Pittsburgh New Music Net

Read about it here.

So in case this slipped past you in the holiday rush, new music events made an impressive showing in Andy Druckenbrod’s top 10 classical concerts of the year list: Music on the Edge (Newband), Opera Theater of Pittsburgh (Ricky Ian Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice), Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appetit), and the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival (music of Solomon Rosowsky). Check out the full article for Andy’s explanations.

So it was a great year for New Music in Pittsburgh, and as those of you who follow this blog regularly know, that was only the tip of the iceberg. And 2012? Staritn’ off with a bang. check out the repopulated events calendar and you’ll see what I mean.

And speaking of starting off with a bang, don’t miss Dave Bernabo’s very thorough interview with League of the Unsound Sound co-founders David Smooke and Ken Ueno. LotUS comes to the Warhol next Saturday night.

Update: and I almost forgot this profile of new music performer extraordinaire Rob Frankenberry. Let’s have a virtual show of hands for how many of us have had our music played beautifully by Rob! Yeah!

I feel fine! Yeah, I know I disappeared for a while after the IonSound Project. I was really tired, OK? And new music stuff tends to slow down a bit in December when presenters work more holiday fare into their programs anyway. But, good news! You can go to a holiday concert this weekend and hear new music. Oakland Girls Choir is performing in Pittsburgh on Friday and Saturday night and those programs will include the premiere of a new song cycle by Andy Kohn, composer, bassist with the Opera/Ballet Orchestra, and Professor of Music at WVU. Andy’s new work will feature Laura Knoop Very, soprano, and Raymond Very, tenor.

As a proud papa of an Oakland Girls Training Choir member, I know first hand what a treasure OGC is for our city, and it’s great that they are celebrating the season by unveiling a new composition by a Pittsburgh composer. Here’s more information about the concert.

On another subject, I just find out that a film I scored for Will Zavala is screening at the Melwood Screening Room this Tuesday night for this month’s Film Kitchen. It’s called Virgil Cantini: The Artist in Public and features lots of Cantini’s public art that you have probably seen around town without necessarily knowing who made it. Check it out if you can.

IonSound Project presents the first works from their Commissions for the Future project this Sunday night.

IonSound Project’s concert this Sunday would strike me as particularly significant even if I didn’t have a new piece on the program (but yes, it helps!). There are in fact, three new works on the concert, all by Pittsburgh composers: Christian Kriegeskotte, Nizan Leibovich, and myself. That in and of itself is important, since it illustrates once again that the Burgh is a center for the creation—not just the consumption—of art. But more important still is the reason why there are three new works on this concert, namely IonSound Project’s new Commissions for the Future program. IonSounders have been actively engaging members of the community to support commissions for new works and this is the first program to showcase the fruits of their efforts. It’s a great start to what we hope will grow into an ongoing partnership between a genuinely excellent new music ensemble and the local community.

As usual, the concert will be a treat to for the eyes and the ears. All the musical compositions reference visual art that will be projected on screen, and Rob Frankenberry’s transcription of  Pictures at an Exhibition will feature art by children from the Falk School. My piece is actually a collaboration with artist Ryan Day and his stunning digital animation is being presented for the first time as well. I hope you can come out and join us at Pitt’s Bellefield Hall Auditorium on Sunday night at 7. Tickets are $15 and $10 and you can learn more about the program here.

Elisa and Elisa in Wheeling.

Cellist extraordinaire Elisa Kohanski will be one of two soloists in Wheeling Symphony Orchestra’s premiere of Richard Danielpour’s Come Up from the Fields, Father. It’s a one night only Veteran’s Day celebration which you can find out more about here.

I’m also grateful to Michael Ceurvorst for sending me information about the CMU student composers concert this Saturday, Nov. 12 , 6 p.m. at Alumni Hall. It’s a free concert and open to the public and features all new works. Here’s more info about that event on FB. Check it out, if you can.

Let’s see, what else? Oh yeah. Tomorrow is Nigel Tufnel Day…

Martin Bisi plays Thunderbird on November 9th.

… and you’d be walking through the woods and the trees would begin to sing a song—well several songs at once really—but they were all related in a way that you couldn’t quite put your finger on? Sort of like Martin Bisi’s new song, “Suffer the Moon”?

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Those crazy trees! But that reminds me: Martin Bisi is playing a set at Thunderbird on Wednesday, November 9th at 9 p.m. It’s a 21 plus show with Velcro Shoes and Maurice Rickard and you can find out more about it here.

The Music on the Edge Morton Feldman Symposium and Mini-Festival kicks off at Wood Street Galleries tonight at 8 p.m. with a concert featuring cellist Jonathan Golove and and pianist Amy Williams performing Patterns in a Chromatic Field. The two-part symposium takes place at Pitt’s Music Building tomorrow starting at 10 and , and the final event is a performance of Crippled Symmetry at 8 p.m. back at Wood Street Galleries with Amy Williams and Jan Williams, Amy’ father and the percussionist who premiered many of Feldman’s works, and the irrepressible Lindsey Goodman on flute.

It’s gonna be a great two days of music and insight into one of the true masters of the late 20th century. And don’t miss the fantastic preview by Mike Shanley in the City Paper that gives us a window into Jan and Amy Williams’ personal interactions with Feldman.

loadbang returns to Pittsburgh on October 27th.

Maybe it’s ’cause I’m a retired trombone player who wishes I could have played like Will Lang. Ever. Maybe it’s that and how the combination of trumpet, trombone, voice, and bass clarinet is such a refreshing sound for new music in a “Pierrot (or subset thereof) + percussion” world. Maybe it’s because Andy Kozar is a native of the Burgh. Maybe it’s because loadbang is just really, really good. Probably that.

loadbang is in Pittsburgh, this Thursday night at CMU. Here are the details of their show. Have I crossed the line into hype? Yes. Yes I have.

This concert is getting a lot of buzz for a lot of good reasons. Here’s David Bernabo’s preview, and here’s a City Paper interview with Ben Opie.

Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble will be hosting An Evening with Steven Stucky at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 20 at the James Laughlin Music Center Welker Room, Chatham University. The $50 per person fundraiser will benefit PNME. Join members of the PNME team for a special evening featuring music, refreshments, and an opportunity to spend time with Steven Stucky. It’s great that Steven Stucky is extending himself to support new music and Pittsburgh, and it’s an excellent opportunity to support Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. Complete details available here.