Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals

The Show-Me State puts on a show

Mention of our composer pal Jeremy Podgursky a couple days ago brought this late word (but better late than never, right?):

Gary Kass wrote to tell us about the inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, which starts tomorrow (Monday), July 12th, at the University of Missouri and runs the whole darn week. Quite a lot happening: five big concerts and lots of open rehearsals;  two great guest composers (Martin Bresnick and Derek Bermel); eight resident composers getting world premieres (Francisco Cortés-Álvarez, Christopher Dietz, Paul Dooley, Moon Young Ha, Edie Hill, Amy Beth Kirsten, Jeremy Podgursky, Zhou Juan); stellar ensemble Alarm Will Sound, pianist Lisa Moore, the Missouri Symphony Society Music Ensemble led by Kirk Trevor; resident, guest and faculty (including MU composer and festival organizer Stefan Freund) presentations and meet-ups… the website will give you a full rundown on times, pieces, performers and composers, and their blog provides lots of extra goodies.  Here’s hoping for a good run, all success, and that we’ll be talking about a second round come next year!

by Steve Layton
Contemporary Classical

Win Tickets to the Lincoln Center Festival’s Varèse: (R)evolution

As you know if you read Christian Carey’s earlier piece,  Lincoln Center Festival’s Varèse: (R)evolution will present the composer’s entire oeuvre over two concerts on July 19 & 20. Performers include the New York Philharmonic, conductor Alan Gilbert, percussionist Steven Schick, and ICE. We have two pairs of tickets to give away for one of the performances. Because we have so many smart people who read S21 and the first answer is usually right, I’m going to take the names of all the people with the right answer, put them on a slip of paper, and have my unsuspecting next door neighbor pull one out of a Yankees cap.

Here’s your tossup:  Varese’s 1906 Un Grand Sommeil Noir is titled after a poem by Paul Verlaine and suggests (to me, at least) the title of a 1995 film about Rimbaud and Verlaine.   What is the title of that film and who played Verlaine?

You can get your name in the cap twice by answering this bonus question.  What female composer wrote 21 pieces based on Verlaine poems?

by Jerry Bowles
Chamber Music, Concerts, New York, NPR, Radio, Twentieth Century Composer

ICE plays Varèse: Tonight on Q2

 

The International Contemporary Ensemble will be featured at 7 PM tonight on Q2. Hosted by John Schaefer, this live broadcast from Yamaha Piano Salon in NYC is a sneak preview of Lincoln Center Festival’s Varèse: (R)evolution.

(R)evolution will present the composer’s entire oeuvre over two concerts on July 19 &20. Performers include the New York Philharmonic, conductor Alan Gilbert, percussionist Steven Schick, and ICE.

Program:
Density 21.5 (1936) with Claire Chase, flute
Un Grand Sommeil Noir (1906) with Samantha Malk, soprano
Ameriques (NEW YORK PREMIERE of 8-hand piano version) (1929) with Jacob Greenberg, Amy Williams, Amy Briggs and Thomas Rosenkranz

Q2 and ICE have been kind enough to share a freebie that all the new music kids will be adding to their Droid/iPhone/Blackberrys: a Poème Électronique ringtone!

by Christian Carey
Brooklyn, Chamber Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, New York

Nonsense or Sorcery?%#*!

Jeremy Podgursky — one of the composers we liked so much that he ended being selected for our last S21 concert presentation — is throwing a joint shindig with fellow composer Daniel Wohl, this Thursday July 8th, 7:00pm at the littlefield performance/art space (622 Degraw Street, between 3rd and 4th Avenue, Brooklyn), $8.00.

