EarRelevant

Review: Alabama Symphony program honors memory of civil rights leaders King and Shuttlesworth

2012-01-16T18:33:00.020-05:00

by Mark Gresham

Like many other institutions have done over the past few days, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra presented its annual tribute to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. yesterday at Jamison Concert Hall on the University of Alabama-Birmingham Campus. The orchestra's assistant conductor, Fawzi Haimor, led the assembled forces in the modest-length, intermissionless program.

The concert opened with the heralding notes of “An American Fanfare” by Adolphus Hailstork, a four-and-a-half minute Coplandesque showpiece for brass and percussion, written in 1985.

Birmingham Mayor William A. Bell stepped up to narrate “Let Freedom Ring” by Alexander Miller, a setting of MLK's “I Have A Dream” speech. Its essence is what one might call a familiar and serious “civic-minded” musical style which audiences might easily associate with patriotic holidays.

Jonathan Bailey Holland's “House of Dreams” followed. It was written in 1997 for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in memory of developer James Rouse, a legendary urban visionary whose non-profit Enterprise Foundation was founded to build affordable housing for the poor. The work is a celebratory rather than somber memorial, with often dense, sweeping sonic gestures impelling it forward.

The combined choirs of the Alabama School of Fine Arts and Jacksonville State University joined the orchestra to perform “PraiseMaker” by Atlanta-based composer Alvin Singleton, with a text by Susan Kouguell, a poet with whom he had collaborated previously. Commissioned for the 125th anniversary of the Cincinnati May Festival in 1998, where it was premiered by James Conlon and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Singleton and Kouguell explicitly went about creating it as a “universal, secular and celebratory” work honoring the past and collective memory, inspired by the traditional African griots—oral historians and celebrants also known as “praise singers.”

Ranging from high school through college ages, the youthful singers were well-prepared and focused in pitch. Their collective sound more translucent than a chorus of older singers, nevertheless that worked very well with Singleton's mostly sparse and hauntingly ethereal orchestration, punctuated at points by pitched percussion and occasionally interrupted by flustered figures in brass and woodwinds.

The JSU chorus then delivered a joyful a cappella performance of the spiritual, “Ride On King Jesus,” as arranged by Edward Boatner.

The evening's only work not by a 20th or 21st-century composer, Beethoven's “Leonore Overture No. 3” closed the concert. Like the “Fidelio Overture” which ultimately took its place at the beginning of Fidelio, Beethoven's sole opera, the “Leonore No. 3” has become iconic in its use in themed concerts to represent the struggle for freedom and justice, while falling safely within the canon of standard symphonic repertoire.

In addition to serving as a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., this year's concert also honored the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, pastor of Birmingham's Bethel Baptist Church from 1953 to 1961 and one of King's notable compatriots, who died late last year. A poignant, heartfelt speech in the middle of the concert, followed by a moment of silence, commemorated Shuttlesworth's friendship with King and his own significant leadership of the civil rights movement in Birmingham. □

Review: Atlanta Symphony's "A King Celebration" turns 20

2012-01-13T16:32:00.063-05:00

by Mark Gresham

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra presented its annual “A King Celebration” last night, celebrating its 20th anniversary honoring the memory of Atlanta civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

Traditionally held at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on the Morehouse College campus, the event was moved to Symphony Hall due to anticipated size of audience wanting to hear superstar guest cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Robert Spano and the orchestra opened the program with Beethoven's “Overture to Fidelio,” a tightly constructed, spirited six-minute work which has come to represent the opera's theme of heroism and eventual triumph of freedom and justice.

Immediately following, Kevin Johnson, choral director at Spelman College, took the podium to lead the combined Spelman and Morehouse College Glee Clubs in the traditional spiritual “Elijah Rock” in an a cappella arrangement by the late Moses Hogan, a performance that brought the audience to its feet.

Spano then returned to conduct “How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place” from Johannes Brahms' “A German Requiem.” Sung in English translation, the performance was credible, if somewhat blunt-edged Brahms.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Joseph Schwantner's “New Morning for the World,” for narrator and orchestra, concluded the first half of the program. Based on King's words, it was written in 1982 for David Effron and the Rochester Philharmonic, with Pittsburgh Pirates baseball great Willie Stargell as narrator.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed narrated this performance. Reed did not try to imitate the oratorical powers of King. Instead, he let King's words speak for themselves, understated in inflection, as if reading King's words to family gathered at home. Although florid swirls and bold statements from percussion and brass threatened to emotionally upstage that approach early on, it was most effective in quieter, more contemplative music from the words “Now is the time...” onward.

After the intermission, a standing ovation took place as cellist Yo-Yo Ma took the stage for Antonin Dvořák's “Cello Concerto.”

Ma has become iconic to contemporary audiences as representing “everything cello.” His relationship with his instrument is symbiotic. Certainly in the Dvořák, Ma's splendid sense of rubato is informed by commitment to each musical phrase, insightfully revealing the composer's passions as expressed in the score, rather than a mere grandstand for a performer's ego. Ma observably listens intently to the orchestra as if playing with large chamber ensemble: whether the famous horn solo prior to the solo cello's initial entrance, the brief measures of “Molto sostenuto” duet with flute in the first movement, the winds which open the “Adagio” second movement, or during 32 bars in the Finale, turning his eyes toward concertmaster David Coucheron when the solo first violin plays an octave above the section of seconds in effective duet with the solo cello.

The multiple ovations were tumultuous, but the program was hardly done. Ma made his way to the back of the cello section, from which he played the intimate “Sarabande” from J.S. Bach's “Suite No. 5 in C minor” for solo unaccompanied cello.

Ma continued to play as part of the cello section as the final note of the “Sarabande” quietly transitioned into the orchestral introduction to Uzee Brown, Jr.'s arrangement of “We Shall Overcome,” which built up in slow contrapuntal crescendo to the entrance of the chorus singing the first verse.

Brown, an Atlanta-based opera singer, composer and alumnus of Morehouse who currently chairs its music department, created the arrangement especially for the Atlanta Symphony's 1999 King Celebration concert.

What was unusual this year is the fact that the audience did not stand and join in singing “We Shall Overcome”—a long-held tradition. Was it the due to the concert being held in Symphony Hall rather than the King Chapel? Perhaps due to a larger percentage of audience that was not of African heritage than typical at King Chapel? Or perhaps had a number purchased their tickets less to celebrate King than to see Yo-Yo Ma?

A man to my immediate left, who had not been there before intermission, was trying to take pictures of Yo-Yo Ma during the Dvořák concerto, and I worried whether we would experience an “Alan Gilbert moment” that evening. A sincerely polite gentleman on my right, who did hear the first half, admitted it was “my chance to see Ma play,” and, although not an ASO subscriber, is an avid listener of classical music via NPR. I did get the impression that he is now more likely to attend another live ASO performance.

We can hope that perhaps some of those who showed up only to see Ma, but experienced the entire concert, took away with them something of the message and intent of “A King Celebration,” and that in such a coming together of the city's often disparate communities we might sense, if only briefly, that our unalienable individual freedoms are, as King himself said, inextricably bound to the freedoms of others.

Speaking of public radio: “A King Celebration” was simulcast live on NPR stations nationwide, and selections will be rebroadcast nationwide on Monday, January 16, on American Public Media’s “Performance Today.” For local stations and broadcast times, see this list on the “Performance Today” website. □

Photo credit: all photos by J.D. Scott

Review: Percussionists Chix With Stix return like a phoenix in first concert in two years

2012-01-09T23:00:00.003-05:00

by Mark Gresham | 21 Nov 2011, ArtsCriticATL

An enthusiastic audience showed up Sunday afternoon to hear a performance by the Atlanta-based all-female percussion group Chix With Stix. Despite rain, a depressed arts economy and the distraction of an Atlanta Falcons football game, [...] • READ MORE on ArtsCriticATL.com

Review: Chamber Cartel debuts with Morton Feldman’s well-woven "Crippled Symmetry"

2012-01-02T23:00:00.005-05:00

by Mark Gresham | 21 Nov 2011, ArtsCriticATL

Less than 24 hours after ringing in the new year, Atlanta’s newest contemporary music ensemble, Chamber Cartel, made its debut. [...] • READ MORE on ArtsCriticATL.com

photo credit: Mark Gresham

Review: Riverside Chamber Players shine in performing music of Dallow and Smetana

2011-11-21T20:37:00.006-05:00

by Mark Gresham | 21 Nov 2011, ArtsCriticATL

Riverside Chamber Players performed a matinee concert on Sunday featuring two highly programmatic works: Bedřich Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1 (subtitled “From My Life”) and the world premiere of “I’ve Been to the Ocean” by Brian Dallow. The program took place at the Bridge to Grace Church in Roswell. Violinists Kenn Wagner and David Dillard, [...] • READ MORE on ArtsCriticATL.com

Photo credit: Rena Fruchter

Memorial Drive: Atlanta’s forgotten classical music history

2011-11-21T19:45:00.010-05:00

by Mark Gresham | 21 Nov 2011, ArtsCriticATL

“Atlanta has no collective memory” is a common refrain among local artists and musicians. It’s a sentiment recently expressed by Atlanta-born composer Nikitas Demos, one of the most active members of the local classical scene. When he joined the Georgia State University faculty in the early 1990s, Demos recently told me, “There was no memory of [...] • READ MORE on ArtsCriticATL.com

Photo credit: courtesy of Charles Knox

Review: Mozart glistens, Sibelius warms

2011-11-18T13:21:00.042-05:00

Mickelthwate steps in to lead, Smith performs an indispensable classic

by Mark Gresham

Thursday's Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert at Symphony Hall was the second in as many weeks featuring an ASO principal musician as soloist. Principal flute Christina Smith performed Mozart's “Flute Concerto No. 1,” flanked on either side by Beethoven's “Leonore Overture No. 2” and the “Symphony No. 2” of Jean Sibelius. The entire was led by guest conductor Alexander Mickelthwate, a former ASO assistant conductor who is now music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Mickelthwate was a late replacement for an ailing Ilan Volkov, thus the Beethoven overture a replacement for a planned pair of works by American composers Carl Ruggles and Ruth Crawford Seeger. (It is worth noting that although his full-time post while in Atlanta was with the ASO, Mickelthwate is possibly best remembered for leading an electrifying performance of John Zorn's "Cobra" with Bent Frequency, a local new music ensemble he co-founded, at the alternative arts venue Eyedrum.)

The Beethoven opened the program. Of the four overtures to Beethoven's sole opera Fidelio, what we know as the Leonore No. 2 was actually the first, written for premiere of the original 1805 version of the opera. The piece started off as a good but somewhat mainstream performance, but about halfway through the Allegro the work became fully engaged and exciting, then caught fire by the time it reached the two auf der Bühne trumpet flourishes played from off stage right by principal Thomas Hooten. From that point, the work was home free, down to the final repeated C major chords.

Mozart's “Flute Concerto No. 1” was the next piece on the docket. The previous evening, I had talked with flutist Christina Smith by phone about performing it.

“I have done much more contemporary works the last several times I've been soloist,” said Smith. “Going back to Mozart is like and ice skater going back to their figure eights. It's that basic core of beauty in our repertoire.” Such a basic part of repertoire it is, she indicates, that almost universally it is the first piece a performer is required to play for a serious audition, and indeed she teaches it to a lot of flute students for that purpose. So for Smith, going back and playing it in concert instead is a particular joy. The last time she performed it with the ASO was in 1998, with Carl Saint Claire conducting.

“[It] is very elegant, very poised, very idiomatic for the flute,” says Smith of Mozart's writing. So she takes a relatively straightforward, simple approach to interpretation. “I think the music absolutely speaks for itself, and you don't have to do anything innovative with interpreting it. It's all about the things about the instrument that are beautiful: the lyricism of the flute, the tone quality, the light, beautiful articulation that the flute can do. Mozart absolutely captures that and that's what I'm really going for when I perform it.”

And indeed, that is the epitome of the “classical mind” of Mozart's day: beauty is something revealed by an artist, rather than forced into bloom by the artist's will. Even if Mickelthwate was not fully in sync with Smith at a few points in the first movement, Smith's performance was blithesome, with a natural virtuosic ease of expression; the second possessed lucid lyricism; and the concluding rondo a cheerful, sprightly tempo di minuetto.

The last time the ASO had performed Sibleius' “Symphony No. 2” was in 2002, with Robert Spano conducting. It happens that this was during the time when Mickelthwate was an assistant conductor with the orchestra, which would have obliged him to be prepared to step in and conduct it if necessary. Sibelius is one of Spano's strong suits, so the understudy work as an assistant surely would have had impact. Nine years later, Mickelthwate has made this Sibelius his own, and he brought to the symphony a warmly confident, sweeping interpretation. He will soon conduct it again back home with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, December 2nd and 3rd. □

Photo credits: Jeff Roffman

Review: Bailey Center hosts ebullient Ying Quartet in music by Moravec and more

2011-11-13T18:00:00.001-05:00

by Mark Gresham | 13 Nov 2011, ArtsCriticATL

The Ying String Quartet played an engaging program of music by Arensky, Moravec and Beethoven last night at Kennesaw State University’s Bailey Performance Center. [...] • READ MORE on ArtsCriticATL.com

Photo credit: Kate L Photography

Mickelthwate replaces indisposed Volkov in Nov. 17/19 Atlanta Symphony concerts

2011-11-11T06:55:00.002-05:00

Program adds Beethoven, drops Ruggles and Seeger

by Mark Gresham

Alexander Mickelthwate, music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra will replace an indisposed Ilan Volkov as guest conductor for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's upcoming concerts on November 17 and 19. Word is that illness prevents Volkov from traveling.

Mickelthwate is a former assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, having made his ASO debut in 2001. His most recent appearance with the orchestra was in 2005. While in Atlanta, Mickelthwate was also one of the co-founders of new music group Bent Frequency. The 2011-'12 season is Mickelthwate's fifth with Winnipeg Symphony.

With the change of conductor comes a programming change: Beethoven’s "Leonore Overture No. 2" replaces two previously planned, rarely-heard American works: Carl Ruggles’s "Angels" and Ruth Crawford Seeger’s "Andante For Strings," adapted from one of the movements of her sole String Quartet.

The rest of the program remains as planned. ASO principal flute Christina Smith performs Mozart’s "Flute Concerto No. 1," and the concert concludes with the "Symphony No. 2" of Jean Sibelius. Conveniently, Mickelthwate was already scheduled to lead the Winnipeg Symphony in a performance of the Sibelius on December 2 & 3.

More information about concert details and tickets may be found here. □

Photo of Alexander Mickelthwate courtesy of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Conducting “Lucia di Lammermoor,” Arthur Fagen takes key role as Atlanta Opera music director

2011-11-07T18:00:00.019-05:00

by Mark Gresham | 7 Nov 2011, ArtsCriticATL

“I discovered opera very early,” says Arthur Fagen, music director of the Atlanta Opera. “My grandfather used to take me to weekend matinee performances at both the Met and City Opera.” [...] • READ MORE on ArtsCriticATL.com

Photo courtesy of Arthur Fagen and Chronos Artists

Atlanta Symphony soloists come from within for concertos by Brahms and Mozart

2011-11-06T18:00:00.013-05:00

by Mark Gresham | 6 Nov 2011, ArtsCriticATL

There’s a paradox to an orchestral musician’s career, and mind-set. Music thrives on individuality, demanding that musicians express something unique to their inner expressive voice. Yet, in an orchestra, individuals must take a largely anonymous role [...]
• READ MORE on ArtsCriticATL.com

Photo credit: Jeff Roffman

Recital review: A rising star, cellist Joshua Roman makes Atlanta debut with Bach

2011-10-31T18:00:00.007-05:00

by Mark Gresham | 31 Oct 2011, ArtsCriticATL

Freakish winter snowstorms in the Northeast almost canceled Joshua Roman’s first performance in Atlanta. The 20-something cellist’s flight was delayed twice. He finally landed without much time to spare, and less than an hour before the start of his recital Sunday afternoon at First Presbyterian Church, [...] • READ MORE on ArtsCriticATL.com

Photo credit: Tina Su

Encores Galore

2011-10-28T14:31:00.016-05:00

Hilary Hahn serves up a bevy of newly commissioned short works for violin and piano

by Mark Gresham

Last night at the Schwartz Center's Emerson Concert Hall, violinist Hilary Hahn and pianist Valentina Lisitsa performed thirteen of the twenty-six "encores" Hahn had recently commissioned for violin and piano as part of her “27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores” project. (There is one encore piece left to commission, to be chosen through an online “blind submission” process beginning November 15.) All have all received premieres within the past few weeks as part of a multi-city tour Hahn began October 13 in Cincinnati, just after the release of a new CD she recorded with Lisitsa, featuring the four violin sonatas of Charles Ives.

