Home Grown: Alexandra Gardner

Line C3 at Le Poisson Rouge 12Dec08

12/12: Line C3 performs Cage’s Third Construction and Reich’s Drumming Part I at Le Poisson Rouge, as part of the Wordless Music series.

Friday night, Line C3 is back! We are excited and honored to be a part of the amazing Wordless Music series created by Ronen Givoney, and have been asked to present two percussion chamber music warhorses to a new audience who might not have heard them before. John Cage’s Third Construction, an impossibly awesome groove-fest featuring 20 tin cans and John Ostrowski’s conch shell, will follow Part I of Steve Reich’s Drumming. Hope to see everyone there!

By the way: Line C3 is now all over your MySpace and my YouTube. Videos, audio, stupid pictures, its almost as good as the Line C3 webpage…

Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid: NYC with ARP & Line C3
Presented by Wordless Music

Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street
New York, NY

Tickets are $15, Get them here.

Doors @ 7:00 PM
Event @ 8:00 PM

Friday, December 12

Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) with Steve Reid: “NYC”
Special guest artists ARP: music of iconic NYC composers
Line C3 (Music by John Cage and Steve Reich)

Doors at 7:00pm, show at 8:00pm

18+ or accompanied by legal guardian. This show is general admission, first come, first served. Seating is limited. A purchased ticket does not guarantee you a seat.

alarm will sound in russia 23Nov08

11/18 – 11/23, 2008: Alarm Will Sound toured Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Chamber Hall, International Performing Arts Center, Moscow

Hermitage Theatre, St. Petersburg

Glinka Philharmonic Chamber Hall, St. Petersburg

Music by Conlon Nancarrow, Wolfgang Rihm, Stefan Freund, John Adams, John Orfe, Aphex Twin, David Lang, Derek Bermel, Augusta Reade Thomas, and Julia Wolfe.

Antony and the Johnsons at the Apollo 16Oct08

10/16: Antony and the Johnsons at the Apollo Theater.

This is a very overdue post about a show I was a part of at the Apollo Theater. Antony was accompanied by a small orchestra, and Nico Muhly provided the arrangements. I’m always appreciative of some Nico glockenspiel goodness.

Also awesome: Nico’s Keep In Touch, which he wrote for Nadia Sirota, featuring sampled bits and pieces of Antony’s voice. Listen at nadia dot com.

I guess the upside of posting after the fact is that a number of people have already written really lovely things about this show, like This and also This. The only thing I have to add is the following:

Swarm: Isaac’s gowns + our froggy guiro 08Sep08

9/8: A new work for string sextet, electric bass, and 2 amplified percussionists by Nico Muhly serenades Isaac Mizrahi’s Spring 2009 Collection.

You can watch the whole show on Isaac’s site here.

Although the music used for runway shows is very carefully considered, I’m not sure it is standard practice to bring live performers into the mix. Nevertheless, Isaac Mizrahi showed guts and great taste when he commissioned a new piece from Nico Muhly for his 2009 spring collection show, held Monday at the Hammerstein Ballroom. In what was possibly the most fun Monday morning ever, we performed it live at the show with Nico conducting. Nadia hired a great group, including our favorite exceptionally tall percussionist from South Dakota, whom we call “Bigcountry.”

The show is titled “Swarm,” and the majority of our percussion efforts centered on creating miniature, ticky, insecty sounds directly into microphones turned way up. Nico’s use of tiny amplified percussion goes all the way back to his song cycle for The Elements of Style, during which we discovered The World’s Smallest Maraca, and then later we got especially creative on a live show and album, where I amplified frying eggs and sizzling butter.

For “Swarm,”, we made a swarm of cicadas (4:15) created with indian ankle bells and belly dancer jingles, as well as a little bit of rainforest out of Indonesian Angklung (6:00). I love those angklung and relish any opportunity to show the world… they are actually a diatonically tuned set of two octaves on a handmade bamboo rack.

Ankle bells, belly dancer jingles

Angklung

We used knitting needles on just about everything that needed to be struck, including wooden agogo bells (2:15), tin cans (11:45), and my magic froggy guiro (2:50), although in the interest of full disclosure I should mention that when I asked for the mics to be hot, I didn’t realize just how hot they could make them… what sounded like a cricket on our side of the house was more like a 400 pound mutant bullfrog under the speakers by the runway. Those poor girls in their crazy shoes, I’m glad we didn’t make anyone trip!

Froggy Guiro

Strange Beautiful Music 06Sep08

9/6: New Music Detroit and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit present Steve Reich’s Drumming, as part of a 12 hour marathon of contemporary music.

I’m in Detroit this weekend playing Drumming with some really cool people, including members of the percussion section of the Detroit Symphony. This is the second installment of “Strange Beautiful Music,” a 12 hour marathon of contemporary music founded by New Music Detroit last year. More info here.

