By Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum
How can we make compelling visual choices that, when faced with curating live elements, direct the attention of the listener to see, and therefore hear, more musically, deeply and more organically?
By David Smooke
Each concert that you attend might be that transcendent experience that remains with you for the rest of your life. And scientists confirm that your money will be well spent.
Planets, the latest release from Brooklyn lit rockers One Ring Zero, proves itself to be made up of lovely, carefully crafted music that dips into a whole mess of genre styles and timbral possibilities.
By Frank J. Oteri,br>
Music history is filled with embarrassing anecdotes and even more substantial character flaws present in many important composers of the past—there’s a reason it’s taboo to play Richard Wagner’s music in Israel#8212;but nothing compares to the vitriolic racism of American composer John Powell, born today, whose music has now been almost completely forgotten.
By Alexandra Gardner
I know that for many people the idea of living in another country seems unrealistic, and perhaps a bit scary, but it is an adventure worth taking, whether for study or simply a change of scenery.
The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University has awarded Dan Visconti the 2010 Barlow Prize, which carries with it a $12,000 cash award, to compose a major new work for piano trio.
By Dan Visconti
I’ve begun a month-long stay at Aaron Copland’s former house, and a few glances through old photos reveal that I am indeed using the same butt-cushion that A.C. did. These kinds of silly epiphanies are a welcome counterbalance to the sense of weight that comes from composing at the home of the guy who composed Fanfare for the Common Man.
By Colin Holter
If you don’t buy the notion that a divine wind is blowing into you (which I don’t), I guess it’s a question for the cognitive scientists; all that’s left for us to figure out is how to achieve these moments as regularly as we can.
Hearing the five members of Imani Winds talk about their history together and what keeps them going is like walking in on a great party. Read the interview…
For three years beginning with the 2006-7 season, composer Lisa Bielawa served as the BMOP resident composer, and her BMOP/sound CD In Medias Res draws a map through her time working with the musicians of this group.
By Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum
The end of summer is always filled with aching tastes for crisp fall air and a sweet nostalgia for apricots past. People have drastically different relationships with summer music—specifically outdoor summer music. I think people dig this kind of musical experience for three reasons…
By David Smooke
I imagine that, if the procaninic and felinophilic composers began comparing musical styles, we quickly would find ourselves in the midst of an apocalyptic battle that would make the uptown/downtown tension of the 1960s and ’70s seem quaint by comparison.
Meet The Composer has awarded $245,000 to 32 organizations to commission 19 new works via the 2010 Commissioning Music/USA program.
By Frank J. Oteri
There is often an extreme difference between the time it takes to compose, say, ten minutes of music, and ten minutes.
By Alexandra Gardner
For many composers the creative process can be a psychologically (and physically) charged beast, which we are destined to battle over and over with every new project.
By Dan Visconti
While on the surface it might seem that synced scoring and stage scoring were close cousins, the sudden juxtaposition of the two has only made clearer what a laughable comparison this actually is.
I’m not sure what the medium-term future holds for the Minnesota Orchestra—lots of pops concerts and warhorses, if their upcoming season is any indication—but every time I get a phone call from their salesminions, I’ll tell them to let me know when they start programming contemporary music.
Shortly before the band embarked on a 40-plus-date tour this past spring that included stops across the United States, as well as in Mexico, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Israel, Italy, France, and the UK, Dweezil Zappa and I spoke about the challenges and the preparation that has gone into presenting his late father’s music to both new audiences and longtime fans.
By Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum
Do the short bleeps with beautiful attacks of vintage video game soundtracks live happily as the 20th-century harpsichord?
Dawn of Midi’s music has an expansiveness reminiscent of Albert Ayler’s pianoless masterpiece Spiritual Unity and yet at the same time the surehandedness of the Bill Evans Trio’s legendary Village Vanguard sessions.
By David Smooke
The three labors (nine less than Hercules!) with which I charge any student entering a graduate program.
By Frank J. Oteri
The whole notion of “new music” implies that there’s “old music” that’s somehow no longer as vital or valid.
By Alexandra Gardner
Who wouldn’t want to change the world?? Would I really have to give up writing instrumental music in order to make that happen?!
By Jonathan Russell
Right now, I’m way more fired up about the Proposition 8 lawsuit and the controversy over the proposed Islamic Cultural Center near Ground Zero than any piece of music I’m writing; writing abstract music at all feels like it pales in importance compared to these issues.