Unfortunately Hahn and Lisitsa did not include any of the the Ives in the main body of the program, though they did perform the “Largo” movement of the Second Sonata as an encore, with the new CDs available for purchase afterward in the lobby. Instead, the printed program offered in balance some traditional fare: J.S. Bach's “Sonata No. 1” for unaccompanied violin, Beethoven's “Violin Sonata No. 2” from his youthful Op. 12 group, and the nearly-as-youthful “Sonatensatz” scherzo by Brahms (published only after his death as WoO 2).

The playbill did state that that “program order is subject to change” and indeed that proved an understatement—thus more an à la carte list of selections. Rather than a piled up at the end as printed, the encores were dispersed throughout the evening, with Hahn announcing from the stage what would be performed next, and when it was time for intermission.

They opened the concert with “Bifu” a lovely, gentle and lyrical piece by Japanese composer Somei Satoh. The word “bifu” translates as “breeze.” The composer writes of the piece: “Wind is also blowing in our body. The wind in out body is called emotion. It also sometimes becomes a storm. I wish for the wind traveling in my body to remain a breeze.”

This piece bode well for the encores. Of the thirteen she played, I will only mention a few others here which most attracted my attention.

My favorite of the evening was “Memory Games” by Israeli composer Avner Dorman, inspired by the digital toy “Simon.” First introduced in 1978 and popular during the 1980s, Simon challenges the player to repeat a random sequence of tones by pressing the right sequence of buttons, adding a new tone to the end of the sequence with each successful iteration. “Several rounds of the game are played throughout the piece, so to speak,” writes the composer in his description, “making it resemble the form of a Passacaglia.” It's an energetic, engaging composition which would be welcomed on many a new music concert.

Jennifer Higdon's “Echo Dash” is also a kind of “follow me” piece, likewise energetic, but also especially sunny in disposition, with the leader of the musical chase changing throughout between the violin and each hand of the piano.

Paul Moravec's complex, dialectic “Blue Fiddle,” for all its brevity, seemed better suited for the main body of a concert than feeling like an “encore” per se, packing a rich array of music into four minutes.

The elder statesman of the group, Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, was represented by a piece entitled “Whispering.” In his notes, Rautavaara spelled what he though an encore to be—then deliberately countered those characteristics with his piece. Writes the composer: “It is possible to be virtuosic without being noisy!”

Max Richter, in describing his plaintive piece, “Mercy,” recalled hearing pianist Maurizio Pollini pay simple Schubert pieces after heavy-duty 20th-century programs. Additionally, he writes: “I felt like the solo violin and piano formation was so revealing and intimate by nature that it really called for a very direct, simple kind of music in an encore setting, a kind of story-telling material that speaks very plainly.”

All of that said, much of the rest of the music was good, but most of the rest did not feel to me so much like “encores” as the kind of works one often finds in a collective new music concert, not really calling for an “I really want to hear that again!” response from the listener, or the hope of cajoling the performer back on stage one more time. I'm not speaking negatively of this remaining works' musical value; rather to say that not everything short is an “encore.” Even then, an encore can take on its greatest importance over time as the performer lives with it, and becomes closely identified with it in the public mind—perhaps more so than a major work. Most pieces chosen by a performer for the purpose will not reach that level of symbiotic, shared public identity recognized instantly by the public.

Hahn is entirely right, though: It's an important genre, however currently-ignored by composers (vs. its ubiquitous presence in the days of Kreisler and Heifitz). And it's thoroughly delightful that she is taking the time, effort and musical risks necessary to bring it back to the fore with newly commissioned 21st-century repertoire. □

Credits: Photo of Hilary Hahn by Peter Miller.

Atlanta Opera premieres “Rabbit Tales,” a children’s opera based on world folk stories

2011-10-27T18:00:00.006-05:00

by Mark Gresham | 27 Oct 2011, ArtsCriticATL

Folk tales have a natural way of transforming, passing orally across generations and cultures. When recorded on paper, they can ignite popular and intellectual interest in those oral traditions, while transforming the path of literature itself. [...] • READ MORE on ArtsCriticATL.com

Image courtesy of Atlanta Opera

Refreshing the classical experience: Cellist Matt Haimovitz bucks convention in free concerts at Emory

2011-10-25T18:00:00.002-05:00

by Mark Gresham | 25 Oct 2011, ArtsCriticATL

Cellist Matt Haimovitz has either slipped off the grid of the classical music business or is defining its vibrant future. Perhaps both. He returns to Atlanta next week, offering music for solo cello that he calls “a human conversation with divine beauty.” The Israeli-born, American-raised Haimovitz has come a long way since his Atlanta debut [...] • READ MORE on ArtsCriticATL.com

Photo courtesy Le Poisson Rouge

Alcides Rodriguez is a product of the system

2011-06-07T12:00:00.006-05:00

The ASO clarinetist praises el Sistema for giving him a life beyond Venezuela

by Mark Gresham | 7 Jun 2011, Creative Loafing

Alcides Rodriguez arrives exactly on time — to the minute. Neatly attired in a solid soft-blue dress shirt and slacks, his stride exudes relaxed confidence. A 34-year-old bass clarinetist for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 2005, Rodriguez has instrument case in hand, ready for a rehearsal that begins in an hour and a half on the Symphony Hall stage. • READ MORE in Creative Loafing

photo credit: Nick Arroyo

Robert Spano gives 'Lecture on Nothing' the silent treatment

2011-03-29T18:00:00.018-05:00

by Mark Gresham | 29 Mar 2011, Creative Loafing

“I am here and there is nothing to say,” begins John Cage's Lecture on Nothing, which was performed Friday night by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra music director Robert Spano at Emerson Concert Hall in Emory University's Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. • READ MORE in Creative Loafing

Photo: Robert Spano performs John Cage's Lecture on Nothing
Photo credit: Mark Gresham

Hookahrmonium Improv

2010-06-26T21:05:00.020-05:00

HOOKAHRMONIUM* (hookah + harmonium) is the name I've coined for the melodicas that Klimchak and Stuart Gerber are playing with the long tube extensions to the normal mouthpiece, allowing them to have a hand free to play another instrument at the same time. Why I've coined that name should be obvious from the photo I took at tonight's "Summer of Drum" improv program. Hookahrmonium! You read it here (or my Facebook page) first!

--Mark Gresham

*Pronunciation: [ˈhu-̇-kər-ˈmō-nē-əm] or [ˈhu-̇-kär-ˈmō-nē-əm]

Bridging the Venue Gap

2010-06-12T22:08:00.091-05:00

A pair of underpasses along Atlanta's proposed Beltline become improvised amphitheaters for drumming duos.

by Mark Gresham

OVERARCHING THEME: Keith Leslie and Klimchak improvise in front of a lively mural gracing an abutment under the Virginia Avenue Bridge. [Photo: Mark Gresham]

The former bed of a Southern Railway line and the arch of a concrete bridge over it offered a unique outdoor venue for over an hour of percussion duo improvisation this evening.

Composer/percussionist Klimchak and Keith Leslie, drummer of the Fourth Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra, kicked off the first in a series of percussion duo improv concerts being performed under bridges along the path of Atlanta's proposed Beltway light rail system this summer. Klemchak, who organized the "Percussion Discussion 5x5" series under the auspices of the new "Art on the Beltway" program, performs on five consecutive Saturdays, improvising in duos with a different notable Atlanta-based percussionist each time.

The five free Saturday evening programs alternate locations: under the Virginia Avenue Bridge on the city's east side and the Ralph David Abernathy Bridge on the west side, to coordinate with the other "Art on the Beltline" program which likewise alternate focus between east and west sides.

In addition to this evening's program with Keith Leslie, Klimchak will perform subsequent installments under the Virginia Avenue Bridge with Stuart Gerber (6/26) and Mario Schambon (7/10), and under the Ralph David Abernathy Bridge with Petro Bass (6/19) and Robert Schmid (7/3). All of the concerts begin at 7:00 p.m.; tonight's program lasted about an hour.

Klimchak promises that "each performance will be will be unique, using the various tools of the percussionists trade, from drumset to conga, from found metal junk to vibraphone and marimba," also noting that "the natural ambiance and echo of the bridges along the Beltline will enhance the sounds of the instruments, and add their own part to the dialogue."

KUDZU CULTURE: A wider view of the Virginia Avenue Bridge underpass. A bit of perspective on not only size and shape of the underpass, but also the gravel former rail bed and a peek and what vociferously grows on the surrounding banks. The ground at the other abutment, to the right, opposite the performers, was a bit flooded and muddy, and was also the location of an itinerant homeless person's campfire pit (very near on the right, but outside of the camera's image field). [photo: Mark Gresham]

But in what other ways might a bridge as venue, particularly underpass, impact a concert as architecture? The shape does not itself draw attention to a central focal point in the same manner as a traditional amphitheater--whether a complete circle or oval, or a semicircular one. So what's primarily different here?

Although, as Wikipedia states the more obvious observation, "A bridge is a structure built to span a valley, road, body of water, or other physical obstacle, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle," it is also true that a bridge also allows passage under its span; not just over the span. Bridges then are points of convergence, a place to cross over or to pass under; in either case, a kind of nexus where otherwise conflicting crossflows of movement can easily pass by each other, albeit by a narrowing of the pathways by which they may do so.

It's certainly not the first concert held under a bridge of some kind. U2's 2004 concert under the Brooklyn Bridge comes to mind, and even teen pop-idol Justin Bieber performed under New York City's 59th Street Bridge as recently as June 5th this year.

The difference is whether using the underside of a bridge as venue merely provides a convenient space in which to gather a large outdoor audience in a traditional manner, or whether it encourages the audience to behave differently, and whether it has an impact upon the musical improvisation itself, or the composition of music designed for that particular space.

One of the intents of the "Art on the Beltline" program, as I understand it, is precisely to get people to become aware of and walk (or bike) the path which will eventually have a pair of light rails at its center. To place a concert under such a bridge offers the prospect of music which encourages a linearly moving and listening audience, past or through the performers bi-directionally, versus a fixed audience with a single focal point. Nevertheless, this evening some audience moved around; some audience stood or sat in one place. It seems the architectural encouragement to move does obligate it.

That Klimchak has chosen improvisational "discussion" between a pair of percussionists in each concert ("dialog" is perhaps another matter) seems an intuitive response to the architecture, and the back-and-forth-ness an underpass encourages from both musicians and audience alike. A bridge's underpass is like a short tunnel, a conduit of sorts; so it perhaps even has its own characteristic resonance which responds to some sounds over others. (A bridge's span is well known to react resonantly--for example, to the marching of an army, which is why a military infantry unit deliberately breaks out of step when crossing bridges.) Is there possibility that the musicians responded to that characteristic resonance in any way, even if subconsciously? Or was such a hypothetical mollified or overshadowed by other present acoustical factors?

For this performance, Leslie opted to limit his gear to a small trap set: snare, one mounted and one floor tom, bass drum, a pair of cymbals and a hi-hat, plus a string of what appeared to be small bronze sleigh bells of a sort draped around one of his ankles.

Klimchak had his own traps set, alright, but also an array of strikable and strokeable percussion devices, including handmade and found objects, a few odd aerophones, his own vocalizations (including Tibetan harmonic singing), and a tub of water into which he could dip instruments while playing them, to change both pitch and timbre of sound.

Klimchak was always reaching for new devices to produce a new sounds, playing upon them experimentally; Leslie gathered variety from his more limited array of skin and metal though playing technique, and his confident command of different stylistic grooves as well as responsive interactions with Klimchak in freer passages. One particular point of note was when both got into a solid, colorful Latin groove that got a few people dancing.

Beyond the encouragement of discussion, and the concrete's addition of power and echo, I'm not sure what else the bridge itself engendered in terms of substantive musical elements that would have been different from, say, if performed in Eyedrum, were it an equally resonant space for its shape and construction. I wonder: Would the improv have been radically different there, in terms of interaction between these two performers, or their individual musical choices? Would the audience have behaved much differently? Perhaps, or perhaps not.

Still, I am highly in favor of finding and trying out new alternative spaces for music, even the most unexpected ones, indoor or outdoor, discovering whether they give us new insights into performing, improvising and composing; whether they have impact upon drawing audience who otherwise wouldn't have discovered the music, hopefully offering that audience new insights about listening and how the spaces in which music moves can move them as listeners.

It will be interesting to hear how the next four of Klimchak's improv discussions shape up in this regard; how the personalities of the performers and their instrument choices mesh with each other, with the characters of the bridges under which they perform, and whether indeed the architecture will really foster a true difference in musical outcome. □

Percussion Discussion 5x5 (No. 1)
Klimchak, percussion
Keith Leslie, percussion

June 12 @ 7:00pm
Admission: FREE
Virginia Avenue Bridge Underpass
Virginia Ave. @ Kanuga St.
Atlanta, Georgia - USA

Birds of a Feather

2010-06-04T17:00:00.164-05:00

by Mark Gresham

Last night's performance by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus unveiled a pair of world premieres by composers Jennifer Higdon and Michael Gandolfi, placing them on the front burner ahead of intermission, and leaving one of the core symphonic repertoire's best-known works as a contrail in their wake.

The program opened with new music sextet eighth blackbird (the name is deliberately in lower case) as the featured solo ensemble for Higdon's On a Wire, a single-movement concerto specifically written for for that ensemble and large orchestra. (As for the title, the composer suggests imagining six blackbirds on a telephone wire.) The premiere follows on the heels of two high-profile successes for Higdon in the concerto field this year: a Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition for her Percussion Concerto at the end of January, and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto in April. Higdon had previously written two chamber works for eighth blackbird, so was fully prepared for the task in terms of familiarity with the performers' individual personalities and potentials as the concertino of the new concerto. And she threw in a few uncommon performance practices with modest theatrical possibilities to stir the interactive musical pot a bit.

GETTING INTO IT: Chamber ensemble eighth blackbird perform Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon’s On a Wire with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, members of the sextet here bowing the grand piano's wires. Credit: Jeff Roffman.

On a Wire opens with the entire sextet playing both on and inside the Steinway concert grand piano, incorporating extended performance techniques, such as bowing the piano's strings, into Higdon's more traditional technique-rich stylistic landscape. She readily admits her most recent inspiration for the piano bowing technique comes from Colorado College's internationally recognized Bowed Piano Ensemble, ten performers playing one piano in this unusual manner.

But it must be remembered that Higdon is a protege of West Virginia-born avant-garde composer George Crumb, noted for his work as an avid explorer of unusual timbres and extended techniques. Higdon's combination of techniques with the piano in the opening and other cardinal passages of this work—bowing, muting, striking with mallets—produces from the instrument not merely a polyphonic musical result, it's traditional musical role, but a singular poly-timbral entity. This is rooted in not only the innovative work of Crumb, but of John Cage and his pioneering use of the prepared piano—initially his pragmatic solution for obtaining the musical effect of a percussion ensemble where there was no room for one but a piano was already present and available.

And yet Higdon is not an avant-gardist. In addition to study with Crumb, she was also a protege of Ned Rorem, a composer who stuck to his substantial tonal, lyrical creative guns throughout the heyday of the late 20th-century avant-garde, when such compositional proclivities were severely sublimated in the acceptance-controlling academic world. Like Crumb, she is able to take techniques which could so easily be used in grossly cliché manners, and makes music with them. And yet, while Crumb used them as foundation materials of his style, Higdon uses them as a natural expansion of the more prevalent child-of-Rorem side of her own style where they draw less attention to themselves as sheer techniques than successfully integrate themselves into the overall work's exuberant, buoyant, and expressive character.

In fact, recent Pulitzer and Grammy aside, in many ways On a Wire is Higdon's most lyrically liquid and lucid, expressively engaged work to date. Yes, its bright energy, rhythmic interplays, and the occasional featured extended techniques formed the larger backdrop in the work's overarching form. But most impressive was the intimacy of interactions among eighth blackbird's concertino when it came to those remarkable moments where passionate, liquidly lyrical lines came to the fore, and likewise the often seamless character of ebb and flow between concertino and the musically substantial contributions of the full orchestra behind them, often trading prominence in tide-like exchange of a more concertante than starkly concerto-ish manner.

If one makes a comparison between this work and City Scape, the Atlanta Symphony's first commission from her (based largely on reflections of living in Atlanta during her first decade of childhood), its clear how far Higdon's compositional voice has continued to mature to a fuller bloom in the intervening eight years.

