Edge of the Center

World-renowned Mozart scholar Robert Levin performs and lectures at UB next week

2012-02-01T22:27:00.000-08:00

Harvard Professor Robert Levin, a pianist and musicologist famous for his contributions to Mozart scholarship, comes to the University at Buffalo next week to lecture on his experiences as a concerto soloist who has performed with orchestras in Berlin, Los Angeles, Vienna, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Melbourne, Montreal, St. Louis, Cleveland and Freiburg. Throughout his career he has developed a reputation for improvising cadenzas and embellishments of Mozart and Beethoven afresh at each concert.

Robert Levin in concert

Author Aryeh Oron describes Levin’s accomplishments, “He has written cadenzas to many of [Mozart's] recordings (including the piano, violin, and horn concertos), published embellishments of Mozart solo parts, and written several reconstructions or completions of Mozart works. His completion of Mozart's Requiem won wide critical acclaim after its premiere by Helmuth Rilling at the European Music Festival in Stuttgart in August 1991. His reconstruction of the K. 297b Sinfonia concertante for four winds and orchestra is now frequently performed. He has published numerous scholarly studies in musical issues, usually concerning performing practice and authenticity, including a world-renowned publication of completions of fragmentary Mozart works. He has recorded on several labels, notably on Sony Classics' Vivarte series.”

Last time Robert Levin visited the music department at UB he lectured to a packed audience in Baird Hall, and artfully wove together lessons in music history with examples he performed on the piano. Professor Levin walked the audience through the ins and outs of improvising in the style of Mozart in clear language that was equally appealing to musicians, academics, guests, and laymen alike. Join us next Wednesday, February 8^th,at 3:00 p.m., in Baird Hall, to listen to this brilliant musician lecture and perform. This time he will be joined by famous violist Kim Kashkashian for a fresh and dynamic tapestry of thoughtful lecture and Classical music performance.

Below is a beautiful video of Robert Levin performing, on a historically accurate fortepiano, the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 15 (K. 450), under the baton of Christopher Hogwood:

June in Buffalo 2012 call for scores announced!

2012-01-22T16:22:00.000-08:00

Presented by the Department of Music and The Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music, June in Buffalo, a festival and conference dedicated to composers, will take place from June 4 -10, 2012 at the University at Buffalo. June in Buffalo offers an intensive schedule of seminars, lectures, workshops, professional presentations, participant forums and open rehearsals as well as afternoon and evening concerts open to the general public and critics. Each of the invited composers will have one of his/her pieces performed during the festival. Evening performances feature faculty composers, resident ensembles and soloists renowned internationally as interpreters of contemporary music.

Senior Faculty

Louis Andriessen
Robert Beaser
David Felder
Fred Lerdahl
Steven Stucky

Resident Ensembles

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
Ensemble Interface
Genkin Philharmonic
New York New Music Ensemble
SIGNAL
Slee Sinfonietta
UB Percussion Ensemble

Special Guests

James Baker
Roberto Fabricciani
Brad Lubman

Application Procedures

Please submit the following materials for consideration as a participant for June in Buffalo 2012. All application materials must be postmarked by:
February 17, 2012.

1. A résumé or curriculum vitae detailing your education, experience, and creative activity.

2. A letter of reference from someone acquainted with your current compositional activity.

3. A proposal requesting the performance of a recent work for:

a) flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, cello (or subset)

b) flute, clarinet, harp, piano, 2 percussion, violin, viola, cello (or subset)

c) saxophone, 2 trumpets, trombone, percussion (drum set), percussion (mallets), electric guitar, electric bass, violin (or subset)

d) flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, horn, trombone, percussion, piano, violin, cello (or subset)

e) 4 percussion (or subset)

f) solo instrument

Proposals with electronics or multimedia will be considered.

Included with the proposal should be a brief description of the work that includes title, duration, full instrumentation, and any technical requirements. Proposals for works in progress will be considered. A portion of the score plus the description listed above must be included with application materials for in-progress works.

4. One or two supplemental scores that demonstrate your recent work and accompanying recordings, if available.

5. A $25 non-refundable processing fee. Checks or money orders should be made payable to June in Buffalo. Foreign applicants must pay by international money order in US currency. Do not send cash.

6. An e-mail address at which you can be easily contacted and a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope (optional) for the return of application materials.

To apply as an auditor please send a resume and the processing fee. Auditors attend all June in Buffalo events, but will not have a piece performed.

Materials should be mailed to the following address:

June in Buffalo
220 Baird Hall
Department of Music
University at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY 14260

Participant Tuition $725
Auditor Tuition $350
On-campus Housing (optional) $325
On-campus housing includes single occupancy room for 7 nights. Food not included.

For general information, contact J.T. Rinker
phone: (716) 645-0624
fax: (716) 645-3824
email: jtrinker@buffalo.edu

Tom Kolor advancing contemporary American percussion music around the globe...

2012-01-20T16:05:00.000-08:00

University at Buffalo Faculty member Tom Kolor is quickly becoming one of the country’s top specialists in late 20^th century American percussion music, and regularly commissions and performs repertoire from contemporary American composers at festivals in the U.S. and abroad. Tom has a lot coming up in the months ahead: festivals and performances in Europe, several recordings to be released featuring works by Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Louis Karchin, and Jeffrey Stadelman, and a string of residencies in universities throughout the U.S. and a self-presented concert series in New York City.

Tom is looking forward to being a featured performer this summer at the Sound Res Festival in Leche, Italy, where he will give the European premiere of Marimba Variations by Charles Wuorinen, a sophisticated 15 minute-long Marimba solo he commissioned from the composer. Marimba Variations will be part of a larger program of contemporary American music for solo percussion, which will include works by Babbitt, Shapey, Carter, and Cage. Some of the pieces Tom will perform at the festival will be included on a full-length solo CD recently recorded at Slee Recording Studios. The album will include several percussion works by contrasting American composers Milton Babbitt and John Cage, and weave together their divergent aesthetic outlooks and unique voices – the former being the pioneer of American serialism and the latter the pioneer of American aleatoric music, graphic notation, and a variety of experimental approaches to music that form the foundation of American experimentalism even today. Tom drew inspiration for the repertoire on the album from a quote by John Cage where he remarked that he preferred, “music with too many notes, or music that had not enough notes.” The album will be available on iTunes in Spring of 2012.

Tom Kolor and Jean Koperrud

University at Buffalo clarinetist Jean Koperrud joins Tom on an upcoming CD, entitled Rated X, which consists entirely of commissions the duo commissioned from contemporary composers. The commissions all push the boundaries of contemporary music and demand intense instrumental virtuosity. The CD includes Louis Karchin’s Evocations, John Aylward’s Twin Suspension, Mathew Rosenblum’s Throat, and Yiorgos Vassilandonakis' X-asti, and University at Buffalo composer Jeff Stadelman’s wills & wonts. Check in shortly with Albany Records here for the upcoming release.

Tom Kolor is also a member of the NYC-based percussion septet, Talujon Ensemble, whose concerts have been hailed by the New York Times as "frenzied explosions of percussion madness." Recently Talujon celebrated 20 years of performing contemporary percussion music with two 20^th anniversary concerts at Roulette in New York City. The concerts showcased a world premiere of a new piece by Alvin Lucier entitled For Kettle Drums. Tom met Alvin Lucier when he performed Lucier's Silver Streetcar for Orchestra at the June in Buffalo festival several years ago with the composer in attendance. The encounter led to the commission of For Kettle Drums, which includes four percussionists on timpani with their feet constantly performing on the glissandi pedal to produce ‘beating,’ a fascinating acoustic phenomenon characterized by the shimmering effect of two pitches in a close, microtonal relationship to each other. Alvin Lucier worked closely with Tom and the other percussionists while developing the technique for the percussion genre, perhaps the first time percussion instruments have produced this strange effect.

Talujon Ensemble

This Spring Talujon will present a concert series in New York City for the 100^th birthday of John Cage, check Talujon's website for details on their upcoming events and CD releases. As active as they are commissioning and recording, they will also be touring the U.S. and holding residencies this spring at Brandeis University and the University of Nebraska. The Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21^st Center Music is excited to host the Talujon Ensemble on April 23^rd for an afternoon of student composer readings and a concert the following day, featuring Gerard Grisey's expansive masterpiece l'noir de etoile.

Check out the video below, of Talujon Ensemble performing with Steve Reich at the Bang On A Can festival in New York City:

The myriad projects of UB Cellist Jonathan Golove

2011-11-30T22:01:00.000-08:00

University at Buffalo Professor Jonathan Golove has been injecting a high degree of dynamism into the music scene lately: he recently helped curate a chamber music concert at the Marine A Grain Elevator in downtown Buffalo, and has scheduled an upcoming midnight concert for CUBE, UB's Contemporary Music Ensemble, which he has been directing this year. Jonathan also enjoys frequent commissions as a composer, leads the cello studio at UB, and performs regularly on the theremin cello.

Jonathan Golove

The chamber music concert at Buffalo's grain elevators last October 21^st was a very rare occasion. Normally the elevators are closed to the public, but for one day only they were opened by the National Preservation Conference to allow architects, engineers, preservationists, and scholars from around the country to get a close-up look. Jonathan was accompanied by UB percussionists Tom Kolor and Michelle Purdy in a lengthy performance of John Cage's Four⁶ as admirers toured the 120-foot-high silos. Jonathan remarks, “I've never given a performance of Cage that was so enthusiastically received, partly because of the 8-10 seconds of reverb in the acoustics of the grain elevator.” The full article on the event is available at the Buffalo News.

Aside from ferreting out interesting locales for chamber music performance, Jonathan is one of the very few cellists who regularly perform on the theremin cello, an instrument he helped resurrect from the early 20th century. He is currently collaborating with pianola player Robert Berkman, and the two have formed a duet comprised of these rare mechanical instruments from the beginning of the century. The group's title is Duo Shiddach, and their repertoire is comprised mainly of Klezmer music. Jonathan, however, is not new to the theremin cello, and has been playing it for almost ten years. He describes some of his history with the instrument, “In the period from June 2009 to April 2010, I traveled to Amsterdam, Paris, and London to perform as a theremin cello soloist in Edgar Varèse's Ecuatorial. The theremin cello, invented by the same man, Leon Theremin (Lev Termen), who created the space controlled instrument that has achieved a certain amount of fame, is an early electronic instrument which had gone extinct for approximately 60 years. The theremin cello was recreated in 2002 by Floyd Engels, a retired model builder for Fisher Price, and its debut came when the Department of Music's Slee Sinfonietta performed Varèse's Ecuatorial, the only work known to have been composed for the instrument.

“The performances in Europe took place at a number of important festivals/venues, such as the Holland Festival, Festival de l'Automne (Paris Autumn Festival), and the Southbank Centre, and with leading ensembles, including the Asko/Schönberg Ensemble (conducted by Peter Eötvös) and the London Sinfonietta (conducted by Daivd Atherton). Ecuatorial was presented as part of “ Varèse 360º,” a retrospective including the complete works of Varèse, one of the most fascinating and influential figures of the music of the twentieth century.”

Jonathan is very active in the recording studio as well, and just recently released an album of contemporary music from Mexico on Albany Records entitled Voces Internas. The CD features several pieces by renown composer Mario Lavista, as well as some more esoteric pieces, such as those by Nicandro Tamez, who specializes in graphically notated music and scores with a high degree of directed improvisation. UB Professor Emeritus of Piano Stephen Manes joins Jonathan on the CD, and the two have recently performed repertoire from the album at the dedication of the new concert hall at St. Lawrence University. The album has already received rave reviews, including an extensive interview, article, and front-page feature by Fanfare Magazine, “...the well-played CD should provide rewards to those interested in the avant-garde school of cello writing and playing. Jonathan Golove and his colleagues are up to the considerable technical and musical demands placed upon the performers of these works.” The complete article is available here.

Jonathan is a composer in his own right as well – earlier this year he was commissioned by A Musical Feast to write a piece to accompany an exhibit on synesthesia at the Burchfield Penney. The work, Kreisler's Coat, for cello and piano, takes its title from a character of E.T.A. Hoffman's, who Hoffman describes as being, “A little man wearing wearing a coat the color of C# minor with an E major collar.” The piece was premiered earlier this year at Burchfield Penney as part of A Musical Feast's concert series.

You can see Jonathan on Friday December 12^th, at 11:59 p.m., when CUBE will present a unique concert of Night Music. The event will take place in Slee Hall and include Night Music by Robert Erickson, selections from Donald Martino 's Pulitzer Prize-winning Notturno, and a few other special surprises.

In the video below, you can listen to Jonathan performing Sergei Rachmaninoff's Vocalise on the theremin cello – the perfect instrument to convey the haunting melancholia of Rachmaninoff. The video was taken at the Burchfield Penney as part of last year's A Musical Feast concert series and features pianist Claudia Hoca.

Flutist Barry Crawford's many activities at UB and around the world...

2011-11-26T19:25:00.000-08:00

University at Buffalo Flute Professor Barry Crawford currently tours as a flutist in countries all around the world (20 countries to date), performs a wide range of repertoire ranging from 19^th century salon music to contemporary music’s thorniest and most demanding works, regularly releases recordings as a member of several top ensembles, and teaches a full flute studio here at UB. Early next year, Barry will perform in festivals in Europe and New York City before returning to participate with the Slee Sinfonietta in June in Buffalo 2012.

Barry Crawford

In January, Barry will be performing with the renowned Talea Ensemble at the Chamber Music America Conference in New York City. The group will be premiering a new work by John Zorn, bateau ivre, in a program filled with pieces by New York City’s major composers. Shortly after the conference, Barry will travel to Iceland to perform in Iceland’s Dark Music Days Festival with Poetica Musica, an ensemble of musicians that are currently Artists-in-Residence at Old Westbury Gardens in Long Island. The Dark Music Days Festival is named after the four-hour days that occur in Iceland during the winter, and will feature some of Scandinavia’s top musicians and composers (more info here). Barry will perform in many concerts throughout his time there, and will star as the soloist in David Felder’s November Sky, for flute and electronics.

One of Barry’s most active groups is the Manhattan-based Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, who perform a 20-week season and 40 gigs a year, and usually play in front a sold-out audience. The group enjoys resurrecting the sometimes forgotten repertoire from the 18^th and 19^th century – often picking pieces which have no available recording to reference and delving into the challenging work of interpreting the music and making it their own. One of the forgotten gems from the Romantic era, Aldabert Gyrowetz’s Flute Quartet, has been featured on their program and is one of Barry's personal favorites. Much of the music from that time was too instrumentally virtuosic to be regularly included in concerts, and provides a perfect opportunity for a chamber group of today to hone their skills for bringing pieces to life that lack the incredibly refined performance practice of Haydn or Schubert. The group is partly named after the late Jens Nygaard and his Jupiter Symphony, and as the New York Times puts it, mimics his “[inspiring] determination to explore rarely heard early works by Mozart and present virtually unplayed music by 19th-century composers like Louis Spohr, Ethelbert Nevin and Carl Czerny.” The Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players worked with Jens Nygaard often and continues to perform regularly to carry on his vision as a conductor and curator.

Barry has high praise for the Department of Music at UB, calling it, “an absolute pleasure to play here, with so many top new music performers to play with and a lot of really terrific opportunities to perform with the Slee Sinfonietta.” He is very active in the department, and leads the music department’s flute ensemble Plosion, who have recently commissioned and premiered works from UB graduate composers Juan Colón-Hernandez, Ethan Hayden, and Chun Ting Pang. Plosion plays not only at venues in the music department, but at the Student Union and other venues around campus, bringing new music to students and faculty all around the campus community. Barry’s flute studio, which now has several students wait-listed to get in, has been quite successful, with undergrads and graduates performing regularly in competitions and festivals in Italy, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere around the world.

You can listen to Barry perform on a recent recording of Three Romances, by Milos Raickovich, now available on iTunes, as well as on a CD of Gabriela Frank’s music with Ensemble Meme, soon to be released on Albany Records (available here).

Oberlin Conservatory's Bonne Action performs new works at the University at Buffalo

2011-11-13T23:48:00.000-08:00

Bonne Action

On Tuesday,November 15^th, Oberlin College Conservatory’s premiere new musicensemble, Bonne Action, will visit the University at Buffalo to give a concertof works by today’s leading composers. The group, founded in 2009, featuressome of Oberlin’s finest musicians, including flutist Laura Cocks, clarinetistTheophilus Chandler, violinist Holly Jenkins, violist Carrie Frey, cellist DylanMessina, pianist Daniel Walden, and percussionist Christian Smith. Bonne Actionwill be joined by the head of Oberlin’s composition department, Lewis Nielson,who will have two pieces on the concert. Also on the program will be pieces by youngAmerican composer Jason Eckardt, and German composers Rolf Riehm and ReikoFüting.

The group’sdedication to sharing new music is evident in their very thoughtful missionstatement: “Bonne Action is a group of performers from Oberlin Conservatory whodevote the majority of their time and energy to the performance of contemporarymusic. Each player has, in the context of the music they play or the music theyplay and write, placed an emphasis on the musical present in their lives andattitudes toward the world. Bonne Action finds it’s name and association in performing the good (and therefore essential) task of presenting music thatchanges the musical and social environment; that assumes the audience is notmerely admirers of works or those who perform them but, rather, activeparticipants in the experience of music; equal in all respects to composer andperformer, and just as necessary. We believe that this exchange relationrepresents an excellent model not only for the experience of art but forsocio-political organization as well. Bonne Action is about music andcommunity.”

One of the concert highlights will be Lewis Nielson’s Iskra, which features a singer withseveral options to navigate: he/she may sing a fully-composed melody to one ofthe two given texts, use incipits provided to improvise with, or improvise theentire melody while the other members of the trio continue with their music –it is a piece full of spontaneity and risk. A video of Bonne Actionperforming Iskra can be found here.

Joinus at 7:30 p.m. in Lippes Concert Hall on November 15^th for BonneAction’s concert of new works.

Eric Huebner performs with the New York Philharmonic

2011-11-10T22:41:00.000-08:00

The Universityat Buffalo’s own Eric Huebner, who is Assistant Professor of Piano in theDepartment of Music, will perform with the New York Philharmonic on December 16and 17 as part of their CONTACT! NewMusic Series at The Met Museum, with conductor Alan Gilbert. In addition to anactive performance schedule, Eric also keeps busy expanding the discography ofhis new music group, Antares, and working to incorporate master classes foryoung performers into the June in Buffalo festival.

