Thursday, October 14, 2010

Project 440 winners announced

The winners of Project 440 were just revealed during intermission tonight at Carnegie Hall: Alex MincekClint NeedhamAndrew Norman and Cynthia Lee Wong
 
Project 440 is an exciting new commissioning program created by Orpheus in partnership with WQXR. Beginning with the selection of 60 composer nominees in June, Project 440 has invited the community to listen to, learn about, and discuss new music from emerging compositional talents around the world. The project has been marked by multiple rounds of elimination, first to 30 semi-finalists and then to 12 finalists. The four winners of the competition, selected by a committee of Orpheus musicians and industry professionals, will receive a commission from the orchestra to be premiered in 2012. Click here for more information. 

Alex Mincek (b. 1975) is a New York-based composer and performer. He studied composition with Tristan Murail and Fred Lerdahl at Columbia University and with Nils Vigeland at the Manhattan School of Music, where he received a Master of Arts. Mincek's music has been performed at major music festivals, including Festival Présences of Radio France, Voix Nouvelles at the Abbaye de Royaumont, Festival des Musiques Démesurées, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Contempuls Festival in Prague and the Ostrava New Music Days. Mincek is the artistic director of the Wet Ink Ensemble, a group dedicated to experimental contemporary music, which he founded in 1998.

The music of Clint Needham (b. 1981) has been described as "wildly entertaining" (New York Times), "easy to smile at" (Philadelphia Inquirer), and "fresh and spicy" (Courier-Post). Recently named recipient of a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Needham's music has been recognized with two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, the William Schuman Prize/BMI Student Composer Award, the Jacob Druckman Prize from the Aspen Music Festival, First Prize in the International Ticheli Composition Contest, the Heckscher Prize from Ithaca College, a Lee Ettelson Composer Award and the coveted Underwood New Music Commission from the American Composers Orchestra. Clint recently earned his doctorate degree from Indiana University, where he was a four-year Jacobs School of Music Doctoral Fellow in composition.

Andrew Norman (b. 1979) is a composer of chamber and orchestral music. A native Midwesterner raised in central California, Norman studied the piano and viola before attending the University of Southern California and Yale University. A lifelong enthusiast for all things architectural, Norman writes music that is often inspired by forms and ideas he encounters in the visual world. His music draws on an eclectic mix of sounds and usually features some combination of bright colors, propulsive energy, a healthy dose of lyricism and the fragmentation of musical ideas into little pieces.
 
A composer of what the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung calls "shamelessly beautiful" music for not only the avant-garde but "for all classical enthusiasts or indeed all music lovers," Cynthia Lee Wong is much in demand by ensembles throughout the world. Current commissions include a work for the Duo Slaato Reinecke, a piano sonata-fantasy for Soo Jin Anjou and a piano quartet for the Santa Fe Music Festival and the La Jolla Music Society, which will receive performances in 2010 and 2011. Wong is a graduate of the accelerated five-year Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Music program at the Juilliard School.
 
A self-governing organization, Orpheus was founded in 1972 by cellist Julian Fifer and a group of fellow musicians who aspired to perform diverse orchestral repertoire using chamber music ensemble techniques. Today, Orpheus continues to uphold this philosophy, performing without a conductor and rotating musical leadership roles for each work. The effect is extraordinary: The Chicago Tribune gushes, "Orpheus Chamber Orchestra shattered the mold, becoming in the process one of the more memorable events in this festival's 13-year history." 

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

That brillant TED

Some observations from Julian Treasure about sound:
1.) You are a chord.
2.) One definition of health may be that that chord is in complete harmony.
3.) We see one octave; we hear ten.
4.) We adopt listening positions.
5.) Noise harms and even kills.
6.) Schizophonia is unhealthy.
7. Compressed music makes you tired.
8. Headphone abuse is creating deaf kids.
9. Natural sound and silence are good for you.
10. Sound can heal.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

440 is coming for Orpheus

Next week, New York's Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will begin its 2010-2011 season. On October 14, Orpheus will deliver its New York season premiere performance, featuring the internationally-recognized piano virtuoso Garrick Ohlsson and broadcast live on WQXR. During the intermission of the Opening Night performance, the four winners of Project 440,Orpheus' innovative new commissioning contest, will be announced on the air. Then, on October 15, students at the Manhattan School of Music will perform a final concert as part of the orchestra's Orpheus Institute.
 
