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New music’s nemesis?

Ah, July. With the regular concert season receding into mere memory, is the new music enthusiast destined for incessant renditions of “Stars and Stripes Forever” at the local bandshell for the rest of the summer? All the beach trips, barbeques, and fireworks displays in the world can’t disguise the fact that summer means slim pickings for modern composition. On the brighter side, ’tis the season for festivals galore. So if sand and surf isn’t exactly your thing, allow me to suggest some events to satisfy your musical cravings. Along the way we’ll explore a couple of interesting ways to escape the heat, and a composerly twist on dinner-and-a-movie.

First things first. Let’s address a particular national holiday when it’s hard to avoid a certain little Tchaikovsky piece involving cannons. While you’re bound to hear the same-ol’-same-ol’ on the 4th, those gathered at the Miller Outdoor Theatre will be treated to something brand spanking new by composer James Stephenson, commissioned and performed by the Houston Symphony (July 4: info). As for the rest of us, looks like we get to celebrate our independence from English rule with a tune penned by a dead Russian dude.

Just to prove there are no centuries-old hard feelings, there are some kids in London presenting some of America’s most nonconformist composers under the banner of Music We’d Like To Hear. Curators Tim Parkinson, John Lely, and Markus Trunk have decided they want to hear Michael Pisaro’s The Collection, an assembly of 25 pieces for instruments of all kinds, both specified and unspecified (July 5: info). The following week, the series presents UNAMUNO, a choral work by Alvin Lucier, as well as his Sizzles for organ and drums with “fine strewn material” (July 12: info). Not to make you jealous, but the Brits also get to hear the Cecil Taylor Quartet play with Anthony Braxton—a first-ever—at the Southbank Centre (July 8: info) followed by another jazz legend named Ornette (July 9: info).

Seems the summer isn’t slowing things down one bit across the pond. Keeping up with the Joneses, a small artist-run venue located in Oakland is setting its phasers on stun by hosting back-to-back music festivals and the Transbay Skronkathon. Oh, wait. What’s a skronkathon, you ask? Well, think of it as a barbeque with more than 10 hours of live improvised music by scronkers from all over the Bay Area’s creative music scene (July 15: info). It’s pretty much quintessential summertime fun, only louder. 21 Grand gets the par-tay started with folks like Rubber O Cement, Larry Ochs, and Sharon Cheslow performing as a toast to the art gallery and performance space’s seventh anniversary (July 12 and 13: info). Happy birthday 21 Grand! The venue also welcomes the Edgetone New Music Summit (July 22 – 28: info). The annual gathering of audio experimenters from the Bay and beyond consists of concerts and panel discussions that crossover the bridge with events at San Francisco’s Musicians Union Hall and Community Music Center.

In southern California, the good folks at MicroFest serve up an outdoor concert of Harry Partch’s music, performed on his original instruments, of course, at California Plaza in downtown L.A. (July 20: info). Is it me, or is it somehow fitting that Partch’s settings of hitchhikers’ graffiti are going to be performed so close to downtown’s skid row? But hey, it’s a free show. And if you happen to be writing your dissertation on the effects of microtonality on the homeless population, this is obviously a not-to-be-missed event.

Speaking of homelessness, I would probably end up in the early stages myself if I whipped out the credit card to pay for a trip to Rimini. But life might just seem slightly impoverished if I never get the chance to hear the intrepid Daan Vandewalle perform Alvin Curran’s complete (thus far) cycle of solo piano pieces called Inner Cities. Those lucky enough to be in Italy for the Santarcangelo International Festival of the Arts are in for a transformative experience divided over two extended evenings. During the latter installment, Vandewalle plans to unveil Curran’s latest installment Inner Cities #13 (July 12 and 13: info).

Anyone looking to beat the heat on New York’s Lower East Side can wander into the Miguel Abreu Gallery to view some visually stunning scores by Robert Ashley, Alison Knowles, Christian Wolff, Pauline Oliveros, Anthony Jay Ptak, and the aforementioned Englishman Tim Parkinson. If you’re not content just looking, you can hear performances of the exhibited work in addition to other compositions at the gallery throughout the month by musicians such as Anthony Coleman, Jennifer Choi, and exhibition organizer Alex Waterman (through July 28: info).

If you’re interested—and I know that you are—in what young composers are up to, you’ll want to checkout Zeitgeist’s Lowertown Listening Session (July 18: info). Sounds to me like your typical concert on the down-low, which it kind of is. But this monthly series gives budding composers a chance to develop new work in a no-pressure environment. Expect discussion and feedback from the performers and composers. Think of it as an insider’s look into the process of creating new works. (Yes, I know all you composers are all too familiar, but sometimes it’s fun to watch it all unfold from the outside—at least give it a try, okay?)

