This Saturday night, pianist Pedja Muzijevic will present a program wildly varied enough to be described as mavericky.

Along with Schumann’s “Carnaval” and some little sonatas by Scarlatti, there will be transcriptions of Wager and Strauss and sampling of mid-century Americans like Henry Cowell, Morton Feldman and John Cage.

“It’s a natural combination, wouldn’t you say?” deadpans the Bosnian-born pianist who’s lived in New York since the mid-80s.

A few years ago Muzijevic made a CD of Cage’s “Sonatas and Interludes” interspersed with material from the Baroque through modern eras.  Alexander Platt, director of The Maverick, invited Muzijevic to try something similar this summer.  But that Cage piece is written for the “prepared” piano – a grand piano with nuts, bolts, rubber bands and other hardware items attached onto the strings to create a rattling and ringing sound.

Muzijevic has recreated the CD in concert but having two pianos, one prepared and one standard, wasn’t feasible on the small Maverick stage.  Instead, he came up with a smorgasbord for the first half and will offer the Schumann after intermission.

While most pianists who plumb such depths of contemporary repertoire are specialists in it, Muzijevic sees it as all as part of a large continuum.

“I’m just as happy playing a Mozart concert as a Philip Glass piece,” says Muzijevic.  “I like to put things together because they’re so different. Hopefully it makes us hear each piece better and clearer.”

Among Muzijevic’s selections for Saturday, there are some historic connections to the Ulster County locale.  The program includes “Fabric” and “Floating” by the late Henry Cowell.  An enfant terrible during his youth, Cowell became famous in the 1920s for reaching inside the piano to strum and strike its strings in pieces like “The Banshee.”

Cowell did calm down as he aged and Muzijevic has chosen some relatively traditional selections from his large catalog. The composer died in 1965 after having spent his late years in the village of Shady, about four miles outside Woodstock. His wife Sidney resided there until her death in 1995.

Cowell’s daring at the piano set the stage for the work of his pupil, John Cage, whose influence as a musical visionary and artistic philosopher remains strong almost 20 years after his death.  Besides the sometimes-scorned prepared piano, Cage’s most notorious work is titled “four minutes and 33 seconds” or 4’33”.

Structured in three movements, the piece consists of silence.

It can be “performed” on any instrument, and the musician is instructed to sit still and allow the audience to listen.  Though Cage wrote a book called “Silence,” an encounter with 4’33” is anything but silent.  Instead, it reinforces his notion that all sound can be considered music.

4’33” premiered at The Maverick on August 29, 1952. The pianist was Anthony Tudor.  Rather than hearing air conditioning systems and distant traffic noises, as can happen in a “silent” concert hall, the audience heard the sounds of nature.  By bringing the piece back to The Maverick, Muzijevic is presenting an historical recreation of its premiere.

“To this day, the most avant garde figures in any category are John Cage and Merce Cunningham,” says the pianist. (Cage’s companion was the choreographer Merce Cunningham, who died July 26 last year.) “Has anyone ever come so close to that freedom of expression and wonderment and discomfort?  And is there anything more discomforting than silence.”

Maverick audiences will find out, again, on Saturday.

Originally appeared in the Times Union.

Last month composer SCOTT PENDER attended a two-week summer music intensive known as the John Duffy Composers Institute, part of

But it may as well be called Opera Camp.

According to Pender, the sessions are for composers of opera and musical theatre to bring alive their works and get feedback from the collaborating artists and senior composers.  The musical staff consisted of founder John Duffy (formerly Mr. Meet the Composer), music director Alan Johnson, stage director Rhoda Levine, and vocal coach Patrick Mason. Also on hand were visiting composers Libby Larsen, Fred Ho, and Ricky Ian Gordon, and librettist/lyricist Mark Campbell.

Pender brought along his latest composition, the one-scene stage piece “Clever Elsie,” It’s based on his own translation and adaptation of a German tale originally collected by the brothers Grimm.

“I chose this story for two reasons: first, I couldn’t find any evidence that it had previously been set to music; and second, the repetitive structure of the story appealed to me,” says Pender.

Here’s a partial synopsis and a couple excerpts from the libretto”

Clever Elsie lives at home with her mother and father and two servants. As so often happens, especially in fiction, the story really takes off when a stranger shows up in town.

