neoPhonia concert report: "Music From the Red Earth"

On Tues, 2/13, I attended the neoPhonia concert titled "Music From the Red Earth" at GSU. The program consisted of all Atlanta composers. (Woohoo!)

Awakening Echoes by Brent Milam
Graph Theory by Jason Freeman
Shadowed Moon by Daniel Swilley
Three Haiku by Adam Scott Neal
A Touch of Window by Albert Ahlstrom

The instrumentation ranged from solo violin to small ensembles to computer generated sounds. The acoustic pieces filled most of the program. Daniel Swilley's Shadowed Moon was electronic, generated by Csound. Jason Freeman's Graph Theory was a hybrid--the score was pre-generated electronically by users who contributed to it over the web, and then it was played acoustically by a solo performer.

Before each piece, the composer said a few words about their work. This helped introduce the composers to the audience before the (catered!) reception that followed the concert.

At the reception, composers, performers, and audience members mingled. I got a chance to chat with several people I'd been looking forward to meeting. (And I learned a new notation technique that Adam used in his piece.)

Many thanks to the composers, performers, and audience.

Special thanks to Nickitas Demos, the founder and artistic director of neoPhonia, for organizing this concert and making a point of profiling local music. He does an 'all local composers' concert as part of the neoPhonia series each year. I've been fortunate enough to catch the last two years' shows. I can't say enough good things about the wealth that comes from attending these concerts, hearing the music, meeting the composers and performers, and networking with all.

Don't miss the upcoming neoPhonia show in April! I think Curtis Bryant's piece is going to be on the program. I'm looking forward to that.

A Touch of Window

A new piece by Albert Ahlstrom, "A Touch of Window", that was commisioned and will be performed by Adam Pendleton on sax, with Albert on piano, will be performed on the Neophonia program that will be given on Tuesday, February 13 at 7:30 at Georgia State. This is a challenging fun piece that introduces Bach to Charlie Parker and Pharoah Sanders.

duoATL concerts

duoATL will perform works by Michael Daughtery, Katherine Hoover, Roberto Sierro, Antonio Ruiz-Pipo, Sergio Assad, and a world premiere by Atlanta composer and the duo's guitarist Brian Luckett:

February 18, 2007 at 3pm
Agnes Scott College
Maclean Auditorium in Presser Hall
Admission is Free

March 6, 2007 at 8pm
Schwartz Center at Emory University, Emerson Concert Hall
Admission is Free

April 23, 2007 at 8pm
Oxford College of Emory University
Oxford, GA

You can download the flyer here: http://www.duoatl.com/press/concerts2007.pdf

and visit http://www.duoatl.com for more information.

Comprehensive List of Atlanta Composer Websites - Add Yours!

Hello All,

I have been asked by several people if there is a single source for Atlanta composer websites. (This has even come up in the ASSG meetings.) The simple answer is no. While there are several different incomplete lists around, there's not a single one for all. It's time to change that.

Blogger has updated their features and provided an ability to make this easy on the blog. I'll put together a comprehensive list that will be in plain view on the front page. The entire list will be in the right hand navigation section for easy access. One simple source.

So, if you have a website, please send me the link (darren at curiomusic dot com). And if you don't, well go get one!

Composers will be listed alphabetically by last name.

(PS. Those who sent me links for the upcoming Turned On show don't need to resend.)

Thanks

Atlanta Score Study Group

The Atlanta Score Study Group meets the first Thurs. of every month at 7:30pm at the Crawford Communications building on Pleasantdale Road in Atlanta.

Directions here

Tell security you're there for the Eddie Horst group.

Each month we focus on a different topic, usually with a guest speaker. We discuss composing, recording, promotion/marketing, dance, film/video music, and other topics... and of course study scores! Each meeting is enlightening.

If you're a composer in the area, you owe it to yourself to check out the group. It's an amazing resource!!

Tonight, despite the rain and cold, I don't expect we'll get iced in.

See you there!

Sonic Generator @ Georgia Tech (post concert)

This evening I attended the Sonic Generator concert at Georgia Tech. Great show with great attendance! Composers on the program included George Lewis, George Crumb, Daniel Lentz, Jason Freeman, and Jennifer Walshe.

More information on the concert can be found here:

http://www.sonicgenerator.gatech.edu/upcomingconcerts/tuesdayjanuary302007atthege.html

Each piece profiled the use of music technology in a different way including live performance to prerecorded audio, to live loops, with video (both pregenerated and live), and audience participation over the web. Each piece was intriguing in its own way. It was eye-opening for me, and got me thinking about new uses of technology in my own pieces.

For brevity (and because I'm not much of a critic), I'm not going to write a review here, but music journalists Pierre Ruhe (AJC) and Mark Gresham (Creative Loafing, NewMusicBox) were there, so hopefully we'll see a full writeup and review of the show by one of them somewhere.