When composers date other composers, conversations shouldn’t always digress into combinatoriality. Here are two ideas for composer couples looking to breakout of their theoretical rut. In Virginia, you can have a gourmet dinner inspired by Aaron Jay Kernis’s The Four Seasons of Futuristic Cuisine. No joke. Garth Newel Music Center’s resident chef Randy Wyche will concoct a five-course meal based on the manifestos from the Kernis piece. Dinner is preceded by a cocktail hour and a performance of the composition in question by the unflappable eighth blackbird (July 14: info). If a movie is more your speed, Accessible Contemporary Music screens their film Composer Alive: Eastern Expressions which details their collaboration with Beijing composer Xiaogang Ye (July 20: info).

When new music crops up in an unexpected place—i.e. not in a major city—it often coalesces around a college with a school or department of music and its attendant composers. Syracuse, New York, home to a large, private university that shares the city’s name, happily and successfully bucks this trend. The Society for New Music, which celebrated its 35th anniversary this past season, programs concerts of contemporary music and provides tireless advocacy for young composers, untaxed by the pessimism that long, bitter winters and a protracted economic downturn have brought to Syracuse. The Society’s independence from the university, along with a willingness to collaborate and a refusal—despite geographic obscurity—to be overlooked, has made it the best and most exciting source of music in a region not known as a musical Mecca.

The musicians involved with the Society for New Music are dedicated to championing local composers.

Since its founding in 1971 by a small group of musicians playing the works of their composer peers, the Society has been involved in both the performance and promotion of new music. The founding players were, variously, college faculty, teachers in area schools, and members of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, and this new ensemble filled a gap in the range of music performed in the city. The ensemble got its start, according to singer, teacher, and Society founder Neva Pilgrim, “under the umbrella” of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, and has grown into a larger, more fluid group of performers. At every stage of the Society’s development, however, it has consistently championed local composers and has placed their work alongside that of composers of national and international fame.

In this and previous anniversary seasons, the Society has undertaken large-scale commissions in collaboration with other musical organizations in the area, engaging primarily classical-oriented groups like the Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music, the Syracuse Chorale, and the Syracuse Vocal Ensemble to perform contemporary music. The Society has had a wide reach since its early years; for the United States bicentennial, only five years into the Society’s existence, it assisted in the commission of a piece by George Rochberg for the Syracuse Symphony.

This collaborative spirit has made the Society a cornerstone of the musical community in Syracuse, and it led to the particularly grand display which launched the Society’s 35th season in September 2006-the world premiere of Robert Morris’s Sound/Path/Field. Large crowds on the SU campus are used to gathering to attend games by one of the University’s well-funded but underperforming sports teams, but on that afternoon, they came for an outdoor musical happening. Morris drew his inspiration from the main academic quad and surveyed it daily for several months, taking in the space and its surroundings and walking its crisscrossing paths. The resulting work utilized more than a hundred performers, including student singers and instrumentalists, children’s choir, and large puppets from a local theater company. Flocks of mobile musicians turned the usually restricted, well-manicured space of a college quad into the stage for the largest undertaking in the Society’s history.

Students looking to spend a fall afternoon catching rays and chucking Frisbees stumbled upon a work of performance art that combined the precision of a marching band drill with Cagean aleatoric elements. Passersby became audience members—drawn in by the large crowds, as well as by the sight of large, billowy-winged puppets borne on poles—and they were able to freely mix with the roving musicians. Each cue from the University’s chimes made everyone look about for the next ensemble to start playing or singing.

Performance on the quad as part of Robert Morris’s Sound/Path/Field

The creative cross-pollinations that made Sound/Path/Field possible continued throughout the Society’s 06-07 concert series. February’s “Visions of Sound” concert featured dancers and choreographers from the State University of New York at Brockport and the University at Buffalo performing works accompanied by the music of Marc Mellits, Daniel Felsenfeld, and others. Local dance studios provided complimentary tickets to their students, giving many young people exposure to contemporary music paired with modern dance. The geographic span of performers and composers on “Latin Rhythms,” a March concert of music by Latin-American composers, was even broader: works by composers based in Syracuse, Rochester, and New York City (with roots in Colombia, Mexico, and Cuba, respectively), musicians from five different colleges in Central and Upstate New York, with still more from the Syracuse Symphony; and a Syracuse-born-and-bred flamenco dancer.

