Fred Hersch

“If you think too far ahead you drop the ball. This is why tennis and jazz are very similar,” he says, in the documentary “The Lives of Fred Hersch.”  He continues, “you have to play what is in front of you and what appears, and react to it.”

On Friday night he’ll be performing a solo piano concert at Chapin Hall in Williamstown, Mass.  “People should come expecting original music, and definitely some things by Thelonious Monk and some reworked standards,” he says.

Like the notes that arrive at his finger tips, the final order of the program will be spontaneous. “I’ll be deciding as I go,” says Hersch.

Hailed as one of today’s finest jazz pianists, Hersch is up for two Grammy Awards for his latest disc, “Alone at the Vanguard.”    Apart from his skills as both improviser and composer, Hersch’s health condition over the last 25 years has provided plenty of opportunity to stay present, both literally and figuratively.

In 1986, Hersch was diagnosed with HIV.  Soon after, he went public about his condition. More importantly, he survived the darkest era of the AIDS epidemic, when seemingly an entire generation of artists died in their prime.  Advancements in treatment, though, haven’t meant the end of problems.

In late 2009, Hersch suffered a precipitous decline, as a persistent cough led to a major infection. Late that year he was rushed by his partner to an emergency room, where doctors put him under a medically induced coma that lasted for two months.

“After I came out of it, it was a good 8 months til I could eat, talk or walk.  It was a near death thing and was going down hill fast,” says Hersch. “If I’d not gotten to the hospital when I did, I might not be talking to you.”

It seems an understatement to say that Hersch had a determination to continue with life and music.

In the year after rehabilitation was complete, he recorded two new albums.  He also began remembering the dream world of his coma, which included dancing a tango aboard a luxury airplane and hanging out with Thelonious Monk.  At first, he just typed out the fantasies into a computer file and got on with things.  But eventually he shared them with a friend, the writer and director Herschel Garfein, who fashioned them into a dramatic scenario that mixes the surreal dream world with the cold reality of the hospital.

The resulting show, “My Coma Dreams,” with original music by Hersch, was developed at Montclair State University last spring and subsequently had a short run in San Francisco.   Hersch describes the event as “jazz theater” and says that future productions are in the works.

“The people who’ve seen it have been moved and inspired by it and that’s what we want as artist,” he says. “So we achieved what we set out to do.”

Accomplishing what he sets out to do is typical of Hersch, who lists a large number of current projects, including a new set of songs for jazz vocalist Kurt Elling, and supervising a spring performance of his 2005 song cycle “Leaves of Grass” at the New England Conservatory, where he’s been a faculty member since 1980.  Touring, recording and teaching are ever on-going.

“I don’t sit around. I’m always doing stuff and I’m clinically and energetically better than I’ve been in years. The drugs are working,” says Hersch. “In November I had a full month of touring with my trio to eight countries. I came back in fine shape. Five years ago, I would have been whipped. It’s remarkable.”

“As an artist, we never know what’s going to come along and strike our fancy. I try to be open but also instigate things,” he says. “You have to roll with life and have patience and also know when to push yourself.”

Originally appeared in the Times Union.

Previously on My Big Gay Ears:

“Jazz and the Queer Aesthetic” in JazzTimes

Fred Hersch profile in the New York Times

Fred Hersch’s Whitman tunes

That’s a choice line from Steve Smith’s story for the Times, “Darkly Spiritual Challenge to Injustice,” about Tippett’s most famous work and it’s themes of justice and social change.  The piece will be performed in concert on Friday (2/3) by the Collegiate Chorale at Carnegie Hall.

Close Encounters with Music,

Cellist Yehuda Hanani, founder and director of Close Encounters, is the featured artist on a recent disc from Albany Records of music by Vermont composer Jorge Martin.  Though the disc isn’t billed as a Close Encounters project, four out of the five recorded works were premiered by Hanani or his group since 2003.  Taken together, the collection illustrates that a beautiful composer-performer collaboration has been happening in our region for some time now.

In his liner notes, Martin explains that almost all of the music is based on melodic material from songs, mostly of his own writing.   That goes along way to explaining the accessible nature and emotional depth of the compositions.

