Mercury Season Concert

Coalescense is being performed by Mercury Season Sunday night (12/30) at 5 Seasons North. I will be playing the first violin part so its kinda turned into a flute quartet and it works pretty well. We will also be playing Brian Chamberlain's "Lost Hollow Road" and works by Erik Kofoed.

Here's the info:
December, 30 2007 at 5 Seasons North 3655 Old Milton Parkway, Alpharetta, Georgia 30005
Cost : Donations Accepted

8th Annual New Years Party. Come relax and enjoy a fun night of music and good cheer at the 5 Seasons North! Food and drink will be available through the restaurant & brewery. Music will be provided by the Mercury Season ensemble. Will there be more than one string player in this sea of wind players? How many French horns can get along in one place? Find the answers and more when you join Mercury Season in celebrating the beginning of the start of the New Year. Why not get your New Year’s started early?! We hope to see you there!

duoATL concert this Friday (12/21) at Redlight Cafe

duoATL is performing this Friday (12/21) at 8:30pm at Redlight Cafe (http://www.redlightcafe.com/). World Circus will be opening up for us at 7:30pm. Redlight Cafe has alcoholic beverages and a tasty menu, and we only play for about an hour. So if you always wanted to come to a concert, but without the pretentious atmosphere here's your chance.

The address is: 553 Amsterdam Ave, Atlanta, GA 30306

Here's a map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=553+Amsterdam+Ave,+Atlanta,+GA+30306&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=43.294656,95.449219&ie=UTF8&ll=33.793093,-84.367404&spn=0.011127,0.023303&z=15&iwloc=addr&om=1

Last chance to hear this program! We change it up after this concert! Admission is $7, so come and have a good time so they'll invite us back!

Karlheinz Stockhausen passed away on December 5th 2007

This was posted on IAWM:

PRESS RELEASE
The composer Karlheinz Stockhausen passed away on December 5th 2007 at his home in Kuerten-Kettenberg and will be buried in the Waldfriedhof (forest cemetery) in Kuerten.
He composed 362 individually performable works. The works which were composed until 1969 are published by Universal Edition in Vienna, and all works since then are published by the Stockhausen-Verlag.Numerous texts by Stockhausen and about his works have been published by the Stockhausen Foundation for Music.
Suzanne Stephens and Kathinka Pasveer, who have performed many of his works and, together with him, have taken care of the scores, compact discs, books, films, flowers, shrubs, and trees will continue to disseminate his work throughout the world, as prescribed in the statutes of the Stockhausen Foundation for Music, of which they are executive board members.
Stockhausen always said that GOD gave birth to him and calls him home.
****
Šfor love is stronger than death.
IN FRIENDSHIP and gratitude for everything that he has given to us personally and to humanity through his love and his music, we bid FAREWELL to Karlheinz Stockhausen, who lived to bring celestial music to humans, and human music to the celestial beings, so that Man may listen to GOD and GOD may hear His children.
On December 5th he ascended with JOY through HEAVEN¹S DOOR, in order to continue to compose in PARADISE with COSMIC PULSES in eternal HARMONY, as he had always hoped to do: You, who summon me to Heaven, Eva, Mikael and Maria, let me eternally compose music for Heaven¹s Father-Mother, GOD creator of Cosmic Music.
May Saint Michael, together with Heaven¹s musicians in ANGEL PROCESSIONS and INVISIBLE CHOIRS welcome him with a fitting musical GREETING.
On behalf of him and following his example, we will endeavor to continue to protect the music.
Suzanne Stephens and Kathinka Pasveerin the name of the world-wide family of musicians who love him, together with everyone who loves his music.
****
On Thursday, December 13th 2007, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. it will be possible to personally say farewell to Karlheinz Stockhausen in the chapel of the Waldfriedhof in Kuerten (Kastanienstrasse).
A commemorative concert will take place soon at the Sülztalhalle in Kuerten. Programme, time and date will be specially announced.

Vagabond Drumming - audio online

For those who are interested in the progress of my Vagabond Drumming project, there are audio excerpts now online at my personal MySpace page from Nov. 2006 (Book I, parts 1 & 2) and Nov. 2007 (Book III, parts 2 & 3) performed by the Georgia State University Percussion Ensemble, Stuart Gerber, director.

One or more of these audio files may also show up in rotation among the audio by metro-composers on the Atlanta Composers MySpace page. *

The current plan for the project is for Book II of Vagabond Drumming to be completed next, comprised of percussion solos with brief "Greek chorus" percussion preludes to each and coda to the whole Book.

