The Music of Missy Mazzoli in Baltimore ~ A Review

Photo courtesy of Stephen Taylor

Evolution Series
presents
The Music of Missy Mazzoli
Missy Mazzoli, piano
Also featuring Joshua Anderson, clarinet
Brian Barone, electric guitar
Rachel Choe, flute
Kristen Dubenion-Smith, mezzo-soprano
Joseph Magar, bass
Lauren Rausch, violin
Bethany Pietroniro, piano
Christy Muncey, conductor
An Die Musik
Baltimore, MD
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

Written by Megan Ihnen

Missy Mazzoli’s music introduces the audience to a composer that is an adoring tailor of sounds. She presents a love of the simple and strong, but with affection toward idiomatic embellishment. The performers of Baltimore’s Evolution Series were able to capture that care during Tuesday evening’s concert at An Die Musik with the composer in attendance.

During the pre-concert interview with Evolution Founder and Artistic Director, Judah Adashi, Mazzoli provided insight not only into her music but her journey as a composer as well. When her teacher John Harbison encouraged her to go to the Netherlands to study with Louis Andriessen, she could not have predicted the musical ethos she would experience there. She remembered, “The government was just throwing money at the arts and you had the feeling that you could indulge your wildest dreams.” It seems that Mazzoli’s time abroad allowed her a freedom to pursue her aims as a composer even when she returned to the States. Working as Meredith Monk’s personal assistant and with Phillip Glass during her tenure as Executive Director of the MATA Festival, influenced her style as well as her ability to advocate for her music. Currently in a three-year residency with Opera Philadelphia, Mazzoli expressed an appreciation for the unique storytelling of the form.

Anthony de Mare ~ On Liasons II: Re-imagining Sondheim

On Saturday, March 9 (7 pm), as part of Symphony Space’s The Music of Now Series, pianist Anthony de Mare returns to the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre for the second installment of Liaisons: Reimagining Sondheim from the Piano. Marrying his reputation as a champion of contemporary classical music with his deep respect for legendary musical theater composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim, de Mare is building a unique piano repertory by commissioning 36 leading contemporary composers from the classical, jazz, theater, and film worlds to write short solo piano pieces inspired by Sondheim’s music.

Anthony de Mare’s sold-out Symphony Space concert last April featured seventeen of the commissioned works, including pieces by Steve Reich, William Bolcom, Fred Hersch, and Marc-Anthony Turnage. On March 9, de Mare will premiere fifteen new compositions by Eve Beglarian, Jason Robert Brown, Mary Ellen Childs, Michael Daugherty, Peter Golub, Annie Gosfield, Phil Kline, Nico Muhly, John Musto, Thomas Newman, Eric Rockwell, Frederic Rzewski, Rodney Sharman, Bernadette Speach, and Nils Vigeland. The works draw on famous and lesser-known Sondheim songs from Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Follies, Company, and other shows.

For tickets/info, click here or on the link on the bottom.

Anthony de Mare had a few minutes to speak about the beginnings of the project and the workings of the production.

Mohammed Fairouz ~ On The Premiere of the 4th Symphony and Native Informant

Composer Mohammed Fairouz has not one but 2 special events scheduled to be unveiled on the date of March 26th: A World Premiere of his 4th Symphony titled In The Shadows of No Towers at Carnegie Hall, and the new CD release on Naxos titled Native Informant, featuring some new recordings of Mohammed’s works played by artists such as Rachel Barton Pine, Mellissa Hughes, David Krakauer among others. He had a few minutes to stop by and chat about the premiere and the CD.

CM: Can you please discuss the new symphony? Why has it been scored only for wind ensemble?

Mohammed: In the Shadow of No Towers is my fourth symphony and it’s scored for large wind ensemble. It takes its title from Art Spiegelman’s comic book of the same name. Art started working on the first page of the book on 9/11/01 and continued chronicling the aftermath through his images and text. I have a big history of translating text (not so much images) into music in my work. I’ve written a lot of vocal music and set a wide variety of poetry to music ranging from Mahmoud Darwish and Seamus Heaney to Wayne Koestenbaum and Yehuda Amichai. And I’ve had the privilege to work directly with the poets I just mentioned and many others. Picking their brain, getting their impressions of what makes their writing tick has been a valuable part of my process and inspiration.

