He knows his way around the black and white notes of a tradition piano keyboard plenty well, having studied at the Chopin Academy in his native Warsaw. But for the last 20 years he’s created and performed original works that combined the piano with video. Kapuscinski will appear at EMPAC on Saturday night (4/16) in a program titled “Catch the Tiger.”

“I perform audio-visually and create narratives that connect different media. I’m an inter-media composer,” explains Kapuscinski. “I like the term inter-media rather than multi-media because it’s about the media speaking to each other in interesting ways. New forms arrive by joining the two together.”

Kapuscinski says that early in his career, when booked to perform concert or compose a piece, he would ask extensive questions about the visual setting and environment of the planned performance. It was at the Banff Center, in Alberta Canada, around 1988 that he was first introduced to computer animation and video.

“It became really clear to me, ‘Oh I have found what I always wanted to do,’” he recalls. “From there on, I never stopped and I always have a visual. But an important part remains live music in performance. And I like to do it myself.”

A Kapuscinski creation is far more than a piano piece with film or video running in parallel time. He performs on the Yamaha Disklavier, a kind of piano/computer fusion programmed so that each touch of the keyboard triggers aspects of the accompanying video.

“I am able to turn the computer into a chamber musician that plays visuals,” says Kapuscinski, who’s been on the music and media faculty at Sanford since 2008. “As I play my part on the piano, the computer listens and plays the visual parts I composed for it. It’s completely in synch with what I do.”

“Timing and the approach to tempo is everything in music,” continues Kapuscinski. “Each single note makes a total difference in expression. In live performance I’m editing my visuals with the same kind of expressive ability.”

Music may remain the driving force in Kapuscinski’s art, but Saturday’s program of five works embraces a number of non-musical topics and fields, including visual art, poetry, mathematics and food. “Mondrian Variations” uses animations of paintings by the Dutch master. In “Catch the Tiger,” the simple piano melodies trigger increasingly complex strings of numbers onscreen.

There’s also “Juicy,” with visuals of fresh fruit, and “Oli’s Dream,” a collaboration with poet Camille Norton. In the latter, lines of text appear on the overhead screen one letter at a time with accompanying sounds that resemble the clatter of a typewriter. “Oli,” in the title, is a reference to the Olivetti typewriter. (Kapuscinski says when he and Norton created the piece they’d not heard of Leroy Anderson’s “The Typewriter,” though he’s since been told about it countless times.)

“Where Is Chopin?” was created in celebration of last year’s 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth. The largest and most recent piece in the concert, it also honors Kapuscinski’s musical and national heritage.

“Chopin is very much in my blood. I grew up in Poland and, as a pianist, he informed who I was,” says Kapuscinski. “I’m still very fond of his music, the balance of reason and emotion.”

To gather visual material, Kapuscinski sought out similar devotees in 12 cities around the world, as far a field as Tokyo, Helsinki, Buenos Aires and Istanbul.

“I met 150 people and played for them the 24 Preludes Op. 28. On three screens you see their faces as they react to the music,” he explains. “But what I play is not actually Chopin any more. Just as I edited the listeners, choosing the most poignant moments, I also took the Chopin preludes and contemplated their essences and used what I thought corresponded to the essential moments. It becomes a new encounter with Chopin.”

Originally appeared in the Times Union.

GAY EARS ADDENDUM:

Kapuscinski is married to Canadian composer Francois Rose. They’ve been together for 16 years and were married in 2004.

“I’m thrilled and lucky and extremely happy,” says Kapuscinski.  ”Gay or not gay, these long relationships don’t seem to be found very often anymore. But now we have a challenge.  I got this job in Stanford and Francois has a good job as a composer at the University of the Pacific, two hours away by car without traffic. So we have to travel to each other on weekends. Like any married couple, we have these problems  of commuting.”

A two-composer family poses fewer problems than distant jobs.

“We understand each other’s passion… but also appreciate that we’re different.  It always comes as a shock to the system that your loved one falls asleep during your favorite movie or that they’re excited about something you would otherwise ignore.  We don’t tell each other what to do, but on a higher level we connect and understand each other’s passion for music.”

Here’s a recent candid photo from a get-away in Mendocina, California.

