Bernstein and Bach, Dvorak and Brian Wilbur Grundstrom. That’s the line-up for the Queer Urban Orchestra‘s program on Sunday afternoon (11/21) in Manhattan. Grundstrom, who lives in Washington DC, will conduct his nine-minute work “Jubilation! Dance for Orchestra.”   The piece debuted in 2006 with the George Washington University Orchestra conducted by Nancia D’Alimonte.  You can listen to that performance here. Grundstrom in rehearsal with the QUO: Grundstrom and QUO’s artistic director and conductor Seth Bedford: share: Bookmark on Delicious Digg this...

If you’ve ever felt in the dark while listening to contemporary music, Friday night at EMPAC you won’t be alone. For a portion of the concert the orchestra will also be performing — literally — in the dark, without the aid of lights on their music stands or even a spotlight on the conductor. “In Vain” is the name of the single piece on the program. It’s about 75 minutes long and was written about 10 years ago by the Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas.  It will be performed by the Argento Ensemble from Manhattan, conducted by its founder Michel Galante. Along with an array...

Don’t be fooled by the pictures of Lara St. John, the violinist who’s giving a recital Sunday afternoon at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in a presentation by the Troy Chromatics.  With shoulder-length hair and a fresh open face, she appears to be about 17 years old. In fact, she’s just one year shy of turning 40. Middle age may be encroaching but a disarming spontaneity and playful sense of humor came through in our recent conversation. “I do look weirdly young and I still get carded for god’s sake,” says St. John. “And since I don’t drive I just have a passport and bartenders...

“Rapid Fire” is the name for a flute solo from early in the career of composer Jennifer Higdon, the recent Pulitzer Prize-winner. It’s also an apt description of her characteristic style. Two major works by her recently appeared on CD and though the performing forces on each are large, she still whips them into a frenzy. Higdon won the Pulitzer for her Violin Concerto, which was written for Hilary Hahn, who performs it on a new Deutsche Gramophone disc with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The three-movement score is grandly romantic in shape and form. But the opening movement,...

As one of the world’s leading opera directors Francesca Zambello’s career has taken her around the globe, jetting to such illustrious houses as La Scala, Covenant Garden and the Metropolitan Opera.  But as the new artistic director of Glimmerglass Opera, she’s been spending much of the fall driving herself around the Northeast, talking up the company with potential patrons and friends, from the Finger Lakes in New York to the central portions of Massachusetts. During her visit to the Capital Region last month we shared lunch at Jack’s Oyster House in downtown Albany.  I thought the conversation...

Pianist MARC PELOQUIN starts a three-concert series titled “Keyed Up” on Saturday night at the Tenri Cultural Institute in Manhattan. Each program features him in collaboration with composer/performers and he kicks it off with his close buddy David Del Tredici. Marc has been playing DDT’s music for some years now and is preparing a three-CD set of the composer’s complete piano music for Naxos. Also on the opening program is music of the late Robert Helps and Giacomo Puccini. In January he’s joined by pianist Roberto Hidalgo and the program features music of David...

Bernstein’s “A Quiet Place” New York City Opera October 30, 2010 “Bernstein’s Trouble in Houston” was how one headline put it after the 1983 premiere at the Houston Grand Opera of “A Quiet Place,” the dark, family drama that was conceived as a sequel to his effervescent 1952 one-act “Trouble in Tahiti.”  When George Steel announced a revival for his second season as general and artistic director of the New York City Opera, eyebrows were raised at the wisdom of such a choice. But Bernstein and his librettist Stephen Wadsworth reworked the piece significantly prior to rather...

“I’m a so-called ‘multi-media artist’ but I have no idea what that means,” says Laurie Anderson, who brings her latest show, “Delusion” to EMPAC on Friday and Saturday nights. For those unaware of Anderson’s mix of music, stories, and visuals, the other jargony term commonly applied to her is probably no-less helpful:  performance artist. Maybe it’s better to focus on what she actually produces. In addition to her touring shows, Anderson has been recording albums, exhibiting works in galleries and museums, and publishing art books at a regular pace since she was a break-out star...

In late June 2009, during the week of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, WNYC radio celebrated the legacy of gay and lesbian composers in classical and popular music with four evenings of programming.   The broadcasts were thoughtful and wide ranging: • Nico Muhly and host Nadi Sirota play and discuss music of John Corigliano, Benjamin Britten and Lou Harrison • Alex Ross (The New Yorker) and Ann Powers (Los Angeles Times) and host Terrance McKnight examine the out artists as well as the secretive/coded histories in 20th century music. • Pauline Oliveros retraces her life from...

There’s a lot more to music and culture in Minnesota than “A Prairie Home Companion.” Just ask pianist Matthew McCright, who lives in Minneapolis and teaches at Carlton College. But better yet, listen to one of his recordings or go hear him in concert. McCright will be performing an all-Minnesota program at Merkin Concert Hall in New York on Saturday September 25.  Every one of the six pieces on the program comes from a Minnesota composer and represents a New York premiere.  Here’s the full line-up: James Marentic: “Rothko” Justin Rubin “Waltz through...