Eric Huebner

Eric’s frequent stintsas the guest pianist of the New York Philharmonic will continue into next yearand carry across the Atlantic Ocean, where he will tour with the Philharmonicthroughout Europe next February to perform Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements and ThomasAdés’ Polaris. Upon returning to theU.S., Eric will be premiering an exciting new work by esteemed Americancomposer and centenarian Elliot Carter, Conversations,for piano, percussion, and chamber orchestra, with the New York Philharmonicunder the baton of David Robertson in New York City, in June of 2012 (moredetails can be found at the Philharmonic’s website).

In between bouts of touring and performing with the Philharmonic, Eric will bringhis group Antares to the University at Buffalo next March to host a masterclass and give a concert of Stravinsky, Ravel, Reynolds, and Hindemith. Antares is aquartet that specializes in performing and recording new music, and includesclarinetist Garrick Zoeter, violinist Jesse Mills, and cellist RebeccaPatterson. While they are in residency at the University at Buffalo, they willalso be spending an afternoon performing the works of UB graduate composers ata composer reading and workshop. Eric, who has recently released a full-lengthdisc of Roger Reynolds’ piano works on Mode Records, enjoys working closelywith composers and fostering an intimate collaborative relationship. Heremarks, “by collaborating with composers, I’ve been given opportunities tolearn not only about their work, but also about my own playing. Composers havegiven me great insight into my own performance tendencies and approaches to thepiano, and each new composer I collaborate with provides me with a learningexperience that broadens my abilities to successfully interpret new music.”

Originallyfounded in 1996, Antares has been releasing critically acclaimed recordings ofworld premieres for several years. The group was recently treated to a glowingreview by Ken Smith of The Gramophone,who wrote, “Antares have the gift of making whatever they’re playing seem themost important piece in the world. And as long as they keep playing, I’mtempted to believe them.” The group has recently released a world premiererecording of Shadowed Narrative byRoger Reynolds on Innova recordings, and has several other new releasesavailable on a variety of record labels (find a complete list here).

The Robert andCarol Morris Center for 21^st Century Music is happy to report that Eric is helping to develop aperformance institute for the annual June in Buffalo Festival. Though the finaldetails of the project are still being coordinated, the institute is plannedfor June in Buffalo 2013 and will include opportunities for solo instrumentalists, string quartets, and pre-formed contemporary music ensembles to workshop and study with June inBuffalo performance faculty. The institute will be modeled, in a smaller scale, after the LucerneFestival, and provide a framework formeetings and collaborations between composers and performers. The JACK Quartet are currently slated to be on the list of performancefaculty members, as well as other members of UB’s music performance faculty includingJean Kopperud, Jonathan Golove, and Tom Kolor. Stay tuned for a formalannouncement on the June in Buffalo performance institute in Spring of 2012.

Below is a videoof an excellent concert of Eric Huebner with David Robertson and the Juilliard Orchestra, performing Olivier Messaien’s Oiseaux Exotiques.

Paolo Cavallone since graduating from the University at Buffalo...

2011-10-31T18:01:00.000-07:00

Composer and UBalumnus Paolo Cavallone has recently returned to Buffalo after lecturing in NewZealand and Canada, and having had works premiered and toured in Italy,Portugal, and Brazil. We met with Paolo and asked him to fill us in on hisrecent activities abroad since graduating with a PhD in music composition in2009.

Paolo Cavallone
photo by Luca Del Monaco

“I just returnedto Buffalo last Friday from Florence, Italy, where I had been invited by renownItalian composer Giorgio Battistelli to participate in ‘Festival Play It!’ athree day-long festival dedicated to contemporary Italian music, which, thisyear, celebrated the 80th birthday of great Italian composer and artist SylvanoBussotti. It was a privilege to be a part of this fantastic showcase of Italianmusic played by some of Italy’s greatest musicians and broadcast live byItaly’s public radio station, Radio RAI. My symphony, Porte, was premiered there by Orchestra Toscana under the baton ofTonino Battista, and received an enthusiastic response by the audience (see thecomplete program here). It was a very special event, as painters, poets, andartists from all over the country would open the day’s activities withpresentations and lectures about their art. Florence has a rich environmentfull of history and beautiful architecture, and was a magical place to be.

“It has been avery productive time for me in many ways since graduating from the Universityat Buffalo. Recently I gave visiting lectures as a composer at McMasterUniversity in Hamilton, Canada, and Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy.Moreover, after a year at UB as a piano accompanist and research collaboratorfor the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music, I spent the fallof 2010 in New Zealand as a visiting professor teaching composition and orchestrationat the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington at Victoria University. I amexcited to be returning there next year for the premiere of my flute concerto,commissioned by the Siemens Foundation, for the Stroma New Music Ensembleconducted by Hamish McKeich, and featuring flute legend Roberto Fabbriciani,whom I originally met when he visited the University at Buffalo to give alecture and concert. Many of the performers I’ve developed successful workingrelationships with I met through the music department here at UB.

“I am very gladto announce the upcoming release of my new monographic CD, Confini, on the Tactus label. The CD is the fruit of thecollaboration between my publisher, RAI Trade, and the Robert and Carol MorrisCenter for 21st Century Music, and includes a bonus DVD and video documentary, Paolo Cavallone: Potrait of a Composer,which shows footage of UB and interviews with conductor Harvey Sollberger,saxophonist Gaetano Di Bacco, violist Luca Sanzò, and David Felder, amongothers. The CD itself features many UB musicians such as Tony Arnold, JeanKopperud, Jonathan Golove, Catarina Domenici, Sabatino Scirri, ChristianBaldini, Nicholas Isherwood, and Movses Pogossian. The first track on the CD, (Dis)tensioni, for clarinet and piano,was a commission by Jean Kopperud and Stephen Gosling for the ‘Rated X Project’which I composed during my time in the PhD program at UB and having compositionlessons with David Felder. Both Jean and Steve gave a remarkable interpretationof the piece, performing complex, virtuosic passages, extended techniques, andgestures that perhaps only they are able to play, such as pitches outside ofthe normal range of the clarinet, which Jean was able to execute with extremefacility. The CD will be released by the end of November and be available onthe internet and at most major CD retailers (more information about the CD can be found at Paolo’s website, and will soon be available at Tactus Records).

"My perspectiveas an artist is based on framing a unique musical gesture/object from differentangles, so after completing my studies at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia inRome, I was eager to expand my artistic vision in an international environment,and experience a different side of Western culture in America. At theUniversity at Buffalo I met a faculty full of first-rate scholars andmusicians. First and foremost was my composition teacher, David Felder, who hasa rare sense of musical form, and is able, as a teacher, to integrate thestudents’ perspective without imposing a pre-formed musical aesthetic orcompositional school onto the student. I learned from other professors at UB aswell – I still remember the high quality of Michael Long’s class on Medievaland Renaissance notation, and Jeffrey Stadelman’s class on contemporary music. Iam happy to be back in Buffalo for a while, where I can enjoy and participatein the musical activities at UB and the Center for 21st Century Music."

Bernard Rands, Gil Rose, and Julia Bentley visit the Center next week

2011-10-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

Julia Bentley

Next week willbe a very exciting and interesting one for all of us at the Robert and CarolMorris Center for 21st Century Music, as we will be hosting top tier musiciansfrom all over the country. Mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley, conductor Gil Rose, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Bernard Rands will be visiting the University at Buffalo and converging for a concert with theSlee Sinfonietta on November 1st at 7:30 p.m.

Julia Bentley, who has previously performed at June in Buffalo, isa dizzyingly accomplished singer and voice teacher at the Music Institute ofChicago and has been featured as a soloist with orchestras led by PierreBoulez, George Manahan, Raymond Leppard, Oliver Knussen, and Robert Shaw. Shehas taken on leading roles in several operas including Carmen and Rosina, aswell as performed and premiered some of contemporary music’s most engaging andvirtuosic works. The New York Times recently gave a glowing review of hersinging in Pierre Boulez’s Le Marteausans Maître, stating, “The mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley brought rich sound,deep expressivity and an uncanny sense of pitch to the work's restless vocallines, alive with sudden skips and spiky rhythms one moment, hushed andImpressionistic the next.” She will join the Slee Sinfonietta in Tuesdaynight’s concert in Lippes Concert Hall for an evening of works by BernardRands, Iannis Xenakis, Igor Stravinsky, and Nikos Skalkottas.

Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project

The concert willbe conducted by Gil Rose, who in 1996 founded the Boston Modern OrchestraProject, one of the world’s leading professional orchestras dedicatedexclusively to performing and recording music of the twentieth and twenty-firstcenturies. Throughout his tenure as the music director of the BMOP, Gil has receivednumerous awards from Columbia University and ASCAP, among others, as well asworked laboriously to record an extensive discography of world premieres byLouis Andriessen, John Cage, Robert Erickson, Lukas Foss, John Harbison, LeeHyla, David Lang, Tod Machover, Steven Mackey, Bernard Rands, George Rochberg,Elena Ruehr, Gunther Schuller, Reza Vali, and Evan Ziporyn on such labels asAlbany, Arsis, Cantaloupe, Chandos, ECM, Innova, Naxos, New World, andBMOP/sound, the Grammy-nominated label for which he serves as ExecutiveProducer. His recordings have appeared on the year-end "Best of"lists of The New York Times, Time Out New York, The Boston Globe, ChicagoTribune, American Record Guide, NPR, and Downbeat Magazine (learn more about Gil Rose and the BMOP here).

Bernard Rands

Bernard Randswill be joining us for the concert as well as giving a lecture the followingday on Wednesday, November 2nd at 3:00 p.m. in Baird Recital Hall, on hisrecent work Vincent, an opera about the life of Vincent van Gogh with librettowritten by American poet J.D. McClatchy. Vincent was premiered last April inBloomington, Indiana after being commissioned by the Indiana University Schoolof Music and Opera Department. According to the program note, the two act operais a “succession of ‘tableaux’ each placing Vincent in contexts which were hisreal experiences thus revealing his complex character - that of genius artist,religious fanatic, alcoholic, epileptic, unstable of temperament resulting inbehavior ranging unpredictably between kindly affability and violentaggression.”

Below is a videoof Bernard Rands discussing the tumultuous life of Vincent van Gogh, his captivatingworks as a painter, and their effect on Rands and his opera.

Composer Derek Charke since graduating UB...

2011-10-25T18:46:00.000-07:00

We recently caught up with University at Buffaloalumnus and composer Derek Charke, who has had a very exciting career sincegraduating from the UB composition program in 2005. Derek currentlyteaches music composition and theory at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, andis kept busy composing and fulfilling commissions. We sat down with Derek andasked him about his time at UB and to fill us in on his recent projects.

"I remember my time at SUNY Buffalo fondly. Priorto this I had studied with Louis Andriessen in Holland, at the Royal Academy inLondon, and at the University of North Texas. I wanted to find aplace that allowed for experimentation and cross fertilization of ideas andaesthetics. Composer Rodney Sharman, a UB grad himself, encouragedme to apply. What I encountered at UB was a top notch faculty, anassortment of amazing new music performers, and a thoughtful and diverse bunchof fellow students, each with their own individual voices. At UBthere was an openness, and a free exchange of ideas, that made the environmentinvigorating.

Derek Charke

"First off, I’ve got togive kudos to David Felder, for his inspiration, and for his guidance. Hehas an uncanny ability to get to the heart of the matter, to be flexible inidentifying what an individual student is trying to get at aesthetically,formally, etc., and for his ability to impart solid advice on what the nextstep(s) should be in order to fully realize a particular idea. Igained many valuable insights from David that will stick with me throughout mycareer.

"I had the great privilege of studying flutewith the late Cheryl Gobbetti-Hoffman. Cheryl was a nurturinginstructor whose pedagogical use of ‘extended’ techniques in her approach toboth contemporary and traditional flute literature was inspiring. Iworked closely with the flute studio, performing concerts with the contemporaryensemble (under Jonathan Golove), the Slee Sinfonietta, JiB, Augenmusik (acomposer collective), and in the Pantasmagoria flute festival, which was run byCheryl, and where I had the opportunity to work with visiting artists likeRobert Dick, Mathias Ziegler, and Peter Lloyd. UB allowed me tocombine my interests in composition and flute performance. I endedup with two degrees; a Masters in flute performance, and; a PhD in composition. Nosurprise then that my dissertation ended up as a concerto for flute and chamberorchestra!

"Theory and history courses with Michael Long,Charles Smith and Jeffrey Stadelman, and four years as a TA/GA, helped meobtain my current position as an associate professor of music. Andthe electronic music courses with Cort Lippe gave me the necessary skills towork with Max/MSP. Soundscapes and electronics have rapidly becomean important facet of my compositional activity––so much so that very few worksthese days are without some sort of EA component.

"Much has happened since I graduated from SUNYBuffalo six years ago. I'm currently on my first sabbatical leavefrom Acadia University. Recent commissions have come from establishedensembles like the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the St. Lawrence StringQuartet, the National Flute Association, and the Katona Twins, as well frommany local performers and ensembles in Atlantic Canada. As aprofessor I’ve had the opportunity to start my own new music festival,Shattering the Silence, which is now into its sixth year (more information onShattering the Silence here). AndI continue to perform regularly on the flute.

"A recent commission highlight is my firstfull-length symphony. ‘Symphony no. 1 - Transient Energies’ is a 45minute work that was commissioned in 2010 by Symphony Nova Scotia. Ituses an electronic soundscape consisting of sounds from energy production andusage: wind turbines, diesel power generators, electric hums, sounds ofshoveling coal, train whistles, car engines, etc... Sounds aretriggered using Max/MSP from a laptop performer in the orchestra. 'TransientEnergies' was premiered to much acclaim this past April, and is currentlyavailable on CBC Radio, Concerts on Demand website (click here tolisten to 'Symphony no. 1 - Transient Energies').

"One of the most fruitful collaborations sinceleaving UB has been a series of commissions for the Kronos Quartet. Interestinglyenough, this came about as a direct result of my studies at UB. Duringa particular composition seminar with David Felder, we were given the task ofcreating small chamber works to be recorded in the UB recording studio. Itranscribed some Inuit throat song games and reworked them for string quartet––I’vealways had an interest in the arctic. Using experimental circle andvertical bowing techniques (and assisted by fellow student Carter Williams) Icreated a set of 11 throat songs. Subsequently, I sent these to a callfor scores with the Kronos Quartet. David Harrington called me a fewmonths later and, out of the blue, commissioned a new work. ‘Cercle duNord III’ for string quartet and a soundtrack of northern sounds was created. Kronospremiered this work, alongside a selection of the original Inuit throat songgames, in 2006. They went on tour with them, including someillustrious spots along the way, like Carnegie Hall and the Vienna ConcertHouse. With this success, Kronos commissioned a second work, this timeincluding Inuit throat singing superstar, Tanya Tagaq. ‘Tundra Songs’(a 30 minute work) was premiered in May 2008 at the Walt Disney Hall in LA(audio samples available on Derek's website).

"Now, I’m completing a third commission forthe Kronos Quartet, a 22 minute concerto for amplified string quartet andorchestra (commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra), that will bepremiered on March 3rd, 2012 at the New Creations Festival at Roy Thompson Hallin Toronto (more information available here). I hope to see some of you there!"

The Meridian Arts Ensemble at the University at Buffalo

2011-10-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

The Robert andCarol Morris Center for 21st Century Music is pleased to welcome the MeridianArts Ensemble to the University at Buffalo for a week of original and virtuosicmusic for brass quintet. The Meridian Arts Ensemble, a long-time friend of theCenter, has commissioned and premiered over fifty new works, and has emerged asone of the most important new music ensembles in the world. Having releasednine critically acclaimed CD recordings on the Channel Classics label, thegroup somehow manages to also commission new composers, tour and perform onnine continents, and regularly win performance competitions.

The Meridian Arts Ensemble

Featuring UB’sown Professor Jon Nelson, the Meridian Arts Ensemble began as a traditionalbrass quintet in 1987 and quickly rose to prominence winning four competitionsin their first two years. In 1990 they won First Prize in the Concert ArtistsGuild New York Competition, which launched the group’s international career.With the addition of a percussionist, the group has performed extensively throughoutthe world in Cuba, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Mexico,Austria, Costa Rica and Colombia. The Meridian Arts Ensemble has touredextensively throughout the U.S. as well, and has been hosted by prestigiousvenues and concert halls such as the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall,Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, Chicago’s SymphonyHall and Pick-Staiger Hall, Los Angeles’ Ambassador Auditorium, the ClevelandMuseum of Art, and Atlanta’s Spivey Hall (more information on their catalogueand recent activities can be found here).

On Tuesday,October 18th at 4:00 p.m. in Lippes Concert Hall, the Meridian Arts Ensemblewill host a composer workshop of seven of the University at Buffalo’s graduatecomposers including Esin Gunduz, Dan Bassin, David Rappenecker, Ethan Hayden,Ryo Nakayama, Juan Colón-Hernández, and Kenichi Saeki. The UB music departmentis populated by an incredibly original and diverse array of young composersfrom all over the world, and Tuesday’s composer workshop will be a great chanceto see them workshop their music live with one of today’s top ensembles. EthanHayden’s piece, Chiral Fanfare, isbased on the chemical phenomenon of ‘chirality’ in which two moleculesconsisting of the same atomic structure – but arranged as mirror images of oneanother – can have surprisingly different physical properties. The formconsists of two sections, each of which feature the same few motivic gesturesin drastically different environments, affecting the function and character ofthe resulting musical fabric. Contrastingly, Esin Gunduz’s piece, On texts of wisdom, will feature voicealongside trumpet and trombone, and include text from 13th century Turkish poetand Sufi mystic Yunus Emre. Each of the composers in UB’s composition programhas a wildly unique voice and different musical background, making theirconcerts and workshops a very engaging listening pleasure full of skillfulnuances and surprises, and Tuesday’s composer workshop promises to be noexception.