Nicholas Chase will be in good company this week at the Other Mind Festival in San Francisco.  He’s a composer fellow hobnobbing with Louis Andriessen and other more senior composers, all on hand for the week-long series of events, now in its 16th season.

Nick is a Ph.D. candidate in the iEar program at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute in Troy, NY. Though he’s been in the Capital Region for at least a couple of years now, he considers himself bi-coastal, with bases of operation also in the Bay Area and Seattle.

A new project in California is the UFOrchestra – Unidentified Future Orchestra – a fun if rather grand name for what’s starting out as a trio consisting of Randall Wakerlin, an animator, and Ann Haroun, a writer/vocal/narrator, plus Nick. And what does Nick play, you ask?  Well, watch the video at this link.

Here’s Nick with more on the “orchestra”:

Part of that specialization of the UFOrch is the use of visuals as an integral part of the composed work, another part is an unusual approach to integrated spoken-word, and, closer to my heart, a new sensibility about music. I feel strongly the later half of the 20th Century (and now early 21st!) has gotten so deep into the conceptual, we’re forgetting the music. It’s all well and good to access all this science and technology and even focus our ears for intensive listening – but what about the music?

The UFOrch will definitely sport some exciting gadgetry, a little science (for instance, I’m working on a cycle of pieces that are based on physical sound phenomenon and the math behind aeronautics?!) but mostly emphasize the music – in an almost traditional way.

A slightly more tradition Nicholas Chase piece – “Gin Blossoms & Broccoli Boutonnières” – will be performed Wednesday as part of the Other Minds Festival.  It’s a creation for turntables and flute…

In 2004, California E.A.R. Unit co-founder, Dorothy Stone, asked me to write a duo for on flute playing with a DJ.

Dorothy was violently averse to broccoli. As a student at the Manhattan School of Music, she was flummoxed by the very idea of broccoli, and, not knowing what else to do with it, wore a sprig of broccoli on her lapel to class every day. Sadly, Dorothy passed away unexpectedly in 2008 without reconciling her loathing for broccoli (and all other cruciferous vegetables). She also never saw the sketches for this work, which takes its title from her unique nutrition cum fashion sensibilities.

Dorothy, her husband (my close friend and mentor), Stephen “Lucky” Mosko, and I all shared a refined passion for gin. We spent many long days telling stories, discussing music, inventing recipes, talking about wolves and wolf packs, and skinny-dipping in the ice-cold spring-water pool at their farm, two miles west of the San Andreas Fault. These days were accompanied by Lucky’s ‘foolproof’ martinis — a recipe he attributed to Earnest Hemingway (by way of his best friend, Humphrey Evans).

Gin Blossoms & Broccoli Boutonnières is a bagatelle, a bon-bon, a comique, a trifle, or, in a more classical sense, a scherzo. It paints a portrait that commemorates those nights at the farm, when I learned so much about music, about life, and most importantly — how to get to the moon.

That’s the Norwegian multi-disciplinary artist Lisbeth J. Bodd’s attempt to describe “And All the Question Marks Started to Sing.” During our long-distance interview it probably didn’t occur to her that the theater piece would actually be appearing at an engineering school.

“All the Question Marks…” will be performed tonight and Friday (2/17-18) at EMPAC, on the RPI campus.  It’s the second appearance at the venue by Bodd and her experimental company, Verdensteatret, which was founded in 1986 in Oslo. They participated in EMPAC’s opening festival two years ago with a piece bearing the intimidating name “Louder,” that featured not just amplified sound but a varied battery of other new and old media.

Typical of the hybrid events on the EMPAC stages, Verdensteatret’s latest work is another mixture of genres.  This time, it’s a blend of theater and sculpture.  A dozen performers and technicians will create an hour-long work and then the stage will be opened for audience members to wander around and get a closer look at the combination of junkyard objects and electronic gadgets that form the set.

“We like to mix older materials with new technology,” explains company member Asle Nilsen. “We don’t like just the sleek and high tech.  On stage you have several bicycle wheels, which are connected to switches that we map onto sound and video.  So the stage itself is a functional instrument.”

The work’s title is borrowed from the Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer.

“In the poem, there’s a guy who has been up in a hotel room with his secret lover,” says Nilsen. “When he goes out into the winter streets he thinks about all these big questions that we always think about in our lives.  We never do find the answers.  But he’s content and he imagines that all the question marks are singing.”