The largest piece was written specifically for the CD. It’s a 30-minute long sonata for cello and piano, titled “Four Noble Truths.” Martin’s title refers to Buddhist teaching, and the music is haunted and soulful in that way that only great cello music can be.

More austere, even fraught, is the cello solo, “Recuerda.” The piece was requested by an arts patron and mutual friend of Martin and Hanani after he was given a terminal diagnosis.  He wanted something to be performed at his funeral.  It’s full of drones but also references Schumann.

Quotes from a different time a place appear in “Hollywood Variations,” also for cello and piano.  The melodic source material is Leonard Rosenman’s pastoral theme from his score to “East of Eden.”  There’s enough schmaltz to evoke the film, but plenty of invention and playfulness as well.

Martin’s Cuban heritage shows up in the Latin strains of “Ropa Vieja,” for cello, accordion and percussion.  And coming from an earlier time in Martin’s career is Three Nocturnes.  It’s the most abstract of the offerings, though Hanani infuses it with the same style and feeling that’s present throughout the disc.  Pianist Walter Ponce likewise brings out fine color and articulation in all of the works.

By the way, Albany Records has also released a recording of Martin’s opera “Before Night Falls,” which was premiered by the Fort Worth Opera in 2010. Based on the memoir of the late Cuban writer and dissident Reinaldo Arenas, it’s a powerful two-act piece that evokes the culturally stifling reign of Castro as well as how in New York the AIDS epidemic mowed down a generation of gay artists. Orchestra Miami recently announced a semi-staged revival of the opera for this coming October. It’s a good choice for an orchestra, since Martin’s instrumental writing is a driving force in the fast moving drama.

Here’s the full rundown of events:

FOCUS! FESTIVAL 2012

SOUNDS RE-IMAGINED: JOHN CAGE AT 100

Friday, January 27, 8 PM, Peter Jay Sharp Theater (Juilliard, 155 West 65^th Street)

Lara Secord-Haid, soprano

Davone Tines, bass-baritone

59 ½” For a String Player (1953)

Nocturne for Violin and Piano (1947)

Living Room Music (1940)

In a Landscape (1948)

Theater Piece (1960)

Postcard from Heaven (1982)

Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (March No. 2) (1951)

The Südwest Juilliard Radio Orchestra, Joel Sachs, founding conductor

Aria 2 and 2B, from Song Books Vol. 1 (1970) with Solos from Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1958)

Monday, January 30, 8 PM, Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Juilliard Percussion Ensemble

Daniel Druckman, director

Benjamin Sheen, organ

“Launching the Percussion Revolution”

Henry Cowell – Ostinato Pianissimo (1934)

John Cage – Three² (1991)

John Cage – Third Construction (1941)

John Cage – Credo In Us (1942)

Lou Harrison – Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra (1973)

Tuesday, January 31, 7 PM, Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Pre-Concert Panel with Pia Gilbert, Joan La Barbara, Laura Kuhn, and Margaret Leng Tan

Joel Sachs, moderator

Tuesday, January 31, 8 PM, Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Music for Wind Instruments (1938)

ear for EAR (1983)

Music Walk (1958)

“44 Harmonies” from Apartment House 1776 (1976)

Arr. string quartet by Irvine Arditti

27’10.554” For a Percussionist (1956) with excerpts from 45’ for a Speaker (1954)

Wednesday, February 1, 8 PM, Paul Hall (Juilliard, 155 West 65^th Street)

The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs (1942)

Nowth Upon Nacht (1984)

But What About the Noise of Crumpling Paper… (1985)

The JPC Ensemble

String Quartet in Four Parts (1950)

Eight Whiskus (1985)

Some of “The Harmony of Maine” (1978)

Sonatas and Interludes, Part III (1946-48)

Thursday, February 2, 8 PM, Paul Hall

Five Songs for Contralto (1938)

Six Melodies for Violin and Keyboard (1950)

Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939)

Etudes Boreales, Nos. I and III (1978)

Sonnekus² (1985) with Satie Cabaret Songs

Child of Tree (1975)

The Perilous Night (1944)

