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Wordless Music Comes to Chicago

The expansion of the Wordless Music series–with its intriguing interplay between contemporary classical music and a more “vernacular” idiom–continues beyond its New York City origins with its inaugural Chicago summer concert series, entitled “Loops and Variations.” This free series of concerts in Millennium Park extrapolates from Wordless Music’s successful formula of pairing works by such composers as Arvo Pärt, John Adams, Nico Muhly, and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood …more…

June in Buffalo: New Music, Upstate Edition

June in Buffalo logo; culled from the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra website.

For New York-based artists and audiences alike, summertime can mean a respite from a congested city concert schedule, in the form of upstate music festivals such as Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown and Bard Summerscape in Annandale-on-Hudson. For “new music” devotees, Western New York’s annual festival June in Buffalo–hosted by the University at Buffalo during the month’s first week–is …more…

Composer Robert Sirota Commemorates Appleton Organ’s 30th Anniversary at the Met Museum

Composer Robert Sirota. Photo by Richard Frank; culled from the composer’s web site.

While the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City may be best recognized for its expansive collections of visual art and historical artifacts, musical instruments are also significant to the museum’s holdings. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the installation of one such instrument at the museum—the Thomas Appleton pipe organ—the Met’s Department of Musical Instruments …more…

Changing the Game: Nancy Jurs’s World Peace at Buffalo’s Burchfield Penney Art Center

Photo credit: Tullis Johnson/Burchfield Penney Art Center

Upon first glance, Nancy Jurs’s installation World Peace at the Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College is a life-size game of chess. But is it really? There are the familiar components: the checkered board, the 32 game pieces. Beyond that, World Peace—in which the artist re-contextualizes ceramic works from earlier in her career—suggests new rules of engagement that break down the …more…

Gotham Chamber Opera Celebrates Tenth Anniversary with Mozart Revival

Fittingly, Gotham Chamber Opera in New York City has come full circle since its debut production of W.A. Mozart’s one-act opera Il sogno di Scipione during the 2001-02 season. Fast forward 10 years to April 11, 2012, when the opera company will stage a revival of the work at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College.

Celena Shafer in the 2001 producion of "Il sogno di Scipione;" photo …more…

Wish You Were Here at Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York has an established track record of presenting thoughtfully curated and thoroughly engaging exhibitions. Highlights include Amedeo Modigliani & the Artists of Montparnasse in 2002 and 2003—at the time, the first American exhibition featuring the intriguing Italian artist in over 40 years—as well as its ongoing series Spotlight on the Collection—Artists In Depth which has showcased such renowned artists as Pablo Picasso, Georges …more…

Yale in New York Presents “De Profundis: The Deep End”

David Shifrin, Artistic Director of Yale in New York; photo culled from the Yale School of Music web site.

Too often in concert music, the bassoon, string bass, trombone and others on the lower end of the sonic spectrum are neglected as solo instruments. This premise is the driving force behind the “Yale in New York” series’ De Profundis: The Deep End led by Artistic Director David Shifrin on …more…

American Mavericks at Carnegie Hall: The California Contingent

On Thursday evening, March 29, New York City’s Carnegie Hall continues the final week of its American Mavericks series—which focuses on 17 singular composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, from Charles Ives to Morton Feldman to Steve Reich—with a decidedly West Coast focus.

"American Mavericks" Curator and Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas; photo by Terrence McCarthy, culled from Carnegie Hall web site.

Series curator and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas will lead …more…

So Percussion Releases John Cage “Bootleg Series”

So Percussion, from L to R: Swilinski, Treuting, Beach, and Quillen; photo by Janette Beckman, courtesy of Dot Dot Dot Music.

Today, March 27, marks the album release of Cage 100: The Bootleg Series by the contemporary classical ensemble So Percussion. As part of its celebration of the 100th anniversary of innovative avant-garde composer John Cage’s birth, the percussion quartet (comprised of Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Swilinsky, and …more…

Within EarShot: BPO New Music Readings Present the “Concert-as-Rehearsal”

Image culled from the BPO web site.

The “Earshot and Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra New Music Readings” on February 23, as previously reported, gave the assembled audience at Kleinhans Music Hall the rare opportunity to hear orchestral works-in-progress performed.

It’s fairly common to encounter a working rehearsal-as-concert, in which a renowned guest artist collaborates with the orchestra to perform a completed, often familiar composition in advance of the actual concert for a …more…

Within EarShot: February New Music Festival with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

Image culled from the BPO web site.

If you love orchestral music, but you’re not sure what the future of the medium in America may hold, EarShot–the National Orchestral Composition Discovery Network–may provide the best clues.

This evening (February 23) at 7 p.m. at Kleinhans Music Hall, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) and Music Director JoAnn Falleta will present the “BPO New Music Readings,” a free, open-to-the-public concert of orchestral readings …more…

Centennial Favorites, New Creations Meet at the Avant Music Festival 2012

Composer Randy Gibson(foreground) performing "Apparitions of The Four Pillars, Avant Music Festival 2011; culled from Avant Media's photostream on Flickr.