Performers include Sara Budde, clarinet; Emily Popham Gillins, violin; John Popham, cello; Kevin Sims, percussion; Bethany Pietroniro and Timo Andres, piano; and more TBA. Podgursky and Wohl will be splitting the bill alternating their way through nine works in all,  featuring recent small ensemble, electronic/electro-acoustic and solo pieces. Two excellent composers, nine excellent pieces, a whole posse of excellent performers, quite the value for the small tix price.

by Steve Layton
Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Events, Opera, Orchestras

Some thoughts (but mostly questions)

The last thing that Alan Gilbert or the New York Philharmonic needs is another affirmation that they have done something important and memorable by producing Le Grand Macabre in May.  There were three (perhaps more?) New York Times articles over 11 days (May 18th, 23rd, 28th), an nice summary over on Anne Midgette’s Washington Post blog, and from just a few days ago there was this over at Newsweek.  Of course our own site added to the frenzy of press/buzz here, here, here, here, here, here, and here – and with good reason!  I’m quite happy to throw my hat in the camp who counts themselves lucky to be one of the few to see this amazing production.  It was everything that I had hoped it would be, and I even got a fancy collectors-edition-style booklet of the libretto with the program.

Some time has gone by since the production (I’m late on my contribution to this, as per my usual), I think it’s enough for me to say that I thought it was great, and to move on to some questions.

After reading all of the press about the production, it seems that everyone who saw it easily and quickly deemed it a huge success.  But I’d love to know if the Philharmonic thought it was a success!  All three nights sold-out, but we know that a sold-out show doesn’t necessarily mean success.  Le Grand Macabre was without question an unusual and elaborate production and must have come with a tremendous expense – just watch this video.  All the extra marketing, and YouTube videos; all the lighting and projections and costumes; (presumably) all the extra rehearsals and percussion instruments; etc, etc, etc.  I think the big question is: was this a successful enough event that the Philharmonic will continue these kinds of productions in the future? Was dealing with disgruntled subscribers worth it?  Was the cost of the “spectacle” worth it?  Was all the marketing and rogue videos worth it?

Of course I hope that the answer to all of these questions is yes.  I would love to see the New York Philharmonic continue to support contemporary music the way it has since Mr. Gilbert has arrived.  It’s clear that he feels very strongly about new music: he brought in Magnus Lindberg, started the Contact! series, and made this incredible Ligeti production happen.  I want to know what else he has planned and what else the Philharmonic is willing and capable of doing.  But, it seems that a lot of it depends on whether or not the Philharmonic thought Macabre was a success.

by James Holt
Chamber Music, Classical Music, Concert review, Contemporary Classical

The astounding success of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time

There’s yet another new music series here in San Diego: Connections Chamber Music. I reported earlier this year on their concert featuring Reich, John Adams, Daugherty, and Matthew Tommasini (the series director). For their last concert, they programmed the Quartet for the End of Time. Before I went to the concert, I marvelled at how I’ve heard the Quartet more frequently than plenty of 19th century chamber works just as great such as Beethoven’s op. 132. And–well, read my thoughts and review of the concert here.

by Christian Hertzog
Composers

Jason Robert Brown, Copyright, and Who Wins or Loses from Web Piracy

Jason Robert Brown, composer of Parade and lots of other excellent musical theater music, has a valuable post on his blog today about his attempts to persuade internet “traders” from illegally offering his sheet music for download for free. Brown joined one of the peer-to-peer communities that had a lot of his work listed and contacted about 400 users, politely asking them to stop offering his material. Most complied, some had no idea what he was talking about, and a few resisted. The issue of who benefits and who loses from the widespread distribution of his work is raised in a lengthy exchange he had with a teenage girl named Brenna…ur, Eleanor… which provides some insights into both perspectives of the copyright debate.

I know a lot of composers who are pleased to allow people to download their music free and distribute it to whomever they like because they believe doing so provides exposure to their work and grows their “brand” (to use an overused marketing term). Others believe their music is their intellectual property and they should be paid for any use. Where you stand seems to depend upon how commercially “successful” you are. If you’re relatively unknown and there is little demand for your music, giving it away is a great strategy. If there is a market demand for your work in various forms, it’s not.

Who has thoughts on this topic?

by Jerry Bowles