Michael Gandolfi is a composer deeply invested in the relationships between science and beauty. Not the simplistic hyperboles about basic mathematics and music so often postured, but the range and vastness of human discoveries where microcosmic and macrocosmic wonders lend new enlightenment and perspective to our everyday experiences on what one might call a typical human scale.

His previous musical explorations on this theme, both topical and theoretical, have been well-evidenced in The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, a work composed from 2004 (four movements or “impressions” for the Tanglewood Festival) through 2007 (expanded to eleven movements as his first commission from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra), with, as he casually suggested in last evening's pre-concert talk, potential for further, ongoing expansion.

One who is as yet unfamiliar with Gandolfi's music might wrongly assume that his interests in deep science and mathematics would imply a rarefied, academic approach to composing, but that is not the case. Although he was schooled in that kind of environment, he ultimately and enthusiastically abandoned that for, as he says, music in which he could engage himself as a listener. That does not mean that his musical structures are not informed by scientific models and mathematical transformations on many levels, but that these are tested by Gandolfi against how the results bear out, for him at least, as direct and memorable musical experiences, no less than such models are aesthetically borne out in visual and architectural arts, as well as nature itself.

In the ASO commission for Q.E.D.: Engaging Richard Feynman, Gandolfi reached a landmark in his own compositional history, as he was asked to tread a universe in which he had not ventured since his days as a university student: Writing a work for a chorus. And not just any chorus, mind you, but the inimitable Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

Gandolfi says he was terrified by the idea. But the results were splendid.

The initial inspiration for Gandolfi's piece came from some 1981 videos of Richard Feynman, a superstar physicist who co-won the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics and was one of the best-known scientists in the world during his lifetime, for his work in quantum mechanics and particularly for his namesake, the Feynman diagram. But he was also esteemed for his ability to put complex ideas into manageable language, and so came to be known as “The Great Explainer.”

Videos of Feynman introduce each of the two movements, respectively entitled On Waking and Song of the Universal.

In each of these, using brief dialectical stories of personal experiences, Feynman challenges certain human assumptions about perception and understanding, the respective subjects being “the beauty of a flower; a bird's true nature,” writes author and photographer Dana Bonstrom, with whom Gandolfi collaborated in collecting texts for the piece.

Bonstrom describes the final assemblage as a kind of “mash-up” or conversation among diverse poets convened to talk among themselves. In the first, On Waking: Gertrude Stein, Emily Dickinson, and Joseph Campbell (the Irish Republican poet, not the popular mythologist of the same name). In Song of the Universal: Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Siegfried Sassoon. And while he suggests that such poetical excision might make make purists cringe, he concludes that the poets themselves might be pleased because, “Their words, after all, have been set to Michael Gandolfi's music.”

Despite having not once explored the choral medium since student days, Gandolfi shows a remarkable, and often fresh capability with writing for the choral instrument. Too often, a primarily instrumental composer will write what choral conductor Gregg Smith calls “keyboard music for voices.” Gandolfi does not fall into that trap. Notably: In the first movement there are certain homophonic passages where planing or near-planing occur, and the choral textures are solid, but not dense; rather brilliant, and luminous in their prismatic shifting of chordal harmonies. In the second, passages of challenging rhythmic figures come to the fore, demanding for deployment an acute capacity for diction—though “diction” is, perhaps, a misleading word or concept, with its implications of delivery of meaning. In music these elements should be explored on a deeper, more fundamentally sonic level, beyond the meaning of words, not unlike how Feynman speaks of greater depth in observing the beauty of flowers.

It was also Gregg Smith who would repeatedly tell how Igor Stravinsky expressed that his own interests in texts were first and foremost for the sounds of the words. And in the sounds of the words, beyond meaning, into the world of their microrhythms, is where acumen for this kind of choral singing is found. Not singing words on notes, but singing what one might call “every sound, every moment.” Despite the difficulty, these passages are written by Gandolfi in such a way that a bold clarity was reached in their rhythmic deployment.

In speaking with a local colleague after the concert, we both agreed that Gandolfi should next tackle composing an unaccompanied choral work of significant length and substance.

One of the other notable points of interest which must be mentioned are the complex, exuberant “bird call” figures in the second movement. As part of his research in preparation for composing the work, Gandolfi collected and studied field recordings of birds. On only one listening one cannot, unless an expert, tell whether these bird-call figures are as ornithologically audiographic as Olivier Messiaen's musical transcriptions of avian song, but the overall impression is musically effective.

Nevertheless, one might ask: What of it? Feynman himself might have posed it, whether speaking of either Gandolfi or Messiaen: Do these musical bird-calls tell us more about birds themselves or about the composers who emulate their song?

ENGAGING THE AUDIENCE: ASO chorus director Norman Mackenzie, conductor Robert Spano and composer Michael Gandolfi take a well-deserved collective bow following the world premiere of QED: Engaging Richard Feynman in Atlanta Symphony Hall. Credit: Jeff Roffman.

Listening to these two world premieres, I am inclined upon reflection to describe them as somewhat “birds of a feather” (hence my title). Not due to any respective references to birds, nor do I take the composers' personal styles to be alike. But especially given that they are anointed as members of Robert Spano's aesthetic “school” of composition, beyond the simplistic marketing explanation of being “listenable” there are far too many audible elements to deny a myriad of similar influences which reach down to common historical roots of many kinds.

First of all, there is a common kind of audible “American-ness” they share which one can feel but perhaps not entirely put a finger on, though one can point to certain elements here and there: deployment of orchestral forces, bright and positive character (versus an overriding angst so popular among some of the last century's academics), harmonic and rhythmic undercurrents from similar classical and popular sources of the past—stylistic elements, both small and large scope, which do not draw from all of the past, but do seem to find great swaths of common ground. Moreover: composers with an ability to be both fun and serious, intimate and outgoing, at the same time.

So if there is indeed any common aesthetic “school” of composition here between not only Higdon and Gandolfi, but among the entire body of composers Spano has gathered around him, then we need to take Feynman's advice and look deeper, listen deeper, and better define and understand what is really implied that makes it worthy of being called a “school” at all beyond the vague statement of “audience appeal” or even the central guiding-light personality of Robert Spano himself.

I want better, deeper answers. If a “school,” then what really is that school teaching? And who are its intended students? Beyond, that is, the goal of more ticket holders occupying the seats. That has been accomplished, the evening's audience being quite respectably full for this first half, even if not standing room only.

Originally, the Higdon and Gandolfi works were to be performed in the opposite order, and were printed so in the program, an insert alerting to the swapping of places. And as it turns out, that was a good decision; imagining it the other way around at intermission, the original order would not have been as effective.

Which brings us to the second half of the program, occupied, as it were, by one of the undeniable fixtures of classical repertoire: Mozart's “Symphony No. 39.”

Extensive historical background is not necessary except to say we're not certain about when his last three symphonies, Nos. 39, 40, and 41, were first performed nor even whether Mozart himself heard them. There is circumstantial evidence to that effect. But the rightful assumption would be that in that era, between their composition and the composer's death, any unnamed symphony by Mozart presented in various concerts would most likely be drawn from his most recent ones. After all, it was indeed the new music which brought out the audiences.

Today, the Symphony No. 39 is all too familiar—both its great strength in surviving the sheer and simple onslaught of history, but also a status which can breed complacency.

As one audience member who left at intermission said, “I've heard it before.” And that is a bit sad, just as sad as avoiding a new piece because it is unfamiliar ground. But it is telling, as a significant swath of the evening's audience was clearly present for the new works on the program. And several colleagues did verbally express their intent to leave at intermission (I had similar thoughts myself, but changed my mind about abandoning a well-listened work, as I wanted to place my thoughts about the first half within the context of the whole, if I became so inspired). Just as the size of the performing forces on stage decreased considerably, the audience, at least on the main level, was reduced by about one third. So, what did they miss?

They missed a good and pleasing performance, but certainly not an electrifying one. I fault the placement on the program, for one, as being in what might call the afterburn of the thoroughly energized first half—a situation in which it would seem a much more difficult task to re-engage. Why was it not first on the program? Was there a thought that audience might show for the Mozart then leave before the new music appeared? In the pre-concert talk, there was brief mention, only in part jokingly, about how new music typically tends to get sandwiched into a concert so that reticent audience members cannot conveniently leave without missing the well-worn favorites they had come to hear. Well, the opposite took place: they filled the hall at the beginning, and left after the new music was over! I believe that had an impact of how the performance of the Symphony No. 39 was perceived; the situation after intermission certainly drained a lot of the energy from the hall's environment. I would think that would pose a more difficult, challenging situation, however artificial, for any conductor and orchestra.

Despite the possibility of patrons with more traditional tastes leaving at intermission, placing Mozart's half-hour symphony at the beginning might have, in terms of musical sequence, set up the other works, better connected it to them, and perhaps resulted in a more remarkable performance of it as well.

The essential problem for all music of the standard repertoire lies here: When performed in Mozart's day, his Symphony No. 39 was fresh, new and exciting; no different in that respect than the premiered Gandolfi and Higdon works. But when you have a long-time relationship (whether human or musical) it is easy to let the familiarity lead toward an approach toward it which is respectable, comfortable, familiar and an unquestionably good and acceptable way, rather than one with a compelling sense of excitement and anticipation as when it is newly born, discovered, or fallen in love. Maturity of love often comes with familiarity, yes, but not necessarily relinquishing the intimacy, the passionate engagement as if rediscovered anew. It is worth the risk.

What that also does is draw the common connections between not only the music of Higdon and Gandolfi, but also between these contemporaries and the Mozart who was once himself a living composer, prior to becoming enshrined as a musical deity. And one might well discover more real, significant, if surprising, connections and affinities between these contemporaries and our old 18th-century friend, indeed, than with some of the musical academia of the late 20th century. □

  » Uncaptioned images of Jennifer Higdon and Michael Gandolfi courtesy of ASO.
  » Uncaptioned image of Robert Spano, credit: Andrew Eccles
  » Uncaptioned portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart circa 1780, credit: Johann Nepomuk della Croce

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Robert Spano, conductor
eighth blackbird:
Tim Munroe, flute, piccolo, alto flute
Michael J. Maccaferri, clarinet, bass clarinet
Matt Albert, violin, viola
Micholas Photinos, cello
Matthew Duvall, marimba
Lisa Kaplan, piano
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus
Norman Mackenzie, director of choruses

Jennifer Higdon: On a Wire (world premiere)
Michael Gandolfi: Q.E.D.: Engaging Richard Feynman (world premiere)
W.A. Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in Eb major, K. 543

June 4 & 6 @ 8:00pm ; June 7 @ 3:00pm
Tickets: $25-$70
Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center
1280 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30309 - USA
404-733-5000
www.atlantasymphony.org

Take hunches

2010-05-23T16:22:00.001-05:00

"You’ve got to take hunches, you’ve got to jump and then see what—you’ve got to operate as though you knew it. Take chances, jump in there and see what happens." —Charles Olson

Jennifer Higdon wins Grammy for "Best Classical Contemporary Composition"

2010-02-03T11:23:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-17T16:17:00.011-05:00

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:

Generosity - Seth Godin
Fear - Anne Jackson
Facts - Jessica Hagy
Diginity - Jacqueline Novogratz
Meaning - Hugh McLeod
Ease - Elizabeth Gilbert
Connected - Howard Mann
Re-Capitalism - Chris Meyer
Vision - Michael Hyatt
Enrichment - Rajesh Setty
1% - Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell
Speaking - Mark Hurst
ATOMS - Chris Anderson
Excellence - Tom Peters
Most - William C. Taylor
Strengths - Marti Barletta
Ripple - John Wood
Unsustainability - Alan Webber
Autonomy - Dan Pink
Poker - Tony Hsieh
Momentum - Dave Ramsey
Consequence - Saul Griffith
Power - Jeffrey Pfeffer
Harmony - Jack Covert
Tough-Mindedness - Steven Pressfield
Evangelism - Guy Kawasaki
Compassion - Mitch Joel
Knowledge - Alisa Miller
Parsing - Clay Johnson
Forever - Piers Fawkes
Empathy - Karen Armstrong
Neoteny - Joi Ito
Celebrate - Megan Casey
DIY - Jay Parkinson
Adventure - Robyn Waters
Dumb - Dave Balter
Nobody - Micah Sifry
Analog - George Dyson
Independent Diplomacy - Carne Ross
THNX - Gary Vaynerchuk
Attention - David Meerman Scott
Context - Jeff Jonas
Change - Chip and Dan Heath
Passion - Derek Sivers
Magnetize - Fred Krupp
Confidence - Tim Sanders
Slow Capital - Fred Wilson
Open-Source DNA - Kevin Kelly
Technology - Phoebe Espiritu
Expertise - Aaron Wall
Fascination - Sally Hogshead
Difference - David Weinberger
World Healers - Martha Beck
Sacrifice - John Moore
Focus - Todd Sattersten
Leap - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Women - Paco Underhill
Timeless - Mark Rovner
.eDO - Dale Dougherty
Productivity - Gina Trapani
Iterative Capital - Michael Scharge
Willpower - Ramit Sethi
Mesh - Lisa Gansky
Enough - Merlin Mann
(Dis)Trust - Dan Ariely
Social Skills - Penelope Trunk
I’m Sorry - Jason Fried
Sleep - Arianna Huffington
Knowing - Dan Roam
Government 2.0 - Tim O’Reilly
You Can’t - Aimee Johnson
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

2009-11-12T10:36:00.012-05:00

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

2009-10-21T11:03:00.006-05:00

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

2009-07-29T22:19:00.001-05:00

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"

2009-07-27T21:45:00.005-05:00

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

2009-07-21T07:00:00.001-05:00

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

Eyedrum threatens to move or close

2009-07-19T14:43:00.005-05:00

Music critic Pierre Ruhe examines the current status of Atlanta's most iconic alternative performance/exhibit space:

Mired in money troubles, Eyedrum threatens to move or close

The innovative multi-disciplinary arts space Eyedrum, an invaluable asset to Atlanta's arts scene, is in financial trouble. ... [READ MORE]

author: Pierre Ruhe
source: artscriticATL.com

NY Times: "An architect puts Bach in a musical cocoon"

2009-07-19T10:28:00.003-05:00

MANCHESTER, England — A rewarding experiment in creating an ideal space to hear some of Bach’s most intimate music... [READ MORE...]

source: nytimes.com
author: Anthony Tommasini, 13 July 2009

Topic for discussion: How do you choose (or create) a venue best suited to your own music?

Weekly Ear, July 16 - July 22

2009-07-15T07:00:00.002-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

SAT/18 @ 10:00am
SACRED HARP SINGING
Hugh McGraw leads this 6-hour open event where Sacred Harp singers from throughout the Southeast flock annually for traditional shape-note music and potluck luncheon, with emphasis on participation, curiosity and enthusiasm. Concludes at 4 p.m.. FREE. Spivey Hall, 404-297-8398, www.spiveyhall.org

Weekly Ear, July 9 - July 15

2009-07-08T07:00:00.005-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

SAT/11 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Nine days before the 40th anniversary of humanity's first steps on the Moon, Mei-Ann Chen conducts Holst's “The Planets,” featuring high-resolution NASA space imagery, plus music from “Star Wars” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.” $21-$59, Verizon Amphitheatre, 404-733-4800, www.atlantasymphony.org

WED/15 @ 9:00pm
NATHANIEL BARTLETT
A five-octave acoustic marimba centers the dramatic musical world of percussionist/composer Bartlett, immersed within hi-def computer-generated sonic environments. Features first Atlanta performances of "Take Flight" by Wisconsin composer Allan Schindler and Bartlett's own "Sound/Space System.” $7. Eyedrum, 404-522-0655, www.eyedrum.org

It's the ideas, stupid!

2009-07-07T17:02:00.006-05:00

Entrepreneur and programmer Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, talks about the difference between the value of ideas and the people who have them:

The mirror: It’s about you, not them.

If you see a gorgeous painting that fascinates you, does it matter if you find out the artist hasn’t paid her taxes? Would you stop enjoying the painting? ... READ MORE at SIVERS.ORG

Source: sivers.org
Author: Derek Sivers

Opposition to H.R. 2454 likely growing in U.S. Senate

2009-07-07T13:41:00.002-05:00

In today's U.S. News and World Report, columnist Peter Roff (Thomas Jefferson Street blog) posits that opposition to H.R. 2454, aka "American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009," is swelling in the U.S. Senate. His article Numbers Adding Up Against Obama's "Cap and Trade" Bill in the Senate (posted July 07, 2009 11:31 AM ET) points to both the thin margin of passage in the House and the statistical distribution of those House votes among State delegations as being among the indicators.

A simple majority in the House is 216. A total of 219 Representatives voted in favor of H.R. 2545, 212 voted against.