A self-governing organization, Orpheus was founded in 1972 by cellist Julian Fifer and a group of fellow musicians who aspired to perform diverse orchestral repertoire using chamber music ensemble techniques. Today, Orpheus continues to uphold this philosophy, performing without a conductor and rotating musical leadership roles for each work. The effect is extraordinary: The Chicago Tribune gushes, "Orpheus Chamber Orchestra shattered the mold, becoming in the process one of the more memorable events in this festival's 13-year history." 
 
As the only American ever to win the Chopin International Piano Competition in Poland, Garrick Ohlsson is known around the world as a master of Chopin. Since winning that coveted prize in 1970, Ohlsson has developed a powerful, electric style that prompted a New York Times review entitled, "In a Pianist's Expanding Repertory, Currents of Energy, Humor, and Drama." Next week, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will welcome Ohlsson as guest soloist for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, rounding out a program that also features Schubert's Symphony No. 4, "Tragic," and Berg's Lyric Suite. Orpheus and Ohlsson perform the same program on October 13 at Lafayette College in Easton, PA, and on October 15 at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT.
 
Founded in 2000, the Orpheus Institute finds members of the orchestra working directly with student chamber groups and ensembles to help develop a vital set of skills for collaborative music-making, including administrative problem solving, marketing, communication, and rehearsal management. Following the success of this program, Orpheus is in the process of securing funding for a major expansion of the Orpheus Institute. This expansion, set to begin in fall 2011, will feature a broader range of partnerships with different conservatories and universities across the country, including cross-curricular courses taught by Orpheus members. Click on the image to the left to watch an introductory video.
 
Project 440 is an exciting new commissioning program created by Orpheus in partnership with WQXR. Beginning with the selection of 60 composer nominees in June, Project 440has invited the community to listen to, learn about, and discuss new music from emerging compositional talents around the world. The project has been marked by multiple rounds of elimination, first to 30 semi-finalists and then to 12 finalists. The four winners of the competition, selected by a committee of Orpheus musicians and industry professionals, will receive a commission from the orchestra to be premiered in 2012. Click here for more information, available on the WQXR website.

Monday, October 04, 2010

Happy 4th

October 4 is World Animal Day! The holiday began in Florence, Italy in 1931 at a convention of ecologists, with the goal of highlighting the plight of endangered species. October 4 was chosen because it is the feast day of Francis of Assisi, a patron saint of animals and the environment. In 2009, over 80 countries celebrated the holiday, with a vast array of events and programs that took place all over the globe.

World Animal Day has now gone far beyond being the celebration of a Christian saint and is observed today by animal lovers and stewards of all beliefs, nationalities and backgrounds. The official World Animal Day website (www.worldanimalday.org.uk) was launched in the UK on October 4, 2003, encouraging people to commemorate their care and respect for animals, and to celebrate humankind’s special relationship with the animal kingdom. One aim is to help improve standards of animal welfare and protection of their ever-diminishing habitats.
Since its declaration, the holiday has grown to encompass all kinds of animal life. Animal blessings have been held in churches, synagogues, and by independent Animal Chaplains in parks and fields. Animal rescue shelters hold fundraising events and open adoption days, wildlife groups organize information displays, schools undertake animal-related project work and individuals and groups donate to animal welfare charities. In 2009, over 80 countries were involved, with a vast array of events from small grassroots groups to high-end galas and award ceremonies.

Saturday, October 02, 2010

SLL @ SA

Today in Music History:  October 2
  • 1854 -- Inauguration of the Academy of Music in New York City with the operaNorma.

  • 1935 -- Hungarian pianist Peter Frankl is born in Budapest.

  • 1944 -- Birth of Ton (Antonius) Koopman, conductor, organist, harpsichordist and founder of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, in Zwolle, the Netherlands.

  • 1964 -- The Borodin Quartet makes its New York City debut at Carnegie Hall.

  • 2010 -- Sebastian Lang Lessing leads first concert as music director of the San Antonio Symphony.