Those of us who were close to Joe Maneri will need to adjust to life without his infinitely expressive face, the sound of his voice, and the access we were accustomed to having to his acute mind and compassionate soul.
Whether as a solo artist or a member of Battles, Tyondai Braxton has spent his career creating thick, multi-layered sounds with minimal means; but on his newest album Central Market, he ups the ante with his new backing band—an orchestra.
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Why haven’t more American orchestras experimented with changing up their concert times to reflect the needs of those potential audience members to whom they so urgently need to cater?
The real joy of working on a project like this one is the opportunity to confront a concept of what music should do that differs pretty radically from my own, one whose complex and meticulous chemistry invites you into a kind of seductive utopian hallucination.
Weighing in at 300+ heavily inked pages, Notations 21 carries both the intellectual heft of an academic text book and the intrigue of a good coffee table read.
How important is it to maintain full control over every aspect of your music? And is such control actually possible?
One defining quality of a truly great musical imagination is a body of work that we feel has something to offer us at nearly every stage in life.
Ruby Fulton radiates a sort of “ask me anything” energy, so when the Baltimore-based composer stopped by the Counterstream studio to chat about her work, questions were fired and she unloaded the details behind some of the stories that have inspired her and the philosophies underneath the musical choices she’s made.
Part two of a daring exposé on the twittering lives of large, well-respected classical music organizations.
The distraction of an unfamiliar setting can also be extremely provocative and that is often the catalyst for brand new ideas whatever their format.
Roberto Carlos Lange has one of those quintessentially American stories, at least for a certain segment of the population. As the son of Ecuadorian immigrants and a native of southern Florida, he and his music are clearly informed by his heritage, but would it sound anything like this without its incubation in an American cocoon?
I think that most of us will agree that there are living composers who write music that fits the description of being beautiful, so why do we continue to program, rehearse, and hear so much mediocre sacred music?
It may actually be easier to include contemporary works on education, family, community outreach, and pops concerts than on the typical classical subscription concert.
While they’re not exactly the hipster answer to King Crimson, Dirty Projectors are creating music that tests the boundaries of what you’d expect from a group that gets filed under “indie rock.”
My own story with Merce started as a friendship and turned into a number of wonderful collaborations, experiences, and life altering moments, which I’m only now beginning to fully appreciate.
Although we’ve been conditioned to a compartmentalized view of policy, new political and economic realities present an opportunity to work towards a more integrated (and hopefully more sustainable) ecosystem: one where culture, creativity, and artists are valued across the board—from the Department of Agriculture to the FCC.
The 2009 Copland Fund Recording Program grantees include five American operas, a ten-CD collection of music composed for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, a three-disc retrospective of the music of Charlie Morrow, the sacred music of Mary Lou Williams, the Afro-Latin jazz of Roland Vazquez, the steam punk big band music of Darcy James Argue, a new work for the Bang on a Can All-Stars by Terry Riley, and works by 13 different composers performed by the American Composers Orchestra.
We are putting Chatter on a brief hiatus and advise you to hold your comments until further notice.
In response to the economic crisis, Meet The Composer has doubled the amount of money given out in recent rounds of its Commissioning Music/USA—a program of national scope supporting the creation and multiple performances of new musical works—as well as its program for new music ensembles and presenters in New York City, the Cary New Music Performance Fund.
North Carolina State University Music Department Director J. Mark Scearce has been named the recipient of the eighth Raymond and Beverly Sackler Music Composition Prize.
What was surprising, and also revealing, was how empowering it was to be in conversation where women in music were at the center, rather than on the margins of the discussion.
Ikue Mori’s sensitivity to sound and pacing, from intuitively exploring rhythms first behind a drum set and then on drum machines, has made her one of the most fascinating laptop artists. Read the interview…
I’m looking forward to being home for nearly eight months—without a doubt the longest I’ve managed to stay put since I was enrolled in school.
One of the best perks of being a Twitterer is that occasionally someone will screw up and type 140 or fewer characters that he didn’t mean to.