My name is Hans, and I’ve come a long, long way to ask for your daughter’s hand, but only if she’s really as clever as they say, clever as they say.

Mother & Father: Oh, she’s no fool: she’s so sharp, she can even see the breeze blowing down the street.

Ensemble: Oh, she’s no fool: she’s so sharp, she can even hear a housefly sneeze.

The central portion of the scene consists of a repeated litany expressing fear over what might happen. Clever Elsie sings alone the first time, other voices add on with each repeat so that a solo becomes a duet becomes a trio becomes a quartet becomes a quintet.

If I get Hans, and we get a kid, and it gets big, and comes down here to draw some beer, maybe this pickaxe might fall on his head and strike him dead, dead.

Now back at home in the Washington DC area, Pender admits to a post-camp let down.  It’s a feeling probably familiar to all who escape for summer intensives, whether boy scouts or composers.

“Most of my colleagues agreed with me that we all suffered from what I called ‘Duffy withdrawal,’” he says. “It left me feeling kind of lost for a week or two. Eventually, as is almost always the case, picking up the pencil and score paper made it better.”

In his latest piece, “Estancia,” choreographer Christopher Wheeldon directs members of the New York City Ballet to buck and bray like wild colts. The piece opens Saturday’s annual gala at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

“It’s a cowboy ballet, set on a ranch in Argentina,” says Wheeldon, who will be on hand for the performance.  Acknowledging that a western theme isn’t exactly new to ballet, he says the piece is more reminiscent of Agnes de Mille’s “Rodeo” than Balanchine’s “Western Symphony.”

“It’s a simple boy-meets-girl story,” continues Wheeldon, who cast Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle in the leads.  “The estancia (ranch) is run by a strong country girl and she’s not interested in his city ways. He wins her over by wrangling a wild horse and they fall in love.”

“Estancia” premiered on May 29 in New York as part of the company’s spring season, which carried the title “Architecture of Dance.”  Another recently premiered ballet, Alexei Ratmansky’s “Namouna” completes the Saturday night program.

City Ballet’s architecture theme honors the 50th anniversary of Lincoln Center as well as the recent renovation of the David H. Koch Theatre (formerly the New York State Theatre).  Company director Peter Martins brought in the celebrity architect Santiago Calatrava to design sets for a batch of new ballets.

The Spanish-born Calatrava is known for soaring steel structures and Wheeldon probably had those in mind when he originally chose music by Stravinsky for his new piece.  But Calatrava’s final contribution is actually a naturalistic painted backdrop.

“I could tell he wasn’t comfortable with the Stravinsky when I played it for him,” recalls Wheeldon of their first meeting.  Soon after, Wheeldon headed in a new direction with music by the late Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera.  In a happy coincidence, the 1941 ballet score, titled “Estancia,” was written for George Balanchine, who never got around to choreographing it.

“When I came back and played the Ginastera, there was more of a spark in Calatrava’s eye,” says Wheeldon.  “We talked about his paintings and thought it could be interesting to show another aspect of his art.”

“Estancia” marks Wheeldon’s return to City Ballet, just two years after he left a plum position as its resident choreographer.  During his tenure, he created the effervescent hits “Carnival of the Animals” and “An American in Paris,” as well as more moody choreographic explorations like “After the Rain” which will be revived next Thursday night at SPAC.

Wheeldon departed from City Ballet to found and run his own ballet, “Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company,” which drew on dancers from City Ballet and other troupes to perform short seasons in New York, London, and Vail. But in February of this year, Wheeldon resigned from his own company, citing difficulties with the management, which plans to continue operating without him or his name.

“It was sad that it came to an end but it was a rich experience,” he says. “I learned an incredible amount about managing dancers and the commitment involved in running an arts organization.”

As for returning to City Ballet, Wheeldon says, “I was kind of nervous to be back but it was actually one of the easiest choreographic experiences I’ve had.”

Wheeldon’s history with City Ballet began in 1993 when he joined the corps de ballet at age 19. He was promoted to the rank of soloist five years later and retired as a dancer in 2000 to focus exclusively on choreography.