Of 255 Democrats in the House, 44 of them (a little over 17%) voted against the bill, while one did not vote.

Political heat is being taken from within their own party by 8 House Republicans for voting in favor of the bill, which passed by only 4 votes. Had only half of those Republicans voted "no" the bill would have failed. Two Republicans did not cast a vote.

View a statistical summary and "who voted how" in the roll call of votes here. ¹

Download the entire 1428 pages of H.R. 2454 (PDF, 2.24 mb), as passed by the House of Representatives on July 6, here. ²

Opponents of H.R. 2454, sometimes familiarly called the "Energy Tax," "Cap and Trade" or "Cap and Tax" bill, are pressing hard for its defeat in the Senate.

—Mark Gresham

[1] from govtrack.us
[2] Document certified by Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Governement Printing Office with a GeoTrust CA from Adobe.

Nothing to waste: The advantage of being under-funded

2009-07-03T09:25:00.005-05:00

Entrepreneur and programmer Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, talks about marketing as simply "being considerate" without need for the fancy trappings:

Nothing to waste: The advantage of being under-funded

Source: sivers.org
Author: Derek Sivers

The Music May Not Want to Be Free

2009-07-02T17:24:00.008-05:00

In the upcoming July 6, 2009 issue of The New Yorker, reviewer Malcolm Gladwell takes on the technological utopian assumptions of WIRED editor Chris Anderson's book, Free.

Malcolm Gladwell reviews Free by Chris Anderson: Books: The New Yorker

Source: www.newyorker.com
BOOKS review of “Free: The Future of a Radical Price” (Hyperion; $26.99) by Chris Anderson. ... READ MORE in THE NEW YORKER

Sony Walkman turns 30

2009-07-01T21:00:00.002-05:00

On July 1, 1979, thirty years ago today, the original Sony Walkman made its public debut as the world’s first portable music player... READ MORE in CREATIVE LOAFING

Moonwalking before Michael Jackson?

2009-07-01T08:15:00.002-05:00

Michael Jackson made the moonwalk world-famous during his performance in the 1983 TV special, Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. But who inspired the King of Pop to make it his signature step?... READ MORE in CREATIVE LOAFING

Weekly Ear, July 2 - July 8, 2009

2009-07-01T07:00:00.005-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

SAT/4 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & U.S. ARMY CHORUS
Bridget Reischl leads the ASO in an All-American patriotic program for Independence Day, featuring the U.S. Army Chorus, based at Fort Myer, Virginia, one of the few professional all male choruses in the nation. $21-$59, Verizon Amphitheatre, 404-733-4800, www.atlantasymphony.org

Weekly Ear, June 25 - July 1, 2009

2009-06-24T07:00:00.002-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

SAT/27 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Grant Llewellyn, conductor of the North Carolina Symphony, leads an all-Mozart program: the Overture to “The Marriage of Figaro,” “Symphony No. 41,” and “Piano Concerto in D minor” featuring brilliant Bosnian pianist Pedja Muzijevic. $21-$59. Verizon Amphitheatre, 404-733-4800, www.atlantasymphony.org

Weekly Ear, June 18 - June 24, 2009

2009-06-17T07:00:00.001-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

FRI/19 @ 7:30pm & SUN/21 @ 3:00pm
2009 HARROWER SUMMER OPERA WORKSHOP SCENES
Public performances of operatic scenes over two days. Of special note is inclusion of Daniel Shore's one-act opera, “The Beautiful Bridegroom,” and premiere of two scenes from Michael Ching's “A Midsummer Night's Dream” amid the panoply of more familiar fare. Each performance is $20 ($10 students with ID). 7:30 p.m., Kopleff Recital Hall, 404-413-5901, www.music.gsu.edu

SAT/20 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & CHORUS
The ASO's second summer at “VZW” opens with Carl Orff's raucously hedonistic “Carmina Burana” and excerpts from Rossini's popular “Barber of Seville.” Vocal soloists featured are soprano Georgia Jarman, tenor Nicholas Phan, baritone Matthew Worth are featured, plus Gwinnett Young Singers. Robert Spano conducts. $21-$59, Verizon Amphitheatre, 404-733-4800, www.atlantasymphony.org

Weekly Ear, June 11 - June 17, 2009

2009-06-10T07:00:00.001-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

The Weekly Ear takes a week off, as essentially does Atlanta's classical music scene this week. Next week begins summer fare highlights and commentary.

Weekly Ear, June 4 - June 10, 2009

2009-06-03T07:00:00.001-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/4, FRI/5 & SAT/6 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducts this third program in a festival of South American music with a multi-media theme centered around the ancient Inca Empire, featuring Brazilian mezzo-soprano Luciana Souza. $18-$73. Symphony Hall, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

SUN/7 @ 3:30pm
ATLANTA COMMUNITY SYMPHONY ORCHSTRA
Juan Ramirez conducts the premiere of his own composition, "Down-East," inspired by writings of American musicologist George Pullen Jackson, a pioneer in the study of Southern “white spirituals”of regional “fa-so-la” singing. FREE. Congregation Shearith Israel, 404-873-1743, www.acsorch.org

Weekly Ear, May 28 - June 3, 2009

2009-05-27T07:00:00.003-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/28 & SAT/30 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducts this first program in a festival of South American music using the ancient Inca Empire as its centralizing multi-media theme, with guest solo flutist Jessica Warren-Acosta. Repeats SAT/30. $18-$73. 8:00 p.m., Symphony Hall, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

Weekly Ear, May 21 - May 27, 2009

2009-05-20T07:00:00.002-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

SUN/24 @ 3:00pm
ROBERT HENRY
Artist-in-residence at Kennesaw State University, classical pianist Henry, noted for virtuosity and old-school tone, performs music of Mozart, Bach-Busoni, Faure, Vine, Sakamoto and Liszt. His new CD, “Nocturnes,” debuts this spring. $15 ($12 seniors/students). Callanwolde Arts Center, 404-872-5338 www.callanwolde.org

Weekly Ear, May 14 - May 20, 2009

2009-05-13T07:00:00.002-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/14 & SAT/16 @ 8:00pm and SUN/17 @ 3:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & CHORUS
Stravinsky's “A Symphony of Psalms” and Mozart's “Requiem” featuring soprano Nathalie Paulin, mezzo-soprano Stacey Rishoi, tenor Chad Johnson and bass Gustav Andreassen. Robert Spano conducts. $16-$73. Symphony Hall, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

SUN/17 @ 3:00pm
ATLANTA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA
Distinguished Australian Baroque violinist Elizabeth (Libby) Wallfisch is ABO's guest director/violinist for am authentic “period performance practice” concert of music by English composers : G.F. Handel, Henry Purcell, Matthew Locke, Charles Avison and Francesco Geminiani. $15-$25. Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, 770-537-3974 www.atlantabaroque.org

TUE/19 @ 7:30pm
ATLANTA CHAMBER PLAYERS
Program features the jazzy sextet "Atlanta Licks" by Johnathan Kramer (not the character from the “Saw” movies), a trio by Heinrich von Herzogenberg, and Ludwig van Beethoven's “String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 130.” $20/$10 students with ID. New American Shakespeare Tavern, 404-874-5299 www.shakespearetavern.com

Weekly Ear, May 7 - May 13

2009-05-06T07:00:00.001-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/7, FRI/8 & SAT/9 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Canadian pianist Louis Lortie performs “Piano Concerto No. 4” of Ludwig van Beethoven. ASO frames the concerto performance with evocative music by Claude Debussy and Franz Liszt. Robert Spano conducts. $16-$73. Symphony Hall, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

FRI/8 @ 8:15pm
MAGDALENA KOZENA and KAREL KOSAREK
Luminous-voiced Czech mezzo-soprano Kozena and collaborative pianist Kosarek perform a bouquet of love songs by Henry Purcell in modern realizations by Benjamin Britten, and songs by Alban Berg, Robert Schumann and Henri Duparc. $60. Spivey Hall, 678-466-4200 www.spiveyhall.org

SAT/9 @ 8:15pm
JULIA FISCHER and MILANA CHERNYAVSKA
Classic FM Gramophone “2007 Artist of the Year,” 24-year-old German violinist Fischer and young Ukrainian-born pianist Chernyavska perform a tetrad of sonatas for violin and piano by Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofiev and Martinu. $45. Spivey Hall, 678-466-4200 www.spiveyhall.org

Weekly Ear, Apr. 30 - May 6

2009-04-29T07:00:00.003-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/30 @ 8:00 p.m.
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Violinist Itzhak Perlman makes his conducting debut with the ASO, leading "Symphony No. 3" by Franz Schubert and "Symphony No. 4" by Johannes Brahms, and soloing in the "Violin Concerto in A Major" by J.S. Bach. Repeats SAT/2 @ 8:00 p.m., SUN/3 @ 3:00 p.m. $21-$78, Symphony Hall, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

FRI/1 @ 8:00pm & SUN/3 @ 3:00pm
ATLANTA OPERA
Richard Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman." The story a ghost ship and its captain, doomed to sail the oceans forever unless he can be redeemed by a true love. Stage direction by Tomer Zvulun; conducted by Arthur Fagen. $25-$130. Cobb Energy Centre, 404-881-8885 www.atlantaopera.org

SAT/2 @ 8:00pm
NEW TRINITY BAROQUE
Swedish tenor Leif Aruhn-Solen is NTB's guest in a “historically informed” performance of trio sonatas, suites, and arias commemorating the 250th anniversary of the death of German-English Baroque composer George Frideric Handel. $29-$39; students $9. 8:00 p.m., St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, 404-547-5775, www.newtrinitybaroque.org

TUE/5 @ 7:30pm
ATLANTA SINGERS
Since 1976, this 18-voice choral ensemble has been a consistent mainstay of Atlanta's choral music scene, performing repertoire from Renaissance masters to notable living composers of our time. David Morrow conducts. FREE, Holy Innovents' Episcopal Church, 404-931-8230, www.atlantasingers.org

Weekly Ear, Apr. 23 - Apr. 29

2009-04-22T07:00:00.005-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/23 & FRI/24 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Donald Runnicles leads the ASO in Gustav Mahler's vast and tragic “Symphony No. 6,” featuring a very large post-Romantic orchestra that includes a sledgehammer. (“Strike any key when ready.”) $16-$73, Symphony Hall, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

FRI/24 @ 7:30pm
MOREHOUSE COLLEGE GLEE CLUB
The mighty, mighty men of Morehouse are one of Atlanta's most distinguished choral ensembles and musical ambassadors of goodwill. Program features classical compositions, African choral woks, and American spirituals, led by Dr. David Morrow. $10; $5 seniors/students, All Saints' Episcopal Church, 404-881-0835, www.allsaintsatlanta.org

SAT/25 @ 8:15pm
ATLANTA CHAMBER PLAYERS
Rescheduled after being snowed out on March 1, ACP plays the graceful, witty “Serenade in D major” by Ludwig van Beethoven, a flashy “Trio” by Francis Poulenc, and the heroic “Piano Quintet” by Erich Korngold. $25. Spivey Hall, 678-466-4200 www.spiveyhall.org

SAT/25 @ 8:00pm & TUE/28 @ 7:30pm
ATLANTA OPERA
Richard Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman." The story a ghost ship and its captain, doomed to sail the oceans forever unless he can be redeemed by a true love. Stage direction by Tomer Zvulun; conducted by Arthur Fagen. Additional performances on May 1 & 3. $25-$130. Cobb Energy Centre, 404-881-8885 www.atlantaopera.org

Weekly Ear, Apr. 16 - Apr. 22

2009-04-15T07:00:00.008-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

FRI/17 & SAT/18 @ 8:15pm
CHANTICLEER
This prodigious 12-member men's vocal ensemble from San Francisco is a national treasure. They offer Atlanta two entirely different programs on consecutive nights: “Wondrous Free” on FRI/17 and “Divine Tapestry “ on SAT/18. $50 each concert, Spivey Hall, 678-466-4200 www.spiveyhall.org

SAT/18 @ 7:30pm
"TRANSFORMATIONS"
Conrad Susa's 1973 chamber opera Transformations is based on poetry of the same name by Anne Sexton, in which she transformed fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm into adult modes which plumb plausible if disturbing social and psychological elements hidden deep within the originals. Vincent Murphy, stage director; Daniel Solberg, music director; Robert J. Ambrose, conductor. $10. Students free w/ ID, Kopleff Recital Hall, 404-413-5901 www.music.gsu.edu

TUE/21 @ 8:00pm
BENT FREQUENCY
"Georgia In My Ear" features music by Georgia composers Nickitas Demos, Mark Gresham, Lewis Nielson and Joel Puckett, and composer Vivienne Olive from Atlanta's sister city, Nuremberg, Germany. FREE, Kopleff Recital Hall, 404-413-5901 www.music.gsu.edu

Weekly Ear, Apr. 9 - Apr. 15

2009-04-08T07:00:00.003-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

FRI/10 @ noon
KAREN BENTLEY POLLICK w/ VEGA STRING QUARTET
Currently best known as the violinist in Paul Dresher's Electro-Acoustic Band, Birmingham violinist/violist Karen Bentley Pollick joins Vega Quartet for more standard classical fare: the “Viola Quintet in F major” by Felix Mendelssohn. FREE, Michael C. Carlos Museum, 404-727-5050 www.arts.emory.edu

TUE/14 @ 7:30pm
GSU PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE
This innovative program includes the Atlanta premiere of Paul Lansky's “Threads” for metal instruments, drums, and “found objects” (flower pots, glass bottles, etc), and Thierry de Mey's “Musique de Tables,” a trio for amplified table. FREE. 7:30 p.m., Rialto Center for the Arts, 404-413-5901, www.music.gsu.edu

Weekly Ear, Apr. 2 - Apr. 8

2009-04-01T07:00:00.001-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/2, FRI/3 @ SAT/4 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
World-premiere of “Symphony” by Christopher Theofanidis, “Second Essay for Orchestra” by Samuel Barber, and a divergent personal reinterpretation of George Gershwin's “Concerto in F” by jazz pianist Marcus Roberts. $16-$73, Symphony Hall, 404-733-5000. www.atlantasymphony.org

Weekly Ear, Mar. 26 - Apr. 1

2009-03-25T07:00:00.004-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/26 & SAT/27 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Guest conductor Gilbert Varga, son of famous Hungarian violinist Tibor Varga, makes his ASO debut. Greek violin virtuoso Leonidas Kavakos is soloist. Music of Kodaly, Sibelius, and Brahms. $16-$73, Symphony Hall, 404-733-5000. www.atlantasymphony.org

SUN/29 @ 3:00pm
ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC
This world-renowned 22-piece “period instrument” group performs all six of the Brandenburg Concertos by J.S. Bach, led from the harpsichordist by Richard Egarr, as the first of Spivey's 2009 Spring Bach Festival concerts. $60, Spivey Hall, 678-466-4200 www.spiveyhall.org

WED/1 @ 7:30pm
JENNY LIN
Atlanta composer Jason Freeman's “Piano Etudes” are among the adventurous modern repertoire performed by pianist Lin, a charismatic performer with spectacular keyboard technique. Music by Unsuk Chin, Dai Fujikura, György Ligeti, Gabriela Ortiz and more. FREE, Spivey Hall, 678-466-4200 www.spiveyhall.org

Weekly Ear, Mar. 19 - Mar. 25

2009-03-18T07:00:00.016-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

FRI/20 @ 8:00pm
LESS IS MORE (MORE OR LESS)
Percussionist Stuart Gerber headlines this concert of front-edge music and performance art, featuring premieres of new percussion works by Mark Gresham and Jennifer Mitchell (also performing as DJ), electronic music by Darren Nelsen with video by Al Matthews, plus works by John Luther Adams, Alexandre Babel, Giorgio Battestelli, Frederic Rzewski, Stuart Saunders Smith and Christian Wolff. $10 at the door / $5 students with student ID. Eyedrum, 404-522-0655, www.eyedrum.org

FRI/20 @ 8:00pm
LIONHEART & VEGA STRING QUARTET
One of America's leading vocal chamber music ensembles, Lionheart joins forces with Atlanta's own Vega Quartet to perform "John the Revelator: Mass for the 21st Century" by downtown Manhattan composer Phil Kline. The program also features two premieres: Richard Prior's string quartet intimations of immortality and John Anthony Lennon's Still the Fire for saxophone, cello, and piano. $48. Emerson Hall, Schwartz Center, 404-727-5050, arts.emory.edu

SAT/21 @ 8:00pm
RADCLIFFE CHORAL SOCIETY & SPELMAN COLLEGE GLEE CLUB
Sisters in music, the 65-voice group from Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, one of the leading collegiate women's choirs in the nation, joins forces with their musical compatriots from Atlanta's own esteemed Spelman College. FREE. 8:00 p.m., Sisters Chapel, Spelman College, 404-681-3643. www.spelman.edu

