Urban Modes
Music and Life in New York

On Staurday we performed our final concert of the 2007-2008 season.
Here is a list of the works we presented this season.
10 world premieres (marked with *)

Earle Brown - December 1952
Kenji Bunch - Contingencies*
Shelley Burgon - Josephine's Tiger*
Shelley Burgon - glass trees
Cornelius Cardew - Octet '61 for Jasper Johns
Yves Dharamraj - Waiting for 950
Cornelius Dufallo - Concerto Grosso
Cornelius Dufallo - H/A*
Dufallo/Frasconi/La Barbara - Emergences*
Dufallo/Frasconi/La Barbara - Remains of the Day*
Julius Eastman - Stay On It
Miguel Frasconi - Distancing #4*
Miguel Frasconi - Tasks & Objects
Jon Gibson - Anthem for Relative Calm
Jon Gibson - Multiples
Ariana Kim - Patterns*
Joan La Barbara - Circular Song
Joan La Barbara - in the shadow and act of the haunting place
Joan La Barbara - Scatter*
Joan La Barbara - Words on Water (Shimmer)*
Chris McIntyre - Raster for quintet*
Michael Schumacher - Grid
Wadada Leo Smith - In the Diaspora
Lois V. Vierk - River Beneath the River
Lois V. Vierk - Into the Brightening Air
Christian Wolff - For 1,2, or 3 People

Can't wait to start again on the Fall...

Recommended reading:

Erica Goode's excellent article about two Iraqi Oud players. One of them is Rahim Alhaj, whom I met in Albuquerque.

Playlist:

Steve Reich Different Trains (Kronos Quartet; Elektra/Nonesuch)
Igor Stravinsky Piano Sonata (Nicolai Petrov; Praga)
Miles Davis Filles de Kilamanjaro (Columbia)

On Friday ETHEL performed at UCSD on Martin Wollesen's ArtPower! series.

I am genuinely impressed with Mr. Wollesen's work as Artistic Director of ArtPower!. His programming is diverse and eclectic: this season's concerts include Emerson String Quartet, Ecstasy of the Whirling Dervishes, Paris Piano Trio, Armenian Shoghaken Folk Ensemble, Music from the Crooked Road, Hugo Wolf Quartett, 2 Foot Yard, and more.

I find it refreshing to perform in a concert series that has no dichotomy between "normal" and "out of the ordinary." Typically concert presenters offer several "normal" concerts (a string quartet, a brass ensemble, a choral group, a solo recital) and then one or two "out of the ordinary" concerts. The latter is the category that ETHEL often falls into in this context. The problem with this style of programming is that the subscribers often choose to skip the "weird" event. Of course, this makes perfect sense -- if an event is presented as "weird" then why would anyone but the very adventurous choose to attend?

Today's concert-goers do not lack curiosity or adventurous spirit. It's simply a question of the context that the presenter creates.

Mr. Wollesen offers a concert series for the 21st century. Nothing is weird, and nothing is normal. His subscribers trust that whatever he programs - wherever it may come from and whatever style it may be - will be high quality. How do I know this?

His concerts SELL OUT.

In case you missed that, let me repeat it:

His concerts SELL OUT.

In other words, by the time the performance happens all of the seats have been filled.

Mr. Wollesen is clearly onto something. Even his "letter from the director" (the introductory page in the program book that can normally be used as a fairly effective tranquilizer) is inspired -- see below:

"As human beings we have the capacity to think broadly and feel deeply. We also have the ability to ossify in the opposite direction. It is perhaps because of the former, and as a gaurd against the latter, that I love the performing arts. As an active audience member I experience music and dance as a way to see the world with new eyes, to hear with new ears. As a result I am able to see myself and my place in community with a sharper understanding of what is possible.

ArtPower! is committed to worlds of discovery with an international season featuring artists of stunning talent and diverse perspectives. With creative innovators from Spain and Italy to Vietnam and cape Verde, we are building conversations not borders, relationships not factions. This is sometimes challenging, but always necessary. Always exciting.

As a performing arts organization based at UC San Diego, ArtPower! has a central role in the intellectual interchange that is at the core of human development and social responsibility. The performing arts allow for nuance of understanding in this interchange and can most effectively express the essentialness of being human. As long as we continue to participate in the creative investigation of our own experience, as well as the world around us, we move forward.

I hope you will discover something new -- and hopefully something essential -- in this season's performances that will give you joy. And when you do, share that joy with others.

ArtPower! to the people!"

Preview article:

A couple weeks ago Andrew Gilbert interviewed me for his very nice preview article in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Stephen Gosling and Eric Huebner's recent performance of Stravinsky's piano music was a tour de force -- really one of the best concerts I have witnessed in quite a while.

