Giving Thanks: Stucky

This Thanksgiving, we're sharing thankful classical thoughts. I wanted to share music and composers I am thankful for:

Composer Steve Stucky hails from Hutchinson, KS and grew up in Waco, TX. A violist and composer, Steve won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.  We talked soon after, although he had been on my short list of composers for Composing Thoughts.  Later that year, he introduced me to a cellist who was performing in the area and was premiering a work of his.  Elinor and I connected and Steve let us broadcast the premiere! That summer I met up with Steve and Elinor in Itaca where Steve lived.

We became fast friends and have stayed in touch ever since. There were many more trips to Ithaca and we'd meet up in NYC or Dallas.  Currently Steve is chairman of the American Music Center and I was just elected to the board last May.

Steve still visits Texas and we we snapped this photo in Main Plaza downtown last November.  He'll be in Dallas again this week for his Rhapsodies and next May before the Carnegie Hall premiere of his August 4th, 1964.

Steve writes powerful and passionate music that I am grateful for and enjoy studying.

What music or composers are you thankful for? Let me know in the comments!

Simply the greatest

Alondra de la Parra may be the world greatest living conductor.  Leading the Dallas Symphony Orchestra last night, de la Parra was magical, musical, and is simply the greatest.  The encore of Ginastera was electric - called for after the third curtain call, Alondra swayed with the DSO musicians and then led the audience in clapping and swaying as well.  The entire Meyerson fell under the spell of the Malambo!

Happy 20th!

Known for entertaining New York music lovers and passionately serving the city’s children, Manhattan New Music Project (MNMP) celebrates 20 years of innovation and excellence this month with an exciting benefit performance at Joe’s Pub. The November 30 show will pay tribute to two decades of creativity and musical distinction, during which MNMP has touched thousands of lives, earned praise from critics, and won major financial backing from the U.S. Department of Education.

Since its founding in 1990 by composer Paul Nash, MNMP has presented dozens of challenging, invigorating new works by artists including Neal Kirkwood and Bruce Williamson. In addition to concerts by professional musicians, MNMP has crossed artistic and social boundaries via its wide range of educational activities, which since 1993 have included work with students at more than 100 schools in all five boroughs of New York City. With programs ranging from one-day workshops to multi-year residencies, MNMP’s educational efforts have been recognized since 2002 by the Department of Education, which signaled its continued support of MNMP earlier this year with a $4.6 million grant to advance its special education programs.       

"We are thrilled to mark this milestone occasion with such an incredible show," said Unitey Kull, Executive Director. "For 20 years, MMNP has spent its time, energy and funds on manifold aspects of performance and education, and we couldn’t ask for a better lineup of artists to help us celebrate our accomplishments!"
 

For MNMP’s 20th birthday celebration at Joe’s Pub, organization favorites Darcy James Argue and Claire Chase as well as founder MNMP founding member David Taylor will perform. Argue, praised as a “wickedly intelligent” composer and bandleader by The New York Times, will debut a world-premiere commissioned by the organization in loving memory of MNMP founder Paul Nash. Argue will also present works from his latest album, Infernal Machines, which was named one of the best albums of 2009 by critics at 70 media outlets, including NPR, The Wall Street Journal and The Village Voice.

Claire Chase, a founder of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), will bring her own vibrant style to the November 30 show, performing Steve Reich’s Vermont Counterpoint for solo flute and tape. Applauded by Time Out New York for her "dynamic" and "indefatigable" work as a musical innovator, Chase has gained new fans since 2001 with ICE, described as a "brilliant and unexpected" musical "powerhouse" by The New Yorker.

Not to be outdone, MNMP founding member David Taylor will perform works by Paul Nash with surprise guests. Taylor has been described by theNew York Times as "a bass trombonist with a marvelously dark cavernous sound and an attack that is as vividly dramatic as it is virtuosic," was a founding member of Manhattan New Music Project in 1990. He has appeared as a soloist throughout the world, and recorded with Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Wynton Marsalis, among many others.  He will perform works by MNMP founder Paul Nash with surprise guests.

Joe’s Pub will open its doors at 6 p.m., with the music to begin at 6:30 p.m.