“We found that quote to fit the feeling in our creative process,” continues Nilsen. “In fact, that’s almost our definition of art.”

Nilsen and Bodd explained that the genesis of a Verdensteatret piece is long and laborious. “All the Question Marks…” was two years in the making.

“When we start, we don’t know where we’re headed,” says Nilsen. “We work with material until it gets warm and interesting.”

Typically the collaborators do everything from programming the computers and to welding together the elements of the set. “Everything is made from the very bottom up,” says Nilsen.

During its history, Verdensteatret has toured the world and its creations have been featured not just in theatrical venues but also in art galleries and museums.  After their appearance in Troy, they’ll bring “All the Question Marks…” to the Dance Theatre Workshop in New York for four performances. The run will inaugurate a new series titled “FuturePerfect,” intended to highlight works that bring together art and technology — a mission strikingly similar to that of EMPAC.

Whether they’re performing for the culture elite of Manhattan or some engineering students in Troy, the Verdensteatret team just wants to be offered the same open-mindedness that they put into the building of their pieces.

“We hope that we have made something that people can relate to,” says Bodd. “Audiences should just stay open, as if they were going to a concert or seeing a painting.”

Verdensteatret
“And All the Question Marks Started to Sing”
EMPAC, RPI campus, Troy NY
February 17, 2011

As a kid, did you used to turn your bicycle upside down and balance it on its handlebars and seat? And then spin the wheels and think they were magic?  Have you ever wished the steering wheel of your car controlled the music on the stereo, and could make it play forward or backward, or faster or slower?

You know that cute gooseneck desk lamp that sort of turns its head and smiles at you just before the start of a Pixar film?  How would you like to meet its extended family of luminous technological life forms, watch them dance and mate in near darkness?

Ever wondered about the secret life of light bulbs? Would you like to spend a while inside the mind of Thomas Alva Edison?

Can you picture a giant metal sculpture with half a dozen poles reaching up 10 or 15 feet high, each capped by round discs tilted at various angles as if to catch rays of sun? What if they are set against a dreary junkyard landscape and yet the whole imagine was somehow cheerful and made you think of flowers?

Does it usually annoy you when folks behind you during a performance are whispering incessantly? And yet, has it happened that you’re not really bothered by it because the gentle minutia of sounds they’re making kind of fits in with the bizarreness of the show you’re experiencing?

Have you read artsy jargon, terms like “object theater,” and wondered what in the world these people are talking about?  And then go to a show and saw frail little metal constructions that seem to act of their own accord and you say to yourself, “Oh, is that what they meant?”

Would you like to be a chic European performance artist in a company called Verdensteatret? How about making lots of noise and get grant funding and international travel for your efforts?  And maybe go onstage and do a flirtatious dance with another artist, while the two of you also create a sonic collage out of old jazz recordings?

Have you been to EMPAC yet?  Have you sat through something and alternated between loving it and being a bit bored by it and still wished it kept going just a bit longer?  Have you been glad to realize that you’re not the only one who actually likes something that’s almost impossible to describe?

Do you now maybe understand the title, “And All the Question Marks Started to Sing”?

Originally published in the Times Union.

Kristin Norderval has come a long way from the received expectations of what sopranos should do.

“I remember singing Frasquita in ‘Carmen’ in Sarasota,” she told the New York Times in 2001 (“Downtown Divas Expand Their Horizons.”)  ”I couldn’t bear the end of the opera, passively watching Carmen become a victim. I always wanted to run out on stage and yell: ‘There he is. Call the cops.’… I pulled back from this repertory also because I wanted to have more of a hand in shaping the artistic product, to work in a collaborative way with people who wanted to hear my opinion.”

Today Norderval is as much a composer as a vocalist.  She specializes in electro-acoustic music and many of her works have a social-political bent and are collaborative stage works.   Yet at least half of her recordings are performances of music written for her by composer colleagues, including Anne LeBaron and Matthew Rosenblum, to name a few.

What are you working on these days?
I’m finishing an electronic score for an upcoming dance performances by jill sigman/thinkdance at the 92nd St Y on March 11-13, and a new chamber work that will be premiered by Ensemble Pi at Cooper Union on March 19th.