NPR: they love a squeaky toy. 20Jul08

7/20: Line C3’s forthcoming studio recording of Carl Schimmel’s Serving Size 4 Bunnies featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

Our little secret (about the expressive capabilities of doggie squeaky toys in serious concert music) is out, everybody. We’ve known this for a while, but when NPR heard about it… look out.

click here to listen.

What you are hearing from about 1:30 to 3:30 is my percussion group’s recently finished (and unreleased) recording of Serving Size 4 Bunnies. We are really excited to get this unexpected mini-preview, featured as part of a segment about the young composer Carl Schimmel on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

I think the story was really well done, specifically Carl’s comments about why he is writing this absurdist music. For us, we were just really excited about the piece because it is not only brilliantly crafted compositionally, but also fun to play and hilarious to watch. The only bit I was disappointed with was the actual choice of excerpts used… mostly of similar character. The rest of the piece has a great range of moods, and squeaky toy techniques to match.

We are looking into distribution options for this recording, along with the other one we just finished: Ryan Streber’s Cold Pastoral. If you are interested in either piece, email me and I can let you know when they become available.

Now to see if I can get listed in the union book under “squeaky toy”…

The Metropolitan Opera 10May08

5/10, 5/14, and 5/17: The Metropolitan Opera is bringing back Tan Dun’s The First Emperor for a run of 3 performances only. I’ll be in the stone drum band once again, dressed as a chinese soldier. Check out my previous post, including a super-awesome picture of Tan Dun (and me?!) here, and get all the specifics for these three shows here.

On a totally unrelated side note: I finally got recordings from the DIA Center Fall Benefit performance of John Cage’s Imaginary Landscape No. 3, which I wrote about here back in November. The performance was not open to the public but through the magic of digital audio recording robots, it can be experienced by clicking below:

Imaginary Landscape No. 3 for six percussionists, by John Cage.
Michael Caterizano, David Mancuso, Eric Poland, Chris Thompson, Joe Tompkins, Yuri Yamashita. Recorded live on November 12, 2007.

New Nico: Album Release Concert at Merkin Hall 08May08

5/8: Composer Nico Muhly shares a bill with Phillip Bimstein on Merkin Hall’s New Sounds Live series. I play percussion and also close-mic breakfast…

Nico’s beautiful new album Mothertounge is about to be released on May 6th. Like his first album, it features collaborations with friends, most of whom he wrote for specifically. Although my involvement in the percussive sense is still unclear, one thing is for sure: I’ll be spending some time trying to figure out how to reproduce on-stage the sound of my shower, a fried egg, mr. coffee, and toast-buttering, which got me a sound design credit on the album. My dirty secret happens to be that, while I did record them all (with fancy bit rate, no less!), the real magic happened when Valgeir Sigurðsson got a hold of those files and used them in the title track “Mothertounge.” I’m super excited to be working with these great artists and looking forward to putting on this show… hope to see everyone there!

New Sounds Live: Nico Muhly & Phillip Bimstein
Thursday May 8, 2008 @ 8:00PM
Merkin Concert Hall
New York, NY

Advance: $30
Day of: $35

Read more and get tickets here.

ACME “Centennials: Carter and Messiaen” 05Apr08

4/5: Performing March, Improvisation, and Canaries from Elliot Carter’s 8 Pieces for Four Timpani (1950/1966) for the American Contemporary Music Ensemble at the Tenri Cultural Institute.

4/23 Update: I just got live recordings from this concert, courtesy of the perpetually awesome Ryan Streber… here are some excerpts:
Excerpt from Canaries:

Excerpt from March:

Excerpt from Improvisation:

Saturday April 5, 8 pm
Tenri Cultural Institute
43A W 13th Street, NYC

Centennials
Carter and Messiaen
Elliott Carter: Selections from Eight Pieces for Four Timpani (1950/1966)
Carter: Figment I for solo cello (1994)
Carter: Figment IV for solo viola (2007)
Carter: Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux (1985)
Carter: Con Leggerezza Pensosa – Omaggio a Italo Calvino (1990)

Oliver Messiaen: Le Merle Noir (1952)
Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1940)

Alarm Will Sound, Zankel Hall 28Feb08

2/28: Alarm Will Sound promotes its forthcoming release “a/rhythmia” with a concert at Zankel Hall. The program includes works by Ligeti, Nancarrow, the Shaggs, Mochipet, Aphex Twin, and Birtwhistle, plus John Adams’ newest work, Son of Chamber Symphony.

I’m so excited to play in Zankel Hall again with Alarm Will Sound, this time on a collection of their most rhythmically charged works, many soon to be released on their album “a/rhythmia.” It is so impressive the way this group continues to take ambitious ideas and turn them into reality. For example, I have to admit that the first time I heard the Shaggs, or Nancarrow piano rolls, or even Aphex Twin, part of my reaction was to imagine how fun it would be as a performer to play them live. But actually following through with that idea and figuring out how to make them work is an enormous undertaking.

