Steve Smith
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New York Women's Ensemble at Carnegie HallThe New York Times, December 2, 2011 Proof of how small and intensely interconnected this world truly is: Marilyn Rife — a percussionist, the director of orchestra personnel and human resources for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the director of orchestra personnel for the newly formed New York Women's…
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Kent Tritle at the Cathedral Church of St. John the DivineThe New York Times, November 25, 2011 Much as I genuinely enjoy the pipe organ and aspire to expertise regarding its mechanics and repertoire, I freely confess that, no, I did not pick out and identify unaided the specific registration Kent Tritle used as a…
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Robert Ashley's That Morning Thing at the KitchenThe New York Times, November 24, 2011 Immersed as I've been in Robert Ashley's music just lately, coming to That Morning Thing was still a matter of some considerable mystery; there's not a lot of historical detail out there about the piece, arguably Ashley's first opera and certainly…
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The New York Philharmonic with Bernard Haitink at Avery Fisher HallThe New York Times, November 19, 2011
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Detail of WQXR-FM "OBEY THOVEN" campaign poster image; design by Eyeball Orchestre Révolutionaire et Romantique at Carnegie HallThe New York Times, November 18, 2011 Sometimes finding the right hook for an overnight review is a challenge, even a lengthy struggle. And sometimes the right hook simply sits down beside you. This was an example of…
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Steven Schick playing "North Star Boogaloo." Photograph: Erin Baiano/The New York Times International Contemporary Ensemble: George Lewis Composer Portrait at Miller TheatreThe New York Times, November 14, 2011 Happy as I am with most of this review, I'm still kind of amazed that I managed to write an entire piece on George Lewis without once…
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Olivier Latry at Alice Tully HallThe New York Times, November 14, 2011 As noted in this review, a small but steady trickle of patrons departed from this concert from about the 10-minute mark forward. You have to wonder just what it was they thought they were getting into with a 75-minute continuous program of Messiaen's…
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Leonidas Kavakos and Enrico Pace at Zankel HallThe New York Times, November 11, 2011
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Varispeed performing in the Essex Street Market. Photograph: Michael Nagle/The New York Times "A Fresh Stamp on a Veteran Composer's Work"The New York Times, November 9, 2011 Originally this was going to be two separate, straightforward reviews of concerts in which new performers, mostly young, took up works by the veteran composer Robert Ashley. Instead,…
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Bang on a Can All-Stars at Zankel HallThe New York Times, November 7, 2011 I'm happy with the shape and pace of this piece of writing, but wish I'd have finessed the details a bit more elegantly. For example, I'm very pleased with the sense of David Lang's character that comes through in the opening…
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Jean-Paul Fouchécourt and Gaële Le Roi at Weill Recital HallThe New York Times, November 3, 2011 This thoroughly charming recital of French and Italian opera selections and songs was presented by the commendable Opera Lafayette, a Washington, D.C. company that specializes primarily in French opera of the Baroque and early Classical periods. Led by Ryan…
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The American Contemporary Music Ensemble at Joe's PubThe New York Times, October 28, 2011 This review covers a unique concert in which members of ACME played works by composers selected through a call for scores presented by the ensemble, the excellent new-music blog Sequenza21 and the Manhattan New Music Project, a non-profit music-advocacy organization. You'll…
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Photograph: Richard Termine for The New York Times The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully HallThe New York Times, October 20, 2011
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Tri-Centric Modelling: Past, Present and Future(Le) Poisson Rouge/Issue Project RoomNew York City, USAThe Wire, September 2010 There was surely one burning question on the minds of the audience who packed the chic New York City nightclub (Le) Poisson Rouge to capacity on a Friday night for the first evening of Tri-Centric Modelling: Past, Present and…
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Photograph: Julie Glassberg for The New York Times eighth blackbird at the Miller TheatreThe New York Times, October 18, 2011
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Hilary Hahn and Cory Smythe at the StoneThe New York Times, October 13, 2011 The video embedded above shows the grand finale of Hilary Hahn's holy-rolling "Ives geek-out party" (her term) at the Stone, John Zorn's East Village new-music space, on Monday night. Hahn's disc of Ives's four sonatas, recorded with Valentina Lisitsa for Deutsche…
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Frédéric Chaslin accompanies Kirstin Chávez.Photograph: Julieta Cervantes for The New York Times Tobias Picker Composer Portrait at Miller TheatreThe New York Times, October 10, 2011 The title of this post refers to the notion of a concert that touches on multiple facets of a single composer's work over the course of an evening: the useful…
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Photograph: Lino Brunetti For at least the past several years, Michael Gira, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and bandleader behind the exquisite agonies of Swans, has been issuing a steady trickle of exclusive, limited-edition projects through the website of his label, Young God Records. Packaged with paper covers in plastic sleeves, these hand-numbered, signed and otherwise…
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Photograph: Roberto Sanchez Interview: CaifanesTime Out New York, Oct 6–12, 2011 In this article about the seminal Mexican alt-rock band Caifanes, recently reunited and now en route to New York's Hammerstein Ballroom for an October 12 show, I start by evoking the reunions of Led Zeppelin, Cream and the Pixies. For admirers of rock en…
Night After Night 