Randall Davidson, Composer and Publisher of Boys Art Music “Self-publishing contemporary music is not at the glamorous end of the tide-pool…” Jennifer Higdon, Composer “…it seemed absurd to me to have to give up the copyright to my own creative work…” Donald Martino, Composer and Publisher of Dantalian, Inc. “…To obsessive types like myself it… Read more »
Arnold Broido (Chairman and Past-President of Theodore Presser Company and Chairman of the International Confederation of Music Publishers) and his son, Tom Broido (Presser’s current President) describe the current state of music publishing and how that impacts the publication of new music.
I am an incurable record collector. For me, the ability to hear something whenever I want it is more alluring than most live concert experiences. And there are so musicians I want to hear whom I would never be able to hear any other way than on a recording, due to both geographic and chronological… Read more »
Fred Hersch Photo by Hollister Dru Breslin When I play solo, I prefer a concert hall (non sound system!). Since I don’t have other musicians to interact with (and since my programs are largely improvised), the three things that affect my performance the most are (in order of importance): the piano itself (the tone of… Read more »
Mary LaRose Photo by Ron Schwerin Of course, I am affected by my listeners, but the band always depends on each other first for being it’s own audience, and then from there it goes out to involve. Different venues create unique situations in music. Performing in the studio is unnatural since music is meant to… Read more »
Oliver Lake Photo by Chris Drukker It’s very difficult to describe the effect that different venues have on my performances. Certain audiences have different energies. Often the audience becomes a part of the performance and that can affect the performance in different ways. The more intimate, the better. I primarily play for myself and hope… Read more »
Nick Didkovsky Photo by Pamela Farland The venues I perform in do not affect the set list I put together for my band, Doctor Nerve. I usually do that on the train on the way to the venue. If we make last minute changes, it’s usually due to a management request like, “We’d prefer two… Read more »
Kitty Brazelton Photo by Judy Schiller Performance is dialogue. So every performance must be different. I may start with the same message but I don’t say it the same – to different people or in different environments. And I expect the same skill in flexibility from my musicians. “Listen” to the room, its shape, its… Read more »
Lara Pellegrinelli Photo by Melissa Richard One minute, you’re just sitting around in some dark, dank, tiny, crowded, smoke-filled basement room with a drink in your hand; the next, you’re intently focused, completely absorbed, magically transported into the light of improvisation. That, in a nutshell, is the power of jazz, a power which moves listeners… Read more »
For our first compendium of new American music CDs of the millennium, of course, we’re continuing to feature discs that were recorded in the last millennium! But in the coming months we will soon find out that like so many other terms that need to be re-examined, the appellation “20th century music” no longer suffices… Read more »
Frank J. Oteri Photo by Melissa Richard On special occasions I take people on tours of historic bars in New York City. The rule is that we won’t go into a place unless it was open before Prohibition and remained open during Prohibition and ever since. In one evening, we are usually able to stop… Read more »
Kitty Brazelton Composer/Vocalist “…I may start with the same message but I don’t say it the same – to different people or in different environments…” Nick Didkovsky Composer/Guitarist “…It’s best when the audience is working as hard as we are to make the event happen…” Oliver Lake Composer/Saxophonist “…The main thing is that I play… Read more »
Composer and Clarinetist Don Byron continues to defy expectations with every album and concert appearance he is associated with–whether his departure point is jazz, klezmer, hip-hop, contemporary classical music, or some strange hybrid that is somehow both all and none of the above.
Frank J. Oteri and Ken Smith with Paul Bowles Photo by Melissa Richard January 1, 1998 Tangier, Morocco KEN SMITH: I’d like to talk a bit about your life in New York, the days when you were writing for the New York Herald-Tribune. PAUL BOWLES: It was years… KEN SMITH: The years, then, that you… Read more »
Although he was a success as both composer and author, as a recluse Paul Bowles was a total failure. After fleeing New York for Morocco in 1947, he and his wife Jane continued to entertain a seemingly endless parade of visitors in his adopted country. Even in the 1990s, after Betolucci’s film of The Sheltering… Read more »
Joshua Cody Photo courtesy Sospeso Ensemble I studied with several very gifted composers at Northwestern University, where I was also able to study some literature and philosophy. I’ll always feel uneducated-learning is an ongoing process. Of course the deeper one’s knowledge of the repertory and of the history of music, the more opportunity for depth… Read more »
Elliott Sharp Photo courtesy Elliott Sharp As a young child, I loved the music of Liszt, Chopin, Beethoven, began piano lessons at age 6 and was performing by 7 1/2, but at a price: the pressures of practice from parents and teacher plus a rigid and uninteresting approach to the general knowledge of music killed… Read more »
Amy Rhodes Photo courtesy Fine Arts Management My traditional education did not really affect the way I think about music. In fact, I went to college and majored in Asian Studies and International Relations because I think I unconsciously needed to get away from music for a while. I learned about classical music completely at… Read more »
Annie Gosfield Photo by Nola Lopez I was taught the importance of creativity and individual expression early in life at a progressive elementary school that had classes for children in music and theater improvisation. As a teenager, private study with jazz pianist Bernard Peiffer taught me to bring my own interpretation to any music that… Read more »
What American Conservatories Do To Spark Interest in New American Music.
Traditionally, December is a slim month for new releases. Most record companies and distributors view December as a time to catch up and to make one valiant final effort for the entire year’s releases through holiday promotions. Still, however, a handful of exciting new releases have come our way that might even wind up in… Read more »
Frank J. Oteri Photo by Melissa Richard Ten years ago I was a high school teacher in the New York City Public School System and since then, I have often described that experience as “my version of time in the peace corps.” It was simultaneously life affirming and extraordinarily frustrating. It was life affirming, because… Read more »
Annie Gosfield Composer “I was taught the importance of creativity and individual expression early in life…” Jonathan Sheffer Composer Founder, Conductor and Artistic Director of the Eos Orchestra “My musical education began at the Westport School of Music, where as a preschooler I was taught the basics of major and minor scales…” Amy Rhodes Director… Read more »
The legendary American educational philosopher Maxine Greene (b. 1917) met with Hollis Headrick (Executive Director, The Center for Arts Education), Polly Kahn (Director of Education, New York Philharmonic), Richard Kessler, and Frank J. Oteri to discuss the role new music could p[lay in arts education.