SUN/22 @ 3:00pm
ATLANTA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA
Established as the first “period instrument” orchestra in the southeast in 1997, ABO offers a program of Baroque-era music and dance, featuring baroque dancer Paige Whitely-Bauguess and guest violinist/director Julie Andrijeski. $25. Moore Chapel, Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, 770-537-3974 www.atlantabaroque.org

WED/25 @ 7:30pm
ANDRÉS DÍAZ
Born in Santiago, Chile and raised in Atlanta, violoncellist Diaz won the the Naumburg International Cello Competition in 1987, subsequently earning a reputation for his intense, charismatic performances. Elizabeth Pridgen is collaborative pianist. FREE. Kopleff Recital Hall, 404-413-5901, www.music.gsu.edu

Weekly Ear, Mar. 12 - Mar. 18

2009-03-11T07:00:00.009-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/12, FRI/13 @ SAT/14 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
His 2002 international debut at Stuttgart Opera launched his career like a rocket, now guest conductor Nicola Luisotti is now tagged to be music director of San Francisco Opera. Music by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Beethoven. $16-$73. Symphony Hall, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

SUN/15 @ 3:00pm
U.S. ARMY GROUND FORCES BAND
Based at Ft. McPherson, this 58-member concert band is one of the best in the armed forces. This show emulates concerts of John Philip Sousa's legendary band, playing band music popular in Sousa's day. FREE. 3:00 p.m., Ferst Center, 404-894-9600, www.ferstcenter.org

TUE/17 @ 8:15pm
UZEE BROWN, JR.
& DAVID F. OLIVER
Chairman of the Music Department at Morehouse College, baritone Brown has long been a pillar of Atlanta's African-American classical music community. Oliver is best known as organist for Morehouse's King International Chapel. FREE. First Presbyterian Church of Marietta, 770-427-0293. www.fpcmarietta.org

Weekly Ear, Mar. 5 - Mar. 11, 2009

2009-03-04T07:00:00.006-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/5, FRI/6 & SAT/7 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & CHORUS
Jennifer Higdon's “The Singing Rooms” and Alvin Singleton's “Praisemaker” are the new music highlights in a program that includes Scriabin's “Poem of Ecstasy” and Wagner's “Prelude and Liebestod.” Jennifer Koh is violin soloist, Robert Spano conducts. $16-$73. Symphony Hall, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

SAT/7 @ 3:00pm
NEW TRINITY BAROQUE
French Baroque music for voice, period instruments and organ, from the era of Louis XIV. Features works by François Couperin, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers. NTB is noted for their “historically informed” performances. $29-$39. St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church 404-547-5775, www.newtrinitybaroque.org

Weekly Ear, Feb. 26 - Mar. 4

2009-02-25T07:00:00.001-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/26 & SAT/28 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & CHAMBER CHORUS
Haydn's "The Creation" in a concert staging, with set design by Anne Patterson, and projection design by Adam Larsen. Vocal soloists are soprano Janice Chandler Eteme, tenor Thomas Cooley, and bass-baritone Derrick Parker. Robert Spano conducts. $16-$73. Symphony Hall, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

SUN/1 @ 3:00pm
JENNIFER LARMORE
Marietta native and operatic mezzo-soprano Larmore, who shared in a 2007 Grammy for “Best Opera Recording,” returns home for a recital. Larmore is noted for her insightful performances and colorful, flexible voice. $40. Bailey Center, Kennesaw State University, 770-423-6650, www.kennesaw.edu/arts/events/

SUN/1 @ 3:00pm
ATLANTA CHAMBER PLAYERS
Program features the graceful, witty “Serenade in D major” for flute, violin and viola by Ludwig van Beethoven, Francis Poulenc's francophilically flashy “Trio” for oboe, bassoon and piano, and poetically heroic “Piano Quintet” by Erich Korngold. $25. Spivey Hall, 678-466-4200. www.spiveyhall.org

TUE/3 @ 8:00pm
GUANARI QUARTET
Founded in 1964, this venerable string quartet comprised of violinists Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley, violist Michael Tree, and cellist Peter Wiley retires at the end of this season, making this their farewell Atlanta performance. $52. Emerson Hall, Schwartz Center, 404-727-5050, arts.emory.edu

Weekly Ear, Feb. 19 - Feb. 25

2009-02-18T06:00:00.001-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/19 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Mei-Ann Chen makes her ASO subscription series debut, conducting the first Atlanta performance of “Above Light” by Xi Wang, Mendelssohn's “Violin Concerto” featuring violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and Tchaikovsky's “Symphony No. 5.” Repeats SAT/19 at 8:00 p.m. & SUN/22 at 3:00 p.m.. $16-$73. Symphony Hall, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

SUN/22 @ 2:00pm
ROBERT McDUFFIE
Macon-born internationally acclaimed violinist McDuffie performs a century-note admission recital to benefit the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, which supports protection and revitalization of the state's architectural memories like Midtown's 1904 Rhodes “Castle,” where the performance will take place. $100. Rhodes Hall, 404-885-7200, www.georgiatrust.org/whatsnew/classics_at_the_castle.htm

Weekly Ear, Feb. 12 - Feb. 18

2009-02-11T07:00:00.003-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.
—Wallace Stevens

THU/5 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Donald Runnicles conducts an all-Richard Strauss program featuring soprano Christine Brewer and bass-baritone Eric Owens in operatic excerpts from “Elektra,” “Salome,” “Cappricio,” and “Die Frau ohne Schatten.” Repeats SAT/7. $21-$78. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

SAT/14 @ 8:15pm
HILLIARD ENSEMBLE
Internationally acclaimed vocal quartet (David James, Rogers Covey-Crump, Steven Harrold and Gordon Jones) performs Armenian, Roman, English, Greek, Russian scared music, ancient and modern, including works by Alexander Raskatov, James MacMillan, and Arvo Pärt. $40. Spivey Hall, 678-466-4200, www.spiveyhall.org

SUN/15 @ 3:00pm
HILARY HAHN
Grammy-winning star and American violinist Hahn performs 2 unaccompanied violin sonatas by Eugène Ysaÿe and 3 sonatas for violin and piano by Charles Ives, plus “Hungarian Dances” by Johannes Brahms, and Béla Bartók's “Romanian Folk Dances.” Valentina Lisitsa is collaborative pianist for the evening. $60. Spivey Hall, 678-466-4200, www.spiveyhall.org

SUN/15 @ 3:00pm
GSU CHORUSES AND ORCHESTRA
A concert commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of composer Joseph Haydn, featuring performance of his “Harmoniemesse” of 1802, conducted by Michael Palmer. Brahms' “Tragic Overture” opens, led by Palmer's graduate conducting assistant, Parinya Chuchurdwatansak. Despite some misinformation floating around, this concert is FREE. Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, 404-240-8212, www.prumc.org

SUN/15 @ 7:30
LYRA STRING QUARTET
Violinists Raymond Leung and Judith Cox, violist Allyson Fleck and cellist David Lloyd “tango nuevo” music by Astor Piazzolla, plus somewhat more classical fare by W.A. Mozart, Giacomo Puccini and Alexander Borodin. $18; $12 students and seniors. Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, 404-872-5338, www.callanwolde.org

Weekly Ear, Feb. 5 - Feb. 11

2009-02-04T06:00:00.004-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.
—Wallace Stevens

THU/5 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Donald Runnicles conducts an all-Richard Strauss program featuring soprano Christine Brewer and bass-baritone Eric Owens in operatic excerpts from “Elektra,” “Salome,” “Cappricio,” and “Die Frau ohne Schatten.” Repeats SAT/7. $21-$78. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

FRI/6 @ 8:00pm
THAMYRIS with VEGA QUARTET & HALEH ABGHARI
Two of Atlanta's great chamber ensembles and guest vocalist Abghari perform “Eight Songs for a Mad King” by Peter Maxwell Davies, plus other “mad songs” by James Macmillan, Francis Dhomont, and Steve Everett. FREE. Schwartz Center, Emory University, 404-727-5050 arts.emory.edu

SAT/7 @ 7:30pm
ENSEMBLE SIRIUS
Stuart Gerber, percussion, and Michael Fowler, Keyboards. Music by Monroe Golden, Charles Mason, Dorothy Hindman, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. FREE. Kopleff Reciotal Hall, 404-413-5901 www.music.gsu.edu

SAT/7 @ 8:00pm
EIGHTH BLACKBIRD
"Singing in the Dead of Night," an aptly named work by David Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe, with staging by Susan Marshall, interlaces movement, theater and music. The program also features “Double Sextet” by Steve Reich. $30. Bailey Performance Hall, Kennesaw State University, 770-423-6650 www.kennesaw.edu/arts

Food for your Ears

2009-01-30T23:00:00.024-05:00

Marc Mellits stirs the pot with his personal recipe for composing and naming music.

The following interview is distilled and edited from a 40-minute telephone conversation I had with composer Marc Mellits on the evening of Tuesday, January 27, 2009
    On Monday, February 2, Mellits performs excerpts from his “paranoid cheese” CD as guest composer/keyboardist with Sonic Generator (www.sonicgenerator.gatech.edu/) at the Georgia Tech Alumni House.
    Mellits first met Sonic G members Tom and Jessica Sherwood last September at New Music Detroit's 12-hour “Strange Beautiful Music II” marathon held at MOCAD (Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit).    A few months later, while Mellits was visiting family in Atlanta, the Sherwoods invited him to take part in the upcoming concert.

Mark Gresham: As a composer, Marc, you've been described as both post-minimalist and rock-influenced. How would you describe your own music?

Marc Mellits: I can tell you how I write music. But when people ask me to describe my own music I am totally at a loss. Music is its own entity, and if I try to describe it in words, I always fail.
    The only thing I can do is compare it to other people, and I don't think that's fair. In the end, the best thing I can say is that I feel is my music is me, maybe the best version of me that there is.

MG: But even if you don't like labels, given that other people have used the term, is postminimalism a fair assessment?

MM: Any term, any time you label label something, in art in general, that tends to pigeonhole it. Then you start to think of it in that way. That's what scares me the most. If you say, “Oh, I'm a post-minimalist composer,” then you start writing post-minimalist music. I've seen it happen.
    But for lack of something better, I think it kind of makes sense—sort of the handle on the cup, trying to scoop up all of these different composers who certainly write repetitive music and were influenced by the minimalists. Yeah, I hate being labeled anything. Then I feel like that's expected of me. Even thinking of it myself, that's the biggest danger.

MG: But you've been influenced by rock music as well?

MM: I think I've been influenced by everything. I listen to all kind s of music, from Corelli to Coldplay and back. I feel that rock music is really today's folk music, and to ignore it would be ridiculous.
    I grew up with classical, came to rock music much later—in college. So when I approached it, I came to it with a different mindset.

MG: Do you think that your music influences rock music?

MM: Oh, I don't know if that even happens!

MG: Im thinking specifically of Electric Kompany, which has created their own versions of your music, and I hear a few people speak of having encountered it first though Electric Kompany.

MM: Oh, yeah! I love what Electric Kompany is doing with my stuff.

MG: What about how you approach performing your music via the Mellits Consort, as in the “paranoid cheese” CD?

MM: The music that we play, it may sound a little different from my chamber music, but in the end it's all written the same way. I try to keep everything together generated from a certain cell. Every piece of mine is based on an idea that is kind of turned on its head. In other words, I'll start with an idea, a cell, that is germinating ideas for the entire work. What happens in the sort of small area, even in a measure, also mimics what's happening in the larger form.

MG: So you start with an idea and then the composition is a process of transformation?

MM: You got it! That's exactly right. And the idea I start with is rarely at the beginning of the piece. I don't work linearly. I tend to work in the middle and then I work on the beginning, then between the middle and the end, and them maybe something after the beginning. The music is sort of constructed, built up, and when all the dots have been connected I know I have the whole piece.
    I like to think of it from a construction point of view—like buildings. My grandfather was a carpenter. That was a huge influence on me and everything I do. I think of building music much like I would build a house. There's a frame, and there's the underlying counterpoint and harmonic movement. Then there's everything you put on top of the frame, what we actually hear. You don't actually see the frame, but if it's well-constructed, the house will stay. It's exactly the same thing in music. You don't really notice what's behind everything, but if it's well-constructed and well made, the piece is going to work from beginning to end. Working that way, middle, beginning, end, helps me build that frame.

MG: Do you imagine the piece “all at once,” so have a snapshot idea of the whole in advance?

MM: I usually do, and it doesn't necessarily hold. It often does. There are pieces where it would morph into something else, and that's ok. I have learned to try and trust the music and trust the idea, and when it wants to go someplace else to help it go there. As composers we're just helpers, trying to help the music come to life—but it's already there.

MG: When you say composers are “just helpers,” I get the impression the process of composition for you is intrinsically connected to the process of performing.

MM: If you're saying that it's connected to performing idiomatically, and how it ought to be played, than I think you're absolutely right.

MG: I'm thinking again of transformation of your music under the hands of a group like Electric Kompany, versus how the Mellits Consort might perform it, versus a traditional chamber ensemble like a piano trio.

MM: I've thought about this a lot, and it's an ironic thing that I've tried to resolve. The odd thing I've noticed is if I'm very careful writing in that idiomatic [manner], writing a piano trio and thinking very much for piano, violin and cello, it might can actually be [more successfully] transferred to another instrumentation. If I'm writing strictly from a point of view of the notes themselves, and not worrying so much about who's playing it, then it might work well for that one instrumentation but not another. I've never been able to figure out why this works, but at least it works in my music. Isn't that weird?

MG: So if a rock group like Electric Kompany reaches a different audience, all the better.

MM: I hope and strongly believe that music is coming back to the people. Contemporary classical music, western art music, has been away from the common man for a long, long time. Composers like Steve Reich and Phil Glass started to open up the doors and bring it back. I think we're going to see more and more of a morphing between classical musicians who are going down that road and rock groups like Coldplay or Radio Head that are moving back towards us. Somewhere in between that is the future, I hope.

MG: There is a naturally tangible, corporeal element indigenous to rock music—certainly other than what one might call purely formal interest in compositional process.

MM: Two things I always think about, and this may help: On the one hand, writing music to me is like construction, building a house, but also (you're going to laugh) I always think about food. You can probably tell that by my titles. To me, music is very much like cooking. Composers are chefs, and we combine ingredients the same way a great chef would combine ingredients. That's how I think about combining harmony, counterpoint, combining eggs and chicken stock—you might end up with soup, you might end up with a symphony, but everything is combined in the same way: You produce something greater than just the sum of parts.
    Even with all the different lines and layers in a piece of music, I'm hoping to get at something beyond all that. The same with a great dish, when all of the ingredients combine into something that's beyond them.

MG: The tile “paranoid cheese” seems to go beyond food, but unusual implications related to the food.

MM: [The story is that] “paranoid cheese,” the original slow movement [from the CD of that title], was written for Rob and Victoria Paterson. She's a violinist and he's a marimba player and composer. They perform together, and I had written them a piece. They're both vegans, and I was thinking to myself, “If you were cheese in their house, you might be paranoid because nobody wants to eat you.” I had this long conversation with Rob about food, and what kind of food would get left in their refrigerator.
   The titles for my music are not always chosen by me, they're often chosen by my friends, like Dominic Frasca, who has a way with words.
    Here's the thing: I'm always looking for titles that are short and descriptive, but are descriptive of multiple things, on multiple levels. I'd rather have something like that, because it gives a listener just anything, something to base it upon, when listening to the music other than “Sonata No. 3.”I prefer to have something food-related. It's rarely going to be exactly what I'm trying to do in the piece, because I don't want to give it away,. If I title a piece exactly [based on] what I'm trying to do musically, I don't see the point, because then I'm just telling you how I hear the music. That may not be how you hear it, and I don't want to influence you at all.

MG: “Sonata” is one that tends to suggest certain expectations.

MM: Which is exactly what I don't want to do. I don't want to influence listeners at all. I want them to come to it pure and fresh, to put the music in their ears and let them decide. Let them give it a chance on its own rather than immediately try to tell them through the title what the piece is about.

MG: So for your own part as a listener, too, you'd prefer composers avoid titles that lead toward narrow preconceptions about their music.

MM: [Unfortunately, some] composers try to go even further in the program notes. They try to describe everything they're doing in the piece, when I just want to close my eyes and hear it. ■

—Mark Gresham, composer/music journalist • 30 January 2009

Marc Mellits' artist website can be found at www.marcmellits.com.

