The Freedom Of A Bird In Flight - Ornette Coleman (1930-2015)
Jazz, rock, classical, and other man-made genres are steps away from pure musical and sound expression. The music business as we know it today dictates the limitations, and this is what Ornette drove home to me and my fellow band mates.
David Hertzberg Wins ACO's Underwood Commission
American Composers Orchestra (ACO) has awarded composer David Hertzberg its $15,000 Underwood emerging composer commission for a work that will be premiered by ACO in the 2016-2017 season.
Curation as a Third Possible Activity for Composers
Since we cannot be those who hold the door open for our own work, we should be a community dedicated to holding the doors open for one-another.
Gunther Schuller Dies at 89
Composer, conductor, arranger and historian Gunther Schuller (1925-2015) has died at the age of 89.
Follow the Bang on a Can Marathon and Make Music NY on NewMusicBox
We’re tweeting from both the 2015 Bang on a Can Marathon and various Make Music NY concerts. Join the conversation!
2015 Paul Revere Awards & Other MPA Annual Meeting Highlights
Among the first-prize winners in these annual engraving awards presented by the Music Publishers Association were two of the final works of Elliott Carter (1908-2012) Composer Mohammed Fairouz also presented the MPA’s lifetime achievement award to Ralph Peer II of Peermusic.
Advice from Strangers: When Resources Are Low
Necessity is the mother of invention. Necessity is also the mother of all-nighters. Here’s how to fill manpower gaps to get work done when resources are low.
2015 Composers Now Creative Residencies Announced
Jin Hi Kim and Peter Van Zandt Lane have been awarded the second annual Composers Now Creative Residencies. Each artist will receives a week’s stay at the Pocantico Center, the conference and cultural center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in Tarrytown, New York, to work on a project of her/his choosing.
Hafez Modirzadeh: Crossing The Bridge
There’s a transformation happening in improvised music involving the embrace of a greater intervallic palette. Bay Area-based composer, saxophonist, and musical theorist Hafez Modirzadeh has been one of the key architects of this sonic expansion.
2015 Doris Duke Impact Awards Announced
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has announced the second round of recipients of the Doris Duke Impact Awards.
In the Darkness: The Glowing Sound of a Wild Rumpus
Video Premiere: Nick Vasallo’s The Moment Before Death Stretches on Forever, Like an Ocean of Time…
Curation is Not a Form of Marketing
Nobody has a fulfilling experience if the music is asking for something the venue cannot provide, nor if a venue is calling out for new types of performance while we insist on the conventions of the concert hall.
Jazz Pioneer Ornette Coleman Dies at 85
The New York Times has reported that alto saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman died this morning in Manhattan due to cardiac arrest.
Advice from Strangers: A Path to Collaboration
I asked 30 technologists and new music practitioners how they work together with others. Here is their advice.
No Strings Attached: A Prism on the Saxophone Quartet
With over 200 commissions and many times that number of premieres to its credit, PRISM has presided over what future music history textbooks might just look back on as a golden era for the sax quartet medium.
New Music Needs Curators
In the world of new music, curating is mostly a word we’ve usurped for use in funding applications and marketing materials. We use it because it sounds better to say someone (or a number of someones) “curated” a concert rather than “chose the pieces we’ll play.” But this is a myopic view of what curation can be.
Let Them Eat Non-Perishables: How ALIAS thrives by giving all its proceeds away
Can an ensemble thrive by giving away everything it earns? For more than a decade, Nashville’s ALIAS ensemble has, earning community capital and Grammy nominations along the way.
Melinda Wagner: It’s Just Who I Am
Although most of the music she composes is completely abstract, Melinda Wagner still always crafts her music intuitively and in such a way that it reflects her personality.
Advice from Strangers: A Trust Recipe
Have you created a brand that people trust without hesitation, return to again and again? Trust is the superpower that bequeaths upon us endless leaps of faith. How do we get it?
Why I'm Not Getting a Doctorate
When she graduated with her master’s degree, Dale Trumbore give herself three years to try composing as a full-on career before considering any more schooling. She hasn’t returned to the classroom yet.
Celebrating New Music Awards Week
Details on award recipients in the 63rd BMI Student Composer Awards, the 16th ASCAP Concert Music Awards, and the 75th American Academy of Arts and Letters Ceremonial.
Advice from Strangers: The Craft of Community
It is community that brings our creations to life and extends them far beyond what we are capable of on our own. The reverse is also true: our creations bring communities to life, by connecting like-minded people and providing them with a space in which to safely explore their interests and passions.
Jen Shyu: No More Sequined Dresses
The time that Jen Shyu spent in Taiwan, Indonesia, East Timor, China, South Korea, Cuba and Brazil has broadened her musical language, but she still considers herself an experimental jazz vocalist.
Mantras & Filters: Overcoming Composer's Block
I’ve finally figured out how to break through the filter of self-doubt on a fairly reliable basis. For me, what works is a series of mantras—nuggets of wisdom from people smarter than I am that I can repeat until the filter unclogs.