Rather paradoxically, “new” and experimental classical music is as much about the past as it is about the present. By its very nature, creating art that is avant-garde now demands an intimate understanding of what was avant-garde then. The aptly named Avant Music Festival–now in its third year in New …more…

Love Before Intimacy: Lola Montes Schnabel’s First U.S. Solo Show

"Exchange of Youth for Knowledge," 2001, 84 x 120 inches; photo courtesy of The Hole.

Visiting art gallery shows can be a particularly refreshing experience, contrasting in tone from the often retrospective views of museum exhibitions. There is a welcome immediacy in a gallery, the kind that grounds the viewer in the here and now.

Such is the case at Lola Montes Schnabel’s exhibition Love Before Intimacy at The Hole in …more…

Happy Anniversary: Free Bang on a Can All-Stars Album through January 25

Few ensembles have been as integral to the propagation of new music both nationally and abroad as the Bang on a Can All-Stars. In addition to premiering compositions by Bang on a Can founding composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, the amplified sextet has interpreted the works of Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Terry Riley, and many others. ...more...

Lembit Beecher Presents Documentary Oratorio And Then I Remember in NYC

Taimi Lepasaar, top, and Ants Lepasaar, flier for "And Then I Remember;" culled from Lembit Beecher's website.

Outside of the medium of opera, composers are not often characterized as storytellers. Increasingly in recent years, however, with the use of multimedia to tell abidingly personal stories in a concert setting, the description of composer-as-storyteller has become more apt.

At 8 p.m. today, January 20 and Saturday, January 21 at …more…

2012 NY Guitar Festival: Buster Keaton and the Sounds of Silence

The New Year is upon us. For New York City concertgoers, this means the arrival of the New York Guitar Festival, and with it the seemingly anachronistic Silent Films/Live Guitars series. ...more...

Q2 Presents a New Year’s Countdown for “New Music” Lovers

Image by Darwin Bell; culled from the WQXR website.

Welcome to the New Year! For devotees of classical music–particularly works from the 20th century onward–I can think of no better resolution than to investigate Q2 Music’s Inaugural New-Music Countdown. The New York City-based, WQXR-operated online new music station has compiled a Top 50 list of listeners’ favorite works of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Running through midnight, January …more…

Sonic Revelry: New Year’s Eve in NYC

If you’re a classical music lover who will be in New York City on New Year’s Eve, perhaps Times Square isn’t on the top of your list of destinations for revelry. Here are three more than viable options for your last concert experience of 2011 ...more...

Hansel for the Holidays at the Metropolitan Opera

Angelika Kirschschlager as Hansel and Miah Persson as Gretel; photo by Marty Sohl, culled from the Metropolitan Opera website.

If there is one definitive, reigning holiday tradition at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, it’s Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairy tale opera Hansel and Gretel. Since its Metropolitan Opera premiere on November 25 in 1905 with the composer in attendance, the work has been frequently performed by the company …more…

Holiday Music: An Alternative Playlist

In his November 30 blog post, entitled “The Trouble with the Familiar,” fellow Arts America writer Ken Williams lamented the extent to which our seemingly impenetrable focus on holiday music favorites blinds us to the merits of music that, for no lack of quality, is not as embedded in our listening traditions. ...more...

Pliés and Popcorn: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker at the Movies

Even if you don’t live in New York City, you and your family can experience one of the city’s quintessential holiday traditions this year. On December 13 at 6 pm ET, George Balanchine’s renowned ballet The Nutcracker–as performed live by the New York City Ballet–will be presented in movie theaters throughout the country. The cast for this special performance includes Principal Dancers Megan Fairchild as Sugarplum, Tiler Peck as Marzipan, Joaquin de Luz as Cavalier, Ashley Bouder as Dewdrop, Teresa Reichlen as Coffee, and Daniel Ulbricht as Candy Cane. ...more...

Wordless Caroling: Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night, Nationwide

There are, of course, numerous classical music works that have become iconic holiday traditions in and of themselves–Handel’s Messiah, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker,Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carolsamong them. ...more...

Anticipating Ecstatic: NYC Festival Announces Second Season

Just yesterday, it seems, New York was gearing up for October’s SONiC Festival, a celebration of 21st century music by composers under 40 years of age. Now, with November days dwindling and winter closing in, the city’s Ecstatic Music Festival has recently announced its second season of programming. ...more...

“Obey-thoven”: NYC’s WQXR Presents Live Beethoven Sonata Marathon

As part of its Beethoven Awareness Month, New York classical radio station WQXR presents a marathon of all 32 Ludwig van Beethoven piano sonatas six two-hour intervals in The Greene Space on Sunday, November 20, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Among the myriad pianists performing the sonatas are Timothy Andres, Alessio Bax, Jonathan Biss, Jeremy Denk, and Jonathan Biss. Characterized by WQXR as an “Endurance Test,” a more fitting tribute to the enduring Beethoven would be difficult to find. ...more...

A Provocative Preview: Gotham Chamber Opera and Composer Nico Muhly Present Dark Sisters

An October 13 performance at the New York City venue Le Poisson Rouge, entitled  “Gotham Chamber Opera and Nico Muhly Conspire,”  often felt like an insurrection of sorts—if not against institutional opera per se—against an attitude of sterile gentility and divisive pretention.  One part eclectic recital, one part season preview, Gotham Chamber Opera presented an intimate set of disparate songs and provocative performances, all while promoting the upcoming world premiere …more…