Artist profiles
-
New in The New York Times: my feature about Frank London, a trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader who has played a major role in downtown jazz, the klezmer and Balkan music revivals of the ’80s, and a whole lot more.
-
New in The New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure section: my exit interview with the great trombonist and composer Jim Staley, who co-founded the essential new-music institution Roulette in 1978, and replanted it in his NYC loft in 1980, as he prepares to step away from leadership in June after 45 years.
-
John Zorn (Photograph courtesy National Sawdust) "Love Songs: A Creation Story in Four Acts and Four Voices"National SawdustSept. 8, 2023 "We prefer pieces that play with the style and format of traditional profiles," the kind folks at National Sawdust told me when I agreed to write a preview story ahead of Love Songs, the new
-
Jonathon Heyward (Photograph: Laura Thiesbrummel) "Conductor Jonathon Heyward is poised to make history in NYC and Baltimore"Gothamist, Aug. 3, 2023 My final contribution to Gothamist is this extended version of an interview with conductor Jonathon Heyward – the new music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the newly announced music director of whatever the
-
Xian Zhang conducting the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Photograph: Dan Graziano A Conductor Becomes a Virtual-Concert Jet-SetterThe New York TimesNov. 4, 2020 Following impressive outings with the Seattle Symphony and Houston Symphony, conductor Xian Zhang is headed to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for important concerts featuring premieres by Nokuthula Ngwenyama and Tyshawn Sorey this Thursday
-
Brian ChasePhotograph courtesy Terrorbird Originally published on National Sawdust Log, April 13, 2018 Drummer Brian Chase is best known as a member of the vital indie-rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but that only reveals the tip of the iceberg where his creative life is concerned. A longtime participant in New York City’s busy underground-music scene,
-
Photograph: Walter Wlodarczyk Originally published on National Sawdust Log, Nov. 29, 2017 Even for an artist as versatile and unpredictable as Sarah Hennies—a percussionist, improviser, and composer originally from Louisville, Kentucky, and now based in Ithaca, New York—her newest work represents a substantial achievement. Contralto, an hour-long work for vocalists on video with strings and
-
Change is upon us once again, and with it a fresh start for Night After Night—elsewhere. As of Thursday, April 23, the primary focus of my work has shifted over to a newly launched Substack newsletter, also called Night After Night. That title has provided my online identity – my "brand" – for more than
-
Monday on Twitter, Dr. Andrea Ramsey posted a straightforward question: Favorite string quartets composed by women? — 𝔻𝕣. 𝔸𝕟𝕕𝕣𝕖𝕒 ℝ𝕒𝕞𝕤𝕖𝕪 (@ramseyandrea) February 17, 2020 Dr. Ramsey, a composer, conductor, and teacher based in Kansas City (you know, the one in Missouri), received dozens of enthusiastic responses. I won't lie, I definitely jumped in. But I
-
Word has come that Lyle Mays – an extraordinary pianist, composer, bandleader, and a longtime member of the Pat Metheny Group – has died after a recurring illness. Nate Chinen, in an obituary written for WBGO, gets to the heart of Mays's creative persona: Mays was a musician of clear, analytical temperament, but within the
-
Going back to the Yeats poem… I would like the audience to think about Project 19 in that way: that they're going to hear 19 new pieces by people who sometimes don't feel like they can have a voice, who are being given an opportunity to have a voice—and for audiences, once again, to tread
-
The extraordinary French composer Éliane Radigue was born on this day in 1932, and celebrated her 88th birthday today as an artist whose star very much appears to be in the ascendant. Her recordings are widely available now, in lovingly prepared editions with beautifully restored sound. Occam Ocean – the body of acoustic work Radigue
-
I wrote for the Village Voice only one time, very early in my professional career, at the tail end of the full-time jazz journalism stage that preceded my return to classical music after around five years of estrangement. The article was published Feb. 27, 2001, or so the website tells me. That I never returned to
-
"Clarice Jensen: A Consummate Team Player Calls Her Own Tune"National Sawdust LogApril 3, 2018[link] As the founder of one of New York City’s most versatile and in-demand new-music groups, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), the cellist Clarice Jensen has been an advocate for countless composers. The ensemble initially bridged the so-called uptown and downtown
-
Photographs courtesy of Joda Clément Originally published by National Sawdust Log on Dec. 15, 2017 I've always listened to a lot of what might be termed electronic music, but I haven't always felt especially comfortable writing about it. Evaluating music in print can be challenging under the best of circumstances, given the intrinsic subjectivity of
-
Photograph: Paola Prestini, by Brigitte Lacombe Originally published by National Sawdust Log on Oct. 3, 2016 When I first met with composer Paola Prestini just over three years ago to discuss her dreams, plans, and goals for the wide-ranging arts venue, incubator, and accelerator that would become National Sawdust, she expressed her conviction that journalism
-
Jack DeJohnette (center) and Made in Chicago, by Wes Orshoski/ECM Records Even when looking back, Jack DeJohnette forges aheadBoston GlobeMay 17, 2015 For the featured jazz story in today's Summer Arts Preview issue of the Boston Globe, a brief but event-filled article about jazz drummer, bandleader, and composer Jack DeJohnette, who brings his legend-studded quintet
-
Keith Lockhart, by Suzanne Kreiter/Boston Globe "After 20 years, Keith Lockhart keeping the Pops youthful"Boston GlobeMay 5, 2015 My front-page story about Keith Lockhart and his eventful journey to the Boston Pops, with which institution he celebrates his 20th anniversary in a spring season that starts tonight (May 6) with a swanky concert featuring Bernadette
Night After Night 