What’s a typical workday for you?
Unfortunately more email and administrative work than I would like!   I tend to divide my days – either I’m making music (composing and rehearsing) or I’m focusing on administrative tasks, applications and grant writing. Either way it’s a lot of time on the computer, since the majority of my music involves electronics.  I try to get in regular vocal practice.  On my breaks I love to go for walks in Inwood Park, which is one of my favorite spots in the city.

Technology is a big part of my work.  My music often involves combining electronics and live audio processing with acoustic instrumentals or vocals. I enjoy experimenting with different programs, but I work primarily with Max/MSP because of the flexibility it allows.

How much do you travel for your work? Do you find it stimulating or a hassle?
I travel a fair amount. I’ve been dividing my time between Oslo and New York for the last few years, so there’s a lot of back and forth to Norway, and I’ve been fortunate to have projects and collaborations in other places as well. I do enjoy traveling, especially when it’s connected to work. It’s a great way to see new places and get to know local artists.

Have you ever experienced discrimination in the music business because of your sexuality?
It’s hard to distinguish between sex discrimination and discrimination based on sexual orientation. They’re both linked to prescribed roles for women, roles that are very conservatively hetero-normative. It was difficult when I was primarily earning my living as a soprano soloist, because I didn’t identify with the kind of persona I was expected to project, or with the types of characters that were delegated to my voice type. I just didn’t do a very good job of playing dumb and sexy, or sweet or girlish.  In as much as that was in demand I suppose I was discriminated against. It wasn’t a conflict between heterosexual and lesbian sexuality though, it was a conflict with the stereotyped portrayal of women in opera in general. The gender roles in opera are fairly limited and there’s very little repertoire yet that reflects a feminist sensibility, let alone one that’s radical or queer!

As a composer, there are other issues, mostly having to do with networking. Things have improved greatly in the last 20 years, but it’s still a given that almost all of what music students learn is the work of male composers, and what is programmed by institutions – orchestras, chamber music ensembles, etc – is still largely works by men. There are fewer examples of women composers so people don’t necessarily have that in mind as a possibility. The discrimination comes not so much from anything malicious, but more from just not being thought about. Guys ask their friends to make music with them, without necessarily reflecting on how most of those friends are men. But I think the increase of female composer-performers and the increased access to technology that allows self-publishing has helped get more and more work of women out there and that really helps.  And I have to say that I have received a lot of support from other women in music, so maybe it evens out.

Are you single or coupled?
Happily coupled.

Do you give PDAs (public displays of affection)?
Absolutely.

What’s on your bed table?
Jane Mayer’s “The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals”

Do you watch TV?
I’ve never owned a TV. I watch news shows on my computer.  I’m a big fan of Democracy Now‘s Amy Goodman and Grit TV‘s Laura Flanders.  During the Egyptian protests in these last weeks I was fascinated to follow events live on Al Jazeera English on YouTube.

Is there a relationship between your sexuality and your creativity?
I’m sure there is.

What’s the gayest musical thing you’ve ever done?
Hard to say. If I’m singing one of my works without words, it may be a very sensual love song in my mind, and hopefully the emotions of love and eros will come through, but will it be heard as lesbian? I don’t know. When I set text, however, my choices of material reflect both my politics and my identity. This last decade has seen a lot more political texts than love songs, but I recently set a paragraph from Monique Wittig’s “The Lesbian Body” as part of a DVD project called “Sounding Out!” a compilation of works by 6 lesbian/queer composers on Everglade.  That’s fairly overt.

Who was your most influential teacher and why?
As a vocalist, Don Stenberg.  For composition, Pauline Oliveros.  They both modeled superb musicianship, attention to detail, risk-taking, openness and loving kindness.  I feel very fortunate to have had these teachers who were also mentors.  And I’ve been very pleased to be a mentor to a couple of younger female composers.

Was coming out tough or a pleasure? Sudden or gradual?
It’s so long ago, it’s hard to remember!  My first coming out was to my mother, when I was still a teenager.  She thought it would be a phase.  It’s been a long phase.

Previously on MyBigGayEars:

Concert review: Kristin Norderval at iEAR

“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 from the lower Manhattan experimental scene of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.  “Delusion” follows on the heels of her new CD “Homeland” (Nonesuch) and was developed during a series of residencies at EMPAC, the two year-old arts center on the campus of RPI in Troy.

