Meeting of New Music Minds at SF Gathering
The inaugural New Music Gathering in San Francisco was proof in action that an environment that removes the problems of proximity, competition, and ego can generate an immense amount of collaboration, friendship, and growth.
Eco-Music: Not Just a Theory
I am not surprised when protest organizers contact me asking for musicians to play at their protests; I am less surprised still when I hear that it was the music that elicited the loudest response and the most action.
Julian Wachner: Transcending the Sacred and the Profane
Composer, conductor, and Trinity Church music director Julian Wachner believes that all music is meant to induce a transformative experience upon the listener and believes that changing listeners’ lives through music is a “moral responsibility of the compositional craft and the performative craft as well.”
Chicago: The Spektral Quartet goes to pieces (and rots)
I can’t tell if the Spektral Quartet is getting bigger or smaller. At the quartet’s Saturday night concert, “Snowpocalypse Antidote,” I had the opportunity to reflect on “miniaturization” and the pleasure of small forms. They’re “doing small” in a very big way.
Helena Tulve: Trust, Discovery, and the Creative Process
Using extramusical models and precise planning works for some people but not everyone. I generally feel, however, that academic study of composition places emphasis on this methodology.
Mark Lanz Weiser Receives Nissim Prize
The $5,000 prize was awarded for his Symphony No. 2 (Sinfonia Magalhães), a 30-minute work for orchestra which was selected from among 160 entries.
Hoping To Hit a “Bird”: A Critical Analysis of the Phenomenon of Mentorship
Where is the line between motivating someone and abusing them? Will the movie Whiplash make young jazz musicians think that all you need to do to become the next Bird is work really hard, get yelled at, and practice till you bleed? Is this portrayal of the teacher-student dynamic helpful or harmful?
Income, Expenses, and Mileage, Oh My! The Musician's Guide to Reaching Organizational Nirvana In the New Year
It’s time to get real and get organized. So open up Excel and brace yourself to become a happier, healthier, more on top of it artiste!
Spring For Music Has Second Life as SHIFT in Washington DC
The Kennedy Center and Washington Performing Arts announce SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras, a three-year festival celebrating North American orchestras which will begin in the spring of 2017.
Whose Job Is It To Teach Audience Experience?
When we perform with care for the holistic audience experience as well as care for the composer’s works, we can create a “social act” that is akin to magic.
New NEA Reports Crunch the Numbers on Culture
The data for three new NEA reports have, for the first time, enabled the NEA to show a comprehensive view of a single year (2012) in the life of the arts and cultural sector from three different angles: supply, demand, and motivations for consumer behavior.
Art and Environment: Connections, Community, and Being
Too often we live only by a temporal, horizontal axis in which we over-analyze, live within our heads, and lose connection with the earth and with our bodies. Being in touch with silence reinforces access to our inner selves and serves to reinvigorate connections with the earth and our identities.
John Luther Adams Wins William Schuman Award
The Columbia University School of the Arts has announced that John Luther Adams is the newest recipient of the William Schuman Award, a direct, unrestricted grant of $50,000, which is one of the largest given to an American composer.
THINGS HAVE GOT TO CHANGE!--Writing Political Music in Today's World
We as musicians have a responsibility to respond to the world around us, to give the people a song to raise their spirits and fuel the fight in their hearts.
Eve Beglarian Wins 2015 Robert Rauschenberg Award
The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA), a nonprofit arts organization founded by John Cage and Jasper Johns, has announced that composer Eve Beglarian is the recipient of their third annual Robert Rauschenberg Award which includes an unrestricted cash prize of $35,000.
New Music and Globalization 4: Archipelagos
Few of these works can be experienced in their entirety, but that is partly the point; they act as a corrective to our uniquely modern assumption that—given advances in travel, communications, and media technology—we can know the whole world.
Blogging from Estonia--A Search for Fresh Sounds
I recently saw a huge banner on the side of one of Tallinn’s major shopping centers promoting an upcoming concert by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir featuring works by Carlo Gesualdo, Salvatore Sciarrino, György Ligeti, J.S. Bach, and a premiere by Helena Tulve. I have a hard time imagining a similar advertisement hanging on the Prudential Center in Boston.
New Music Boxes: Wring Out the Old
Another exclusive new music-themed crossword created just for NewMusicBox readers! De-stress from the holiday crush and review the year that was…
Everything is real. There is no audience.
It is absolutely reductive to think of music being solely either for the performer or for the audience. This is a both/and situation because we all get something different out of it. We are all there to play our own parts.
New Music and Globalization 3: Embodiment and Mobility
Rather than attempting a synthesis, Pamela Z’s music highlights—and perhaps even celebrates—difference. She presents identity as a matter of polyphony, sometimes between irreconcilable parts.
Ken Thomson: Energized Complexities
Thomson’s often-complex work is carefully designed and communicates powerfully in live performance without exhausting the audience. We chat with him off stage about how he navigates multiple projects and genres while keeping listeners on the edge of their seats.
NewMusicBox Mix: 2014 Staff Picks
Before we close the file on 2014, New Music USA staff members have chosen some of their favorite tracks from the past twelve months for this edition of the NewMusicBox Mix.
The Queen of Grace and Kindness—Deborah Atherton (1951-2014)
Deborah helped many composers and performers through her work as a consultant and at the American Music Center, Concert Artists Guild, and the American Composers Alliance. But she was much more than an administrator. Her librettos included Under the Double Moon, a collaboration with composer Anthony Davis, and Mary Shelley, which she created in partnership with the composer Allan Jaffe.
The Audience: More Than Money and Applause
The whys and hows of romancing your fans and serving your ticket buyers.
