Musicnow CONCLUDES 2014/15 SERIES with PROGRAM FEATURING WORK by AVANT-GARDE JAZZ ARTISTS JOHN ZORN and MYRA MELFORD

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Musicnow CONCLUDES 2014/15 SERIES with PROGRAM FEATURING WORK by AVANT-GARDE JAZZ ARTISTS JOHN ZORN and MYRA MELFORD FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Press Contacts: May 21, 2015 Eileen Chambers, 312.294.3092 Rachelle Roe, 312.294.3090 Photos Available By Request [email protected] MusicNOW CONCLUDES 2014/15 SERIES WITH PROGRAM FEATURING WORK BY AVANT-GARDE JAZZ ARTISTS JOHN ZORN AND MYRA MELFORD Program Also Includes Works by Esa-Pekka Salonen and Chicago-based Composer Marc Mellits June 1 Concert Marks Final MusicNOW Program Curated by CSO’s Mead Composers-in-Residence Mason Bates and Anna Clyne Monday, June 1 at 7 p.m. at Harris Theater CHICAGO — The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s (CSO) acclaimed MusicNOW series— dedicated to showcasing contemporary music through an innovative concert experience— concludes its 2014/15 season Monday, June 1, at 7 p.m. in a program led by MusicNOW principal conductor Cliff Colnot at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park (205 E. Randolph Dr., Chicago). The June 1 concert marks the final MusicNOW program curated by the CSO’s Mead Composers-In-Residence Mason Bates and Anna Clyne, who have guided the vision and development for the concert series since their appointment by CSO Zell Music Director Riccardo Muti in 2010. The June 1 MusicNOW program is performed by musicians of the CSO and special guest musicians including composer, pianist and Chicago-area native Myra Melford. It features two works by Guggenheim Fellow Melford, as well as works by American avant-garde composer John Zorn, internationally-acclaimed composer/conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and American composer Marc Mellits. The concert experience is enhanced by special visual elements created by the Chicago-based film making collective Cinema Libertad, as well as DJ sets from illmeasures before and after the concert. The program opens with Marc Mellits’ Octet, a rhythmic chamber piece for strings. Mellits, professor of composition and theory at University of Illinois in Chicago, is known as a miniaturist, often composing short, high-impact musical pieces for small ensembles. Mellits is also known for his commissions for the concert hall and for online audiences, with some performances of his pieces attracting thousands of views on YouTube. The second work on the program is Dichotomie, written for solo piano in 2000 by composer/conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and performed at this MusicNOW concert by pianist Winston Choi. Originally imagined as an encore piece, Salonen developed the piece into a longer work with two contrasting movements. The opening movement, Mécanisme, takes its inspiration from the precise workings of a machine, but ultimately becomes a machine that Salonen says “could feel some sort of joie de vivre.” For the second movement, Organisme, Salonen uses the metaphor of a willow tree with its leaves and branches blowing in the wind. Similarly, the music flows continuously with a deep and steady undercurrent throughout. Goetia is a series of eight “incantations” for solo violin written in 2002 by the iconic and prolific American avant-garde composer John Zorn. A response to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the virtuosic solo work was written for violinist Jennifer Koh and is performed by CSO Assistant Concertmaster Yuan Qing Yu on the June 1 program. Goetia, a term which describes a system of black magic that can conjure demons, uses a sequence of 277 notes that unfold in unexpected ways in the eight brief movements of the piece. Capping this final season program for MusicNOW are two compositions by acclaimed composer, pianist and jazz innovator Myra Melford. She joins musicians from the CSO and special guests including Russ Johnson (trumpet), Mike Reed (drums) and Tomeka Reid (cello), who are making their MusicNOW debut