“Because I was at EMPAC the direction of the piece changed completely,” explains Anderson, recalling that her intention was to write a series of short plays. “I was going to give them to actors and thought that might be an interesting way to go. But I don’t know how to write plays and that became very obvious to me very quickly.”

According to Anderson, it was when some of the technical staff at EMPAC offered her the use of fancy digital projections that the piece began to shift direction and jell.

“It was because they were able to put the equipment together so easily that it became a very visual piece,” she recalls. “I’m used to things morphing into other forms.  Sometimes I’ll start out working on opera and it turns into a potato print.”

Technology has been a constant in Anderson’s work over the years, both as a topic and a tool.  She doesn’t like to make it a fetish though, at least not lately.

“I just try not worship it,” she says. “It used to be new and weird. But at this point it’s not such a great thing for an artist to push a button and say ‘Look!’  Besides, if you don’t have any ideas, it’s nothing. And there are always pencils.”

Anderson avoids describing the new show in too much detail, other than saying it’s a series of 20 stories, lasting a total of about 90 minutes.

“I’m trying to represent a kind of mental drift and how your mind works,” she says. “I realized that one third of your time – one third of your life – you’re sleeping.”

“I need at least 8 hours, and 18 hours would be better. And I just had my 63rd birthday and that means I’ve spent 21 years sleeping,” she continues. “What have I been doing all that time? What’s going on?”

Dreams are not new material for Anderson and she recognizes that artists of all manner draw on the dream state as a source of creativity and ideas.  Yet Anderson’s not keen on listening to other people’s dreams in casual conversation.

“Someone will tell me ‘There’s this man walking down the road. It was my father. But then it was my uncle…’ And it’s like ‘No, please don’t tell me your dreams!’ They’re a private little world that’s not easy to communicate.”

A weird, floating state of strange associations and personal insights, one might say.

Actually, that’s a pretty good description of a multimedia performance by Laurie Anderson.

With husband Lou Reed

Originally appeared in the Times Union (Albany NY).

He’s the principal cellist in the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, but Jeffrey Krieger is widely known in new music circles as an electric cellist.

For some 20 years now he’s played the electrified instrument and collaborated extensively with a wide range of composers in the creation of multimedia performance works involving computer and videos.

A 1993 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts made possible extensive touring in the USA, and in 1996 he received the State of Connecticut Commission on the Arts Artist Fellowship for work in multi-media.

_______________________________________________________________

Where did you grow up and has that affected your sensibilities as a musician?
I grew up in Joliet, Illinois and came from a very middle class, somewhat Catholic, blue-collar background. Joliet is known for Stateville, the State Penitentiary. In fact, one of my uncles was an assistant warden. I remember as a kid going to family picnics on the grounds just outside the prison walls. Dad worked as a foreman at Reynolds Aluminum just outside of Chicago and my mother stayed home with five kids.

On my 9th birthday I was presented with a $9.99 ukulele from Mr. Zee’s Music Shop and I loved to learn how to play it on my own. Growing up I listened to a lot of radio, hearing music mostly out of speakers and never having the opportunity to attend live classical music concerts until much later.

Dad used to call from the living room for me to come watch the cellist, Charlotte Harris on the TV each time she would appear (which was frequently) in her full length red gown and 50’s hairdo smiling lovingly into the camera while performing The Swan on the Lawrence Welk Show. This was also the era when electronic organs became popular and the housewives in the neighborhood bought them to occupy their leisure time. You could hear the sound of Leslie speakers from across the street wafting in the hot summer breeze.

At the same time as learning to play the cello I also played electric guitar with kids in neighborhood bands and acoustic guitar at Sunday church services. So traditional classical music did not play as influential a role in my formation as a musician until much later.

What are you working on these days?
I recently premiered “Portrait of Jeffrey” by Pauline Oliveros, a mandala piece realized for electric cello and computer. Pauline created the score after some specific questions were answered about my birth date, place, time, etc. I constructed an interactive computer program in MAX/MSP software which allows the performer to click on various parts of the mandala image ­– Nature, Birth, Who Am I?, Quotation, Dream, Memory, Theater, and Signature. This in turn performs tasks like setting up the software that processes the sound and supplies the score for each section of the piece. The capabilities of the instrument are extended through the software. For example, a string can be used as a kind of slide controller to modulate the speed of a sound file. My goal was to go beyond the traditional expectations of the cello using the capabilities of technology.

