Bang on a Can, Boston, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Interviews, Performers, Podcasts

My Ears Are Open. This week: Evan Ziporyn

First, a quick introduction and thank you are in order.  My name is James Holt and I am a composer living in New York.  I started a podcast where I interview musicians specializing in performing contemporary music, and I ask them about their experiences with composers.  Simple. I want to thank Sequenza21 for inviting me to come on the site every couple weeks as a recurring feature to tell you about the new episodes.

This week is my interview with Evan Ziporyn…I’m sure that he’s someone who needs no introduction to most of the s21 audience, but just in case: Evan is probably best know as the clarinetist in the Bang on a Can All-Stars and as director of Gamelan Galak Tika.  He is also producing a new music festival in Boston called the Beeline Festival which happens to begin today if you’re in the area.

The easiest way to listen and subscribe to the podcast is through iTunes.  You can search the iTunes Store for “my ears are open” or click here to go there directly.  If you have any suggestions for musicians you’d like me to interview you can do that here (you’ll need a google account though).

I hope you enjoy this project as much as I do.  Coming up on April 19:  Alex Lipowski, percussionist.

by James Holt
Contemporary Classical, Scores

death of a music store

According to the FB post of composer Lanie Fefferman, Patelson’s Music Store in NYC is closing as of 4/18. I’m assuming this is not a faux rumor, and if I’m creating a false run on Patelson’s inventory, I apologize. Anyway, many of us grew up in a time where including a trip to Patelson’s, even if just for browsing scores, was de rigeur anytime we were in Manhattan. I’d go there all the time from NJ, and back in the 70’s and early 80’s, it wasn’t too expensive to purchase a score or two, some violin music, some notation paper and even some LPs.

Times change—the last time I was there scores were several times more expensive than anything I bought growing up. And there was very little in the way of contemporary music. Good luck trying to find much of anything by someone from the Downtown scene. Even music by Ginastera, Dallapiccola, Shapey and others usually was elusive. I do recall seeing a (very expensive) score by John Adams there on my last visit. But that’s it in terms of his oeuvre.

So is this a bad thing, the closing of Patelson’s? In many ways it is, since I still have some nostalgic interest in the place. And it’s hard for me to imagine growing up without access to new scores, notation paper, etc. However, in all honesty, Patelson’s hasn’t been on my radar for quite some time. As mentioned, the scores were now far out of my price range (although that’s not Patelson’s fault, but the fault of publishers and intellectual property restrictions), and the inventory wasn’t where my musical interests lay anymore. A lot of things are now available online. For pianists, it’s even very possible to use a computer and wireless pedals (as Hugh Sung is developing and distributing) to load PDFs of scores purchased online and turn pages without a human page turner.

The loss of Patelson’s was inevitable. And I have mixed feelings. What’s your take on this?

by David Toub
Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Festivals

A Preview of “SPOTLIGHT on Minimalism” – Sunday, April 5 7:30PM at Le Poisson Rouge

Keys to the Future will present an evening of Minimalist solo and duo piano works on Sunday, April 5 7:30PM, at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, between Thompson and Sullivan).

Pianists Stephen Gosling, Blair McMillen, Lisa Moore, Molly Morkoski and Joseph Rubenstein will present a wide range of Minimalist solo and duo works, including Steve Reich’s seminal Piano Phase (1967) and John Adams’ Hallelujah Junction (1996). As the date approached, I thought I’d write a few words about a couple of the pieces on this concert.

I will open the concert with 6 selected works of Howard Skempton. Skempton has worked for decades in England as a composer, accordionist, and music publisher. He studied in London with Cornelius Cardew in 1967 and Cardew helped him to discover a musical language of great simplicity. Since then he has continued to write unaffected by compositional trends, producing more than 300 works – many of which are miniatures for solo piano or accordion. Skempton calls these pieces “the central nervous system” of his work. Many of his compositions have been recorded, including selected piano works performed by John Tilbury on the Sony Classical label. I will be performing 6 works from the 1970s and 80s, the last of which – Well, well Cornelius (1989) – was written as a tribute to Skempton’s teacher.

Lisa Moore will then play Ryan Brown’s Ceramics (2002) – here are some notes by the composer: “My grandmother had an enormous collection of fancy old teacups that she kept in a large glass china cabinet in an immaculate, incredibly quiet, and primarily white-toned living room. I used to clean every single cup by hand when I stayed with her during the summer. The image of all those cups shining in that large, bright, glass-and-mirror cabinet kept coming to me while I was writing Ceramics. This is music for teacups.”

Blair McMillen and Stephen Gosling will conclude the program with Steve Reich’s Piano Phase (1967), which was Reich’s first attempt at translating his famous “phasing technique” from recorded tape to live performance. In Piano Phase the performers repeat a rapid twelve-note figure, initially in unison. As one player keeps tempo with robotic precision, the other speeds up very slightly until the two parts line up again, but one sixteenth note apart. The second player then resumes the previous tempo. This cycle of speeding up and then locking in continues throughout the piece, casting a hypnotic spell.

