Jennifer Higdon wins Grammy for "Best Classical Contemporary Composition"

As usual, the niche "classical" categories were not nationally televised in this year's Grammy Awards ceremonies. But as reported in NewMusicBox the next day, Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto received the 2010 Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Jennifer spent the first 10 years of her life growing up here in Atlanta, Georgia, near Lenox Square, connected by family to the then-new Memorial Arts Center scene (now known as Woodruff Arts Center) in the heart of Midtown, long before the Haight-Ashbury-like 14th Street west of Peachtree gave way to shiny, antiseptic offices and skyscrapers. (Ask Jen about the big rubber Jesus sometime.)

Read the article about Jen's Grammy win in NewMusicBox: http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=6258

New eBook: What Matters Now

Check out the wonderful new free eBook What Matters Now — cogitated and conglomerated by marketing mavin Seth Godin.

You can download the entire PDF eBook from Godin's blog here.

The book includes a half gross of one-page snapshot essays by of some of the "big thinkers" of today, all chosen by Godin for the project:

1. Generosity - Seth Godin
   
2. Fear - Anne Jackson
   
3. Facts - Jessica Hagy
   
4. Diginity - Jacqueline Novogratz
   
5. Meaning - Hugh McLeod
   
6. Ease - Elizabeth Gilbert
   
7. Connected - Howard Mann
   
8. Re-Capitalism - Chris Meyer
   
9. Vision - Michael Hyatt
   
10. Enrichment - Rajesh Setty
    
11. 1% - Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell
    
12. Speaking - Mark Hurst
    
13. ATOMS - Chris Anderson
    
14. Excellence - Tom Peters
    
15. Most - William C. Taylor
    
16. Strengths - Marti Barletta
    
17. Ripple - John Wood
    
18. Unsustainability - Alan Webber
    
19. Autonomy - Dan Pink
    
20. Poker - Tony Hsieh
    
21. Momentum - Dave Ramsey
    
22. Consequence - Saul Griffith
    
23. Power - Jeffrey Pfeffer
    
24. Harmony - Jack Covert
    
25. Tough-Mindedness - Steven Pressfield
    
26. Evangelism - Guy Kawasaki
    
27. Compassion - Mitch Joel
    
28. Knowledge - Alisa Miller
    
29. Parsing - Clay Johnson
    
30. Forever - Piers Fawkes
    
31. Empathy - Karen Armstrong
    
32. Neoteny - Joi Ito
    
33. Celebrate - Megan Casey
    
34. DIY - Jay Parkinson
    
35. Adventure - Robyn Waters
    
36. Dumb - Dave Balter
    
37. Nobody - Micah Sifry
    
38. Analog - George Dyson
    
39. Independent Diplomacy - Carne Ross
    
40. THNX - Gary Vaynerchuk
    
41. Attention - David Meerman Scott
    
42. Context - Jeff Jonas
    
43. Change - Chip and Dan Heath
    
44. Passion - Derek Sivers
    
45. Magnetize - Fred Krupp
    
46. Confidence - Tim Sanders
    
47. Slow Capital - Fred Wilson
    
48. Open-Source DNA - Kevin Kelly
    
49. Technology - Phoebe Espiritu
    
50. Expertise - Aaron Wall
    
51. Fascination - Sally Hogshead
    
52. Difference - David Weinberger
    
53. World Healers - Martha Beck
    
54. Sacrifice - John Moore
    
55. Focus - Todd Sattersten
    
56. Leap - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    
57. Women - Paco Underhill
    
58. Timeless - Mark Rovner
    
59. .eDO - Dale Dougherty
    
60. Productivity - Gina Trapani
    
61. Iterative Capital - Michael Scharge
    
62. Willpower - Ramit Sethi
    
63. Mesh - Lisa Gansky
    
64. Enough - Merlin Mann
    
65. (Dis)Trust - Dan Ariely
    
66. Social Skills - Penelope Trunk
    
67. I’m Sorry - Jason Fried
    
68. Sleep - Arianna Huffington
    
69. Knowing - Dan Roam
    
70. Government 2.0 - Tim O’Reilly
    
71. You Can’t - Aimee Johnson
    
72. Gumption - J.C. Hutchins

(Where credit is due: The list for titles and author links above was deftly compiled by one of the authors, Rajesh Setty.)

