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...

Talk about bringing music to the people! Composer/performer Byron Au Yong is putting opera in bottles (no deposit required). At least that’s the impression given by the subtitle to a 2008 piece. But the work’s name – “Kidnapping Water: Bottle Operas” – is actually deceptive. Rather than mass-produced take-home music, the piece is more about making audiences go the distance. Like a musical Christo and Jeanne-Claude,...

If you’re open to noticing it, music of gay composers is being performed all the time.  I’ve just made it my job to point it out now and then. And there’s a nice stream of special events during the second week of April in Manhattan. Here’s the run down: Choral works of JOHN CORIGLIANO and MARK ADAMO. New York Virtuoso Singers, Harold Rosenbaum, conductor 3 p.m. Sunday April 11 St. Ignatius of Antioch...

Composer Robert Baksa readily admits that he writes music in which the underlying intelligence and rigor is not always apparent on first listen. And he’s comfortable with that — mostly. “A review of my first Flute Sonata said that the harmony was so simple it would make Mozart or Handel climb the walls,” Baksa says. “Actually, there’s polytonality in that piece, it just doesn’t sound that way.” Baksa’s...

“A guerrilla is someone who is sacrificing his life… Without blood there is no cause… I use (the term) Gay Guerrilla in the hopes that I might be one if called upon.” – Julius Eastman After Julius Eastman’s never-fully explained death in 1990, his legacy was thought to be lost.   Four years ago he was rescued from obscurity by the release “Unjust Malaise” (New World Records)....

Big classical music institutions (i.e. symphonies and opera companies) have long been on the Stephen Sondheim bandwagon and the occasion of his 80th birthday year (which is today–3/22/10) has been a great excuse for them to further horn in on the musical theatre domain, where the composer has excelled. But one classical pianist, Anthony de Mare, has come up with a fresh approach to celebrating Sondheim.  About five years...

British composer, conductor and pianist Thomas Ades, 39, is no stranger to Carnegie Hall. He and/or his music seems to be there multiple times every season lately.  And on Saturday March 27, he makes his piano recital debut in the big hall, Stern Auditorium. His program features a “concert paraphrase” (sounds like Liszt) of his own opera, “Powder Her Face” (1995).  Can’t forget that when the...

Music of the late Yvar Mikhashoff is being remembered. Fitfully and occasionally. But those who knew Yvar are surely grateful. And based on the stunning performance by Winston Choi in this new CD on Albany Records there are also new generations finding beauty and power in the music. Let me admit that I enjoyed the notes by Nils Vigeland, Yvar’s former student, a pianist and a director of the Mikahshoff Trust, as much...

“Dear Mother: I have written to tell you my worrying secret. Now don’t cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. I suppose I will have to tell it now, without any nonsense. To begin with I was not meant to be an athlete…” Sounds like the beginning of a coming out letter (and a life of shame) doesn’t it? Actually, the 9-year old Samuel Barber wrote these words to his mother and...

Let me be honest. I “read” OUT Magazine for the pictures.  And the March issue is particularly sexy with more photos (in ads and editorial) of shirtless young men than usual.  This month’s cover boy is a gritty Ewan McGregor. But the issue actually has something worth spending a bit of time and thought on – a 22-page spread called “80 American Classics” celebrating “the spectrum of queer talent...