with this performance. The Large Ends the Way was originally composed for Melford’s own sextet. Melford notes that the piece was “inspired by the Book of the Tiger by Kiichi Hogen, a Japanese martial artist, from which the title comes—I was a student of aikido and Zen at the time, and attempting to express the feeling of being centered in both movement and stillness.” The Whole Tree Gone, also written for one of Melford’s sextets, is inspired by poetry of the 12th century Sufi mystic Rumi. The piece takes its name from an idea in the poem that the power of devotion can create a fire that can destroy worldly concerns, or a tree in this case. Melford describes the piece as through-composed with moments of improvised play for the different voices in the ensemble. MusicNOW receives funding through a leadership challenge grant from Irving Harris Foundation, Joan W. Harris. Major support is provided by Cindy Sargent and the Sally Mead Hands Foundation. MusicNOW Media Sponsors are WBEZ and RedEye. Tickets for all CSOA concerts can be purchased by phone at 800-223-7114 or 312-294-3000; online at cso.org, or at the Symphony Center box office: 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604. Discounted student tickets for select concerts can be purchased, subject to availability, online in advance or at the box office on the day of the concert. For group rates, please call 312-294- 3040. Artists, programs and prices are subject to change. # # # Symphony Center Presents Monday, June 1, 2015, 7 p.m. MusicNOW Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Harris Theater for Music and Dance Mason Bates, Mead Composer-in-Residence 205 E. Randolph Drive, Chicago Anna Clyne, Mead Composer-in-Residence Myra Melford, piano Cliff Colnot, conductor MELLITS Octet SALONEN Dichotomie ZORN Goetia MELFORD The Large Ends the Way MELFORD The Whole Tree Gone Tickets: $26, General Admission $10, Students BIOGRAPHIES Featured composers for MusicNOW June 1, 2015 program Marc Mellits Esa-Pekka Salonen John Zorn Myra Melford Cliff Colnot, MusicNOW Principal Conductor One of few musicians to have studied orchestral repertory with Daniel Barenboim, Colnot has served as assistant conductor for Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Workshops for young musicians from Israel, Egypt, Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries. Colnot has also worked extensively with Pierre Boulez and has served as assistant conductor to Boulez at the Lucerne Festival Academy. He regularly conducts the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), with whom he recorded Richard Wernick’s The Name of the Game for Bridge Records, and he collaborates regularly with the internationally acclaimed contemporary music ensemble eighth blackbird. Colnot has been principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary MusicNOW series since its inception and is principal conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, an orchestra he has conducted since 1994. Colnot also conducts Contempo at the University of Chicago, the DePaul University Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble, and orchestras at Indiana University. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, and Ancora Chamber Orchestra. Colnot is also a master arranger. His orchestration of Shulamit Ran’s Three Fantasy Pieces for Cello and Pianowas recorded by the English Chamber Orchestra. For the chamber orchestra of the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, Colnot has arranged the Adagio from Mahler’s Symphony No. 10, Schoenberg’sPelleas and Melisande (both published by Universal) and Manuel De Falla’s Three Cornered Hat. For ICE and Julia Bentley, Colnot arranged Olivier Messiaen’s Chants de Terre et de Ciel for chamber orchestra and mezzo-soprano, also published by Universal. For members of the Yellow Barn Music Festival, Colnot arranged Shulamit Ran’s Soliloquy for Violin, Cello, and Piano, to be published by Theodore Presser. Colnot recently re-orchestrated the Bottesini Concerto No. 2 in B Minor for Double Bass, correcting many