Feedback and questions about the Vagabond Drumming project are always welcomed. (As are monetary contributions!) :-)

—Mark Gresham


* P.S.: Participate! Go to the Atlanta Composers MySpace page to network and listen to music by Atlanta composers, and contribute your own articles and comments to this very Atlanta Composers Blog. Help build a stronger, more visible, and less fragmented creative community in metro-Atlanta. It cannot be done for you by any outside organization, it can only be done by you. Contact Adam Scott Neal with your questions about the Atlanta Composers MySpace page, and Darren Nelsen about the Atlanta Composers Blog. •••

GSU student composers concert

I'll be performing on Brian Chamberlain's work for flute and guitar. This is from Toby Chappell:

This Friday, at noon in GSU's Kopleff Recital Hall, there will be arecital featuring new works by student composers. Here is the programinfo (not in performance order):
Brent MILAM: Dark Expanse (Dying Pulsars) for electronic sounds
Brent MILAM: Maquina quebrada for cello & marimba
Carol UNDERWOOD: Frozen Metropolis; II. Ghosts In The Machine for viola &piano
Brian CHAMBERLAIN: Lost Hollow Road for flute & guitar
Brian CHAMBERLAIN: When Atlas Fails for solo guitar
Jason SHERWIN: Sonata for Keyboard, Poco Allegro (solo piano)
Toby CHAPPELL: Memories of the North for solo guitar
Toby CHAPPELL: The Solstice Variations No. 1 for electronic sounds

Directions to the Recital Hall can be found at:
http://www.music.gsu.edu/locations.aspx

Mac OS X Leopard Problems

I know that a good number of you out there use Macs. For those who haven't already upgraded to Leopard (10.5), beware!

The following music/audio apps and hardware do NOT work on Leopard (from my own personal experience):

LilyPond
MacCsound
Line6 GearBox
Line6 Riffworks
Line6 PODxt Live

Any other Leopard users out there with issues/warnings to report?

Thanks, Apple! Ouch.

New Video posted

Hello all -

Just dropping a line to tell you that one of my recent projects, Parallel Lives, is available for viewing on YouTube. This is a collaboration with my friend Kevin Dotson, and his video footage is filmed around Atlanta and Tallulah Gorge State Park. I hope you enjoy!

best,
asn

neoPhonia concert and music of Nickitas Demos

This is from the neoPhonia email list:

Sorry for the late notice on this one! You are cordially invited to the second neoPhonia New Music Ensemble concert of the 2007/08 season.


We explore the wonderful world of strings in a concert entitled STRING THEORIES. If you are able, please join us tomorrow, Tuesday, November 13 at 7:30 PM in the Kopleff Recital Hall on the campus of Georgia State University in lovely downtown Atlanta. The concert is, of course, FREE and open to the public.


program:


Alleghenies of Dreams by North Carolina based composer Paul ELWOOD
for five sting banjo and cello [a premiere!]


Dona Nobis Pacem by Michael KURTH
for solo bass clarinet


The premiere of String Theories by Nickitas DEMOS
for guitar and violin


Trio "Agitato" by Macon, GA based composer David H. JOHNSON
for violin, viola and cello


The concert will feature Duo Luniare (John Huston, guitar and Danijela Zezelj-Gualdi, violin) as well as special guests Michael Kurth (double bass), composer/banjo player Paul Elwood, Composer/violinist David H. Johnson, Jo Nardolillo, viola and GSU alumna Nan Kemberling, cello.



The Kopleff Recital Hall is located within the Arts and Humanities Building which is on the corner of Peachtree Center Avenue and Gilmer Street in downtown Atlanta. Street parking may be available in this area, or you may
use I-Lot (Peachtree Center Ave). For more detailed directions and maps, please check out the GSU School of Music website at:


http://www.music.gsu.edu


As always, you will be able to meet and greet the composers and performersafter the concert at a reception hosted by the GSU Student Chapter of the Society of Composers, Inc. (SCI).


MORE NEWS:


Aegean Counterpoint, the newly released CD by Nickitas Demos on the MSR Classics label, will be featured on Atlanta NPR affiliate WABE FM 90.1 TONIGHT Monday Nov. 13 at 9 PM ET. If you don't live in the Atlanta area but want to check out the broadcast, it will be streamed live at: http://jrabold.net/radio/7wabe.shtml

Sonic Generator Concert

I'll keep this brief to avoid inundating this blog with too many posts: Sonic Generator's first concert of the season is coming up next week.

