New Music USA announces:

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE VIBRAPHONE: PAMELA Z AND ROBERT HONSTEIN

The year 2021 brings the unique opportunity to celebrate the first centennial of the vibraphone, an instrument developed in Indianapolis, IN by the Leedy Manufacturing Company, that has become a globally-recognized fixture in a wide variety of genres spanning from classical, pop, jazz and everything in between. To mark this occasion, a team of performers, composers, educators and music administrators have founded Vibraphone Project Inc. (VPI), whose first major endeavor is to facilitate a 3-day festival in Indianapolis, the instrument’s birthplace, to promote, support, educate and nurture artists and audiences associated with the vibraphone. One of the many ways we will accomplish this is by commissioning new works of integrity and substance for the instrument by prominent American contemporary composers, Pamela Z and Robert Honstein.

The festival (TBA) will be held in Indianapolis, IN of May 2021. For more information visit the New Music USA grant page: https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/contributions-to-the-vibraphone-pamela-z-and-robert-honstein/

Soul House | Hub New Music & Robert Honstein

Memory, nostalgia, longtime associations, and enduring relationships: these are the raw materials from which Soul House, the recording by the vital Boston ensemble Hub New Music, was constructed. Out via New Amsterdam’s Windmill Series on June 29 and available on all digital platforms on August 7, the recording comprises a single work by New York composer Robert Honstein, who formed a close bond with Hub during a period when he lived and worked in Boston.

- New Amsterdam Press Release

Click on the image to Pre-Order

This coincides with the release of my music video with Hub New Music of “Secret Place”!

chatterbird’s music video for Down Down Baby (quartet version)

Performed by chatterbird: Maya Stone, Jesse Strauss, Celine Thackston, Aaron Walters. Recorded in Cumberland Park, Nashville, October 2019.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Percussionist perform ‘Cross Fit’ here:

The CSO’s Cynthia Yeh on the vibraphone in ‘Cross Fit’

With her cat Nacho making a special appearance, Cynthia Yeh, principal percussion of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performs a segment of Cross Fit, the fourth movement of Robert Honstein's "An Economy of Means" (2015), written for prepared vibraphone.

Evan Chapman’s Caustics

Released April 10th, this album features Everything Now Right Now for drum set and pre-recorded electronics. This solo project by percussionist Evan Chapman also includes works by Ted Babcock, Alicia Walter, Ian Chang, Anna Meadors, Alexis C. Lamb, and Molly Joyce. Take a listen!! It is available on Bandcamp and other major platforms.

Score and electronics are available for purchase HERE.

Everything Now Right Now

First off, the video of Everything Now Right Now, performed by the amazing Evan Chapman, was published by Vic Firth this past Friday.

Second, this work will be included on his solo album “Caustics”, due to be released on April 10th, 2020! The album also includes works by Ian Chang of Son Lux, Molly Joyce, Alexis C. Lamb, Anna Meadors, Alicia Walter, and Ted Babcock. Stay tuned for more album release updates.

ABOUT THE PIECE:

Everything Now Right Now is a piece for drum set and track featuring high-energy, driving rhythms and a free-wheeling, synth-soaked track. Moving in lock-step with the drums, the track becomes a kind of super-drum, highlighting every sound in the kit as if the kit itself triggers the track’s bombastic frenzy. After a careening opening section, full of jump-cuts and jagged rhythms the track abruptly shifts to an ominous drone while the drummer adds a layer of improvised cymbal sounds. As we are lulled into an ambient haze of cymbals and shifting synth-pads, the music suddenly turns back to material reminiscent of the opening. The quick change leads to few brief missteps, but the drummer soon locks in with a series of increasingly disjunct grooves, driving the music to a bombastic finish.

Video Premiere: Hub New Music performs "Landing” from Soul House in album promo.

Hub New Music is set to release their debut album, featuring the complete Soul House. This promo video is one of nine movements, which will feature choreography from Urbanity dance and my attic as the set.

---

Produced by Four/Ten Media (Kevin Eikenberg & Evan Chapman)
Audio by Immersive Music Project (Jesse Lewis)

Video Premiere: Cellist Ashley Bathgate Reimagines a Cello Suite Inspired by Bach

Read the full article on Strings Magazine

---

Produced by Four/Ten Media and presented by New Amsterdam Records, featured on Ashley’s album “ASH”