errors in existing editions and providing a more viable performance version. He has also been commissioned to write works for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Percussion Scholarship Group. His orchestration of Duke Ellington’s New World Coming was premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim as piano soloist in 2000, and Colnot also arranged, conducted, and co-produced the CD Tribute to Ellington featuring Barenboim at the piano. He wrote music for the MGM/UA motion picture Hoodlum and has written for rock-and-roll, pop, and jazz artists Richard Marx, Phil Ramone, Hugh Jackman, Leann Rimes, SheDaisy, Patricia Barber, Emerson Drive, and Brian Culbertson. Colnot graduated with honors from Florida State University and in 1995 received the Ernst von Dohnányi Certificate of Excellence. He has also received the prestigious Alumni Merit Award from Northwestern University, where he earned his doctorate. In 2001 the Chicago Tribune named Cliff Colnot a “Chicagoan of the Year” in music, and in 2005 he received the William Hall Sherwood Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts. He has studied with master jazz teacher David Bloom and has taught jazz arranging at DePaul University and film scoring at Columbia College. He also teaches advanced orchestration at the University of Chicago. As a bassoonist, he was a member of the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, Music of the Baroque, and the Contemporary Chamber Players. Myra Melford, pianist and composer For pianist, composer and Guggenheim fellow Myra Melford, the personal and the poetic have always been intimately and deeply connected. Raised outside Chicago in a house designed by the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Melford grew up literally surrounded by art. Where most of us find the beauty in our childhood homes through the memories and associations we make within its four walls, Melford saw early on that aesthetic expression could both be built from and be a structure for profound emotions. Over the course of a career spanning more than two decades, Melford has taken that lesson to heart, crafting a singular sound world that harmonizes the intricate and the expressive, the meditative and the assertive, the cerebral and the playful.
Recommended publications
  • Myra Melford & Snowy Egret Language of Dreams
    Saturday, November 19, 2016, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Myra Melford & Snowy Egret Language of Dreams Conceived and composed by Myra Melford Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret Myra Melford, piano, melodica, and sampler Ron Miles, cornet Liberty Ellman, guitar Stomu Takeishi, acoustic bass guitar Tyshawn Sorey, drums David Szlasa, video artist and lighting design Oguri, dancer and choreography Sofia Rei, narrator/spoken text Hans Wendl, artistic direction and production Texts excerpted from Eduardo Galeano’s Memory of Fire (Memoria del Fuego ) trilogy: Genesis (1982) Faces and Masks (1984) Century of the Wind (1986) Copyright 1982, 1984, 1986 respectively by Eduardo Galeano. Translation copyright 1985, 1987, 1988 by Cedric Belfrage. Published in Spanish by Siglo XXI Editores, México, and in English by Nation Books. By permission of Susan Bergholz Literary Services, New York, NY and Lamy, NM. All rights reserved. e creation and presentation of Language of Dreams was made possible by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, and a University of California Faculty Research Grant. Jazz residency and education activities generously underwritten by the Thatcher-Meyerson Family. n e s i o B s e l y M Myra Melford (far right) with Snowy Egret Language of Dreams I Prelude e Promised Land Snow e Kitchen II e Virgin of Guadalupe A Musical Evening For Love of Fruit/Ching Ching III Language IV Times of Sleep and Fate Little Pockets/Everybody Pays Taxes Market e First Protest V Night of Sorrow Day of the Dead e Strawberry VI Reprise – e Virgin of Guadalupe This performance will last approximately 75 minutes and will be performed without intermission.
