Editor’s note: Many thanks to Patrick Burke and Missy Mazzoli for participating in our first ever (successfully recorded) video chat. We’ve been trying to work this feature into the blog for a while now and I can’t think of a better way to introduce it than the conversation that follows. Enjoy!
Missy Mazzoli, a New York composer, comes to Pittsburgh with her group Victoire for their first performance outside of NYC. I interviewed her via Skype to talk about the group, the music, genre, and women in music, among other things.
Listen to Victoire’s A Door into the Dark
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Check out Matt Marks’s video I Don’t Have Any Funhere.
Composer Ned McGowan sat down with Pittsburgh New Music Net to talk about his new commission for the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.
PNME premieres McGowan’s new commission on Friday, July 30 & Saturday, July 31 at City Theatre (1300 Bingham, the South Side). Both concerts start at 8PM. Complete details are at www.pnme.org.
L-R: Kevin Noe, Lindsey J. Goodman, Nathalie Shaw, Norbert Lewandowski, Conor Hanick
On July 14 I had the very enjoyable opportunity to talk with several outstanding musicians of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. We covered a lot of ground, including their vision for the venerable Pittsburgh ensemble, the challenges of the summer schedule, harsh financial realities the organization faces, the nature of multimedia performance, and the occasional bits of fun they are able to squeeze in during their few available breaks. It probably comes as no surprise that these artists, so obviously thoughtful and energetic when it comes to their performance, are just as thoughtful and energetic when it comes to discussing their art.
I’ve split the video up into two segments to appease the YouTube gods. A small caveat that during the first few minutes of Part I there were some unwanted bleeps and bloops from the second camera as we were adjusting settings, so apologies. It goes away pretty quickly and the content was too good for me to cut it out. I’d attribute the problems to blogging on a shoestring budget, but that would imply the existence of a budget, so, ya know… In any case, I’m sure you will enjoy hearing what your PNME musicians have to say about the amazing music they bring to our city.
PNME’s summer season continues through the end of July, so check it out. And remember that “first limers” get in free!
Part I: Musical Challenges, A Typical Day, Hopes for the Future
Part II: Financial Challenges, Multimedia, Having Fun
On Friday, July 16, 2010, On Fillmore will bring their unique style of music to the Warhol Museum. I’m not exactly sure what to call it: extremely slow jazz, soundtrack music, haunting music. Since I’m hardly a writer, I won’t need to worry about inventing a term for what they do. But it would be wise for you to check it out.
The duo of percussionist Glenn Kotche (Wilco, Loose Fur) and bassist Darin Gray (Grand Ulena, Jim O’Rourke) have concocted an incredible sound world on their latest record, Extended Vacation, which is full of creeping vibraphone and bass lines, homemade percussion, and man-made bird calls. While on the record marching bands and dirty percussion blast against the somber vibe/bass lines, the duo will strip it down to pitched and unpitched percussion and upright bass. Pieces from all three of their records will be performed.
On Fillmore @ The Warhol Museum July 16, 2010 8pm-10pm Tickets $12, call 412.237.8300 for more information
I had the pleasure to interview Darin Gray and the audio artifact is below.
On the compositional process, juxtaposed rhythms, and the live set up
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On guest Dede Sampaio and his bird calls
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On homemade instruments and implements
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On soundtracks and recent musical interests
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If you’ve been a composer or performer of new music in the last forty years, John Duffy has had a positive impact on your career whether you know it or not. He continues to be a prolific composer of music for theater, the concert hall, and the operatic stage. He founded Meet the Composer and served as that organization’s president for many years. At the tender age of 84, he leads the John Duffy Composers Institute, a two-week program held under the auspices of the Virginia Arts Festival that is devoted to nurturing composers and performers of contemporary opera.
I had the distinct privilege of being a Composer Fellow at the 2010 John Duffy Composers Institute and could easily (and may still) devote an entire post to the value of that experience, but far and away, one of the best parts was working with John himself. If you ask John why he started the Institute his answer is simple: “I love music, and I love theatre.” This love for his art permeates everything he does as a composer and stalwart advocate for other composers.
Near the end of our two weeks in Virginia, I sat down with John and let the camcorder roll as we talked about his many efforts in the service of American music, his vision for propagating new American opera, and his ongoing creative activity. I’ve divided our conversation into three segments and posted the video after the jump. (more…)
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.”
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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.
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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?’”
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
Legendary producer Martin Bisi will be in Pittsburgh on Sunday night for a performance at the Brillobox. Martin’s producer credits include Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Africa Bambaataa, The Dresden Dolls, Herbie Hancock (Rockit), Boredoms, and many other varied and significant artists. This week I had a chance to video chat with Martin about his upcoming show in Pittsburgh and get his thoughts on the challenges of moving between studio and live work, reflections on working with John Zorn, Sonic Youth, and much more. As always, you are welcome to listen to the raudio (posted below, my questions got a little rambly in places, so sorry…). In the meantime, here are some highlights. The show is May 2 at the Brillobox starting at 9 p.m. and includes local standouts Dave Bernabo + Assembly and Mandrake Project. Admission is a mere $6 at the door.
