October 12th

Brooklyn Philharmonic

World Financial Center

7pm FREE

 

WNYC will host this special free concert featuring music by David T. Little, Corey Dargel, Mos Def, Derek Bermel, Lev Zhurbin and Frederik Rzewski.  I’ll be singing an excerpt of David T. Little’s “Winter Scene” a special collaboration between Little and librettist extraordinaire Royce Vavrek and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The full production of this new commissioned piece will be March 24th and 25th. More information on that concert which will also feature works of Sarah K. Snider, Sufjan Stevens, and Bethoven’s 3rd! can be found here.

 

October 14th

American Composers Orchestra

SONiC Festival

Zankel Hall

7:30 pm

 

 

Alex Temple has written a wonderful piece for ACO and myself with electronics. It is entitled “Liebeslied” and here are some of Alex’s notes to me on the piece:

In this piece, I’m trying to do two things at once:  first of all, to expose the hidden similarities between 1940s/50s jazz/pop/crooner ballads and 19th-century German orchestral lieder, and secondly and more importantly, to expose the secret creepiness of those mid-20th-century ballads.  Specifically, I’ve noticed that the metaphors that these songs use for love are often very surreal, and sometimes even disturbing if taken literally.  You’ve got people who can’t see anyone but their lover (“I Only Have Eyes For You”), people who can’t perceive the outside world until they meet their lover (“Till There Was You”), people living out an endlessly cyclical dream-fantasy à la Last Year at Marienbad (“Some Enchanted Evening”), mysterious music floating in the night (“Skylark”), and so on…..In each world, the music becomes more abstract and further removed from the exaggerated pop-ballad style that the piece opens with.  There’s more and more reverb on your voice, and in the last section, the reverb trail is actually pitch-shifted up and down, like a very, very slow vibrato.

Here is some additional info on the other pieces for the opening concert at Zankel 10/14

Orchestra Underground: 21st Firsts
George Manahan, music director & conductor
Kenji Bunch, amplified viola
Mellissa Hughes, soprano & electronics
Daniel Iglesia, videographer

Kenji Bunch – The Devil’s Box (World Premiere, Mary Rodgers Guettel/Meet The Composer commission)
Christopher Stark – …and start west (World Premiere, ACO/Underwood commission)
Alex Temple – Liebeslied with voice, electronics & orchestra (World Premiere, ACO commission)
Andreia Pinto-Correia – Elegia a Al-Mu’tamid (World Premiere, ACO/Patricia Wylde commission)
Wang Lu – Flowing Water Study II for Orchestra & Video (World Premiere, ACO/Jerome Foundation commission)

An all world premiere program featuring Orchestra Underground, ACO’s smaller, flexible, entrepreneurial orchestra that embraces electronics, multimedia, unusual instruments, new collaborations and new influences.

Big News!

 

Finally, I’m pleased to announce that I’m working this season with Emily Motherwell from OtherArts. Emily represents many other up and coming composers in my field, and has a special talent and affection for working with musicians in the new music community. She’s in largely unchartered territory and is already taking the city by storm!

Be sure to check back soon as I hope to have a post on the very special 9/11 remembrance concerts I will be taking part in, as well as a full listing of my concerts this season.