The vaunted acoustics of the EMPAC concert hall were even spiffed up for the occasion. A computer-aided loudspeaker system, designed by Jonas Braasch and a team of students, recreated the sound of a two million gallon cistern in Washington State where Oliveros made a landmark recording almost 25 years ago. The lush reverb, lasting about 45 seconds according to the program, makes an ideal compliment to Oliveros’ musical aesthetic.

Not everything on the program was actually written by Oliveros though. For that matter none of the pieces really functioned from a traditional score. But Oliveros’ system of “Deep Listening” was apparent throughout the night. All of the pieces were meditative and organic, which isn’t to say that they were always hushed or fragile. Rather they were thoughtful and collaborative, attuned in the space and the moment.

The opening, “Land of Snows,” did have a particularly reverent feel. Oliveros and Stuart Dempster launched it with a few finger cymbals, then blew various sized conch shells. Brian Perti played the dung chen, a brass horn at least 10 feet in length that’s common to Tibetan Buddhist ceremony. Three additional wind players sounded on didjeridus quietly in the back of the house.

In the next selection Oliveros, Dempster and Perti became an improvisational vocal trio. Their pacing was based in breath, their pitches seemingly random. It seemed to illustrate that all sense of dissonance fades away given enough time.

Amidst such soulfulness, the speeches paying honor to Oliveros felt rather intrusive and high minded. But Michael Century struck pay dirt in contrasting how a century of iconoclast composers – Ives, Cowell, Cage, and others (mostly men) – shattered traditions, while Oliveros’ work has been one of integration. He even went so far as to coin a term to describe her: “sona-accordionist.”

Besides being a composer, Oliveros is also an accordionist and she played an electrified version of the instrument at one point. More than a dozen percussionists from RPI, SUNY Albany and the Empire State Youth Orchestra took to the balconies around the hall for another piece. The evening ended with a trio of trombonists who moved about the hall before leading the way to the festive reception in the cafe.

Originally appeared in the Times Union.

Previously on MyBigGayEars:

Oliveros wins Columbia U’s Schuman Prize

Pauline Oliveros: Making Conscious Connections

Pauline Oliveros: A Musical adventurer begins by listening

Paula Kimper’

As a composer Kimper didn’t have a deep catalog when she undertook to write the evening-length “Patience.”  But the opera was widely hailed when it debuted in the 1998 Lincoln Center Festival and it’s had five subsequent revivals in the U.S. and overseas.

Since “Patience,”  there’s  been an almost unabated flow of new Kimper operas, mostly based in American history and literature.  In 2004 came “The Captivation of Eunice Williams,” and last month in Northampton, Mass. saw the premiere of her fourth opera, “Truth,” based on the life of the abolitionist Sojourner Truth.  In the title role was Evelyn Harris, a long-time member of Sweet Honey and in the Rock.

Yet another musical-theater collaboration is coming from Kimper this weekend in New York with “Restless Yearning Towards My Self.” Along with Kimper’s original music, there will be words by poet Perry Brass and choreography by Sasha Spielvogel of Labyrinth Dance Theater.  It will be part of a program of Mimi Stern-Wolfe’s Downtown Chamber and Opera Players at St. Marks in the Bowery.

Thanks to all of you, my readers. Or maybe I should say my viewers – hopefully you’re not just dropping by but also reading and listening.  Considering that the primary focus here is a niche within a niche – the GLTB community in classical music – I’m most gratified.

What else would you like to see, hear, read?   Should I open up the site and provide an opportunity for GLTB artists to place ads for their new CDs or concerts?  (A little revenue for the creator/writer would be nice.)

The reach and effect of this site was made real to me in a new way a couple of days ago when I received an email from a 16 year-old composer/clarinetist/organist.  He asked for some guidance in the next steps toward a career and thanked me for the “tireless efforts to promote talented classical artists in our community!”

Then, on Thursday March 8 begins the latest and greatest installment yet of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony’s American Mavericks program.  Concerts and sundry special events large and small continue through the end of the month at Symphony Hall in San Francisco, in Ann Arbor, Chicago and in New York at Carnegie Hall.

The programs are an astounding mix of audacious music from the 20th and 21st centuries.  And of the 17 composers listed on the program’s website, 7 are gay or lesbian. So wouldn’t it be great if the conductor and visionary mastermind behind all of this was also out?!  Talk about an irony that someone who champions the daring and experimental is so timid and reserved.  (Honestly, if anyone can find documentation of MTT ever speaking to the gay press or otherwise being publicly out, please post it in the comments section for all to see.)

Anyway, for those of us not lucky enough to be in one of the chosen Maverick cities, there’s lots of cool stuff on the American Mavericks site.  And WQXR is dedicating most of the month of March to related programs on its contemporary music web station Q2 Music.

Here’s a teaser video from one of the most intriguing programs, bringing together vocalists Jesse Norman, Meredith Monk and Joan LaBarbara performing John Cage’s “Songbook.”  (Is anyone placing bets on whether Norman actually shows up for the performances?)

She told me that she would soon be leaving their Arkansas home and was planning to begin archiving Hovda’s studio in New York City and that a series of CD releases was planned.