Here is Martin’s description of what to expect from Sunday’s show.
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Talking about the differences between studio work and live work led pretty naturally to discussing some of the motivations behind his recent CD release, Sirens of the Apocalypse.
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John Zorn’s name and musical contributions came up frequently, especially as an example of someone who is able to see the big picture artistically and bring others on board. Martin had some interesting perspectives on why Zorn was able to accomplish all that he did.
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When I asked Martin about up and coming artists he had some surprising insights on why certain groups like Sonic Youth and Dresden Dolls have been able to put their ideas across successfully.
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Joining Martin for the Brillobox show are Brian Viglione of Dresden Dolls on drums and Michael Kaminski (ex-Cop Shoot Cop). Hope to see you there.
Listen to the full interview. (Please note that this started as an effort to produce a video chat, but the video component didn’t quite work out. Hopefully we’ll have this working for future interviews.)
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On the Saturday morning that Snowmageddon unleashed its fury on the region I had the pleasure of video chatting with flutist extraordinaire Lindsey J. Goodman about her upcoming Music on the Edge recital at the Warhol. Well known to local new music audiences for her exquisite performances with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Lindsey will share a recital with Anthony Coleman on February 27. She’ll perform three pieces for flute and electroacoustics—by Mathew Rosenblum, Jacob Ter Veldhuis and Russell Pinkston—and the world premiere of a solo flute piece by Grant Cooper. In the following audio interview, Lindsey talks about the different pieces on the program, her love for electroacoustic elements, and what she looks for when she’s thinking about tackling a new piece. She also gives a little preview on the upcoming PNME season.
As always, I encourage you to listen to the whole interview.
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And here are some excerpts from the full interview. First of all, I asked Lindsey to describe what was on her program.
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When I asked Lindsey about how her affinity for electroacoustic elements developed, her thoughts ranged from being able to perform “chamber music for one person” to how this genre is particularly relevant to our technological society.
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Russell Pinkston’s Lizamander is for flute and MaxMSP and Lindsey discussed both the intense satisfaction and the risks of working with live signal processing.
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Finally, Lindesy gave us a preview of the upcoming PNME season as well as some her new projects which include concerto performances and (maybe, possibly) recording projects.
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I recently sat down with Pittsburgh music power couple Patrick Burke and Emily Pinkerton. Patrick teaches composition and theory at Duquesne and is a member of the New York-based NOW Ensemble and Emily is well known as a singer-songwriter for her unique blend of American and Chilean folk music (she also has great operatic chops, but that’s a story for another time). Emily and Patrick are collaborating on a new piece for NOW called Red Rocking Chair, based on an Appalachian folk song by the same name (also known as “Sugar Babe”), and the new work will be premiered by now at NYC’s North River Music series on February 25. Red Rocking Chair combines Emily’s crystal-clear voice and nimble banjo picking with the existing NOW instrumentation. The video below includes Patrick and Emily talking about the process of composing the work as well as a preview of the piece. I think you’ll really enjoy it, and if you’re an ex pat Burgher in New York, be sure to catch NOW on February 25.
Pianist Bruce Brubaker will give a varied recital at CMU’s Kresge Recital Hall on Tuesday Thursday, October 27 at 8 p.m. The free concert will include music by Philip Glass, Alvin Curran, and Alvin Lucier as well as works by Haydn and Chopin. I had the opportunity to interview Bruce (via Skype) and I asked him about his upcoming concert at CMU, his approaches to programming, teaching, working with composers, and many other topics. Not surprisingly, Bruce has thought long and hard about all these issues and he’s not at all shy about giving answers, even when they might be a little controversial. I recommend listening to the full interview (at the bottom of the post), but I’ve excerpted some highlights below.
First, here’s Burce’s take on the program.
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Bruce shared some insights on how internet services like Last FM or Pandora effect what music we’re exposed to and this turned the discussion toward how that dynamic could effect programming in general.
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In the course of our conversation, it became clear to me that Bruce Brubaker’s approach to programming is infused with a teacher’s passion for communicating ideas with clarity and freshness. When I brought up this idea of a pedagogical approach to programming, his response about the sometimes amorphous boundary between when you are learning and when you are teaching was particularly insightful.
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When we discussed the topic of collaboration between composers and performers, Bruce once again surprised me with a perspective I couldn’t recall having heard before from a performer, bur which also made a lot of sense.
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Bruce Brubaker’s recital will include time for Q and A at the end, and I have a feeling you will really want to stick around for that.
Full Interview
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