Yet every time I join Alarm Will Sound as a guest I find out that they have been quietly following through with these type of ideas, and then I get to try them on for size. This time it is “Philosophy of the World,” one of the songs from the classic musical outsider-art group The Shaggs. They sort of defy explanation, but you can read about them here and here. I’m also getting to play two of their Nancarrow piano roll arrangements for the first time, and a new Aphex Twin transcription.

The other highlight of the program is Sir Harrison “funk dissonance” Birtwhistle’s Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum, which nicely toes the line between thorny contemporary music and parliament/funkadelic. I think it might be the most fun you can possibly have playing the marimba. For the record, this is not a picture of Harrison Birtwhistle, it is a picture of George Clinton. But, you know, they remind me of each other and also both make me happy.

More information here on the Carnegie Hall website.

Pavarotti Tribute Concert, Avery Fisher Hall 14Feb08

2/14: Guest timpanist with the Kremlin Chamber orchestra for their “To Pavarotti, With Love” tribute concert.

This concert got some press on NY1, video available here.

Pavarotti Tribute
Avery Fisher Hall
Thursday, February 14th 2008, 8:00 pm
Laura Savini, host
Special guest speakers include Renata Scotto, Dwayne Croft and Martina Arroyo
Vincent la Silva, Music Director of New York’s Grand Opera, will conduct the Kremlin Orchestra, Vincent la Silva, condductor
Performers:
Daniela Bruera • Fabiana Bravo • Umberto Chiummo
Lucio Gallo • Badri Maisuradze • Maary Anne McCormick
For Luciano Pavarotti — with Love

A Valentine Tribute to the great Tenor

Tickets: Avery Fisher Hall Lincoln Center Box Office or Center Charge: (212) 721-6500.

BAMCafe Live 02Feb08

2/2: Former composition students of John Corigliano celebrate his 70th birthday at BAMCafe, with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble and the yesaroun’ duo.

Featuring Nico Muhly’s “Time After Time” for marimba, percussion and saxophone, which we recorded for Nico a couple years ago… more on that here. Also, this event got a nice mention in Allan Kozinn’s review of the Brooklyn Philharmonic that it followed.

The Youngbloods
Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 9:30 PM
BAM Cafe
Part of the BAMcafe Live series
Free Event

Featuring the music of Jefferson Friedman, Nico Muhly, and Mason Bates.

Elliott Carter’s “What Next?” 07Dec07

12/7, 12/8, 12/9, 12/11: The New York Stage Debut of Elliott Carter’s only opera, “What Next?” at Miller Theatre. Jeffrey Milarsky conducts AXIOM, Mr. Carter turns 99.

If I had fully grasped my future as a percussionist, I think I might have considered taking more “shop” class in high school. Last month I learned all about transformers and low-voltage wiring in order to build a door buzzer for John Cage’s Imaginary Landscape #3. This month I was in and out of Home Depot and various sheet-metal stores with my tuning fork and a brass mallet, trying to find steel pipes of specific pitches. For the record: galvanized iron piping has clear fundamental pitch and a ringy, bell-like quality! On the other hand, rectangular steel piping has tons of overtones and quicker decay, more like an anvil. Also, I think the retail sheet-metal business in NYC might be on the outs. Or maybe the stores are just moving to queens? Either way, on most of these scavenger hunts I couldn’t avoid asking for assistance from the store, and the inevitable question always follows…

“What are you building?” they ask.
“Well, I’m not building anything I actually need to use this thing as a musical instrument…”
Blink.
“So what kind do you need”
“Um, whichever is loudest when you scrape it with a brass mallet.”

And so, from my little corner of the pit at Miller Theatre, this weekend I happily play metal pipes, a gigantic wood board (with a hammer), cowbells, and the world’s loudest washboard, as well as the more traditional snare drum, tambourine, glock, and cymbals. Eric Huebner is dealing well with the pipes, which are right up in his business, but I imagine his mind is occupied with all the notes in the world. Elliott Carter! This is a comic opera set in the aftermath of a car crash. Some think that the libretto, by Paul Griffiths, is meant to be more vague than that, but for this production there is no ambiguity intended: two cars full of totally insane people crash, absurdity ensues. If Elliott Carter scares you, give this one a shot: the score is charming, exciting, and at times hauntingly beautiful. Also, the man himself is planning to be at all four performances, the last falling on his 99th birthday. You’ll see, there is nothing at all to be scared of!

12/8 Update: Opening night was a big success, and I think there are still tickets available for the 3 additional performances. Here is a picture I took from the pit of Carter being received by his adoring public!

