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American Composers Alliance
As a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting contemporary music, ACA is a publisher-affiliate of BMI, archivist, and concert presenter, with a history dating to 1937. Our catalog of works is one of the most unique and diverse collections of American music in the United States and includes compositions from the early 1900s to the present day by such composers as Miriam Gideon, Robert Helps, Otto Luening, Daniel Pinkham, Dane Rudhyar, Halsey Stevens, Joan Tower, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Charles Wuorinen, and many others.
ACA composer Richard
Cameron-Wolfe will present a lecture-performance in the Raymond Jonson
Gallery of the University of New Mexico Art Museum in Albuquerque on
Tuesday, October 19, at 5:30PM, titled Dane Rudhyar and the Meta-Physics of Dissonance, in conjunction with the exhibition To Form from Air: Music and the Art of Raymond Jonson.
Jonson was founder of the New Mexico-based Transcendental Painting
Group, of which the composer, Dane Rudhyar was a member. The program will include musical
examples of the evolving concept of dissonance from the last 1,500
years, concluding with Rudhyar's 1967 Tetragram # 9, "Summer Nights".
The upcoming season of the Elkhart County Symphony of Elkhart, Indiana, with music director and conductor, Brian Groner (at left), includes a concert of charming orchestra works, including "Sunday Comics" by ACA composer, Lee Gannon (1960-1996), and Vivaldi, at Northridge High School, in Middlebury, Indiana, on March 20, 2011 at 4:00pm.
The New Juilliard Ensemble, now in its 18th season and led
by founder and conductor Joel Sachs, opens its four-concert
season on Saturday, September 25 at 8 PM in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater(155 West 65th Street, New York City). The concert features the U.S. premieres of Salvatore
Sciarrino's L'Archeologia del Telefono (2005); Philip Cashian's Skein
(2005); and Danish composer Poul Ruders'Kafkapriccio (2007-08);
and the New York premiere of Elliott Schwartz's Chamber Concerto III:Another View (2006-07), in honor of the composer's 75th
birthday year; plus Harold Meltzer'sVirginal (2002) for harpsichord and ensemble.
Two Watterson Poems for SATB chorus and percussion By Elliott Schwartz Text by William Watterson
Cat Fall
I. Outside the feral mother won’t let me near though when I call she hears me; she never quite finishes her food. She covers the bowl with grass, Then arranges sticks and stones around it in patterns I do not understand.
Only she knows what she means.
II. Inside the paws of the kitten who survived explore the keyboard of an old piano, striking notes randomly like a row by Schoenberg never to be repeated. Music at the edge, at the edge music which will not harden into form.
A gust rattles the windowpane.
On the roof the rain is playing its small silver triangle.
III. Yellow eyes stare up into my eyes, their vacancy unwordable as song…
Seminar
They watch me like a t.v. turned down low and now I am watching them watch me, their faces blank as endpapers in books they will never read.
I am, apparently, a rerun, just words but no music, my “teacher knows best” voice a drag no matter how much I modulate, a one-man show less commercial interruptions, my rating lower than I know.
When the hour ends I unplug myself, my cord a prehensile tail that slithers like a whip.
When the screen goes dark the Keats ode fails like perfect flora frozen in the shale.
August 9th, 2010 marks the 45th Anniversary of a small summer
conference designed to teach electronic music and expose the new Moog
synthesizer to a new world of music composers and performers. The Bob Moog Foundation Archive is focusing on this
relatively unknown event, to bring a little clearer understanding of
the way things were in the very early days of the Moog
synthesizer. Using documents, photos and tapes from the Archive – plus
recollections from a few who were there – Moog historian Brian Kehew presents a look at the “Electronic Music Workshop” of August 1965. Some of the composers who attended the first Moog conference include Robert Ceely, Margaret Fairlie-Kennedy, Franklin Morris, and Art Hunkins.
Clarice Assad, composer/vocalist with Eileen Mack, clarinet at the ACA Festival 2010Clarice Assad will be performing an all new program at the Caramoor Jazz Festival -- an homage to some of her favorite Brazilian artists
such as Elis Regina, Gal Costa, Caetano
Veloso, Sueli Costa, among others. The
show was crafted to showcase different rhythmic nuances of Brazilian music, mixed with pop and jazz
elements. Assad will be joined by percussionists Keita Ogawa & Yousif
Sheronick.
The inspiration of ancient Greek music, verse, and movement provided
the background setting, and the idea of blessedness as wholeness is
pursued. In this work, the positive but realistic theology of
Beatitudes concludes with an "outburst of joy" an homage to Messiaen.
April, 1998, Chatlottesville, VA; Geraldine and Hal Archer, Margeret Mitchell.