For those who missed it, you definitely owe it to yourself to check out a Sonic Generator concert in the future. Next one is Monday, March 26, 2007 at the Ferst Center for the Arts.

You also need to check out local composer (and Georgia Tech assistant music professor) Jason Freeman. He's doing amazing things with audience-performer-composer interactions. Check him out here:

http://www.jasonfreeman.net/

And video by Al Matthews:

http://fatmilk.tv

Thanks to all involved in this show. See you at the next one.

Is Music Dead?

It's a given that people in the consensus have no clue that modern 'classical' composers exist. The bridge between 'modern music' makers and audiences (in 21st-century (post)classical era) is simply gone. (Actually, it has been for a long, long time... if you read the diaries of early 20th-century composers, they had the same problem... 100 years ago!) But anyway, NewMusicBox and Sequenza21 bemoan this situation all the time, and their writers often compare their world, with envy, to the world of pop with its massive popularity and distribution machines.

It's been said that classical music is one side of the world, and all other music is on the other. Hell, you even see that on Amazon.com, where Clasical Music is a separate category than simply Music. (what the hell is that?!)

But, I have found something interesting... I recently began to look around at other genres (other than classical and pop), and I'm finding the same story everywhere. Not only is classical music 'dead', but so too are rock (which I wholeheartedly agree with), jazz, and hip-hop. All are being declared dead. Just do a Google search (ie, 'is jazz dead'), and you'll find things being said about the other genres that we've come to accept as reality in the the classical world, along with symptoms and supposed reasons why.

So, what's going on here?! I've often heard, "Is classical music dead?" But I find now that I have to expand that question to "Is music dead?"

I think yes, in a sense, it is. Or I think it is dying as we know it. Our world is going through massive changes right now. Among other things, the record industry is collapsing (and don't tell me it's because of file-sharing--that's just bullsh*t propaganda by the RIAA and the media.) There are many, many changes going on--spiritually, socially, politically, economically, biologically, and more--and society itself is going though massive upheaval (and will even more so in the next 25 years). We're seeing effects of this in music.

The causes of all these changes are too large and complex for me to go into on this blog. But I do believe the world as we know it *is* dying, and from it something entirely new will be born... but I think the trick is, we have to be responsible for creating it. *We* need to birth it. It's ours to create.

I'm proud to say that I think I'm part of a healthy and vibrant community of composers here in Atlanta. And we're getting stronger and more connected. With things like this blog, the ASSG (Atlanta Score Study Group), the upcoming Electronic Music Concert that Adam and I are putting together, I see us giving more and more life to new music. Getting it to audiences is key, so I hope to see us do more in that area--more concerts, events, podcasts, etc. Lots of ideas...

Buy anyway, let me pose the questions now to you.

What are your thoughts? Is music dead? Why or why not? And how are you filling or renewing its life?

I hope this prompts some thinking and discussion and ideas for crafting new realities for music. Please jump in with your take.

Thanks!

The Laughing Monkeys of Gravity

From Curtis Bryant:

I have a performance coming up next month on the Neophonia series at GSU on Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 7:30 in the Kopleff Recital Hall. They'll be doing my song cycle, "The Laughing Monkeys of Gravity," a setting of four poems by award winning poet Stephen Bluestone. The cycle is scored for soprano with a chamber ensemble of flute, clarinet & alto sax, percussion, violin, cello and piano. The subject of the text is the early film comedians: Laurel & Hardy, Lou Costello, The Three Stooges and Charles Chaplin.

This will be an Atlanta premiere.

Scroll down to Feb 13.
http://www.music.gsu.edu/events.aspx

Turned On: Electronic Music by Atlanta Composers

Atlanta Composers Group

presents

Turned On: Electronic Music by Atlanta Composers

featuring the music of:

Colin Bragg
Cousin Virgil
Chip Epsten
Don Hassler
Brent Milam
Adam Scott Neal
Darren Nelsen
Nicole Randall
Michael Thomas Roe & Conrad Schnitzler
Brian Skutle
Oliver Smith
Daniel Swilley
Mitchell Turner

The Five Spot in Little Five Points
1123 Euclid Ave, Atlanta - 404.223.1100
Monday, February 19th
9pm

For more information:
http://www.curiomusic.com/concert/

Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra Holds Open Rehearsal of Newly Commissioned Work

Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra commissioned James Woodward for a piece celebrating the GYSO's inaugural season.The working rehearsals are open to the public at the Dozier Centre this Sunday (1/21) from 2pm-9pm. The pieces will be performed in April.