On Friday,October 21st, the Meridian Arts Ensemble will treat us to a very special 25th Anniversary Concert of works they have commissioned from composers Dave Ballouand David Sanford, as well as perform their own arrangement of 16th centuryItalian Renaissance composer Giovanni Gabrieli’s Venetian Canzoni. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. and takeplace in Lippes Concert Hall.

Below is a videoof the Meridian Arts Ensemble performing Frank Zappa’s Echidna's Arffrom a 2007 concert in Timosoara, Romania:

Guitarists Magnus Andersson and Arturo Tallini at the Center this week...

2011-09-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

This will be avery active and guitar-filled week at the Robert and Carol Center for 21^stCentury Music. Magnus Andersson, virtuoso guitarist and long time friend of theCenter, will be at UB premiering student works written especially for him at aninformal workshop and recording session on September 28. The following day hewill be joined by Arturo Tallini for a concert of today’s most demanding andcomplex pieces for guitar duet in Baird Recital Hall.

Wednesday’sprogram of solo readings will feature six of UB’s graduate composers: DanielBassin, Juan-Colón Hernandez, Colin Tucker, Zane Merritt, Nathan Heidelberger,and Chung Ting Pang. The informal session will take place at 3:00 p.m. in BairdRecital Hall on Wednesday, Sep. 28, and will be a great opportunity to hear newmusic from UB’s incredibly creative and diverse body of young composers. DanielBassin’s piece, Gerard, features atimbrally evocative tuning with a unique microtonal scordatura and borrows fromOlivier Messiaen’s musical alphabet, which Messiaen created to transcribetheological writings into his musical works. Language plays a large role insome of the other pieces we will hear Wednesday as well – Nathan Heidelberger’sa refrain One keeps playing year afteryear, concerning the nature of things as they are, includes text adaptedfrom Wallace Steven’s 1937 book of poetry, “The Man with the Blue Guitar,” andwill showcase Magnus Andersson’s vocal talents as he speaks and sings the text,simultaneously mimicking the diverse sounds of the guitar he is performing on.The graduate student composers at the University at Buffalo bring theiroriginality from tremendously different geographic and aesthetic backgrounds,and tomorrow will be a terrific opportunity to hear all the diversity andtalent staged back-to-back and performed by a world-class musician.

Arturo Tallini

On Thursday,September 29, at 7:30 p.m. in Baird Recital Hall, Arturo Tallini will team upwith Magnus to present a concert of modern composers who have written forguitar duet, including Bruno Maderna, Sylvano Busotti, Brian Ferneyhough, andHelmut Lachenmann. Lachenmann’s piece, Salutfür Caudwell, artfully runs through a dizzying combination of guitartechniques and performance styles, and includes sounds from the entire body ofthe guitar, as well as incorporates fingertips, knuckles, the guitar slide,picks, and a wide variety of other plectrums. Both performers speak text fromBritish author Christopher Caudwell and Friedrich Nietzsche while they play,often hocketing with the music and creating a delightful interplay of wordsand sounds. Thursday’s concert will be a great chance to hear some of the most creative and demanding pieces for guitar duet written in the past fewdecades.

Below is an excellent video feature of Magnus Andersson and Arturo Tallini performing Ferneyhough’s No time (at all), at the Conservatoriodi Musica S. Cecilia in Rome, Italy, from March of 2010.

The Tierney Sutton Band at UB and Kleinhans Music Hall

2011-09-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

The Robert andCarol Morris Center for 21^st Century Music is very excited to havethe Tierney Sutton Band in town this week for a jazz ensemble master class atthe University at Buffalo Music Department and an exclusive benefit event atKleinhans Music Hall. The Tierney Sutton Band is a three-time Grammy Nominee for“Best Jazz Vocal Album,” and has headlined at The Hollywood Bowl, Jazzat Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. The group has garnered remarkably positive press, and The Buffalo News has recently released a glowingreview of their latest album, AmericanRoad, and described it as “Gorgeous. Witty. And absolutely fresh. Every bitof it.”

The Tierney Sutton Band

On Thursday,pianist Christian Jacobs, bassist Kevin Axt, drummer Ray Brinker, and singerTierney Sutton hosted a master class in Baird Hall at the University at Buffaloand coached student jazz musicians on the ins and outs of improvisation,instrumental technique, and the nuances of musical life as a jazz ensemble. Theworkshop began with stunning performances by The Anthony Rideout Quintet, astudent jazz group at UB featuring bassist Anthony Rideout and lead singer EsinGunduz under the tutelage of Buffalo-based jazz saxophonist Dave Schiavone. Esin,originally from Turkey, had an instant rapport with Tierney Sutton, and membersof the band raved about their experiences touring and performing in Esin’s hometown,Istanbul. After offering praise, pointers, tips, and well-received feedback tothe quintet, the Tierney Sutton Band took to the stage and gave the packed halla few of their own unique and dynamic interpretations of jazz standards. Theyended their set with a very creative and musical rendition of the traditionalfolk song, “Shenandoah,” which was met with tremendous enthusiasm and applause.

On Friday,September 23^rd, the Tierney Sutton Band will perform at an exclusiveevent, sponsored by Robert and Carol Morris, to benefit the BuffaloPhilharmonic Orchestra in the Blue Room at Kleinhans Music Hall. The eventpromises to be very special, as the Blue Room will have the atmosphere andambience of an intimate jazz club for the evening. Seatsfor Gold and Silver Circle Patrons have already sold out, but some tickets maystill available. More information about tickets, availability, and the event itselfcan be found at the BPO’s website here.

Below is a videoof the Tierney Sutton Band performing their unique adaptation of the jazz hit,“I Get a Kick Out of You.”

2011-2012 Season Overview

2011-09-12T15:12:00.000-07:00

The Robert andCarol Morris Center for 21^st Music is pleased to announce a very active2011-2012 season, which has already kicked off to an exciting start with lastThursday’s concert, “Secret Messages,” where members of The Genkin Philharmonicperformed works by UB’s own Moshe Shulman and Jeff Stadelman, as well as worksby Morton Feldman, Milton Babbitt, and Iannis Xenakis. Jon Nelson and TheGenkin, as always, provided us with a beautiful and well-crafted program, withmembers of the ensemble improvising between pieces to create a seamless andabsorbing flow of music.

The upcomingweek will be a vigorous one for the Slee Sinfionetta, as they tour a program ofmusic by some of today’s best composers to Buffalo, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. Theexcitement begins at UB’s Slee Hall on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. with works by Erb,Rindfleisch, Rosenblum, D’Alessio, and Felder. The tour will then continue toCleveland State University on Wednesday and to the University at Pittsburgh onFriday. The Slee Sinfionetta will be under the baton of James Baker and guestconductor Andrew Rindfleisch, who is currently a Professor of Music and the Headof Music Composition Studies at Cleveland State University (click herefor more information about Andrew Rindfleisch). The SleeSinfionetta will also be joined by internationally renowned guitarist MagnusAndersson, who will perform on David Felder’s Requiescat.

The activitycontinues throughout September as UB music faculty participate in President SatishK. Triparthi’s Investiture Week, with clarinetist Jean Kopperud performing Sep.19th at 3:00 p.m. for the Annual Celebration of Academic Excellence at theCenter for the Arts. The week will conclude with a university-wide ceremony on Friday,Sep. 23rd at 3:00 p.m., also at the Center for the Arts, where Carl T. Hayden,Chairman of the State University of New York Board of Trustees, and SUNYChancellor Nancy L. Zimpher will formally invest President Tripathi with hisnew office. During the ceremony we will be treated to a performance of DavidFelder’s “Funfares,” a new work written especially for the investiture of UB’snew president.

Investiture Week at the University at Buffalo

The month willconclude with Magnus Andersson returning to UB on September 28th, to lead acomposer master class and workshop pieces by Dan Bassin, Nathan Heidelberger,and some of UB’s incoming graduate composers. On the following evening, Sep. 29th,Magnus will pair with fellow guitarist Arturo Tallini for a concert in BairdRecital Hall at 7:30 p.m.

The rest of thefall semester will be packed with visits from the contemporary music scene’sleading ensembles, singers, conductors, and composers. On October 18thacclaimed brass quintet The Meridian Arts Ensemble will lead a composerworkshop with UB’s graduate composers, and on November 1st the Slee Sinfionetta,conducted by Gil Rose and featuring mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley, will give aconcert featuring works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Bernard Rands.Bernard Rands will be staying in Buffalo and presenting a guest lecture to themusic department the following day (learn about his recent projects here). Thesemester will begin wrapping up on November 15, when the Bonne ActionContemporary Music Ensemble will put on a concert of contemporary music inLippes Concert Hall.

Bernard Rands

Next Spring atThe Center for 21^st Century Music will be just as active as theFall, as we will be welcoming the return of Mathias Pintscher to conduct theSlee Sinfionetta on April 3rd. Many other distinguished performers and composers will be visiting the Centeras well, including distinguished Mozart scholar and pianist Robert Levin andItalian virtuoso flutist Mario Caroli. There will also be several composerworkshops featuring works by UB graduate composers, including the Antares NewMusic Quartet and the Talujon Percussion Ensemble.

The season willconclude explosively with June in Buffalo 2012, which promises to be one of thelargest and most exciting contemporary music events of the year. This year's festival showcases anincredible cadre of faculty composers: Louis Andriessen, Robert Beaser, StevenStucky, Fred Lerdahl, and David Felder. June in Buffalo 2012 will also feature an all-starlineup of ensembles and soloists, including CIKADA, Ensemble Interface, NewYork New Music Ensemble, SIGNAL, UB Percussion Ensemble, Slee Sinionetta, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Special guests James Baker, RobertoFabricciani, and Brad Lubman will also participate in the festival this year.

Some of the many opportunities provided by the composition program at UB...

2011-09-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

Following up on our series of posts by recent and soon-to-be graduates of UB’s composition program, we invited Robert Phillips to share some of his thoughts on his time at UB. Robert is currently finishing up his PhD in composition and working on multimedia and chamber music works with musicians in London, Montreal, Stockholm, Paris, San Diego, and the Buffalo area. He attributes much of his artistic and professional growth as a composer to opportunities he received while studying at UB.

Robert says, “I grew tremendously as an artist through the generous opportunities presented by the composition program at UB. I received incredible professional support there and have a long list of projects for which I relied on help from UB and The Center for 21^st Century Music, which I’m terribly grateful for. Some of the most exciting sponsorship I ever received was the help traveling to Madison, Wisconsin, to rehearse and record Mapuana mai kekahi (scent of another), before The Nonsense Company toured it throughout the U.S. Shortly after, the Center helped me fly to Amsterdam to oversee Mapuana’s performance in the International Gaudeamus Musikweek Composer’s Competition by the Ear Massage Percussion Quartet. David Felder and the Center’s support were instrumental in bringing forth a complex work involving lap steel guitars, Hawaiian records, ukuleles, Tibetan singing bowls, and all sorts of bizarre, but carefully chosen miscellany, to many locations in the U.S. and to festivals and concert halls in Europe.

“Also, studying at UB helped me to grow as an electronic music composer, primarily through working in the Lejaren Hiller Music Studios with Cort Lippe. He has a very sophisticated mind for manipulating and working with samples and sound synthesis, and part of the culmination of working with him was a recent piece of mine involving cut-up a cappella samples of vocalist Gucci Mane, entitled gucci might be, which was recently selected for opening night performance at the Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium. It was a great pleasure to diffuse the piece live over 16 speakers placed strategically over the Wychwood Theatre and participate in such a dynamic and exciting sound environment, and have some of the U.K.’s and Canada’s top electroacoustic composers in the audience.

“Some of my greatest pleasures during my time at UB have been while working with the incredible performance faculty. Clarinetist Jean Kopperud was able to do things that very few clarinetists are able to do, and she did them with a grace and artistry that exceeded my compositional fantasy. Trumpeter Jon Nelson was also a lot of fun to work with and was able to immediately apply powerful interpretive rigor to some very iconoclastic brass music I wrote. Perhaps most recently, I got to work in the Slee Recording Studios with one of my favorite singers, Tony Arnold, who was able to affect incredibly delicate vibrato shadings and was a tremendous compositional inspiration (you can listen to In der Luft, da bleibt deine Wurzel, a selection from heterogeneous blends, with Tony Arnold, here until Robert's website is up and running).

“One of the greatest things about the University at Buffalo is all of the incredible musicians that are constantly visiting. I’ve had many happy surprises walking the stairs of Baird Hall and bumping into one of the world’s top performers who happened to be stopping by, and I attribute much of my growth as a composer to having worked with so many renown ensembles that have come through and given workshops and master classes. Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to work on a studio project with the JACK Quartet through resources provided by the Mark Diamond Research Fund. The four of them were some of the most engaging and sensitive performers I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with, and they were surprisingly adept at negotiating a complex work that borrows an aesthetic strangely adapted from turntable practice and requiring delicate glissando motion. The piece, Ohr, will be finished this fall and feature material for live electronics and digital turntables.

“Best yet, some of the ensembles that have come through have resulted in exciting possibilities for collaboration – last year Pascal Gallois, Rohan de Saram, and Magnus Andersson spent some time here offering a workshop with student composers and giving a concert which lead to a handful of commissions for me. One of the projects will be the largest I’ve ever been able to work on, and I’m really looking forward to learning from these performers and exploiting their sophisticated musical personalities after they did such an incredible job with my recent trio, Larghetto Rubato (available here).

“Working and studying with David Felder has been hugely influential in helping me develop my personal style. He approaches composition lessons with profoundly open ears, and has a strong desire to hear the student’s unique voice emerge over time. This skill requires deep patience and sensitivity and is very rare in a composition teacher – its effect has served to purge my music of some of the clichés common to composers today and strengthen the unique characteristics of my own sonic imagination. In this respect, I feel UB is incredibly unique as an academic institution in that I didn’t so much learn a craft, like ‘composition,’ but rather, made seminal discoveries about myself as a musician and as an artist.”

"A Positive Signal"

2011-06-17T07:08:00.000-07:00

Garaud MacTaggart of the Buffalo News offered another view of Signal's June in Buffalo concert on June 9. Headlined "A Positive Signal," MacTaggart's review praised the playing of this much-lauded group: "The same care and attention to detail that Signal displayed during their workshop for student composers on Tuesday afternoon was evidenced at Thursday night’s performance of scores by more mature composers. Given the level of material they had to work with in the later concert, the results were even more impressive.

"David Felder’s Journal from 1990 was the first composition on the evening’s program and it was clear from the start that if the bones of the score were sturdy, then Signal could flesh out the sound. Under the guidance of the troupe’s conductor, Brad Lubman, the music was revealed as a tautly constructed work but not one so tightly wound that emotion was banished..."

As in Daniel J. Kushner's review, MacTaggart reserved his highest praise for the classic score that ended the concert, Ligeti's Chamber Concerto, which "received a marvelous performance that had echoes of Debussy and Bartok with occasional brief stabs of sound reminiscent of the shower scene from Psycho as a change of pace. OK, that’s a bit of an overstatement but the change in sonic textures from loud to soft, from prickly to flowing had a logic to it that Lubman and Signal were able to convey with the conviction Ligeti deserved to receive. It was probably the highlight performance of the evening."

You can read MacTaggart's entire review here.

The Fickle Judge

2011-06-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

To help wrap up our coverage of June in Buffalo 2011, we're pleased to welcome guest blogger Daniel J. Kushner, reviewing the June 9 concert with Signal and guest violinist Irvine Arditti. Daniel is a music critic whose work has been published by Opera News, The Huffington Post, NewMusicBox, and Symphony, among others. His vivid and insightful writing can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-j-kushner and http://postpostrock.com. Though his subject matter ranges widely, he most often writes about the burgeoning musical region in which classically-trained musicians and artists from the world of indie rock are finding common ground. Here follows Daniel's review.
_______________________

TheFickle Judge
ByDaniel J. Kushner

Junein Buffalo is a festival for the new music cognoscenti—a welcome destinationfor some, an alienating locale for others. But new music sprawls itself out over a vast landscape, andgreat variety can coexist even with pieces of comparable aesthetic value. The festival’s June 9 concert,featuring the New York-based chamber ensemble Signal led by conductor BradLubman, exemplified this truth.

Theprogram began with David Felder’s 1990 work Journal for chamber orchestra. Signal communicated with vibrant poignancy the sonorous,cataclysmic evidence of fear made audible, of some unspoken yet inescapableconflict. Within the composition,melodies are not shaped and sheltered by phrases, but are rather splinteredinto three and four-note shards, and then dispelled into the ether. If Felder’s Shamayim—a 2009 collaboration with filmmaker Elliot Caplanperformed earlier in the week at the festival—felt cold and clinical, Journalexudes an emotional, reverberatingwarmth that doesn’t circumvent Felder’s arresting harmonic sensibility, butinstead speaks through it. Thework is at times lush and lyrical, even while possessing a thin, fragiletexture capable of some impending devolution—hinted at toward the outset—thatnever comes.

Featuringa smaller configuration of Signal aided by solo violinist Irvine Arditti, BricePauset’s highly gestural and expressionistic Vita Nova (2006) evincedthe atonal priorities so readily embraced in many compositional circles ofacademia. While certainlyintriguing, the piece seemed destined to retreat from my recollection intooblivion. But why? Clearly the composition was wellconstructed, with a keen spatial sense of orchestration and containing proventechniques of modern articulation, including the ingenuous effect of strummingthe string instruments with guitar picks. Its lack of readily discernible melodies is not in and of itself groundsfor dismissal.

Butif melody does not implant itself in the ear, some other compositional (component(s)may need to take its place—an alluring succession of harmonies, or a novelpolyrhythmic device—to bridge the chasm between performance and memory (I tookwith issue with Hilda Paredes’s Ah Paaxo’ob of 2001, which closed the concert, for similarreason). One doesn’t evennecessarily need to remember a single note of the composition, but rather theresponse it elicited from within. Ultimately, the hard reality is that it comes down to the decision of amanifestly fickle, yet unerring judge—emotional resonance.

Fortunately,György Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto (1969-1970)exemplified the atonal aesthetic at its most vibrant and engaging—from thebleary, circular phrases in the woodwinds to the crystalline dizziness of theharpsichord, to the ominous trills in the violins. Each sonic occurrence seemed to impart some mystical codedmeaning. In the moment, ChamberConcerto struck me as more focused,less visceral yet more palpable, more ethereal yet less distant than the worksI had heard earlier in the evening.

