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Articles
Frank J. Oteri

A Piece of Music is Only a Piece of Music

By Frank J. Oteri
I’ve always thought of music as more analogous to painting than sculpture, but I’m beginning to think the opposite might be true.

Articles
Seth Boustead

A Manifesto: Composers Unite!

We can make composing relevant again. We can answer the question: Why compose now?

Articles
Jeremy Podgursky

Sounds Heard: Jim O'Rourke—The Visitor

By Jeremy Podgursky
O’Rourke wrote all the music, performed all of the instrumental parts, and recorded The Visitor in his home studio in Tokyo—and the finished product is a mile wide and several miles deep.

Articles
NewMusicBox Staff

CSO Names Mason Bates and Anna Clyne as Composers-in-Residence

Mason Bates and Anna Clyne have been named co-composers-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; their residency will begin in September 2010 and continue for two seasons.

Articles
DanVisconti

When to Walk Away

By Dan Visconti
There really are times when just walking away (for a while, at least) can be one of the composer’s best options.

Articles
Frank J. Oteri

Wow and How: Steve Lehman's Unexpected Confluences

Steve Lehman’s synthesis of hard bop and spectralism has taken him into uncharted territory that is all his own.

Articles
Colin Holter

The Lessons of Youth

By Colin Holter
There’s a lot about writing for youth orchestra that took me out of my comfort zone—huge ensemble, relatively inexperienced (albeit eager) players, periodic changes in instrumentation due to fluctuations in personnel—but the experience so far has been invaluable, and the parts aren’t even due until December.

Articles
Frank J. Oteri

Making Room for Even More Music

By Frank J. Oteri
After the obligatory standard repertoire warhorses, which conventional wisdom still insists are the pieces that most people want to hear, there’s only a tiny bit of room left for anything else.

Articles
DanVisconti

Solving Someone Else's Puzzle

By Dan Visconti
I’ve been discussing a future collaboration with a massed string group drawn from students of various experience levels, placing technically adept players alongside absolute beginners.

Articles
Christopher McIntyre

Suzanne Fiol (1960-2009)

By Christopher McIntyre
Known to all as a fiercely passionate advocate, ISSUE Project Room Founder and Artistic Director Suzanne Fiol’s passing is an utterly profound loss for the experimental arts community.

Articles
Colin Holter

Love At First Listen

By Colin Holter
Nothing restores my faith in contemporary music like a great
first rehearsal.

Articles
Ann Starr

Morgan Powell on the Creative Process: The Reality of Maborosi

By Ann Starr
Composition is a high-risk undertaking with real consequences for the composer’s life and mind; Morgan Powell is drawn to it by the (potentially lethal) need to question; by questions that produce thoughts with unforeseeable outcomes.

Articles
Frank J. Oteri

"The Biggest Disaster in the History of Art"

By Frank J. Oteri
Both the notion that art is capable of affecting human behavior (to positive or negative ends) and that an artist should not be in any way restricted from any means of expression are deeply romantic notions, but these two notions are difficult to reconcile.

Articles
Anne Kilstofte

Praise the Lord and Pass the Immolation

By Anne Kilstofte
We’re sinking to new lows in terms of trying to appease listeners in a sacred space.

Articles
Molly Sheridan

Sounds Heard: John Adams—Doctor Atomic Symphony

By Molly Sheridan
Whatever your thoughts on the original three-hour Doctor Atomic opera—or if you didn’t get the chance to see it for yourself, as I did not—at just under 25 minutes this orchestral suite comes across as a tight, visceral ride that you won’t want to miss.

Articles
Molly Sheridan

Live Stream: A National Summit on Arts Journalism

What does the future look like for arts journalism? The National Arts Journalism Program went out looking for exciting and sustainable models, and ten of those projects will be presented during a summit held today at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. We will be streaming a live feed from the event which will take place from noon-4 p.m. ET.

Articles
NewMusicBox Staff

Innova Recordings to be Distributed by Naxos

The American Composers Forum has finalized an agreement with Naxos of America to distribute recordings released on the ACF’s innova label.

Articles
DanVisconti

Beginner's Burden

By Dan Visconti

I think the thing I enjoy most about studying music is the way that minor mysteries of ignorance have a habit of giving way to deeper, more substantive mysteries.

Interviews
Molly Sheridan

Marilyn Crispell: Between the Lines

From Boston to Woodstock, from the Creative Music Studio to the Braxton Quartet and then beyond, Marilyn Crispell has explored a rich catalog of music both alone and in the company of some of the field’s most talented artists. Read the interview…

NewMusicBox Staff

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Awards $424,900 to Support Technology Initiatives in Jazz

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation has awarded a total of $424,900 in grants through the first round of its Jazz.NEXT program. The following organizations received grants: National Federation of Community Broadcasters; Monterey Jazz Festival; National Public Radio; Savannah Music Festival; and the Walker Art Center.

Articles
Colin Holter

Songs of Brutality

By Colin Holter
What is the role of music in identity construction and real-life crime?

Articles
Frank J. Oteri

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

By Frank J. Oteri

People tend to like what they know more than know what they like, whether it’s cuisine, perfume, clothing, or music in any genre.

Articles
Frank J. Oteri

Sounds Heard: John Luther Adams—The Place We Began

What’s perhaps most fascinating about material from which John Luther Adams’s The Place We Began derives predates his move to rural Alaska, a location which has served as his muse for over 30 years. Yet it sounds as simultaneously monumental, desolate, vast, and mysterious as the music he has composed as a result of living there.

Articles
DanVisconti

Getting the Priorities Straight

By Dan Visconti

In my own composing efforts as well I’ve found it useful to consider my musical priorities which, if lacking, would cause the whole effort to cease being worthwhile.

Funders

NewMusicBox receives major support from the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts.

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NewMusicBox is funded in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts; and with support from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., Alice M. Ditson Fund of Colombia University, and The Amphion Foundation, Inc. Support for New Music USA and its many programs and activities is provided by foundations, corporations, government agencies, and hundreds of individual contributors.

NewMusicBox receives major support from the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts. NewMusicBox is funded in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts; and with support from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., Alice M. Ditson Fund of Colombia University, and The Amphion Foundation, Inc. Support for New Music USA and its many programs and activities is provided by foundations, corporations, government agencies, and hundreds of individual contributors.