A bunch of things happening in the coming weeks. Come see one of them!
Patter at the 92Y Tribeca
On Saturday, January 28th at the 92Y Tribeca New Morse Code – Hannah Collins, Mike Compitello, and Anne Lanzilotti – play my trio Patter along with tunes by Andy Akiho, Matthew Barnson, Alejandro Vinao, Kurtag and Norgard. Timo Andres follows with a set of tasty ‘Lieder Ohne Worte’ inspired works. Details and tickets here.
Take a trip upstate! Friday, February 10 at Skidmore College, Ensemble ACJW presents the first ever Sleeping Giant collaborative project. The Sleepy Gs have teamed up to create a work responding to Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat. This concert features the world premiere of our work followed by a performance of L’Histoire. Details here.
If you don’t know about the Academy or Ensemble ACJW, check them out here. They are an illustrious bunch!
RE: You at the Hartt School
On Saturday, February 11 at the Hartt School of Music, Owen Weaver and Concert Black present my RE: You on Owen’s DMA Percussion recital. Owen has been a true champion of my music. He’s also a rock-star percussionist. To illustrate both points, watch this.
Ensemble ACJW, Sleeping Giant, Carnegie Hall!
Tuesday, February 14 at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Ensemble ACJW presents a repeat performance of Sleeping Giant’s Histories. Currently this show is sold out. BUT Carnegie might release tickets in the weeks leading up to the show. Check in with the Box Office to see if something comes up. Details here.
Fast Forward Austin in NYC
On Wednesday, February 23rd, at the Gershwin Hotel, Fast Forward Austin – the annual new music festival I co-direct with Ian Dicke and Steve Snowden – makes a special Big Apple appearance on Vicky Chow’s Contagious Sounds Series. 2012 FFA artists The Bel Cuore Sax Quartet and percussionist Owen Weaver perform along side special guests Vicky Chow and Concert Black. My pieces Waterloo Dance Hall and RE: You are on the program along with works by Graham Reynolds, Ian Dicke, Steve Snowden, Nick Sibicky, and Daniel Wohl. This is going to be a fun night!
Marionette was composed for Sleeping Giant’scollaboration with Ensemble ACJW. Tasked with creating a companion piece to L’Histoire du Soldat, each Giant crafted a very personal response to the Stravinsky. We called the collection Histories because through developing our responses it was as if we were all discovering our own personal histories with the work.
For my piece Marionette I approached L’Histoire like a puppeteer. I selected two beats of Stravinskian ephemera, and then cut, layered and reordered them to create something new. Geppetto-like, I carved musical phrases from this composite material. As the piece unfolds, the phrases develop in a tentative, somewhat awkward way, gaining confidence as they grow, yet never losing a sense of their intrinsic, mismatched construction. Eventually, the music fully embraces its jagged edges and rough hewn seams, reveling in its idiosyncrasies as it reaches a loud, boisterous culmination.
Marionette was commissioned by The Academy—a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.
The premiere is coming soon, February! Until then, check out this nifty computer mock-up of the piece:
Marionette (from Sleping Giant's Histories)
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premiere 2.10.12 Ensemble ACJW, Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall, Zankel Music Center, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
performances
2.14.12 Ensemble ACJW, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
One of my most exciting projects of 2011 was a collaboration with the Sebastian Chamber Players on something we called the Vivaldi Project. Our goal was to produce a show that seamlessly interwove early and new music. 2011 happened to be the 300th anniversary of Vivaldi’s seminal work L’Estro Armonico, so we decided to create a set around these concerti. For my part I wrote a collection of interludes to go between the Vivaldi. While writing, I focused on a particularly interesting fact of Vivaldi’s career, his tenure as Music director at the famous Ospedale della Pieta, an orphanage for girls that specialized in musical training. Most of Vivaldi’s concerti, and almost certainly all of L’Estro, were written and performed at the Ospedale. I found this scenario irresistible and decided my interludes would be about the Ospedale, in particular the Ospedale at night time. I wanted to imagine the sound and feeling of the Ospedale after everyone was asleep and the day’s music had stopped.
We got a nice grant to support the development and presentation of the project and with the help of said grant we created a swanky blog. Check it out for posts about some of the string techniques I use, detailed thoughts on the concept, and audio of the piece as I wrote it.
The first performance was this past December in Hamden, CT. It was thrilling to hear my pieces back-to-back with the Vivaldi. We’re already plotting round two, hopefully coming to a New York venue near you sometime soon. Below are short descriptions of the interludes and audio from the performance.
