Jeremy Haladyna’s Mayan Cycle is a very thoroughly conceived sonic universe, but whether or not any of these devices are perceptible—I had no idea what this music could possibly be about before I read through the notes—is ultimately beside the point since the results are so fascinating.
By Frank J. Oteri
When does editorial tinkering with an older piece of music cross the line into revision, and do such revisions misrepresent the time the piece was written?
By David Smooke
I’d seen it happen to a lot of my friends and was certain that I was going to avoid that fate. Imagine my shock when I looked back and saw the doom that had befallen me.
By Joelle Zigman
Out of all the ridiculous things that happen on teen dramas, this bothers me the most: the “discovery” myth, that one day your garage band, or you-and-your-guitar will “make it big” because some kind record producer in the audience is going to be looking for fresh talent to sign.
The American Music Center and the American Composers Forum are currently hosting a joint online survey to better understand how our programs are serving you and how you view our roles in meeting your needs in the continually changing new music field.
By Seth Boustead
So, a composer and a new music CD walk into a bar.
By Dan Visconti
Plays, opera, and the like tend to take place in a matter of hours, not years; we can’t spend every day with these characters to figure out what drives them, so that which drives them must be amply apparent in the scads of nearly “insignificant” details of body language, pacing, and vocal emphasis.
Jose Francisco Cortez Alvarez, Christopher Dietz, Paul Dooley, Moon-Young Ha, Edie Hill, Amy Beth Kirsten, Jeremy Podgursky, and Zhou Juan have been selected to participate in the inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival (July 12-18, 2010) where they will receive private composition instruction, take part in master classes, and each have a new work performed and recorded by Alarm Will Sound.
By Julian Wachner
Although it was only hinted at in the two panels, murmured about in receptions, and obliquely brought up by singers looking for interpretive direction, the major question remains: when we composers sit down and type in the phrase “An Opera….” at the start of our score, do we feel the weight of Nozze, Elisir, Giulio Cesare, Bohème, Carmen, Rosenkavalier, Wozzeck, and Peter Grimes?
As promised, a writeup of the second and final Contemporary Music Workshop performance of the season: student works.
By Frank J. Oteri
It seems that for whatever reason, people are channeling the zeitgeist of the year they were born in the work they are currently creating.
The Nemmers Prize is a welcome sign that my music seems to resonate “out there” in the larger world; At the same time, I’ve found myself wondering: Does this mean that I’m no longer an outsider?
By Jim Altieri
Earlier this year the celebrated Portland, Oregon, the noise duo Yellow Swans released their final record. We asked composer Jim Altieri, a one-time collaborator, for his thoughts on the band and their ultimate release.
NewMusicBox welcomes professor, composer, and new blogger David Smooke.
By Julian Wachner
It is clear that the very terms of “opera” and that genre’s component techniques and forms are perceived in many disparate ways, from the classically inherited understanding to the blatantly reinvented.
By Julian Wachner
Personally, conducting two very different works one right after the other was an exercise in flexibility and efficiency, and I have to say that all of my work with the Feldenkrais method made this possible without hurting myself.
John Kander has been composing music for challenging, thought-provoking theatrical productions for half a century and is eager to keep working. Read the interview…
By Julian Wachner
The ten works being featured in this festival/laboratory are a beautiful snapshot of what’s going on today in contemporary opera and it’s been a wild ride to be a part of this voyage both as a conductor and as a composer participant.
John Luther Adams has been named the 2010 winner of the $100,000 Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition.
By Dan Visconti
While I’d like to attend all the performances of my music, this is no longer even physically possible—so different from beginning student days, where every musical interaction, performance, and rehearsal took place under the auspices of the same mother institution.
By Colin Holter
The Contemporary Music Workshop, an ensemble based out of the University of Minnesota, presented a concert the likes of which I doubt I’ll see again soon.
By Frank J. Oteri
According to John Kander, a convincing musical theatre work or opera needs to be at some kind of geographical or generational remove from the audience because “ordinary people during their ordinary day do not suddenly burst into song.”
After spending at least a year lying awake at night imagining all the ways my New York Philharmonic premiere might not go that great, I have to admit it: I’m pleased.
By Joelle Zigman
What would you do if you had your own broadcast series of orchestra concerts?