Wasmy response the effect of a placebo? Does a piece by the venerated Ligeti immediately deserve morerespect? Perhaps vain pride wouldhave me answer, “Yes.” But, in theinterest of being as much of a new-music-hipster as possible, the answer couldjust as easily be “No.” In theend, I was drawn in by Ligeti’s use of technical proficiency through suchmusically volatile means, to achieve such emotionally immediate ends.

Jeffrey Stadelman: "Meaning is sedimented form"

2011-06-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

On the eve of the opening of June in Buffalo 2011, we conclude our series of posts on this year's Senior Faculty with composer Jeffrey Stadelman, Associate Chair of UB's Music Department.

Stadelman's music -- once described by a Los Angeles Times reviewer as "painterly . . . , deftly dispersed in time and glazed with a dry wit" -- has been performed in the U.S and Europe by a number of the leading groups active in contemporary music performance. This list of ensembles -- including the New York New Music Ensemble, Boston Musica Viva, the California Ear Unit, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Het Trio, 175 East Ensemble (New Zealand), Earplay, the New World and Cassatt String Quartets, the League/ISCM and the June in Buffalo and Wellesley Conference Players, among others -- continues to grow as Stadelman's work attracts increasing attention in the U.S. and abroad.

Originally from Wisconsin, Stadelman studied composition as an undergraduate with Stephen Dembski at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and went on to receive the Ph.D. in Music from Harvard University, where his principal teachers were Milton Babbitt, Earl Kim, Donald Martino and Stephen Mosko. Stadelman has since received commissions and invitations for compositions from, among others, the Fromm Foundation and Boston Musica Viva, Nuove Sincronie, Concert Artists Guild, Trio Italiano Contemporaneo, Phantom Arts, Bernhard Wambach, Elizabeth McNutt, Jon Nelson and UW-Madison. Grants and awards include those from Meet the Composer, Harvard University, Friends and Enemies of New Music, and the Darmstadt Summer Courses.

The composer taught at Harvard University during the 1992-93 academic year, and currently serves as Associate Professor of Music at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he teaches composition and twentieth-century music. Stadelman's music is published by APNM and BMG Ariola. Recently completed and ongoing projects include Eight Songs, a collection for bass-baritone and piano; House Taken Over for the flutist Elizabeth McNutt, with and without electronics; a quintet for a University at Buffalo faculty quintet; and a violin concerto, entitled Pity Paid, for Movses Pogossian with the Slee Sinfonietta. The latter work was released as the centerpiece of an eponymously-titled CD in 2008 on the Centaur label.

A number of recent electroacoustic works have been performed at June in Buffalo 2004, SEAMUS conferences (Ball State and University of Oregon), ICMC 2004 Miami, the University of North Texas/CEMI, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, COMA 2005 (Vaxjo, Sweden), and other venues.

Also active as a writer on musical subjects, Stadelman has authored a number of analytic papers since 1986, and made presentations on Babbitt and Schoenberg at universities and festivals in the U.S. and Europe.

Stadelman is a cogent thinker whose forthright remarks on composition are laced with wit in this interview by James Gardner of Radio New Zealand. Responding to a question about recent compositional paradigms, Stadelman says, "I tend to prefer the choral model, imagining not reflection and amplification of the lone voice—but instead repetition and massing of plural voices in a social context. That's what's so compelling about the origins of classical polyphony to me. A kind of splitting of the solo song, and then its multiplication..."

Brice Pauset

2011-05-31T07:22:00.000-07:00

June in Buffalo always has a strong international flavor, drawing participants and faculty from around the globe. French composer Brice Pauset travels from his home in Germany to join this year's Senior Faculty, bringing his unique musical and intellectual perspective to the festival. His background includes studies in piano, violin, electronic music at IRCAM, medieval philosophy (in which he holds a doctorate), along with Baroque musical practice and instrumental design.

Born in 1965, Pauset has studied with many of Europe's modernist heavyweights, including Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Gérand Grisey, Brian Ferneyhough, Franco Donatoni, Stefano Gervasoni, Klaus Huber, and Michael Jarrell, among others. Yet it's clear from interviews and writings that his Baroque forebears have had as profound an effect on his music as his contemporaries. A fascinating interview in Paris Transatlantic magazine illuminates his thinking. When writer Dan Warburton asked Pauset which century he would prefer to live in, given a choice, Pauset replied, "I think, of course, the fourteenth century. The Ars Subtilior. In the medieval epoch, there was no music as such--it was a part of a larger discipline including mathematics, philosophy, astronomy.. If you look around this room, we have mathematics--there are three computers (one of which doesn't work), and there is a philosophical dimension to this work.. (Pause.) Yes, I would go back to the fourteenth century. When music didn't exist." Pauset's moody, compelling Adagio Dialettico for piano and ensemble can be heard in this audio clip (with static image).

Hilda Paredes at June in Buffalo

2011-05-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

Continuing our alphabetical series of profiles of the Senior Faculty for June in Buffalo 2011, we encounter Hilda Paredes, who has achieved renown as one of Mexico's leading composers. Paredes wasborn in Tehuacan, Puebla, Mexico, and has been a prominent music teacher atthe NationalAutonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Firmly established asone of the leading Mexican composers of her generation, her music is nowperformed widely around the world.

As an activeparticipant in master classes at Dartington Summer School, studied with PeterMaxwell Davies and Richard Rodney Bennett. After graduating at the Guildhall Schoolof Music, she obtained her Master of Arts at City University inLondon and completed her PhD at Manchester University.

Hercollaboration with choreographers led her to receive the Music for Dance Awardfrom the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1988. After taking part at the GardenVenture Opera Project in Dartington, she completed her first chamber opera"The Seventh Seed," released by Mode Records.

She hascontinued to be involved in the musical life of her native country, teaching atthe National University in Mexico City, as radio producer of new music, as wellas collaborating with the Orchestra of Baja California arranging traditionalSpanish and Mexican songs.

Hilda now livesin London as a freelance composer, and has taught composition and lectured atManchester University, the University of San Diego California, Mills College inCalifornia, as well as in Mexico, Spain, and Centre Acanthes in France. Herrecently completed second chamber opera El Palacio Imaginado, commissioned by Musik der Jahrhunderte,English National Opera and the Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, waspremiered to much acclaim in both sides of the Atlantic.

Hilda Paredeshas been commissioned by soloists, ensembles and orchestras around the world.Her music has been performed by internationally renowned ensembles suchas Lontano,London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Neue Vocalsolisten, Ensemble Sospeso andArditti Quartet and has been widely performed at important internationalfestivals, such as Huddersfield in the UK; Eclat in Germany; Musica and Octobreen Normandie, in France; Wien Modern, in Austria; Akiyoshidai Music Festival,in Japan; Archipel, in Geneva; De Ijsbreker Chamber Music Festival, inAmsterdam; Warsaw Autumn, in Poland; Ultima, in Oslo; Melbourne Festival, inAustralia; Festival of Arts and Ideas in the USA, Ars Musica in Bruxelles; Festivalde Alicante, in Spain; Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico, amongstothers.

Here'sa clip of Misplaced Flowers,a ballet choreographed by Joel Valentin-Martinez in 2010 to Paredes's music,performed here by the noted Chicago-based ensemble Fulcrum Point.

David Felder speaks for himself

2011-05-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

No overview of June in Buffalo would be complete without a few words on David Felder, who is not only Artistic Director of JiB, but also the Slee Sinfonietta and the Center for 21st Century Music itself. David Felder has long been recognized as a leader in his generation of American composers. His works have been featured at many of the leading international festivals for new music, and he earns continuing recognition through performance and commissioning programs. Felder’s work has been broadly characterized by its highly energetic profile, through its frequent employment of technological extension and elaboration of musical materials (including his “Crossfire” video series), and its lyrical qualities.

He has earned numerous honors for his composition, and is widely recognized as an important teacher and mentor as well. He has served as dissertation advisor for over forty composers at Buffalo, many of whom are actively teaching, composing and performing internationally at leading institutions.

David Felder served as Master Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in February-March, 2010. During that time, the Atlantic Center created a series of video interviews with the composer, in which he speaks eloquently on various topics, including his thoughts on collaboration, working with visual elements, and the question of who he writes his music for. Three of these follow:

Eric Chasalow

2011-05-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

Continuing our alphabetical look at the Senior Faculty of June in Buffalo 2011, we turn to composer Eric Chasalow, who has been described as "the rare composer who is as comfortable with electro-acoustic music as he is with music for traditional ensembles. ARRAY, the journal of the International Computer Music Association, wrote that his 2003 CD Left to His Own Devices "clearly establishes him as one of the leaders of our times...offering a wondrous fusion between distinct styles and mediums...."

Chasalow's music has been embraced by performers throughout the world, with recent performances from Boston to Berlin and San Francisco to Seoul.

A member of the Brandeis University faculty since 1990, Chasalow directs the Brandeis Electro-Acoustic Music Studio. He produces the biennial BEAMS Electronic Music Marathon, on the Boston CyberArts Festival. Since 1996 he has curated The Video Archive of Electroacoustic Music, an oral history project chronicling the pioneer electronic music composers and engineers from 1950 to the present.

A product of the famed Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, Chasalow studied composition with Mario Davidovsky and flute with Harvey Sollberger. He has been honored by the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Says Chasalow, "Over the years, the technology available to me has changed dramatically, from the hand-made cutting and splicing of the analog studio, to MIDI automation and, currently, graphical computer-based sound editing environments. While the newer tools have made the process of realizing electronic music much easier, my fundamental musical approach to these pieces has not changed much. At the core is the tradition created by the work of Mario Davidovsky. In this tradition, one uses prerecorded sounds to expand upon the acoustical characteristics of the live instruments—the real origin of the 'hyperinstrument' concept. What may be obvious is that the timbre of a traditional instrument in performance may be changed by adding electronic components—a kind of heightened orchestration… While my studio technique derives from Davidovsky, the musical character is quite different. My instrumental writing is often at an energy level drawn from my experience with improvised jazz. My recent electronic music reflects this as well. By adding layers of manipulated recordings of spoken or sung text, the sound of the human voice often emerges in surprising ways."

June in Buffalo 2011: schools of (compositional) thought

2011-05-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

Further to our previous post announcing this year's participants in June in Buffalo 2011, here are some stats.

Some 80 composers applied to take part, from universities and colleges in Australia, Canada, Hungary, Israel, Mexico, Turkey, the UK, and of course the USA. Approximately 25 of the applications came from outside the US. Some 43 schools were represented:

Bard College
Boston Conservatory
Bowling Green
Brandeis University
Brooklyn Conservatory
Carnegie Mellon University

City University of New York
Cole Conservatory
Columbia University
Depaul University
Hartt School of Music at Hartford
Indiana University
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes
Juilliard School
Liszt Acadmy, Budapest
NEC/ Istanbul University
New England Conservatory

New York University (NYU)

Northwestern University
Oberlin Conservatory

Princeton University
San Francisco Conservatory

Stanford University
Tel Aviv University
University of British Columbia
University at Buffalo

University of California
University of California - Berkeley

University of Carolina

University of Chicago
University of Colorado
University of Florida

University of Georgia
University of Huddersfield
University of Illinois - Urbana
University of Iowa
University of Michigan
University of Montana
University of Northern Colorado
University of Pittsburgh

University of Sydney
University of Texas - Austin

University of Wisconsin
Yale University

From this deep and wide pool of applicants, 25 talented composers were chosen. Congratulations to all!

Announcing June in Buffalo 2011 participants!

2011-05-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

Now comes the moment you've all been waiting for: the lucky composers who will have the opportunity to take part in this year's June in Buffalo festival, June 6 - 11:

Mate Balogh Liszt Acadmy, Budapest

  Per Bloland Stanford 

David Carter Northwestern University 

Shiuan Chang New England Conservatory 

 Chun Ting Pang University at Buffalo 

Paul Clift Columbia University

Juan Colon-Hernandez University at Buffalo 

 Hanna Eimermacher  

Sivan Eldar UC Berkeley 

 Juan Escudero

Ray Evanoff University of Huddersfield 
Michael Foumai University of Michigan

Matthew Goodheart UC Berkeley

 Ted Goldman Juilliard School 

Jacob Gotlib University at Buffalo

Ethan Hayden University at Buffalo 

 Nathan Heidelberger University at Buffalo

Friedrich Kern New York University 

Cherise Leiter University of Florida

Kerrith Livengood University of Pittsburgh 

Brian Mark San Francisco Conservatory

Jeff Roberts Brandeis University

Kenichi Saeki University at Buffalo

Matt Sargent Hartt School of Music at Hartford 

Francisco Trigueros University of Chicago 

Each of the invited composers will have one of his/her pieces performed during the festival by one of the top-notch resident musicians or ensembles. As always, June in Buffalo offers an intensive schedule of seminars, lectures, workshops, professional presentations, participant forums and open rehearsals as well as afternoon and evening concerts open to the general public and critics.

Kagel Nacht

2011-04-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

Tired of dull, predictable concerts? The antidote is close at hand.

This Tuesday, April 26, the performance event known as Kagel Nacht comes to Lippes Concert Hall at Slee Hall. Described by its creators as "a performance event featuring new interpretations of works by the seminal avant-garde composer Mauricio Kagel," it interweaves a melange of inter-connected and overlapping pieces, highlighting the most absurd and engaging of Kagel's prolific output. From the disconnected political ramblings of Der Tribune, to the meticulous puppetry/theater of Repetoire, to the squealing and scratching of Acustica, Kagel Nacht connects to listeners in a way rarely found in the classical music world.

For American listeners, Mauricio Kagel (1931 - 2008) occupies an odd place in the pantheon of contemporary composers -- too famous to be considered a cult figure, but too idiosyncratic to be an icon. Born and educated in Buenos Aires, he served as a visiting lecture at Darmstadt in the late 50s, and taught at UB in 1964-65 as the Slee Professor of Music Theory. Dramatic elements were a constant presence in his work, which often overshot the boundaries of music composition to encompass theater and film.

According to the creators of Kagel Nacht, "Despite being one of the most radical and revolutionary 20th century European avant-garde composers, Mauricio Kagel's music has remained relatively obscure, especially here in the US. In an attempt to change this, two musicians from New York City have spent the last 3 years researching Kagel's massive body of work, seeking out rare scores, recordings, and videos of his bizarre, often hysterically theatrical compositions. The result is the performance-event known as Kagel Nacht. Joining them will be a stacked deck of musicians from Brooklyn's artistic multiverse, performers deeply situated in the theater, performance art, classical, and experimental music worlds. They will be performing a very diverse selection from Kagel's grand oeuvre, including 'classical' works (Music For Rennaissance Instruments), electro-acoustic compositions (Acustica), absurdist ballet (Kontra-Danse), radio plays (Der Tribun), and some of his most daring and hilarious works of 'instrumental theater' (Staatstheater, Con Voce). With interpretations ranging from strict to fully recontextualized, Kagel Nacht breaths new life into these important and underperformed works by joining them into one, multi-stage, panoramic, evening-length event that brings a new meaning to 'musical theater.'"

Kagel Nacht is currently touring the Northeast, performing for universities as well as underground venues, art spaces, and other communities, giving people access to the world of classical and avant-garde music through the universal appeal of Kagel's profound and absurd compositions. In order to limit costs and emissions, they are traveling on a school-bus-turn-tour-bus, that runs on waste vegetable oil. Kagel Nacht will feature the musical and theatrical artistry of:

Rick Burkhardt - orator, accordion
Stephe Cooper - producer, glockenspiel, guitar
Sam Kulik - trombone
Jordan Mclean - trumpet, conductor, arranger
Jason Mears - clarinet, saxophone
Roberta Michel - flute, piccolo
Geoff Nosach - lighting, set design
Sam Sowyrda - producer, conductor, percussion
Dennis Sullivan - percussion

Here's a video of Kagel Nacht in action.

Recent grad Leah Muir on UB: "a rare mix of performance, intellect, and experiment"

2011-04-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

Leah Muir completed her doctoral studies in composition at UB in 2008, and is now living in Berlin. She reports:

"My doctoral study at Buffalo was a huge enrichment to my musical life and experience, and continues to be so -- in fact I think it is one of the few organizations in the US that could prepare me for the European musical life I found myself suddenly in. Right now, in fact, I am preparing for a Morton Feldman concert for the Crescendo concert series on June 10, of which I am in charge of musical direction and conducting. Morton Feldman seems to be around every turn I take.

"It was Amy Williams who first introduced me to the University at Buffalo at 19; she brought a group of composers from Bennington College to June in Buffalo. There I met David Felder, and never forgot him or my amazing musical experience during the program. I applied later to Buffalo for my Doctoral degree and was accepted on a Presidential fellowship, where I was able to gain four years of teaching experience. There I made extremely close musical relationships with musicians and composers in the program, and had many compositional breakthroughs with David as my teacher. David Felder demands excellence from his students, and I was pushed very hard to go as far as I possibly could with my own talents, and then maybe even farther. For that I am very grateful.

"Beyond my work at the Institut für Neue Musik, I have also some commissions to write this year. The first is my Doppelkonzert für E. Gitarre und Akkordeon, dedicated to Krassimir Sterev, Yaron Deutsch, Ajtony Csaba and the Mitteleuropäisches Kammerorchester to be premiered in Vienna, Austria in 2011. The second for the Münchener Biennale, is a 25 minute music theater piece to be premiered in May of 2012. Last year, I had a couple of important premieres, on Märzmusik and Wien Modern, and a slight foray into video brought on a sudden premiere at Soundtrack Cologne.

"Buffalo, where American experimentalism is still cherished, was instrumental to my development in these musical directions. David Felder, Cort Lippe and Jeff Stadelman provided an excellent scope of what is out there that is most intellectually stimulating in music, and also what reality is and could be for a composer in our current musical landscape. Beyond this, an idealistic and utopian approach to music is also coveted at the university, where experiment is fully encouraged and when followed, given free reign of the imagination. I find this mixture to be quite unique. Charles Smith and Michael Long are also an extremely important part of the program for me, because the sort of analysis they teach is rare and hard to find. In other departments, with Tony Conrad and Elliot Caplan also in the wings of the greats teaching there, I had the possibility to participate in some transmedial collaborations. Hallwalls, Soundlab and the Burchfield-Penney, beyond the University, provided yet another platform to branch out into a wider community, together with self-organized group of composers, we were able to play music and have a public." Here's Leah's unsettling and inventive Sound Bandage, scored for the offbeat combination of soprano and bass saxophones, cello, and "tape."