ASSG Meeting Wrapup and Audio Engineering Session

From Jonathan Cazenave:

Hi All,
First, a special thanks to Jim Dellas and Recording Engineer
Kendall Thomsen of Starkelake Studios for the awesome presentation this month.
We listened to a good deal of the music they have done for various productions
and got into the nitty gritty of recording, producing and arranging great vocals.
It was a great meeting!

We want to continue to discuss the things that you guys want to learn that
are relevant to the modern composer. So anything that you guys would like to
focus on, please let me know and we will try to make it happen.

We have had some requests for another night on Audio Engineering and Production
and we have an engineer at Crawford that we can get together with, in the studio
and ask questions etc.. Also, for anyone interested in the specifics of Post Production
and how audio works with Video, this would be a great opportunity to get info from a Pro.

So, to see what the interest is, please email me your questions. If we get lot's of good questions
we will have move forward with scheduling the meeting.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Emory Classical Guitar Ensemble

Friday, December 1
8pm
Emory Univeristy Performing Arts Studio
1804 N. Decatur Rd.
FREE ADMISSION!
Click here for directions

The ensemble, directed by Dr. Brian Luckett, will perform music from the Renaissance through the 21st century. List of composers include Manuel de Falla, Calude Gagnon, Jose Galles, Mauro Guiliani, Gerardo Rodriguez, and more.

Point of interest to this group is a movement from a work for guitar trio by Emory's artist affiliate, Dr. Brian Luckett, called Winterscape.

Atlanta Ballet on AFM unfair list

The saga continues...The ballet has been contacting musicians to record Michael Moricz’ score to “Great Gatsby” for the Atlanta Ballet. The score calls for symphonic orchestra, as well as a 17-piece jazz band. Needless to say the union is pretty unhappy about this latest endeavor.

A picket is planned for this weekend at the Fox Theatre during the ballet's performances:

Oct. 26 at 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Oct. 27 at 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Oct. 28 at 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Oct. 28 at 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Oct. 29 at 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Oct. 29 at 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM

I can give you contact info of the organizer of the picketing if you need it.

Bent Frequency's MICROSCAPE II: Sunday Oct 22, 8PM at Eyedrum

Bent Frequency presents MICROSCAPE II, our Second annual Composers' Concert, featuring the top selections from our 2006 Call for Scores, music of Atlanta composer Alvin Singleton, and a tribute to composer György Ligeti, who died in June of this year. We present this concert as an opportunity to expose upcoming and young composers to a wider audience, to celebrate the personalities that make our local musical community unique, and to honor the passing one of the great musical minds of our time.

Patricia Alessandrini - When David Heard
Per Bloland - Negative Mirror, Part II
Panayiotis Kokoras - Metasound
György Ligeti - Selections from Piano Etudes, Book 1
Carolyn O'Brien - Conveyance
Alvin Singleton - Argoru VIII

Mr. Bloland and Ms. O'Brien, will be in attendance. We hope to see you there!

Sunday, October 22nd 2006 at 8:00 PM
Eyedrum Art/Music
Suite 8, 290 MLK Jr. Drive SE
Atlanta, GA 30312
www.eyedrum.org
Admission is $10 ($8 for students)

More info:
Bent Frequency's 2006 Call for Scores generated nearly 200 submissions from composers in the United States and abroad. Our selections from this year's group were:
"When David Heard" for percussion, contrabass, and electronics by Patricia Alessandrini;
"Negative Mirror, Part II" for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, and electromagnetically-prepared piano by Per Bloland;
"Metasound" for flute, trombone, percussion, and contrabass by Greece's Panayiotis Kokoras;
"Conveyance" for alto flute, bass clarinet, and piano by Carolyn O'Brien.

Composer Alvin Singleton has strong ties to the Atlanta music community from his residencies at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and at Spelman College . His "Argoru VIII" for solo snare drum was commissioned by the "Meet the Composer" series for Atlanta music ensemble Thamyris in 2002.

György Ligeti (1923-2006) is widely recognized for the "micropolyphonic" music that appeared in the films of Stanley Kubrick, though his body of work includes many rich operatic, symphonic, choral, chamber, solo and electronic compositions. His solo piano Etudes, inspired partly by fractal mathematics, African polyphony, and jazz genius Thelonius Monk, are considered masterpieces of piano technique and expression.

ASS(G) October Wrap-

Thanks to everyone that came out Thursday night. We had a blast "vivisecting" Johnson, Chicago, Horst, Barber, Stravinsky et al..and focused on the differences of "Chordal" vs "Linear" as a basis for composing a piece of music. Eddie always does an awesome job of presenting information in such a way that everyone, from the advanced to the beginner, gets something out of it. Thank you, Eddie!

If you have a suggestion for a subject that would like to see covered in a future meeting, please let us know.

Also, If you would like to get more involved in helping with the meetings, a couple of opportunities are open: we would like to make the meetings available as a Podcast in either Audio only or Video/audio format. We need someone to record the meeting each month and someone to get it online as a Podcast, or one person to do both. Contact me if you are interested.