Monday, November 12th at 8 p.m.
Georgia Tech Alumni House
190 North Avenue

Admission is free and no reservations are required.

The concert features The New Math(s) (1999), a collaboration between filmmaker Hal Hartley, Dutch minimalist composer Louis Andriessen, and electronic sound artist Michel van der Aa; an arrangement of part of Brian Eno's Music for Airports (1978) done by Evan Ziporyn; Atlanta composer Steve Everett's Ladrang Kampung (2003); Donnacha Dennehy's Glamour Sleeper (2004); Jacob ter Veldhuis’ Grab It!; and Javier Alvarez’s Temazcal (1984).

Full details (including directions) here.

Hope to see you there!

Dorkbot Art and Technology Forum / Flock

The next dorkbot-atl meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 7th at 7:30 pm in the Couch Building (music department) at Georgia Tech, in the first floor rehearsal hall.

Full details are available here.

This month's dorkbot will feature an informal presentation of my new work Flock (for saxophone quartet, dancers, electronic sound, video, and audience participation) in preparation for the piece's premiere at the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in Miami in December. I have developed Flock in collaboration with Mark Godfrey, Liubo Borissov, Frank Dellaert, Dan Hou, Justin Berger, and Martin Robinson.

Flock is a full evening performance work for saxophone quartet, conceived to directly engage audiences in the composition of music by physically bringing them out of their seats and enfolding them into the creative process. During the performance, the four musicians and up to one hundred audience members move freely around the performance space. A computer vision system determines the locations of the audience members and musicians, and it uses that data to generate performance instructions for the saxophonists, who view them on wireless handheld displays mounted on their instruments. The data also drives the real-time generation of a multi-screen video animation and an electronic soundtrack.

For those of you who came to a similar "test event" last May, I want to thank you for your feedback, which had considerable influence on the development of the work, and to encourage you to come this week to see how it has evolved and to help us tweak it further before the premiere.

More information about Flock is available here.

Hope to see you there!

GSU Percussion Ensemble to premiere Gresham's "Vagabond Drumming, Book III"

Dear friends,

The Georgia State University Percussion Ensemble will premiere my Vagabond Drumming, Book III in a concert on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 7:30pm at the Rialto Center in downtown Atlanta. Admission is free.

And the rest of the program looks very enticing! GSU-PE director Stuart Gerber says the following works are to be performed (although not in this order):

Mark Gresham: Vagabond Drumming, Book III
Toru Takemitsu: Rain Tree
Mary Ellen Childs: Still Life
John Luther Adams: ...and bells remembered...
George Crumb: An Idyll for the Misbegotten
Lou Harrison: Concerto for Flute and Percussion
William Duckworth: Gymel
James Romig: Parallax

Let me especially point out 3 of these composers with whom I've had the pleasure of meeting, corresponding by e-mail, or speaking by telephone:

John Luther Adams, a percussionist who grew up in Roswell, Georgia before moving to wilds outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. (And with whom I once enjoyed eating ice cream in Fairbanks one early December!)

Mary Ellen Childs, a Minnesota composer whose music I first encountered through a live performance of her choral work, Bright Faces (on poetic fragments of Sappho), sung by the Dale Warland Singers.

William (Bill) Duckworth, a North Carolina native, christened by Village Voice critic Kyle Gann as the father of post-minimalism (thanks to his 1978-'79 Time-Curve Preludes for piano solo).

I'm delighted to be represented on the same program with these composers, as well as Takemitsu, Crumb, Harrison, and Romig, and am really looking forward to the concert!

—Mark Gresham

FYI: Here is the calendar for GSU School of Music events.

Contemporary Music T-shirts!

Hello everyone -

Some of you may have seen this already, but I have a little online store specializing in contemporary music t-shirts:

12tone Tees

Right now we have:

- punk-rock style shirts of Schoenberg and Xenakis
(more to come later - suggestions welcome!),
- our version of the smiley face (made with Max/MSP)
- several shirts bearing our tongue-in-cheek slogan "Keep Music Evil" (some have a Matrix on the back, one has a tombstone saying "RIP Tonality 1682-1911").

Maybe give a hint to your loved ones - it would make a goofy and fun stocking stuffer come Christmas time!

cheers,
ASN

duoATL concert November 4 at 3pm

duoATL will perform this Sunday (11/4) at 3pm at Northside Drive Baptist Church: 3100 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA 30305.