From the Miller Theatre Website:

Miller Theatre is proud to present the New York stage premiere of Elliott Carter’s only opera to date, What Next?. Directed by the renowned Christopher Alden, What Next? tells the story of six people who search for meaning and identity in the aftermath of their two cars crashing into each other. The final of the four performances falls on Carter’s 99th birthday. Join the celebration of this great American master and this great American masterpiece.

More Info Here.

Appetizer, Imaginary Landscape, Dinner 12Nov07

11/12/07: John Cage’s Imaginary Landscape #3 for 6 percussionists, at the DIA Center’s annual fall benefit.

April 2008 UPDATE: I finally have an audio recording of this performance, which I’ve posted to my chamber music excerpts page here, or just click below:

“Mr. Cage, these are nice people, but… some of them are gonna laugh. Is that alright?”

“Of course. I consider laughter preferable to tears.”

- Cage before a televised performance of “Water Walk”
January, 1960

Most people know John Cage as either a pioneer of “chance” music or as the composer of 4′33″, and although these are some of his most important contributions to 20th century music on the whole, percussionists (myself included) are often introduced to his music via earlier works, written between 1939 and 1942. As early as 1939, Cage remarked that “Percussion music is revolution,” which is a statement he not only stood by until the end of his life, but also backed up by writing two sets of truly revolutionary pieces; the Constructions and the Imaginary Landscapes.

Percussionists owe so much to Cage; his contribution to our repertoire in the first half of the 20th century (along with a few other composers, like Varese) laid the foundation for both the great selection of percussion ensemble music we have now and also the acceptance of percussion into mixed chamber music.

Now I find myself with a great opportunity to show “our” John Cage to an audience of art-world patrons at the DIA Museum’s fall benefit dinner, who may know him first and foremost as a composer of the more esoteric later works written for the dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham. DIA has incidentally just announced a collaboration with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at their Beacon, NY location, hence the tie-in.

The true pleasure of putting this music together is that fun is its first priority (incidentally, fun is my first priority, too). In fact, Cage had an air of mischief to him that you can see in his handwriting, his face, and in the vague but somehow poetic performance instructions, which (without apology) assume we happen to have 3 variable speed turntables, an amplified radio aerial coil, an oscillator, 10 tin cans (of graduated pitch, of course), 2 balinese button-gongs, an electric door buzzer, and a marimbula just lying around. Well, I have a marimbula lying around now, because this piece offered me the excuse I needed to buy one. Thanks Mr. Cage!

Unfortunately, this performance is part of what I assume will be a appropriately expensive dinner for those supporting the DIA Institution, and not open to concertgoers. However, if my colleagues will allow it, I will do my best to get the best recording possible and put the whole thing right at the top of this post, and on the media:chamber page as well.

John Cage
Imaginary Landscape #3
For Six Percussionists
Dated: February 1942, Chicago

Featuring: Michael (Cutlet) Caterizano, David Mancuso, Eric Poland, Chris Thompson, Joe Tompkins, and Yuri Yamashita.

Tickets not available, but do check back for a recording on this site.

Chamber Orchestra of NY – Zankel Hall 11Oct07

10/11/07: Debut concert, conducted by Salvatore Di Vittorio in Zankel Hall.

This newly formed orchestra will give two concerts in its inaugural season, the first at Zankel on October 11, and the second at St. Jean Baptiste Church on February 16. Although I don’t know much yet about the group it looks like an exciting combination of people and repertoire. Also, Alex Sopp will be there!

More info will be on Carnegie Hall’s calendar.

DEBUT CONCERT
Thursday, October 11, 2007
7:30pm
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall.
Seventh Avenue at 57th Street
New York, NY

Bernstein, Overture to Candide
Respighi, The Birds
Vivaldi, “Winter” from The Four Seasons
Beethoven, Symphony No. 5

Tickets: Available August 11, 2007
Call CarnegieCharge, 212-247-7800
or www.carnegiehall.org
Reception immediately following

Locrian Chamber Players 25Aug07

8/25/07: New York Premier of George Crumb’s Winds of Destiny; Songs of Strife, Love, Mystery, and Exultation.

9/20 Update – I’ve put a couple excerpts from this performance up. You can find them here.

I’ll be joining the Locrian Chamber Players for a performance of George Crumb’s newest work, scored for soprano, piano, and percussion quartet. In typical Crumb style, the score is exquisitely crafted and has some brilliant and expressive visual tricks, such as the inversion of contrast in the movement pictured here.

This setting of American war folksongs inevitably evokes current events, although the composer has stated that protest against the Iraq war was not his specific intention. He is also well known for his powerful Vietnam War era composition Black Angels (Thirteen Images from the Dark Land), which had a similar relationship with the struggles of its time.

Crumb has been playing with score construction for decades, and often they can stand alone as works of art or political statements, such as his Spiral Galaxy, pictured here.

Saturday, August 25 at 8 PM:

George Crumb The Winds of Destiny
Kevin Volans Asanga
Aaron Paul Low Sonata in Five Movements

10th Floor Performance Space, Riverside Church
More info here.

