To My Dear List:
Seems ages since I've sent out an update newsletter, and now that I look, it's been since May! Well, things got real busy for awhile, and now it's August already and definitely time for an update. In this edition, some wrap-up from May, June and July, one on Saturday night, September events and fall listings. I'll also be in New York a lot in the fall for performing, teaching and hanging, so be in touch!
By the way...THIS WEEKEND...
SATURDAY IN UPSTATE NEW YORK, STONE RIDGE WITH GEMINIITRIO
For those of you in the upstate New York and Berkshire regions, I'll be joining an electronic laptop trio as special guest on Saturday night, August 16th, led by my old friend David Castiglione. Four guys on stage with instruments and laptops running our favorite sound creation software. Pretty scary if you ask me. So if you're a local to the region, if you're on vacation and drivin' by, or if you just want to get outta Dodge for a minute, come join us.
Listen Here
8pm, 8/16/08 at Pearl Arts Gallery $20 including refreshments
3572 Main Street, Stone Ridge, NY, 845.687.8888
Find Directions Here
Summer Happenings
Last season ended with a bang. June began with a two week residency at The Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis with Meredith Monk's Songs of Ascension. This collaboration with Meredith is among my most cherished, and provided the opportunity to build a string quartet consisting of violist Nadia Sirota (ACME), cellist Ha-Yang Kim (Flux) and violinist Matt Albert (Eighth Blackbird). Welcomed into Meredith Monk's ensemble, we had the best time working on this piece together, which I can tell you is a thing of beauty. Songs of Ascension is an elegant expression of universal truths, inspired by artist Ann Hamilton's Ascension Tower in Geyserville, where we'll perform the piece in October. The tower itself will serve as the performance space, on the DNA strands formed by the inner staircase. It will hit New York next year as well for BAM's NextWave festival. More about this Meredith Monk/Ann Hamilton collaboration in our next newsletter as we visit Stanford, Geyserville, and Los Angeles at Redcat in the last two weeks of October.
Next, three weeks in California collaborating with Director/Choreographer/Producer Stephan Koplowitz and his crew of dancers yielded much music and six site-specific performances around the Los Angeles region, all of them taking place at least partially outdoors and requiring a rolling mobile wireless rig and a lot of sunscreen. The string of events was called “Liquid Landscapes,” an exploration of water. Around it, in it, on it. As composer for TaskForce, a site-specific touring ensemble, writing music for the events was a wonderful opportunity of epic proportions, resulting in the production of more scores in two weeks than I thought I had in me. There's a video up on YouTube with rehearsal footage of sites all along the LA River among many others, including LA's famed Farmer's Market.
The day after our last performance in Los Angeles ended being the longest day in recent memory. Got stuck in Chicago overnight thanks to a combination of plane mechanical difficulties and weather cancellations. The last 10 years have been surprisingly free of travel drama, so I guess I was due.
Angst faded immediately as the 7th Bang on a Can Summer Festival began, with three weeks of fabulous daily concerts and interaction with brilliant young performers and composers. The highlight of the event a weeklong visit from Terry and Ann Riley which brought me an unreal amount of joy and a big blessing to the whole proceeding. The Festival culminated as usual with a Marathon concert featuring Terry Riley and Bang on a Can Founders' Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe and David Lang's
"Shelter", performed with climactic thunder and rain as if on cue. A more perfect, and cathartic, performance situation I can't imagine.
Liquid Landscapes Trailer |
September and Still More Premieres
SOLDIER SONGS
by David Little
David T. Little's Soldier Songs, a gripping theatrical cantata for baritone, received an overwhelming response at New York City Opera's VOX festival in May. David's music, as performed by his band Newspeak, is equal parts rock n'roll and classical, so it's fitting that the Beth Morrison Projects'New York stage premiere production will take place at New York's new home of hybrid musical performance Le Poisson Rouge at 158 Bleecker Street in the W. Village for two performances only on September 6 and 7. Yours truly will be at the helm, conducting the New York stage premiere.
Rather than a straightforward narrative, David strings together 11 powerful moments in soldiers' lives, adapted from actual interviews. The subject matter may be "documentarian" but the musical and dramatic response is epic in scale and galvanizing in effect. Avant-garde theater and opera director Yuval Sharon has developed his production in collaboration with designers Chisato Uno and Lucas Benjaminh Krech with animation by Corey Michael Smithson. Sharon's approach will inspire the audience's active, imaginative engagement, rather than the passive disengagement with the war that the media seems eager to cultivate.
The hour-long show stars baritone David Adam Moore, who has already appeared in 40 principal roles in major houses around the world, including La Scala, Chatelet, Staatsoper Hannover, and New Israeli Opera. The production also features the young actor Brandon Rakowski.
ECONOMIC ENGINE
by Neil Rolnick
I'm happy to once again assemble a band for yet another new project with Neil, who has been a collaborator for years. In Economic Engine, Neil has undertaken -- "sonic representations of four of the many manifestations of how dramatic economic growth has impacted the life" of Chinese citizens. As he puts it in his program notes. "As an observer from the other side of the globe, I have often seen China described as the economic engine of the 21st century. In my 4 visits to China from 2005-2008, as I've gone about having my music performed, I've been struck by the energy and industry of the people I've interacted with, and with the lightening-fast pace of change which seems to impact everything I see."
Neil recently returned from Beijing where the piece was premiered, and now in a wonderful collaboration between Music From China and the TR String Quartet, this time featuring Ben Russell, Nadia Sirota and Ha-Yang Kim, we'll take it forward here in New York at The Flea Theater in another concert of Neil's music, along with another performance of Shadow Quartet.
With the olympics so present and Chinese music and musicians in my brain, it reawakens memories of great time spent with Tan Dun, Yo-Yo Ma, Wu Tong and the Silk Road Project. I'm greatly looking fowrad to this collaboration of sounds from the East.
3pm, Sunday, September 14th at The Flea Theater.
Seek Tickets at the New York Art Ensemble site.
For tix to Soldier Songs |
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Ableton Live Lessons I am absolutely passionate about teaching. I think it's the other side of being passionate about learning. I also know how many times a little conversation with someone who was the 'expert', or even just watching them work, both inspired me and opened up a way to move forward.
Most of you on this list know of my obsession with using software tools to "expand the violin past its wood-bound tradition". The thing is, everything I've learned during this process can be applied to any instrument, any music or art form, What's more fun than just doing this myself is sharing with others and helping them expand their own art.
That's why I'm now offering private and group instruction in Ableton Live, improvisation, and all kinds of other software, tools, and playing styles.
Reply to this newsletter for more information on:
-One on one lessons/coaching and mentoring
-Group workshops
-Phone, email and in-person consultations
Also, to learn more about my experience with Ableton Live, check out the article below and/or have a listen on myspace.
Todd keeps excellent company on the Ableton Live site... |
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