    [Show full text]
  • Downbeat.Com March 2014 U.K. £3.50
    £3.50 £3.50 U.K. DOWNBEAT.COM MARCH 2014 D O W N B E AT DIANNE REEVES /// LOU DONALDSON /// GEORGE COLLIGAN /// CRAIG HANDY /// JAZZ CAMP GUIDE MARCH 2014 March 2014 VOLUME 81 / NUMBER 3 President Kevin Maher Publisher Frank Alkyer Editor Bobby Reed Associate Editor Davis Inman Contributing Editor Ed Enright Designer Ara Tirado Bookkeeper Margaret Stevens Circulation Manager Sue Mahal Circulation Assistant Evelyn Oakes Editorial Intern Kathleen Costanza Design Intern LoriAnne Nelson ADVERTISING SALES Record Companies & Schools Jennifer Ruban-Gentile 630-941-2030 [email protected] Musical Instruments & East Coast Schools Ritche Deraney 201-445-6260 [email protected] Advertising Sales Associate Pete Fenech 630-941-2030 [email protected] OFFICES 102 N. Haven Road, Elmhurst, IL 60126–2970 630-941-2030 / Fax: 630-941-3210 http://downbeat.com [email protected] CUSTOMER SERVICE 877-904-5299 / [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS Senior Contributors: Michael Bourne, Aaron Cohen, John McDonough Atlanta: Jon Ross; Austin: Kevin Whitehead; Boston: Fred Bouchard, Frank- John Hadley; Chicago: John Corbett, Alain Drouot, Michael Jackson, Peter Margasak, Bill Meyer, Mitch Myers, Paul Natkin, Howard Reich; Denver: Norman Provizer; Indiana: Mark Sheldon; Iowa: Will Smith; Los Angeles: Earl Gibson, Todd Jenkins, Kirk Silsbee, Chris Walker, Joe Woodard; Michigan: John Ephland; Minneapolis: Robin James; Nashville: Bob Doerschuk; New Orleans: Erika Goldring, David Kunian, Jennifer Odell; New York: Alan Bergman, Herb Boyd, Bill Douthart, Ira Gitler, Eugene
    [Show full text]
  • Pat Metheny 80/81 Mp3, Flac, Wma
    Pat Metheny 80/81 mp3, flac, wma DOWNLOAD LINKS (Clickable) Genre: Jazz Album: 80/81 Country: Japan Released: 1980 Style: Post Bop, Contemporary Jazz MP3 version RAR size: 1322 mb FLAC version RAR size: 1569 mb WMA version RAR size: 1314 mb Rating: 4.4 Votes: 404 Other Formats: AU RA MP1 MIDI AHX MOD MMF Tracklist Hide Credits Two Folk Songs 1st 1 13:17 Composed By – Pat Metheny 2nd 2 7:31 Composed By – Charlie Haden - 80/81 3 7:28 Composed By – Pat Metheny The Bat 4 5:58 Composed By – Pat Metheny Turnaround 5 7:05 Composed By – Ornette Coleman Open 6 Composed By – Haden*, Redman*, DeJohnette*, Brecker*, Metheny*Composed 14:25 By [Final Theme] – Pat Metheny Pretty Scattered 7 6:56 Composed By – Pat Metheny Every Day (I Thank You) 8 13:16 Composed By – Pat Metheny Goin' Ahead 9 3:56 Composed By – Pat Metheny Companies, etc. Recorded At – Talent Studio Lacquer Cut At – PRS Hannover Credits Bass – Charlie Haden Design – Barbara Wojirsch Drums – Jack DeJohnette Engineer – Jan Erik Kongshaug Guitar – Pat Metheny Photography By [Back] – Dag Alveng Photography By [Inside] – Rainer Drechsler Producer – Manfred Eicher Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman (tracks: B1, B2, C1, C2), Mike Brecker* (tracks: A1, A2, B2, C1, C2, D1) Notes Recorded May 26-29, 1980 at Talent Studios, Oslo. An ECM Production. ℗ 1980 ECM Records GmbH. Barcode and Other Identifiers Barcode: 042281557941 Other versions Category Artist Title (Format) Label Category Country Year ECM 1180/81, 80/81 (2xLP, ECM Records, ECM 1180/81, Pat Metheny Germany 1980 2641 180 Album) ECM Records
    [Show full text]
  • Gagosian Gallery
    artnet June 28, 2019 GAGOSIAN ‘It’s True Musical Abstraction’: Artist Theaster Gates on His Plan to Break New Barriers in Sound Art at the Park Avenue Armory The artist will lead his Black Artists Retreat at the Park Avenue Armory's Drill Hall in October. Taylor Dafoe Theaster Gates introduces Discussions of the Sonic Imagination, Part II, 2019, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Photo by Shannon Finney. This time last year, the Park Avenue Armory’s Drill Hall, one of the largest columnless spaces in New York City, desperately needed a new floor. Many of the 138-year-old wooden boards were cracked or crumbling; the support structure underneath was deteriorating. So the non-profit body in charge of the space, the Park Avenue Armory Conservancy, secured $4 million in funds (half of which came from the city) to rebuild it. That’s when Theaster Gates stepped in. He was already in talks with the Armory to do an ambitious project there this year, so he offered to source and mill some of the rare, recycled Georgia yellow pine for the reconstruction through his urban renewal project in Chicago, the Rebuild Foundation. Now, over the course of a weekend this October, Gates will get to see the foundation’s efforts in action when he mounts the newest iteration of his Black Artists Retreat at the Drill Hall. A protean gathering of black artists, academics, curators, and other creators, the retreat was founded by Gates and fellow Chicago-based artist Eliza Myrie, and held annually in their hometown between 2013 and 2016.