Workers’ Union and In C at Noguchi 12Aug07

8/12/07: American Contemporary Music Ensemble present Louis Andriessen’s Workers’ Union, Volans String Quartet #1, and Riley’s In C in the Noguchi Museum Sculpture Garden.

For me, Workers’ Union completely defies the type of rational description you might expect to read in program notes or a composer’s biography. So instead of talking about the political message (there is one) or its place in the history of music (quite important), I’ll just say that a good performance gets me feeling a lot like I did when I was 14 and I watched drum corps on PBS. Hyped. There is something to be said for the experience of watching performers test their limits, and Workers’ Union invites the audience to that party. Scored with no specific instrumentation or pitches, it forces musicians to ask themselves how high and low they are willing to reach, and then makes them live with that decision for page after page. (btw – if you watch that drum corps link, make sure to let the whole video load and watch the last minute of the performance. Its amazing, especially when you consider it is 17-21 year olds…)

The other super-happy zen garden event I get to be a part of is a performance of Terry Riley’s In C. Upon seeing the single page of score next to the two pages of performance instructions, I came to a realization that quite a few performances of this piece I have previously been a part of or seen might have been misguided. Where the score is quite (sorry) minimal (53 short cells of musical material on one page with no instrumentation, dynamics, or number of repeats), the subsequent two pages of performance instructions clarify quite a bit. Perhaps these two pages of essential information tend to get lost because the simplicity of the actual score is so enticing. An entire concert on one page!

I chuckle nervously when I think of the first time I played the piece: the ensemble was conflicted about how long the it should last (I see now that the performance instructions claim the average to be 45 – 90 minutes), and in the performance one of us started to lag behind (to be fair, you might also say some of us were getting to far ahead; the performance instructions state that both should be avoided). Anyway, the one of us who was in charge of the concert started yelling from behind the piano “next pattern! switch patterns! come on!” His commands were ignored, but the effect was quite dramatic. I was somewhere in the middle, trying to mediate.

Anyway, I go into this performance feeling wiser, and excited about what the final product will be. I also look forward to hearing the Volans, which I have somehow missed despite a number of great performances by the ACME quartet.

The sculpture garden at the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, Queens is a great place for contemporary music, and this is the 2nd year ACME has been featured on its “Music in the garden” series. Definitely come early to see the museum – it is one of the best kept secrets in New York. The concert is free with admission.

Sunday, August 12, 2007
3:00 pm
The Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Road at Vernon Blvd., Long Island City in Queens

Kevin Volans: String Quartet No. 1 “White Man Sleeps” (1986)
Louis Andriessen: Workers’ Union (1975)
Terry Riley: In C (1964)

Tickets: Concert is free with Museum admission.

For directions and more information, call 718.204.7088, or visit the museum’s listing page.

Film Score – “IF” 23Jul07

I’ve finished my score to “IF”, the new short film by Teressa Tunney. For some demos of the music, (continue reading…)

Vermont Mozart Festival 11Jul07

7/14 – 8/05: Twenty three days of orchestral music performed in beautiful places.

I’ve been Put In Trouble more than once for never having made it to Tanglewood during the summer, and thereby never having been able to fully understand one of the main inspirations from the musical histories of most of my close friends in New York and Boston. I’m looking forward to finally making amends this summer by visiting for a few days. But instead of heading north from what is quickly becoming the typical steamy, putrid, unbearable New York City of mid-to-late July, I’ll actually be heading south from what has become my own summer escape: unbelievably gorgeous northern Vermont, where I am about to spend my third year as the timpanist for the Vermont Mozart Festival.

The festival was founded in 1974 by longtime Juilliard professor Mel Kaplan and University of Vermont Music Department chair Bill Metcalfe. Mr. Kaplan now also runs a successful Vermont-based artist managment company (and still performs as the festivals principal oboist), and Mr. Metcalfe is a principal conductor of the festival. It draws more than 16,000 visitors annually to the area, and this year is looking to be the most well attended yet, as many of the concerts are already sold out. I’m also told that the venerable harpist Bridget Kibbey, with whom I have worked in New York from time to time (she’s quite good with all that thorny contemporary music as well), is one of this year’s soloists.

I find myself playing so much contemporary music in New York that I’ve come to really look forward to this chance to just be a timpanist on a range orchestral music over the course of several very musically satisfying weeks. The fact that Burlington (and surrounding area) is one of my favorite places on earth just sweetens the deal. If you happen to be anywhere near the area this summer: bring wine, bring food, its totally great I promise…

Below are the nine concerts I am involved in. Title links lead you to ticket information, more specifics, and a nice picture of old people relaxing in a meadow. Aww!

