Videos
We proudly produce our own new classical music videos. We have shot more than 25 so far but more are coming. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and you won’t miss any!
Video + Editing: Thomas Deneuville
Opening animation: Daniel Thompson at DTWebart (http://dtwebart.com)
Tom Peyton’s Bell By Bell | Make Music Winter 2012
From Make Music Winter website:
Artist Tom Peyton distributes fifty color-coded bells to the crowd, one color per note. At the front of the parade, a team of conductors waves corresponding colored flags to lead the group in slowly moving music, written by a variety of composers: when the conductors raise their red and green flags, everyone with red and green bells start ringing, and so on for each color, creating a sonorous, atmospheric soundscape throughout the East Village.
Patrick Grant’s Tilted Axes | Make Music Winter 2012
From the Make Music website:
Composer and producer Patrick Grant creates and leads a parade with dozens of electric guitarists through the East Village, ending at the newly renovated lobby of the Public Theater. The result will be a moving, polyphonic sound cloud layered in compelling, electric rhythms to honor this season’s axial tilt.
Sponsored by Rivington Guitars, Marshall Amplification, Danelectro, Public Theater, Brooklyn Battery Works, and Peppergreen Media.
Mantra Percussion Rehearses Michael Gordon’s Timber
In preparation of the New York premiere of Michael Gordon’s “Timber” at the BAM Fisher, on December 13, 14, and 15, 2012, Mantra Percussion let us be present during one of the rehearsals and kindly answered our questions about the instruments they built and the piece itself.
For more information, visit:
http://www.mantrapercussion.org
http://www.bam.org
Purcharse a recording of “Timber” by Slagwerk den Haag on Cantaloupe: http://goo.gl/Pnr5e.
Hotel Elefant rehearses Michael Gordon’s “For Madeline”
We met with composers Leaha Maria Villarreal and Mary Kouyoumdjian as their ensemble, Hotel Elefant, was about to rehearse Michael Gordon’s “For Madeline” for their upcoming Dia de Los Muertos concert. Learn more about them, and the challenges that a young ensemble faces in New York City.
For more information, visit: http://www.hotelelefant.org, http://www.facebook.com/hotelelefant.music, or http://twitter.com/hotelelefant.
Philip Glass’ Harpsichord Concerto | West Side Chamber Orchestra, Mallon, Lewis
The West Side Chamber Orchestra, its founder Kathy Halvorson, its conductor Kevin Mallon, and contemporary harpsichordist Christopher D. Lewis kindly allowed us to be present for the final takes of an upcoming Naxos album.
The album, coming out in 2013, will feature:
- Maurice Ohana, Tango
- John Rutter, Suite Antique
- Jean Francaix, Harpsichord Concerto
Third Coast Percussion | Soundcheck and interview at MoMA
Third Coast Percussion, a Chicago-based percussion ensemble is: Owen Clayton Condon, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore.
On August 9, 2012, Third Coast Percussion performed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of the Cage Centenary Celebration. The program featured music from TCP’s Cage percussion album on Mode Records (buy it here: http://goo.gl/oCCfp), and the world premiere of the collaborative, 100-composer piece that TCP is curating entitled RENGA:Cage:100.
We also talked about their iPhone App (http://goo.gl/MuPpF) and the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s “Resounding Earth.”
For more info, visit: http://www.thirdcoastpercussion.com.
Many thanks to the MoMA for letting us shoot in their beautiful sculpture garden. Visit: http://www.moma.org.
Performers Forum’s One-Year Anniversary at Exapno
Performers Forum (http://www.performersforum.com) was celebrating its one year anniversary on August 4, 2012. The presenter that night was alto saxophonist and composer Darius Jones talking about his project Elizabeth-Caroline Unit (http://www.dariusjonesmusic.com). Performers Forum meets at Exapno, 33 Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn (http://www.exapno.org).
In & Around C at Gallery One Twenty Eight
In & Around C is a participatory music and art installation that will incorporate live musical performances. The piece will take place at Gallery One Twenty Eight in New York City and will be the first collaboration between NCP and Ms. Mohre.
In In & Around C (2012), Mohre purposefully draws attention to space with five large vinyl lines that meet the gallery entrance. This enlarged music staff welcomes participants before retreating to circumnavigate the gallery. Participants are pulled sonically and visually towards performing ensembles that are reading and interpreting the “notes” on the staff. These “notes” consist of the heads of the participants, which are captured via a webcam and transmitted to a wall-mounted screen. In the interim between live performances, a program designed by Gabe Taubman, In C++, will convert participants’ figures into musical notation and sound.
Performance recorded on August 17, 2012. Music by: Trevor Gureckis, Ryan Manchester, and Alex Weston.
Presented by The Nouveau Classical Project / Produced by Sugar Vendil / Production Assistants: Tara Scott & Yoobin Whang.