This broad eclecticism extends to another of the Society’s influences upon the community: a radio program devoted solely to new music which, at an hour a week every Sunday afternoon, may seem modest but is still an hour more than many cities—especially ones as small as Syracuse—can boast. “Fresh Ink” is in its tenth year on 91.3 FM WCNY, the Syracuse area’s only classical music station. When talk of a new music program began more than ten years ago, the station’s programmers and other musical minds said they were too busy, but Pilgrim, now the program’s host, said, “I’m too busy, too, but I think it needs to be done.”

This type of commitment speaks to a deep sense of loyalty in the Syracuse area. Children throughout the region grow up attending concerts and sporting events at SU; the Carrier Dome, a massive, on-campus arena that hosts many of these events, is visible from many places in the city and from Interstate 81, the north-south highway that bisects the city. This early connection results in many local high schoolers attending SU and in the cultivation of native talent not only in athletics, but also in academics and the arts.

This association has played out to the Society’s benefit as well. Steven Heyman, pianist and assistant professor of music at SU, grew up in Syracuse and returned in 1988 to teach and perform after studying at Juilliard and in Europe. Wesley Baldwin, a cellist who played on the “Latin Rhythms” concert, now teaches at the University of Tennessee, but still returns frequently to his hometown to perform. Andrew Russo, pianist and performing artist in residence at nearby Le Moyne College, studied with Heyman and turned pages at Society concerts when he was in high school. Natives who move elsewhere often say Syracuse is a great place to be from rather than to stay, but the allure of the arts keeps drawing long-time residents back.

The Society’s foremost connection, though, is to the community, not to the college, and the way that the Society bridges the familiar town-gown gap has contributed to its high standing. The group began by putting on five concerts split between locations in the city and at the University, and it has remained mindful of the separation between the city and the institution on “the Hill.” The Society has drawn upon what the University has to offer—performers from the faculty, a strong music composition department, concert spaces with some rare features (the 1950 Holtkamp organ in Crouse College is world-renowned)—while remaining apart from it and helping to keep musical life in Syracuse centered in the community.

Stunning views mix with the music at the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park in nearby Cazenovia, New York.

The Society concert series has since expanded to sites in other parts of the city: the Carrier Theatre at the downtown Mulroy Civic Center and the May Memorial Unitarian Society on the east side of the city. Concerts are reprised throughout Central New York: in Utica and Rochester, and at Colgate University and Hamilton College. In the summer, the Society sponsors a concert series in Cazenovia, a scenic small town 20 miles west of Syracuse, and the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, an outdoor sculpture garden that serves as a concert site, is an off-the-beaten-path gem. The Society tallies more than 20,000 audience members at its year-round concerts, with still more tuning in to and giving feedback on “Fresh Ink.”

In spite of the growth in audience and the strong positive reception that many Society concerts enjoy, provinciality and an antipathy toward new ideas sometimes crop up in Syracuse. The following write-up in the Syracuse New Times, the city’s alternative weekly newspaper, was particularly disheartening:

“If the atonal shrieks, squeals and shocks that define ultra-contemporary classical music don’t utterly offend you, there’s a good chance you’ll have the endurance only a true fan of chamber music harbors.” (Jan. 17, 2007)

The rest of the write-up for the concert was more promotional than utterly damning, but still slighted the notion of “experimental compositions,” as contrasted with “traditionally composed works.” This writing, under the headline “Compose Heap,” appeared in the paper’s “Picks” section, usually a spot for the newspaper’s editors to recommend the events most worthy of readers’ time and money.

In spite of this misguided bit of journalism, the Society’s advocacy of new music and dedication to local performers and composers continue unabated. In June, it will once again award the Brian Israel Prize, an annual award to winners Prize, an annual award to winners of a composition contest for New York State composers under the age of 30, with a $500 prize given by the Society and a $250 prize given by the New York Federation of Music Clubs. The 2006 winners, Christopher Doll and Ryan Gallagher, had their works performed on a November concert. The Society continues to program works by prize winners in subsequent seasons, and many of them return to hear their music performed again. A commission by the Society has been a starting point or a springboard for many more composers, including Melinda Wagner, Christopher Rouse, and Steven Stucky, all during their pre-Pulitzer days.

Activity in upstate New York’s other new music hotbeds is centered around universities: Eastman School of Music in Rochester, and Ithaca Conservatory of Music and Cornell University in Ithaca. But the base of contemporary music in Central New York—a term coined to distinguish the region from the forbidding and distant-sounding “upstate”—is firmly situated in the community, not in the halls of academia. Thanks to a combination of homegrown talent, adventurous audiences, and tireless advocacy by the Society for New Music, Syracuse stands on its own as a remarkable musical center.