Grand Opening
Sunday, July 15, 2007 ~ 7:30 PM
VMF Orchestra, Peter Leonard, Conductor
Mozart, Saint-Saens, Dvorak, Beethoven

Brahms on the Bay
Saturday, July 21, 2007 ~ 7:00 PM
VMF Orchestra, Gil Shohat, Conductor
Mozart, Ravel, Haydn, Brahms

American Masterpieces
Sunday, July 22, 2007 ~ 7:00 PM
VMF Orchestra, Gil Shohat, conductor
Bernstein, Gershwin, Copland

A Voyage to Venice
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 ~ 7:30 PM
VMF Orchestra, Oriana Singers and Soloists
William Metcalfe, conductor
Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers

Marriage of Figaro
Saturday, July 28, 2007 ~ 7:00 PM
VMF Orchestra and Soloists
William Metcalfe, conductor
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro

Mendelssohn in the Mountains
Sunday, July 29, 2007 ~ 7:00 PM
VMF Orchestra, Peter Leonard, Conductor
(Featuring Bridget Kibbey, harpist)
Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn

Grand Finale
Saturday, August 4, 2007 ~ 7:00 PM
VMF Orchestra, Christopher Wilkins, Conductor
Mozart, Rossini, J.S. Bach, Beethoven

Carnival of the Animals
Sunday, August 5, 2007 ~ 11:00 AM
VMF Orchestra, William Metcalfe, Conductor
Vermont Teddy Bear Factory in Shelburne
Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals

Royal Encore
Sunday, August 5, 2007 ~ 7:00 PM
VMF Orchestra, Christopher Wilkins, Conductor
Mozart, Beethoven

The Holland Festival 13Jun07

6/13/07: Alarm Will Sound presents two concerts at the Musiekgebouw in Amsterdam as part of the Holland Festival.

I’ll be joining Alarm Will Sound on their trip to Amsterdam for the Holland Festival, June 13th. AWS will be presenting two concerts at the Muziekgebouw, a fantastic venue akin to Zankel Hall. The place has an amazing sound and the intimacy of a small theatre style recital hall without the space limitations. Perfect for a 20-piece new music band with a tendency toward theatrical staging and also absurdly complex electronics setups…

Case and point: Benedict Mason’s wonderful and slightly maddening Animals and the Origins of The Dance. A “parade of miniature concertos” (12 in all, with awesome titles such as “Disgraceful Bossa Nova with Lemurs”), the work is scored for 21 musicians, each with their own individual click track. Alarm Will Sound employs its resident percussionist and audio-tech genius Dennis DeSantis to forego the percussion parts for this piece and focus completely on the massive tech setup, which means I happily take over for him on slide whistles, acme sirens, rototoms (shh), marimbula, duck call, lion’s roar, and all the other stuff we hesitate to admit we make a living playing. Originally Mason envisioned having 10 or more conductors on the stage at once, each following blinking LEDs (I can’t decide whether this would be more or less chaotic than dealing with the clicktracks), but however its done the effect is magic – impossible ensemble playing humanly realized.

A similar effect can be witnessed in the ensembles arrangements of Conlon Nancarrow’s piano roll compositions, two of which will be performed by AWS on the June 13th concert. The pieces were originally composed by manually carving out player piano rolls, and have now been arranged, memorized, and staged by the members of Alarm Will Sound. The staging offers a surprisingly satisfying clarification of the different pairings and juxtaposition of voices and rhythmic motives during the pieces.

Apart from the Mason, I will join them on Wolfgang Rihm’s “Will Sound,” commissioned by the group, John Adams’ “Coast” from “Hoodoo Zephyr,” and a number of their electronica arrangements, now so imbedded in their repertoire that they hardly need more than one run-through in rehearsal in order to be ready for a performance.

If you happen to be in Amsterdam… more info here.

American Contemporary Music Ensemble 28Apr07

ACME’s Tribute to Jacob Druckman at the gallery of the Tenri Cultural Institute.

“Jacob Druckman became the most important proclaimer of a new romanticism, and practiced what he proclaimed…[His] conjured-up images, the swirling lights and shadows in the orchestral pieces–they added up to a fresher (and yes, newer) romanticism…” – The Village Voice

I’ll be performing Reflections on the Nature of Water for solo marimba and Come Round for chamber ensemble on our hommage to this great composer. Also on the program is his String Quartet #2.

6/25 Update: Click here for excerpts from this performance of Reflections.

ACME is dedicated to the outstanding performance of contemporary masterworks for chamber ensemble, principally written by American composers. The dynamic ensemble’s concerts are a unique blend of intelligent performance and vibrant energy.

“The ACME Ensemble is fast making a lasting impression on the New York new music landscape.” – Time Out New York

The Tenri Cultural Institute is a gallery space in Greenwich Village with fantastic acoustics that is becoming more and more popular for intimate concerts such as those presented by ACME. For directions, click here.

