By David Smooke
While the audience members probably didn’t like everything on the program (indeed, they might not have liked any of the music), they recognized that they were hearing something special, and they appreciated that opportunity.
By Frank J. Oteri
Despite the myriads of extraordinary recordings that are out there in the world (a more than healthy percentage of which flood my apartment) and the allegedly infinite amount of music that is there for the hearing only a few clicks away online, there’s an even greater amount of music that only takes place in real time in person.
By Alexandra Gardner
The first twenty years of a composer’s career can be difficult, but as a composer nearing that two-decade mark, I can say that the sheer act of sticking it out and being tenacious can yield positive results.
By Colin Holter
The perspectives that the musicologist brings to music writing might be very valuable to general audiences, provided that they can be communicated in a non-jargonistic way.
An intrepid sound-gatherer, Bay Area composer/flutist/recording engineer/video artist Maggi Payne collects recordings from the simplicities of everyday life—a rattling teapot, papers shuffling, a basement furnace, misbehaved plumbing—and transforms them into gigantic musical statements.
By David Smooke
In creating a statement large enough to be life changing, Andriessen also appears to have greatly limited his opportunities to have De Materie presented live in its entirety. Do you believe that this trade-off is worth it?
By Frank J. Oteri
Is it possible to write music for an orchestra playing their instruments using established and accepted techniques that a majority of people would think sounds ugly?
Christopher Theofanidis is a composer focused on the big picture. Whether scored for a full compliment of choral and orchestral musicians or a more conservative troupe of chamber players, his music carries aspects of his expansive approach to life and listening. Read the interview…
By Taylor Brizendine
Feel free to call me a composer now; I’m down with it.
By Alexandra Gardner
Good, cheap, and fast represent the three corners of what is called a Project Triangle—a graphic example showing the influence of time, resources, and technical objective upon a given project. Basically the idea is that one can successfully accomplish any two of these elements in the outcome of a project, but that having all three is not possible.
By Taylor Brizendine
I wasn’t looking forward to the reaction after I described my piece as “ugly” and “unpleasant,” but everyone seemed very receptive!
By Dan Visconti
This week was spent working on an interesting bit of Gebrauchsmusik (if I may stretch the term a bit): a guitarist requested a short solo piece suitable for opening solo recitals, and I responded with a piece that literally “tunes up” his guitar for the concert.
By Taylor Brizendine
“It is always humbling to hear a musician play your music, and realize that they have been practicing it for months.”
By Colin Holter
To whom, and with what, do we want to reach out?
Following in the footsteps of composers such as Tan Dun, Chen Yi, Bright Sheng, and Chou Wen-chung, composer Lei Liang was able to learn a great deal through their example, but he has also felt a particular need to make his own way and develop a voice uniquely his own.
This week, I’m in Rochester, New York, rehearsing with the Eastman BroadBand, a contemporary chamber orchestra at the Eastman School of Music, in preparation for our upcoming tour to Mexico.
By David Smooke
Today marks the official release of my first professional recording—a piece from 2003—but as long as this is my only recording, I’ll feel a bit strange, as if an outdated picture were always attached to my biography.
By Taylor Brizendine
“Never abbreviate the word Tuba.”
Harold Meltzer revels in unusual timbres and has an uncanny ability to seamlessly weave variants of short motives around them.
By Frank J. Oteri
So many of us have been seduced by the ease of access that the internet offers us, but few have paid close enough attention to the resultant value and attention we give to what we’re accessing.
By Taylor Brizendine
I get called a composer frequently, but composition is just the artistic medium I am most familiar with right now.
By Alexandra Gardner
The process of collaboration, whether it is with dance, theater, visual art, film, or what have you, is surprisingly similar to living in a foreign country!
By Dan Visconti
I’ve often been fascinated with the music of Tin Pan Alley and with the golden era of recreational music-making; whether for pure recreation or for humanitarian effort, it heartens me to see that some American families still have high hopes for the role of music in their lives, and also what music might mean in the lives of others.
By Michael Straus
NOTAM exists to help local and international artists who might lack the technical knowledge or resources needed to realize a project. For over fifteen years, the organization has assisted artists and musicians working within the field of technology in the arts.
