Steve Smith
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The consistently excellent mostly-cassettes label Hooker Vision has posted excerpts from its late August tape batch on Soundcloud. Grab yourself an earful.
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Caroline Chin and Brian Snow, by Richard Termine/The New York Times Caroline Chin and Brian Snow at Spectrum, July 31, 2012The New York Times, August 2, 2012 Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home for intimate concerts enjoyed with friends old and new. That's been the operative assumption behind countless salons, soirees…
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Shen Tiemei and Jiang Qihu, by Ruby Washington/The New York Times Feng Yi Ting at the Lincoln Center FestivalThe New York Times, July 28, 2012 "…a brilliant morsel of theatrical art, flamboyantly conceived and compellingly staged." Sometimes, ebullience trumps eloquence. Anyway, there is one performance of Guo Wenjing's fabulous 45-minute opera remaining, tonight…
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Last night at Roulette, Jeremiah Cymerman, Mario Diaz de León and Toby Driver shook the walls with arcane music and occasionally lacerating volume as BloodMist, a new project that had its debut after several days of workshops. More thoughts to come; for now, more poor iPhone photographs.
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A bit of late-breaking news here: Conrad Schnitzler, the influential, prolific German electronic-music pioneer who was an early member of Tangerine Dream and a founder of Kluster, and who passed away in August 2011, is the subject of CON-Mythology, an ambitious week-long tribute that starts today in New York City. Included among the festival's events…
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Eglise Gutierrez, by Gabe Palacio/The New York Times I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Caramoor International Music FestivalThe New York Times, July 23, 2012 Seeking objective truth in reviews of live events is always a fascinating prospect. In this review, I'm very keen on Eglise Gutiérrez, more moderate but still positive on…
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Blair McMillen at BargemusicThe New York Times, December 6, 2011 Alex Ross has a report on Blair McMillen's previous performance of Morton Feldman's Triadic Memories at Bargemusic, presented in July.
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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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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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