Phil Kline – dreamcitynine
“Composer Phil Kline (Unsilent Night) draws upon the words and voices of Jim Jarmusch, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Bill T. Jones, Susie Ibarra, and Nona Hendryx, among sixty writers, artists, and musicians, for a GPS-based work inspired by Indeterminacy, Cage’s collection of one-minute epiphanies. This special event features percussionists dispersed throughout Lincoln Center’s Hearst Plaza in a live world-premiere performance of Phil Kline’s dreamcitynine.”
Commissioned by Lincoln Center Out of Doors.
Erik Satie’s Vexations on Wall Street | Make Music New York 2012
From the Make Music New York Website (http://www.makemusicny.org):
Channeling whimsy into outrage (or is it the other way around?), a tag team of vibraphonists will perform Erik Satie’s eighteen-hour composition Vexations near the corner of Broad and Wall Streets, led by frequent MMNY collaborator Amy Garapic.
Although Satie wrote Vexations in 1893, it went unperformed during his lifetime. Composer John Cage, whose centenary is being celebrated this year, was the first to publish the piece (in 1949), and the first to organize a performance (in 1963), featuring luminaries David Tudor, Christian Wolff, David Del Tredici, and James Tenney.
New York performers this year will include Amy Garapic, Matt Evans, Carson Moody, Doug Perkins, Owen Weaver, and Alan Zimmermann. Simultaneous performances of the piece will take place in Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Toronto, Amsterdam, Mexico City, Canberra and Melbourne (Australia), Amman (Jordan), Seoul (South Korea), Pitea (Sweden), and Golania (Brazil), as part of the Make Music / Fête de la Musique festivities around the world.
Visit: http://www.worldofvexations.com
KUN by Wendy Mae Chambers | Make Music New York 2012
From River to River’s website:
“KUN, a composition by Wendy Mae Chambers, is scored for 64 baby grand toy pianos and 64 toy pianists performing music composed utilizing the I Ching. Each toy piano represents one of the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching and the 2nd hexagram of the I Ching is named KUN. From 4:30PM until sunset at 8:31PM, 64 pianists play 64 baby grand toy pianos pianos arranged in yin/yang pairs, covering the expanse of Pier 15 and Pier 16 along The East River Waterfront Esplanade. The listener is invited to wander at will through the various piano stations, experiencing the composition in an almost infinite variety of configurations.”
Bang on a Can 25th Marathon
On Sunday, June 17 the 25th Bang on a Can Marathon took place at the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden.
Brooklyn Youth Chorus at Roulette
We met with Dianne Berkun, Artistic Director/Founder of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus as the BYC was getting ready for their Academy Spring Concert Series. Chorus members Bee Rouner, Raquel Klein, and Jake Montagnino shared their enthusiasm and their experience.
Bryce Dessner (The National, Clogs, etc.) kindly answered our questions too.
For more information about the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Academy, visit: http://www.brooklynyouthchorus.org
Hanging out with Florent Ghys | Hang #5
Florent Ghys performs “Nappe Brodée” at 7:28 | Click on CC to toggle English subtitles
Florent Ghys is a composer and upright bass player from Bordeaux, France. He studied ethno-musicology with a focus on Arabic contemporary music in Université de Bordeaux 3, and classical contrabass in Paris with Thierry Barbé. He is currently a graduate student at New York University, studying composition with Julia Wolfe. As a solo bass player he played his own music at Le Poisson Rouge (MATA 2011), Winter Garden (Bang on a Can Festival 2010), WNYC (Soundcheck May 2010), Carlsbad Music Festival, the Gershwin Hotel, and has been featured on NBC’s website. His new album ”Baroque Tardif” (2011 Cantaloupe music) has been reviewed by John Schaefer in his ”New Sounds” in February 2012.
”Florent Ghys creates a kind of post-minimalist chamber music using unusual phasing and overdubbing” – John Schaefer
Third Annual New Music Bake Sale
Full performance of “Fuck You And Your Hipster Tie” by Gutbucket at 4:45.
From newmusicbakesale.org:
Brought to you by Newspeak and Exapno, The New Music Bake Sale is delicious new event featuring live performances, bountiful beverages, merchandise, revelry, buffoonery, tomfoolery, and of course …plenty of baked goods. All your favorite up-and-coming New York New Music Ensembles come together under one roof. Live performances delight us all day while we snack and smile. Local musicians and orgs each have tables to sell their wares — from CDs to cupcakes. It’s a chance for each group to raise both funds and awareness in the community.
Hanging out with Aisha Orazbayeva | Hang #4
Aisha was in town for a professional development workshop and a series of concerts at Carnegie Hall and we really wanted to hang out with her. We met at the beautiful Mirrortone Studios in Manhattan. Roman Molino Dunn and Jay Rothman kindly welcomed us in their state-of-the-art midtown facility. More info here: http://www.mirrortone.com Aisha Orazbayeva performed Morton Feldman “For Aaron Copland” at 8:48.
“Violinist Aisha Orazbayeva studied in Kazakhstan, Italy and more recently here in London, at the Royal Academy of Music. She’s an inimitable performer, and has gained international renown for her performances of contemporary violin music.
Composers Aisha has already worked closely with include Johannes Maria Staud, Pierre Boulez, Harrison Birtwistle, and 1960′s synth pioneer Peter Zinovieff, with whom she co-composed ‘OUR’, a concerto for violin and electronics.”
