive… and totally indulgent! Our mother always had to be the disciplinarian. He encouraged us in all our musical explorations but never pressured. He left us with a lifelong love of music, an optimistic outlook and magnificent, happy memories. 

—Veronique Firkušný, daughter of Rudolf Firkušný

It is both strange and wonderful to see or hear something recorded of loved ones who have left us. My parents live on in the recordings they made. Rudolf Firkušný would have been 100 years old on February 11, 2012. Recordings have preserved the legacy of his refined artistry and that exquisite piano sound, his “touch.” From those recordings and the fond memories of the many people who knew and loved him, he has achieved and deserves immortality.

Philip Setzer is a member of the Emerson String Quartet and Professor at Stony Brook University

As I alluded in an earlier post, Washington, D.C.’s new music scene has been exploding lately.  Part of that explosion comes courtesy of Kathleen Supove, who on Tuesday will be performing one of her “Exploding Piano” programs at the new music series at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (full disclosure: I’m that series’ curator).  In anticipation of this event, I’ve asked Kathy to write a few words about her program:

With so much of the new music buzz being (deservedly) sucked up by the Ecstatic Music Festival right now, I wanted to make sure that the S21 faithful know about what looks to be a great evening coming up on February 10 at 9 pm at Joe’s Pub, featuring three of “hottest” musician/composers around.

Todd Reynolds, dubbed by ur…me, “the Eric Clapton of the electronically souped up violin,” will perform a few works from his album Outerborough, which was named Amazon’s Best Classical release of 2011, and also perform with the British cellist Peter Gregson,  who has collaborated with Tod Machover and Max Richter, among many other luminaries. He will be marking the first US performance of Nonclassical’s latest release, Cello Multitracks (written by Gabriel Prokofiev), which he premiered in London in 2011.  Prokofiev, who is also in the US for the world premiere of his latest orchestral work, has gained a unique status as an innovative, far-reaching figure within British contemporary music. His work as a composer has brought instruments such as turntables, electric guitars, and oil drums, to high profile concerts including the BBC Proms, earning him critical acclaim in the process. Meanwhile, as a DJ Prokofiev has carved a singular reputation, playing to audiences at the New York Met and around the world, combining his background in urban music production with a passion for 20th and 21st century classical music.

Book it, Dano…