Now, without any administrative burdens, he’s back to just being a choreographer and some prestigious commissions are ahead.  Coming up are new versions of “Sleeping Beauty” for the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen and “Alice in Wonderland” for the Royal Ballet in London.  Future works for City Ballet are also being discussed, though Wheeldon won’t have any official capacity with the company.

“Sometimes City Ballet’s schedule felt hectic,” says Wheeldon. “But it’s very much about making the work. There’s the studio and you have 30 to 35 dancers just waiting for you. It will always be home for me.”

Originally appeared in the Times Union.

For 35 years, Peter Haley has been the Pied Piper of opera in the Capital Region.  As founder of the 400-member Siena Opera Club, he teaches classes on the art form, leads dozens of bus trips every year to performances across the east coast, and organizes European tours.

Preparing for it all means long days immersed in music and logistical details. And Haley doesn’t even get to take the summers off.

That’s because the local opera season is concentrated during the months of July and August.  At the head of the pack is the Lake George Opera at Saratoga, which Haley and his crew call “the home team.” The company launches its 48th season tonight with a new production of “Carmen” and continues on Friday with Donizetti’s “Viva La Mama.” Meanwhile in Cooperstown Glimmerglass Opera’s opening weekend features Puccini’s “Tosca” on Friday and Copland’s “The Tenderland” on Saturday.

Still more opera is ahead at Bard College, Tanglewood, the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy and Hubbard Hall in Cambridge and the Seagle Colony on Schroon Lake.

The Siena Opera Club will show up in force for most everything.

“They’re enthusiastic and knowledgeable opera-goers,” says Curtis Tucker, artistic director of the Lake George Opera.  “Peter Haley’s leadership of the organization has been extraordinary. He has made the Siena Opera Club an important group, serving individuals, opera companies near and far, and the art form that we love.”

“Our mission it to put people in front of live opera,” says Haley, 70.

That’s also an apt description of Haley’s life purpose.  He’s had sundry other musical pursuits, including 54 years as a church organist, starting in his teens and continuing at various parishes in the region. But opera’s been his primary focus since at least 1975 when he was recruited to teach an appreciation course in the tiny music department at Siena College in Loudonville.

Haley recalls that when he became a full time faculty member there in 1984, “I was the music department, teaching an intro class, music history and introduction to opera.”  He retired five years ago but continues a pace with the club.

According to Haley, the class in opera was surprisingly popular with undergrads, partly since it met just one night a week but was worth three credits. But it also drew a healthy contingent of adult students from the community.  In 1980, the regulars prevailed on Haley to continue offering monthly seminars and to expand the range of excursions.  Bus rides to the Metropolitan Opera have been happening ever since, sometimes a dozen times a season.

“If you live in the Albany area and are a die hard opera fan, it’s the best deal going,” says Deborah Onslow, former president and general manager of WMHT, who’s been a member for about four years. “It allows me to go to New York and not have to spend the night. Sometimes those operas are so long that there’s no hope of catching the late train back.”

For Met performances, members are dropped off at Lincoln Center at 4 p.m., allowing time for a bit of shopping or site seeing as well as dinner before the 8 p.m. curtain.  After the show, they pile into the buses and arrive back at Siena by 1 or 2 a.m.

Membership in the Siena Opera Club is $25 a year for individuals, $40 for families.  Members can pick and chose which performances they’ll attend.  Met tickets, including transportation, are around $150. The advance seminars are free.

“My only regret is that I didn’t learn about it when it first started,” says Roland Hummel of Brunswick.  “I subscribed to the Met for 20 years and took the train. But it’s best to be with other people interested in opera.”

During his 15 years of membership, Hummel has gone on at least a dozen European tours with the club and is looking forward to trip to Spain in the fall.  Though he’s 91 years old, Hummel is not the oldest active member. That distinction goes to John Cetner, age 102.

“It’s the pure pleasure of listening to good music,” says Cetner, who still attends several performances each year. “And Peter is a gem who uses plane language to describe the plots and singers.”

While the membership tilts toward the grey-haired set, vocal students from local high schools and colleges are regularly taken along to performances for free.  Three years ago a partnership was formed with the Opera Club at Lisha Kill Middle School. It consists of students who give up recess to watch opera on DVD and sometimes tag along on the opera club outings.

