A busy weekend for lovers of contemporary music starting tonight with the PSO playing Joan Tower’s Uncommon Woman and Made in America (they’ll repeat the program on Saturday as well), Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble giving a 5 p.m. performance on Saturday at Kresge (see the previous post), and Music on the Edge presenting Norway’s Cikada Ensemble with guitarist Magnus Andersson on Saturday at 8. And don’t forget to check out Andy Druckenbrod’s article on Joan Tower in Thursday’s P-G.
Music made fresh! Come out to CMU’s Kresge Theatre this Saturday at 5pm for the Contemporary Ensemble’s fall 2010 debut, featuring a lively program (see below!) and a variety of guest student conductors, in addition to music director Ronald Zollman.
Roberto Sancasto Calvo – E-Octet
Gavin Bryars – Creamer Etudes
Keun Oh, conductor
Benoit Mernier – Les Niais de Solophe
Maestro Ronald Zollman, conductor
Sofia Gubaidulina – Concordanza for Chamber Ensemble
Jan Pellant, conductor
Hans Werner Henze – Quattro Fantasie
Daniel Nesta Curtis, conductor
Tickets: $5 for adults, $4 for seniors,
free for Carnegie Mellon students with ID
The Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble will perform a concert featuring the premiere of Christian Kriegeskotte’s new work Tycho’s Machine. The program will also include Kathryn Salfelder’s 2007 work Cathedrals, Leonardo Ballada’s Cumbres, and Vincent Persichetti’s Divertimento for Band.
About Tycho’s Machine Kriegeskotte says,
The work is inspired by the movement of the planets through the Zodiac as demonstrated by one of the fabulous wonders of mechanico-scientific art we have inherited from the Renaissance; the Armillary Sphere. While astronomical instruments of this nature have existed for millennia (let us not deny credit to the Astrolabe and the wondrous Antikythera Mechanism), it is the fabulous splendor and esotericism of Renaissance pseudo-alchemical scientific investigation that I am most influenced by.
The title, “Tycho’s Machine” is in reference to one of the Armillary Sphere’s creators, the 16th century astronomer and mathematician Tycho Brahe. Indeed, growing up I knew the device by its more common moniker, the Brahe Sphere. While the Brahe Sphere is mechanical, I am also implying that the motion of the planets across the ecliptic plane and how we perceive their motion is no less than a form of great cosmic clockwork, finely tuned and ever advancing as we hurdle through space. In my piece, which I am considering a sort of static theme and variations, I present the listener with twelve sonorities (based upon instrumentation and articulation more so than harmonic structure) that each represent a sign in the Zodiac. As we travel through the Zodiac, unique musical events fade in and out representing the planets passing through each sign. These events are ultimately dominated by a constant eighth-note pulse throughout, representing the mechanism itself as it ticks and booms behind the scenes. It is this constant pulse I am considering a sort of abstract “theme” and each of the planets and signs are the variations.
Drummer/composer Ravish Momin and Trio Tarana will be playing on the Warhol’s Sound Series on Friday, June 25 in a show that will also feature local artist DJ J. Malls. I got a chance to Skype with Ravish a few days ago and we had a free-wheeling discussion about his musical vision, the positive influence or Pittsburgh and the Warhol, and the challenges of creating innovative music in an ever more conservative industry. As always, I include the full audio below and recommend that, but here are some highlights to pique your curiosity.
Probably the biggest understatement one could make about the sound of Trio Tarana is that it reflects diverse influences. There is clearly strong influence of Indian classical music, of jazz, electronic elements, and rock. And, partly because of the instrumentation (drums, violin and cello), Trio Tarana sounds as much like a chamber music ensemble as a jazz combo. Yet, for all that diversity of influences, the music forms a seamless whole. To Ravish Momin, this develops as an organic and intuitive process which he describes as, “Taking all these influences that were latent inside me and having them come out.”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Ravish’s official bio starts with his love for poetry, then how he completed a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at CMU, and finally about studying classical Indian percussion. He speaks fondly of Pittsburgh and his time at CMU as the place where his passion for music was nurtured.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Talking about the current configuration of Trio Tarana, Ravish get’s very excited about the band’s integration of technology and why it makes sense to him.
“We’re living in this electronic age, we’re talking on Skype, we have our iPhones, we’re texting—we’re doing all of this electronic stuff, but somehow when we go to music all of a sudden it has be three guys with acoustic instruments, and we leave everything behind, all of this technology, and for me it was like, ‘Wow, why can’t I find a way to bring in all this technology in and organic way that’s not being done?’”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
One of the most compelling aspects of Trio Tarana is that no matter how far afield the players move from each other, one can always sense how it all fits into a groove, even when that groove is based on a complex, asymmetrical time signature. The idea of groove-driven jazz is very significant to Ravish, and he speaks with a lot of energy about its importance to his music.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
One of the biggest problems facing truly innovative musicians is that music industry is wary of anything that cannot be categorized and packaged simply. While this is a source of frustration for Ravish, he had positive things to say about the role the Warhol and Pittsburgh play in helping develop and audience for cutting-edge music.