Currently, I am experimenting with a multi-channel playback system. I am contemplating rewiring the output of the instrument so there are 4 separate channels, one for each string. This will allow the performance to become more ‘sculptural’.

Do you like to collaborate or be the boss?
I am definitely hands-on when it comes to collaboration because of the importance in sharing what I have learned about the electric cello, as well as at the same time leaving plenty of room for experimentation. After 20 years with the electric cello there is a wealth of knowledge to share. It is also a necessity to be an equal partner because of the interactive computer programs I create specifically for each project. The computer plays an important role in my performances. The more I help the direction of a project the more interesting the result.

Have you ever experienced discrimination in the music business because of your sexuality?
Not that I am aware.

Are you single or coupled?
I am single.

Are most of your friends from the music world or not?
Most of my close friends are musicians, composers and artists.  I especially like the later two because they are creative people who are outside the classical musician circle I work in as principal cellist of the Hartford Symphony, and I just admire their art so much. Perhaps because of my work on the electric cello I have come to appreciate much more the people who are the creators. I collect contemporary art so there is nothing more exciting than visiting an artist’s studio to see and hear about their current work, even more than visiting a gallery or museum. But I cherish all artistic friendships for the creative energy and inspiration.

Is there a relationship between your sexuality and your creativity?
Yes, I am very creative in both areas…….

How much do you travel for your work? Do you find it stimulating or a hassle?
I travel just enough for performances that it has not become boring or tedious. What helps to keep it interesting are the challenges of adapting a performance to a particular venue and the wide range of acoustical characteristics one may encounter. The electric cello and computer are very adaptable when it comes to these challenges.

An example of an ideal performance scenario took place recently at Radford University’s new state-of-the-art, Covington Recital Hall where my acoustical needs were accommodated on the spot by a technician who expanded and contracted the walls and ceiling with a control module. It is normal to be prepared to make adjustments for the acoustics in the computer software, but the technician was able to adjust the hall to the ideal acoustics. One may know ahead of time what sound system will be available for playback but the actual acoustics from venue to venue can be much more unpredictable.

I also use an untraditional configuration for placement of the speakers. Instead of the speakers out front with a monitor for the performer and house levels controlled by a sound engineer, I prefer to monitor volume levels, flanked by the speakers, which are turned slightly inward. This allows me to hear closer to what the audience is experiencing and to make constant adjustments in my playing. Each work is unique when it comes to its sound requirements and there is never enough time to teach a sound engineer these subtleties.

Otherwise, I like meeting people and everything that goes along with new travel experiences like food, climate, etc., especially in far away places. Chaotic experiences like dodging animals and motorcyclists while being chauffeured through tiny villages on dirt roads from Mumbai, India to a venue several hours away, wondering if we will ever arrive in time for the start of the concert (we didn’t), which may also include spontaneous power outages, can be very entertaining. It makes the actual performing of the concert a piece of cake.

The prize “honors the lifetime achievement and lasting significance of a contemporary American composer” and comes with a $50,000 purse. A celebratory concert and tribute will be given in Miller Theater on Saturday March 27.

The retrospective marathon program starts at 8 p.m. and runs approximately 3.5 hours with two intermissions.  Program notes can be viewed here.

Program:
Deep Listening: Lear (1988) (CD recording)
Fed Back II (1966)  (audio playback)
Sounds from Childhood: Sonic Meditation (1992) (for audience participation)
The Gender of Now: There but not There (2005)
Variations for Sextet (1960)
Who’s Playing What (2010)
Bye Bye Butterfly (1965) (audio playback)
The Inner / Outer Matrix (2007)
IO and Her and the Trouble with Him: A dance opera in primeval time (2001) (video excerpt)
Oracle Bones: Mirror Dreams (2009)
Lunar Opera: Deep Listening For_Tunes (2000) (video excerpt)
Ghostdance (1995) (video excerpt)
Njinga the Queen King: Return of a Warrior (1993) (video excerpts)
DroniPhonia (2009)