SONIC GENERATOR with MARC MELLITS
Monday, 2 Feb. 2009 @ 8:00pm, Georgia Tech Alumni House, 404-385-7257,
www.sonicgenerator.gatech.edu

Weekly Ear, Jan. 29 - Feb. 4

2009-01-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

"As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency."
—John Cage

THU/29 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Donald Runnicles conducts a program which opens with "Im Sommerwind" by Anton Webern, followed by Mozart's "Piano Concerto No. 9 (Jeunehomme)" featuring pianist Shai Wosner. In conclusion, "An Alpine Symphony" by Richard Strauss offers a sweeping musical landscape. Repeats SAT/31 at 8:00pm and SUN/1 at 3:00pm. $21-$78. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

SAT/31
BENT FREQUENCY
A new filmscore by Atlanta composer Brian Mitchell is live accompaniment to Sergei Eisenstein’s unfinished film project “¡Qué viva México!” which was reconstructed according to the director's vision by Grigory Alexandrov and released in 1979. FREE. 8:00 p.m., Kopleff Recital Hall, 404-413-5901, www.bentfrequency.com

MON/2
ST. OLAF CHOIR
Directed by Dr. Anton Armstrong, the St. Olaf Choir has long been one of the nation's premiere a cappella choruses, setting remarkably high performance standards ever since its founding in 1912 by F. Melius Christiansen. $40; $30 ages 17 and younger. 8:00 p.m., Schwartz Center, Emory University, 404-727-5050 arts.emory.edu

MON/2
SONIC GENERATOR with MARC MELLITS
Rock-influenced postminimalist composer Mellits joins Sonic G as guest keyboardist to perform his “paranoid cheese.” Program includes John Cage's “Four²” performed on four iPhones, and works by Panayiotis Kokoras, Randall Woolf, and Terry Riley. FREE. 8:00 p.m., Georgia Tech Alumni House, 404-385-7257 www.sonicgenerator.gatech.edu

Weekly Ear, Jan. 22 - Jan. 28

2009-01-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU/22, FRI/23 & SAT/24 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Features "Fountains of Rome” and “Pines of Rome" by Ottorino Respighi, who strongly influenced Hollywood filmscoring traditions. Legendary pianist Andre Watts is soloist for Johannes Brahms' “Piano Concerto No. 2.” Robert Spano conducts. $21-$78. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

FRI/23 @ 8:00pm & SUN/25 @ 5:00pm
ATLANTA OPERA
Concert staging of “Akhnaten” by Philip Glass. First Atlanta performance of the opera about Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep IV, who challenged polytheism in 14th-century BC. Arthur Fagen conducts. Sold-out. Waiting list only. $76. Schwartz Center, Emory University, 404-727-5050 arts.emory.edu

SUN/25 @ 2:00pm
QUINK
Known for their tight, polished sound, Dutch a cappella vocal quintet Quink performs a wide range of repertoire from Renaissance to modern classical, and folk to jazz—likely leaning toward sacred classical in this outing. FREE. First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, 404-228-7732 www.firstpresatl.org

Weekly Ear, Jan. 15 - Jan. 21

2009-01-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

SUN/18 @ 3:00pm
AHAVATH ACHIM CHAMBER ORCHESTRA with BENJAMIN WARSAW
Conductor Robert Foah leads AACO in Lucas Richman 's "Kol Nidre" and Edvard Grieg's "Holberg Suite." Pianist Warsaw performs Sergei Prokofiev's “Sonata No. 2” and joins AACO in J.S. Bach's “Keyboard Concerto in D minor.” $18 suggested donation. Srochi Hall, Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 404-355-5222 www.aasynagogue.org

SUN/18 @ 5:00pm
DUBLIN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Derek Gleeson conducts DPO in their 2009 US tour program of original music by contemporary Irish composers along with sprightly arrangements of traditional Celtic and Irish fare, featuring solo vocals, uilleann pipes, and Irish fiddle. $30-$40/ $20 children. Ferst Center for the Arts, 404-894-9600 www.ferstcenter.org

Weekly Ear, Jan. 8 - Jan. 14

2009-01-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

Atlanta concert picks

THU 8 JAN
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Gil Shaham is guest violin soloist for the formidable “Violin Concerto” of Johannes Brahms. Also on tap is Sergei Prokofiev's popular and modernist “Symphony No. 5.” Roberto Abbado conducts. Program repeats FRI/9 & SAT/10. $16-$73. 8:00 p.m., Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

SUN 11 JAN
ATLANTA CHAMBER PLAYERS
Guest soprano Arietha Lockhart performs “Shepherd on the Rock” by Franz Schubert in an all-Romantic program that includes Beethoven's “String Trio in G Major” and the “Piano Quartet in C Minor” by Brahms. $20/ $10 students. 4:00 p.m., Kellett Chapel, Peachtree Presbyterian Church, 770-242-2227 www.atlantachamberplayers.org

TUE 13 JAN
HELEN KIM & ROBERT HENRY
Violinist Kim and pianist Henry perform “Sonata, Op. 134” by Gabriel Faure and “Sonata in D minor, Op. 108” by Johannes Brahms, concluding with a popular virtuoso violin showpiece, “Carmen Fantasy” by Pablo de Sarasate. FREE. 8:00 p.m., Kennesaw State University, 770-423-6650 www.kennesaw.edu/arts
[ at right: violinist Helen Kim ]

Charles Knox profiled in Creative Loafing

2008-06-19T11:11:00.003-05:00

Atlanta composer Charles Knox was profiled by Creative Loafing this week, interviewed by Russell McLendon and photographed by John Nowak. It appears on page 17 of the current issue (June 18-24, 2008, Vol. 37 No. 7) or you can view it online, where you can also comment back to CL. (You're encouraged to do so.)

In the middle of the online edition you can also listen to a live recording of Charles' "Semordnilap No. 2" in a version for violin, cello, djembe and piano, performed in Hawaii back in January 2006.

Charles has made multiple versions which are not "transcriptions" in the usual sense, but freature new parts which can be mixed at matched with most parts to create new versions. You could say it's like a kind of musical "Lego set" (or even a "Zwingy"). The part for any particular instrument, piano for example, remains the same in all versions. My understanding is that not all parts are compatible for combining into a new version, but most are. Charles should be able to elaborate and clarify this.

—Mark Gresham

This blog entry is also published at AtlantaComposers.com, and in a re-edited version on MySpace.

Atlanta composer R. Timothy Brady co-winner of new Opera Vista competition

2007-06-28T15:09:00.001-05:00

Atlanta composer R. Timothy Brady emerged as a co-winner of the first annual Opera Vista Festival competition this past week with his new 40-minute chamber opera Edalat Square.

Opera Vista, a Houston-based organization dedicated to new opera, hosted the Festival, which took place from June 21-24, 2007 at the Barnevelder Arts Complex in Houston, Texas. After a professional jury winnowed down the number of contestants and operas to five, the Festival audience was called upon to select the winning work by vote, based upon live performances of 15-minute excepts from each. The result was a tie between Brady's Edalat Square and Soldier Songs by New Jersey composer David T. Little.

"We counted the votes numerous times (because it was rather incredible)," said Opera Vista's artistic director Viswa Subbaraman in an public message to the Orchestralist online discussion group. "They both received exactly the same number of votes!" As a result, both winning operas will be performed fully staged during the 2008 Opera Vista Festival.

The complete Edalat Square received its premiere April 15th of this year at Emory University, where Brady (b. 1985 in Atlanta) studied composition with John Anthony Lennon and graduated cum laude this year with a B.A. in music composition.

The composer offered the Festival the following synopsis:

"Darkness and despair, disguised as piety and righteousness, descend from atop the minarets of the mosques, consuming those who seek hope through the light of God. On July 19, 2005 in Edalat Square, Iran, Mahmoud Asgari (17) and Ayaz Marhoni (16) were hanged for the crime of lavaat (sex between two men). Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, an estimated 4,000 people have been executed for lavaat. Inspired by the circumstances surrounding the execution of Mahmoud and Ayaz, the soul of Edalat Square emerges from the poetic essence of the Sufi mystics—emerging from silence and meditation, melody and prayer. Disturbed by a crisis in Islam, the soul awakens..."

Houston Press critic D.L. Groover reviewed the Festival competition in an article published Thursday (28 June, 2007), which can be found online here at www.houstonpress.com.

In his review, Groover called Eladat Square both "the most adventurous of the lot—in both music and libretto" and "poignant, highly poetic."

R. Timothy Brady (who, by the way, is not to be confused the Canadian composer/guitarist Tim Brady) offers on his MySpace Music page a clip from the evocative multi-track pre-recorded vocal opening of the opera ("Preview" in the audio samples list) and a short radio interview with WABE-FM's Wanda Temko, recorded and broadcast prior to the work's Emory premiere.

For more information about Opera Vista, go to www.operavista.org

—Mark Gresham, composer/music journalist • 28 June 2007

Elgar at 150

2007-06-07T07:24:00.002-05:00

Left: Sir Edward Elgar in 1901.
Source: Wikipedia.
Image is in the public domain.

2 June 2007 was the 150th anniversary of the birth of British composer Sir Edward Elgar.

EarRelevant readers are invited to comment with personal reflections upon Elgar and his legacy. [Note: All comments are moderated.]

Related articles:

Sir Edward Elgar: Allegro vivace e nobilmente - Peter Nicholson [3 Quarks Daily, 4 June 2007]
What makes the music British? (Review) - Mark Gresham [EarRelevant, 30 April 2007]
Edward Elgar [Wikipedia]

American Dreams

2007-06-01T10:22:00.000-05:00

CONCERT REVIEW

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Robert Spano conducting
Gregg Baker, baritone
Marcus Roberts Trio, jazz trio
   Richard Danielpour: Pastime (2006)
   George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
   Aaron Copland: Symphony No. 3
Thu/Sat, 31 May/2 June 2007, 8:00 p.m.
and Sun, 3 June 2007, 3:00 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center
[Review is of the Thursday performance.]

American symphonic music has at times been obsessed with how it might identify itself as “truly American”—at once distancing itself from European symphonic, while retaining some connection to its traditions, and trying (if desperately at times) to both embrace both a shifting American popular culture while trying to declare what about that culture is consistently American from generation to generation.

Richard Danielpour’s “Pastime,” opened the program. It is an attractive occasional piece, hanging its populism on arguably that most American of sports, baseball, and the victory of 3 notable African-Americans who played it as professionals. Not only victory in the sport itself—but victory and achievement within a sports culture which, at the time, involved strong racial boundaries, whether subtle or not.

Five movements in all, totaling 22 minutes, “Pastime” celebrates baseball icons Josh Gibson, Jackie Robinson, and Henry Aaron (who was present in the audience). The three movements in the middle each represented one of these gentlemen, while the two outer movements celebrated the sport itself. The texts by poet Michael S. Harper were not used in their entirety by the composer, but the program notes included all of the unused portions in square brackets, generously allowing the audience a look at a composer's deliberate choices when setting words to music. Upon encountering the poem “Blackjack,” about Jackie Robinson, composer Richard Danielpour approached Harper about writing more poems so he could set them to music. Although reticent at first, Harper produced a group of 9 more poems from which Danielpour chose four to complete his libretto for “Pastime.”

Danielpour was ideal for the task, as he is a genuine baseball fan. As a youngster, the New York City native actually was a batboy for the Atlanta Braves, during 3 years of spring training in Florida, when Hank Aaron was a player. The program book includes a wonderful photo of young Richard, replete with Yankees jacket and cap, on the bench with Aaron in the Braves’ dugout.

The opening music is modeled, with abandon, on raucous New Orleans jazz. The middle movements back off to leave room for a declamatory rendering of the texts: Gibson, begins smoky and ethereal; Robinson, warmly open harmonies; Aaron, more energetic in a somewhat Bernstein-like manner. The conclusion, Gershwin-esque and jaunty, including what seemed to be a brief, prismatic National Anthem parody (the “by the dawn’s early light” phrase).

The vocal part, appearing in all movements, was clearly and confidently delivered by baritone soloist Gregg Baker, who delivered the meaning of the streaming, colliding words with both vocal expressiveness and on-target facial gestures which were not overstated. At the very end, when the orchestra played their final punctuated chord, it's Baker’s eyes alone which gesture up and right, and the audience knows unquestionably that someone has just hammered a big one that's headed over the fence.

It may seem only natural that George Gershwin remains the eternal poster child for orchestral jazz, despite the fact that his music, and interest in popular genres of his day, exceeded the boundaries of his Tin Pan Alley reputation. One of the problems of tagging Gershwin's popular inspirations only as “jazz” is that it ignores his occasional use of Latin genres, such as Cuban and Mexican music. This is true of his too-popular “Rhapsody in Blue,” a misunderstanding which leads most frequently to “conventional” performances in which the pianist lopes along in cutesy pseudo-swingy triplets where Gershwin intended absolutely none (and never played them himself), just because someone assumes: “Oh, this is supposd to be jazz.”

That doesn’t mean that Gershwin’s music should never be subjected to rendition beyond original intention. Such was the case in this concert where the work seemed a laboratory, placing a post-WWII style jazz trio as “soloist” into the pre-WWII “big band”-emulating work. The result was like a shoe salesman trying to insert a size 13 foot of a New York Knicks center into Cinderella’s glass slipper. It doesn’t really fit, regardless of how truly interesting the foot may be.

The problem was not one of Gershwin’s music being bowdlerized by a hot jazz trio. Rather, it was the other way around. The orchestra should have simply been left out of it entirely, and let the Trio do its thing.

That Trio was the Marcus Roberts Trio—pianist Marcus Roberts with bassist Roland Guerrin, and drummer Jason Masalis. Left to their own devices, the group, and especially pianist Roberts, took Gershwin’s musical materials more than a few wonderfully creative steps beyond the norm, incorporating adventurous modern jazz, some romantic classical elements, and even a fresh though brief nod to the left-hand stride playing.

But trio and orchestra were birds of different feather, and did not really mesh most of the time. Sometimes rhythmic patterns between Marsalis’ more modern playing and Gershwin’s orchestral stylizations were conflicting, most greatly at odds when the composer calls for a popular style of his day that is not “jazz” per se. For example, the Mexican “mariachi” section that almost no orchestral conductor (save perhaps Michael Tilson Thomas) ever recognizes for what it really is. Other segments also suffered from similar conflicts.

Nevertheless, the audience enjoyed the heck out of Roberts' Trio. Next time, if there is one, it would be better to just let them run by themselves, without a leash. Otherwise, perform the “Rhapsody” with plain-old piano soloist in a manner closer to what the composer intended (and himself demonstrably played).

But there is yet another, and far more attractive alternative: Why not an entirely new rhapsody or concerto intended for jazz trio and orchestra, which successfully addresses the true potentials of such a combination? One can easily envision a piece which provides both a framework for extensive, free impovization by the jazz trio and likewise a more seamlessly engaged role for the orchestra. Perhaps Robert Spano will keep that idea in his pocket for the future.

After intermission, Spano conducted Aaron Copland’s “Symphony #3,” a textbook example of the post-war struggle to define an “American symphony” in contrast to the genre's European counterparts. The 4th movement, with the musical material that’s also used in “Fanfare for the Common Man,” went especially well.

The "Symphony No. 3" is just over 60 years old, yet hearing Copland’s music was refreshing in a somewhat retrospective way. It was a reminder of concepts about our American identity; one which represented a culture that some of us actually remember, and miss, even if only as idyllic. True, it is a snapshot of a time which did ignore some of its more latent, brooding, and troubling aspects, despite its joyous, often folksy optimistism. But today, perhaps, now that many of those cultural issues have seen significant progress, it is perhaps all the more unfortuate to look back just how much of that important core of American idealism we've thrown out the in the process (accidentally or not). Hopefully, it is something we as Americans can ultimately recapture, and as a result recover and renew some of out lost identity as a nation.

—Mark Gresham, composer/music journalist • 27 May 2007

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's website can be found at www.atlantasymphony.org

Sonic Nature Walks

2007-05-27T10:39:00.000-05:00

CONCERT REVIEW

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Robert Spano conducting
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 (“Pastorale”)
Michael Gandolfi: “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation”
Thu/Fri/Sat, 24/25/26 May 2007, 8:00 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center
[Review is of the Thursday performance.]