Barcarolle
This interlude features the Viola. A Barcarolle is a boat song, but my piece isn’t a song so much as music suggesting the possibility of a song.
Night Scenes from the Ospedale: Barcarolle
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Lamento
This interlude features cello. The music is spare, plaintive and atmospheric. Perhaps it is one of the girls alone, pleading or in prayer. You’ll hear the cello pizzicato throughout. In the backgruond a slow, sliding violin melody passes over a flickering and fragile drone. A voice of strange noises emerges in dialogue with the cello as the music intensifies.
Night Scenes from the Ospedale: Lamento
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Notturno
Notturno features Harpsichord and Double Bass. It is late night and a teacher plays quietly somewhere in the Ospedale. We continue to hear the nocturnal noises from the Barcarolle. Voices float in and out of the music, perhaps it is the sound of the harpsichordist humming along as he plays.
Night Scenes from the Ospedale: Notturno
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To purchase a score and part set please click here
premiered 12.17.11 by Quodlibet, Spring Glen Church,Hamden, CT.
As part of Sleeping Giant’s December Q2 residency (in which we programmed a month’s worth of shows for Hammered!, more about that here), the folks at Q2 were kind enough to record my piece Is it Auburn? in the esteemed Greene Space. Tema Watstein, Mariel Roberts, Karl Larson and Owen Weaver joined forces for the task. You can see the results below. The played real well! I wrote a blog about it for Q2 and you can take peak at that right here.
This fall I’ve been working on a very cool project with two NYC based baroque ensembles: The Sebastian Chamber Players and Quodlibet. We hatched a plan for a program that would interweave Vivaldi Concerti Grosso from his Op.3 collection L’Estro Harmonico and a set of interludes written by moi. The idea was to create a new, contemporary context for these landmark Vivaldi pieces. It’s been a fascinating process. I’ve spent a lot of time listening to Vivaldi, researching his work, and thinking about those funny things they call ‘period’ string instruments.
We got a nice grant to support the development and presentation of the project. With the help of said grant we created a swanky blog devoted to the Vivaldi Project. You should check it out. There are audio samples of the interludes (here, here and here), posts about some of the instrumental techniques I’m using, and posts about the story behind my pieces.
The first incarnation of the Vivaldi Project goes down December 17th and 18th in Hamden, CT and Collinsville, CT.
Go here for info about the Collinsville show and here for info about the Hamden show.
About a month ago I went into the studio with Concert Black to record a demo of my piece RE: You. While I’ve spent some time in the studio recording other people’s music, I’ve never had the chance to do it with my music. Being able to hear everything in such pristine detail, while also having the ability to sculpt the balance and tone was pretty damn satisfying. We worked with Greg Di Crosta at Firehouse 12 studios in New Haven. There is an amazing vibe at Firehouse and Greg was excellent at getting a good sound and helping us stay on schedule. Many of you know I have secret plans to record all the email songs as my first album (Is it Auburn?, Why are you not answering?, andRE: You). If it ends up being half as fun as this session then I am PSYCHED. Here are some videos of Concert Black in action:
From Better find those little blue pills if you plan on giving her more than lip service
Early in the summer of 2011 I visited Westport, New York, a small town on the shores of Lake Champlain. Due to record snow fall and an unusually rainy spring, the lake had risen to a height not seen for generations. The result was the destruction and flooding of many homes and businesses along the lake. Rather than hiking and swimming I spent the weekend tearing down rotten, mold-filled walls of a friend’s lakeside restaurant, helping them get back on their feet after weeks of being closed.
In July I travelled to Nebraska City, Nebraska for a month long residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center. I was stunned during my approach to Omaha’s airport when I saw the crested Missouri river stretching for miles in all directions. The submerged buildings, the interstate’s giant clover interchanges poking through muddy water, and the rows of sandbags surrounding the tarmac, barely holding back the surging river from the airfield, were surreal.
Floods, unlike other natural disasters, do not simply end. They linger for months at a time. The water slowly recedes as helpless residents patiently wait to see what is left of their property. These disasters are both natural and man- made. The Missouri River flood, however, was significantly more man-made than not. Like upstate New York, the winter in Nebraska brought record snowfall. Melting snow combined with heavy spring rains led to overfilled reservoirs. Responding to the crisis the Army Corps of Engineers began a series of planned releases, initiating the massive downstream flooding. I came across a youtube video of an Iowan farmer flying above his land, surveying what was left of his submerged crops. He repeated to the camera, “This is not mother nature…This is not mother nature.”
