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.”
REMINDER: VOX CANCELED
This has been posted and e-mailed to a number of outlets, but if you missed it, there’s no Vox concert for Music on the Edge tonight.
Deadline to Buy New Music Day-pass is March 3
If you’ve been thinking about purchasing a New Music Day-pass to hear the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo and IonSound Project on March 8, you’ll need to do so by March 3. More details here (opens pdf).
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.
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… (more…)
While most of the media attention this week is deservedly on the PSO’s “Special Concerts” with John Adams, there’s still more new music happening over the weekend. Music on the Edge presents the remarkable clarinetist Jean Kopperud and the equally remarkable Stephen Gosling on piano. The duo will perform an entire recital of premieres, including a new piece by Eric Moe and several short pieces by David Felder for clarinet, bass clarinet, and processed sound. If you were at the MOTE concert honoring Eugene Phillips last January, you may remember that Felder was also featured as Lehar composer-in-residence and his sonically rich works for acoustic instruments and live electronics were very well received.
Also, MOTE is offering everyone who shows up a free cup of hot chocolate (even though by Saturday the forecast is calling for a high of 18° …woohoo!) so how can you go wrong?
(Full disclosure: promoting MOTE is part of my job at Pitt, and I also like hot chocolate.)
| January 28, 2009 | ||
| 9:30 pm |
Tickets are $10 at the door. With special guest Margaret Cox.
This concert is co-sponsored with Music on the Edge.
No Triangle are a Berlin-based trio of improvisers which includes Magda Mayas (inside piano), Anthea Caddy (cello) and Annette Krebs (guitar and electronics). Their abstract sound is characterized by precise shifts, accelerations and disruptions, spanning the genres of chamber music, noise, musique concrete, and improvisation. Developing their own idiosyncratic language – based on the articulation of gesamtklang (total sound), as opposed to just pitch and harmony -the trio explores texture, space and instrument, generating a intertwining relationship of the electronic and the acoustic. (more…)
| February 28, 2009 | ||
| 8:00 pm |
UPDATE: This program has been canceled.
| February 21, 2009 | ||
| 8:00 pm |
Performing music by George Antheil, Amy Kohn, Preston Stahly, Vincert Persichetti, Julia Wolfe, and Arvo Pärt
Tickets purchased in advance through ProArts: $10 for general admission and $5 for students and seniors,
Call 412-394-3353 or visit www.proartstickets.org. Service fees apply.
Tickets at the door: $15 and $8
Pitt students: Free with ID.
January will be full of great contemporary music with two concerts by Music on the Edge, two concerts from the PSO featuring the music of John Adams, and HiTEC, a 22-member improvisation orchestra. Check out the Events Calendar here.
| January 17, 2009 | ||
| 8:00 pm |
Pitt’s Music on the Edge present’s clarinetist Jean Kopperud and Pianist Stephen Gosling for a recital of premieres they’re calling “Rated X.” Kopperud commissioned several of her favorite composers (including Pittsburgh’s own Eric Moe) to right pieces inspired by extreme conditions. Find out more at Pitt’s Department of Music Events Calendar.