News about contemporary music in Pittsburgh
| October 6, 2009 | ||
| 8:00 pm |
For tickets call 412-237-8300 or visit www.ticketweb.com
The Andy Warhol Museum and the New Hazlett Theater present Diamanda Galas in concert. Find out more.
Andy Druckenbrod published this over at Classical Musings. Here’s a taste:
“And after playing some excerpts of The Beatle’s “Revolution 9″ during the show, the group ended the night with an amazing transcription of the famous experimental track from “the White Album.” Yes, they performed tape loops and all, in a totally live performance conducted expertly by Alan Pierson.”
It’s official. There’s more new music going on then I can keep up with. You can find previews of upcoming concerts by the Imani Winds at the PG, The Necks from City Paper, and don’t skip PNMNet’s interview with Mary Rowell and Geoff Burleson posted below.
| February 17, 2009 | ||
| 8:00 pm |
The Austalian free improv group performs at the Warhol with the Ben Opie Trio as part of the Warhol’s Sounds series.
Violinist Mary Rowell and pianist Geoffrey Burleson will perform at the Warhol on Saturday night (Feb. 21st ) as part of the Music on the Edge/ Warhol collaboration. Mary and Geoff answered some questions via e-mail about their upcoming program, how they approach their art, and where they see contemporary music headed, and they don’t hold back.
PNMN: Your Music on the Edge program at the Warhol covers a really wide range of styles, from Vincent Persichetti to Arvo Pärt to Amy Kohn… those are three very different artists right there. Do you see any overarching theme for the program or was the goal more to represent the variety of contemporary music?
MR: Our programming is based on our own current musical interests with an eye toward interesting juxtapositions that come about by creating a program from these interests. The obvious similarities of George Antheil, Vincent Perschetti and Julia Wolfe of a compositional order of energy and a certain type of urban-ness. Eve Beglarian’s fascination with tone coloring and finding melody and harmony in what seems like noise is complimented by Arvo Pärt’s chant-like Fratres .The whimsical music hall quality of Amy Kohn’s music is touched with a wondrous quality yet can be tied with Antheil’s popular song qualities. Jon Appleton, known for his innovative work and teaching in the electronic medium, is represented here with a new sonata that is reminiscent of Darius Milhaud; tonal, lush and evoking early swing music. I suppose all the program lacks is atonality… It certainly offers many different music voices
GB: One by now very well-established 20th/21st-century musical genre is that of the wacky-stylistic-juxtaposition piece. George Antheil helped to codify this genre in his 1923 Sonata No. 2 for Violin, Piano and Drum, with which we open the program. Phrases of ragtime, stride, sentimental popular song, and grandiose romanticism collide with each other, but are linked by use of the same motifs, and are satirically charged via sudden, unexpected dissonances. Just when you expect a final cadence in F Major, the piano enters with industrial music, with clusters and single notes in rhythmic patterns evoking the music of factory machines. But the piece ends with a soft, plaintive duet between the violin and drums. The juxtapositions within this piece set up the myriad contrasts for the rest of our program, taken from the sublime crazy quilt of American Music: the beautifully crafted, distinctive classicism and romanticism of Persichetti; the intensely spiritual music of Pärt, with its allusions to both ancient chant and to the Baroque Chaconne; the avant-pop of Amy Kohn…
Continue Reading “Mary Rowell and Geoffrey Burleson Tell Us How They Really Feel”