Project 440 winners announced

The winners of Project 440 were just revealed during intermission tonight at Carnegie Hall: Alex Mincek, Clint Needham, Andrew 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." 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nine years ago

I was living in Dallas, packing for Las Vegas...since then, I have lived in Pennsylvania, and now in Texas.
I have made my first visit to Europe, ultimately filming in Vienna, Copenhagen and this summer in China.  I spent countless nights in New York City and visited composers like George Crumb, Peter Schickele, John Corigliano and Chris Brubeck in their studios.  I was honored with a Deems Taylor Award by ASCAP and feel really good about the work I do.
Hard to believe it has been nine years since 9/11. The world has changed and so have I...

Acting credits to be added to her resume!

Just listened and watched this new video with Janine Jansen...moving, charming and amazing playing!

Project 440 update

The 12 final composers from Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's Project 440 will be announced live on New York Public Radio at 10 a.m. this morning. The project, which began with 60 composer candidates and will conclude with the selection of four Orpheus commission recipients later this year, offers the public a rare glimpse into the ways new orchestral commissions come to be. Prior to this round of selection, the original 60 composers were narrowed to 30 semi-finalists on August 2. Out of the 12 finalists announced today, the four winners of the competition will be selected and revealed in early October.

The 12 composers selected to advance to the final round in Project 440 are:


Timothy Andres
Tyondai Braxton
Yu-Hui Chang
Eric Guinivan
Alexandre Lunsqui
Dylan Mattingly
Alex Mincek
Clint Needham
Andrew Norman
Paola Prestini
Sean Shepherd
Cynthia Wong

Orpheus designed Project 440 in keeping with the passion for new music and for transparency of the creative process that has been a hallmark of the orchestra since its inception in 1972. The project is documented online on the WQXR website and on Facebook, where fans and members of the public have engaged in lively debate about each of the candidates and Project 440 as a whole. Each composer nominee has a profile page that features samples of his or her previous work and the opportunity for the public to post reactions and comments. The Project 440 website has fostered dialogue about the nature of commissioning, elements of the project that resemble a popularity contest, and a number of other topics. All of the decisions regarding the elimination of candidates are made by a Selection Committee comprised of Orpheus musicians and staff as well as previously commissioned composers.

Orpheus cellists and Selection Committee members Jonathan Spitz and Eric Bartlett have created a series of videos to document the project from their perspective as well. Those videos are available through the Orpheus YouTube channel.

Better than some tenors

Some silliness via a Danish knighted violinist:

Thanks Lars!

NY concert - toy piano

On Sunday, September 12, toy pianist Phyllis Chen opens the fifth season of Barbès Classical, Concert Artists Guild’s monthly second-Sunday series at Barbes Bar & Performance Space in Park Slope, Brooklyn. This concert celebrates the release of Ms. Chen’s second CD, Mesmers, a compilation of miniature works composed by Ms. Chen for miniature pianos, various music boxes, live electronics and bowls. Additionally, this serves as a preview for spring 2011 when Ms. Chen will at Barbès in a residency focusing on cross-genre compositions and collaborations.
This performance will feature music from the CD, which is bookended by Carousel and Cobwebbed Carousel; the latter was written by Ms. Chen for toy pianist Margaret Leng Tan in response to Ms. Tan’s enthusiasm for the former. Other works include Colure for toy piano and bowls, Double Helix for toy piano and bowls, Taroko for music box and effects, Hypnos for two toy pianos, Passageway for sampled music box and prepared piano and Munin Raven for music boxes and live-electronics.
This new CD is representative of several diverse projects for Phyllis Chen, an artist whose pursuits take her in numerous directions as a toy pianist, pianist, composer and performance artist. In addition to Mesmers, Ms. Chen launches The Looking Glass ReWondered in 2010-2011, a multimedia program inspired by fairytales and created in collaboration with video artist Rob Deitz. Sounding Off: A Fresh Look at Classical Music, a recent six-city tour with cellist Johannes Moser, was a great success, merging the classical canon with the cutting-edge. Ms. Chen was the featured musician for the world premiere and ensuing six-week run of Stephin Merritt’s Off-Broadway production, Coraline, and she is a member of ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), a Chicago and New York-based collective dedicated to the performance and promotion of new works.
Concert Artists Guild is a not for profit arts service organization whose mission is to discover nurture and promote young musicians. CAG helps talented artists, identified through its annual international competition, to build sustainable careers. Barbès Classical is the flagship series of CAG’s New Music/New Places initiative which presents CAG artists in non-traditional venues such as bars, clubs and galleries, introducing diverse audiences to concert music. Competition winners are also presented on the CAG Winners Series at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. The CAG Records label enables roster musicians to get their music onto disc and into the marketplace. The CAG Commissioning Program ensures that classical music continues to be a living art form by fostering collaborations between performers and composers.

