التصنيف: Artist profiles
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“Love Songs: A Creation Story in Four Acts and Four Voices”
John Zorn (Photograph courtesy National Sawdust) "Love Songs: A Creation Story in Four Acts and Four Voices"National SawdustSept. 8, 2023 "We prefer pieces that play with the style and format of traditional profiles," the kind folks at National Sawdust told me when I agreed to write a preview story ahead of Love Songs, the new…
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Gothamist: Jonathon Heyward interview, Aug. 3, 2023.
Jonathon Heyward (Photograph: Laura Thiesbrummel) "Conductor Jonathon Heyward is poised to make history in NYC and Baltimore"Gothamist, Aug. 3, 2023 My final contribution to Gothamist is this extended version of an interview with conductor Jonathon Heyward – the new music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the newly announced music director of whatever the…
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Xian Zhang: A Conductor Becomes a Virtual-Concert Jet-Setter.
Xian Zhang conducting the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Photograph: Dan Graziano A Conductor Becomes a Virtual-Concert Jet-SetterThe New York TimesNov. 4, 2020 Following impressive outings with the Seattle Symphony and Houston Symphony, conductor Xian Zhang is headed to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for important concerts featuring premieres by Nokuthula Ngwenyama and Tyshawn Sorey this Thursday…
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Brian Chase: On Drums, Drones, and the Dream House.
Brian ChasePhotograph courtesy Terrorbird Originally published on National Sawdust Log, April 13, 2018 Drummer Brian Chase is best known as a member of the vital indie-rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but that only reveals the tip of the iceberg where his creative life is concerned. A longtime participant in New York City’s busy underground-music scene,…
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Sarah Hennies: The Art of Exposing Hidden Possibilities.
Photograph: Walter Wlodarczyk Originally published on National Sawdust Log, Nov. 29, 2017 Even for an artist as versatile and unpredictable as Sarah Hennies—a percussionist, improviser, and composer originally from Louisville, Kentucky, and now based in Ithaca, New York—her newest work represents a substantial achievement. Contralto, an hour-long work for vocalists on video with strings and…
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Welcome (Back) to Night After Night.
Change is upon us once again, and with it a fresh start for Night After Night—elsewhere. As of Thursday, April 23, the primary focus of my work has shifted over to a newly launched Substack newsletter, also called Night After Night. That title has provided my online identity – my "brand" – for more than…
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Hear, now: Cassandra Venaglia.
Monday on Twitter, Dr. Andrea Ramsey posted a straightforward question: Favorite string quartets composed by women? — 𝔻𝕣. 𝔸𝕟𝕕𝕣𝕖𝕒 ℝ𝕒𝕞𝕤𝕖𝕪 (@ramseyandrea) February 17, 2020 Dr. Ramsey, a composer, conductor, and teacher based in Kansas City (you know, the one in Missouri), received dozens of enthusiastic responses. I won't lie, I definitely jumped in. But I…
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Lyle Mays (Nov. 27, 1953–Feb. 10, 2020).
Word has come that Lyle Mays – an extraordinary pianist, composer, bandleader, and a longtime member of the Pat Metheny Group – has died after a recurring illness. Nate Chinen, in an obituary written for WBGO, gets to the heart of Mays's creative persona: Mays was a musician of clear, analytical temperament, but within the…
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Hear, now: Nina C. Young.
Going back to the Yeats poem… I would like the audience to think about Project 19 in that way: that they're going to hear 19 new pieces by people who sometimes don't feel like they can have a voice, who are being given an opportunity to have a voice—and for audiences, once again, to tread…