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Daniel J. Kushner

Nathaniel Stookey and Daniel Handler Raise the Dead

The Composer is Dead, composer Nathaniel Stookey’s collaboration with celebrated children’s book author Lemony Snicket (the pen name of Daniel Handler), is giving Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra some serious competition.

Articles
Colin Holter

This Does Not Compute

By Colin Holter

The funny thing about studying linguistics after years of focusing almost entirely on music is that it was very quickly clear to me that one hand isn’t always talking to the other in that field.

Articles
Frank J. Oteri

No Geniuses Among Us This Year?

By Frank J. Oteri

Although the previous music recipients form quite an illustrious list which includes composers from a wide range of stylistic proclivities (where else can you see the names Ali Akbar Khan, Meredith Monk, Cecil Taylor, and Charles Wuorinen side by side?), it was rather disheartening to see that there were no people involved with music among the 24 recipients of the 2009 MacArthur Fellowships

Articles
Frank J. Oteri

Sounds Heard: Michael Tenzer—Let Others Name You

A new disc of Michael Tenzer’s music on New World Records reveals that the gamelan is as capable of contemporary expression as any other medium, and it’s exciting to hear that it can be as adaptable as, say, a string quartet, without losing its spirit and essence.

Articles
Stanley Silverman

Remembering Leon Kirchner: Talmudic Dedication

Leon Kirchner was an inspiring teacher, almost Talmudic in his dedication.

Articles
John Adams

Remembering Leon Kirchner: Anxiety, Restlessness, and Ecstasy

Somehow it still seems fitting that I should always associate my apprenticeship with Leon Kirchner with the stormy years of the late sixties and early seventies, an era full of anxiety, restlessness and ecstasy; those are words that pretty much sum up Leon’s music.

Articles
NewMusicBox Staff

John Adams and Stanley Silverman Remember Leon Kirchner

Composer Leon Kirchner (1919-2009) was an important teacher for many composers; John Adams, who studied with Leon Kirchner at Harvard, and Stanley Silverman, who studied with Kirchner at Tanglewood and Mills, share their memories.

Articles
NewMusicBox Staff

Leon Kirchner (1919-2009)

Composer Leon Kirchner, whose honors included the Pulitzer Prize, the Naumburg and Friedheim Awards, and two New York Music Critics’ Circle Awards, died today after a long illness.

Articles
DanVisconti

Compose for Youth Orchestras!

I count my experiences composing for youth orchestras to be among those that best prepared me for making the transition from student to young professional.

Articles
NewMusicBox Staff

Theodore Presser Company Signs Huang Ruo and Clint Needham

Last week, the Theodore Presser Company officially announced the signing of an exclusive agreement with Huang Ruo (b.1976), and earlier in the summer the company signed several works by Clint Needham (b.1981).

Articles
Colin Holter

Tremendously Tedious and Incredibly Overblown

Is Schenkerian theory essentially a form of witchcraft?

Articles
Molly Sheridan

Going Underground with Amy X Neuburg

Combining her own powerful voice with her arsenal of electronic gear and the talents of The Cello ChiXtet, Amy X Neuburg has put together 13 songs that, each in their own unique way, speak to “the inane and perpetually unfinished business of love and war—and New York.”

Articles
NewMusicBox Staff

American Composers Orchestra Announces Partnership with Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton Inc. have announced a new, two-year partnership to promote the creation of new orchestral works by emerging American composers.

Articles
NewMusicBox Staff

NY Phil Announces $10M Gift from Henry R. Kravis to Support Composer Residency & Prize

The New York Philharmonic will receive a $10 million gift from Henry R. Kravis in honor of his wife, Marie-Josée Kravis, to endow its new Composer-in-Residence position and to fund the creation of a $250,000 Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music.

Articles
Frank J. Oteri

About Those Trees Falling in the Forest

John Cage, who admitted all sound as music, defined music in his final years as “sounds heard”; doesn’t that somehow imply that sounds which aren’t heard cannot be music?

Articles
Trevor Hunter

Sounds Heard: John Wiese—Circle Snare

In the context of John Wiese’s previous works, Circle Snare might be a bit more on the tame side, although it’s still experienced like a punch in ear.

Articles
NewMusicBox Staff

Ted Hearne Wins 2009 Gaudeamus Prize

The 2009 Gaudeamus Prize has been awarded to Ted Hearne for selected movements from Katrina Ballads, a composition performed on September 10, 2009, at the Conservatory of Amsterdam by the ensemble ‘de ereprijs’ conducted by Wim Boerman and featuring Hearne as a vocal soloist.

Articles
Laura Schwendinger

Remembering Dina Koston

On Saturday, August 29, Dina Koston’s friends and colleagues gathered at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland, for a memorial concert of both her music and music she loved.

Articles
DanVisconti

Form and Process

Since all music occupies time, it is certainly fair and useful to regard that block of time post facto, in its entirety, and consider the ways in which that duration is divided and proportioned.

Colin Holter

Cello Solo Take Two

A short, off-the-cuff conversation with a colleague recently prompted me to reexamine an older piece and try to bring it back to life.

Articles
Evan Ziporyn

Fitzcarraldo Goes to Bali

I had written an opera, and I wanted to premiere it in Bali—not exactly the jungle, but close.

Articles
DanVisconti

Constraints on Creativity

I thrive on constraints, just as I expect many composers do.

Articles
Colin Holter

Blackboard Jungle

This year’s return to school is worse than usual: In addition to being a student, I’ll also be a teacher.

Articles
Frank J. Oteri

Coming to Terms with the Wobblies

For many people who grew up with the ubiquitous sounds of pop vocals, the standard vocal technique of classical music sounds artificial and can be extremely off-putting, yet the vocal production in popular music also has its share of affectation.

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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.