________LISTING INFORMATION_________

Barbès Classical
Sunday, September 12, 7:00 pm – Barbès Bar and Performance Space, 376 Ninth Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
PHYLLIS CHEN, toy piano
CD Release Concert - Mesmers
$10 suggested contribution


Mesmers track listing:
Carousel for toy piano and hand-cranked music box
Colure for toy piano and bowls
Double Helix for toy piano and bowls
Taroko for music box and effects
Hypnos for two toy pianos
Passageway for sampled music box and prepared piano
Munin Raven for music boxes and live-electronics
Cobwebbed Carousel for toy piano and hand-cranked music box

CMA Live Chat 7/14/10 12pm central

Join in the discussion Wednesday July 14th, 12pm central

Yazz Festival

Wonderland of the Americas, formerly Crossroads Mall, in conjunction with the Balcones Heights Convention and Visitors Bureau and Clear Channel Radio, is hosting the 17th Annual Balcones Heights Jazz Festival at the new Wonderland of the Americas Amphitheater, located at 4522 Fredericksburg Road, 78201.
The Jazz Festival will be held every Friday starting July 9th through August 6th from 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Admission is FREE and open to the public with outdoor seating in the Amphitheater on a first-come, first-served basis. Food and beverages are available for purchase at a variety of booths, as well as the adjacent Food Court inside Wonderland of the Americas.
In addition to the great music and food, Wonderland of the Americas will be holding a raffle throughout the entire five-week Jazz Festival. The Mall will be giving away a total of five, 50” LG Plasma TVs. The actual give-away and winner announcement will take place at the conclusion of each Jazz Festival, on stage at the Americas Amphitheater. The winner must be present to win.
The line-up for the 17th Annual Balcones Heights Jazz Festival includes:
· July 9th Eric Marienthal Saxophonist
Groove Therapy Smooth/Straighahead

· July 16th Peter White Guitarist
Lynn Riley Saxophonist

· July 23rd Cindy Bradley Trumpet/Flugelhorn
Fingerprints Smooth/Soul/R & B

· July 30th Four80East Smooth Jazz Band
Will Donato Saxophonist

· August 6th Jackiem Joyner Smooth/Soul/R & B
The Brew Latin

For more information, visit sanantoniocentral.org or call 210-732-0055.

GTOC: Acrobats

Pretty amazing stuff from Shanghai.

Then they proceeded to really amaze!

GTOC: Back home

Happy to be back in the US. Luggage will arrive later today, whew!
My general impression of China is fairly negative - it's a polluted, money grubbing communist state. There are some gorgeous scenery and nice people, but on a whole, I'll pass.
More soon!

GTOC: update Tokyo

We are delayed in Tokyo and will head out Friday morning on our #greattourofchina. It has been very long, but grateful to be in a hotel and confirmed for the morning flight. I celebrated with a Rocky Patel cigar in the hotel bar on the top floor.

GTOC: Bon voyage concert

It was a delightful sendoff for YOSA at Convenant Presbyterian Church last night. The first group heads out today and the rest of us leave tomorrow, meeting up in Beijing on Thursday night!

GTOC: YOSA Rehearsal

The first rehearsal for YOSA's #greattourofchina got underway this morning! They are playing some fun rep, here's Troy Peters in action with the group.

The farewell concert is Monday night at Covenant Presbyterian Church and the tour goes June 16-28. Follow my travels with YOSA on the KPAC Blog here and I'll post more personal details here, ooo ohh. ;)