A student looks back

2011-04-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

Moshe Shulman, PhD candidate in composition at UB, recently shared some observations about his music.

"2011 is my last year in Buffalo, NY. Since 2007 I was studying music composition mainly with David Felder but also with Cort Lippe and Jeffrey Stadelman one semester each. During these years I wrote for brass, woodwind, and percussion ensembles, two string quartets, mixed ensembles including voice, a little piece for piano and a couple of solo pieces. Some of these were successful, some came to be tryouts, one of these even received third prize in a Composition contest in Russia in 2009.

"When the time for writing dissertation piece came, writing for a larger ensemble with a soloist was an obvious choice, mainly because I don’t have anything like that in my portfolio. Another reason for writing a piece for solo violin with orchestra was personal. I started to play violin at the age of five and writing a dissertation piece 28 years later seems like a circle that has been completed. Thanks to David Felder, this project was approved, well-advised and will be realized on April 18th, 2011 in a recording with the Slee Sinfonietta and most talented musician and a friend, violinist Yuki Numata.

"Before getting to what I wanted to achieve in the dissertation work I will try to remember what aspects of music concerned me during these years. One of the first pieces I wrote within the walls of Buffalo University was Frozen Moments for flute, violin, cello and piano. Here are the program notes of that piece:

Frozen Moments is a piece about different states of motion and motionlessness. The piece introduces different musical moments of those states as well as arrivals and departures from them. First movement deals with the sound as motion and silence as static process. Second movement is concerned with repetitions as motionlessness and the motion between the repetitions. The third movement can be actually called anything but Frozen Moment. This movement is full of energy and motion however the static quality is present on a new level. The motionlessness is present within the motion as if one runs down the street and suddenly stops for a second. Beyond that, the motion-motionlessness states are in counterpoint in that movement which gives the listener an option to hear both actions at the same time.

"Another musical aspect that concerned me was writing for a certain instrument as if it were another instrument - for example, treating brass instruments like strings. “Subito” for Brass Quintet is the outcome of that idea. My Second String Quartet was written for the Copland House Project during November 2009. My thought was to create a set of short movements that would exist within a margin of extremes (whatever those extremes might be: speed, dynamics, motion, etc.). Some movements contrast in their extremes with other movements, while others contain their diversities within.

There were many other issues during the years, of course, but these made their way into the dissertation piece that, for now, is titled Kivunim.

"Kivunim is a Hebrew word and it can have multiple meanings. But the ones I am referring to can be translated as directions, movements, goal-oriented processes. Here, in some sense, I come back to the issue I was resolving in Frozen Moments. The soloist and the ensemble arrangement distribute naturally the roles of motion and motionlessness.

"The dissertation defense will take place on May 3^rd and everyone is welcome to attend, to listen and hopefully to enjoy."

Charles Wuorinen and the New York New Music Ensemble in residence

2011-04-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

The incomparable Charles Wuorinen visits UB on Tuesday, April 19 in conjunction with a four-day residency by the New York New Music Ensemble, distinguished proponents of his music -- along with many other composers working in "the more rigorous end of the contemporary repertory," as The New York Times put it in a recent, admiring review.

At 7:30 pm on Tuesday, Wuorinen will conduct members of the New York New Music Ensemble in four of his works at Lippes Concert Hall at Slee Hall: Salve Regina: John Bull (1961, rev. 1997); The River of Light (1996); Fifty Fifty (2002); Metagong (2008). That concert will be preceded by a lecture/demonstration on his music at 3 pm.

On Wednesday (4/20), the NYNME will give readings of works by four fortunate students in UB's graduate composition program: Kenichi Saeki, Chun Ting Pang, Jacob Gotlib, Ethan Hayden, Nathan Heidelberger, and Felipe Ribiero. And on Thursday, the NYMNE steps into the spotlight at Lippes to perform works by Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Tania Leon, Wuorinen, Alexandre Lunsqui, and Mario Davidovsky. Tickets for the latter event are available here.

Wuorinen is no stranger to Buffalo, having been a Senior Faculty member at June in Buffalo during the early 1980s, and in 2003. His many honors include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Pulitzer Prize (the youngest composer to receive the award). His more than 250 compositions encompass every form and medium, including works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, soloists, ballet, and stage.

His newest works include It Happens Like This, a dramtic cantata on poems of James Tate to be premiered at Tanglewood in Summer 2011, Time Regained, a fantasy for piano and orchestra for Peter Serkin, James Levine and the MET Opera Orchestra, Eighth Symphony for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Metagong for two pianos and two percussion. He is currently at work on an operatic treatment of Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain to a libretto by the author. (Wuorinen’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories based on the novel of Salman Rushdie was premiered by the New York City Opera in Fall 2004.) Described as "maximalist," his works have been recorded on nearly a dozen labels including several releases on Naxos, Albany Records (Charles Wuorinen Series), John Zorn’s Tzadik label, and a CD of piano works performed by Alan Feinberg on the German label Col Legno.

Founded in 1976, the New York New Music Ensemble is one of NYC's quintessential groups, noted for its authoritative interpretations of challenging "uptown" repertoire. With more than 120 commissions and 20+ recordings to its credit, it is one of the leading ensembles of its kind. Wrote the Times's Allan Kozinn in a recent review, "These are musicians for whom sharp-edged themes, complex rhythms, and dense harmonies hold no terrors, and they usually make the works they play, however thorny, sound fresh and vital."

A Sunday afternoon RendezBlue, 4/10 at 2 pm

2011-04-08T11:39:00.000-07:00

As part of RendezBlue, a four-day exploration of Morton Feldman and the New York School presented by Buffalo's Burchfield Penney Art Center, A Musical Feast will present an intriguing mixed chamber music program on Sunday, April 10 at 2 pm, co-presented by the Center for 21st Century Music. The festival runs April 7 - 10; during that time, admission is free to the gallery and all concerts.

Amy Williams, who along with her performance partner Helena Bugallo, make up the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, is Buffalo's favorite, wandering-pianist daughter. Hailed as "beyond brilliant" (San Francisco Classical Voice) and "simply stunning" (Gramophone), the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo has been presenting innovative programs of contemporary music throughout Europe and the Americas since 1995.

Williams makes a welcome return to our series, performing her own composition, Brigid's Flame, composed in memory of her father-in-law, and based on the life of Saint Brigid, who is associated with many symbols, including sacred flames, high intelligence, and poetic eloquence. Williams will also join cellist Jonathan Golove for Morton Feldman's Durations 2 for cello and piano, the first of a series of small ensemble works composed in 1960, in which Feldman relinquished some of the usual control exerted by the composer over the harmonic content of the music.

Mythological references rule in Greek composer Iannis Xenakis' Kottos, a challenging but approachable work for solo cello which will be performed by cellist Jonathan Golove. Moshe Shulman (b. 1978), takes the title of his 2009 work, Secret Messages, literally, i.e. he supplies no description of the piece, composed for solo violin, since if he provided a description beforehand, the work, which will be performed by Charles Haupt, the founder and Artistic Director of 'A Musical Feast,' would no longer be secret.

A memorable performance of contemporary German composer Ruth Wiesenfeld's haunting work, stories still, for cello and recorded text by Samuel Beckett, was a highlight on the last program. Alice Teyssier performs the world premiere of the composer's intriguing inflexionen, for solo flute on this program.

Says Don Metz, Associate Director of the Burchfield Penney, "Following our success with Lecture on the Weather: John Cage In Buffalo, it became apparent that there was great interest in programming events that highlight the creative spirit in Buffalo during the second half of the twentieth century. In keeping with the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s dedication to the distinguished artists of Western New York, it became evident that tribute should be paid to composer Morton Feldman." In addition to the Musical Feast concert, the weekend includes film/video, spoken word, visual arts, and lecture presentations.

Edmund Campion

2011-04-04T06:58:00.000-07:00

Beginning an alphabetical series of posts on June in Buffalo 2011's Senior Faculty composers, Edmund Campion leads the way. As a composer specializing in electroacoustic music, his pedigree is impeccable: he received his doctorate at Columbia and studied at the Paris Conservatory with the late master Gérard Grisey. Major commissions for IRCAM and Radio France followed, among them Natural Selection for interactive electronics and a full-scale ballet titled Playback. ME (2003- present) a work for baritone and interactive software, "explores the rise and development of consciousness in its egotistical, patriarchal sense." ME, a highly theatrical piece with a generous dose of black humor, is based on texts by the poet John Campion. It calls for an "in-ear prompter" that feeds the singer computer-generated material, which he has to imitate in various ways, and a child's hula hoop, which is used as a prop in various ways throughout the piece. The fascinating details can be found here, at Campion's website.

Campion's distinctive sensibility also comes through in Outside Music, described by Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer as "a rambunctious piece for synthesizer and live instruments." Reviewing a performance at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 2006, Dyer wrote, "The synthesizer is constantly invading the personal space of the instruments by duplicating their timbres. The piece ends, like Haydn's 'Farewell Symphony,' when the players walk off the stage one by one, leaving the synthesizer unattended, playing on all by itself."

In addition to composing and teaching, Campion is the co-director of CNMAT, the Center for New Media and Audio Technologies at UC Berkeley. Visit CNMAT's website for an abundance of vital information on computer music and new music in general, including free downloadable software tools, publications, and audio/video for streaming.

A visit from Yehudi

2011-03-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, April 6, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner visits the Center for 21st Century Music for a round of master classes. Wyner has created a diverse body of over sixty works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, solo performers, theater music, and liturgical services. In addition to composing and teaching, his active and eclectic musical career includes work as a performer, director of two opera companies, and conductor of numerous ensembles in a wide range of repertory. Wrote Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times, "A comprehensive musician, Mr. Wyner is an elegant pianist, a fine conductor, a prolific composer, and a revered teacher. His works show a deep understanding of what sounds good and is technically efficient."

Yehudi Wyner was born in Western Canada and grew up in New York City in a musical family. His father, Lazar Weiner, was an eminent composer of Yiddish Art Song as well as a notable creator of liturgical music for the modern synagogue. This early exposure paved the way for a Diploma in piano from Juilliard and further musical studies at Yale and Harvard Universities with composers Richard Donovan, Walter Piston, and Paul Hindemith. A Handel course at Harvard brought Wyner to the attention of Randall Thompson, who became a staunch supporter and friend. In 1953, Mr. Wyner won the Rome Prize in Composition enabling him to spend the next three years at the American Academy in Rome, composing, performing, and traveling. Since then, he has received many honors which include the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Piano concerto Chiavi in mano, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a grant from the American Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Brandeis Creative Arts Award. In 1998 Mr. Wyner received the Elise Stoeger Award from Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society for his lifetime contribution to chamber music. His Horntrio was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998, and in 1999 Mr. Wyner was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Not only is Wyner a distinguished composer, but a teacher of distinguished composers. His students include:

During his visit, Wyner will give a presentation of his own music to the UB composition seminar, as well as giving individual lessons. Later in April (on the 19th), another Pulitzer Prize-winner, Charles Wuorinen, will visit the Center. Watch this space for further details.

Tom Kolor gets a bang out of UB (and vice-versa)

2011-03-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

UB's music department has a distinguished tradition of percussion teaching. Legendary percussionist Jan Williams arrived in 1964 as a Creative Associate, joined the faculty in 1967, and taught at UB for nearly 40 years, achieving worldwide renown as an interpreter of contemporary music. He is now an emeritus professor.

Assistant Professor Tom Kolor has proven a worthy heir to this tradition. Through performances with the Talujon Percussion Quartet, New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, Ensemble Sospeso, and others, Kolor has earned a place as one of the top percussionists on the new music scene. As a soloist, he has given dozens of premieres by such composers as Milton Babbitt, John Zorn, Wayne Peterson, Tania Leon, and Jerome Kitzke. He has recorded for Bridge, New World, Albany, Capstone, Innova, Wergo, Naxos, CRI, Koch, Tzadik, North/South Consonance, and Deutsche Grammophon labels. At UB, Kolor directs the Percussion Ensemble, gives private lessons, and is the Principal Percussionist of the Slee Sinfonietta.

Here are a couple videos of Kolor at work -- one of them serious fun (a Julia Wolfe piece, performed by Talujon), the other simply fun (a restroom sign "concerto" with violinist Todd Reynolds).

Trevor Bjorklund: developing one's own identity

2011-03-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

Continuing our series of posts on recent and soon-to-be graduates of UB's composition program, here are some remarks by Trevor Bjorklund, who graduated in 2010 and is currently serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Pittsburgh.

Trevor's musical background is eclectic, to say the least. From the ages of eight to ten, he sang in the San Francisco Boys' Choir and performed in several productions of the San Francisco Opera. In the years that followed, he began composing while playing guitar, trumpet, euphonium, and percussion. He attended San Francisco State University as a composition major, winning the Theodore Presser Fellowship, and studied trombone with with McDowell Kenley. He graduated summa cum laude from SFSU with a Bachelors of Music in Composition while taking part in an exchange program in Trossingen, Germany. He stayed in Germany to compose and perform as a trombonist and drummer for the next 3 years.

His music has been performed in the United States, Germany, Korea, The Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, France, and The Netherlands, and at major festivals including June in Buffalo and the Darmstadt Ferienkurse. It has been played by internationally renowned groups and artists including the Arditti Quartet and Valerio Fasoli, and has been conducted by James Avery, Manfred Schreier, Christian Hommel, and Christian Baldini.

In addition to his activities as a composer of contemporary music, he continues to perform traditional and modern repertoire as a trombonist, and plays drums for the international funk band, Blind-Ass Chicken, in which he is a founding member and songwriter. These diverse interests and influences are reflected in his dissertation work for UB, Deus Ex Machina, which is scored for "large chamber ensemble and heavy metal trio." You can hear it here.

Says Trevor, "I arrived in Buffalo after having spent several years in the new music scene in Germany and was more than a little unsure about my role as a composer in general. What I found at UB was an entirely open environment that had no preconceived notions about what "good" or "real" music is (or isn't), and I found a small community of musicians developing their own identities in a variety of ways.

Trevor Bjorklund

"My composition teachers there (Jeffrey Stadelman for my first year and then David Felder) whole-heartedly supported the exploration and development of my own unique artistic personality. They were also extremely patient with me as I went through the shock of re-entery into the States after having lived abroad. I was provided with opportunities to hear my own creations performed by some stunningly talented and dedicated musicians. In fact, without David's gentle but consistent encouragement, I could never have even begun composing some of my most successful pieces... not necessarily successful because they are masterworks of the 21st century, but because they form an honest reflection of my own particular musical perspective. For me, creating honest work is the single most important thing an artist can do.

"Although Buffalo is a small city, seemingly remote from the larger American new music community, it is a place of where astounding musical events transpire. In my humble opinion, June in Buffalo has become one of the best, if not THE best, festivals for new music in America and trumps some of the more well-known European festivals. During my tenure as a graduate student and since, David Felder continually ups the ante, bringing in some of the best performers in the world to perform contemporary masterworks, read and perform student pieces, and lecture about their work.

"Another important aspect of my UB education was an excellent platform for professional development. I had the opportunity to teach a variety of important courses that prepared me (and qualified me!) for the post-graduate school world of American Academia. The constant and continued support and advice I received from my teachers and especially my advisor, David Felder, have led me to opportunities for performances and employment that would never have happened had I chosen a different path.

"I recently visited Buffalo and the feeling of walking into Baird Hall was like coming home. There is a family there, my family, and UB and I will remain lifelong friends."

Composer Evan Johnson: UB remembered with "intense affection and gratitude"

2011-03-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

Evan Johnson received his PhD from UB's composition program some five years ago, and his career is off to a flying start. Recent and upcoming highlights include performances at festivals in Darmstadt, Huddersfield, Witten, and others, as well as in Japan and Singapore; residencies at Copland House and the Millay Colony in 2011; and recordings on the HCR, Metier, and (later this year) Mode labels. In June, at the Issue Project Room in New York, Claire Chase of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) will premiere a piece for bass flute commissioned by BMI and the Concert Artists Guild.

Says Evan, "When I came to do graduate work at Buffalo, it was a bit of a shot in the dark; I knew little more of the department than the June in Buffalo festival and the fact that David Felder and some of the other faculty were interested in having me there. It turned out to be a tremendously significant decision for my professional career. Buffalo is a unique place for composers, in that absolutely any sort of investigation is permitted and encouraged -- pieces written bycolleagues during my tenure included both works of incredible complexity and intricacy and a piece for amplified styrofoam cup -- as long as you continually question your assumptions and strive to improve your understanding of your own work. David himself is the best composition teacher I have ever had, despite the fact that his own music has virtually nothing to do with mine, and his own approach to his craft and his profession have been crucial models for me to a degree I doubt even he understands. And, five years after I received my Ph.D., some of the most significant relationships I have with performers around the world arose from visits they made to UB while I was a student there.

"The only thing I wish would change about UB's graduate composition program is that it would become better known, and its singular place in the American musical landscape more celebrated; but I remember UB with intense affection and gratitude, and I credit a good deal of my own musical and professional development to my experience there."

Visit the "Sounds" area of Evan's website for some intriguing excerpts from his work.

From Singapore to Buffalo...and back

2011-03-08T09:10:00.000-08:00

Diana Soh

As noted in our previous post, UB's composition program has a global reach. Composer/pianist/singer Diana Soh came to Buffalo from Singapore to study with David Felder. Not only is she earning her PhD, but she ended up working for UB's Center for 21st Century Music as an assistant to Managing Director J. T. Rinker. She's returned to her native country, where she has just been appointed to the Music Faculty of Singapore's School of the Arts. Her career is flourishing: she has just been nominated for the prestigious Gaudeamus Prize, and has been selected for the IRCAM 1 course in Paris. But she retains many fond memories of the Center.

"I really miss Buffalo, all my friends and working with JT and David on Center events as well as being a graduate student there. I find that the artists that the center brings to UB are all top-notch and I have learnt so much from each and everyone of them. Not just musically but especially in the more human aspects. Some of whom I still keep in contact with, with no other reasons than that we got along and I regard them as friends.

