Bang on a Can Marathon: Highlights

Bang on a Can is one of the most important, innovative new music organizations in the country, and, for some of us, a pilgrimage to their annual Marathon concert is essential.

Displaced from their usual venue in the spacious but noisy and overly reverberant World Financial Center’s Winter Garden due to construction there, the 2013 event was held at the Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University. There were pros and cons to this change. The Schimmel Center has better acoustics and more comfortable seating (not a small matter for these long undertakings), but also limited the audience and reduced the public nature of the event. A significant line developed by the opening hour:

About 2 dozen works were heard, featuring around 130 performers, during this 10-hour mini-marathon. (And, yes, "mini" applies when compared to a marathon a few years back that lasted 27 hours.) Some highlights, as they occurred, were:

> The "El Dude" movement from Derek Bermel's enjoyable Canzonas Americanas (this work's CD is highly recommended)

> Peter Evans' astonishing, continuously rapid-fire trumpet solo.

> Caleb Burhans' appealing oh ye of little faith, with a special shout-out to violinist Yuki Numata and guitarist Ryan Ferriera, who stepped in with little notice to replace an ailing Caleb, who suffered an accidental fall the previous evening. 

> Lukas Ligeti's quadra-rhythmic lakoni in kasonnde, featuring 2 deft drummers (David Cossin and Ben Reimer) each playing different rhythms with their left and right hands.

> Kendall Williams's exciting, convincingly assembled Conception, was written for the NYU Contemporary Music Ensemble along with 6 steel pan players. The young Williams stated a noteworthy goal of creating composed, contemporary music for steel pans, in contrast to typically improvised performances.

> John King's sonically rich Astral Epitaphs, originally composed for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's final concerts at the Park Avenue Armory, was performed by the TILT brass ensemble and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. It worked well here, and a performance in the cavernous Armory must have been spectacular.

 

> Julia Wolfe's Americana-ish With a blue dress on, with a virtuosic performance by Monica Germino, who fiddled, sang, and stomped with aplomb.

> Tamar Muskal's soulful Mar de Leche, zealously performed cellist Maya Beiser and her Provenance Project Band.

> Annea Lockwood's Vortex, performed by the BOAC All-Stars, was one of the few pieces heard over the day that conveyed a sense of mystery.

> Michael Gordon's Yo Shakespeare, energetic and packed with dance rhythms, was originally composed for Icebreaker within their rigid rules. Always a winner, it was performed by the BOAC All-Stars in a new arrangement.

> Finally, we heard the crowd-pleasing Asphalt Orchestra exuberantly perform works by Tom Zé and Tatsuya Yoshida. This unique ensemble remains an imaginative creation.

For more, visit Bang on a Can's website.

New York's Spectrum Presents Surround Sound from Starkland

New York's new Spectrum venue, a technology-intensive site for innovative music and multimedia, has invited me to present a Starkland evening there on Monday June 18. Naturally my first thought was: Surround Sound. Fortunately I knew that Spectrum's overlord, the energetic Glenn Cornett, was a surround sound enthusiast.

The concert will focus on electroacoustic surround sound music I commissioned for two DVDs. (Starkland has likely commissioned more surround sound music for DVD than any other label in the world.)

The audience will hear a tidal wave of hyperdense bells, a trumpet reverberating for 7 seconds in a huge underground water tank, a spaced-out Ethel Quartet, West African balafons, a 14-foot long Quadrachord, a ghostly wailing wall, a weird madrigal, and 15,000 African parrots.

Commissioned composers include: Paul Dolden, Paul Dresher, Ellen Fullman, Phil Kline, Lukas Ligeti, Ingram Marshall, Merzbow, Meredith Monk, Bruce Odland, Pauline Oliveros, Maggi Payne, Carl Stone, and Pamela Z.

The concert will open with selections from Starkland's Immersion DVD-Audio, recognized by sources such as Pro Sound News and Billboard as the first such recording in history. Sound & Vision wrote:

"Not only a fascinating array of musical innovation but a persuasive exploration of the possibilities of surround sound... The care that went into this disc is carried through to the stylish onscreen graphics [and] the excellent printed program notes."

The second half of the concert will play most/all of Phil Kline's Around the World in a Daze DVD, a major 65-minute work commissioned by Tom as a followup to Immersion. (Another first-of-its-kind recording.) Phil's imaginative, rich use of surround sound space has dazzled many:

The New Yorker: "A special-project disk in which Kline created, out of extravagant electronic means... an audio-visual feast that balances hipster zen with the seriousness of Bach and Wagner."

