Sounds Heard: Phyllis Chen—UnCaged Toy Piano

Phyllis Chen's debut CD, Uncaged Toy Piano, mixes old and new solo pieces and works featuring toy piano in combination with a CD player, a toy boombox (cute), a music box, a frying pan, and bowls. Not quite the kitchen sink, but close enough. This brand new disc on the recently-launched CD label of the Concert Artist Guild, a nearly 60 year old organization devoted to discovering, nurturing and promoting upcoming young virtuosos is further proof that he toy piano has finally arrived! read more

Sounds Heard: Tyshawn Sorey—Koan
As a drummer, Tyshawn Sorey is beguiling to an extreme: in his work with Iyer, Lehman, and others, his tight, complex, shuffling beats are accomplished not only at hypersonic speeds, but with an incredible musicality as well. Compositionally, however, Sorey's own music seems to exist on a whole other planet from what he plays as a sideman. read more
By Trevor Hunter
Published: 2/2/2010

2010 Grammy Award Highlights
Folks who follow the vagaries of the music business already know that the 52nd annual Grammy Awards ceremony occurred last night in Los Angeles. But, as has been the case for several years now, many of the awards deemed of "niche" interest were not part of the nationally televised broadcast. So while Taylor Swift has been all over the news today for winning the highly coveted Album of the Year award, attention should also be paid to the fact that Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto has received the 2010 Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. In addition, Arts Nova Copenhagen and Theatre of Voices won Best Small Ensemble Performance for their performance of David Lang's Pulitzer-winning piece The Little Match Girl Passion, while Best Surround Sound Album went to Transmigration, featuring the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Robert Spano in performances of works by Higdon, Samuel Barber, John Corigliano, and John Adams. Jazz awardees include Terence Blanchard, Kurt Elling, Chick Corea, the late Joe Zawinul, and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. read more
Published: 2/1/2010

Brad Mehldau Named Carnegie Debs Composer's Chair

Brad Mehldau Photo courtesy Carnegie Hall

Jazz composer-pianist Brad Mehldau has been appointed to hold the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall for the 2010-2011 season; he is the first jazz composer to ever be named to this position. Originally a three-season position, the Debs Chair was restructured in 2007 as a single year appointment in order to focus on a greater variety of composers. Highlights of Meldau's activities there during 2010-2011 will include a solo piano performance, a song recital featuring his music as well as a broad range of old and new repertoire by mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter accompanied by Mehdau, and the New York premiere of Highway Rider, his evening-length composition for jazz quintet and chamber orchestra featuring Mehldau and frequent collaborators saxophonist Josh Redman, bassist Larry Grenadier, and percussionists Jeff Ballard and Matt Chamberlain, with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Scott Yoo. (The same forces have recorded the work on a two CD set that will be issued in March 2010 by Nonesuch Records.) In addition, Carnegie will present two masterclasses on improvisation and collaboration for piano soloists and jazz trios by Mehldau at the popular downtown New York club Le Poisson Rouge. read more
By Frank J. Oteri
Published: 1/27/2010

Sounds Heard: Collage New Music Performs Donald Sur
Albany Records has finally released an entire CD devoted to Donald Sur (1936-1999) and hopefully this long overdue recording will begin to redress his music's many decades of neglect. read more
By Frank J. Oteri
Published: 1/26/2010

George Manahan to Lead American Composers Orchestra
George Manahan has been named music director of the American Composers Orchestra, the third since the orchestra's inception in 1977, following founding conductor Dennis Russell Davis and Steven Sloane. Manahan has already begun working closely with ACO's composer leadership—artistic director Robert Beaser and creative advisor Derek Bermel—in shaping ACO's 2010-11 season during which he will lead all three of ACO's concerts presented by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall. These concerts will continue the orchestra's focus on emerging and mid-career American composers, combined with works by seminal composers such as Charles Ives, Jacob Druckman, and John Luther Adams. The season will also see the continuation of ACO's Playing it UNSafe program, a professional laboratory for the creation of cutting-edge new orchestral music; as well as the world premiere of the second work commissioned as part of ACO's innovative partnership with luxury goods company LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. The new orchestral work will reflect on the theme of "A Greener New York City," emphasizing the connection between new music and the issues of today. At the end of the current season, Manahan will also conduct ACO's Underwood New Music Readings on May 21 and 22, 2010. read more
Published: 1/20/2010

Martin Kennedy Receives $5,000 ASCAP Foundation Nissim Prize
Composer and pianist Martin Kennedy has been named the recipient of The ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize. The prize was awarded for Trivial Pursuits, an eight-minute work for violin and orchestra. The work was selected from more than 220 submissions. Kennedy receives a $5,000 cash prize. The Nissim Jury also recognized the following composers for Special Distinction: Clint Needham (Bloomington, IN) for the Body Electric, a nine-minute work for orchestra; and Matthew Peterson (Grand Forks, ND) for Reflections on the Death of the Beloved, a 15-minute work for symphonic band. read more
Published: 1/20/2010