    [Show full text]
  • PROGRAM SOLITARY CONFINEMENT...CUONG VU (B. 1969)
    PROGRAM ship to the New England Conservatory of Music, where he received his bachelor of music degree in Jazz Studies with a distinction in perform- ance. After moving to New York in 1994, Vu led several groups, most SOLITARY CONFINEMENT .................................... CUONG VU (b. 1969) notably his trio with Stomu Takeishi and Ted Poor, and toured exten- sively throughout the world, as well as giving clinics and master classes throughout the US and Europe. IT’S MOSTLY RESIDUAL .................................................................. VU Vu has released four recordings -- Bound (OmniTone), Pure (Knitting Factory Records), Come Play With Me (Knitting Factory Records) and VINA’S LULLABY ............................................................................. VU It's Mostly Residual (ArtistShare) -- to critical acclaim, each considered among the best recordings of their respective years. Each recording dis- MONK’S MOOD ............................... THELONIOUS MONK (1917-1982) plays how he has carved out a distinctive sonic territory on the trumpet while blurring all stylistic borders. ACCELERATED THOUGHTS .............................................................. VU His latest recording, Vu-Tet (ArtistShare), was released in mid- December 2007, featuring The Cuong Vu Trio and Chris Speed on sax I SHALL NEVER COME BACK ........................................................... VU and clarinet The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Vu was awarded the Colbert Award for Excellence: The Downtown Arts Project Emerging Artist Award. In 2002 and 2006, he received the Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album as a member of the Pat Metheny Group. He was recognized as one of the top 50 young jazz artists in an article on “The New Masters” in the British magazine Classic CD, and in 2006 was named the Best International Jazz Artist by the Italian Jazz Critics’ Soci- ety.
    [Show full text]
  • Fall 2015 Uchicago Arts Guide
    UCHICAGO ARTS FALL 2015 EVENT & EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS ISSUE The Renaissance Society Centennial UChicago in the Chicago Architecture Biennial CinéVardaExpo.Agnès Varda in Chicago arts.uchicago.edu BerlinFullPage.pdf 1 8/21/15 12:27 PM 2015 Randy L. and Melvin R. BERLIN FAMILY LECTURES CONTENTS 5 Exhibitions & Visual Arts 42 Youth & Family 12 Five Things You (Probably) Didn’t 44 Arts Map Know About the Renaissance Society 46 Info 17 Film 20 CinéVardaExpo.Agnès Varda in Chicago 23 Design & Architecture Icon Key 25 Literature Chicago Architecture Biennial event 28 Multidisciplinary CinéVardaExpo event C M 31 Music UChicago 125th Anniversary event Y 39 Theater, Dance & Performance UChicago student event CM MY AMITAV GHOSH The University of Chicago is a destination where ON THE COVER CY artists, scholars, students, and audiences converge Daniel Buren, Intersecting Axes: A Work In Situ, installation view, CMY T G D and create. Explore our theaters, performance The Renaissance Society, Apr 10–May 4, 1983 K spaces, museums and galleries, academic | arts.uchicago.edu F, H, P A programs, cultural initiatives, and more. Photo credits: (page 5) Attributed to Wassily Kandinsky, Composition, 1914, oil on canvas, Smart Museum of Art, the University of Chicago, Gift of Dolores and Donn Shapiro in honor of Jory Shapiro, 2012.51.; Jessica Stockholder, detail of Rose’s Inclination, 2015, site-specific installation commissioned by the Smart Museum of Art;page ( 6) William G W Butler Yeats (1865–1939), Poems, London: published by T. Fisher Unwin; Boston: Copeland and Day, 1895, promised Gift of Deborah Wachs Barnes, Sharon Wachs Hirsch, Judith Pieprz, and Joel Wachs, AB’92; Justin Kern, Harper Memorial Reading Room, 2015, photo courtesy the artist; page( 7) Gate of Xerxes, Guardian Man-Bulls of the eastern doorway, from Erich F.