Mellissa Hughes ~ On Her Music & The 4th Annual New Music Bake Sale

Mellissa Hughes performing David Coll’s Position, Influence at the MATA Festival at Roulette in Brooklyn, April 20th, 2012 (Photo courtesy of NY Times)

Soprano Mellissa Hughes, who sings in various ensembles like Alarm Will Sound and Ensemble Signal, fronts the band Newspeak, is a member of the Trinity Wall Street Choir, and does all kinds of freelance work as a soprano/vocalist, is finally here to speak to The Glass!

Mellissa (also known as Melly) had a few minutes to talk about the 4th Annual New Music Bake Sale at Roulette in NY on Sunday, March 3rd (starting at 4 PM and expected to go until 11 PM), and she also talks about some great musical moments that happened recently!

CM: Tell us about the annual New Music Bake Sale.

Mellissa: The New Music Bake Sale started in 2009, and I was on the original team that kind of came up with the concept. We wanted a fundraiser which was something different that hadn’t been done yet, so we came up with the idea of having a bake sale! The community aspect of a bake sale is people coming together–Who doesn’t want a Rice Krispy treat or a cupcake? You spend a little bit of money, but you are helping an organization, so, we thought it might be nice to open it up to a bunch of organizations, PR people, bands, ensembles, and what not.

Billband ~ Live at LPR (A Review)

Billband
Le Poisson Rouge, NYC
Sunday, February 10th, 2013

This is the first time that I’m reviewing a show that I watched online as opposed to having experienced it in person, so, my apologies for not having a more in-your-face perspective, but I can say with great certainty that Billband (ensemble that was originally formed by Bill Ryan; I interviewed him recently) was in supreme form as they ran through a set of mostly selections from the CD Towards Daybreak, whose release was the focus of the event.

The group, which features several members of Bang On a Can that we are familiar with (Ashley Bathgate, Vicky Chow, David Cossin) as well as violinist-composer Todd Reynolds, clarinetist Michael Lowenstern, and 2nd cellist Pablo Mojave-Veglia among others, has a very fusion-esque sound, especially on pieces like “Friction”, which opened the show. Its prog-like timing proceeded to set a wonderful pace for the rest of the evening.

“Sparkle” is one of my favorites, and it was every bit the delicate frosty chime dialogue that it is on the album. Following this was “Solitude In Transit”. This featured a great Far Eastern-style violin lead from Todd Reynolds, with which he managed to outshine his own recorded version from the album.

“Simple Lines”, a piece that Ryan had written in various versions for various configurations of instruments, was performed solo by Ashley Bathgate. Doing what she has been doing so effectively for several years, Bathgate bathed the audience in rich textures of layered loops of cello, mastering a technological art form and reinvention of a classical sound.

The ensemble returned for “Rapid Assembly”, and then played “Blurred”, which here sounded a bit more like the version from the Billband Blurred EP from 2004, featuring more ensemble than the recently-recorded trio version. They wrapped up the set with that same EP’s “Original Blend”, which displayed great lead voices from the violin, piano and clarinet.

Both Todd Reynolds and Bill Ryan made introductions to these pieces, and I have to say I am a huge fan of the musicians speaking to the audience. If we continue to have the kind of rapport that these performers have, this is certainly one of the keys to gaining the interest of new audiences as well as maintaining audiences that are invested in and engaged with new music concerts.

Billband is a great showcase for Bill Ryan and its members, and I hope that this ensemble continues to produce even more progressive post-minimalism pieces as well as concerts as lively as this one.

Billband (page on Bill Ryan.com)
Bill Ryan.com

Eviyan

Eviyan, an all-new trio featuring 3 composer-performers (Evan Ziporyn, Iva Bittová and Gyan Riley; in the pic above, the order L-R is Riley, Bittova and Ziporyn) is playing a FREE SHOW this week at Bohemian National Hall in NYC on Friday, February 15th at 7:30 PM. Click up here or on the link on the bottom for info on the show.

They had a few minutes for The Glass, but for this interview, they chose to respond to me as a group in email, so, we will never know if they said these answers in unison.

CM: What was the impetus for forming the trio Eviyan?