Here's the program:

Caprice(1999)- Katherine Hoover (b. 1937)

Jarcias (1992) I, II, III - Antonio Ruiz-Pipo (1934-1997)

Sonatina, for Flute and Guitar, I. Cantanda con simplicidade - Radames Gnattali (1906-1988)

Libertango - Astor Piazzolla (1921 - 1992)

West End Funk (2007) - Brian Luckett (Atlanta Composer)

--Intermission--

Primera Crónicas del Descubrimiento (1988) I. Leyenda Taina, II.Danza - Roberto Sierra (b.1953)


Histoire du Tango (1985), I. Bordel 1900, II. Cafe 1930, III.Nightclub 1960, IV. Concert d'aujourd hui - Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)


I Loved Lucy (1996) - Michael Daughtery (b.1954)

Thanks from Five Points Ensemble

[Posted at the request of Albert Ahlstrom and the Five Points Ensemble.]

We had a great show and a very good turnout for our first program.

We want to thank James Paulk for a very nice review/article that appeared on Wedenesday in the AJC. James is a new writer who is working with Pierre at the AJC.

We are organizing new concerts now. We are open to all professional performers interested in presenting 21st century music, or composers that would like to submit music to our expanding core group, or have other professional performers in mind.

We had quite a diverse audience and some of the audience members told me that, though they might not have understood all of the music, they did enjoy hearing the music played so well. This is our goal- interesting, varied and professionally performed programs of 21st century music, with Atlanta music being part of the focus.

—Albert Ahlstrom

ASO gets Mellon Grant

Some information about the ASO's latest grant it was awarded. Part of it dedicated for new music: http://www.atlantasymphony.org/documents/Release_102507_Mellon.pdf

Midtown Brass Performs Work by Atlanta Composer, Erik Kofoed

(Submitted by Erik Kofoed, composer, and Paul Poovey, trumpet for Midtown Brass)

Sunday,10/21 from 3-4:30pm at the Florence Kopleff Recital at Georgia State University

For anyone who is interested the Midtown Brass Quintet is playing my piece, 'The Green Movement' this Sunday afternoon at Georgia State University. I will also be MCing the concert for them. They are a fanstastic ensemble and have a very cool program. Come out and support live, new music. The details follow.

MIDTOWN BRASS QUINTET IN RECITAL

For those that missed us at the 5 seasons in Alpharetta back in August, we’re giving a recital(free event) at Georgia State University on Sunday,10/21 from 3-4:30pm at the Florence Kopleff Recital Hall Here are directions from the GSU website:

http://www.music.gsu.edu/locations.aspx

For those of you who haven’t seen us live yet, we try to cover all the bases when we perform. You’ll hear music from Bach, the Beatles, the Swing era, and we’re please to feature several new works for brass quintet,including a really nice piece by film composer Michael Kamen, and a couple more by up-and-coming local composer, Erik Kofoed.

Again, I hope many of you can come out and support LIVE music, and don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!

Five Points Ensemble to debut Oct. 22

[The following announcement was submitted by composer Albert Ahlstrom.]

Five Points Ensemble
Mon. Oct. 22nd, 7:30 at GSU

Everyone is invited to the first program by Atlanta'a newest new music group "Five Points Ensemble" Mon. Oct 22 at 7:30 at GSU. This is a group that will be playing only music of the 21st century (no historical music from the 60s and 70s) that interests the performers. We want this group to be a performer/composer collective that will program works by many composers in the Atlanta area, as well as new music from around the world.

Kenneth Long, clarinet - Nickitas Demos, Tonoi III for solo clarinet (2001)
Christopher Rozmarin, trombone - Jean-Francois Michel, Homage for Jean Tinguely
Sarah Ambrose, flute - Andrew Rindfleisch, Tears for solo flute
Albert Ahlstrom, piano/composer - Summer Sky for solo piano (2006)
Adam Pendleton, saxophone - Zachary Crockett, Fight to Flow Between for solo saxophone (2006)

Here are the goals of the group:

1. Performer driven
    Repertoire selected by a professional performer or group - professional as in faculty at music school or regularly performing in public throughout the metro area.

2. Collective, No curatorial oversight
    The music will be selected by the performers and there will not be a theme or focus to the programs. Ideally there will be a mix of live, electronic interactive, edgy, somewhat traditional - all of which will be interested in conveying new ideas. This group is a collective gathering of people interested in hearing and performing new music. Hopefully our concerts will be engaging, stimulating, not fall into any set style of new music, and will reach out to a wide variety of audiences. I would love to see some jazz players, video artists, etc. blending on these concerts.