Recording:
Available from composer
The fast upbeat
Danza reflects the influences of African Rhythms impacting on English
contradance. The middle movement,calm and expecting, was inspired by
beatitude, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"
Musical permutations to several popular songs enliven the final
movement.
Intended primairly for intermediate level pianists, these three minatures are musical portraits of young friends and relatives of the composer. The conclusion of each piece gives the pianist something lively to do, while characterizing the portrait.
The geometric patterns involving circles at the beginning of each of the four movements mirror a relationship between two people; the performers map out these interpersonal moods.
The bassoonist becomes increasingly drawn to the 'Doppelanger' of the electronic ghosts. The phantom player responds by imitating and a game comes about. The winner is heard at the works end!
The Double Kalvier (piano) and Synklavier (Synthesizer) explains the title of this piece. Thematic fragments of Schumann's Fantasie in C, op. 17 become the basis for thematic and stylistic transformation.
Historical Sonata-Allegro form involves duality, usually concerning two themes of contrasting character in close proximity. The duality of ideas in this work concerns the use of tonal/non-tonal patterns as a kind analog of this sonata principal.
Each of the five Preludes centers around a quote, intentionally bent. The listener must guess the source, takrn from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods.
With personal and
professional ties to Potsdam, the composer was inspired as much by
resonance surrounding Sans Souci as by the lyric beauty of the Viola
d'amore. This two music work is a duralistic reflection on the earthly/
heavenly continuum of light and shadow, sorrow and joy,as intermingled
as the continuum of colors in a rainbow.
The Baroque flute was championed by Quantz, in the employ of Frederick
the Great at San Souci (and Rheinsberg). Borrowing musical 'affections'
from his time, as well as musical quotes from his own compositions,
this work also contains variations on a theme given to Bach by the
King, when the venerable composer visited Sans Souci.
Julian of Norwich wrote Showings, based on sixteen visions of God, occuringas as she was extreamly ill. As an anchoress, a solitairy, who is often pictured with her sole compainion, a cat, her books were the first to be written in England by a woman.
A caged bird, beating his wings in desperation, provides the program. A commentary on the futility of war, with the third and final movement, one of hope: "Keep a green bough on your heart and a singing bird shall come."
This work
represents an "Adieux" at the turn of the millenium, though its
structural use of musicla quotes from European and American sources. A
lighthouse as a metaphoric beacon provides the program for the first
movement. The second movement is Burlesque on a theme by Johann Stamitz
(The composer honors Mannheim through the usage; she returns to
Mannheim each spring.) An Elegia concludes the work, with the radiant
lighthouse ance more brought to mind in an incantation.
Inspired by a
cummings phrase,"..the leaping greenly spirits of trees.."the
frolicsome first movement gives way to a musical ballgame in movement
two. A boisterous concluding Lander sustains a light mood, while a
theme from Beethoven's Fidelio is cited: "Es sucht der Bruder."Brother
seeks brothers."
The "water" of
humanity, that of weepeing, joins the lamentoso setting of this work.
Envisaging the sweep of waves, an ebb and flow, and rippling movement,
the compositional preoccupation with water music in the flow of time,
measured and unendless, is addressed.
The Society for Composers, Inc., celebrates the 25-year anniversary of
its compilation album series through the release of Mosaic, a CD
compilation on the Navona
Records label, with music by Margaret Fairlie-Kennedy, Sally Reid, Tasos
Stylianou, Stephen Yip, and others. Allmusic's review excerpt:
"It's not a contest, but the best piece on the disc appears to be Undertow,
a duet for violin and piano by Margaret
Fairlie-Kennedy. Fairlie-Kennedy
has a long career as a composer and apparently began utilizing
serialism early but ran into a wall with it and spent some two decades
in silence. When she resumed, it was with a looser application of her
technique; this piece is still technically very solid, yet it is a
dazzling, complex work that moves in a single-minded direction and has a
definitive impact." See full review here.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, September, 1999 (in conjunction with the Philadelphia Classical Symphony)
Recording:
contact composer
After Maxfield Parrish's 'Arizona,' 1950, winner in competition sponsored by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Classical Symphony
Univ.of Tennesee at Chattanooga/Southeastern Composers League Forum
High Flight' is a poem by John Gillespie Magee Jr. an American who joined the Canadian Royal Air Force in 1940 to be of service in World War 11. During further training in the UK he wrote 'High Flight' at age 19, jotting it on the back of a letter to his
Conference
Director, Mario
Davidovsky andMusic
Director, James Baker announce the 2010 Composers Conference at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
Founded in 1945, the
Chamber Music Center gives amateur chamber musicians and singers
the
opportunity to participate in ensembles coached by professional
faculty
musicians, live and socialize with composers from the Composers
Conference, and play chamber music informally with old and new
friends.
The shared experience and synergy of these diverse
musicians create
a unique musical community and a very special musical opportunity
for all
the participants.
