Ornithology Premiere: double tui
double tui piano and ‘small orchestra’ of winds and percussion ~ ~ ~ the fantasy of being mobile finds you cycling through the night to find the dawn chorus which turns out to be quite complicated as the farewell symphony {to the wondrous memory of maurice till – a fantastically enabling and generous mentor} ~ ~ ~ double tui is part of a series of compositions i’ve written
Ornithology Premiere: Andrew Bird arrangements
I am nowhere nearly as hip as anyone else associated with wild Up, including the guy who tends the bar. So when Chris contacted me about orchestrating some Andrew Bird songs I had to take an auditory crash-course through the artist’s body of work. Fortunately, being a fan of acoustic indy pop in the Elliot Smith tradition and self-overdubbing madmen like Jon Brion,
Ornithology Premieres: Bird of Paradise (in Paradise)
I was browsing through a Charlie Parker tunebook to get some ideas for the upcoming wild Up concert when the title “Bird of Paradise” caught my eye. To be honest I was originally interested because it reminded me of those amazing Planet Earth documentaries involving unique birds, but soon after the notes became attractive as well. The tune has a simple four-bar melody played
The Salt of the Earth – a record release awaits…
We’re working hard on releasing a limited number of vinyl copies of the recording that’s just been remastered from last May’s show at the Jensen Rec. Center. It includes Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a, and the B-side is Rzewski’s Les Moutons de Panurge.
on the road.
July has been busy. We’ve adopted a therapy dog (see below), we’ve been in programing meetings, scheduling meetings, development meetings, and scotch meetings (where we drink scotch). At any rate, we’re all over the place. Here’s some of it: Chris Kallmyer has been at the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis, for his new piece: The American Lawn and Ways to Cut It. Last night,
Music Review 6.26.2011: Morton Feldman’s “for Philip Guston”
In attempting to review a concert like this one can only think: what I just heard, what I just experienced, is more than enough to make language submit, revealing its futility and clumsiness – particularly in its written form. Recalling Guildenstern’s pondering from Tom Stoppard’s play, though, it is verily so: “Words, words. They’re all we have to go on.” How does one write
New Music Concert – Practically Free
Yes, it is possible to hear a good performance of high caliber music and musicians for cheap. This coming Wednesday, June 22 at 8 p.m., you can hear a solidly full program of new and recent music at the illustrious Royal/T Café in Culver City. It is part of the $2 Shows recently instated New Music Series, and as advertised, the admission is indeed
The Clock @ LACMA
A few weeks ago I went to see Christian Marclay’s new work, The Clock, at LACMA. A departure from his more well known role as a sound artist/turntablist, Marclay’s The Clock is a 24 hour film, synchronized to the local time of the location at which it is screening. It is a collection of brief moments from thousands of films, assembled into a narrative
#tuxonstage
Many folks weighed in late last week about the tuxedo via twitter. I had a hard time getting out some of these thoughts in 140 characters, so decided to write up some of my ideas here. I hope you enjoy, its a great discussion. The orchestra is a gigantic, antiquated, hulking, financially unsustainable, mannered, ceremonious, unapproachable, beautiful, opulent, complicated beast. Its like a manatee;
Music Review 6.10.2011: PARTCH @ REDCAT
The obligatory titular capitals of the event’s ensemble and venue could not be more appropriate for last night’s performance. From beginning to end, PARTCH exclaimed, cursed, laughed, wailed, and cavorted through several varied scores by the “iconoclastic American Maverick” Harry Partch (1901-1974). PARTCH, led by guitarist/composer/singer/radio-personality John Schneider, have been spreading the gospel of Partch since their REDCAT debut in 2004. The group is
On being at Ojai.
I’m sitting in the coffee shop across from St. Thomas Aquinas Thrift on the main drag in Ojai. It’s full of well dressed summer people holding rolled program booklets, bobbling around talking about electric string quartets and a dinner joint, Feast which apparently has fries described as ambrosia or something equally celestial. The contemporary music lover is everywhere. A gestalt animal identified by the