"The next best thing, besides having David as your teacher, is the numerous opportunities to have your works read by important ensembles like Ensemble Surplus and the Arditti Quartet, JACK quartet and numerous others. And to have real life feedback with such established groups. I'd like to think that such an opportunity is priceless...well, put it this way, even if you had x amount of $ to spend, these groups just might not play your music, but if you are a UB student, they have been hired just for you to workshop and record your music! Amazing right?

"The program is also very supportive of our external activities, premieres, festivals etc and provides a flexibility much needed for a developing composer. Also I must highlight strongly that the centers support of the new and untested is very encouraging and of extremely high standards on the global scale...as this is not the case in most parts of the world, be it for financial reasons, sense of security or even a matter of 'taste.'

"Also, it's exciting to have monthly lectures by renowned musicians and composer to share their work and their views and to have masterclasses with them. I found the composition program to be enriching and stimulating with a varied group of composers and mentors like David and Jeff who are experienced experts that have helped me blossomed over the past 4 years. The electronic studies with Cort Lippe has also yielded brilliant students like Chikashi Miyama among others.

"There is a sense of camaradarie in the Buffalo group of composers and no one is shy to share their views which makes for a great platform of exchange. I miss them very much and I urge them to make full use of their time in Buffalo as once we are out in the real world...life is different."

Kudos for UB's composition department

2011-03-06T13:23:00.000-08:00

Though it ran a few months ago, we think that The Spectrum's Oct. 17 story about UB's composition program, titled "A Department with National Renown," makes good reading anytime.

Assistant News Editor Brendon Bochacki interviewed David Felder, Trevor Björklund, Cort Lippe, and Jeffrey Stadelman, spreading the word about the department's international prominence to the entire UB community. Reports Bochacki, "Unknown to many students, the music department in Baird and Slee Halls is one of the most highly respected graduate composition programs in the nation." That may not be surprising, given the sheer size of the school -- 29,000+ students in nearly 300 undergraduate, masters, doctoral, and professional degree programs -- but it certainly bears repeating.

One of the reasons that the program attracts so many top students from around the world is its nurturing, undogmatic approach. Bochacki quotes Björklund as saying, "The composition faculty members are very interested in helping young composers bloom on their own... A lot of places tend to push people in a particular direction but UB doesn't. It tends to attract people who have a slightly different take on things."

June in Buffalo: a timely reminder

2011-02-22T08:11:00.000-08:00

If you're reading this blog, you're no doubt aware of June in Buffalo, the annual festival and conference that offers a select group of rising composers the opportunity to study with leading teachers in the field, and have scores performed by top ensembles. For those interested in applying, the deadline is Friday, February 25. Application and program details can be found here.

Presented by University at Buffalo's Department of Music and the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music, June in Buffalo features an enticing of seminars, lectures, workshops, professional presentations, participant forums and open rehearsals as well as afternoon and evening concerts open to the general public and critics. Each of the invited composers will have one of his/her pieces performed during the festival. Evening performances feature faculty composers, resident ensembles and soloists renowned internationally as interpreters of contemporary music. Here's the rundown on this year's luminaries:

Senior Faculty
Edmund Campion
Eric Chasalow
David Felder
Hilda Paredes
Brice Pauset
Jeffrey Stadelman

Resident Ensembles and Special Guests
Magnus Andersson
Irvine Arditti
Roberto Fabbriciani
Ensemble Linea
Brad Lubman
SIGNAL
Slee Sinfonietta

Explosive!

2011-02-22T08:01:00.000-08:00

Nothing matches the explosive energy and rhythmic excitement of a skilled percussion ensemble. Tonight, Feb. 22 at 7:30 pm, listeners in western New York will have a rare chance to experience the artistry of the French group Les Percussions de Strasbourg, one of the most venerable new music ensembles of any instrumentation. The 2011/12 season marks the sextet's 50th (!) anniversary; many seminal works in the genre were composed for them, including Xenakis's Pleiades, which forms a centerpiece of tonight's program at Lippes Concert Hall at Slee Hall. Other works being performed tonight include Varèse's classic Ionization. Here's a taste of Les Percussions de Strasbourg in a spatially-oriented score by Gérard Grisey, Tempus ex Machina.

Aaron Cassidy: going places, coming home

2011-02-17T12:35:00.000-08:00

Composer/conductor Aaron Cassidy is coming home. A proud product of UB's composition program, where his mentor was David Felder, Cassidy has been a Senior Lecturer in Composition at the University of Huddersfield in the UK since 2007. His career has been flourishing, with performances by ELISION, Ensemble SurPlus, musikFabrik, Ictus Ensemble, ensemble recherche, and other prominent groups; his music is featured at the Donaueschingen, Ultraschall, Warsaw Autumn, Huddersfield, Darmstadt, and Gaudeamus festivals, along with the ISCM World Music Days. His works have been played in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Austria, the Netherlands, Croatia, England, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Poland, Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia. ELISION has made two recordings of his music, with more to come.

Cassidy returns to UB on February 23 for a residency that will include compositional masterclasses and seminars, lectures, and performance coaching. He will join the JACK Quartet -- a group that has long advocated his music -- for a composer reading workshop on February 25. (More about JACK's visit in an upcoming post.)

Cassidy's music can be characterized by an uncompromising dedication to instability and fragmentation. The received wisdom of performance practice is continually questioned and reasserted, often with intentionally unpredictable results. His recent works have experimented largely with the interaction of a performer with his/her instrument, introducing a decoupling of component performance techniques through a variety of extended tablature notations. Fracture is prioritized in timbral, structural, and rhythmic strata in such a way that resulting aural units are themselves only the byproducts or collisions of independent (and often cyclic) musical processes. The musical score becomes, then, both the locus of processual sediment and concurrently the cause of significant deterritorialization on the part of performer and listener alike.

Recent projects have included significant research of linguistic, semantic, and spatial theories, focusing in particular on heightened states of dislocation (as in Jakobson's analysis of aphasics or Deleuze and Guattari's writings on smooth and haptic space). It all may sound a bit abstract, but there's no denying the visceral impact of pieces such as I purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips (2007).

The latest from Felder

2011-02-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

As Director of the Center for 21st Century Music and the June in Buffalo festival, David Felder is the force behind UB's status as an international destination for studies in composition and new music performance. At the same time, he has maintained a flourishing compositional career, with an enviable array of commissions, residencies, recordings, and honors. His latest project is a second Koussevitzky Foundation commission: a 35-minute work for soprano and bass singers, chamber orchestra, and electronics, titled Les Quatre Temps cardinaux, after the René Daumal poem that provides one of its texts. The other texts are by Pablo Neruda and Robert Creely (1926 - 2005), a member of the UB faculty for 36 years. Les Quatre Temps cardinaux will be played by a trio of illustrious ensembles: the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) under Gil Rose; the group known as Signal, with Brad Lubman conducting; and UB's own professional chamber orchestra, the Slee Sinfonietta. Laura Aikin and Ethan Hirschenfeld will be the vocal soloists; watch this space for further news on the piece.

In other news, Felder's gripping work for flute and chamber orchestra, Inner Sky, will be played in the final concert of the 2011 Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. Here's an excerpt of the piece played by the Slee Sinfonietta with Brad Lubman conducting.

You'll find several engaging videos relating to Felder's music at the Center's YouTube channel.

Synaesthesia

2011-02-09T13:10:00.000-08:00

Many's the listener for whom a musical experience conjures visual images. For some, however, the experience is involuntary: different pitches and chords consistently give rise to specific colors, a phenomenon known as synesthesia. Alexander Scriabin, Olivier Messiaen, and Michael Torke are among the composers who have reported these correspondences, and it has inevitably influenced their music.

This Friday (Feb. 11) at 8 pm at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, the Center for 21st Century Music is co-sponsoring a concert by A Musical Feast, titled "Sensory Crossovers: Synesthesia in American Art." The program includes Robert Muczynski's Gallery: Suite for Unaccompanied Cello; Kreisler's Coat by Jonathan Golove for cello and piano; Sequence pour un hymne à la nuit by Alain Margoni (1979); Ruth Wiesenfeld's stories still for cello and pre-recorded tape with voice; and Kodály's Duo for violin and cello. Golove, Fang Hew, and Carter Enyeart perform (in different pieces) on cello, while Claudia Hoca plays piano, and A Musical Feast's founder, Charles Haupt, joins in on violin for the Kodály.

While none of these pieces are by synesthetic composers, nearly all of them are inspired by visual images. Muczynski's Gallery was suggested by Burchfield's watercolors; a recording of Carter Enyeart playing the piece has recently been issued on the Centaur label. Golove took his cue for Kreisler's Coat from a description by E. T. A. Hoffmann (of the eponymous Tales) of a character who wore "a coat the color of C-sharp minor with an E-major colored collar." French composer Margoni was a student of Messiaen; Golove, who performs the work, finds echoes of Messiaen's "color chords" in it.

An enigmatic image - "a rotating lamp, illuminating for a moment only what happens to be within its beam of light" - spurred Wiesenfeld's piece, which makes use of a text by Samuel Beckett. Full program notes are available here.

Kodály's Duo completes the program, and while it doesn't have any specific visual genesis, it's always worth a listen. Here it is in a fine performance by violinist Kurt Nikkanen and cellist Daniel Gaisford.

Within EarShot

2011-02-04T14:14:00.000-08:00

In a perfect world, every talented young composer would have the opportunity to hear his or her scores read by a committed professional orchestra. No matter how good your ear may be, there's simply no substitute for the experience of having live musicians engage with your work. Which is why EarShot, a program that teams emerging American composers with orchestras around the country, is such a valuable resource. Through EarShot, some 24 such composers have had readings by the Memphis, Colorado, Nashville, Pioneer Valley, and New York Youth Symphonies.

Earshot comes to Buffalo February 8 - 10 for the Buffalo Philharmonic New Music Readings, highlighted by a free concert by the BPO at Kleinhans Hall on Wednesday, March 9 (7 pm). No tickets are required for this event. Four composers, selected from a national call for scores, will hear their works read by the BPO under the baton of associate conductor Matthew Kraemer, and will receive feedback from mentor composers David Felder, Steven Stucky, and Robert Beaser, and the conductor and BPO principal musicians. The four composers selected, diverse in background and style, are Michael-Thomas Foumai, Austin Jaquith, Nathan Kelly, and Carl Schimmel. EarShot is a partnership among American Composers Orchestra, American Composers Forum, American Music Center, the League of American Orchestras, and Meet The Composer.

In conjunction with EarShot, the Center for 21st Century Music will present a concert at Kleinhans Hall's Mary Seaton Room on Tuesday, February 8 at 7 pm. Violinist Yuki Numata will play David Felder's Another Face, and pianist Eric Huebner will perform selections from György Ligeti's fiendishly virtuosic Etudes, plus rewarding works by György Kurtág and Steven Stucky. The balance of the program will be devoted to chamber works by Frank Zappa, played by Buffalo's eclectic Genkin Philharmonic. If you haven't heard this rock icon's concert music, don't be fooled: titles such as Peaches en Regalia, Igor's Boogie, Eat the Question, and Harry, You're a Beast belie a composer of considerable skill and imagination.

Remembering Milton Babbitt

2011-02-02T12:49:00.000-08:00

Milton Babbitt (l.) with Lejaren Hiller, c. 1980. Photo by Irene Haupt.

Milton Babbitt passed away on January 29 at the age of 94. Known as the first composer to extend serial techniques to sonic elements beyond pitch, Babbitt was arguably one of the most influential musical researchers of the 20th century. He was familiar to Buffalo audiences, not just through performances of his music at UB, but through his participation as a Senior Faculty member at June in Buffalo, most recently in 1994. One of Babbitt's students, Lejaren Hiller (shown above) became the Slee Professor of Composition at UB from 1968 to 1989.

Though Babbitt's music was known for its intellectual rigor, it is also filled with vitality and wit -- qualities that were abundant in the man himself. He was no stranger to controversy: his 1958 essay “The Composer as Specialist,” more famously known as “Who Cares if You Listen?” (a title given by his editor at High Fidelity magazine) set off a debate that still rages more than half a century later. But throughout his career he enjoyed the genuine respect of composers (such as UB's own Morton Feldman and David Felder) whose music was highly dissimilar to his own. An early pioneer of electronic music, he once said: "The new limitations are the human ones of perception." Prophetic words indeed. There have been a number of remembrances published during the past week, but Allan Kozinn's informative obit in The New York Times and Mark Swed's thoughtful essay in the Los Angeles Times are particularly worth reading.

Here's an odd little video to the first section of his most famous work, Philomel, for soprano and synthesizer.

Henryk Górecki (1933-2010)

2010-11-22T11:29:00.000-08:00

Henryk Górecki, one of the leading composers of the Western-European avant-garde, passed away in his home city of Katowice on November 12th. He was 76.

Born in 1933 in Czernica, southern Poland, Górecki worked as a teacher before studying music in Rybnik with Bolesław Szabelski. In 1961, he studied in Paris, and his music was often heard at the Warsaw Autumn festivals in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Like many of his contemporaries, Górecki's early works extended from the post-Webernian school of serialism. His orchestral work Scontri was controversial upon its premiere in Warsaw in 1960 due to its harsh articulations, and frantic, dissonant textures. In the mid sixties, with the work Refren (1965), which featured whole-tone-based harmonies, his work took a turn toward more straightforward modality and traditional expressivity.

Composed for Pope John Paul II's visit to Kraków in 1979, Górecki's Beatus Vir set biblical psalm texts for baritone, chorus and orchestra, and became something of a personal victory over the secular Soviet regime. Poland's political unrest inspired many of the composer's works, including 1987's Miserere for unaccompanied chorus, composed in remembrance of the violence in Bydgoszcz between the Polish military and members of the Solidarity movement.

In 1992, the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, Górecki's Third Symphony, was recorded by the London Sinfonietta under David Zinman, with Dawn Upshaw. The recording, which TIME magazine called "a transcendental meditation on mortality and redemption," became an international bestseller, projecting the reclusive composer into the spotlight and proving it possible for a contemporary composer to achieve significant success without compromising originality or substance.

Górecki's later years were plagued with poor health, and he was unable to compose much. His Fourth Symphony was scheduled to be premiered by the London Philharmonic in April, but was postponed due to the composer's health problems.

The Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honor, which was awarded to his contemporaries Penderecki and Lutosławski in years past, was awarded to Henryk Górecki in October, a month before his death.

Kronos Quartet's David Harrington said of the composer: "There is no one who can replace Henryk Górecki in the world of music. Many others have created beautiful, passionate, even exalted music. But Henryk found a way forward and beyond, through thickets of styles and fashions, that resonates of the single human being in communion with the power of the Universe. I miss him immensely."

In September of 2008, the Slee Sinfonietta performed Górecki's Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings. An excerpt is available here.

Guest Composer to Conduct Copland, Corigliano

2010-10-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

The end of October marks the arrival of composer/conductor Matthias Pintscher in Buffalo. Pintscher will conduct the Slee Sinfonietta in a program consisting of crowd favorites: Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Corigliano’s Red Violin Suite (Soloist: Tim Fain).

Also on the program is Pintscher’s own songs from Solomon’s garden. Pintscher is fast gaining recognition internationally as a composer/conductor with numerous accolades. His recent activities include work with distinguished ensembles such as the BBC Scottish Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic.

Tickets for the concert are available at the ticket office in Slee Hall at the University at Buffalo.
(Advance: $12/$9/$5
Day of: $20/$15/$8)

For more information on Matthias Pintscher, check out his very cool website.

Juilliard Composer Visits UB

2010-10-11T10:55:00.000-07:00

This week, the Center for 21^st Century Music and the UB Department of Music welcome the Emmy-nominated composer Bob Beaser. Beaser will conduct master-classes for UB graduate composition students on Wednesday October 13^th 2010 and lecture on his own works during the graduate composition seminar. Hailed as one of the most accomplished creative musicians of his generation, the Center is excited to host Beaser for this short residency in Buffalo. Beaser is currently Professor and Chairperson of the composition department at the Juilliard School.

CIKADA to Premier Work, Read Student Works

2010-10-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

From October 17-22, the center will host Norway’s leading contemporary music ensemble CIKADA. Along with Magnus Andersson, the ensemble will premiere a new commission by David Felder, director of the Center for 21^st Century Music and composition faculty of the UB Music department. The visiting ensemble will also conduct a workshop/reading session with the graduate student composers.

The session will take place on Wednesday the 20th of October at 3.30pm and is free and open to public. The young composers involved include Chun-ting Pang, Joe Lake, Diana Soh and Jacob Gotlib.

Virtuosic Trio Plays New Music at UB

2010-10-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

“Did you see that? There are Gods walking down the halls!” remarked Trevor Bjorklund, adjunct theory professor, upon bumping into the Trio of Magnus Andersen, Pascal Gallois and Rohan de Saram. Indeed, the center for 21st century music and the UB music department was fortunate to have powerhouse virtuosi Magnus Andersson, Pascal Gallois and Rohan de Saram visit for a week of masterclasses, workshops that culminated in an arresting evening concert. The concert program included contemporary music staples like the Berio Sequenza for Bassoon and Xenakis’s Kottos for Cello.
	Champions of their instruments, the trio have individually contributed to the development of contemporary music through their collaboration with established composers like Luciano Berio, and Ianis Xenakis to name a few. Now with the new formation of this yet unnamed trio, they are coming together to pass on their valuable experience and to spark a whole new genre of works for this instrumental combination. Student composers that benefited from the workshop include John Bacon, Felipe Ribero, Diana Soh, Ethan Hayden, Chun-ting Pang and Robert Philips whose piece was selected to be played as an encore in their evening concert.
Unassuming in their demeanor, they were approachable and generous with their time, offering anecdotes on their past experiences working with other composers and educating all that were in the room.

"In Low Key Buffalo, a New Music Milestone"

2010-06-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

Wrapping up his series of articles and reviews on JiB 2010, Allan Kozinn of The New York Times contributed a lengthy writeup on several of the festival's concerts, including recitals by Signal, Ensemble SurPlus, and the Arditti Quartet.