For
summer 2010 (July 18 - August 1), we welcome guest composers Melinda
Wagner
and Michael Gandolfi to the Composers Conference. In addition, our
professional faculty performers will present concerts of traditional
and contemporary repertoire featuring the music of ten Composers
Conference Fellows. All concerts are free and open to the public.
At Greenwich House, 46 Barrow St., the DownTown Ensemble will
perform improvisatory works by the noted jazz composer Carla Bley. The
work will be realized in the improvisational approach developed during the
heyday of downtown new music going on in SoHo in the 70s into the 80s. The
DownTown Ensemble is one of the last surviving performing groups associated
with the musical styles that emerged around loft concerts at legendary spaces
such as The Kitchen, Experimental Intermedia, The Alternative Museum, The
Clocktower, etc. The featured performers will be Daniel Goode, Larry
Polansky, and Peter Zummo.
Talea will explore constellations, orbits, and particles of a world
beyond everyday life through a program of works inspired by these element. From
classic experimentalists John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen to today's
masters, Mario Garuti, Alex Mincek and Beat Furrer, this concert will transport
you.
MOMA SUMMERGARDEN CONCERTS presents Juilliard Concert II: New Music for Strings and Piano at MOMA garden, on West 54th St. between 5th-6th Ave.
Members of the New Juilliard Ensemble: Alicia Choi, violin; Heidi Schaul-Yoder,
violin; Eva Gerard, viola; Mimi Yu, cello; Hsiang John Tu, piano will perform Eleanor Cory, String Quartet no. 3 (2009) World premiere; David Snow, Nice Girls Don’t (2002) World premiere; Laura Elise Schwendinger, Song for Andrew (2008) New York premiere; Errollyn Wallen, Music for Tigers (2006) Western Hemisphere premiere
Summergarden is free and
seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. The Sculpture Garden may close
if attendance reaches maximum capacity. Entrance to Summergarden is through the
Sculpture Garden gate on West Fifty-fourth Street between Fifth and Sixth
avenues. The Sculpture Garden opens at 7:00 p.m., and concerts start at 8:00
p.m. and run approximately one hour to ninety minutes. The Sculpture Garden
closes at 10:00 p.m. In the event of rain, concerts will be held in The Agnes
Gund Garden Lobby, and the Museum’s Fifty-fourth Street entrance will open at
7:30 p.m. The exhibition galleries are closed during Summergarden.
Celebration is in four movements which
can be roughly described as
animated, intense, abstract, and jazzy. Balance
starts simply with short rocking gestures. These build up to a bass vamp
overlaid with a right hand improvisation, and finally culminate in large
chords
and racing scales. The end the piece
slows to reminders of the simple rocking of the opening. The Innocence
of the second movement is
created bytwo hands moving naively in
dyads to form tentative chords. A fall from
innocence plunges the music into grinding motion over an agitated low
bass line.
A progression from the opening chords attempts
to reclaim the innocence. The struggle
continues, before finally opening out into innocent dyads again. The
music in Reverie, is ethereal. Chords surround snatches of
melodic material
in the middle range which turn into closely voiced chords. The beginning
is then
repeated. Standards, as its title
suggests, is based on quotes from jazz standards, specifically Misty,
How About You, I’ve Got You Under My
Skin, Laura, and You Can’t Take That
Away From Me. Some are clear, others
more hidden. The overall texture of the piece is a combination of
traditional
pianistic virtuosity and moody jazz. --Eleanor
Cory
Dr. Albert Glinsky, professor of music at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA, will be
featured on an episode of the PBS show
“History Detectives” scheduled to air on Monday, June 28, at 9
p.m. The episode revolves around the life and work of Russian inventor
and spy Leon Theremin, the subject of a biography Glinsky published in
2000, Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage.
Glinsky holds
bachelor and master of music degrees from the Juilliard School, and a
doctorate from New York University. His music, which includes vocal,
chamber, solo, electronic, and symphonic works, has earned critical
acclaim and been widely performed in venues such as the Aspen Music
Festival, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Wolf Trapp, and in England,
France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and the
Far East.
"Sudden
Music" a cycle of poetry by Javen Tanner, set to music by Lansing
McLoskey, and Gifts (for you) for Duo Diorama and choreographer Jennifer Kayle,
composed by Burton Beerman--both to be performed for the first time in
New York at the ACA Festival closing concert. Other works featured will
be the magnificent Les Neiges d'Antan by Elizabeth Bell, featuring Keats
Dieffenbach and Yael Manor, plus Michael Slayton's Le Soir Tombe,
featuring soprano, Nicole Pantos, Harold Seletsky's Intimate Flutist,
with Andrew Bolotowsky and Christopher Oldfather, and the Bowdoin New
Music Ensemble, coming from Maine to perform Collage Concertante by
Elliott Schwartz. Program notes here.