“Watching the discussions about opera on the bus is my favorite part,” says Lisha Kill band instructor Karen MacWatters. “Suddenly there’s a bunch of crazy noisy kids and the seniors just light right up.”

Quietly presiding over it all is the benevolent Peter Haley.  Also a former critic for the Times Union, Haley is as discerning and experienced a listener as you’ll find, having seen “La Traviata” more than 50 times. But he mostly keeps his opinions to himself.

“I try to respect where my people are and if they’ve had a great time and I haven’t, why bother to say anything,” he explains.  “Though to my friends I’ll bitch up a storm about a bad performance and just let the blood run.”

Without a hint of condescension, Haley continues: “At midnight after we’ve been through an opera and I’m checking people onto the bus, someone will say ‘Wasn’t that wonderful?’ And I’ll just smile.  My pleasure is making pleasure for other people.”

Originally appeared in Times Union.

Photos: Cindy Schultz, Times Union

He died in Williston Vermont on May 30 at age 76.

Make my grave shape of heart so like a flower be free aired and handsome felt.
Grave root pillow, tung up from grave & wigle at blown up clowd.
Ear turnes close to underlayer of green felt moss & sound
of rain dribble thru this layer
down to the roots that will tickle my ear.
Hay grave, my toes need cutting so file away in sound curve or
Garbage grave, way above my head, blood will soon
trickle into my ear –
no choice but the grave, so cat & sheep are daisey turned.
Train will tug my grave, my breath hueing gentil vapor between weel & track
So kitten string & ball, jumpe over this mound so gently & cutely
So my toe can curl & become a snail & go curiousely on its  way.

1958 NYC

The above comes from CLEAN ASSHOLE POEMS & SMILING VEGETABLE SONGS (1978, City Lights Books), which I found (first edition!) in a used porn shop in the Castro a few years ago.  Here’s the copy from the back cover:

First harvest of 1958-1978 eternal decades’ poetry by Peter Orlovsky, born July 8, 1933, in the vanished Women’s Infirmary in Lower East Side N.Y. Sometime ambulance Attendant, farmer, house cleaner, skilkscreen handyman, newsboy, Postal Clerk & instructor at Kerouac School of Poetics, he was discharged from Military after telling government psychiatrist, “An army is an army against love.” witness of the ’50s San Francisco Poetry Renaissance, he was portrayed by Jack Kerouac as hospital nurse saint Simon Darlovsky among Desolation Angels, learned driving speech from Neal Cassady & taught heart in return, partook of psychedelic revolution a pillar of strength with Timothy Leary & Charles Olson, companioned Kerouac & William Burroughs in Tanger, was one of the first American poets to make modern passage to India in early ’60s accompanying Gary Snyder & Allen Ginsbrg, studied Sarod, Banjo & Guitar, read poetry in Chicago & at Harvard Columbia Princeton Yale & New York’s St. Marks Poetry Project, survived Speed & Junk Hells, sang in jail at anti-war protest & political convention occasions, was published in historic Beatitude & Don Allen Anthologies of New American Poetry, played Self in early underground Robert Frank Movies, travelled with Dylan Rolling Thunder Review, farmed solitary upstate New York ten years organic & herculean, fed and nursed decades of poetry families. An experienced Buddhist sitter & Vajrayana meditation practitioner, his Dharma name is “Ocean of Generosity.” After 20 years of shy genius this first poem book’s published on earth.

Allen Ginsberg
Aug. 27, 1978

Above shot is from the upcoming film “Howl” featuring Aaron Tveit as Orlovsky and James Franco as Ginsberg.

Fort Worth Texas might be the most conservative area of the country after Orange County California.

Seven people were arrested for drunkenness, though numerous reports say that the individuals were pulled from the crowd randomly and violently.  A 26-year old man was hospitalized with head injuries.

The event occurred on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York.

Reports from Dallas Voice on the arrests and the ensuing investigations and protests:  7/1/09, 7/16/09, 8/7/09, 8/20/09, 10/30/09, 12/30/09

Meanwhile…

The one of the city’s premiere arts organizations, the Fort Worth Opera is gay, gay, gay.

And that’s not a redundancy. Just look at what they’re putting on stage.

