Posted by Sam Zelitch »
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Movie composer John Williams turned 81 in February, and no orchestra stepped up to celebrate the passing of his perfect nine square birthday. Perhaps they were all exhausted by the Tanglewood celebration of his 80th last year. Williams may be America’s most successful movie composer; his music revels in the film’s narrative, loudly commenting on it, and telling the audience how to feel. But he hardly gives any deference to the thinking mind. At the other end of the genre, where artists come from outside of Hollywood and work within stifling budgets, a more challenging creative process occurs. The artistry such a process can yield was in full display on April 23, 2013, when Fulcrum Point New Music Project accompanied a screening of Ken Russell’s Altered States with a live performance of John Corigliano‘s stunning score at Chicago’s Harris Theater.
Composer John Corigliano (photo credit: johncorigliano.com)
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Posted by Justin Rito »
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To celebrate the release of 5, a new album of posthumously discovered works by Ann Southam, the acclaimed pianist Eve Egoyan performed a solo recital at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Ontario, on Friday, April 19, 2013. The concert featured one work from the new album, Returnings II, as well as works by Taylan Susam, Piers Hellawell, Michael Finnissy, and Claude Vivier.
Pianist Eve Egoyan (photo credit: David Rokeby)
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Posted by Thomas Deneuville »
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For a full week (March 20 to March 27, 2013), the Park Avenue Armory opened its 2013 season with a ritualization by Rirkrit Tiravanija of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s OKTOPHONIE. The piece was staged as the composer originally intended: in outer space. Well, kind of.
Karlheinz Stockhausen’s OKTOPHONIE at Park Avenue Armory – Photo by Stephanie Berger
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Posted by Don Clark »
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As a fitting finale for its 20th anniversary season, newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble departed from its usual recital format and even its usual venue to mount the world premiere of Darwin, a full- length chamber opera in three acts based on the life and writings of Charles Darwin. Joining the venerable instrumental ensemble was a fine cast of singer/actors: tenor (and newEar pianist) Robert Pherigo as Darwin, child soprano Audrey Hartwell as young Annie Darwin, tenor Jedd Schneider as Captain Robert FitzRoy, baritone Paul Griggsby as biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, and soprano Sylvia Stoner in several roles, most notably as the Worm Queen. Also featured were dancers from The Owen/Cox Dance Group, choreographed by co-artisitic director Jennifer Owen. The City Stage Theatre at Kansas City’s historic and beautifully restored Union Station was the setting for the opera’s performances on April 26-27, 2013.
Naturalist Charles Darwin (image credit: Bettmann / Corbis)
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Posted by Dana Wen »
1 Comment »This is the first post of Technology Editor Dana Wen’s two-part coverage of the seventh annual Music & Brain Symposium, held at Stanford University on April 12 – 13, 2013.
Onstage, a disheveled figure slouches on a wooden box, dressed in the garb of a hospital patient. This is Leon, a tormented man who suffers from frequent auditory hallucinations, symptoms of his debilitating schizophrenia. While Leon slumps on his box, twitching and staring off into space, kettledrums begin to rumble, joined by the crash of cymbals. Caught up in the furor of hallucinatory sound, Leon begins to beat out rhythms of his own, using his own body and the box under him as instruments. This was the scene on April 12, 2013, at Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University, where composer Jonathan Berger‘s Visitations: Theotokia and The War Reporter received its world premiere. The production brought together an all-star cast, including New York Polyphony and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Director Rinde Eckert and conductor Christopher Roundtree provided artistic leadership.
Jonathan Berger’s Theotokia (photo credit: Stanford Live)
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Posted by Daniel Emmerson »
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Japanese electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda‘s relentlessly ambitious 2012 conception superposition, presented at the Barbican in London on 27-28 March 2013, explores the human relationship to science and technology as we discover new concepts that go beyond the remit of our generic day-to-day routine. In so doing, Ikeda demonstrates a divide between widely available technologies and systems, and the capacity of any user majority to grasp the fundamental principles that are at work.
Composer/artist Ryoji Ikeda, with Cyclo duo partner Carsten Nicola (photo credit: kinosiska.si)
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