Having spent several years calling on and attempting to assist the heirs of composers who died of AIDS, I knew that Wager’s intentions were good, but the task ahead of her was enormous.  The emotional burden of losing a loved one prematurely can make the work of addressing their artistic legacy feel insurmountable.  My more recent career direction as a real estate agent also continues to regularly bring me face to face with how difficult it can be to deal with years and years of belongings, whether your own or someone else’s. We all have so much stuff!

Well, cheers to Wager and Philip Blackburn of Innova Recordings who have produced a definitive and seemingly complete tribute to Hovda and her music.   “The Eleanor Hovda Collection” is an elegant four-CD set that brings together:

• 26 pieces of music, including many archival recordings but also recordings that were previously released on multi-composer collections from a variety of other labels;
• various short essays by the composer on the music at hand plus remembrances by her closest colleagues, including Wager, oboist Libby Van Cleve, guitarist Jack Vees, choreographer Nancy Meehan, and flutist and conductor David Gilbert;
• some fun archival photos;
• and, most amazingly, pdf versions of most of the scores.

The collection seems like a definite summation of Hovda’s career, but in her biographical essay Wager says that Hovda was very prolific and that the CDs represent only a fraction of her compositions.  Nevertheless, there’s more than enough here to savor and assure that Hovda’s legacy endures.

Previously on My Big Gay Ears:

The Death of Eleanor Hovda

“At the Other Side of the Earth” is scheduled to debut May 18 at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in New York.  The cast features Layla Jasmine Presson, Katherine Cardin, Monica Harte, Scottie Roché and Lisa Difiore.  J. Julian Christopher directs.

Here’s the synopsis:

Aurora is forced to face who she truly is when she meets Layla, an out-and-proud “riot grrrl” with a bold and brazen demeanor. Layla’s radical political activism and boyish charm cause Aurora great inner turmoil and conflict until she comes out, gaining confidence and proudly declaring herself.

When the two women begin their affair, their love clashes with an oppressive, conservative society where same-sex relationships are against the law. Their struggle with a George Orwellian law enforcer, appropriately named The Man, and his silent, trickster Wife, prove to be both terrifying and hilariously futile, as the two women attempt to follow their hearts to great risk.

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.

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

Monday, February 14
Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center

Tuesday, February 15
Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall

Click on the following picture to be taken to YouTube for videos of the pair talking about the Concerto:

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In other Hahn news, the violinist has commissioned a series of 27 short works to serve as encores.  She will tour these new works over the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons and then record them. The project is called In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores. The composers are:

Franghiz Ali-Zadeh

Lera Auerbach

Richard Barrett

Mason Bates

Tina Davidson

David Del Tredici

Avner Dorman

Søren Nils Eichberg

Christos Hatzis

Jennifer Higdon

James Newton Howard

Bun-Ching Lam

David Lang

Edgar Meyer

Paul Moravec

Nico Muhly

Michiru Oshima

Krysztof Penderecki

Einojuhani Rautavaara

Max Richter

Somei Satoh

Elliott Sharp

Valentin Silvestrov

Mark-Anthony Turnage

Gillian Whitehead

Du Yun

A final, 27th composer will be decided in a non-traditional fashion later this year.

ADDENDUM: Allan Kozinn’s review of the concerto performance for the Times.

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, despite the name “1726,” has a tough, smashing intensity.

The central movement, a lyric chaconne, is followed by a brief, highly rhythmic finale that recalls the bouncing conclusion to Barber’s Violin Concerto.  An ideal pairing on the disc is the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. The pieces share an orchestral grandeur and are each played by Hahn with a flawless technique and attractive tone.

Strictly speaking, “The Singing Rooms” is another violin concerto, this time written for soloist Jennifer Koh. But the substantial writing for chorus – settings of poems by Jeanne Minahan – give it the feel of an oratorio.  It appears on a new Telarc disc with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Robert Spano.

There’s more breathing room in this piece, which is cast in seven moments and lasts almost 40 minutes.  Higdon’s style, still melodic and tonal, is more heartfelt than demanding here.  But the rather distant sound of the recording gives everything the feel of a soft landscape.  Koh’s violin playing sounds sweet but thin and the chorus is warm but vague.

Upstate New York appearance and premiere

Higdon will be in Saratoga Springs this week as a guest at Skidmore College.  She’ll conduct a flute masterclass on Friday (11/12) at 7 p.m., to be followed by a composition class at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning (11/13).  Both events are in the Zankel Music Center and are free and open to the public.

Then on Saturday evening a concert by Skidmore faculty recital will feature the premiere of Higdon’s “Flute Poetic,” to be performed by flutist Jan Vinci and pianist Pola Baytelman. Vinci was Higdon’s high school flute teacher and both studied flute with Judith Bentley while attending Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

The piece is three-movement re-working and expansion of Higdon’s “String Poetic,” originally for violin and piano and premiered in 2006 by violinist Jennifer Koh. “Flute Poetic” was commissioned by the Skidmore President’s Discretionary Fund, the Skidmore College Music Department, the Brannen-Cooper Fund, and John and Judith Bentley.