This was the program:

Sonata for two pianos (1943-44)
Sonata for piano (1924)
Three Movements from Petrushka (1921)
Piano-Rag-Music (1919)
Tango (1940)
Concerto for piano and winds (two-piano version) (1920)

There are few composers who hold up to the test of a "one composer show" as well as Stravinsky.

The chapel at St. Bartholomew's had very nice acoustics, as well. George Steel has done a great on the Stravinsky Festival. I wish I could have gone to more of the concerts. The next one is Thursday, I believe. Music for violin and piano, played by Jeremy Denk and Jennifer Frautschi. I would definitely go, but I'll be in San Diego performing with ETHEL at USCD.

Some things I've been listening to lately:

Debussy Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp (played by Bourdin, LeQuien, and Challan) (Phillips)
Duke Ellington and John Coltrane (Impulse)
George Gershwin Plays the Rhapsody in Blue (20th Century Fox)
Ravel Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano (played by Laredo, Solow, and Laredo) (Columbia)

My wife, Amy Kauffman, made some amazing cinnamon rolls yesterday. I liked them so much I asked her to be a guest blogger today:



"I recently read Michael Pollan's book, In Defense of Food, which makes a strong case for (among other things) eating whole grains and local produce. With that in mind, Leah and I made some whole wheat apple-cinnamon rolls, just tweaking our regular recipe a little bit in order to make them a little more healthful. They turned out well, so I'm copying the recipe below just in case anyone wants to try it. Enjoy!"



Whole wheat apple cinnamon rolls

2 c. whole wheat flour
2 c. white bread flour (up to 1/3 c. more if necessary for the dough)
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 c. milk or soymilk
1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. butter or margarine
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs or equivalent egg replacer
3/4 c. brown sugar
3 med. apples, peeled and grated
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbs. flour

Combine whole wheat flour and yeast in a large mixing bowl. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk or soymilk, 1/3 c. sugar, 1/3 c. butter or margarine, and salt until just warm and butter almost melts. Add milk mixture to the dry mixture along with eggs or egg replacer. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on high for three minutes. Stir in as much of the white flour as you can with a spoon.
On a floured surface (or just in the same bowl), knead in the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (it may take more kneading than it would with only white flour). Shape dough into a ball, and place into a lightly greased bowl (or just grease the bowl you used for kneading, and put it back in). Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about one hour.
While dough is rising, combine the 3/4 c. brown sugar, 1 Tbs. flour, and grated apples.
When dough has risen, punch it down and let it rest for a few minutes. Lightly grease the pan(s) you want to put the rolls in -- a 13x9 in. pan, 2-3 round cake pans (depending on size), or 24 muffin tins. Divide dough in half, and roll out one half at a time into a 12x8 rectangle. Cover evenly with half of the apple mixture, squeezing out excess liquid from the apples if necessary. Roll up lengthwise, so that you have a long cylinder of dough. Cut into 12 equal slices using a serrated knife. Place slices in prepared pans, cover, and let rise until doubled again, about 30 minutes. Repeat with the other half of the dough and apple mixture.
Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes. If desired, frost with a glaze made of 1 c. powdered sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 1 Tbs. milk or soymilk.

Tomorrow night I'll be performing Huang Ruo's Four Fragments for solo violin at Symphony Space (Leonard Nimoy Thalia).

Wednesday and Thursday nights ETHEL is playing Vijay Iyer's Mutations at The Kitchen.

Both really great pieces - I highly recommend these concerts.

Tomorrow night we'll be performing music of Lois Vierk and Julius Eastman at The Kitchen.

Check out Steve Smith's preview of the concert.

Hope to see some of you tomorrow night!

For those of you who were there and are wondering what you heard, here is the full program:

EMF and CBD Music present

Ne(x)tworks: Dialogics 2
Chelsea Art Museum
Saturday April 5 2PM
$15

Music of Alvin Curran, Joan La Barbara, and Miguel Frasconi



Distancing #4 (1983/2008) Miguel Frasconi

Triadic Limbo (2007) (fragment) ** Alvin Curran

Words on Water (Shimmer) (2008) ** Joan La Barbara

Endangered Species (1994 – 1996) Alvin Curran

Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights (1992) Alvin Curran
Saltando in Padella (2005) ***

Al Forno Al Sugo Al Pesto Al Vino (2001) (fragment) Alvin Curran


** There will be no pause between Triadic Limbo and Words on Water (Shimmer)

*** Fragments of Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights and Saltando in Padella will be performed simultaneously.


