By Frank J. Oteri
Identity is carefully evolved over time and something we all work hard at constructing, for better or worse.
By David Smooke
A post-holiday round-up of deep thoughts and interesting posts on new music.
Nathan Smith has been awarded the BMI Foundation’s 2010 Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize for his big band work Now What? during the 22st Anniversary Summer Showcase Concert of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop, which was held on Friday, July 1, 2010 at Christ and St. Stephen’s Church in New York City.
By Dan Visconti
Being that classical music is just about the only genre of music in which printed programs are the norm, then why is it also the only genre in which gross misunderstandings so easily flourish?
Descriptors like “extremely specific” and “incredibly nuanced” become touchstones when speaking with Augusta Read Thomas about her life and work and the inspiration that drives it all.
Today I’m pleased to announce that the first installment of the New Music Scapbook is available: James Holdman is our featured artist this week.
By David Smooke
This liberation from long-standing fears is allowing me to say “yes” and to enjoy music in ways that I had never thought possible. Audiences—albeit small audiences—have been responding with enthusiasm to my forays into performance, inspiring me to want to explode beyond more of my self-imposed boundaries.
By Frank J. Oteri
Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of my all-time compositional heroes, Frank Loesser, so I wanted to pay tribute to him.
BY Joelle Zigman
Break down the content of the music of major pop artists, major rappers, and indie/alternative rock bands into their percentages and see what they’re really made of (the instrumentation, the chord progressions, the melodic phrasing, the rhythmic variation, the virtuosity, etc.); then you’ll see just how diverse our “diversity” really is.
By Dan Visconti
Are there composers who retain a very clear aural imprint of every thing they’ve ever written on the minute level, and at the other extreme, has anyone ever forgotten having written a piece?
The U.S. Library of Congress has announced the 2009 Inductees in the National Recording Registry, a collection now comprising 300 music, spoken word, and audio documentary recordings.
Pitre writes music that just sounds good. The tuning schemes he uses are not the ends themselves; rather, they serve to further open up the acoustic worlds that can be elicited from the instruments, creating a rich, meditative space for listening.
In honor of their 40th anniversary, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is commissioning four new works to be premiered during their 2011-2012 season, but they are asking the public to weigh in on the selection of the composers.
Taylor Brizendine, Wang Jie, Polina Nazaykinskaya, Clint Needham, Ben Phelps, Narong Prangcharoen, and David Weaver have been chosen to participate in the 2010 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, which will culminate in a performance of their compositions on the Minnesota Orchestra’s 5th Annual Future Classics! concert, conducted by Music Director Osmo Vänskä, on October 29, 2010, at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis.
By Colin Holter
After searching three nearby study anthologies for a score and the Naxos Music Library for a complete recording all in vain, I must conclude that Le marteau‘s sanctification is pretty half-hearted: It’s a piece that people of Metcalf’s generation were told, probably with little or faulty explanation, was Very Important.
We are always searching for new sounds, and Partch offers a sound world of staggering variety and beauty.
Many directors said that they are commissioning more composed music for their productions. Everyone agreed that there are more opportunities for composers in theater now than ever before.
By Frank J. Oteri
A room where everyone is talking so loud you can’t hear anything is actually not terribly different from the forest where no one is around to hear a tree fall.
The starting point for Tom Hamilton’s unique musical evolution is the material contained on a new two-CD collection, re-issues of two long out-of-print LPs recorded in St. Louis over 30 years ago.
On June 22, 2010, the American Music Center presented composer/conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and choreographer Peter Martins with Letters of Distinction on the stage of the David H. Koch Theater immediately prior to the New York City Ballet’s premiere of the new Martins ballet Mirage featuring the score of Salonen’s Violin Concerto.
By David Smooke
While generally the completion of a final score or a premiere performance signals completion, sometimes I feel that the process is over before I even complete a draft or before sharing it with others, leaving an odd void where the work holds meaning only for me.
To a certain extent, you have to distance yourself from your creative work and realize that you are marketing a product.
The discussion on new plays began on ways to support playwrights financially (this sounded about as supportive as the commissions most composers get, i.e., not enough to live on while you’re working on the piece).
One did not spend any significant time with Bill without receiving some sort of instruction: shared stories, advice, or a lesson. Bill embraced teaching, as he did so many other things in life, fully and with great passion.
