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.
Daron Hagen: The Human Element
For Daron Hagen, working on an opera is so immersive that his life can be fairly neatly divided into chapters corresponding to each of the operas he has written. Nowadays, even though he is principally concerned with being a father, opera continues to inspire him, in part because he sees parallels between writing opera and parenting.
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.
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.
Musical America Honors NMBx Regional Editor with Profile in Courage
NewMusicBox Regional Editor Ellen McSweeney has been recognized among the “professionals of the year” in the edition of Musical America 30: Profiles In Courage released today.