Unbound by “Programming”: A Counter-Hegemonic Reimagining of Contemporary Performance
Can we foment a culture in which composers’ utterances are deemed valuable solely on the basis of having been uttered, regardless of hegemonic notions of musical quality?
Huang Ruo: Creating Four Dimensional Experiences
For Huang Ruo, music–like theater–exists in a four-dimensional space. There is also a larger purpose in most of Huang Ruo’s work, whether it is to call attention to stories of people, particularly Asians and Asian-Americans, whose voices have often not been heard, or to provide an environment for reflection and healing.
Ryan McAdams: How Myths of Artistic Leadership Fuel Destructive Behaviors
Conductor Ryan McAdams shares how the myth of the “ideal” conductor, perpetuated at conservatory and within Western culture, glorifies destructive lifestyles such as living in isolation, excessive behaviors, constant striving for perfection, appearing omniscient, and hiding all human vulnerabilities.
Out of the Box: Plus C’est La Même Chose
Music is indelibly linked to space and place. It has only been until very recently that the idea of space and place has been limited to the tangible. That shift away from liveness (something that I believe was on its way) is a huge step in the future of new music.
Different Cities Different Voices: New Orleans
Different Cities Different Voices is a new series from NewMusicBox that explores music communities across the US through the voices of local creators and innovators. Discover what is unique about each city’s new music scene through a set of personal essays written by people living and creating there, and hear music from local artists selected… Read more »
Adjusting Creativity During Times of Crisis
Julia Adolphe shares her strategies for continuing to write during a time of personal hardship and discusses the pressures and myths surrounding creating art in response to moments of crisis.
Matthew Aucoin: Risking Generosity
Among the recurring themes of our conversation with composer-pianist-conductor Matthew Aucoin was generosity and risk-taking, something that is in abundance in Aucoin’s own music as well as his personality. Over the course of an hour we talked about his opera Eurydice which was just performed at the Metropolitan Opera, the first commercial recording of his music, his just released new book about opera, The Impossible Art, which was also just released, his desire to develop new musical repertoire that addresses climate change, and much much more.
Trusting Your Voice with a Mental Illness
You need to trust your voice in your personal life in order to fully trust your creative voice and vision as an artist.
Maia Jasper White: How Crisis Changes Artistry
Maia Jasper White shares how her relationship to music-making changed as she cared for her young daughter, who underwent surgery for craniosynostosis and a subsequent period of PTSD.
Terri Lyne Carrington: A World of Sound Waiting for Us
Terri Lyne Carrington was practically born into jazz, but she is not a traditionalist. By embracing elements from rock, rhythm and blues, and hip-hop into her own compositions, she is making music that is very much about the present moment. And in founding the Berklee Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice and now partnering with New Music USA on the new Next Jazz Legacy program, Terri Lyne hopes to build a future that dismantles the jazz patriarchy and eliminates the gender imbalance among instrumentalists.
Letting Go Of Your Work
I reflect on why art is always imperfect and unpack a wave of anxiety that emerged for me while finishing a large-scale work.
Billy Childs: Creative Process, Internal Pressures & Racial Identity
Composer/pianist Billy Childs shares the impact of the pandemic and systemic racism in America on his creativity and how he returns to his writing process with practice and persistence.
Writing Music for Developing Instrumentalists and Singers
Developing instrumentalists and singers need technically and financially accessible works from living composers. Here is a mix of practical and philosophical ideas for how you can help.
Dale Trumbore: Recognizing Anxiety, Creating with Empathy
Composers and best friends Dale Trumbore and Julia Adolphe discuss living with anxiety disorders and writing during a pandemic.
Different Cities Different Voices: Chicago
Different Cities Different Voices is a new bi-monthly series from NewMusicBox that explores music communities across the US through the voices of local creators and innovators. Discover what is unique about each city’s new music scene through a set of personal essays written by people living and creating there, and hear music from local artists… Read more »
Sidney Hopson: Resilience Through Music & Cultural Policy
Percussionist and arts policy consultant Sidney Hopson’s discovery of cultural policy enabled him to combat audition anxiety, a decade of depression, and the pervasive racism of the classical music industry.
Choral Singing on the Brink of Delta
Concert cancellations are likely to commence in the coming weeks and we should be concerned for the musicians and the small choral art organizations who support them.
Renée Baker: Nothing's Gonna Stop You From Creating
Spending an hour over Zoom chatting with Renée Baker about her more than two thousand musical compositions and perhaps almost as many paintings was inspirational as well as motivational. Renée does not let anything deter her and while her music is extremely wide ranging and gleefully embraces freedom of expression, her daily schedule is precise and meticulous.
Zoom Tips for Private Music Instructors
Unfortunately, many of us are back to feeling unsafe when it comes to in-person learning, due to the increase in the Delta variant. Here are some tips for private music teachers who are transitioning back to Zoom learning.
Aiden K. Feltkamp: Transgender Identity, Neurodivergence & the Lens of Equity
Librettist & Singer Aiden K. Feltkamp, who serves as the Emerging Composers and Diversity Director at the American Composers Orchestra, speaks openly about their personal experience transitioning, the impact that Gender Dysphoria (experiencing discord between one’s gender identity & one’s assigned sex at birth) had on their mental health, & how writing helped their healing process.
Wanted: Orchestral Scores by Composers Not Named Beethoven
As I comb the internet for pieces to use in the introductory orchestration course I will teach for the second time this fall, I am reminded of a familiar frustration: it is easy to find scores by white men, and much harder to find scores by anyone else.
Hila Plitmann: Healing through Creativity
Soprano Hila Plitman shares her thoughts on mantra singing, motherhood, and how “the mind is a playful instrument.”
Adolphus Hailstork: Music is a Service
“Music is supposed to have meaning,” says Dr. Adolphus Hailstork whose music captures the tribulations and the occasional triumphs of African Americans in this country. Hailstork’s 80th birthday year got off to an impressive start with a performance of his music as part of the Presidential Inauguration ceremony of Joe Biden. Since then there has been a world premiere of a concert aria he composed to commemorate the centenary of the Tulsa Massacre and he awaits the premiere of his recently completed Fourth Symphony.