3. No funding or grant proposals
    New music groups in Atlanta often become bogged down in the funding process. The limitation and source of funds can limit the number of the programs presented, and often limit the programming. There will be no funds provided for performers. We want to present enough concerts that we will be seen as a regular source of new music, and we want our programs to be known as varied and engaging. As part of this idea we will present programs in places such as museums, libraries, art galleries, etc.

4. Be a venue for new music
    Rather than squeeze one new piece on a program with lots of old music, this will be a way for a group to present one new piece without having to prepare an entire program. Then the group will be able to enjoy hearing other new music without having to worry about performing several other pieces that same night. This of course implies that the performers have an interest in new music, and hopefully this will be a way to bring these performers and the composers in Atlanta together to build a community. To this end we are planning for simple receptions after the programs that will be opportunities for everyone to socialize.

5. An Atlanta Composer angle
    We will have several pieces on each program that will be written by Atlanta area composers. This will always be a key component of the group, but we do not want to limit the repertoire to exclude music from around the world. Part of our objective is to make the composition that is taking place in Atlanta a part of the world community of music.

—Albert Ahlstrom

neoPhonia 10/9/07

From Nick Demos -

You are cordially invited to the first neoPhonia New Music Ensemble concert of the 2007/08 season.

We take a look at all those mundane and seemingly unimportant moments in life: an unnoticed street performer, the smell of rain, a typical day in the life of a music school as well as the act of breathing and dancing. In the hands of skilled composers, these moments are revealed as extraordinary. Join us as we reveal the Extraordinary Ordinary... on the next neoPhonia concert.

The concert takes place at on Tuesday, October 9 at 7:30 PM in the Kopleff Recital Hall on the campus of Georgia State University in lovely downtown Atlanta and is, of course, FREE and open to the public.


program:

A Minute of News by Eugene NOVOTNEY
for solo snare drum

The premiere of Petrichor by GSU alumnus Adam Scott NEAL
for clarinet and computer generated sounds

09.17.2003 by Mike McFERRON
for Stereo Digital Audio Media

Balafon by Christian LAUBA
for solo alto saxophone

[Bi:guni chum] by Dohi MOON
for cello trio


The concert will feature GSU Faculty Artists Kenneth LONG, clarinet and
Adam PENDLETON, saxophone


The Kopleff Recital Hall is located within the Arts and Humanities Building which is on the corner of Peachtree Center Avenue and Gilmer Street in downtown Atlanta. Street parking may be available in this area, or you may use I-Lot (Peachtree Center Ave). For more detailed directions and maps, please check out the GSU School of Music website at

http://www.music.gsu.edu


As always, you will be able to meet and greet the composers and performers after the concert at a reception hosted by the GSU Student Chapter of the Society of Composers, Inc. (SCI).

Knox's Semordnilap No. 2 to be performed tonight at Bargemusic

Cary and Dorothy Lewis (former Atlantans, now based in Portland, Oregon) write to let us know about their NYC performance tonight which includes music by Atlanta composer Charles Knox:

"we are in nyc right now playing tonight at bargemusic including chas' 2002 ..." says Cary.

Bargemusic is Brooklyn's floating concert hall for chamber music, on an actual barge docked at the Fulton Ferry Landing on the East River.

Here's the whole program:

October 3 • Wednesday, 8 pm at Bargemusic
Charles Knox: Semordnilap No. 2 ("2002")
Edwin Robertson: Music for Cello and Piano
Mozart: Sonata in e minor, K. 304 (arr. for Viola and Piano)
Chopin: Piano Trio in g minor, Op. 8, CT. 206 (arr. for Viola, Cello and Piano)
  Daniel Avshalomov, viola
  Dorothy Lewis, cello
  Cary Lewis, piano

Composers: What ideas might Bargemusic suggest to you for alternative performance spaces around Atlanta? Let's hear your thoughts.

Atlanta Composers Myspace Submissions

Hello everyone,

You may remember from an earlier post that I have made a MySpace page to feature Atlanta composers. I would like to update this monthly, but have not had any new submissions for October. Keep them coming in!

Please send mp3s (or URLs for me to download) here:
atlantacomposers@yahoo.com

Even if we have featured your music before, submit pieces anyway. I am treating this as first-come, first-served. We can feature 5 pieces at a time, and I think that if we keep rotating the music, people will check back on the page more often. No, you don't have to join MySpace, but if you are on there, please befriend Atlanta Composers and tell all of your fans to befriend us, too!

cheers,
ASN