This piece was commissioned by Hunter College for Reuben Blundell and the Hunter Symphony. I am also greatful to the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center and the I-Park Foundation for providing the time and space to create this work. The work will be premiered at a March 2012 performance. For now, you can check out a computer mock-up right here:
This is Not Mother Nature
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For information on renting a complete part set please click here
Premiered 3.21.12 at Hunter College, New York, NY.
I’m thrilled to be a part of this great event put on by the Color Fielders. The festival features four concerts, one large scale happening, musicians from around the country, and new music by composers Ravi Kittappa, Chris Chandler, Andrew Martin Smith, Christopher Dietz, Edward Hamel, Jeff Weston, Justin Blackburn, David Grant, and ME. I’ll have two works going down: Is it Auburn? and Why Are You Not Answering? Check out Color Field’s Kickstarter Page and support the cause!
Sebastian Chamber Players
In late fall the Sebastian Chamber Players will premiere a new work of mine on a concert of Vivaldi Concerti Grossi. 2011 is the 300th anniversary of Vivaldi’s L’Estro Harmonico, a collection of 12 concertos for 1, 2 and 4 violins, so Sebastian director Daniel Lee and I decided my piece would be a set of short interludes woven between selections from the Vivaldi. This is my first work for Baroque ensemble. I’m pretty psyched. Date and Venue TBA.
Hunter Symphony
This Fall I’ll continue my residency with the Hunter Symphony as they rehearse a newly commisoned orchestral work for a December 7th premiere. In March, 2012 the orchestra will give the work a repeat performance. It’s been a real pleasure to working with Reuben Blundell and the Hunter Symphony.
In February 2012, sleepy Gs Andrew Norman, Chris Cerrone, Jacob Cooper and myself will team up with Ensemble ACJW to bring you the first ever Sleeping Giant COLLABORATIVE project. The four of us will write works to go along side Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat. The intrepid Ensemble ACJW will premiere the work at Skidmore College on February 10 and then offer a repeat, valentine day performance in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall on February 14. This is exciting for so many reasons. Hot date, guaranteed.
Soon after these performances giants Timo Andres and Ted Hearne will add their contributions to the project and the entire set will be presented by the Deviant Septet. Date and venue TBA.
Fast Forward Austin
It’s still a long way off, but I’ll throw it out there, Fast Forward Austin 2012 is in the works. Check out our site and facebook page for info and pics from last years festival.
On September 12, 1962 President Kennedy gave a speech declaring America’s goal of sending a manned mission to the moon by the end of the decade. On May 2, 2011 President Obama announced that US Special Forces had killed Osama Bin Laden. Soon after that announcement, tweeter, astrophysicist, and director of the Hayden Planetarium, Neil De Grasse Tyson tweeted:
Two American goals that took a decade, and more than $100 billion to achieve: 1) Walk on the Moon 2) Find Bin Laden.
It is a chilling comparison.
Brilliant soprano and friend, Sarajane Dailey asked me to write a piece for her and cellist Scott Kluksdahl to be included on their upcoming album. For her piece I set a small portion of Kennedy’s moon speech:
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.
The recording will be released Fall 2011, but in the meantime here is an excerpt to wet your appetite.
We choose to go to the moon
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Check back later for details on how to purchase the disc. Sarajane and Scott will also be premiering and touring this piece during Fall 2011. Dates TBA!
To purchase a score and part set please click here
RE: You is the third and final set of instrumental pieces based on lines excerpted from a collection of emails accidentally received by my friend Jeffrey K. Miller. As with the other two sets–Why are you not answering? and Is it Auburn?–RE: You, takes its starting point from the strange emotional worlds implied by the extracted lines. For RE: You the first email, Better find those little blue pills if you plan on giving her more than lip service, is a letter of advice sent to Jeffrey from an unknown friend. The second email, Halfway?, is from a mystery woman and is in fact the entire email. It refers to a meeting point halfway between Jeffrey and the woman’s home. As far as I know, the meeting never took place; Jeffrey did not respond to her message. There is one final piece yet to be written for RE: You. Completion, TBA.
RE: You was commissioned by Concert Black and recorded at Firehouse 12 Studios with Greg DiCrosta, engineer.
1. Better find those little blue pills...
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2. Halfway?
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Check Video of Concert Black recording ‘Better find those little blue pills…’
premiered 5.24.11 by Concert Black at Littlefield, Brooklyn, NY.
performances
06.21.11 Concert Black, Make Music New York, Debut New York, New York, NY. 06.15.11 Concert Black, Sleeping Giant Summer Show, Littlefield, Brooklyn, NY
