Is the Opera America conference setup for composers? Not really. There is no welcome mat, but there are funny corners with some pretty powerful conversations taking place.
My experience today was about two very different rooms. The big room held big questions, big problems, big ideas, and big hopes. The small room was filled with tables and objects and entire ideals shrunk into miniature chachkas.
This year, the Opera America Conference is vibrating around two centerpieces: the LA Opera production of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle and the 40th anniversary of Opera America.
The American Music Center has announced grant awards totaling $47,075 to 35 composers through the March 2010 round of the Composer Assistance Program.
Yesterday, Opera America’s 2010 conference “New Realities/New Strategies” began, hosted by the Los Angeles Opera. I found that the most engaging part of it was the cocktail party, where I got to talk with a lot of different people from disparate ends of the opera world. Here are a few of my observations.
By Dan Visconti
I want to provide myself with a nutritious diet during this time, almost as a mother carrying a child must feel; carrying and nourishing a precious entity seems as close to any description of composing as I’ve ever encountered.
To deal only with ten years of music is a very strong limitation—but it makes an equally strong statement about the extent to which very new music is neglected by the scholarly community.
In March 2010, drastic fiscal measures were proposed to balance the Detroit city budget which included the firing of all arts teachers in the Detroit Public School system. Operatic tenor George Shirley, university emeritus professor of music and former director of the Vocal Arts Division of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, began documenting the situation, and we asked him to share his information with NewMusicBox.
By Frank J. Oteri
Ever the new music evangelist, I thought I’d have a government sanctioned bully pulpit for once, but it turned out instead that the line of questioning in my follow-up interview for the 2010 U.S. Census was almost exactly the same as what I had already filled out, with tons of repetition to boot.
By David Smooke
I greatly admire those composers who can mediate between multiple pieces and a day job and all the other tasks that go into a composition career; however, I find that I fail when I attempt to enact this paradigm.
Jack Beeson was my teacher in graduate school and beyond. I could say much about his operatic compositions and how he helped me with mine. But right now, as he has just left us, I want to remember him and share with you a few of my experiences with him.
Dither, the four-man electric guitar quartet, delivers a bracing self-titled debut album that flexes the ears in quite a few compelling directions.
Expanding upon AMC’s Composer Assistance Program (CAP), the new CAP Recording Grant, which is made possible with funds from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, will help advance the careers of early and mid-career composers by providing direct assistance for recording projects; up to ten grants between $5,000 and $10,000 will be awarded in 2010.
A total of 34 publications were honored in the 2010 Paul Revere Awards, which were announced at the annual meeting of the Music Publishers Association of the United States held at the Harvard Club in New York City on June 4, 2010.
By Joelle Zigman
Sometimes it’s not up to you to decide what good local is.
Some of our favorite memories of Ben are sitting around after concerts and listening to stories of his various escapades with René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Salvador Dali in Paris and the south of France.
By Dan Visconti
While useful orchestration texts abound, I have always been surprised that I have never come across any devoted to the specific challenge of composing for pit groups.
By Colin Holter
All of a sudden I need a fake name; how to deal with this bizarre situation?
By Frank J. Oteri
I’m totally spoiled by the convenience of having my own copies of things like books and recordings, and so in recent years I have rarely ventured into libraries.
By David Smooke
Does shopping locally for fresh concert programming help to promote the health of new music?
I have often described Robert Muczynski, who died on May 25 at age 81, as the most frequently-performed composer whose music is never discussed.
In the arts, you’ll come across a lot of multi-talented people, but not many who can boast the depth of accomplishment in as many areas as George E. Lewis. Read the interview…
By Joelle Zigman
You say that my being a music major is cool, but you’re going to help people and make a real, concrete difference in the world somehow, whereas I’m going to lock myself up with a piano and feed my gluttonously selfish desire to create art.
By Dan Visconti
Despite huge variations in budget, both chamber ensembles and orchestra of all stripes operate under vastly more uniform templates than the spread of most American opera companies.
