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Articles
Randy Nordschow

NewMusicBoxOffice: The Other Merry Month

Along with the nice weather, the month of May brings those final exams one step closer, makes graduation seem like it might actually happen, and, of course, provides tons of concerts to distract all you students and non-matriculating music-lovers from your daily grind.

Articles
Frank J. Oteri

Finding a Home for the Longest Opera Ever Written

What force would drive someone to create 14 operas, several lasting five hours, without any opportunity for performance or any other kind of remuneration?

Articles
Yotam Haber

Hate This Music—Please!

What if many frogs make a prince of a piece?

Articles
Randy Nordschow

Play It Again, Jenny Lin

Whether it’s the grandiose sweep of a Chopin etude or a defiant new piece by a little-known young composer, Jenny Lin dedicates every ounce of her musical prowess to deliver knock-’em-dead performances.

Articles
NewMusicBox Staff

New Music News Wire

The International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) closed its office on April 18, 2008, and has filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Composers Keeril Makan and Kurt Rohde are among the 2008 Rome Prize winners from the American Academy in Rome. Composer Douglas J. Cuomo has been signed to exclusive publishing contract with Schott Helicon. The Dutch-based Imagem Music buys Boosey & Hawkes for 126 million pounds. Christopher Young to receive Kirk Award at BMI Film & Television Awards. ASCAP Concert Music Awards to honor John Corigliano, JoAnn Falletta, Joseph Jennings, and David Lang. Anne Manson receives Gold Debut Award for her New York City Opera debut, conducting Samuel Barber’s Vanessa. ASCAP has officially issued a 10-point “Bill of Rights for Songwriters and Composers.” Bebe Barron, co-composer of the first all electronic music score for Hollywood (Forbidden Planet, 1956), died on April 20, 2008. Boston-based pianist Sarah Bob plans to walk for music to raise $2,000 toward commissioning funds on behalf of the New Gallery Concert Series for a new work by Michael Gandolfi.

Articles
Molly Sheridan

The Friday Informer: So Long, Farewell

Does anyone else feel a backslide coming on?

Articles
Randy Nordschow

On Having Never Written A Unison

Whenever you do something new as an artist, it opens a can of worms stuffed
with a lot of other new things.

Articles
Colin Holter

On the Road with Colin Holter

To my knowledge, no piece for Swedish girls’ choir has ever won anybody a Pulitzer, but I’m tantalized by the thought of partnerships with ensembles like these that are more or less off the concert music radar.

Articles
Aurora Nealand

Scene Scan: New Orleans' Heartbeat is a Band

In New Orleans, music is for living: for dancing, for grieving, celebrating, eating, parading—in the streets just as much as on the stage.

Articles
Frank J. Oteri

The Filler Between Jingles

Your biggest calling card for making it in music professionally is not having a finished composition to hawk to people, but rather an ability to work with people in a situation and be able to be quick-footed enough to change course on a project if necessary.

Articles
Yotam Haber

Domo Arigatō Mr. Roboto

Those of us who were taught before notation software may be suspect of composing without paper, but does it allow you to hear fresh new rhythms and textures?

Articles
Molly Sheridan

The Friday Informer: Oh, Say Can You Complain?

You got spring fever or what? New music beefs run rampant.

Articles
Randy Nordschow

Historical Disengage, or Dissing Cage?

Is calling yourself a sound artist analogous to belittling all of the work that John Cage did to emancipate all sounds and redefine music as “sound heard”?

Articles
Carl Stone

Aaron Copland Made Me Eat This

In Japan, some companies have de facto staff composers, who are called on to make music for their public spaces, commercials, etc.—a composer with a distinctive style becomes part of the “brand.”

Articles
Colin Holter

Take 76 Trombones, Make New

Can I write a piece of critical concert band music without asking any one player to do anything too weird?

Articles
Alex Shapiro

Making an Asset Out of Your eSelf

It’s never been easier to build fan bases and generate income from our work; your enpixelated interface with the world is where your income generation will often begin.

Articles
Frank J. Oteri

Taking Note

The first scientifically conducted survey of contemporary American composers has just been posted online.

Articles
Yotam Haber

Keepin' It Real

Why is a synagogue’s choir, in a city where keeping a certain tradition alive is unusually important, seemingly going out of its way to assimilate its music?

Articles
NewMusicBox Staff

David Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion awarded 2008 Pulitzer

David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion has been awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Music and Bob Dylan receives a Special Citation. (Commentary by David Lang added on April 8, 2008.)

Articles
Mark N. Grant

The Dilemma of the Composer Who Stoops To Conquer

A composer needs to have a distinct voice and to be able to use it, for better and worse. Because it’s all he or she’s got—if they’ve got anything at all.

Articles
NewMusicBox Staff

New Music News Wire

Meet The Composer awards Van Lier Fellowships to Gilbert Galindo and Majid Khaliq. ASCAP announces 2008 Morton Gould Young Composer Award Recipients. Ten composers awarded 2008 Guggenheim Fellowships. OPERA America and Opera.ca announce 2008 Opera Fund Awards totalling $380K. Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho wins the 2008 Nemmers Prize. A new technology called Radio Companion gives Blackberry users access to 2,700 U.S. radio playlists. Composer, conductor, and educator Gerhard Samuel dies in Seattle.

Articles
Molly Sheridan

The Friday Informer: Sing Out, Louise!

The academy is a dangerous place, particularly if you open your own mail.

Articles
Randy Nordschow

Dare to be Stupid

Music that doesn’t need to be figured out in any way, shape, or form in order to be enjoyed is fantastically stupid—in a good way.

Articles
Carl Stone

Ticket Shock

It’s nice to have a chance to reflect on the events of the last two months, spent mostly stateside pretty much in full composer mode.

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.