We have something a bit different planned for next month, stay tuned.

Jonathan

Opera Scenes

Opera Scenes
Friday, November 17, 2006 - 7:30 PM
W. Dwight Coleman, artistic director
Featuring scenes from American operas, including Ned Rorem's Our Town and Carlisle Floyd's Cold Sassy Tree.
Venue: Kopleff Recital Hall
Cost: FREE
Contact: 404-651-INFO

Curtis Bryant says:

Though not listed on the blurb, the concert will feature an excerpt from my opera-in-progress "The Anarchists." The libretto by Allen Reichman, a psychiatrist in New York, is based upon Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel entitled "The Secret Agent." We changed the name, because the original title seemed to connote a "cold war" era theme, but its story line is much more relevant to today's world of terrorism and the xenophobic political climate.
The story is about an anarchist and reluctant terrorist named Verloc, who uses his developmentally disabled brother in law to plant a bomb at the Greenwich Observatory in London. The job is bungled and the young Stevie is blown to bits in the park. What Verloc doesn't realize is that his wife, Winnie has a maternal attachment to her younger brother, and when she learns that her husband has been the cause of his death a new level of familial anarchy ensues.
The scene being produced in the upcoming program is a relatively tame one early in the story (Act I, Scene 3). Winnie and Stevie are accompanying their mother to her new retirement lodgings, which are located in a rather poor neighborhood of the city. As they return to catch a bus, they encounter a chorus of shadowy street people. Being a very sensitive child, Stevie becomes upset that there is such a disparity between rich and poor, and Winnie calms him with an aria in which she declares that she will protect him from any harm.

A Garden of Infinity

Sunday October 8th at 3pm at St. Philip's Cathedral, Peachtree Road, Atlanta, Albert Ahlstrom, a local Atlanta composer, will perform the premiere of a 30 minute work "A Garden of Infinity". This work uses several forms of minimalism, techno-pop, Stravinsky, and a bit of Golijov's dance energy to create a fun orchestral high energy organ piece. The organ at St. Philip's is quite large and colorful, so if you are free Sunday afternoon, you might come by for the half hour program. You can hear some other music by Albert at www.albertahlstrom.com, though this piece is not quite like any of the other listening on the site.

neoPhonia New Music Ensemble Opening Concert

From: Dr. Nickitas J. Demos

To All Our Friends:

The neoPhonia New Music Ensemble begins its 12th Season this coming
Tuesday, October 3 at 7:30 PM in the Rialto Center for the Arts in
downtown Atlanta on the campus of Georgia State University.
Admission is FREE and open to the public.

program:
ODYSSEIA II

This concert, co-sponsored by the Center for Hellenic Studies at
GSU, features an exploration of new and established music written by
contemporary Greek composers. In addition to the music, all audience
members will also receive FREE ADMISSION to the 2006 Atlanta Greek
Festival to be held October 5-8!

featured works:

Tonoi VI for solo flute by Nickitas J. DEMOS [premiere]

Nuit for clarinet, viola and piano by Dimitri PAPAGEORGIOU

Rebonds for solo percussion by Iannis XENAKIS

Sonata for Viola and Piano by Victor KIOULAPHIDES [premiere]

Performers for this concert will be
Tania Maxwell-Clements - Instructor of Viola, GSU School of Music
Stuart Gerber, Assistant Professor of Percussion, GSU School of Music
Kenneth Long, Assistant Professor of Clarinet, GSU School of Music

and, in his neoPhonia debut: Brandt Fredriksen, piano - Assistant
Professor of Piano, GSU School of Music

For detailed directions and maps to the Rialto Center, please check
out the GSU School of Music website at
http://www.music.gsu.edu/locations.aspx

Hope to see many of you there!!

Best Wishes,

NJD

Composing for Film: The Art of Underscoring

From Jonathan Cazenave:

Happy weekend!

ICOM magazine has recently featured me in an article about film composers and the state of writing music for visual media. You can read it here:
http://www.icommag.com/october-page-1.html

Jonathan

ASS-G Meeting Wrap

From Jonathan Cazenave:

Great meeting on Thursday! We were treated to Lee Johnson's latest film and music "Every Matter Under Heaven" an American Oratorio, and learned a good bit about Lee's process as well. The music and film were both awesome and we had a blast watching various scenes and asking Lee questions. The DVD is slated for release this month so keep an eye out for it. It is a must see/hear.

Also, Drew Silverstein shared the DVD and talked about the experience of his scoring session in Hollywood under the NATAS up and coming Film Composer program. He was one of 8 people chosen in the country and the scene he chose to re-score and conduct was from X-Men 3. Did i mention he 18 years old? Nice job Drew!