The most important thing was to create some new energy and chemistry with a new combination of musicians. Evan had the idea to bring us all together–he had worked with both Iva & Gyan, and they had heard each other on festivals. We met at Iva’s house and it immediately felt very right. The sound is purely acoustic, combining lots of different music languages, experiences and ideas, so we begin our onomatopoetic journey.

The King’s Singers

Legendary vocal group The King’s Singers are coming to the US to perform at New York’s Zankel Hall at Carnegie on Monday, February 18th at 7:30 PM. This is a show that was postponed from November 2nd due to Hurricane Sandy, and the tickets purchased from that show will be honored for this one.

The group is known for performing in a very significant range due to the rather interesting blend of voices that give them a low-ended sound, and also for their wide selection of repertoire. At Zankel Hall, they will be performing the works of Saint-Saëns, Poulenc, Palestrina, Joby Talbot, and several others.

David Hurley, countertenor with the group since 1990, skyped me from the UK to discuss the group and one of their latest recordings, this one titled Pater Noster: A Choral Reflection on The Lord’s Prayer.

CM: Can you talk a little about the history of the King’s Singers?

David: The King’s Singers itself started in 1968–The members of the group were choral scholars, and in the early 60s, at King’s College, Cambridge, sang in the famous choir there. They did a bit of singing together whilst they were in Cambridge, but they had an opportunity to form a group to perform at a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with some other distinguished musicians–Sir Neville Marriner and Simon Preston amongst them. I think they sort of felt “Gosh, this is quite a good setup we have here!”, and so they did a little bit of work, and one thing led to another–They were taken on by an agent, and after a couple of years, the group was taking up to much of their time, they gave up other jobs, and the rest, as they say, is history!

Anne Akiko Meyers ~ On the Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesu and Related Things

Violinist extraordinaire Anne Akiko Meyers is busy with many wonderful projects for us to look forward to, including some more premieres of a violin concerto composed for her by Mason Bates (which made its world premiere this past December in Pittsburgh w/Leonard Slatkin conducting) as well as a new CD that is in the works (she couldn’t tell me what’s on it, sadly, we’ll have to wait patiently), but the latest news is that she has recently been awarded lifetime usage of a Guarneri del Gesu from 1741 that was previously owned by Henri Vieuxtemps, and she is very excited to bring this instrument to the concert hall for the public to hear, and plans to use for not only the Bates Concerto premieres but also pieces like the Barber Concerto, of which a few minutes can be heard on the promo below (with the Guarneri).

OMW ~ Original Lifestyle in Music

Photo by Kevin Dolan: OMW in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Wythe Avenue/Corner North 6th Street

Written by Ilona Oltuksi (Originally posted on Get Classical.org)

Brooklyn has become a meeting of the minds between music and entrepreneurship. One of the big new players is Paola Prestini (Pictured right; photo courtesy of Erika Harrsch), who was recently highlighted in The New Yorker. The young “composer-impresario,” whose current project is orchestrating Oceanic Verses for its uropean premiere at the Barbican with the BBC Symphony Orchestra this May, was recently named artistic director of Brooklyn’s forthcoming venue, Original Music Workshop. The organization’s name is less original than its space, which consists of the old shell of a late 19th century brick sawdust factory, with what will be a completely redesigned 2200 square -foot interior; the unique Williamsburg space, still only in its conceptual state, is already being hailed as a creative stronghold where music will be produced, performed, and recorded. Catering to a vibrant artistic community, but also a large-scale potential audience, the space will double as social and creative hangout, connecting its clientele with grassroots musical innovation.

Rebecca Brandt

NY-based composer Rebecca Brandt, who has a very fascinating homepage on her website as you probably know from the links I’ve provided (I just hope you can tear yourself away long enough to read this interview), had a few minutes to talk about her recently-released album Numbers and Shapes as well as stuff related to it.

CM: How did you get started as a musician/composer?

Rebecca: I started doing the piano when I was 4, and immediately after that, I started composing. That was kind of the reason I wanted to play the piano was to start writing music, so the really basic songs started around 4 and they had titles like “Dunkaroo”! [laughs]
When I was in college at NYU, I started to take composing a lot more seriously, so, it was kind of from then until now, and right after I left, I kind of wanted to do a really big project for myself, so I was kind of taking a lot of the methods and the theories that I learned in college and applying them to more practical composing for today. That’s kind of where a lot of the inspiration was, taking different parts of music theory, and writing around that.