Friday, February 3, 8 PM, Alice Tully Hall (Broadway and 65^th Street)

New Juilliard Ensemble

Joel Sachs, director and conductor

Katya Gruzglina, soprano

Lilla Heinrich Szász, soprano

Nathaniel La Nasa, prepared piano

Allegra Chapman, piano

Fourteen (1990) with Litany for the Whale (1980)

The Seasons (1947)

Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra (1950-51)

Excerpts from Sixteen Dances (1950-51)

Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957-58) with Aria (1958)

Photo:  John Cage by Rhoda Nathans, Courtesy of the John Cage Trust

Previously on My Big Gay Ears:

John Cage on sound and silence

Cage’s 4’33″ Returns to The Maverick

In one passage, Sondheim acknowledges that the collections focus on only half of his creativity, since he writes both words and music.  While delving into the minutia of what makes a good song text, he purposely avoided technical discussions of melody, rhythm and harmony.  “Music is a foreign language that everyone knows but only musicians can speak,” he wrote.

As a counter balance to the anthologies of Sondheim the lyricist, there’s now a new project from pianist Anthony de Mare that honors Sondheim the composer.  “Liaisons: Celebrating Sondheim from the Piano,” which comes to the Hudson Opera House on Saturday (1/21), is an on-going concert and commissioning project wherein more than 30 composers create new works based on Sondheim’s songs.

Thirteen pieces will be part of Saturday’s program, with the contributing composers from many avenues of American music, including jazz (Fred Hersch), classical (William Bolcom), minimalism (Steve Reich) and opera (Jake Heggie).

“Each piece has become a wonderful marriage of the Sondheim material and the composer’s own individual style,” comments de Mare.  “Several of the composers have commented that this has been a very difficult assignment for them simply because they feel the songs are already so perfect.  They’ve nonetheless come through with a finished product that they seem quite proud of.”

The idea for “Liaisons” came to de Mare more than 20 years ago when he tried his own hand at arranging some Sondheim material.  But as a veteran of the contemporary music world, de Mare knows a wide circle of composers.  As Sondheim’s 80th birthday in March 2010 drew near, he had no trouble lining up other composers to join in the project.  All told, the processes of approaching composers, raising funds for the commissions, and scheduling concerts at venues large and small have been in the works for several years.

To get Sondheim on board with the project, de Mare first reached out with a letter.  He responded quickly, stating, “I’m flattered and delighted by your interest in my songs, and your project sounds intriguing indeed.”

More composers, young and old, continue to sign on as participants, which shouldn’t pose a problem as there’s an almost endless supply of Sondheim material at the ready. (The shows with his words and music number about 13 depending on how you count them.)

While the growing body of pieces is too much for one concert, the diversity of material allows de Mare to create new recital programs for each concert outing.  After the Hudson concert he heads to performances in Fort Worth and San Francisco followed by the New York City debut at Symphony Space in April.  Sondheim and most of the other composers are all scheduled to be on hand then.   Planned for next year is a second concert in Manhattan and a recording of the entire collection.

Though most of the composers in “Liaisons” come from the classical realm, there’s the potential for a wide audience due to the cult of Sondheim fans. (Did you know there’s an entire magazine devoted to Sondheim?  “The Sondheim Review” has been published quarterly since 1995.)

As for Sondheim’s own response to the project, de Mare says that over the past year he’s attended a number of private concerts where the new works have been tried out.  “He’s heard about 15 of the works thus far,” says de Mare, “and still comments on how humbled he is by the composers’ interest in and how inspired they are by his melodies and works.”

Previously on My Big Gay Ears:

DeMare Launches his “Liaisons” with Sondheim, Concert review by Scott Pender

Happy 80th Birthday Stephen Sondheim

Anthony de Mare, Power Pianist

Perhaps it’s that bravery, that hold-your-chin-up attitude, which allows Koestenbaum the courage to delve so deeply into the shame, guilt and suffering of others.

“Humiliation” is the latest book by Koestenbaum who will appear on Thursday at the University of Albany in an afternoon seminar and evening reading, sponsored by the New York State Writers’ Institute.  As the title suggests, his new book explores the humiliating moments of a wide range of historical figures, up to and including the sex scandals of American politicians.  He also throws in plenty of moments from his own life.