Saturday, April 28, 2007
8:00 pm
Tenri Cultural Institute, 43A W 13th Street, NYC

The Music of Jacob Druckman:
Reflections on the Nature of Water for solo marimba (1986)
String Quartet No. 2 (1966)
Come Round (1992)

Tickets: $15 & $8 for students with ID
To reserve tickets or for more information, call 646.536.7864 or email acme@acmemusic.org

Read the press release for this concert.

Alarm Will Sound – Zankel Hall 18Mar07

Marathon Concert by Alarm Will Sound as the finale of John Adams’ In Your Ear Redux Festival at Zankel Hall.

As John Adams’ four year post as the Composer’s Chair of Carnegie Hall comes to an end, his final weekend of concerts includes the 20-member new music band known as Alarm Will Sound. This will be my second time joining the group as a guest performer, and I’m also looking forward to performing with them again in June on their European tour.

The fact that the group’s performances are full of virtuosic ensemble playing is almost a side-note to what captivated me the most when I first heard about them: their taste in projects and repertoire. Almost everyone in the band does something other than their primary instrument, be it composition, arrangement, or electronic music, and this concert (their third feature in Zankel in less than a year), showcases all three. Titled Out of Our Heads, it features works composed or arranged by the members of the group; and the fact that the three-hour marathon concert only begins to explore their output of original projects illustrates the depth of their inspiration and creativity.

Perhaps the most well known of these projects is their acoustic arrangements of the music of electronic composer Aphex Twin, and this concert features five; Prep Gawrlek 3B, Cock / Ver 10, Jynweythek Ylow, 4, and Avril 14th. You can hear all 13 of their arrangements as well as 2 remixes by following this link to the iTunes store: Acoustica.

Sunday, March 18, 2007 at 3:00pm
Out of Our Heads Marathon Concert
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, 57th Street & 7th Avenue, NY, NY

Caleb Burhans, Amidst Neptune
Gavin Chuck, Seen
Aphex Twin, Jynweythek Ylow arr. John Orfe
Aphex Twin, Avril 14th arr. John Pickford Richards
Autechre, Cfern arr. Dennis DeSantis
John Orfe, Cyclone
John Pickford Richards and Caleb Burhans, violas
Super Marimba
Mansuit
Aphex Twin, Prep Gwarlek 3B arr. Courtney Orlando
John Adams, Scratchband
Payton MacDonald, Cowboy Raga/Cowboy Tabla
Payton MacDonald, percussion
Remixes by Dennis DeSantis
Miles Brown, Q-Ball
Stefan Freund and Nigel Maister, Paper Trails
Aphex Twin, Four arr. Jessica Johnson and Payton MacDonald
Aphex Twin, Cock/Ver 10 arr. Stefan Freund

From Alarm Will Sound’s Biography:

Alarm Will Sound is a 20-member band committed to innovative performances and recordings of today’s music. They have established a reputation for performing demanding music with energetic virtuosity. Their performances have been described as “equal parts exuberance, nonchalance, and virtuosity” by the London Financial Times and as “a triumph of ensemble playing” by the San Francisco Chronicle. The New York Times says Alarm Will Sound is “the future of classical music.”

American Contemporary Music Ensemble 27Jan07

Iannis Xenakis’ Rebonds, plus John Cage and George Crumb at the Tenri Cultural Institute.

Saturday, January 27, 2007 at 8:00 PM

Even for composers well-versed in the eccentricities of concert percussion in the context of orchestral or chamber music, writing unpitched multi-percussion music for solo performer is an entirely different beast. For example, the seemingly endless variety of new and unusual sounds can leave a composer intoxicated with timbre, focusing primarily on the surface, at the cost of structure and thematic material.

Iannis Xenakis‘ Rebonds, which I’m thrilled to be performing at the Tenri Cultural Institute for ACME this month, is the rare case of a multi-percussion solo piece that succeeds on both surface and structural levels. In fact, here Xenakis uses contrasting timbres as motivic material, much like the A and B themes of a sonata: they define the structure of the piece. Happily, this music isn’t content to just be a brilliant example of skillful and thoughtful composition, it also ROCKS.

Here’s an excerpt from one of my live performances of the b movement:

And speaking of rocking, the incredible mezzo-soprano Bo Chang will open the program with John Cage’s Aria, and the rest of ACME will perform Cage’s Quartet in Four Parts and George Crumb’s Voice of the Whale, complete with psychotropic lighting and party masks…

Saturday, January 27, 2007
8:00 pm
Tenri Cultural Institute, 43A W 13th Street, NYC

John Cage: Aria featuring mezzo-soprano Bo Chang (1958)
John Cage: Quartet in Four Parts (1950)
George Crumb: Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale; 1971)
Iannis Xenakis: Rebonds a and b (1987/1989)

Tickets: $15 & $8 for students with ID

ACME is dedicated to the outstanding performance of contemporary masterworks for chamber ensemble, principally written by American composers. The dynamic ensemble’s concerts are a unique blend of intelligent performance and vibrant energy.