Notes on the program

Alvin Curran
From The Alvin Curran Fake Book: Saltando In Padella Dal Quinto Piano Mentre Passing Notes In Triadic Limbo (2008)

Ne(x)tworks is pleased to feature the work of Alvin Curran, acclaimed composer, sound artist, and longtime member of the radical improvisation group MEV. The music on today’s program is selected from The Alvin Curran Fake Book, a compilation of compositions, sketches and improvisational modules created over the past 40 years. The arrangement, entitled Saltando In Padella Dal Quinto Piano Mentre Passing Notes In Triadic Limbo, has been created by the composer specifically for Ne(x)tworks. It consists of a string of recent pieces and fragments thereof that are to be presented in modular format. For this performance Ne(x)tworks draws upon material from Triadic Limbo (2007), Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights (1992), Saltando in Padella (2005), Al Forno Al Sugo Al Pesto Al Vino (2001), and Endangered Species (1994-1996). Ne(x)tworks presents this piece in celebration of Alvin Curran's 70th year. The ensemble is also planning to release a CD of Curran’s music on the Mode label in the near future. –Cornelius Dufallo

Joan La Barbara
Words on Water (Shimmer) (2008)

Shimmer is heat rising from the desert floor, shimmer is light sparkling on water, shimmer is wraiths passing along the back walls, shimmer is the aurora borealis, shimmer is in ghostly conversations. "Words on Water (Shimmer)" (2008) is the latest scene from an opera in-progress, for multiple layers of voices, instruments and sonic "atmospheres". Here, I am exploring sounds inside the mind, impossible sounds, fragile sounds, transparent, ghostly sounds, shimmering voices and modular fragments. A series of inhales with no exhale, separated by sonic blackness, silences of varying lengths are shattered by a sudden burst of underwater wails, as the work moves from interior to exterior space and back again. - Joan La Barbara

Miguel Frasconi
Distancing #4 (1981/83, arr. 2008)

In 1981, while I was living in Toronto, my composer friend Jon Siddall returned from Mills College in CA, where he had been studying with Lou Harrison and Robert Ashley. Before leaving Mills, Jon asked Lou to buy him an eight-piece gamelan degung ensemble on his next trip to Java. Lou followed through on this promise, and all the bronze keys & pot-gongs were on their way. Toronto would soon have its very first gamelan. This was particularly exciting news for me as, at the time, I often visited the then newly formed homemade new music gamelan Son of Lion on my frequent trips to NYC. I was also in a group, The Glass Orchestra, that was a self described "free-improv glass gamelan." Upon hearing Jon’s news I immediately wrote "Study in Slendro: Distancing." This was an open-instrumentation, homophonic, steady-pulse piece exploring additive and subtractive cross rhythms expressed through permutations of a basic pentatonic scale. The first performance was solo violin. The second, a large, loud rock band. In 1983 I arranged it for the ensemble that inspired it, and "Distancing #3" was performed in the very first concert of Toronto's Evergreen Club Gamelan. Twenty-five years later, I've dusted off the score and have given it new life in an arrangement specifically for this concert.
-Miguel Frasconi

Performers:

Shelley Burgon (harp, computer)

Shelley Burgon (harp & computer) is a member of the collaborative chamber ensemble Ne(x)tworks and the band Stars Like Fleas. She has a duo with bassist Trevor Dunn. Their live, improvised record Baltimore is out now on Skirl Records. Shelley can be heard on a variety of records by people such as Stars Like Fleas, Miho Hatori, Niobe (forthcoming), Nels Andrews, and Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant. For the 2008-2009 season Shelley will join seven other stellar musicians in a collaboration with the legendary Merce Cunningham Dance Company as part of the Dia: Beacon Events series.


Yves Dharamraj (cello)

Throughout his career, Yves Dharamraj has developed a reputation as a dynamic cellist who blends an immaculate command of the instrument with deep musical understanding to express his fresh artistic interpretations. Regarded as “a strikingly mature and gifted musician” (Edmonton Sun), the young Franco-American cellist enjoys a career as concert soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician that takes him to major venues across the United States, Canada, and abroad. Recent highlights include concerto appearances with the Houston Symphony, the AAC Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall and the Juilliard Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall. Dharamraj plays a 1719 Stradivari cello, the “Duke of Marlborough,” a generous gift to The Juilliard School from Daniel Saidenberg, lent to him from the Juilliard Rare Instrument Collection.