Nature, the universe, and humanity's place in it. It's a favorite topic of artists, and clearly one behind the programming for this evening’s concert by Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Nearly 200 years ago, Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 6” was premiered in Vienna on the same docket as that of the far more famously furious “Symphony No. 5.” Evocative of nature and Austrian rural life, the Sixth, aka “Pastorale,” is programmatic, with a plot, storyline, and evocative titles. But Beethoven himself described the work as "a matter more of feeling than of painting in sounds," and that while it is up to the listener to conjure the specifics “Anyone that has formed any ideal of rural life does not need titles to imagine the composer’s intentions." Beethoven is being Romantic with a capital "R"—stressing strong emotion as the source of aesthetic experience, in reaction against the rationalization of nature in art. And the “Pastorale” has become the defining point for that perspective in the history of symphonic literature.

When Beethoven composed his impressions of the countryside, Heiligenstadt (which means “Holy place”) was thoroughly rural, but was absorbed into suburban Vienna a little over a century ago, now part of the Döbling district which includes some of Vienna’s most expensive residential areas as well as its largest “Gemeindebau” (public housing building). Beethoven may not recognize it today, any more than a cosmopolitan urbanite would be familiar with the day-to-day culture or day-to-day life of a community of small family farms. (Long-time Atlantans can easily relate to this.)

To some degree, it brings to mind a certain conceit shared by urban types in spandex bicycling gear—people who love idyllic imagery of nature and the great outdoors, but don’t have a clue when it comes to actually understanding rural life.

In this evening’s concert, Robert Spano’s approach to the introspective “No. 6” seemed a mix of conventional with occasional light-bulb flashes of the exuberantly personal. After a somewhat uncertain first few measures, his deep-hued rendition was warm, but mostly didn’t inspire except in sections for which the conductor seemed to have a special affinity, which fortunately became more frequent as the piece progressed. Spano clearly liked the “storm,” for example, and was able to get the piece to perk up more consistently in the latter half through the end. Though clearly engaged, perhaps he was saving his most creative attentions for the important after-intermission premiere.

It would be inviting to superficially approach Michael Gandolfi’s “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation” with the same attitude as one would Beethoven’s “Pastorale,” due to the inclusion of the word “Garden” in the title and popular presumptions concerning music about “Nature” (with a capital "N"). But that would be grossly misleading.

Through a published review, Gandolfi had accidentally come across architect Charles Jencks’ book “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation,” laden with photography, about his extensive private gardens at Portrack House, north of Dumfries, Scotland. Within these 30 acres, Jencks’ designed extensive earthenworks and installations related to contemporary theories of physics, biology, and cosmology. Jencks, who is often credited with popularizing the term “postmodernism,” is regarded as one of Britain’s premiere landscape architects, and has created similar landforms and sculptures for the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and for the Kew Gardens in London.

Fascinated with the book and Jencks’ sculptural metaphors, which jived with his own interests in contemporary physics, Gandolfi had composed several musical impressions which were successfully premiered prior to receiving an invitation from Jencks to visit the Garden in person. Gandolfi subsequently has completed 11 sections in all, two of them finished less than a month before this performance.

While Gandolfi encourages a rambling stroll through the “Garden” (he leaves the actual total number and order of movements up to the conductor, to create a personal “path”), the 11 movements are not so much a set of audio paintings of Jencks’ garden, but instead serve as parallels to Jencks’ sculptural metaphors. As Jencks’ sculptures do, the music often emulates the cosmological theories in their manner of operation. For example, “Soliton Waves” isn’t “about” soliton waves—it is a literal example, a model, of the waves’ actual behavior. This is true of both Jencks sculpture and Gandolfi’s music. For Jencks art, the “Garden” is the medium, the canvas, just as the symphony orchestra is for Gandolfi’s. So the music stands on its own, because it is about itself; as the “itself” (as the late John Cage once urged) is example rather than a mere description.

Beethoven’s work involves our feelings about what we immediately perceive and experience. Instead, Gandolfi’s involves a way to directly experience concepts most of humanity may grasp only vaguely in intellectual terms, but which intuitively ring true and resonate with our collective consciousness as symbol and metaphor. For this performance, the 11 movements were grouped into three parts, essentially forming a broad arch.

Part 1 of Gandolfi’s “Garden” began with “The Zeroroom,” which in Jencks’ garden is a cloakroom and portal for entry, a kind of pre-Google-Earth which identifies the observer’s location within the Universe—the point of origin which proves to be “you,” at once both comparatively insignificant and of ultimate significance.

It was followed by the aforementioned “Soliton Waves,” then a meditative “The Snail and the Poetics of Going Slow” (referring to an earthen mound where the paths up and down are a double spiral, where one can walk up to the top and not be on the same path as coming down), concluding with the lively, uninhibited “Symmetry Break Terrace / Black Hole Terrace,” and the Möbius-like, Latin jazz/mariachi-infused “The Willow Twist.” The last two are among what Gandolfi calls “groove pieces” in the suite.

At this juncture, the beginning of Part 2, the order of movements as printed in the program was usurped by one significant change: “The Universe Cascade” was placed before “Garden of the Senses,” so as to open the suite’s second part rather than the third.

“The Universe Cascade” begins with a “big bang”—literally and metaphorically. It is a shocking surprise after the second installment of recorded bird sounds. The movement then catapults us through history in a psychological memory tour alluding to styles and repertoire from the early Renaissance to the current day, when the orchestra is finally overcome by the sweeping crescendo of another recording, electronically produced “bug music” (the bippity-boppity kind you hear just before the giant bugs appear in a classic sci-fi movie) which then ends abruptly—like suddenly waking out of a lucid dream state, or materializing after a trip through a time tunnel.

Like a mathematical dynamical system which ultimately begins to appear chaotic, the progression from the “unity” at the movement’s beginning to “apparently chaotic” electronic music at the end leaves one with a disturbing feeling of suddenly stepping outside the system: the sudden release, the reverberation dissolving against an emptiness with as much impact as the initial “big bang.”

A more traditional formality, order, and grounded immediacy returns with the “Garden of the Senses,” a parody (in the good sense of the word) of J. S. Bach’s French and English Suites. At about 14 minutes in length it is a suite-within-a-suite, in the same manner as Shakespeare would write a play-within-a-play, and just as Jencks’ “Garden of the Senses” is a garden-within-a-garden: a 30’ by 50’ spot of neo-Baroque formality with contemporary iconographic installations. Each movement within Gandolfi’s mini-suite, therefore, is based on one of Jencks’ representations of the traditional five human senses, plus the “sixth sense” of intuition. Hence, Gandolfi’s approach was one referentially neo-Baroque but with contemporary whimsy.

Part 3 is the back side of the arch, the final four movements—“Fractal Terrace,” “The Jumping Bridge,” “The Quark Walk,” and “The Nonsense”—serving somewhat as a structural mirror to the first four of Part 1 (i.e. “Fractal Terrace” being a “groove piece,” and “The Quark Walk” slow-paced like “The Snail”). Both “The Jumping Bridge” and “The Nonsense” offer the listener audible fun and flights of fancy.

Gandolfi added two elements to the this evening’s mix directly from Jencks’ garden: First, recordings natural sounds from the Portrack Garden, bird sounds most prominently. Second, a single screen hung from above the proscenium featured titling and a sequence of images from the garden, relative to each movement, assembled by Ean White.

But Gandolfi’s music stands on its own, without extra-musical help. One important point is that, unlike many composers, Gandolfi is also an excellent orchestrator. When pointed out to him, he seems to take the comment in stride, an obvious requisite of a composer’s craft. However, it is something notable which makes his more complex musical weavings all the more engaging to hear, as well as play and conduct (something directly confirmed one-on-one by Spano afterwards, with an emphasis on the “fun” aspect and how the piece feels naturally “orchestral”). My attention was engaged throughout the piece, something that doesn’t always happen (whether music is new or old), and even though at time of completion the “Garden” had ultimately grown to be some 20 minutes longer than originally intended.

Although Michael Gandolfi has indicated that he will continue to expand his music, adding new movements occasionally as Jencks adds installations to his own Garden, Spano and the ASO will record this evening’s version of “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation” for Telarc on Tuesday. At 70 minutes duration, it’s just short enough to fit on a single disc. ■

—Mark Gresham, composer/music journalist • 27 May 2007

Michael Gandolfi's artist website can be found at www.michaelgandolfi.com. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's website can be found at www.atlantasymphony.org

Cosmic Karma

2007-05-24T10:06:00.000-05:00

Michael Gandolfi discusses his “Garden of Cosmic Speculation”

"Intuition is sensing the winds of change, the way things are going, the mood of the moment, and how it will affect the future." —Maggie Keswick Jencks

The following interview comes from a 30-minute conversation I had with composer Michael Gandolfi on the afternoon of April 30, 2007, in Atlanta. We discussed his “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation,” inspired by earthworks and installations designed by architect Charles Jencks at Portrack House, which is just north of Dumfries, in southwestern Scotland.
    The ASO played four of the "impressions" from the work-in-progess a year ago. Now it comprises 11 sections, including a 14-minute "suite within a suite" called "The Garden of the Senses."
    At last Gandolfi's completed "Garden" receives its premiere this week, performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano conducting. The concerts are Thu-Sat., May 24-26, 2007, at 8:00p.m. at Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 404-733-5000 www.atlantasymphony.org
    Before going further, however, you may want to first read my feature article for Creative Loafing [16 May 2007], which can be found online here, as it provides a good overview of what Michael and I are discussing below.
    —Mark Gresham

Gresham: Your “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation” has grown considerably since the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performed four “Impressions from…” a year ago. Where in this upcoming ASO complete performance are those four movements?

Gandolfi: What you heard before are [now numbers] 1, 2, 3 and 11.

Gresham: You’ve said that the specific order will not set in stone?

Gandolfi: The whole point of the piece was to simply turn out a whole bunch of movements based on these various aspects of the Garden—mainly the physical aspects of the garden, but a few conceptual ones as well. My intention, initially, was not to have the whole piece played all at once—the point being that a given conductor would choose his or her own pathway through the garden, I like to say, by just selecting a number of movements for a given program.
    So at that point, as I was writing other movements for the piece, I wasn’t really concerned about an order for a single program. I was just covering the various features of the garden and writing piece after piece after piece.
    Actually, the ones that are underlined here… [He shows a single page listing the movements as the ASO will perform them.] This one I’m just about ready to finish, is number 4. I still have number 7 to do. So [the rest] was done in Miami by the New World Symphony a week ago [April 21, 2007], all but these two movements of course, and the order was as you see it except that in the place of “Symmetry Break Terrace” here, which hadn’t been written yet, was the “Fractal Terrace.” That totals a little over 57 minutes actually.

Gresham: Prior to that performance, you were also planning to have the “Garden of the Senses” performed near the end of the whole work. What happened to that idea?

Gandolfi: It became clear to us, to Robert Spano and me, in the midst of rehearsal that this suite belonged in the middle, not at the end.

Gresham: How did this come to be composed as a “suite within a suite”?

Gandolfi: In the entire work, what I’m trying to do is give the listener the sense of the space from a musical standpoint. “The Garden of the Senses” is a separate garden within the larger Garden, walled off with shrubs, maybe 50 yards by 30 yards—very formal, manicured, ornate, Baroque.
    So at first, before I tackled the “Garden of the Senses” suite, I had just thought about the senses themselves, [i.e.] for the sense of hearing: a sonic landscape. But as I thought about it, I realized that may well and good to describe the senses, but it doesn’t really describe the “Garden of the Senses.” And that’s why I started thinking about this Baroque feeling of the space, and I thought it would be fun to tether it to a Baroque suite. The only non-suite movement is the chorale at the end. Jencks has a “sixth sense” which he calls Intuition, so I just decided to express that in the form of a chorale, in segue from the Gigue.

Gresham: I understand you’ve added some recordings of natural sounds on either side of the “Garden of the Senses” in this ASO performance?

Gandolfi: “The Garden of the Senses” suite is about 14 minutes total. I used [Bach’s] French and English suites as my models. But going in, [it] is a little more difficult to delineate [from the preceding movements]. What we’re going to do for the Atlanta performances, at least what I’m intending on doing now, is having some kind of a separator by using ambient sounds recorded from the garden--bird sounds insect sounds. Actually the piece will open with those sounds and will merge with the music and fade out, and the musical piece will start. Then I thought I would do that at the very end of the piece. Now I realize if I bring those sounds back in surrounding the Garden of the Senses, at the end of the “Willow Twist” (let’s say the nature sounds come back in and acquiesce for 10 seconds or so) we’ll get a sense that a chapter is done, now we’re ready for the middle part. When that’s done I’ll bring the [recorded nature] sounds back in, so one does get a sense that there is a connection between parts one and three, [beyond] just the orchestral scope of the writing.
    So that’s the way it’s shaking up, and I hadn’t thought about that until I actually heard it in [the Miami] concert.

Gresham: So this order was not this order only 2 weeks ago?

Gandolfi: No. [But in the Miami performanceit was] pretty much what you see, except 6 was 10.

Gresham: So the “Garden of the Senses” could actually be a standalone 14-minute piece by itself. Do you have some other shortened menus in mind already for this “modular” piece?

Gandolfi: An order I would prefer would be 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 11—a rich piece of about 35 to 40 minutes.”

Gresham: You mentioned “Willow Twist” and two “Terrace” movements earlier. Could you talk a bit about those?

Gandolfi:“The Willow Twist” is like a jazz big band piece, it’s very swinging with a big trumpet solo and a trombone solo. I have them stand up big band style. It’s not complex in the way that some of the other movements are, in the treatment of rhythm. It does have an overlapping rhythmical pattern. It’s a real groove piece. You know how when you get into a main groove you have to get out of it somehow? So what I do is transform a primary groove into a secondary groove, which ramps it down a little bit. Then an abrupt bow-and-arrow stop, and you’re in this coda section which is very ethereal. So “Willow Twist” is very visceral. It really does describe the object, that’s what I’d say. The “WillowTwist” is like a Mobius strip, a sheet of metal, a very complex strip and it’s circular. And so I wrote a piece that grooves in a circular way. In fact, when the wind players were playing the piece, in Miami, they were actually making little circles with bodies; they didn’t know, they’d never seen the object. The music just feels that way.

Gresham: So it should be easy for listeners to get into the groove and see how it transforms.

Gandolfi: “Fractal Terrace” also is a grove movement, but a little more complex, a little more like a Steve Reich kind of groove. And now what will be the “Symmetry Break Terrace / Black Hole Terrace”—these [three] would make a little set, actually, because they are powerful and groove oriented, although the “Fractal Terrace” and “Symmetry Break Terrace / Black Hole Terrace” are a little more complex in their structure of the groove.
    These movements are just more visceral [than most]. Other movements are more complex, in terms of the multiple sections and the way things transform, they’re a little headier in a sense.
    I would say that “The Jumping Bridge” and “The Nonsense” have something in common. The writing is bright and bold and kind of quirky, they form a kind of a unit in a way and “The Quark Walk” has more of a connection with “The Snail.” It’s a slower movement, bolder maybe than “The Snail” is, and full of atmosphere, describing different aspects of a quark, a subatomic particle.

Gresham: There seems like a lot of different variety of musical expressions incorporated in “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation.” Is it, um, possibly a bit wide ranging for one piece?

Gandolfi: So it’s not like an onslaught of completely different things. Occasionally I’ll bring in a motivic idea from an earlier movement and just develop it differently, so there is a sense of connection over the course of the broad arc of the piece.
    [A reviewer said it was as if] the physical landscape waves of the garden itself were captured through the course of the piece, that the piece held together by virtue of the feeling of wavelike activity. Maybe that’s one of those unconscious things that happen?

Gresham: Speaking of unconscious, subconscious, or perhaps “collective unconscious,” the impact of Jenck’s Garden, in let’s say an abstract, perhaps even iconic sense… Does that carry over into your music?

Gandolfi: The garden itself, though its reference to cosmology and contemporary thought in physics prompts speculation and to wonder, to have a sense of awe, actually, with respect to the incredible discoveries, and it’s fairly apparent that’s what this garden does. Looking at the garden, visiting it, one is immediately struck by that sense. Yes, it’s an abstraction. [However,] you don’t read about these things—you’re experiencing them physically with the space, with what architect Charles Jencks has done with the property. But he’s also specific, too, because he’ll have sculptural details placed in the garden to prompt you to exactly what he was thinking about conceptually. So that sense of wonder and awe is what I was trying to capture in the [musical] movements themselves. Hopefully there will be a kind of magical sense, the sense of at once wonderment about it all. And on the other hand there is the playfulness to it there, too, that’s kind of a quirky, almost yin and yang thing. You have polar opposites: On the one hand you have these are incredibly profound things but they also provoke almost a sense of giddiness or silliness at the same time too-- like a quantum flux, where you have particles that are just appearing and disappearing willy-nilly. Jenks plays on the bizarre and strange qualities in a humorous way. So that is interpreted in these pieces as well too. “The Nonsense” is a prime example; “The Jumping Bridge” too; the audience chuckled at the end of “The Jumping Bridge.” It’s sort of fun and joyful.