Performers:
International Contemporary Ensemble
Deep Listening Band
Timeless Pulse
Tom Buckner, baritone; Monique Buzzarté, trombone; Jonas Braasch, soprano saxophone; Sarah Cahill, piano; Stuart Dempster, trombone and didjeridu; Margot Farrington, visual performer; David Gampner, piano and electronics; Heloise Gold, dancer; Ione, spoken word/sonic vocals; Tony Martin, visual composer and performer; George Marsh, percussion; Miya Masaoka, koto/electronics; Doug Van Nort, laptop; Jennifer Wilsey, percussion; and David Wessel, electronics

Speakers:
Carol Becker, Dean, Columbia School of the Arts
David Bernstein
Michael Century
David Felton
Linda Mary Montano
Renée Levine Packer
Frances Richard
Jenneth Webster

]]> http://mybiggayears.com/archives/oliveros-schuman/feed/ 1 http://mybiggayears.com/archives/bleckmann-review/ http://mybiggayears.com/archives/bleckmann-review/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:00:48 +0000 jody http://mybiggayears.com/?p=931 Twelve Songs by Charles Ives
Theo Bleckmann and Kneebody

Theo Bleckmann could sing me to sleep anytime he likes, even if he doesn’t want to snuggle.  The German-born, New York-based singer and composer has got a warm and engaging voice and oodles of good taste and insight.  He’s given an imaginative yet intimate treatment to songs of Charles Ives in a new disc with the experimental quintet Kneebody. The CD on Winter & Winter is up for a Grammy Award this weekend in the classical category Best Crossover Album.

Tho Theo can do all kinds of wild and experimental things with his voice (why else would he be a regular collaborator with Meredith Monk?), he delivers the Ives tunes with straight ahead clarity.  It’s in the far-flung accompaniments that the disc really diverges into realms that Ives might never have imagined and yet might also appreciate.  Kneebody improvises around the original accompaniments and there are extended preludes and codas to some of the songs. In addition to Kneebody’s core instrumentation of saxophone, trumpet, piano and percussion, they throw in all kinds of unexpected sounds, electronic and otherwise.  Theo also contributes electronics into the mix.

The collection focuses on some of Ives’ lesser known songs. It opens with the tender “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” and gets gently rambunctious in “The Cage” and reaches its jazzy peak in “The New River.” Two Ives lieder are included, perhaps in homage to Theo’s roots as well as something for the Munich label’s home audience.  “Feldeinsamkeit” (In Summer Fields) is given a nightclub feel by brushes on a snare drum and in “Weil’ Auf Mir” (Eyes So Dark) the instrumental backdrop features restrained feedback from an electric guitar.

I’m always a sucker for a good hymn tune and “Serenity” (“Oh Sabbath rest of Galilee…) and “At The River” (“Shall we gather…”) are both set in a radiant haze of electronics.  During a recent cruise, my partner Richard and I enjoyed listening to “At The River” as we sat on the deck of the ship. Yes, it was the Caribbean we were looking at, not a river. But it’s still water that we were zoning out to and the song fit in nicely.  Another water-treatment comes in “The Housatonic at Stockbridge,” which includes undulating crescendos from Ben Wendel’s saxophone.

The disc concludes with “Waltz” (an excerpt of Ives’ original text: Little Annie Rooney,/ (now Mrs. Mooney,) / Was as gay as birds in May, / s’her Wedding Day). As with most of the disc, the band jams with spirit but the spotlight remains on Theo.

]]> http://mybiggayears.com/archives/bleckmann-review/feed/ 0 http://mybiggayears.com/archives/queeries-for-composer-corey-dargel/ http://mybiggayears.com/archives/queeries-for-composer-corey-dargel/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:00:33 +0000 jody http://mybiggayears.com/?p=841 A Brooklyn resident and Texas native, Corey Dargel is a 32 year-old composer and singer.  His music has appeared on NPR and even merited a Tweet from Rachel Maddow. After catching a performance of Dargel at Here in Manhattan, Alex Ross wrote: “Gaunt in appearance and impish in spirit, he sings in a plaintive, innocent-sounding voice, his texts zigzagging between raw confession and cerebral absurdity.”