Cornelius Dufallo (violin)

Cornelius Dufallo has received critical acclaim for his performances across the country and around the world. Currently he is director and violinist of the contemporary music ensemble Ne(x)tworks; since 2005 he has also been a violinist in the world-renowned amplified string quartet known as ETHEL. Dufallo was a founding member of the Flux quartet from 1997-2002. He has commissioned and premiered works by many of today’s most prominent composers including Kenji Bunch, Joan La Barbara, John King, Don Byron, Marcello Zarvos, and Jed Distler. His own compositions have been performed by numerous ensembles, including ETHEL, the Flux Quartet, the Cutting Edge Ensemble, and Ne(x)tworks.


Miguel Frasconi (glass, electronics)

Miguel Frasconi uses glass objects, electronics, keyboards, and "de-evolved" instruments to create music sounding from a uniquely imagined tradition. His instruments have been called "a beautiful menagerie of pealing contraptions" (TONY) and his music "lyrical and stormy" (NYT). He has worked with many of new music’s most renowned composers, including John Cage, Brian Eno, and James Tenney, while his studies have ranged from the music of South India and Indonesia to the dada and Fluxus movements. His recent activities include a new score for choreographer Alonzo King, performances with electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick, and a newly commissioned work for Gamelan Son of Lion. Visit frasconimusic.com for more info.

Stephen Gosling (piano)

Pianist Stephen Gosling’s playing has been hailed as “electric” and “luminous and poised” (New York Times), and possessing “utter clarity and conviction” (Washington Post) and “extraordinary virtuosity” (Houston Chronicle). Mr. Gosling is a member of New York New Music Ensemble, Ensemble Sospeso and Columbia Sinfonietta. He has also performed with Orpheus, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, American Composers Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Riverside Symphony, Speculum Musicae, Ensemble 21, DaCapo Chamber Players, Continuum, SEM Ensemble, the League of Composers/ISCM Chamber Players, and Da Camera of Houston. Mr. Gosling has recorded for Albany, Bridge, Centaur, CRI, Innova, Koch, Mode, Morrison Music Trust, Naxos, New World Records, and Rattle Records.


Joan La Barbara (voice)

Joan La Barbara, composer, performer, sound artist composes soundscores for film, video and dance, including a voice with electronics alphabet for Children's Television Workshop broadcast worldwide since 1977. Her multi-layered compositions have garnered awards including Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition, DAAD Artist-in-Residency in Berlin, 7 NEA grants, and numerous commissions for concert, theatre and radio, including Saint Louis Symphony, WDR-Cologne, RIAS, VPRO, Meet the Composer, and Radio Bremen. "73 Poems", her collaboration with text-artist Kenneth Goldsmith, was included in The American Century Part II: SoundWorks at The Whitney Museum of American Art. She is currently composing a new opera.
www.joanlabarbara.com


Christopher McIntyre (trombone)

Christopher McIntyre leads a multi-faceted career as performer, composer, and curator/producer. He interprets and improvises on trombone and synthesizer in projects including TILT Brass Band and SIXtet, Ne(x)tworks, 7X7 Trombone Band, and Lotet. His compositional aesthetic encompasses elements of site-specificity, "sampling" between works, and gradually shifting aural tableaux generated by improvisative strategy. He has contributed work to Lotet, TILT, Ne(x)tworks, 7X7 Trombone Band (for choreographer Yoshiko Chuma), Flexible Orchestra, and B3+ brass trio. McIntyre is also active as a curator and concert producer. He is Artistic Director of the MATA Festival, and was curator at The Stone, June 2007. Visit cmcintyre.com for more info.

...that there is more to Vegas than gambling. For example, there are huge martini glasses...



...and there is also great music.

Pianist and brilliant entrepreneur Raja Rahman of Jarrett & Raja fame has just started a fabulous chamber music series here called Las Vegas Chamber Concerts. Raja had the idea of pairing up ETHEL with Vegas superstar jazz singer Clint Holmes for the Las Vegas TruckStop™. We have had a wonderful time working with Clint. He's a great performer and a kind and generous person.

We have also had the honor of working with the very talented students of the Las Vegas Academy. This place is remarkable - imagine an entire school filled with highly gifted and self motivated students taught by dynamic and creative teachers. The Las Vegas Academy has one of the best performing arts programs I have ever seen in a school (and I have seen many schools around the United States). It's a dream school for musicians.

So I have learned a lot here in Vegas. And I didn't lose any money. One more show tonight, then we catch the night flight home.

After the show:



Saturday's recording session...we were all a bit tired:



Joseph Franklin is doing a wonderful job with Chamber Music Albuquerque.

I met some interesting people in Albuquerque:

Rahim Alhaj is a master Oud player from Baghdad.

Panaiotis is creating music that helps non-musicians to analyze and understand complex data systems.

Jack Ox is exploring the visualization of music.

Now....what the heck am I doing here (I don't gamble):



I hope it becomes clear to me soon...

Because right now I really miss this girl: