Music news
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Anthony Davis, the estimable American composer, pianist, and bandleader born in Paterson, NJ, on February 20, 1951, celebrates his 65th birthday today. Having declined an invitation to join the Grateful Dead as a 20-year-old Yale student in 1971 (an incident reported in 2011 by George Varga in the San Diego Union-Tribune), Davis initially came to…
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The eminent Hungarian composer György Kurtág turns 90 today, and — it's reported by his publisher, Editio Musica Budapest — remains hard at work on a magnum opus, the Beckett-based opera Fin de partie. In wishing him robust health, I offer in tribute a small handful of useful links, including an outstanding Jeremy Eichler profile…
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Ben Ratliff; photo by Kate Fox Reynolds Last night I had the welcome and happy opportunity to interview Ben Ratliff, the New York Times music critic and a longtime friend and colleague, for an attentive audience at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge. The subject was Ben's new book, Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to…
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Christian Wolff, Earle Brown, John Cage, David Tudor, and Morton Feldman in 1962; photo credit: Earle Brown Music Foundation On Wednesday, January 20, Bostonians will have what appears to be a unique opportunity to hear three significant pieces by three major composers from the so-called New York School, crammed into 210 eventful minutes at two…
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John Weise of Sissy Spacek, by Amoeba Records NEW MUSIC BOSTONJuly 2015 (Posted July 11, and very much an attempt in progress this month…) We're late, and with more cause than usual. Rather than the characteristic attempt to catalog all of the myriad, wonderful new-music offerings coming up in Boston and the surrounding area,…
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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…
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Georges Aperghis, by Charlotte Oswald NEW MUSIC BOSTONMay 2015 (Updated May 13) 1 Boston Conservatory Wind EnsembleDavid Fulmer, Rotaries; Edgard Varèse, Déserts; Ron Nelson, Rocky Point Holiday; plus music by RespighiEric Hewitt, conductorBoston Conservatory Theater, 8 the Fenway, Boston8 p.m.FREEMore information Alisa Weilerstein & Inon BarnatanJoseph Hallman, DreamLog; plus works by Beethoven, Schubert, and RachmaninoffPresented…
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Olivia Block, by Richard Termine for The New York Times Newer Music bonus track As reported for my Newer Music column in the Boston Globe yesterday, sound artist Jason Lescalleet is launching a quarterly duo-concert residency at 3S Artspace in Portsmouth, NH, this Saturday night with the world premiere of Sonorous Vessels, a composition jointly…
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Yarn/Wire, by Bobby Fisher This almost was called The Rest Is News. Among the great many kindnesses that Alex Ross has shown me during our years of collegial labor are his occasional nods to my notorious list-making penchant. Mulling what to call this latest addition to my own blog, in which I'll round up some…
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Tania León, by Niels Leiser NEW MUSIC BOSTONApril 2015 (Updated March 22) 1 Pierluigi Billone residencyVerticale Muto; Mani. MattaMike Williams, percussion; [sound icon]College of Fine Arts Concert Hall, Boston University, 855 Commonwealth Ave., Boston8 p.m.Free admissionMore information Philip GlassWords Without Music: A Conversation with Philip GlassBerklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston7 p.m.$30, includes signed…
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"A Winged Victory for the Sullen celebrates serendipity"Boston GlobeMarch 21, 2015 The fifth installment of my monthly Newer Music column is out today, and covers the ambient cum post-classical chamber music duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen: Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie, from Stars of the Lid, and Dustin O'Halloran, of Devics. The duo and their…
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Virgil Thomson "…reviews, though couched in opinion—which is what makes them either illuminating or maddening but also, one hopes, compelling and worth debating—are fundamentally reportage. They are the chronicles of the cultural world, accounts of who did what on a given night, in a given hall, before hundreds or thousands of people interested enough to…
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Arneis Quartet, by Liz Lender The Arneis Quartet – violinists Heather Braun and Rose Drucker, violist Daniel Doña, and cellist Agnes Kim – embarks on a fascinating literary and musical excursion this month at Boston University's Morse Auditorium. The quartet's March 31 concert, "Poetry and Music: T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, Beethoven and Gubaidulina," is the…
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Christian Wolff NEW MUSIC BOSTONMarch 2015 (Updated March 21) 8 Boston Civic SymphonyThomas Oboe Lee, Trumpet Concerto (world premiere); Stephen Burns, Fanfare for Freedom; plus works by Honegger and BerliozStephen Burns, trumpet; Taichi Fukumura, conductorJordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston2 p.m.$15-$40More information Brand New Music/New Music BrandeisEmily Koh, smidgen(S); Victoria Cheah, Tell:Abschied; Gleb Kanasevich, suono…
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[I intended to post this here on Monday, but the DDoS hacker attack on Typepad put paid to that notion, so I posted this on Facebook. Here it is, in case you missed it before now.—Steve] A new baby…a new work status…and now, a new job. What started with a simple email I received a…
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I start where I am and do what I can, practicing in my inner hearing and on the trombone what I can do, refining it and hearing it as clearly as I can in the time that I have available to me. I show up on Saturday where I am, giving the best that I…
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This week's agenda – delayed due to circumstances beyond my control, and reined-in because of my family's arrival in NYC to meet the newest member of the clan – includes just two events, both tomorrow night. That said, they're unquestionably meaty items. Tuesday, March 25: Jacob GreenbergSpectrum; 7:30pm; $15 Tuesday, March 25: Reinier van HoudtSpectrum;…
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I find the implication that there are “ears” everywhere, at every point in a world, a fascinating concept, even if it is rather hard to imagine. It implies that position might be more important than time in hearing; and that the sounding configuration of a world can be understood (differently) from an infinite number of…
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Frustrating to be posting an ostensibly timely feature a day late, but life and work sometimes collude to prevent free time. On the other hand, curiously enough, I hadn't made note of any particular events for Monday or Tuesday — go figure. My agenda for The New York Times this week is lively and diverse,…
Night After Night 