    [Show full text]
  • Randy Brecker Randypop! Pete Mccann Range Nicole Mitchell
    ment that he can go deep in any setting, wheth- er it’s the bristling, harmonically challenging opener “Kenny” (his ode to the late trumpet- er/%ugelhornist Kenny Wheeler), the angu- lar, odd-metered “Seventh Jar,” the urgent- ly swinging “Realm” (dedicated to pianist Richie Beirach), the Frisellian heartland bal- lad “To "e Mountains” or the pedal-to-the- metal fusion anthem “Mustard.” "ere’s even a 12-tone-in%uenced piece in the darkly disso- nant “Numinous.” Hey is the invaluable utility in!elder here, acquitting himself brilliantly on acoustic piano (“Kenny,” “Realm,” “Seventh Jar”), Fender Randy Brecker Pete McCann Rhodes electric piano (“Dyad Changes,” Range “Rumble,” “Bridge Scandal”) and organ RandyPOP! WHIRLWIND 4675 (“Mustard”). Saxophonist O’Gallagher, who PILOO RECORDS 009 ++++½ plays cascading unison lines alongside McCann +++½ A remarkable post-Pat Metheny contemporary on several of the intricate heads here, also deliv- ers outstanding solos on the uptempo swingers jazz guitarist, Pete McCann has %own some- With his younger brother Michael, trumpeter “Dyad Changes” and “Realm” and on the rau- what under the radar since the ’90s, though Randy Brecker helped de!ne the sound of early cous “Bridge Scandal.” It’s a formidable, %exi- the quality of his playing and depth of his writ- jazz-rock in out!ts like Dreams and the Brecker ing ranks alongside his generational colleagues ble out!t with a built-in chemistry and an auda- Brothers Band while also accruing an impres- Ben Monder and Kurt Rosenwinkel. He stakes cious streak. —Bill Milkowski sive “straight” jazz resume with everyone out highly original territory on his !$h out- from Horace Silver and Art Blakey to Charles ing as a leader in the company of pianist-key- Range: Kenny; Seventh Jar; Realm; To The Mountains: Mustard; Dyad Changes; Numinous; Bridge Scandal; Rumble; Mine Is Yours.
    [Show full text]
  • JAZZIZ-Metheny-Interviews.Pdf
    Pat Metheny www.jazziz.com JAZZIZ Subscription Ad Lage.pdf 1 3/21/18 10:32 AM Pat Metheny Covered Though I was a Pat Metheny fan for nearly a decade before I special edition, so go ahead and make fun if you please). launched JAZZIZ in 1983, it was his concert, at an outdoor band In 1985, we published a cover story that included Metheny, shell on the University of Florida campus, less than a year but the feature was about the growing use of guitar synthesizers before, that got me to focus on the magazine’s mission. in jazz, and we ran a photo of John McLaughlin on the cover. As a music reviewer for several publications in the late Strike two. The first JAZZIZ cover that featured Pat ran a few ’70s and early ’80s, I was in touch with ECM, the label for years later, when he recorded Song X with Ornette Coleman. whom Metheny recorded. It was ECM that sent me the press When the time came to design the cover, only photos of Metheny credentials that allowed me to go backstage to interview alone worked, and Pat was unhappy with that because he felt Metheny after the show. By then, Metheny had recorded Ornette should have shared the spotlight. Strike three. C around 10 LPs with various instrumental lineups: solo guitar, A few years later, I commissioned Rolling Stone M duo work with Lyles Mays on the chart-topping As Wichita Fall, photographer Deborah Feingold to do a Metheny shoot for a Y So Falls Wichita Falls, trio, larger ensembles and of course his Pat cover story that would delve into his latest album at the time.