What are you working on these days?
I have a new album “Someone Will Take Care of Me” coming out in the spring, so a lot of time lately has been devoted to recording-studio work. I’m also just starting to work on an opera — or something like an opera — with the ensemble Newspeak, novelist Andrew Sean Greer, and stage director Emma Griffin.  I’m not yet allowed to say what it’s based on, but religious delusion and schizophrenia play significant roles.  Also, Cornelius Dufallo (aka Neil) and I are starting a project performing songs for voice and violin with digital looping.  This might also include the Bliptronic 5000 that my brother just gave me for Christmas.

Do you keep up with technology?  What tools work for you and which ones have you found to be overrated?
I do keep up with it, especially now that I have my Bliptronic 5000.  I’m on Twitter and Facebook and I design and maintain my own website.  I also blogged about my last big piece, “Thirteen Near-Death Experiences,” while I was composing it.  I wouldn’t necessarily single out any technology as “overrated,” but I would say that the internet favors informational knowledge over procedural knowledge and is therefore potentially threatening to critical thinking.  As for music, I think many creative musicians make the mistake of using technology to generate ideas when they should be using ideas to generate technology.

Are you single or coupled?
I’m in a nine-year relationship with Yvan Greenberg, who is the director of Laboratory Theater and also a graphic designer.

Do you give PDAs? (public displays of affection)
Absolutely, with anyone and everyone who will accept them.

Are most of your friends from the music world or not?
Many of my friends are creative musicians — composers, songwriters, bandmembers.  I’m not friends with too many classical performing musicians.  They somehow always seem put-upon.

How does your sexuality and general background play out in your creativity?
I think growing up gay in a conservative Texas town and a religious family has taught me a lot about empathy, a theme that I almost always incorporate in my songs.  I believe our ability to imagine ourselves in other people’s shoes is directly connected to our ability to think and act creatively in the world.

What’s the gayest musical thing you’ve ever done?
I wrote a custom-made love song for a gay couple from Cincinnati, Paul and Jack, based on interviews with them.  It’s called “The Men We Used to Be” and it’s on my album “Other People’s Love Songs.”

Was coming out tough or a pleasure?  Sudden or gradual?
Coming out was tough and gradual.  It didn’t really happen until I was 19 years old.  I had internalized a lot of the so-called “Christian” morals that had been taught to me as a child in South Texas.  I thought maybe I was ill and could be cured.  I moved away from Texas to attend Interlochen Arts Academy, where there were (as I hoped there would be) out and proud gay people.  Believe me, at that time there were no out and proud gay people in South Texas, and this was before the internet worked well enough to be a resource for me!  Unfortunately, my first gay relationship was with a Catholic boy who promptly switched sides and blamed me for trying to turn him gay and called me an agent of the Devil.

Fortunately, my parents have come a long way in the last ten years.  I have my very supportive (straight and recently married) brother, Aaron, to thank for that.  I’m not sure about the rest of my family, and I’m not inclined to bring up the subject with them.  I’ve also basically left behind most, if not all, of my friends from growing up in South Texas, although they might be more accepting now.  Only Facebook will tell.

Photo credits:
With flowers: Samatha West
Album cover: Luke Batten and Jonathan Sadler of New Catalogue.
In performance (with Kathleen Spove): Jim Baldassare.

]]> http://mybiggayears.com/archives/queeries-for-composer-corey-dargel/feed/ 1 http://mybiggayears.com/archives/upcoming-sounding-out-a-new-dvd-of-lesbian-composers/ http://mybiggayears.com/archives/upcoming-sounding-out-a-new-dvd-of-lesbian-composers/#comments Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:56:30 +0000 jody http://mybiggayears.com/?p=757 An event on January 23 at Roulette in New York will mark the release of “Sounding Out,” a new DVD of works by six lesbian composers. Produced by Everglade Records, the collection features music by Madelyn Byrne, Renee T. Coulombe, Linda Dusman, Mara Helmuth, Kristin Norderval and Anna Rubin.

“It is now ‘okay’ to come out as gay or lesbian,” writes Coulombe, in a statement about how the project was conceived. “But what about bisexuals, intersexed or transgendered folks, queers or members of the BDSM community?  (This) is a moment to assess what coming out means almost 40 years after Stonewall, to give some historic perspective to those far younger…  We have a perspective not shared by many, and bringing together artistic work around that perspective — done with an eye toward who we have become — seems highly beneficial.”

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