“The ACME Ensemble is fast making a lasting impression on the New York new music landscape.” – Time Out New York

The Tenri Cultural Institute is a gallery space in Greenwich Village with fantastic acoustics that is becoming more and more popular for intimate concerts such as those presented by ACME. For directions, click here.

Finally, here is my program note for the Xenakis:

Iannis Xenakis’ interest in stochastic phenomenon informed and influenced much of his compositional process. In nature one might imagine the sound of a rioting crowd, where the cumulative aural experience seems random, despite the fact that each individual sound, could it be heard on its own, would be forging its own logical, predetermined path. In his orchestral music, Xenakis imitates this effect by combining dozens of individual voices, each composed using strict mathematical processes, yet creating the overall effect of randomness.

Although these mathematical processes create much of the musical material in Rebonds a and b, which have become arguably the most popular pieces in the limited repertoire for the contemporary solo percussionist, there is another level of drama that unfolds within each movement. In a, the tension lives in the conversation between the right and the left hands of the performer. What begins as a level-headed discussion, back and forth between right and left, slowly disintegrates into a battle as the two hands begin to overlap and interrupt each other. These two voices then violently diverge from one another, speaking concurrently such that neither can be understood. The movement ends in total disagreement, surprisingly since the two voices had seemed so alike.

Where Rebonds a depicts a violent separation of two very similar voices, Rebonds b forces an unnatural unification of two voices that are strikingly different. After about a minute of musical material unfolding on five drums, the new timbre of temple blocks is suddenly introduced. Throughout the movement the drums and temple blocks systematically adopt each others themes and musical material, which has an odd feeling of awkwardness, as if it went against the very nature of the instruments. This uncomfortable effect is enhanced by passages that are classic examples of the composer’s tendency to write music not technically possible for a single performer. In the end, the two voices are forced to unify completely, yet it seems oddly unsatisfying, like mixing oil and water.

- Chris Thompson

The Whitney Museum 19Jan07

Whitney Composers’ Showcase: Nico Muhly
This influencial series at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in hibernation for over two decades, prophetically presented portraits of many of the composers who would ultimately define late 20th century music. Of the impressive list: Luciano Berio, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley just barely scratches the surface.

The museum is bringing the series back to life this year with the music of Nico Muhly, and I’ll be performing his Beaming Music, for marimba and organ. Originally commissioned for my graduate recital, with Nico performing the organ part, this performance will feature synth organs and also Nadia Sirota reading bass clef!

Have a listen to an excerpt from the premier performance, with the composer playing organ, recorded live in December, 2002:

The concert focuses on works for solo performer and electronics, be they a prerecorded tape part or a synth part performed live, as in the case of Beaming Music. Also performing on the concert are Alex Sopp – flute, Nadia Sirota – viola, and Lisa Liu – violin.

This concert is free!

More about the series, from the Whitney:

Launched at the Whitney in the spring of 1968, the Composer’s Showcase was one of the most extraordinarily forward-thinking series where the boundaries between different types of music (”classical,” “jazz,” “experimental,” etc.) were rejected in favor of a vibrant mix that focused on the individual composer’s brilliance, originality, and impact. Like the Copland-Sessions concerts a generation before, the series focused on emerging voices that changed the course of 20th century American music.

Click here to see this event’s listing on the Whitney’s website.

Friday, January 19, 7 pm
Whitney Museum of American Art
Lower Level Gallery

The Music of Nico Muhly
Beaming Music
Radiant Music
Honest Music
A Long Line
Video Game Music
Two Etudes for Viola and Tape (Premier)

Featuring:
Alex Sopp, Flute
Chris Thompson, Marimba
Lisa Liu, Violin
Nadia Sirota, Viola and Synth Organs
Nico Muhly, Synth Organs

The Metropolitan Opera 21Dec06

World Premier: The First Emperor by Tan Dun.

In December and January the Metropolitan Opera will present nine sold-out performances of Tan Dun’s new opera (co-commissioned by the Met and the Los Angeles Opera).

Known best for his Oscar-winning score to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Tan Dun’s interest in non-traditional uses of percussion creates some fun playing situations for performers, and this is no exception. In Act I of this production I find myself onstage, in costume (as a chinese soldier), and playing drums with stones I found in central park. I’m sure there are better gigs out there but I just can’t think of them right now…

The lead roles are sung by Placido Domingo and Elizabeth Futral, and the production is directed by Zhang Yimou, who is behind some of the most visually stunning filmmaking in recent years (House of Flying Daggers and Hero).

For more details from the Met website, Click Here

This production is one of the 6 from this season featured in the Met’s new project “The Met Opera Goes to the Movies,” whereby matinee performances are broadcast live in High Definition to movie theaters all over the country. More info Here.

It will also play on the Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcasts. More info Here.