Composer Jennifer Higdon earned her first Grammy Award, in the category of best contemporary classical composition, and guitarist Sharon Isbin earned her second, as best instrumental soloist. The awards were announced in Los Angeles prior to the telecast.  Higdon’s winning piece was a pecussion concerto performed by Colin Currie with Marin Alsop conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra.  Isbin won for her disc...

“Horowitz once said that there were three types of pianist: Jewish, gay, and bad,” writes Stephen Hough on his blog for The Telegraph.  The entry was prompted by a a listener and psychologist who sensed gayness in Hough’s playing and delved deeper. Continues Hough, “Was the earlier age of repression and illegality – the fear of policemen waiting at the dressing room door – a reason for the loneliness...

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...

Apparently Earl Wild lived up to his name.  The virtuoso pianist who died on January 22 at age 94 was out for most of his life, and promiscuous with music as well as men, though he is survived by a partner of 38 years Michael Rolland Davis. Wild’s repertoire was enormous and his performance style grandly romantic.  He transcribed all kinds of things for the piano and also composed.  And to those taken into confidence...

Except for my ears, there’s nothing gay here (at least as far as I know). These are my reviews for the Times Union (Albany, NY) from last weekend. I’ve decided to start posting more of this sort of thing, since these assignments are what can keep me from providing more original content on here. Daniel Bernard Roumain & The Mission January 22, 2010, The Egg, Albany Daniel Bernard Roumain, also known as DBR,...

Composer Pauline Oliveros’ trainings in Deep Listening are conducted in immersive retreat settings each summer and the locations are usually pretty spectacular, if remote. Participants bond over meals and recreation and begin morning and afternoon sessions in meditation.  In addition to Oliveros’ informal instruction, the new age-y atmosphere includes discussion and sharing, an introduction to Tai Chi, and sometimes...

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...

Mark Adamo’s “Late Victorians” comes from the large body of musical works that somehow or other address AIDS.  Composers — primarily if not exclusively gay composers — have been grappling with the subject for 25 years now.  According to my research for the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS, the first work in the genre was “Inquiries of Hope: Ten Poems of Kirby Congdon” (1984) by the late Louis Weingarden. ...

A FULL EVENING OF ORCHESTRAL MUSIC BY HENRY COWELL When’s the last time that’s happened anywhere? Leave it to Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra to make it happen. 8 p.m. Friday January 29, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center (pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m.) The program: Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 3 (1944) Atlantis (1931) ( NY Premiere ) Variations for Orchestra (1959) Symphony No. 2, “Anthropos”...

But he does seem to have trouble with the whole “living composer” thing. The evidence? He recently started a fundraising endeavor aimed at producing more concerts and recordings of his music and named it “Martin Hennessy is Dead!” Martin’s frustrations with the music business are common, of course. After all, not everybody can be a John Corigliano or Jennifer Higdon.  It’s a given that being an artist...