This Year's Model (or, That's What They Don't See)
In C, Taylor Swift, and Cultural Canonization: A reflection in 53 phrases.
Corigliano and Over 130 Other Music Creators Honored at ASCAP Foundation Awards
More than 130 music creators were honored during the 2014 ASCAP Foundation Awards, including John Corigliano who received the first-ever ASCAP Foundation Masters Award.
Violinist Mark Sokol—American Music Advocate (1946-2014)
When I was 16, Mark was like the big brother I never had. He was always a little larger than life. I had my first beer with him, my first cigarette. We’d stay up half the night on Fridays and Saturdays listening to Elliott Carter or Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite after having played quartets until we dropped.
New Music and Globalization 2: Networked Music
In its early days at least, the net served as globalization’s ideological model. That ideology spilled over into the first experiments in net-art and net-music.
The Banjo Faces Its Shadow
The banjo’s timbre cuts to some of the deepest seams of America’s past. To a number of contemporary banjo players and composers, the well of history and associations surrounding the banjo becomes a musical parameter to be bent, subverted, or used to evoke a particular landscape or time.
The Performer, the Audience, and the Measure of Success
Does the new music performance belong to the performer, the audience, or both? Both points of view, though conflicting, are necessary to uplift the other party and elevate both the artistic achievement and commercial viability of our community.
57th Annual Grammy Award Nominations Announced
Sharpen your pencils, voting Recording Academy members. Nods were given to…
Boston: Passports and Layovers from Lorelei and Roomful of Teeth
I sometimes wonder if, several decades from now, people will look back on the current era of new music and characterize it in terms not far removed from tourism.
New Music and Globalization, Part 1: Silk Road and Global Collaborations
While Silk Road’s music is enjoyable, its goals laudable, and the musicians’ skills impressive, hybridization of this sort is not a perfect model for understanding or addressing the issues of modern-day globalization through music.
Thank You For Your Reply
Music people, in general, have always seemed to possess a higher level of character and integrity in pursuit of a particular calling. But it seems that now, even in the new music world where we are all essentially in the same boat, so-called professional courtesy is no longer a given.
Why I Make Music
When Nick Norton tells people he’s a composer, the conversation usually turns to the music itself. The one question that no one ever seems to ask, however, is “why?”
Fromm Foundation Announces 2014 Commissions
The Board of Directors of the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University have announced the names of twelve composers selected to receive 2014 Fromm commissions.
Poultry Jam: A Chicago Thanksgiving Playlist
Ah, Thanksgiving: a holiday as rich in calories as it is in cultural significance. What’s the proper soundtrack for a day that means so many different things? Why not canvas the work of Chicago composers for music that’s as complex as Turkey Day?
Incarceration and Musical Inspiration Part Four: The Last Class
After today, I would never know if a student went on to accomplish something, continue his education, or even be released from prison. I realized as I distributed the scores that I had included my full name as the composer; I was supposed to protect my own privacy.
Classical Music Has Open Data Sets?
In open data sets, Suby Raman found a lot of really interesting stories to tell about the performing arts. Because he’s a composer, he knew what to look for in the data and what would matter to people. Because he’s a programmer, he knew how to handle the big data set itself.
The Art of Doubting Myself
If I write music that both satisfies and excites me, and is music that I want to hear, and I’m being honest about all of that, then I’m good. Anything beyond that is a lucky perk, and anything less than that can be worked on until it’s up to snuff in my musical worldview.
Susan Alcorn: Fearless Slides
Composer, improviser, and pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn came up playing country and western music, but her ear eventually led her down a decidedly more singular experimental path. “You’ve got be naked in your mind to be able to play and express yourself—you have to be naked and fearless and that’s not easy, especially the older you get.”
Incarceration and Musical Inspiration Part Three: A Live Concert in Prison
We tried to describe what different instruments looked like and we realized that what we needed was a live concert. There was great concern among the prison administration that the violin was a dangerous instrument. The strings could be turned into a weapon. Emails and phone calls went back and forth for months.
Listen To Music, Dammit!
Listening to and trying to understand as much music as possible, even music that you don’t enjoy, is an incredibly important part of becoming a better and better musician. Knowing, experiencing, and learning from more than I knew, experienced, and learned from yesterday is a worthwhile goal.
Island Exports & Descendants Broaden Jazz Expressions
Haitian rhythms were perhaps of equal importance in early jazz developments as Latin ones. And now there is a growing cadre of jazz musicians of Haitian descent, as well as other Caribbean arrivals or first gens, who openly embrace elements of their rich musical heritages.
Incarceration and Musical Inspiration Part Two: The Human Piano
It was shockingly easy to forget, in the midst of the classroom environment, that the majority of the students were serving life sentences for committing horrendous acts. I reminded myself that my goal was to share the joys and mysteries of music making, to try to understand their need for creative expression, and in turn, gain insight into my own personal and artistic motivations.
Happy Birthday, Adolphe Sax!
Today marks the 200th birthday of Adolphe Sax! Here at NMBx, we took the occasion to go digging through the archives in order to revisit some of the wise words and remarkable talent that players of this instrument have brought to our site.
There Is No Right Experience
Who is to say that my interpretation is best, or that a best interpretation even exists? And why should we limit ourselves, as composers, performers, or listeners, to just one option? We’re the creative ones, right?
John Luther Adams Named Musical America's 2015 Composer of the Year
In making the award announcement, Musical America referred to Adams as perhaps “the world’s only Green composer.”