While Kozinn had much to say about works by JiB master composers, including Steve Reich, Augusta Read Thomas, Olivier Pasquet, and David Felder, he also devoted substantial space to works by this year's participants, including Daniel Bassin, Matthew Heap, Ashley Wang, Emily Koh, Peter Van Zandt Lane, Huck Hodge, David Wightman, Ray Evanoff, and Jordan Kuspa. Kozinn described Heap's Illicit Trysts as "an engagingly noisy, rhythmically sharp-edged essay, full of sudden starts and stops and colorful instrumental effects (including quiet sections that sounded as if they were a tape being played backward)."

Noted Kozinn, "Emily Koh’s beautifully eerie circum perceptio, built in layers of delicate string, piano and woodwind timbres, was another highlight of the Signal program. And Peter Van Zandt Lane’s Magana, with a repeating, syncopated clarinet figure taken up contrapuntally in the cello and percussion writing, was one of several student works that used Minimalist techniques as a springboard but headed off in different directions.

"Another, on the Ensemble SurPlus program, was Huck Hodge’s Apparent Motion, which began with a thoroughly Reichian figure and evolved into a harmonically fresh work with a variegated texture full of both sparkle and thunder.

Regarding Kuspa's Piano Trio, Kozinn wrote, "His writing here was sharply focused, carefully shaped and attuned to coloristic possibilities of the piano, violin and cello. The resulting four-movement work, animated and melodically opulent, sounded consistently alive and inspired."

You can follow Allan Kozinn (left), a writer whose interests range from Buxtehude to the Beatles, on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Kozinn, also via http://twitter.com/nytimesmusic.

"Steve Reich and More at June in Buffalo"

2010-06-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

Allan Kozinn, writing about June in Buffalo for The New York Times, weighed in with some interesting observations gleaned from attending seminars led by Olivier Pasquet and Steve Reich. In the course of his thoughtful article, Kozinn touched on a hot topic in the new music world: where the boundaries lie between popular and classical music. Writes Kozinn, "Mr. Pasquet edged onto a fascinating subject when he played examples rooted in techno but meant to be heard as concert music. Mr. Pasquet described this style as 'nonacademic contemporary music,' an awkward description for a gray area that has become pretty crowded recently."

Kozinn also reported remarks by Reich regarding Popcorn Superhet Receiver, an orchestral work by Jonny Greenwood, the guitarist for Radiohead and the composer of the soundtrack score for There Will Be Blood.

“He is an interesting and serious guy,” Mr. Reich said of Mr. Greenwood (at right). “I suggest that instead of thinking in terms of popular music and classical music, we are going to be thinking more in terms of notated music and non-notated music. Instrumentation is no longer a defining issue.”

Pictures at an Exhibition: UB Music Library celebrates 25 years of JiB under David Felder

2010-06-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

Drawing from its extensive archives, UB's Music Library has assembled an exhibition of memorabilia celebrating a quarter-century of June in Buffalo under David Felder's leadership. In true 2010 fashion, the exhibition can be viewed at the library (112 Baird Hall on the Amherst campus) or online in the comfort of your home. It includes photos, programs, posters, and other documents relating to the festival. Notes the Library's website, "More than 450 student composers have journeyed to Buffalo from around the world to have their music performed by performers of the highest caliber and to study with leading contemporary composers. As Nils Vigeland noted in his liner notes to the Electronic Music Foundation CD 033 (in 2001, referring to 25 years at that time from the beginning of the festival under its originator Morton Feldman in 1975):

In present-day America, twenty-five years is a long time to sustain an artistic organization. This recording reminds one of what extraordinary things can happen when gifted people decide to do something in the time and place where they live. And, they can happen in June, in Buffalo."

Online, one can view lists of master composers who have led seminars at JiB (with photos); a complete list of works performed since 1986; and some highly impressive lists of prominent ensembles and individual performers who have played at the festival. Whether you're a local listener, a proud JiB alum, or a new music researcher, you'll find much to enjoy at this exhibition. At left, a blast from the past: the press release announcing June in Buffalo 1986. Click to enlarge...

JiB in the Press

2010-06-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

Only a few days into June in Buffalo 2010, the festival has already gained notable media attention. New York Times critic Allan Kozinn interviewed festival (and Center) director David Felder on the occasion of June in Buffalo's 25th anniversary. Felder had much to say about the vital process of training young composers, and the pivotal experience of hearing their work played by a world-class professional ensemble. He also offered some interesting observations on the dynamics of having one's music critiqued, whether by a master composer or one's peers.

The Buffalo News reviewed the opening concert of music by Steve Reich, performed by the exciting chamber orchestra known as Signal. Noted Geraud MacTaggart, "June in Buffalo is always interesting, and this year’s version of the venerable festival of modern classical music promises to be more of the same.

"Young composers get their works performed by world-class musicians and critiqued by master composers. For a solid week, all kinds of sounds come from the auditoriums and classrooms at the University at Buffalo’s Amherst campus, and people come from across the continent to sample them." Regarding the program, which consisted of Reich's classic Sextet (1984-85) and his recent, Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet, MacTaggart observed, "While the composer’s musical pulse is one of the first things listeners discern in a Reich score, the way he plays with percussive colors, sliding them in and out of the beats, is one of his great contributions to the minimalist fabric of modern classical music."

In the well-read Sequenza21 website, composer/writer Rob Deemer observed, "That Signal, under the direction of Brad Lubman, could put together a stellar performance of Reich’s works did not come as a surprise – they have been methodically ticking off each of his major chamber works one by one since their inception in 2008. What was surprising, however, was the enthusiasm and unbridled joy with which they pulled the audience into the work; every single performer on both works seemed like they were having the time of their lives, and Lubman was practically dancing more than once during his conducting of the Double Sextet."

Above: David Felder. Photo by Irene Haupt.

Slee Glee

2010-05-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

As is customary for June in Buffalo, UB's own Slee Sinfonietta plays a key role in the concert schedule this year, serving up two programs of music by JiB master composers. On June 2, James Baker leads the ensemble in David Felder's Tweener, Olivier Pasquet's Kasper, 6 Piano Etudes by Augusta Read Thomas, and Roger Reynolds's Aspiration.

On June 4, Brad Lubman conducts the Slee Sinfonietta in works by Harvey Sollberger (New Millennium Memo), Felder (Partial [Dist]res[s]toration and Canzone XXXI), Thomas (Carillon Sky), and Bernard Rands (Now again - fragments from Sappho). Julia Bentley is the mezzo-soprano soloist in the Rands, and violinist Yuki Numata takes the solo role in Thomas's piece. You can hear excerpts from Carillon Sky here and here.

In case you're unfamiliar with the group, the Slee Sinfonietta is the professional chamber orchestra in residence at the University at Buffalo and the flagship ensemble of the Center for 21st Century Music. Founded in 1997 by David Felder, it is comprised of UB faculty artists, visiting artists, regional professionals and advanced performance students. Others activities include tours, professionally produced recordings, and unique concert experiences for regional and international audiences alike.

A not-so-secret Laboratorium

2010-05-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

Another European ensemble appearing at June in Buffalo 2010 is Ensemble Laboratorium. Like Ensemble SurPlus, the group is playing two concerts -- one featuring 20th-century classics (June 3):

Transparente - Oscar Bianchi
Glint - Jacob Druckman

Influence Liquide from Laboratorium - Vinko Globokar
Assonance VI - Michael Jarrell
déja - Bernard Rands
from behind the unreasoning mask - Roger Reynolds

...and the other comprising pieces by JiB participants (June 4):

A Fragmented Landscape - John Bacon

For Bass - Matthew Goodheart
January Miniatures - Joshua Groffman

A Matter of Truth - Hannah Lash
Cross-sightedness - Diana Soh
Chiaroscuro - Gabriele Vanoni
Night Spiral - Christopher Walczak
Cleave Orestes - Stephen Wilcox

Ensemble Laboratorium is based in Switzerland, but the group's members hail from fourteen countries on five continents. A primary goal of the ensemble is the development of an interactive exchange between the cultures represented by its members. This work takes the form of specific projects that explore the complete range of contemporary music -- from well and lesser known repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries to newly commissioned works, including multimedia collaborations with artists from other fields. In addition to its JiB performances, the group's upcoming swing through New York state will include stops at two experimental music outposts in NYC: The Tank (May 31, June 11) and Issue Project Room (June 10).

SurPlus value

2010-05-17T08:49:00.000-07:00

Among the noteworthy ensembles participating in June in Buffalo 2010, one name in particular may be unfamiliar to American new music fans: Ensemble SurPlus. But this highly accomplished German group plays an important role in this year's JiB, performing works by Augusta Read Thomas, Lukas Foss, Harvey Sollberger, Alvin Lucier, Charles Wuorinen, and Brian Ferneyhough on June 1, and playing participant composers' pieces on June 2. (A full concert schedule is available here.)

Based in Freiburg, Ensemble SurPlus was founded in 1992 by the eminent pianist and conductor James Avery (1937-2009). The Ensemble performs chamber music ranging from duos to large instrumental combinations, and aims to give new or unknown works optimal performances, regardless of compositional style or technical and intellectual demands. Its credits include performances at numerous European festivals including Darmstadt, Musica Viva, Donaueschingen, and others. Ensemble SurPlus has also collaborated closely with the Experimental Studio of the German Radio (SWR). Numerous CD productions and recordings (Ferneyhough, Clark, Spahlinger, Mahnkopf, Wolpe with Heinz Holliger) document the great versatility of the ensemble. For further information and sound samples, visit the Ensemble SurPlus website.

Unburied treasures

2010-05-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

The Center for 21st Century Music's official website contains a trove of fascinating archival material pertaining to June in Buffalo. You can view scans of JiB program books stretching back almost 20 years at this page, which also has links to photo galleries from the 2006-09 festivals.

At left, Gunther Schuller explains it all during a 2006 June in Buffalo seminar.

At right, Morton Subotnick makes a point at JiB 2008. Both photos are by the Center's gifted and indefatigable house photographer, Irene Haupt.

June in Buffalo concert schedule now posted!

2010-04-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

Now available at the Center for 21st Century Music's official site, the complete schedule of concerts for June in Buffalo, including works by participating composers. As noted previously, a distinguished array of performers and ensembles will be on hand, including the Arditti Quartet, Signal, Ensemble Laboratorium, Ensemble SurPlus, and as always, the Slee Sinfoniettaand the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. All concerts are open to the public, and many are free. With thirteen new music concerts in seven days, June in Buffalo offers an exceptionally rich experience for insiders and casual listeners alike.

Olivier Pasquet

2010-04-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

Wrapping up our series of posts introducing the senior faculty of June in Buffalo 2010, we present French electro-acoustic composer Olivier Pasquet. Noted for his multimedia collaborations, Pasquet will give two workshops during the festival as well as presenting his own work. His workshops will explore Computer Aided Composition, demonstrating techniques for using computers to develop both electronic and acoustic pieces.

"Writing electronic music may seem like an easy task at first," says Pasquet. "All who have tried have realized that there is a difference between writing a piece that sounds either amateurish or too commercial and creating something truly unique. Electronic music is supposed to be opening new horizons towards melodic and rhythmic structures that are not limited by physical properties of natural instruments and its musicians. One can argue though, that the removal of all such intermediaries brings the composer a step closer to the ultimate barrier. Of course, we’re talking about inspiration.

Pasquet's own compositions will be heard as well, among them a work for voice and computer, and a collaborative project titled Haxan in which he and Mauro Lanza created a soundtrack for the early Swedish silent film of the same title. Here one can glimpse a bit of City of Flowers, an installation that "invites one to discover a poetic representation of the city."

A few words from a newcomer

2010-04-21T07:12:00.000-07:00

Composer Hannah Lash, a PhD candidate at Harvard, is attending June in Buffalo for the first time this year. Hannah is a rising figure on the new music scene, with performances at the Times Center, Chicago Art Institute, Tanglewood Music Center, Harvard University, and on the American Opera Project's stage in New York City. She has written pieces for such artists and ensembles as the Arditti Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer, and Ensemble NEM. Her recent orchestral work, Leave, was selected to be performed by Harvard University's Composer's Orchestra.

"I applied to June in Buffalo because it's solely dedicated to new music and specifically geared to emerging composers," says Hannah. "Younger composers have the opportunity to share their music in masterclasses with an array of established composers. There are concerts every night featuring the music of the composers in residence at the festival.

"I look forward to meeting many colleagues with whom I might not have contact otherwise, sharing my music with them, and hearing their work. I'm also looking forward to interacting with the composers in residence, some of whom are former teachers of mine; it will be fun to reconnect.

"Also exciting for me is a performance I'll have of my recent piece for Pierrot ensemble: A Matter of Truth. The fact that this performance is not a premiere makes it almost more interesting for me; I had a wonderful premiere of it by Talea this past spring, and I'm fascinated to discover how another performance may differ and how other performers might interpret the piece.

"This brings me to another very important reason why I applied to JiB, and that is the resident ensembles. I've worked with the Arditti Quartet in the past, and also the Buffalo Philharmonic in a reading, but the rest I have not yet had the chance to meet. Although not all of them will be playing my music, I'm really excited about the opportunity to meet and talk with them, and find out what each one is all about."

(Photo: Noah Fowler)

This year's June in Buffalo participants: some demographics

2010-04-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

Year after year, June in Buffalo draws emerging composers from around the globe, offering an ideal opportunity to exchange ideas and network with colleagues in other territories.

Applications were submitted by some 90 composers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, the UK, and of course the USA. This year, about a third of the JiB applicants were accepted.

American conservatories were represented by the Juilliard School, Peabody Institute, Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, among others.

Universities included Columbia, Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, Chicago, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, plus scores of others. Foreign institutions included the National Conservatory of Paris, Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Hamburg, Robert-Schumann-Hochschule, Duesseldorf, the Conservatory Vincenzo Bellini in Parlermo, Universities of Huddersfield and Brunel (UK), Wilfrid Laurier and Montreal (Canada), Trinity College Dublin, and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Many participants find June in Buffalo to be an eye- and ear-opening experience, as they encounter composers whose aesthetic views diverge widely from the ones they cherish. Lively discussions -- whether in seminars or in late-night bull sessions over pitchers of beer and authentic Buffalo chicken wings -- can often prove illuminating, and the bonds formed in these encounters can last for decades.

A(nother) Musical Feast

2010-04-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

We're taking a short break from June in Buffalo business to mention an upcoming concert co-presented by the Center for 21st Century Music and Buffalo's chamber music series, A Musical Feast. Taking place at the Burchfield-Penney Arts Center on April 15 (7 pm), the typically diverse program includes Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien, played by duo-pianists Claudia Hoca and Phyllis East; Schubert's well-loved String Quintet in C Major, with an ensemble led by series director Charles Haupt; and David Felder's November Sky for solo flute and tape, with Barry Crawford on flute.

The latter work, composed in 1992, was released on an all-Felder Bridge Records CD that earned the title "Disc of the Year" (chamber music) from the American Record Guide, and landed on the Buffalo News Best of Year list as well. That recording is available through Amazon and iTunes, among others. Reviewing a live performance, Paul Griffiths wrote, "November Sky, a duet for flutist and computer, descending from piccolo screams to the cool dark of the bass flute...showed the importance to a composer of being around performers."

"Inspiring and rewarding:" John Bacon Jr. on June in Buffalo

2010-04-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

Composer/percussionist John Bacon, Jr. has been a mainstay of Buffalo's jazz and new music scenes since the 1980s. As a performer, his impressive resume includes stints with the Buffalo Philharmonic, trombonist Roswell Rudd, Bobby Previte's Voodoo Orchestra West, the Maelström Percussion Ensemble, and many others. His compositions have been performed by the Amherst Saxophone Quartet and violinist Leroy Jenkins, among others. He is now enrolled in UB's doctoral program in composition. John offers the following thoughts on June in Buffalo:

"I have been living in the Buffalo area and working as a professional musician for many years. My involvement with June in Buffalo has been as a student in the 1980's, as a performer in the 1980's and 90's and as an audience member throughout most of the life of the festival. I recall meeting David Felder at an early festival when he first arrived at UB. He was investigating some specifics about almglocken in B-1 Slee and I tried to help him as best I could. I remember performing in the percussion section with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra with Charles Wourinen conducting. I remember Steve Reich crediting the great Jazz drummer Kenny Clarke with being the inspiration for the rhythmic drive in his music.

"In 2009 I was finally able to participate as a composer. I have enjoyed all of my experiences with the festival and each of them holds something unique in my musical life, but participating as a composer was by far the most engaging of these experiences...You can't help but feel that the whole festival is happening for you. The senior faculty serve as mentors, inspiring and guiding the composers. The ensembles dedicate themselves to the wide variety of music. The staff organize and accommodate efficiently and effectively. The other composers bring their excitement and enthusiasm. This mixture creates an inspiring and rewarding experience.

"Last year I attended every event that the festival offered. Although quantity doesn't always equate with quality I must say that in this case, where the quality of every event is so high, seeing more of them is better... I am looking forward to this year's festival and again participating as a composer. I will try to attend every event this year also. I hope to see you there."

Announcing this year's participants!

2010-04-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

Here's the list you've been waiting for: the emerging composers who have been invited to participate in June in Buffalo 2010. As always, each of the invited composers will have one of his/her pieces performed during the festival. We invite you to check out their websites, Myspace pages, Twitter feeds, etc...links below.

Shawn Allison
John Bacon, jr.
Daniel Bassin
Shiuan Chang
Chun Ting Pang
Carl Christian Bettendorf
Juan Garcia Escudero
Ray Evanoff
Matthew Goodheart
Jacob Gotlib
Joshua Groffman
Matthew Heap
Huck Hodge
David Hudry
Emily Koh
Jordan Kuspa
Joseph Lake
Peter Van Zandt Lane
Hannah Lash
Felipe de Almeida Ribeiro
Mischa Salkind-Pearl
Benjamin Scheuer
Diana Soh
Gabriele Vanoni
Christopher Walczak
Ashley Wang
David Wightman
Stephen Wilcox
William Zuckerman

from JiB alum David Smooke

2010-03-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

We're taking a short break from introducing this year's senior faculty to offer some reminiscences from a former June in Buffalo participant, composer David Smooke (JiB '99). Says David, who's now a member of the composition faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, "My June in Buffalo experience was one of the formative moments of my compositional career. I made friendships among my compositional peers that remain strong over a decade later and enjoyed hearing music from many different styles over the course of the festival. The music and masterclasses with the guest composer Jukka Tiennsu made an especially strong impression on me, opening my ears to musical ideas that remain quite dear to me.