Degradation may seem like a surprising departure for the author whose six previous books of nonfiction include highly personal, almost loving biographies of Andy Warhol and Jackie Kennedy Onassis (“Jackie Under My Skin”) two of the great, glittering icons of the 20th century.

Yet in a recent discussion Koestenbaum points to the pivotal importance of a shaky self-image in the lives of the first lady and the pop artist.  He also suggests that it’s the most troubled part of their lives that made them appealing topics to him.

“Jackie was a queen and a mistress of ceremonies and very imperial in manner.  But then there was the bad press she received for defection (to marry Aristotle Onassis) and the footage that weirdly records the bloodied suit,” says Koestenbaum. “And Andy Warhol was spat upon as a child and always an outsider.  His sense of having a bad body, bad skin, bad hair gave him a profound sense of being untouchable. That was the M.O. of his mature career.”

Okay, everybody hurts.  But is Koestenbaum, who’s a distinguished professor of English at the City University of New York, just an intellectual version of a tabloid reporter, spinning out books of scandal for the high brow set?

Actually, Koestenbaum elevates the discussion by regularly making statements like “Humiliation is the kiln through which the human soul passes and receives a burnishing and consolidation.”

Using the psychological term abrecation – the release of a previously repressed emotion through reliving the experience that caused it – he goes on to explain humiliation’s deeper significance.

“By repeating a traumatic episode, you release it’s toxicity, you convert it.  It’s repeating the acts of shame to get cheerful,” he explains. “Writing the book had an abreactive effect for me, and before that so did teaching a course called ‘Humiliation.’ We were all in a good mood and didn’t talk about personal things.  But it was a personal subject and we realized that one could be very cheerful discussing humiliation if you had a supportive group.”

Being an author isn’t easy on the psyche though.  Whatever healing may have come to Koestenbaum through the writing about humiliation was at least somewhat jeopardized by the publishing process, fraught with editing, interviews and especially reviews.

“Publishing itself is so weird and elating and depressing, such a mixed bag,” he says.

Besides his non-fiction books, Koestenbaum has also written five books of poetry and a novel.  He made his first mark on the cultural map in 1993 with “The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality and the Mystery of Desire.” A brash and daring treatise on the passionate connection between gay men and opera, it includes chapters on “opera queens,” record collecting, and the cult of soprano Maria Callas.

Humiliation, it seems, is a thread that’s laced throughout classical music, especially the worship of opera divas, and the gorgeous prolonged deaths, night after night, of Violetta, Mimi and all the other tragic female characters.

Koestenbuam says that he just didn’t use the h-word in writing “The Queens Throat,” thinking it too extreme at the time.

“There’s a deeply felt connection between the shame of a flawed public performance and the mercilessly rigorous and perfectionist standards in classical music interpretation,” he says.

Perhaps the only realm where there are higher, even more unattainable standards is that of masculinity.

“Many gay men’s narrative is about failing in masculinity. But everyone does. It’s impossible to ever succeed at masculinity,” states the 53-year old author.  “As a gay man, I have a complex, very particular understanding of the melodrama of masculinity.  As someone my age, it’s taken for granted there’s shame in the package. That’s why a straight man could not have written this book.”

Originally appeared in the Times Union.

Sunday afternoon’s program featured something far better than a risky premiere.  Instead, it was Jennifer Higdon’s Violin Concerto, which was written in 2009 and received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music.  That award doesn’t always mean enduring quality but Higdon’s concerto has got the stuff.

One of today’s most widely performed composers, Higdon writes in the current style that might be dubbed post-ugly.  The concerto, like most of her music, is lively, fluent and engaging, but also extraordinarily demanding on the players, both soloist and orchestra alike.

It was written for and recorded by star virtuoso Hilary Hahn, a former student of Higdon’s at the Curtis Institute.  Sunday’s soloist was another Curtis student, 21-year old Benjamin Beilman.  He’s the first performer to take up the work after Hahn and this was his debut in the piece. He delivered with distinction and flair.