In 2008 FWO presented the first full American staging of the operatic version of Tony Kushner’s landmark “Angels in America,” composed by Peter Eotvos.  A concurrent series of events throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area was titled: “More Life: The Art & Science of AIDS.”

Ava Pine and David Adam Moore, Fort Worth Opera

And on Saturday night the Fort Worth Opera presents the world premiere of Jorge Martin’s “Before Night Falls,” based on the autobiography of Reinaldo Arenas. The gay Cuban writer died of AIDS in 1990 at age 47.  His memoir was published in English in 1993. A 2000 film version was directed by Julian Schnabel and starred Javier Bardem, who was nominated for an Academy Award.

Here’s composer Jorge Martin – a gay Cuban American who lives in Vermont – talking about writing an opera about a gay Cuban:

Other coverage:  Opera News: “Long Night of the Soul” by Adam Wasserman.

Synposis, biographies, background in FWO’s newsletter “Libretto”

“Before Night Falls” runs for two performances (May 29, June 6) in repertoire with the Fort Worth Opera’s other 2010 productions, “Don Giovani” (May 30, June 4) and “The Elixir of Love” (May 28, June 5).  Look for a review on this site after the June 6 performance.

Wes Mason as Reinaldo Arenas, Fort Worth Opera

Previously on MyBigGayEars:
Darren K. Woods, Administrative star and “turn around master”

Gerald also captures the fancy of visual artists, especially photographers. When he sent an email with the recent portrait by painter Robert Lambert, I realized that there were enough Busby photos in my inbox to make a gallery. So here’s a visual tribute to you, dear Gerald.

Robert Lambert

Mia Hanson

Mia Hanson

Deirdre O'Callaghan

Ves Pitts

The following shots are of Gerald in makeup for the film, Cafe du Diable.  Yes, film directors are also drawn to him, starting with Robert Altman who put him in A Wedding back in 1978. Here’s how Gerald describes his scene in the film:

In the middle of the bacchanal of food and sex, I sit at a piano, periodically reciting monologues that comment philosophically on life.  At one point, an opera singer (a soprano), the personification of vanity and narcissism, enters and we perform an aria that is a parody of baroque opera and its emotional conceits — an air that seems the inner drought, this dreadful blend of acuity, in matters of details and indifference, seems to matter more than any achievement. We all wear stylized make-up and costumes.  My music plays in the background as I speak my monologues.

Ves Pitts

Ves Pitts

Thanks to the following for use of their work:
Robert Lambert
Mia Hanson
Deirdre O’Callaghan
Ves Pitts

Previously on MyBigGayEars:
Queeries for Gerald Busby

They’re a small town family.

Robert, Tony and Annamaria.

Maggio is on the faculty at West Chester University, outside Philadelphia. His partner Tony La Salle is an artist. They’ve been together since 1991 and adopted a daughter, Annamaria La Salle Maggio in 2001, when she was one month old. In 2003, they settled in Lambertville, New Jersey.

“We wanted to live in a small community where we’d be known by everyone,” explains Maggio. “Tony has an art gallery where he shows his work. We can walk to school. I’ve written pieces for the local regional orchestra. And when we first moved here, we weren’t the only gay parents who had kids in the school system. That helped a lot!”

Being a parent, though, isn’t an easy assignment. As Maggio says, “You realize that you have more love and more worry in you – and less sleep – than you ever knew you could.”

Actually, that’s also a part of how he describes his newest piece, “Summer: 2 AM.” Scored for soprano and orchestra, it was conceived as a companion to Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer 1915” and commissioned by the Orchestra 2001, a Philadelphia contemporary music group led by James Freeman.

“Knoxville is one of my favorite pieces of music. I wish I’d written it and I’ve probably been subconsciously re-writing it in my own pieces,” says Maggio. “It was one of the first recordings – Knoxville and The Hermit Songs – that I bought when I began studying composition. Given that I was somewhat obsessed with Barber’s music when I was a student makes this commission kind of significant in my life.”

Maggio’s “Summer” is conceived to stand on its own and consists of eight short songs, with poetry by singer/songwriter Mary Liz McNamara.

“In approaching the writing of the piece, some musical and lyrical ideas kept surfacing, such as the image of a rocking chair on a summer night,” write Maggio and McNamara in their program note. “Our soprano, the wonderful Laurie Heimes, is a new mother herself. When we met at her home to discuss ideas for the piece it was a hot, summer day and she hurried in and out of the room, gracefully and with great humor juggling the demands of a newborn.”