Seth Godin's next (but not free) book, Linchpin, makes its debut on January 15, 2010 at the Haft Auditorium, 227 West 27th St. in New York City. Find out more about it here.

# # #

Irreplaceable Doodles - Nov. 17

and other flights of musical fancy

an evening of meaningfully unaccompanied musical modernism

featuring the irrationally exuberant music of
Karl Henning

and the tastefully delicious world premiere of “Smorgasbord” by
Nicole Randall-Chamberlain

as performed by the composers themselves

Karl Henning, clarinet & Nicole Randall-Chamberlain, flute

Tuesday, 17 November 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
within the acoustical accoutrements of
Emory Presbyterian Church
1886 North Decatur Rd. NE, Atlanta, GA 30307

$10 general admission / $5 students with I.D.
at the door
(sorry, we are unable to accept credit/debit cards)

for more information, click here (Facebook event page)
or e-mail concerts@luxnova.com
or (if you absolutely must) tel. 404-654-3918 (Google Voice number)

Soulbird hopes to build a safe nest for Iraqi artists

Atlanta musician goes to Kurdistan to make music amid chaos

by Mark Gresham

R. Timothy Brady is a soft-spoken young man whose immersion in the arts and sense of moral imperative has taken him on a mission to Iraq. Last Saturday, the composer/activist left Atlanta for Erbil, the capital of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, to establish an English-language academy where he will teach music, all under the auspices of the nonprofit Soulbird Inc., of which Brady is founder and executive director.

One minor problem: Performing music in Iraq can get you killed.

[READ MORE...]

Source: Creative Loafing-Atlanta
Date: 20 OCTOBER 2009
Author: Mark Gresham

Weekly Ear, July 30 - Aug. 5, 2009

Atlanta concert picks

SAT/1 @8:30pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
ASO and Turner Classic Movies present “Rodgers & Hammerstein At The Movies” with Selections from "The Sound of Music," "Oklahoma" and "Carousel" plus more classics from Broadway's dynamic duo. Robert Osborne hosts, Richard Kaufman conducts. $21-$59. Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 404-733-4800, www.atlantasymphony.org

Composers and the "relationship-making business"

An article by Alex Shapiro, posted today, well-worth reading even if you're not a composer:

Blogger Book Club III: Selling Everything, 2.0—The Jig Goes Public

"Those of us who are musicians and composers might think that we're in the music-making business, but we're actually in the relationship-making business. [...] One of the limitations of the new music world is its self-referential nature, whereby accepted norms are...accepted norms, and fewer participants think outside of the taco shell. I find myself most stimulated and inspired by the observations of those who are not part of the arts scene, who see the larger trends in society and in the way people communicate." —Alex Shapiro [READ MORE]

author: Alex Shapiro
source: www.artsjournal.com
date: July 27, 2009

Weekly Ear, July 23 - July 29, 2009

Atlanta concert picks

SAT/25 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Guest conductor Hugh Wolff leads an all-Beethoven program. The concert includes “Leonore Overture No. 3” and “Symphony No. 7,” and features young Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen in the “Piano Concerto No. 3.” $21-$59. Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 404-733-4800, www.atlantasymphony.org

TUE/28 @ 8:00pm
FRANKLIN POND CHAMBER MUSIC
FPCM's faculty (all Atlanta Symphony members) plus 16 of Atlanta's brightest young classical musicians conclude this summer chamber music program in a performance of music for strings by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bartok and Gershwin. FREE. Peachtree Presbyetrian Church, 404-252-3479, www.franklinpond.org