Chicago: What Makes It Great?
To further showcase the spirit of the community Ear Taxi is organized to celebrate, we asked a diverse roster of local creators to highlight stand out (but quite possibly under-the-radar) aspects of the scene—to pull back the curtain on Chicago for those in the know about new music but maybe a stranger to the city. Add your favorites!
Great Moments (for me) in Chicago New Music History
Patricia Morehead arrived in Chicago in the fall of 1984 and went on to found and direct the CUBE Contemporary Chamber Ensemble for 20 years. In the midst of the Ear Taxi celebration, she takes a moment to reflect back on her history in the city and praise its evolving new music community.
Uniquely Together: The Chicago Paradox
Chicago is a city of individuals with an entrepreneurial streak and a DIY mentality who work hard to build from the ground up, but who are also very interested in finding their shared identity. And Seth Boustead finds that all voices, unique as they may be, are welcome in the search.
Chicago New Music as assemblage; or, why are we doing this?
Chicago is a particularly concentrated expression of confluences in current culture, and the evidence of this is both the explosive energy of the city’s new music community in recent years and also how hard its characteristics are to pin down.
Made in Chicago: Original Sound, Original Voice
Inspired by the Ear Taxi Festival’s concentration of activity, we are devoting the week to an examination of the creative energy that fires Chicago from a variety of angles.
Why the 21st Century is the Most Exciting Time for Music
Since music from literally any place and time can now be equally with us in the here and now, the once seemingly impenetrable dichotomies of domestic vs. foreign, new vs. old, and us vs. them have become completely porous and ultimately meaningless. It is all equally ours to enjoy, as well as to be the source of inspiration for our own creative impulses.
Adam Rudolph: Languages of Rhythm
Making sense of the world we live in seems to be one of the focal points of Adam Rudolph’s life. The way he has chosen to do so is through making music, most of it collaboratively. He could just as well have become a philosopher—he even looks and sounds like one when he speaks—but that would not be hands-on enough for his worldview.
Klezmer Beyond the Punchline
The right expression might involve no joke at all; funny business might be in the improv solo, the notes, and/or (choose carefully, you may have to live a long time with this) the band name.
Delivering the News You Need
We’ve done a little restyling just in time for the new season to improve mobile browsing and to bring you even more music, news, and ideas from creators spanning the nation.
Embracing Being a 5-to-9 Artist
Making a living off your music, solely or otherwise, may take some time to achieve. And among the many interim options available, having a day job, related or not to your vocation, shouldn’t be viewed as a matter of shame or a setback.
Julia Wolfe Named 2016 MacArthur Fellow
She was recognized for synthesizing “various musical styles in highly physical, large-scale narrative compositions that reimagine folk traditions and lore and address issues of the American worker.”
On Readers, Fakers, Bakers, Writers, & Ruptures
Coming from a Jewish background personally did not mean that somebody was necessarily familiar with any intrinsic qualities of klezmer, although—unless they’d developed an aversion through early negative exposure to this sometimes-stigmatized heritage—it usually didn’t hurt.
A Band Apart: Resident Evil
What does it mean when strangers show up, infiltrate our institutions, assimilate our knowledge, and then leave? Ensemble-in-residence…who does that?
American Composers Orchestra President Michael Geller Departing in December
After 20 years as executive leader of American Composers Orchestra (ACO), President and CEO Michael Geller will depart the organization at the end of 2016. He is leaving to attend to personal and family obligations while considering new professional opportunities. ACO’s Board of Directors is seeking a new executive director who will continue to build upon the success and stability that Geller has spearheaded over the past 20 years.
Eight Easy Steps to Becoming a Successful 5-to-9 Composer
So how can you too hold down a glamorous, innervating office/day job and still find time to fulfill your artistic dreams, musical or otherwise? Here are eight suggestions (some of which I’m sure apply to “full-time” composers as well).
Philip Glass Among 2015 National Medal of Arts Recipients
President Obama will present Philip Glass with the National Medal of Arts next week for his “groundbreaking contributions to music and composition.” The event will be live streamed.
Seeking My Sonic Soul in the Land of Pre-Sliced Challah
Although raised in a musically-oriented New York City family, I only heard most of the genres that are now key inspirations for me during my New England college years and in the decade after (much of which I spent in the progressive Pacific Northwest).
Some Reflections on Transitioning Out of Being a “Young Composer”
Composing is about who you know…The reasons why you write music will become clearer… Thinking back on the past few years, I suppose I have learned a few things that would have been useful to my 20-something self. So in the spirit of paying it forward, here are some reflections on composing after young-composer-hood.
Do You Have What It Takes to be a 5-to-9 Composer?
When your writing time arrives, you embrace it and WRITE.
Remembering Connie Crothers (1941-2016)
It took Connie Crothers several years of profound study before she would perform in public. She she eventually began to perform solo, and to experience rejection from the audience. She also offered reasons why her band would not perform more frequently. She was adamant that it had to do with the divide in the jazz world—jazz tunes versus free jazz/free improvisation—and with the fact that she was a woman leader and would be hired less often because of it.
Auditory Tourism
My enthusiasms for “World Music” have been exuberant and far-flung. I also tend to embrace independent, analog media, such as locally-based broadcasts from the heart of a community.
Sounds of Futures’ Past
Unlike older, lost civilizations that had no means to record and preserve audio, nor a method for notating musical instruction, we have been preserving sound for 150 years, and digital audio has been accumulating like an avalanche at easily the same speed as digital words. But these are all based on technology and need a means with which to reproduce the sound, from a cylinder player to a set of AA batteries.
Coming Out (as a 5-to-9 Composer)
Since I lack sufficient instrumental ability to support myself as a performer or the temperament for academia, making a salary in various office capacities has provided several advantages to maintaining a life as an artist, both during my school years and since—even if it is more time consuming than I’d ideally like.
Yarn/Wire: From The Ground Level
One of the most exciting as well as one of the most articulate groups of DIY new music interpreters is the two piano/two percussion quartet Yarn/Wire. Performing together at the highest possible level now for a decade and working with composers ranging from Alex Mincek and Sam Pluta to Tristan Murail, Misato Mochizuki, and Michael Gordon to craft repertoire for their idiosyncratic instrumental configuration, Yarn/Wire is an extremely important catalyst for music that is happening right now.