    [Show full text]
  • Fall 2018 Whole Notes
    Fall 2018 WholeThe magazine for friends and alumni of the UniversityNotes of Washington School of Music IN THIS ISSUE School 2 . School News News 4 . Zakir Hussain From the Director 5 . IMPFest X Stays True to Form This issue of Whole Notes PROFESSOR PATRICIA CAMPBELL JOINS ASSOCIATION FOR 7 . 20 Questions with Larry Starr highlights only a few of the 9 . Faculty News triumphs and achievements CULTURAL EQUITY BOARD 10 . Passages of our students and faculty School of Music Professor Patricia Campbell has joined the board of the Association for in the 2017-18 academic year. Cultural Equity (ACE), accepting an invitation extended by Anna Lomax Wood, anthropologist 11 . New Publications and Recordings It also pays tribute to the and daughter of musicologist Alan Lomax. 12 . New Faculty friends whose support creates “ACE is the archive (recordings and films) of Alan Lomax, John Lomax (father), and Bess 13 . Q&A with Huck Hodge opportunities for learning and Lomax Hawes (sister) that encompasses historic recordings from about 1915 to the late 15 . Ted Poor: The Blues & Otherwise discovery at the University of 1990s, a goldmine of recordings that are highly valued by musicologists, ethnomusicologists, 17 . Making Appearances Washington School of Music. folklorists, historians, and Americanists of every sort,” Campbell says. As a member of the 19 . Faculty Profile: Cristina Valdés ACE board, Campbell expects to help with the development of teaching and learning projects In this issue we shine a spotlight related to the historical study of American music, a role for which she is abundantly qualified. 21 . Charles Corey, Partch Master General on a few of our outstanding “I’ve been involved for over a decade in developing resources for teaching/learning (as have 23 .
    [Show full text]
  • Bio Information: JOEL HARRISON, LORENZO FELICIATI, CUONG VU, ROY POWELL, DAN WEISS Title: HOLY ABYSS (Cuneiform Rune 334)
    Bio information: JOEL HARRISON, LORENZO FELICIATI, CUONG VU, ROY POWELL, DAN WEISS Title: HOLY ABYSS (Cuneiform Rune 334) Cuneiform publicity/promotion dept.: 301-589-8894 / fax 301-589-1819 email: joyce [-at-] cuneiformrecords.com (Press & world radio); radio [-at-] cuneiformrecords.com (North American radio) www.cuneiformrecords.com FILE UNDER: JAZZ “When you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you.” – Friedrich Nietzsche Full of foreboding and existential terror, the abyss resides in the darkest corners of the human imagination. Holy Abyss, a collaborative project between New York guitarist Joel Harrison and Italian bassist Lorenzo Feliciati, is an antidote to angst. Flowing from a deep communion between the artists, the album turns dread on its head, offering a series of expansive soundscapes full of lustrous harmonies, searching melodies and knowing interplay. Featuring trumpeter Cuong Vu, drummer Dan Weiss and Roy Powell on piano and Hammond B3 organ, the quintet reflects jazz’s increasingly international reach. Harrison and Weiss, musical comrades for many years, are New Yorkers, while longtime collaborators Feliciati and Powell hail from Rome and Oslo via the UK, respectively. Vu, who has toured and recorded with Feliciati and Powell, was born in Vietnam and is now based in Seattle, near where he grew up. The musicians are united by a passion for modern jazz unbounded by stylistic conventions. Open to sounds from around the world, they have all created music infused with electronics, odd meters, and uncommon timbres and tonal palettes. Holy Abyss opens with Harrison’s anguished ballad “Requiem for an Unknown Soldier,” which establishes the album’s elemental sensibility with its ethereal trumpet fanfare and slow burning guitar solo.
