Steve Smith
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"Young Composer Finds His Fuel In Restlessness"The New York Times, March 11, 2007 An article about buzzworthy young composer Nico Muhly, whose Zankel Hall concert this Friday night (March 16) will alternate between his own original compositions and Tudor choral works by Taverner, Byrd and Weelkes. (The article explains why.) This interview was one of…
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A public service announcement from our friends at Downtown Music Gallery: On WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28TH from 5:00 to 6:30pm, legendary musician/composer Anthony Braxton will autograph copies of his forthcoming box set, 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 (Firehouse 12 Records), at a special signing event at New York’s Downtown Music Gallery. This will also be the first…
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Wakonda’s Dream by Anthony Davis and Yusef Komunyakaa at Opera OmahaThe New York Times, March 9, 2007
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CD review: Phillip Bimstein – Larkin Gifford’s HarmonicaStephen Caplan, oboist; Sierra Winds; Equinox Chamber Players; Abramyan String Quartet.Starkland ST-214; CD.The New York Times, March 4, 2007(ArkivMusic, Barnes & Noble)
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Simone Kermes with the Venice Baroque Orchestra at Weill Recital HallThe New York Times, March 1, 2007
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The Columbia University School of the Arts has just named John Zorn the 2007 recipient of its William Schuman Award. Named for its first recipient and presented periodically by the dean of the School of the Arts, the award is an unrestricted grant of $50,000. Previous winners have included David Diamond, Gunther Schuller, Milton Babbitt,…
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Stanley Crouch has long been one of the more powerful — and controversial — figures in jazz criticism. He’s also a highly visible (and therefore easy) target for free-floating opprobrium…and of this, I’ve sometimes been as guilty as anyone. The problem is that Crouch’s occasional wrongheaded B.S. — as in his ill-informed, unforgivable comments about…
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Cuarteto Casals at Weill Recital Hall and New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie HallThe New York Times, February 27, 2007
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I don’t normally repeat news of an artist’s passing until it’s been firmly documented, but a thread on Jazzcorner’s Speakeasy bulletin board has reported the death of violinist and composer Leroy Jenkins. Since the original post in the thread cites Chuck Nessa, founder of the influential Chicago avant-jazz label that bears his last name, I’m…
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Another former member of King Crimson has passed away: drummer Ian Wallace, who was part of the same Islands-era lineup as the recently departed Boz Burrell. I’ll refer you to the post I wrote on Burrell’s passing for specifics of that band’s trying times and lasting legacy. Wallace, who succumbed to esophageal cancer on Thursday,…
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Two posts back, busy blogophile Henry Holland — whose postings I’ve long noted here and elsewhere with genuine interest — left an inquiry in the comments field. I’ll quote it here rather than addressing it there, because it deserves a post of its own: …can you give a thumbs up/thumbs down/meh opinion on the new…
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I’m sure this video has done the rounds before, but I’d never seen it until guitarist-impresario David Spelman forwarded it earlier today. The conundrum pondered: How does a pianist with small mitts handle the massive chords demanded by Rachmaninoff ? Igudesman and Joo offer a novel solution. There are more clips of the duo to…
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There are three words I’ve frequently used to describe what’s covered in the parts of Time Out New York that aren’t about arts and entertainment. Two of these words are "eating" and "shopping." The third, another "-ing," didn’t strike me as suitable for use in a classroom full of undergraduate journalism students on Monday morning.…
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While searching Google News for reviews of Charles Wuorinen’s Symphony No. 8, premiered by the Boston Symphony on Thursday night (and mentioned in my post immediately below), I stumbled upon an intriguing essay on Jason Gross’s Crazed by the Music blog at PopMatters. In a February 4 entry titled " Navel-gazing as journo trend?" Gross…
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Charles Wuorinen’s Symphony No. 8 ("Theologoumena"), which received its world premiere during a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert last night at Symphony Hall, will be broadcast and streamed live today on WGBH-FM and wgbh.org. The radio station’s web page lists the broadcast at 1pm; the BSO site says the concert begins at 1:30pm. The program also…
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I finally had time tonight to catch up with Ben Ratliff’s excellent profile of trumpeter John McNeil, which ran in The New York Times on Thursday (Feb. 15). I’d long been aware of the buzz building around McNeil — my Time Out New York comrade K. Leander Williams is another enthusiast — but hadn’t really…
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Dan Lippel, guitarist of the excellent new-music quartet Flexible Music, dropped me a note to clarify that the group’s upcoming concert on March 30, which I mentioned at the end of a review of its last concert, will be held at the Quaker Meeting House. I’d referred to it as the New York Quarterly Meeting…
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Metropolitan Museum Artists at the Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe New York Times, February 12, 2007
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"A High-Octane Chamber Group’s Continuing Insurrection"The New York Times, February 11, 2007 An article about two recent recordings by radical string quartet Ethel. I haven’t seen the print edition of the paper yet, but missing from the web view is the live peg for this piece: Ethel is throwing a party this Thursday night, February…
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Program notes are a useful thing, but sometimes they just don’t do a piece justice. At a concert presented by the quartet Flexible Music at the Construction Company Gallery on Saturday night, the following note was provided for the premiere of Atomic Variations, a new piece by Wisconsin-based composer Ethan Wickman: "Atomic Variations explores some…
Night After Night 