I’ll try and post here again tomorrow about a couple of the other pieces on the program, which are John Adams’ “Hallelujah Junction” (1996), Ryan Brown’s “Ceramics” (2002), Nico Muhly’s “A Hudson Cycle” (2002), and David Lang’s sublime “Wed” (1997).

“SPOTLIGHT on Minimalism,” takes place this Sunday, April 5, at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City at 7:30PM. Admission is $15. Le Poisson Rouge is on 158 Bleecker Street, between Sullivan and Thompson St. For complete information about this concert and our upcoming 3-day festival of contemporary solo piano music (May 19-21), please check out our newly updated website: http://www.keystothefuture.org/

Any questions can be directed to Le Poisson Rouge: (212) 505-3474 or to info@keystothefuture.org

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you there.

Joseph Rubenstein

Artistic Director, Keys to the Future

“Keys to the Future: SPOTLIGHT on Minimalism” is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

by Joseph Rubenstein
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

NJPE Loses its Pulse


As Anthony Cornicello reported on Saturday, William Paterson University of New Jersey is letting Peter Jarvis go from their faculty. Sequenza 21 last reported about Jarvis just weeks ago, announcing a concert on which he was premiering pieces by several faculty composers at TCNJ, another small institution in the New Jersey state college system. This type of activity, supporting the work of area composers through dedicated, well-prepared performances, is just one of the many ways Pete has contributed to the musical vitality of a number of institutions of higher education in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. He’s also commissioned a number of pieces for solo percussion and worked to get them published.

As Director of the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble at WPUNJ (check out their ’09 schedule here), Jarvis has not only been a mainstay on the local scene, but has been a powerful advocate for new music as a performer, conductor, and concert organizer.

Times are tough all over, but retrenching Jarvis’s position is a mistake on WPUNJ’s part. That’s why I’d urge Sequenza 21 readers to write letters in support of retaining Jarvis on the faculty at WPUNJ. Let’s aim for supportive letters on Peter’s behalf, not angry messages to the school.

The address:

Arnold Speert, President
William Paterson University of New Jersey
300 Pompton Road,
Wayne, New Jersey 07470

Peter Jarvis

by Christian Carey
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

by Teresa McCollough
Competitions, Downtown, New York

Care to Try Your Hand(shake)?

Elizabeth Ferguson is a coordinator for this year’s Make Music New York event, and has a little offer for NYC-based composers/musicans. I’ll let her take it from there:

Make Music New York is a unique, free outdoor celebration performed by anyone who wants to play, and enjoyed by everyone who wants to listen.  Last year, some 875 performances took place on streets, sidewalks and parks in all 5 boroughs on the first day of summer, June 21st.

MMNY is now accepting submissions for this year’s “musical handshake“: a single melody serving as the secret lingua franca for musicians on Sunday June 21st, 2009. As part of the third annual festival, hundreds of musicians are taking part in “Mass Appeal” performances, playing pieces written for single types of instruments. Huge ensembles of clarinets, crotales, French horns, hub caps, violas, accordions, saxophones, and more will perform across NYC’s five boroughs.

The “musical handshake” will allow these musicians to greet one another throughout the day, beyond their own bands of instruments, with the hope that momentary handshakes will turn into longer, improvised musical conversations. In the evening, the composition will receive its public premiere at the Mass Appeal afterparty in Central Park. The winning handshake will be selected by a panel of judges and announced in
May.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Participants must be residents of the New York City area and in attendance on June 21st.  [Ed. note: this is the one rule that we don’t get at all. Tons of composers living in NYC didn’t start out there, so who cares where the tune comes from, really?]
• A musical handshake is a short melody, up to 10 seconds long, consisting of two phrases, so that two musicians can use it to greet each other with a call and response.
• Nearly all instruments and all musicians – from amateurs to professionals – should be able to play the musical handshake.
• No more than two submissions per composer will be accepted.
• Entries are due by midnight on Friday May 1st, 2009.
• Entries must be submitted in standard musical notation.
• Please email submissions as PDF attachments to musicalhandshake@makemusicny.org.
Or mail your composition, on a single 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, to:
Mass Appeal “Musical Handshake”
c/o Make Music New York
PO Box 1164
New York, NY 10013
• Include your name, address, phone number, and email address on the same page as your composition. (Judges will not see this information when choosing a handshake.)
• By submitting a musical handshake, you affirm that the composition is your own, and agree that, if selected, your submission will become the property of Make Music New York, Inc.

by Steve Layton
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.

by Christian Carey
Concerts, Contemporary Classical

Slacker Special

I went to several concerts in early March; I’ve been lazy about reviewing them but they deserve mention. So here are three quick reviews in one:

March 1, 2009: Donald Berman at Le Poisson Rouge

Berman (at left) is a terrific pianist, and this was overall a very solid program. There were several works by Mark Wingate, all of which were good–they sometimes got a bit generic, but much of the time were fresh and interesting. Wingate’s tape piece Welcome to Medicare is brilliant. He took recordings of Medicare’s already fairly byzantine automated telephone system, then re-cut and processed it to make a sort of bureaucratic limbo where the recorded voices aren’t helpful at all and seem to mock and toy with you in song. Some nice pieces by Eric Moe, including an odd experiment where the piano part plays along with a very generic and cheesy drum machine. Moe was apparently challenging himself to see if he could make it work, and he succeeded, although honestly the piece probably would have been better without the drum machine, with a less cheesy drum machine, or with a live drummer. Eric Chaselow‘s Due (Cinta)mani was a very tightly constructed piece for piano and tape which reminded me of a modernized Davidovsky Synchronism. David Rakowski‘s two offerings were gorgeous, especially Chase for piano and celeste, which featured delicate lines following each other around on the two keyboards.

March 8, 2009: “Live in the Limo”

This was an interesting experiment on the relationship between the audience and the performers and the nature of the performance space. As part of New York’s Armory Show, the AC Institute presented a set of 30-minute concerts inside a limosine. On March 8, there were six excursions featuring a piece by Joseph Di Ponio, performed by Laura Barger (toy piano) and Benjamin Robison (violin). The piece consisted of a stack of cards with instructions and musical materials, and the audience was to pass the cards forward to the musicians in what ever order they wanted. It was a cute idea, and the music was quite nice (although as with any piece like this it was hard to tell how much of that was the composer and how much was the improvisational ability of the performers.

Unfortunately, effect of the music and the experiment of the venue were seriously undermined by the activities of the artist who rode along. I didn’t catch her name, but she handed out daisies and made all of the eight or so audience members play “he love me, he loves me not” as a group. It wasn’t a very interesting, and I was so distracted by keeping track of whose turn it was and whether we were on “he loves me” or “he loves me not” that I couldn’t pay proper attention to the music, and certainly couldn’t tell what effect the open form and the random order of the cards was. I passed my card forward when I had a free moment, rather than when I thought it might be an interesting time to do it, and I suspect the other audience members did the same. The point of the cards was to enhance the interactivity of the relationship between the musicians and the audience, but the artist was hogging so much attention that I didn’t feel connected with the performers at all.

I feel bad for the performers and especially for the composer, who had clearly put some thought and effort into taking advantage of the nature of the venue, and I would really like to have the experience again without the distractions.

March 10, 2009: Sequitur at Merkin Concert Hall

The New York based chamber group Sequitur has a good reputation, but I had never heard them before. They lived up to the reputation. The music on this program wasn’t easy (the first piece only had eight musicians, but they brought in hotshot contemporary music conductor Brad Lubman anyway) and the performances were all excellent. The theme of the concert was music for chamber ensemble and voices, and soprano Tony Arnold and mezzos Rachel Calloway and Abigail Fischer carried each of the pieces off with panache. The program consisted of three pieces: Comala Suite no. 2 by Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon (text excerpted from Mexican author Juan Preciado’s novel Pedro Paramo), The Cinnamon Peeler by Donald Crockett (poem by Michael Ondaatje), and New Andean Songs by Gabriela Lena Frank (text assembled from anonymous and indigenous Peruvian poems). All of the pieces were good, and all had some wonderful sections, but unfortunately all of them were also a bit too long and felt padded with filler. It’s too bad, because each of the pieces is a few judicious cuts away from superb.

by Galen H. Brown
Classical Music, Click Picks, Contemporary Classical, News

Keeping Up Made Easy

Most S21 regulars know about these already, but for all our newer visitors I thought I’d mention how most of us keep on top of what’s what, day-to-day, in the classical and “non-pop” world.  The secret is to visit a few of the aggregation sites intrepid volunteers have set up, that comb the news sites and blogs for current tidbits of interest. It’s really pretty easy on your part, requiring just three quick clicks (besides our humble and happy abode, of course!) once a day (or twice or thrice, even better):

NetNewMusic Reblog — Jeff Harrington’s site probably has the most eclectic mix of news, gathering not only classical sites but experimental, art-jazz, electro-whatever and etc. as well.

Chris Foley’s Classical Pageflakes — Chris’ effort focuses more strictly on the classical end of things; the bonus with Pageflakes is that you can see snapshots of each website’s homepage.

Blognoggle | New Music — Our own fearless leader Jerry Bowles’ contribution to the mix, the site tracks 100 of the most read and most pertinent blogs, whether classical, jazz, new-music or even a few more general art sites.

There’s not much better way to easily find the major (and much of the minor) news of the day, than to give these three links a daily visit.  Bookmark ’em, Danno…

by Steve Layton