The first movement’s cadenza is a genuine tour de force, with a pilling up of themes and showy devices.  Higdon, who spoke before the piece, said she wondered if it was actually playable but Beilman tackled it with ease and confidence

After a stretch of romantic relaxation in the central movement, based on the form of the chaconne, comes the finale, which Higdon likened to a violin in a race at the Olympics.  The hurdles on the track were the colorful explosions from the orchestra.  The Glens Falls players shined in the numerous brief solos.

Beilman’s encore, from Prokofiev’s Sonata, revealed one of his gifts that was largely missing from the hyperactive concerto, a warm radiant tone.

After intermission, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral” sounded like a different orchestra had taken the stage. The woodwinds were sour and out of tune at the launch of the first movement and the babbling brook of the second had a meager flow rate.  But Peltz added momentum with each movement and the playing got better for it.

Despite the struggles, or perhaps because of them, it was an engaging performance over all.  In other words, there was always something to listen for, good or bad, rather than just sitting through another accurate but rote account of the familiar classic.

Originally appeared in the Times Union.

IN OTHER HIGDON NEWS:

The long awaited opera (Higdon’s first) for the San Francisco Symphony will no longer be in San Francisco.  The Sante Fe Opera has stepped up to take on the commission.  After a long search for the right subject, and then a protracted negotiation for rights, the source material is in place:  ”Cold Mountain,” the best-selling novel by Charles Frazier.  The Opera Company of Philadelphia is a partner in the commission and production and the premiere is slated for 2015.

Here are more details from the Sante Fe Opera’s press release:

COLD MOUNTAIN – Jennifer Higdon, composer; Gene Scheer, librettist

2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.  Cold Mountain is Charles Frazier’s powerful account of one soldier, W. P. Inman, who deserts the Confederate army as the war is coming to an end and makes his way back to his home on Cold Mountain.  The novel won the 1997 National Book Award and was made into a film in 2003. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards.

The Civil War has a special resonance for New Mexicans.  The New Mexico Territory was the site of one of the final and westernmost battles of the Civil War, fought at nearby Glorieta Pass in 1862.  Historians have called it a major event in the history of the Civil War.  The village of Pecos is the site of an annual reenactment of the skirmish.

Cold Mountain composer Jennifer Higdon is one of the most in-demand composers today.   She was awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto and a Grammy the same year for her Percussion Concerto. blue cathedral, written in 2000, on the death of her brother, has become one of the most performed modern orchestral  works.  Her compositions have been performed by leading orchestras throughout the country and she has received commissions from numerous instrumental ensembles.

The versatile American librettist and composer Gene Scheer is the librettist.  Among his many projects are several with composer Jake Heggie, the latest being Moby Dick for the Dallas Opera which was premiered in 2010.  He collaborated with Tobias Picker on two operas, An American Tragedy, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, andTherese Raquin for the Dallas Opera.  He has written songs for singers including Renée Fleming, Sylvia McNair and Stephanie Blythe, and a song cycle, Voices from World War II for Nathan Gunn.

Nathan Gunn, who will sing the role of W.P. Inman, is one of the country’s leading operatic baritones.  He has performed in virtually every major opera house in the world and is admired as an interpreter of new works including operas by Tobias Picker, Daron Hagen, Andre Previn and Peter Eötvös.  He collaborated with Gene Scheer on the opera An American Tragedy, and the song cycle Voices from World War II.  Gunn is also a distinguished concert performer and recitalist.  He appeared in the 1998 production of Berlioz’ Beatrice and Benedict and the following year in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos in Santa Fe.  He is currently Professor of Voice at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Today at South Mountain Concerts in Pittsfield, Mass. DDT’s String Quartet No. 2 has its debut with the Orion String Quartet.