Sultry weather, a rocking chair and childhood also figure in the Barber, of course. “The point of view (for our piece) was not of a child but of this very new parent,” continues Maggio. “It seemed a natural, logical pursuit for us: write about this very personal, idiosyncratic and yet almost universal experience.  How does a person realize, not just with the mind but with every part of their exhausted being, that everything, the whole world, has changed?”

Summer: 2 AM premieres May 25 at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and May 26 at Swarthmore College. Maggio’s piece will follow the Barber (with intermission in between).  Also on the bill is a new violin concerto by Paul Moravec with violinist Mario Bachman and a piano concerto by Andrew Rudin with Marcantonio Barone.

David Leisner can’t escape Spanish music. He’s a guitarist.

“It’s been a crusade since early in my career to demonstrate that guitar programs don’t need to have Spanish music,” says Leisner.  “Most of the guitar repertoire is not Spanish at all! The pieces most people think of by Albeniz and Granados were originally piano pieces.

“The majority of music written for the guitar before the 20th century is from Italy and from Central Europe.   In the 20th and 21st centuries, only a very few important composers for the guitar were Spanish, the most famous being Rodrigo.  The masterpieces of the modern literature are by Britten, Ginastera, Henze, and Takemitsu.”

Leisner thinks there’s one new masterpiece about to arrive, “Facts of Life” by David Del Tredici. Leisner commissioned the piece, worked extensively with the composer in its creation, and will premiere it on April 29 at Symphony Space in New York.

A composer himself, Leisner, 56, has already written extensively for his instrument (as well as plenty of orchestral, chamber and vocal music).  With his concert series Guitar Plus, he’s now focused on expanding the repertoire for the instrument by commissioning other composers. Though Del Tredici has never written for the instrument, he was at the top of Leisner’s list.

More than an admirer of Del Tredici, Leisner also studied orchestration with him some years back.  During the two-month process of birthing “Facts of Life,” the tutoring seemed to go in both directions.

“David and I were in contact through phone calls and visits at least a couple of times a week.  I wanted to make myself available as much as humanly possible for this great composer who knew little about the guitar,” recalls Leisner. “We both discovered how valuable my input was because of my abilities and perceptions as a composer.  I had certain capacities as an editor that a non-composing guitarist simply wouldn’t have had, and I believe David found that helpful.  And observing David’s composing process so intimately was like one big composition lesson.”

Leisner originally approached Del Tredici for a 10-minute piece. Yet as with many other DDT commissioners, he got far more than he bargained for. Del Tredici countered that original offer with a suggestion of 15 minutes, yet the piece continued to grow.  In final form, it stands at four movements and more than half an hour in length.  Leisner likens it to a symphony.

“He wrote what he thought was 26 minutes of music, but because tempos on the piano (his composing instrument) tend to be faster than what’s possible or sounds good on the guitar, it’s turned out to be closer to 35 minutes.”

The piece includes two fugues – a challenge for the guitar that both composer and performer relished. And then there’s the final movement.

“A request I made at the beginning was not to write Spanish-flavored music.  I told him it was a cliche. A couple of months later he wrote the humongous last movement of the piece, called ‘Flamenco Forever,’ which centers totally on a typical Spanish Flamenco rhythm and style.  He was being very naughty and he knew it.  Probably only DDT can get away with this, but it’s fabulous!”

Along with the Del Tredici premiere, Leisner’s program features pieces for guitar and harp by Alan Hovhaness and Xavier Montsalvatge, performed with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis.  Another Guitar Plus event, also at Symphony Space, happens on April 23 with the trio known as Crazy Jane, which consists of baritone Patrick Mason, guitarist David Starobin and percussionist Daniel Druckman.  Their program features Leisner’s Three James Tate Songs plus works by George Crumb, Akemi Naito, Paul Lansky and William Bland.

By the way, next month Leisner and his partner Ralph Jackson will celebrate their 29th anniversary. Ralph is vice president of concert music for BMI.  But they’re an integrated musical family. To wit: Del Tredici is a member of ASCAP.