"At the festival, I encountered recent experiments in microtonality and in the utilization of natural sounds in compositions in ways I had never before considered. In addition, June in Buffalo was the first opportunity that I had to work closely with professional performers, and some of these performers remain friends and advocates to this day."

At David's website, www.davidsmooke.com, you can hear samples of his beautifully-crafted and engaging scores, and view some videos involving his music. Here are two, one lyrical and reflective (blades, for whistling and singing cellist) and the other funky and playful (Four Score, for toy piano and two violas).

Do you have June in Buffalo stories and memories to share? Drop us a note at c21cmusic [at] the mail with the 'G' and we may just post them in this blog. Doesn't matter if they're serious, trivial, life-changing, or funny...bring them on!

Augusta Read Thomas

2010-03-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

June in Buffalo's senior faculty members are not only distinguished composers, but dedicated teachers. Augusta Read Thomas, returning to June in Buffalo for 2010, is a case in point. She is one of the most widely performed composers of her generation, with no fewer than 36 commercial recordings to her credit. Her music has been championed by conductors Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Oliver Knussen, Seiji Ozawa, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson, and Christoph Eschenbach.

At the same time, Thomas describes teaching as a deeply felt commitment, and an integrated part of her creative existence. She taught composition at the Eastman School of Music from 1993-2001, and from 2001 until 2006 was the Wyatt Professor of Music at Northwestern University. She frequently undertakes residencies in colleges, universities, and festivals across the country and in Europe; in the summers she often teaches at the Tanglewood Music Center, and was the Director of the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood in 2009. For 2009-2011 she is teaching and mentoring 10 high school-aged composers in the state of Connecticut. Each composer will have his or her new piece premiered by the New Haven Symphony in May 2011.

Here is Rachel Barton Pine in Augusta Read Thomas's dramatic and moving Caprice for solo violin.

Roger Reynolds

2010-03-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

Roger Reynolds, another frequent member of June in Buffalo's senior faculty, returns for this year's festival. His music will be performed by the Slee Sinfonietta on June 2 and by the Arditti Quartet on June 5. An influential teacher, his students include Michael Daugherty, Paul Dresher, and the Center's own David Felder.

Born in 1934 in Detroit, he studied music and science at the University of Michigan - a background that foreshadowed his subsequent explorations of advanced musical technology. His aesthetic outlook was jointly shaped by the American Experimental tradition and - through his teachers Ross Lee Finney and Roberto Gerhard - also by the Second Viennese School. Reynolds refuses categorization, responding to the variety of the contemporary world with a uniquely diversified output - music now increasingly concerned with myth, text and space-ranging from the purely instrumental and vocal to involvements with computers, video, dance and theater. He is a member of the faculty at the University of California, San Diego, where he was the founding director of the Center for Music Experiment (now CRCA). Writing in The New Yorker, Andrew Porter called him "at once an explorer and a visionary composer, whose works can lead listeners to follow him into new regions of emotion and imagination." Among numerous other awards and commissions, he won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for his Whispers Out of Time for string orchestra.

Reynolds's music is widely recorded. Among the items in his discography is a portrait disc titled Three Circuitous Paths to the Music of Roger Reynolds, performed by the June in Buffalo Ensemble under Harvey Sollberger and Jesse Levine, and released in 2005 on the Neuma label. It includes Transfigured Wind III (flute, tape, and orchestra), Ambrages (solo flute), and Mistral (orchestra). Sadly, it's out of print, but you might find a copy if you're lucky.

Above: Roger Reynolds at June in Buffalo, 2004. Photo by Irene Haupt.

Steve Reich at June in Buffalo

2010-03-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

Steve Reich has been a frequent presence at June in Buffalo ever since the festival's second iteration in 1976, when five of his works were performed. It's fitting, then, that June in Buffalo 2010 opens on May 31 with an evening of his music. Signal, under the direction of Brad Lubman, will perform Reich's Sextet (1984-85) and its successor, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet (2007). Reich considers the score "one of the better pieces I've done in the past few years."

Here's Steve Reich talking about the genesis of the work:

about Bernard Rands

2010-03-13T10:23:00.000-08:00

Bernard Rands, a returning member of JiB's senior faculty, was born in Sheffield, England in 1934, he has been an American citizen since 1983. He is a dedicated teacher, both at Harvard, where he is the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music, and at summer festivals such as Aspen, Tanglewood, and June in Buffalo.

His work Canti del Sole, premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic, won the1984 Pulitzer Prize in Music. His large orchestral suite Le Tambourin won the 1986 Kennedy Center Freidheim Award.

Conductors who have championed his work include Barenboim, Boulez, Berio, Maderna, Marriner, Mehta, Muti, Ozawa, Rilling, Salonen, Sawallisch, Schiff, Schuller, Schwarz, Silverstein, Sinopoli, Slatkin, von Dohnanyi, and Zinman, among others.

His 20-minute score Chains Like the Sea, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, was given its premiere by the orchestra in October 2008. Wrote Steve Smith in The New York Times, "Mr. Rands... creates pieces filled with technical demands that make them gratifying to the performer, as well as sufficient sensual beauty to appeal to listeners. Poetry has provided the spark for some of his strongest creations; Chains Like the Sea, an instrumental work about 20 minutes long, was inspired by Dylan Thomas’s Fern Hill. Certain phrases, Mr. Rands explained in a program note, conjured memories of early years spent in Wales.

"True to its title, The Sabbath Rang Slowly, the first of two sections, was a broadly paced sequence punctuated with bell tones made from stacked notes that shimmered and rippled in combination. Patches reminiscent of Debussy seascapes and early Stravinsky lullabies floated in a dreamlike drift, meant to evoke the tedium of slow, pious Sundays. A more animated second part, Rivers of the Windfall Light, repeatedly surged with chattering gusts of horns, brass and percussion.

Mr. Rands has an unerring knack for lucid orchestration; here, scintillating details regularly pricked through an overall melancholy tone. A brief, gentle duo for solo violin and muted trumpet midway through the second part, for instance, seemed to leave behind a humid, bluesy wilt in its wake."

In this video, Rands describes the genesis of Chains Like the Sea.

June in Buffalo: a rather distinguished list

2010-03-10T13:23:00.000-08:00

For emerging composers, one of the vital attractions of June in Buffalo is the opportunity to attend seminars and master classes with the festival's senior faculty. Over the years, eminent composers from around the globe have taken part -- a veritable roll call of leading 20th- and 21st-century compositional giants. The list includes Milton Babbitt, Henry Brant, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, Jacob Druckman, Morton Feldman, Lejaren Hiller, Lukas Foss, Otto Luening, Conlon Nancarrow, Pauline Oliveros, Bernard Rands, Steve Reich, Poul Ruders, Frederic Rzewski, Ralph Shapey, Leo Smit, Virgil Thomson, and Charles Wuorinen.

Along with David Felder, this year's senior faculty members include Steve Reich, Roger Reynolds, Bernard Rands, Augusta Read Thomas, and Olivier Pasquet. Each brings an invaluable compositional perspective to the festival. Over the next several weeks, we'll be introducing each of them a little more fully.

Left: John Cage (photo by Irene Haupt)

June in Buffalo 2010: watch this space

2010-03-05T07:30:00.000-08:00

Applications for June in Buffalo 2010 have been received and the participants are now being chosen. Watch this space for a list of the lucky composers who will have the opportunity to take part in a week of seminars, lectures, master classes, workshops, professional presentations, participant forums and open rehearsals, as well as afternoon and evening concerts open to the general public and critics. Each of the invited composers will have one of his/her pieces performed during the festival.

Meanwhile, the evening concert schedule for the festival -- a fabulous array of programs by the Arditti Quartet, Signal, the Slee Sinfonietta, and other leading ensembles -- can be viewed here. As is customary, June in Buffalo ends with a concert by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, heard this year under the baton of JoAnn Falletta in works by David Felder, Augusta Read Thomas, and Bernard Rands.

New honor for David Felder

2010-03-04T10:47:00.000-08:00

The Center's Director, David Felder, has just been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is one of sixteen recipients of this year's awards in music, which total $170,000. The winners were selected by a committee of Academy members: Robert Beaser (chairman), Bernard Rands, Gunther Schuller, Steven Stucky, and Yehudi Wyner. Candidates for music awards are nominated by the 250 members of the Academy.

Felder is one of four composers to receive a $7500 Academy Award in Music, which honors outstanding artistic achievement. Each composer will receive an additional $7500 toward the recording of one work. The other winners were Daniel Asia, Pierre Jalbert, and James Primosch; the awards will be presented at the Academy's annual Ceremonial in May.

A Musical Feast

2010-02-10T07:31:00.000-08:00

On February 14, 2010, celebrate Valentine's Day with "A Musical Feast". The 23-day Lecture on the Weather-John Cage in Buffalo showcase will conclude with an afternoon concert (2:00pm) by "A Musical Feast" at the new Burchfield Penney Auditorium. The program will include Bohuslav Martinu's Duo No. 2 for violin and cello, a sampling of Eric Satie's piano pieces, Jacob Druckman's Animus III for clarinet and tape, as well as a presentation of Shamayim, a film by Elliot Caplan and David Felder.

Shamayim is a work for solo bass voice, 8 channels of electronic sound made or modeled upon bass singer Nicholas Isherwood's vocal instrument, with video created by Elliot Caplan. The work is an extended meditation inspired in part by close readings of the Book of Formation (Sefer Yetzirah), the writings of thirteenth century mystic Abraham Abulafia, and descriptions of states of consciousness that accompany prophetic experiences. The work is in three sections titled respectively:

1. Chashmal (speaking silence) 2006-7

2. Sa'arah (stormy wind) 2007-8

3. Black Fire / White Fire 2008-9

This work is designed to exist in two complementary versions: the first, is a conventional live performance, with or without image, in concert halls with live amplification, processing, and 8 channels of sound; the second, a version for installation or home theater presentation in surround 5.1 and with a specially prepared image presentation. The latter was released October, 2009 by Albany Records (see previous post for more details).

The "A Musical Feast" concert series is organized by former concert master of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Charles Haupt, and features established new music advocates like Claudia Hoca (piano), Jonathan Golove (cello), and Jean Kopperud (clarinet). "A Musical Feast" is co-sponsored by The Center for 21st Century Music.

For more information, visit the Lecture on the Weather-John Cage in Buffalo and "A Musical Feast" websites.

TALUJON Residency at the Center for 21st Century Music

2010-01-29T08:09:00.000-08:00

On Friday, March 19, 2010, the Talujon Percussion Quartet comes to the University at Buffalo’s Lippes Concert Hall performing a concert of contemporary percussion music.

Thoroughly committed to the expansion of the contemporary percussion repertoire as well as the education and diversification of its worldwide audience, their residency at the Center for 21st Century Music and the Department of Music also includes master-classes on Friday, March 19, 2010 at 1pm and a composer workshop with the UB graduate composers on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 4pm. All master classes and workshop sessions are free and open to public and will take place in Lippes Concert Hall.

Described by the New York Times as an ensemble possessing an "edgy, unflagging energy", the Talujon Percussion Quartet has been mesmerizing audiences since 1991. Based in New York City, Talujon performs regularly for highly regarded organizations such as the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, Bang on a Can, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Harvard University, and the Percussive Art Society.

More information about the ensemble can be found at their website:

http://www.talujon.com/

For tickets to Talujon's concert visit the Lippes Concert Hall website.

Talujon performing Julia Wolfe's Dark Ride at CD Release Party

(part 3 of 3)

David Felder: new CD and DVD

2009-12-29T09:41:00.000-08:00

David Felder, director of the Center and Birge-Cary Professor of Composition at UB, is widely known as a leader in his generation of American composers. His music has been heard at major international new music festivals worldwide, including those in Holland, Huddersfield, Darmstadt, Brussels, Geneva, Ravinia, Aspen, Tanglewood, Bourges, and Vienna, to name a few. Commissions include works for the New York New Music Ensemble, Arditti Quartet, American Composers Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, American Brass Quintet, and many others. His work has been broadly characterized by its highly energetic profile, through its frequent employment of technological extension and elaboration of musical materials (including his “Crossfire” video series), and its lyrical qualities.

Two brand-new recordings offer a superb introduction to his compelling work. Shamayim, released October 1 (Albany 1137), is a DVD documenting a film collaboration between Felder and filmmaker Elliot Caplan. December 1 brought BoxMan (Albany 1153), a composer portrait CD compiling works written for the Arditti Quartet, New York Virtuoso Singers, New York New Music Ensemble, and trombonist Miles Anderson. Together, the two releases reveal a composer at the height of his powers.

Shamayim began with Felder’s work with Nicholas Isherwood on a piece for voice and electronic sounds and Caplan’s interest in a series of images having to do with nature. Shamayim uses Hebrew letters as the base structure for the music, while Caplan uses the numeric values of these letters as inspiration for the images. In some cases, Caplan attempted to be as close to the sound as possible in creating the images and in others Felder would compose based on the images. The results are strikingly beautiful: meditative yet rich in incident. Isherwood's resonant, sometimes eerily deep voice is set against an everchanging electronic backdrop that evokes the mysterious workings of the natural world.

The Italian website MusicalNews.com called Shamayim "A DVD not to be missed: a masterpiece of our times. The music of Felder looks to the future with deep roots in the past in a spiral of sounds that envelop the viewer."

At first glance, the four compositions on the BoxMan disc might seem very disparate: Stuck-Stücke, an aphoristic string quartet; Memento mori, an elegiac piece for unaccompanied choir; partial [dis]res[s]toration, a sextet with electronic ambience; and finally the title track, a theatrical trombone solo in which the electronic interventions come right into the foreground. On listening, however, the differences begin to dissolve, leaving behind them the outlines of a distinct creative personality. One feature they share is fearlessness; another is their rhythmic dynamism and another is the containment of rhythmic and harmonic tensions in small motifs.

Reviewing BoxMan in the Buffalo News, Mary Kunz Goldman wrote, "UB composer in residence David Felder has a sense of humor that runs like a live nerve through this record, adding a needed extra dimension to sounds that would otherwise be alien to the ear. The sparks and spiky texture of one of the Stuck-Stuecke—good title there—appeals when you see it is marked “Effervescent.” “Mechanically!— incessant,” “Chorale-still,” “Bubbly”—the evocative words sum up the sounds brilliantly. [Felder] seems to be trying to put something into music that cannot be put into music. A string quartet has to make a sound like murmuring, or dancing, or breathing, or bouncing off the walls. In “Memento Mori,” a chorus takes up the challenge and it sounds otherworldly, like the sounds picked up by ghosthunters at the Iron Island Museum. I kept visualizing the changing harmonies like rays of light passing through a prism."

From Copland's house to ours, part II

2009-12-03T09:15:00.000-08:00

As noted below, Music from Copland House came to the Center in November for a well-received concert, preceded by a session in which the distinguished ensemble played through a trio of works by UB students. Michael Boriskin, the ensemble's pianist and Executive Director of Copland House, had this to say about the experience:

"All of us in the Music from Copland House ensemble had a really rewarding and enjoyable visit to UB for our all-too-short mini-residency in mid-November. Besides our public concert celebrating the legendary Nadia Boulanger and her American students (including, most prominently, Copland himself) and several performance master classes for UB piano, wind, and string students, our activities on campus included our public reading of three strong new works by UB students: (Dis)tenzione for clarinet and piano by Paolo Cavallone, the String Quartet No. 2 by Moshe Shulman, and Spate (Resonantia Machina) by Ethan Hayden.

"Two things struck us about all three compositions, despite the fact that they were very different works, reflecting highly diverse idioms, objectives, character, and creative approaches. They all had very distinctive musical profiles and artistic personalities, and were solidly, expertly crafted. Paolo’s delicate work had a very definite European sensibility, inhabiting an ethereal, mysterious sound world. Moshe’s wide-ranging quartet explored all kinds of musical gestures and was full of flamboyant and dramatic flourishes, sometimes complemented by the percussive sounds of tapping instruments and stamping the floor! Ethan’s short but dramatic composition was a driving, rhythmically spiky study of massed or opposing instrumental lines and sonorities, interrupted by a brief spare, serene interlude. Our individual and collective suggestions about these works generally involved instrumental possibilities and minor technical or expressive refinements, as well as issues regarding how composers interact (through their works) with their performers and their audiences.

"We really wished we could have spent more time with all these works and their composers, just as we were sorry we weren’t able to stay longer at UB. We’re very grateful to our hosts, David Felder, Carol and Bob Morris, the UB Music Department, and the Center for the Study of 21^st Century Music, for making our visit possible. UB’s illustrious history supporting the music of our time is well known. As performers who, both individually and representing Copland House, enthusiastically champion contemporary composers and America’s rich musical heritage, we were thrilled to see how UB’s vibrant legacy continues to thrive so impressively!"

BTW, this coming Sunday (Dec. 6), Music from Copland House is presenting a talk called "Off the Record" by Alex Ross, taking place at Copland House at Merestead, Mt. Kisco, NY. Further information available here.

June in Buffalo 2010

2009-11-30T10:29:00.000-08:00

Aspiring composers take note! The deadline for applying to participate in June in Buffalo 2010 is February 16, 2010. JiB promises to be more exciting than ever in its 35th anniversary season, which also marks the festival's 25th anniversary under the direction of the Center's director, David Felder. It will take place from May 31 - June 6 at the University at Buffalo, with the usual panoply of seminars, lectures, master classes, workshops, professional presentations, participant forums and open rehearsals as well as afternoon and evening concerts open to the general public and critics. Each of the invited composers will have one of his/her pieces performed during the festival. Evening performances feature faculty composers, resident ensembles and soloists renowned internationally as interpreters of contemporary music.

In addition to Felder, the senior faculty will also include Steve Reich, Roger Reynolds, Augusta Read Thomas, and Olivier Pasquet. Equally impressive are the resident ensembles: the Arditti Quartet, Signal, Ensemble Laboratorium, Ensemble SurPlus, and as always, the Slee Sinfonietta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Application information can be found here.