Gresham: So it’s ok to laugh?

Gandolfi: Absolutely!

Gresham: How is this connected to your own personal sense of wonder?

Gandolfi: It’s really hard for me to say precisely, because it’s hard to describe in words sometimes what the music hopefully is doing. That often manifests itself in the use of the color of the orchestration and the harmony. Those are two aspects of music making where I feel like I can conjure up something, by twisting around harmony and orchestral color, to create a sense of wonderment or…

Gresham: Surprise?

Gandolfi: Yes, a sense of giddiness or enjoyment. Sometimes I’m specific, as in “Soliton Waves,” the second movement of the piece, where I actually have musical wave forms and movements moving all around the stage. Big crashing waves and little eddys of waves. The big formal design describes an actual soliton wave, which is a wave that has the property of joining with another wave, forming a third unit, then exiting with no memory of having joined with the other wave. There are two main streams in [this movement]; they join up in the middle become something else then they exit. The listener finds they’ve been riding that singular wave the whole way. And when it bursts out at the end, [you think ] “Wait a minute, we’re right back to where we’ve started from”; in fact you’ve always been there, it’s just that it’s joined up with another wave and formed another, larger object. So there are very specific ties in these movements to the objects that are being described.

Gresham: Where does this piece fall in the development of your career, your own artistic journey?

Gandolfi: This piece is at once a focal point, sort of crystallizing some things I’ve been working on for the past several years, and at the same time it’s a jumping off point too, a point from which I feel like I’ll move forward. I would characterize it by saying it’s a purely, thoroughly post-modern piece in the sense that it references other music the same way a post-modern building will [where] you might have a Greek column in the front, a portico from another era, and you might have a mid-twentieth-century modernist facade elsewhere.

Gresham: It may reference previous eras but not imitate, per se?

Gandolfi: We’re at a point now in concert music in which so much has been done, and there’s such a rich tradition, that to reference other eras is sort of a natural thing to do now. I’m enjoying putting my mind into these other eras of music, of musical discovery, and referencing multiple centuries actually, as this piece does, and I’m realizing there’s a lot of terrain there yet to be explored. Some music has done this before: Stravinsky in his neo-classical period. But this is different; I’m not holding it at arms length like I feel it [is] in Stravinsky’s neo-classicism. It’s not cold [or detached]. I’m actually jumping into the pond, and really embracing these things. And the fact that the form of the piece itself is open, in the sense that I’ll continue to add movements [just as] Jencks continues to add to his Garden. And as the years progress I’ll continue to visit the Garden and write more movements, and this piece will just keep going, as far as I’m concerned. So that’s a kind of post-modern notion. I’ve never done anything like this before, to write an orchestral piece that could be so modular.

Gresham: How many people have?

Gandolfi: One of my models was Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet suites, although I will never issue it as three suites the way Prokofiev did. This will be just a big hunk of movements. Up in front of the piece I’ll suggest some “menus,” some pathways, but I’ll also say it’s up to the conductor to decide what movements are appropriate. Robert Spano has already suggested a whole bunch of different arrangements, starting with the “Garden of the Sense” suite [by itself]; the “Willow Twist” could also make a concert opener in and of itself; “The Nonsense” could be a piece in and of itself. Two, three, five movement combinations—there are so many ways in which it could be put together.

Gresham: Where do you think composers find themselves at the beginning of the 21st century, in terms of our “collective consciousness,” creatively speaking? Where do you see things going from here?

Gandolfi: It’s the whole global Village idea; there’s so much out there I don’t see it being one trend. It is an eclectic time, and that used to be a very bad word, when I was a student in the 1970s. Now it’s a virtue. Where we are at the beginning of the 21st century—that will be the legacy of eclecticism and global acceptance, if you will, one that doesn’t look for a leader such as a Stravinsky, or a Schoenberg, or whomever. I think it’s a good thing we don’t look for that. It’s a more democratic view of what the artist is, how the artist fits in. It’s quite a different time, a big paradigm shift.
    That’s just the way I feel about it—who knows? Time will tell. But that’s how I feel about it now. Virtually every composer is contributing to the big picture, and they’re not looking to purify, which I think was the case in the middle and latter part of the 20th century, in which I grew up. Now, it’s like: What have you discovered? Let’s hear it, if it’s rock music, jazz, or music of other cultures, classical, or whatever. It’s a freer time to allow what an individual sees as their vision of the beauty in music to emerge, and to not distill it away or bury it.
    I hope that’s the experience somebody has with this piece, the visceral joy of all these kinds of music merging and swirling about. Hopefully that will communicate to the audience. ■

—Mark Gresham, composer/music journalist • 24 May 2007

[NOTE: This article by Mark Gresham can also be found on the Atlanta Composers Blog at AtlantaComposers.com.]

Michael Gandolfi's artist website can be found at www.michaelgandolfi.com.

3 Weeks, 3 New Works at the ASO

2007-05-19T08:28:00.000-05:00

For three weeks in a row, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is performing new works.

This week (which means tonight, SAT 5/19 @ 8pm is the final performance) ASO principal contrabassist Ralph Jones is soloist and Laura Jackson conducts the Concerto for Bass Viol (2006) by John Harbison.

This coming week (THU 5/24, FRI 5/25 & SAT 5/26 @ 8pm) features premiere performance of the "complete" The Garden of Cosmic Speculation by Michael Gandolfi, to be conducted by Robert Spano. I say "complete" in quotes with reason. (Yes, it is the complete work, but...) While many of you may have read my feature article in this week's Creative Loafing, 650 words hardly is room for the larger story about the work. (NOTE: I did not write either the article's published title nor the caption under the photo!) I had a 30-minute conversation with Gandolfi in preparation for that article, and I hope before the concerts take place to post more extensive excerpts from that conversation in this blog.

Finally, though the concerts at this writing appear to be almost sold out (THU 5/31 & SAT6/2 @ 8pm & SUN 6/3 @ 3pm - no FRI concert, and online tickets for THU seems sold out completely), the ASO & Spano with baritone Gregg Baker, perform the southeastern premiere of a work the ASO co-commisioned with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the African-American Cultural center of Greater Philadelphia: Pastime (2006) by Richard Danielpour. Pastime celebrates 3 historical baseball and civil rights greats: Josh Gibson (Negro League), Jackie Robinson & Hank Aaron (National League). Home-run king Hank Aaron is scheduled to be present at Thursday's sold-out performance.

—Mark Gresham, composer/music journalist • 19 May 2007

[NOTE: This article by Mark Gresham can also be found on the Atlanta Composers Blog at AtlantaComposers.com.]

What Makes the Music British?

2007-04-30T07:58:00.000-05:00

CONCERT REVIEW

ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Donald Runnicles, conductor
Edward Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance Marches No. 1 & 4
Mark-Anthony Turnage: Three Screaming Popes
Peter Maxwell Davies: An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise
James MacMillan: Brittania
Benjamin Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem
Thu/Fri/Sat, 26-28 April 2007, 8:00pm
Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center
[Review is of the Thursday performance]

What exactly is "British" about British 20th-century music? Donald Runnicles, who has a personal proclivity for speaking to the audience from the podium, suggested in his verbal notes that listeners put away any attempt to find audible commonality in this evening's music with identifiable "Britishness" of style that might uinte them. That may be true if one tries to take a snapshot of the whole, frozen in time, without chronological reference. But once heard, it is possible that this program offers a thread to follow out of that darkly enigmatic labyrinth of British national identity, and reveal it as discernable in light of 20th-century history.

Donald Runnicles' chose to open and close the evening with popular Elgar: two of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, No. 4 and No. 1 respectively, and despite his own caution spent a few moments lauding Sir Edward Elgar as the pinnacle of British composers. On the other hand, I've often heard said that Benjamin Britten was the most significant Brit composer since Henry Purcell—but perspectives obviously vary.

The Pomp and Circumstance Marches offer an audible experience Elgar's world as the dawn of the 20th-century—the end of the Victorian age, the beginning of the Edwardian, before the First World War and subsequent events intervened upon the assurance that "all is well with the Empire," and that the Sun shall ne'er set upon it.

The opening March raised the curtain with exactly that feeling, where one is enjoying celebration of a culture which is rather settled, solid and certain of itself as the lawns of Oxford University. "Simply plant the seed, water it, then roll it every spring for the next 900 years," says the matter-of-fact groundskeeper to the American wondering at the secret behind their care. In that day, the attributes of Britishness may have seemed obvious to Elgar's fellow countrymen.

But the program takes a sudden turn with three more-or-less iconoclastic works from the other end of the century, by Mark-Anthony Turnage, Peter Maxwell-Davies, and James MacMillan, which reveal a remarkable sonic and aesthetic commonality at their core. (All three employ the "slapstick" among the percussion— a most curious British compositional affinity which probably emerged from the era of Sir William Walton.)

Three Screaming Popes (1989) by Turnage was inspired by paintings of Francis Bacon (not the English philosopher-statesman of Elizabethan times, but the Irish iconoclastic figurative painter of the 20th-century), specifically the bold, grotesquely distorted, and often harrowing studies based upon Diego Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X of 1650.

Turnage himself does not believe his music sounds particularly "British." As did the Beatles, he has long held strong interests in American popular music, particularly jazz and soul, as well as blues and rock, with plenty ofearly exposure to it while growing up "on the wrong side of the tracks" in London's East End.

While Turnage originally intended Three Screaming Popes to be "a piece which distorted a set of Spanish dances as bacon had distorted and restated the Velázquez." Instead, he goes on to say, these dances ultimately became submurged in the work's other textures so as to become almost imperceptible. And indeed, the complexity of textures necessitates the very simplicity of form which underlies the work. (A lesson for aspiring avant-gardists: complexity in one set of elements can benefit from counterbalancing simplicity elsewhere.) There is an overall intensity, but with some expressive contrasts which are relatively peaceful by comparison; concluding, of course, with an obligatorily raucousness.

While both Turnage and MacMillan were born within a year of each other, Peter Maxwell Davies is one generation their elder, and was an influence on MacMillan.

Born outside of Manchester, England, Davies discovered the Orkney Islands off northern Scotland in the 1970s, moving to Hoy—hence, as series of Orkney-inspired works. One of these, An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise, is an aural painting or "postcard" of reveries of an all-night Scottish wedding reception, with whiskey, even unto a sunrise replete with bagpiper heralding the dawn, walking down the aisle from the back of the hall to the stage. (Obtaining enthusiastic applause from both those of Scottish descent and others attracted to the perceived novelty.)

One of the mild difficulties, for those who are not Celtic folk-musicians, is the "Scottish snap," a rhythmic element which, if played correctly, imparts the appropriate style to the music. Otherwise, there is struggle for an orchestra to not allow the music to drift into a sound not entirely unlike a kind of Copland-ish Americana. The ASO's rendition too frequently threatened to pull away to fiddling with that far more familiar genre, despite any steering on course by Runnicles own Scottish heritage.

James MacMillan's Brittania follows more closely as an heir to Davies music than does the Turnage. It is full of quotational references, including "God Save the Queen," popular tunes and fanfares, and musical allusions to familiar elements of "very British" culture, both traditional and popular. It would be easy to compare the music with that of Charles Ives (who was a musical iconoclast long before any of these three composers were alive), but especially in the case of Scottish-born MacMillan, one might make better by describing it as a kind of "Monty Python's Flying Symphony" of sorts. Much like the Python troup, the comedy and Britishness of MacMillan's music has a dark side, even forboding elements, the impression that is left in this listener by Brittania's conclusion, after all the exhuberant mania.

A comparison to British black comedy, whether the Pythons or veterans of the somewhat less-remembered radio program The Goon Show such as English actor Peter Sellars, whose multiple-role comedic presence was felt in dystopian comedic films such as Dr. Strangelove and most touchingly in his final social commentary, Being There.

And there you will find a "British" commonality to all of the music on this program. Something serious happened to the United Kingdom over the course of the 20th century, and to the whole world from the British perspective.

Benjamin Britten's life spanned the middle of this century of change. The Second World War, and anti-war sentiment, holds prominent place among Britten's works, including the Sinfonia da Requiem, premiered in New York in 1940, after Britten and fellow life-traveler Peter Pears had come to America, like many artists of the time who were escaping the encroaching European theatre of warfare, but believing he would be destined to settle here permanently.

"I am certain that North America is the placeof the future," Britten is quoted in the program notes, "... & though certainly one is worried about the lack of culture, there is terrific & vitality in the place."

Sinfonia da Requiem, fully instrmental but assuming the pretenses of three sections of a Requiem mass (Lacrymosa, Dies irae, and Requiem aeternam), addresses his deep concerns about the war and the "lessrosy" picture in England. Nevertheless, Britten and Pears, homesick, returned to England only two tears later in the midst of the war.

The Sinfonia begins darkly lyrical, turns passionate, then urgent, deliberate, and in an almost Fauré-like catharsis, conjures celestial lyricism toward the end, as if to literally say "luceat eis."

The program concluded with Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, the most familiar one to most of the public with its
"graduation theme," which Runnicles took at a rather quick pace. This tempo, frankly, added to the disturbing feeling that however restated the world of Elgar might be at this juncture, his music could not restore the confidence of the Empire, but only offer a longing memory to a nation whose identifiable certitude had given way, as did the Empire itself, to a late 20th-century world which no longer moves "round a common centre" (W.H. Auden) but a social iconoclasm beyond our control which makes us wonder, like a Monty Python movie, not whether we ourselves have gone crazy, but have instead gone utterly sane in an increasingly crazy world. ■

—Mark Gresham, composer/music journalist • 30 April 2007

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's website can be found at www.atlantasymphony.org

AJC axes classical music critic post

2007-04-21T10:15:00.000-05:00

ATLANTA, Georgia —

The staff position of "classical music critic" has been eliminated at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, according to recent published reports by writers at Creative Loafing-Atlanta.

But the story hardly stops there. The AJC is losing a "who's who" of senior writers due to a restructuring of the daily newspaper with what some might easily call a "virtual hatchet."

Even as two of its editors were announced winners of Pulitzer Prizes for Journalism, editorial columnist Cynthia Tucker (for commentary) and managing editor Hank Klibanoff (who shared the prize for history), the AJC is losing some 40 senior senior staffers in an "early retirement buyout" (including the daily's only other extant Pulitzer winner, science writer Mike Toner). A number of specific "beats" have been eliminated, and it appears many remaining writers will be obliged to compete for remaining jobs in a "reapplication" process.

"Features" appears to have been one of the departments hit hardest, with elimination of both the "classical music critic" position (leaving two other staff music writers to compete against each other for the sole remaining "pop music" job) and the "visual arts critic" post, as well as two of its three film critic jobs (Eleanor Ringel Gillespie was one of the senior writers to accept "early retirement") to rely upon wire service reviews.

Although daily newspapers all around have experienced severely decreasing readership, my personal opinion is this the equivalent of the AJC dropping its pants and mooning Atlanta's arts community, particularly the classical music world.

The first I heard that something was going down specifically with reduced AJC coverage of classical music was, ominously, Friday, April 13, during intermission at an Atlanta Symphony Orchestra subscription concert. Later that weekend, when it was far less clear than now exactly what was transpiring, it became clear that Atlanta's classical musicians and their supporters are upset—those who knew about it, that is. Even now, I'm not even sure that what we do now know is entirely clear, as a "job reapplication process" for remaining AJC writers will not be over until June 1, according to Creative Loafing reporter Scott Freeman (see second link below).

My own best guess at this juncture is that the AJC staff posts on the chopping block will continue to exist until the "reapplication" process is over, although I have no tangible confirmation of that at this time. ■

Please read more about this in two published sources:

• Fear and loathing at the AJC
by Scott Freeman [Creative Loafing's "Fresh Loaf" blog, April 13, 2007]
• Newsroom musical chairs at the AJC
by Scott Henry [Creative Loafing, online/print editions, April 18/19, 2007]

—Mark Gresham, composer/music journalist • 21 Apr 2007

Two Paths, two friends

2004-05-27T12:00:00.010-05:00

ASO season concludes with a work drawing on multiple kinships

by Mark Gresham | 27 May 2004, Creative Loafing

NOTE: This is an ARCHIVAL LINK to an article written by Mark Gresham long before EarRelevant was established.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concludes its 2003-2004 classical subscription concert season this week with a program featuring a rarity, a work for two solo violas and orchestra: Two Paths by Sofia Gubaidulina. [...] • READ MORE in Creative Loafing

Photo: ASO violists Reid Harris and Paul Murphy
Photo credit: Mark Gresham