    [Show full text]
  • Thumbscrew-Never Is Enough PR
    Bio information: THUMBSCREW Title: NEVER IS ENOUGH (Cuneiform Rune 478) Format: CD / VINYL (DOUBLE) / DIGITAL www.cuneiformrecords.com FILE UNDER: JAZZ How much is too much when it comes to THUMBSCREW? The All-Star Collective Trio Delivers a Decisive Answer with Their Sixth Album NEVER IS ENOUGH a Riveting Program of Originals by Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson and Michael Formanek A funny thing happened while Thumbscrew was hunkered down at City of Asylum, the Pittsburgh arts organization that has served as a creative hotbed for the collective trio via a series of residencies. Late in the summer of 2019 the immediate plan was for drummer Tomas Fujiwara, guitarist Mary Halvorson and bassist Michael Formanek to rehearse and record a disparate program of Anthony Braxton compositions they’d gleaned from his Tri-Centric Foundation archives, pieces released last year on The Anthony Braxton Project, a Cuneiform album celebrating his 75th birthday. At the same time, the triumvirate brought in a batch of original compositions that they also spent time refining and recording, resulting in Never Is Enough, a brilliant program of originals slated for release on Cuneiform. There’s a precedent for twined projects by the trio serving as fascinating foils for each other. In June 2018, Cuneiform simultaneously released an album of Thumbscrew originals, Ours, and Theirs, a disparate but cohesive session exploring music by the likes of Brazilian choro master Jacob do Bandolim, pianist Herbie Nichols, and Argentine tango master Julio de Caro. Those albums were also honed and recorded during a City of Asylum residency. While not intended as the same kind of dialogue, The Anthony Braxton Project and Never Is Enough do seem to speak eloquently (if cryptically) to each other.
    [Show full text]
  • The Amazing Tomeka Reid
    Newsletter of the New Directions Cello Association & Festival Inc. Vol 23, No. 2, Winter, 2017 Welcome to the Nexus of the Next Step in Cello! In this issue: * Message from the Director * New Directions 2017! June 16-18, Ithaca, NY * Interview: The amazing Tomeka Reid * New Directions 2016: A Look Back * Cd Review: Bryan Wilson’s Oso Perezoso * The CelLowdown: Final Words Message from the Director By Chris White Greetings! We have an incredibly exciting festival planned for this summer at Ithaca College, June 16-18. The guest artists for this, our 23rd annual festival, will be Yaniel Matos (São Paulo, Brazil), Tomeka Reid with Artifacts Trio (Chicago), Malcolm Parson (New Orleans), Gunther Tiedemann (Cologne, Germany), Zach Brown & Friends (NYC) and Jake Charkey (Mumbai, India). Please check out our new website at http:// newdirectionscello.org/ to read about these amazing players from around the country and the world. We hope that you can join us for this special long weekend in beautiful Ithaca, New York, in the heart of the Finger Lakes region of Central New York state. As is no doubt obvious by now, we will not be holding our 2017 New Directions Cello Festival in Germany as we’d originally hoped. However, we are currently working on New Directions in Germany for 2018 – possibly in July. In addition to Cello City Online, you can keep up on the latest Chris White, Founder & Artistic Director New Directions Cello news and videos on our Facebook page. New Directions Cello Association and Festival Remember: we’re a 501c3 organization, the only one in the world dedicated exclusively to promoting non-classical uses 123 Rachel Carson Way of the cello.
    [Show full text]