And here’s the composer’s notes on “Gotham Glory”:

Having lived and loved in New York for more than 40 years, I thought it time to celebrate the place in my own idiosyncratic way. “West Village Morning” is an appropriately sunny, short work which acts, as well, as a prelude to the ensuing fugue, “Museum Piece”. A ten-minute, highly developed work, the fugue pays homage both to old musical forms and the New York’s museum riches. “Missing Towers” (referring of course to the World Trade Center towers that the city lost on September 11, 2001) is a mysterious piece. The two voices in continuous canon with each other are my way of recalling those two significant buildings. At the very end, the pianist leaves the keyboard to play, on the inside of the piano, a further expression of vanished glory. The final movement, “Wollman Rink”, is a virtuoso extravaganza — a 15 minute fantasy on Emil Waldteufel’s “The Skater’s Waltz”. With cascading runs, arpeggios, and general pianistic fireworks, it stands to test any performer’s mettle. This work was commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation and dedicated to and premiered by Anthony de Mare.

The event was conceived and organized by Steve Sims, who’s become well known in the Out Music worlds as co-host of The Quest of Life, a radio show from WRPI-FM in Troy.  Launched in 2004, the broadcast has developed a national following and features interviews by Harris Faddis with “GLTB people who are leading lives of inspiration.”  In between Faddis’ discussions with life coaches, therapists, physicians, astrologers and sacred intimates, Sims plays CDs by well known and emerging GLTB artists.

Faddis and Sims

The first annual Out in the Woods is the latest undertaking at Easton Mountain, which was founded in summer 2001 and hosts an array of gay oriented retreats, workshops and gatherings and is the east coast home of the Body Electric School.

Here’s the line-up of artists for Out in the Woods:

• Norine Braun
• Terry Christopher
• Scott Free
• Jeremy Gloff
• Tom Goss
• Ajuna Greist
• Jeremy James
• Roger Kuhn
• Stewart Lewis
• Dan Manjovi
• Lucas Miré
• Sister Funk
• John Small
• Susan Souza
• Robert Urban
• Morry Campbell

Jacob’s Pillow, the dance colony in Becket, Mass., is hosting a gay-themed weekend of performances, exhibitions and free events.  The second annual “Weekend Out” is a nice follow up to “The Untold Story of Jacob’s Pillow,” an article for the Gay & Lesbian Review by the Pillow’s archivist Norton Owen.

JACOB’S PILLOW ANNOUNCES
SECOND ANNUAL LGBT “WEEKEND OUT”
AUGUST 5–7

FULL WEEKEND OF FREE AND TICKETED DANCE EVENTS
INCLUDING A TED SHAWN AND HIS MEN DANCERS TOUR ON SUNDAY

What: Recently honored by President Barack Obama with a prestigious National Medal of Arts, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival will host its second annual “Weekend OUT” August 5–7, a weekend full of free events, performances, and tours. This packed schedule of events provides the opportunity for LGBT families, individuals, and couples to take advantage of all the Pillow has to offer while meeting and mingling with old and new friends.

Scheduled weekend events include the photography exhibit Annie Leibovitz:DANCE which honors the 30th anniversary of Mark Morris Dance Group; a free performance by the Jazz/Musical Theatre Dance students of The School at Jacob’s Pillow; a free film on the glamorous Paris Opera Ballet star Claude Bessy, and more. “Weekend OUT” will also feature a special behind-the-scenes historic tour of Jacob’s Pillow on Sunday, August 7 at noon, guided by Jacob’s Pillow Director of Preservation, Norton Owen, and focusing on iconic Pillow-founder Ted Shawn, his company of Men Dancers, and his mission to represent strength and masculinity in dance.

Performance highlights include the U.S. debut of 3e Étage: Soloists and Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet, who showcase their versatility in varied program of witty contemporary ballet works , and the much-talked-about choreographer Jonah Bokaer, acclaimed as “contemporary dance’s renaissance man” (Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times), in multimedia dances that merge the visual arts and movement.

“Weekend OUT” is sponsored by The Gay & Lesbian Review.

Visit http://www.jacobspillow.org/festival/2010/08/a-weekend-out-at-the-pillow/index.php for additional details or, click here to read The Untold Story of Jacob’s Pillow, published in 2006 by The Gay and Lesbian Review.

When: Friday, August 3–Sunday, August 7
Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers Historic Tour: Sunday, August 7 at noon

Where: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
358 George Carter Road, Becket, MA 01223
Box Office: 413.243.0745