–from Nonclassical.co.uk
Purchase Aisha’s album here: http://tinyurl.com/AishaOrazbayeva-Outside
Hanging out with Timothy Andres | Hang #3
Timothy Andres (b. 1985, Palo Alto, CA) is a composer and pianist. He grew up in rural Connecticut and lives in Brooklyn, NY. His compositions meld a classical-music upbringing with diverse interests in the natural world, graphic arts, technology, cooking, and photography. He has been praised for his “acute ear” by the New York Times’s Anthony Tommasini and “stubborn nose” by the New Yorker’s Alex Ross.
An here is the second half of the Hang #3, Timo playing At the River (2011):
Hanging out with Leah Kardos at Steinway Hall | Hang #2
Leah Kardos is a composer and producer working in Bedford, England, making eclectic music that often combines live instrumental performance with technology, location recordings and found sounds.
Born and educated in Australia, her first instrument was the pianoforte, studying under Bevan Crabtree and Dorothy McCormack. She later abandoned piano studies in favour of composition and worked with Dr Philip Bracanin at the University of Queensland to get my BMus degree. As a student there Leah won the Gold Coast Composition Competition two years in a row, and in 1998 was accepted on the Young Composers Program (in association with the ABC) working with QSO resident composer Nigel Sabin. Through this she had the opportunity to have her works performed by members of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and broadcast on national radio. At the moment she is focused on completing her PhD in Music Composition, working with the help of Dr. Robert Davidson at the University of Queensland. Her research looks at the unique creative opportunities available to composers working with music technology tools.
At 7:30 Leah performs an improvisation on “Katerina” from her album Feather Hammer (http://tinyurl.com/featherhammer)
Thank you to Steinway for letting us shoot in the Henry Z. Steinway Recital Hall.
http://www.steinwayshowrooms.com/steinway-hall
Dennis Russell Davies in rehearsal
(Philip Glass Symphony No. 9 – US Premiere)
From Carnegie Hall. org:
“Philip Glass was born on January 31—75 years ago—and the American Composers Orchestra commemorates the occasion with the US premiere of his newest symphony. It’s a genre that Glass has been focusing on since 1992, when he completed his “Low” Symphony based on the 1977 David Bowie album.”
Thank you to the ACO and Christina Jensen PR for letting me shoot part of the rehearsal.
American Composers Orchestra - http://www.americancomposers.org
Christian Jensen PR - http://www.christinajensenpr.com
Asphalt Orchestra at the Met Museum
To celebrate the renovation of the Metropolitan Museum’s New American Wing Galleries for Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts, Asphalt Orchestra—”Not your mother’s marching band”, The Philadelphia Inquirer—performed in the American Wing’s Charles Engelhard Court.
The performance featured a world premiere arrangement by Ben Holmes of the Hymns Cavalry by Daniel Read and Sons of Sorrow by William Hauser from the distinctly American shape note singing tradition, inspired by field recordings from the 1940s-1960s; Carlton by Stew and Heidi Rodewald, a work commissioned by Bang on a Can for the Asphalt Orchestra; an arrangement by Stephanie Richards of the Laneville-Johnson Union Brass Band’s Wild About My Daddy; and an arrangement by Peter Hess of Frank Zappa’s Zomby Woof.
The program was choreographed specifically for the Engelhard Court by Mark DeChiazza and Susan Marshall (note that this edited video does not fully reflect the choreography).
Asphalt Orchestra http://www.asphaltorchestra.com
Bang on a Can http://www.bangonacan.org
Metropolitan Museum http://www.metmuseum.org
Storefront Diva (Phase One)
Composer/Director: Joan La Barbara http://www.joanlabarbara.com
Pianist/Performer: Kathleen Supové http://www.supove.com
Video installation: Aleksandar Kostić http://www.aleksandarkostic.com
Set/Costume designer: Marija Plavšić
The performance took place at 159 Bleecker Street (between Sullivan and Thompson Sts) in a pop-up store across from Le Poisson Rouge on December 27, 2011 between 4pm an 8pm.
Phase two will take place at Flea Theater in June 2012.
Make Music Winter – The Gaits: a High Line Soundwalk
Composers Lainie Fefferman, Jascha Narveson, and Cameron Britt have created a free iPhone application that uses the phone’s accelerometer to turn footsteps into twinkling metallic sounds, electric guitar chords, dulcimer notes, water splashes, car horns, and applause. By connecting them to small, wearable speakers, iPhones become instruments effortlessly played by strolling, sauntering, or sprinting down the High Line.
Produced by Friends of the High Line in association with MATA; software development by Daniel Iglesia.
Hanging Out with Janus Trio | Hang #1
First video in a series of hang outs with ensembles, composers, conductors, etc.
Our first installment took place at the Masters & Pelavin Gallery in Tribeca, where Janus Trio was performing. We met with the trio backstage and recorded a performance of “Gossamer Albatross” by Cameron Britt at 5:58 ■ http://masterspelavin.com