Sounds Heard: Ingram Marshall—September Canons
Spanning 1972-2002, each included work on September Canons showcases facets of what has earned Ingram Marshall a reputation for creating impressionistic music that, whether capitalizing on modern technology or taking off from more traditional musical forms, is sonically unique in a way that nudges open rather than aggressively pokes at the ear. read more
By Molly Sheridan
Published: 1/11/2010

ASCAP Recognizes Adventurous Chamber Music Programming
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers will recognize nine chamber music and jazz ensembles, festivals, and presenters for their adventurous programming at the annual Chamber Music America National Conference on January 17, 2010, in New York City. read more
Published: 1/11/2010

Sounds Heard: Miguel Del Aguila—Salón Buenos Aires
I have to admit that even I was a bit taken aback at first by the kitschiness of the musicians humming along in the "Samba" movement, which opens Salón Buenos Aires, a work for Pierrot quintet plus viola which also lends its title to the disc. Weird, it's as if Del Aguila knew he was losing me—he opens the next movement, "Tango to Dream," with inside the piano shenanigans followed by some intriguingly unstable harmonic movement before eventually showcasing another drop-dead gorgeous melody. read more
By Frank J. Oteri
Published: 1/4/2010

Jonathan Howard Katz Wins 2010 Robert Helps Composition Competition

Jonathan Howard Katz

Composer/pianist Jonathan Howard Katz has won the fifth annual Robert Helps Prize in Composition, a $10,000 cash award sponsored by the University of South Florida School of Music. The premiere performance of Katz's winning work, Talking of Michelangelo (2009), will take place at the 2010 Robert Helps Festival on February 12, 2010 in Tampa, Florida. Entries submitted for consideration in the 2010 Competition had to be original unpublished compositions between 10 and 20 minutes in duration and scored for tenor voice and piano with the optional addition of one other instrument. No prepared piano could be used, but works featuring playing inside the piano were acceptable. The competition was only open to composers who will not have reached the age of 36 by February 14, 2010. All materials had to be submitted anonymously, marked only with a pseudonym of the composer's choice. Jurors for the 2010 competition were Louis Andriessen, Brad Diamond, Svetozar Ivanov, and Paul Reller. read more
Published: 12/23/2009

Columbia and ACO Partner For New Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute
The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University and the American Composers Orchestra have announced a new collaborative project: the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute (JCOI). JCOI, which is generously supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, will provide instruction to jazz composers in working with the symphony orchestra, an area that many jazz composers wish to engage, but for which access to educational and performance opportunities are few. read more
Published: 12/23/2009

Sparr to Serve as Composer-In-Residence for Richmond Symphony's Youth Orchestra

D. J. Sparr

The Richmond Symphony has announced the launch of its Composer-in-Residence program in collaboration with local composer D.J. Sparr. The program will give students in the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra Program the opportunity to participate in classes, composition lessons and workshops with Sparr, who will work with the Richmond Symphony until June 2011. In addition to teaching and mentoring students, Sparr will also compose new works for Richmond Symphony's Youth Orchestra and for the members of the Symphony's Interactive Composition Class. read more
Published: 12/17/2009

Seven Musicians and Composers Awarded $50,000 for Artistic Excellence
The national artists' advocacy organization United States Artists has announced the recipients of fifty $50,000 USA Fellowship grants for artistic excellence, including seven to musicians. They are:

Rahim AlHaj, oud musician (Albuquerque, NM. USA Ford Fellow)

Cyro Baptista, percussionist (Tenafly, NJ. USA Walker Fellow)

Ella Jenkins, children's musician (Chicago, IL. USA Collins Fellow)

Danongan Kalanduyan, kulintang musician (San Francisco, CA. USA Broad Fellow)

Hannibal Lokumbe, composer and jazz trumpeter (Bastrop, TX. USA Cummings Fellow)

Lionel Loueke, jazz guitarist and vocalist (North Bergen, NJ. USA Prudential Fellow)

Daniel Plonsey, composer of new music (El Cerrito, CA. USA Broad Fellow)

Learn more about the fellows and United States Artists here. (—Condensed from the press release)
Published: 12/15/2009

Sounds Heard: Andrew Byrne—White Bone Country
Even though much of the music on this CD is metered, the sound world is expansive. It's as though the music progresses like water in a river: sometimes rushing forward at a steady pace, sometimes swirling in eddies, circling around itself, but always moving and always changing. It could seem ironic that water is the image that came to mind in a desert landscape, but perhaps the oasis metaphor is apt: this is an attractive CD that listeners who enjoy rhythmic interplay, bright sounds, and pattern music played well will find refreshing. read more
By Caroline Mallonée
Published: 12/14/2009