“Places like the Warhol Museum are very few and far between in the United States.”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Ravish Momin and Trio Tarana play at the Warhol at 8; doors are at 7:30. Check out the Warhol Web site for more information about the show and about tickets.
Listen to the full interview.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
UPDATE: There’s lot’s of good audio and video on on Ravish Momin’s Web site, but I thought this clip summed up nicely a lot of the things we were talking about in the interview.
Carnegie Music Hall
$5 for general admission and can be purchased in advance online at music.cmu.edu. College students w/valid ID receive FREE admission!
Carnegie Mellon’s Wind Ensemble presents a lively program featuring two world premieres: Professor Marilyn Taft Thomas’ Snapshots of a Great City (transcription by director Denis Colwell), and Scatterbrain by composition student Alex Weston (BFA ’11). Other contemporary works will include Ticheli’s Blue Shades, Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Whitacre’s October, and High Flight, a high energy piece commissioned by the U.S. Air Force Band. The concert begins at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 24 in Oakland’s Carnegie Music Hall.
Tickets are $5 for general admission and can be purchased in advance online at http://music.cmu.edu. College students w/valid ID receive FREE admission!
This Saturday, March 13, marks the last occasion to see the very unique HiTEC, an ensemble of Pittsburgh musicians and performers utilizing instruction pieces, chance, improvisation, theatrics, and a giant spinning Wheel-of-Fortune. Intrigued? Well, you should be and you probably come to this event, because it is literally your last chance to see the act. Extensive detail below…
HiTEC (Histrionic Thought Experiment Cooperative),
the experimental orchestra founded by
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
will present its last ‘UNCERT’ (Uncertainty Concert), Saturday, March 13, 2010, 8PM (doors open 7:30PM), at the Kresge Recital Hall
in the CFA (Center for Fine Arts) at CMU (Carnegie Mellon University)
- $6.00 suggested donation, free to CMU students. (more…)
Hear world premieres by four up-and-coming Carnegie Mellon student composers this Wednesday, February 17 at 8 p.m. in Oakland’s Carnegie Music Hall. Along with guest conductors Tobias Volkmann and Jan Pellant, music director Ronald Zollman will lead the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic in this concert of original music that also will feature soprano Danielle Messina on Barber’s classic Knoxville, Summer of 1915.
Tickets are $5 general admission, $4 senior citizens and free to all students with ID. Visit music.cmu.edu for more information.
No surprise there as Pitt and CMU are both closed today. Stay tuned for information about when this concert will be rescheduled. With the premiere of a new work by Marilyn Taft Thomas, we’ll all be anxious to find out.
Assuming we thaw out eventually, there is a lot of new music on tap for the month of February and I’m still finding out about more events. I’ve also got some very cool interviews in the can that I’ll be posting imminently (i.e., as soon as I’ve finished editing them down): one with Emily Pinkerton and Patrick Burke about their collaborative composition for NOW and one with super flutist Lindsey J. Goodman about her upcoming recital with MOTE. So keep checking in right here and in the meantime, stay warm.
Director Denis Colwell leads the Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble in a program that features Rorem’s Sinfornia (1957), Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920) and Gordon Jacob’s Old Wine in New Bottles (1960). The concert begins at 8 pm. Monday, February 8 on CMU’s campus in the College of Fine Arts’ Kresge Theatre. This event is free and open to the public.
A highlight on the program is the world premiere of a newly transcribed Snapshots of a Great City (2008) by Marilyn Taft Thomas, a professor of composition and music theory at Carnegie Mellon.
Featuring all Carnegie Mellon School of Music ensembles and select student and faculty soloists, the 2010 Collage Concert will be a feast for the senses! This 90-minute non-stop concert will keep audience members at the edge of their seats as performers appear and disappear from various positions within the concert hall. In one concert, experience the dazzling array of music produced at Carnegie Mellon, including Baroque, Classical, Contemporary, Vocal, Jazz and more in a single performance. Faculty soloists include violinist Cyrus Forough, soprano Laura Knoop Very, pianistEnrique Graf and PSO principal clarinet Michael Rusinek. You won’t want to miss this one-night-only extravaganza of sound produced by Carnegie Mellon’s School of Music and staged by acclaimed director and professor of drama, Gregory Lehane.
When:
8 p.m. Friday, February 12, 2010
Where:
Soldiers & Sailors Auditorium
4141 Fifth Avenue (in Oakland)
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Cost:
$15 general admission
$12 senior citizens
$10 students
Tickets can be purchased in advance via Web
Phone: 412.268.2383 (School of Music’s Concert Line)
Web: Buy tickets online with your credit card at http://music.cmu.edu. Click on ‘Box Office’ to start your order!
On-Site: Tickets will also be available (cash only) at Soldiers & Sailors one hour prior to the performance – at 7:00 p.m., February 12.
