Since we’re constantly talking about 21st-century music on this site and we’re not even a sixth of the way through the 21st century, it should be fair game to reminisce about 2014.
Maria Schneider, Paola Prestini, James M. Kendrick, John Nuechterlein and the American Composers Forum, plus the 27 recipients of the 2014 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, were honored by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) during its 15th Annual Concert Music Awards.
Based in Houston and drawing on some of the finest players in town and from around the nation, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra is gearing up for their tenth season. Founder Alecia Lawyer talks with Andrew Sigler about how this perception-challenging ensemble got started and where it’s headed.
We are nearly finished with the NewMusicBox @ 15 Anniversary Celebration! This is a look back to some of the most interesting content of 2013 in a “yearbook award” format. Befitting this season of graduations, no?
Twenty composers were honored during the 2014 American Academy of Arts and Letters Ceremonial, including 18 award recipients who received cash prizes totaling over $200,000.
Co-creation is something not often explored in the classical genre, and after working on Potential Energies, I’ve been thinking about how the choreographer-dancer process could be applied in creating new compositions.
2012 was so chock full of great content that it was honestly tough to choose these thirteen highlights! Whether you prefer to read, get creatively active, or massage your ears with new sounds, there is something here to tempt.
It is a remarkably elevated art that is so incapable of settling down, constantly inspiring its practitioners to use the output of one set of rules as the input for a completely different set of rules. Musical style is a moving target. It certainly must be.
2011 marked numerous changes—especially within the realm of technology and how we use it—that set NewMusicBox on the path to the present day.
The Heart does not care about the Music you have prepared for him to grasp. Music is already difficult to grasp through the Mind and Body; why would it be any different for The Heart?
Eight young composers, aged 14 to 27, received cash prizes totaling $20,000 during the 62nd Annual BMI Student Composer Awards. Among the winners were Michael Boyman and Daniel Temkin who tied for the William Schuman Prize, the top honor, and Benjamin P. Wenzelberg who received the Carlos Surinach Prize, awarded to the competition’s youngest winner.
2010 was significant for me personally since I officially began working at The Box that year. Included in this post are links to favorite articles, inspiring composer interviews, and assorted tales from that year.
In its 15-year history, composers, musicians, and industry professionals have shared countless pearls of wisdom with NewMusicBox, but these are some that have become particularly quotable quotes around the office, starting with one I used to keep on a sticky note posted above my desk.
David T. Little has been selected from over 100 applicants as the fourth composer in residence in a collaborative initiative between Opera Philadelphia and two NYC-based organizations—Gotham Chamber Opera and Music-Theatre Group.
As you may have noticed, our artist interviews are a hugely important part of “The Box.” The variety of musicians and genres represented are why we coined the slogan, “Expect the unexpected!”
Considering that our industry is saturated, audiences are small, and funding is limited, it’s essential to think about how you’re going to fit into the world of new music. Perhaps it would be more worthwhile to seek an ensemble where you can share your ideas and join an already fully formed team instead of pursuing a similar venture from scratch.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a handful of images from NewMusicBox in 2008 seemed like great way to illustrate the year that was.
There were so many new and shiny ways to share our inner monologue in 2007. In honor the information acceleration that marked the year, let’s take a deeper look at just a few mile markers.
Meredith Monk: Piano Songs, a new compilation performed by Ursula Oppens and Bruce Brubaker, features music that finds expressive possibilities in the act of moderating between extremes. Old and new, traditional and experimental, memory and transformation–within all those competing forces, Monk’s music seems to hover at a point of balance.
A chair is a terrible thing to waste, and in 2006 any and all vacancies were weighing heavily on our minds. Venue was a central variable in the new equations, but long-term solutions meant more than just locating a cooler landlord with a liquor license.
The body, and the use of it, is the only way to dismantle those lofty ideals of immortality created by virtuosity. I’m not interested in watching a superhuman compete in a human challenge. No one likes a rigged game.
If 2004 had a genre-busting vibe, by 2005 we were embracing friends old and new as barriers cleared. The questions at the intersection of music and digital delivery, however, were getting much more complex as the novelty of what we could do careened into what music was worth and how we were going to pay for it.
With all the serious reflection that’s been going on around here of late, it seemed like it was time to pop some popcorn and re-watch a few of the mini artist documentaries NewMusicBox has produced.
Sure, Mark Zuckerberg and pals launched Facebook in 2004, but NewMusicBox was already cruising into its 5th anniversary by that point. For the traditionalists in the house, the appropriate gift is wood, which we needed because the year was rife with arguments over genre fence lines.