Stereophile: "This adventurous music... ranges widely from ambient recordings that are surprisingly musical, to complex constructions that emerge as lyrical."

New York Magazine: "A set of sensational etudes."

Sequenza21: "Imaginary vistas that envelope, even overwhelm... Our always adventuresome friends at Starkland have outdone themselves this time."

An Extras DVD in the Daze release features a lengthy interview with Phil by John Schaefer. Time permitting, some of these sections may be shown.

The concert will feature a high quality surround playback system, installed by techmaster Lawrence de Martin.

Read more here.

Mile High Voltage Concert One

The opening Friday night concert of Denver's Mile High Voltage Festival was an especially fine evening for new music fans. Some of us travel to New York or San Francisco to hear high level performances of "alternative classical" music, but this was just about the first time such concerts have occurred in the Denver area. As critic Kyle MacMillan wrote in the Denver Post, this event "is a first for Denver and probably for the Rocky Mountain region."

The concert opened with Burkina Electric, described as the "first electronica band from Burkina Faso" (located in the deep interior of West Africa). The group blends pop/dance music with unusual, sophisticated rhythms. In live concert, the focal point is the charismatic vocalist Maï Lingani, who sings and moves with an appealing passion. She's flanked by 2 energetic male dancers. They are backed the electronicist Pyrolator and the multi-talented percussionist/composer Lukas Ligeti, who brings a highly developed sense of rhythm and meter to the band. The audience responded enthusiastically to the group.

Next was a new work, commissioned by the Newman Center, for this festival. The composer is Andy Akiho, who specializes in performing on the steel pan. In recent years, he's received considerable attention as a composer. This new piece, NO one To kNOW one, was performed by Andy and The Playground (a new music ensemble in residence at DU's Lamont School of Music). The exciting piece presented mostly driving rhythms and further established the worth of this composer.

The wonderful clarinetist Evan Ziporyn played several pieces by David Lang, Michael Harrison, and Ziporyn himself. Having heard him perform many times in New York, I was again so pleased with his committed, glorious performances. Evan played 2 pieces with Michael Harrison, who performed on his distinctively tuned piano.

In addition to the Lang piece, the other 2 co-founders of the Bang on a Can Festival, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe, were also represented by effective pieces: Gordon's pulsing The Low Quartet (which features 2 bass clarinets in its ensemble) and Wolfe's Early That Summer, a typically driving work for string quartet.

What the Newman Center has done is most impressive. They've brought in top musicians, normally not heard in this area. For example, this was Lukas Ligeti's first performance in Colorado. (As I chatted with him afterward backstage while he packed up, he mentioned he was leaving for a performance in Dusseldorf, due on a plane leaving about 8 hours later.) The music we heard was vibrant, energetic, engaging alternative new music. In addition to the concerts themselves, the Newman folk also organized performances in the student center, a lunchtime performance of Terry Riley's "In C" in a public atrium (which I heard went well), master classes by both Lukas Ligeti and Evan Ziporyn, meetings with composers, and a panel presentation on Building a Profile in the Music Business.

And, in addition to the performance in the fine Gates Concert Hall, they also setup a separate lounge, dubbed the Cantaloupe Cafe, where folks could watch and hear the concert on screen, while ordering food and drink. They even put all the program notes online beforehand, and sent out emails to ticket-holders detailing the full schedule. And they brought in a distinguished moderator, Tom Moon, who's interviewed everyone from John Adams to Frank Zappa.

Overall, it's a major, ambitious, and surely quite expensive effort. Let's hope this becomes a regular event.

Saturday's concert will have the Sö Percussion, along with The Playground performing music by David Lang (his classic Cheating, Lying, Stealing), Michael Harrison, and Conrad Kehn. It'd be great to see lots of new music fans there.

Denver: rare new music concert features Andy Akiho, Lukas Ligeti's Burkina Electric, Evan Ziporyn, Michael Harrison, Sö Percussion

This weekend, Denver area audiences will have a rare opportunity to hear some leading-edge "downtown" new music. And the venue is not some funky alternative space, but rather the distinguished Newman Center at University of Denver.You can get tix at Ticketmaster.

The Mile High Voltage Festival features artists of the Cantaloupe Music Label who show the evolving notions of what can be offered as classical music. Performers surprise with new instruments, video as an integral part of music, and boundary-crossing composition. As part of the audience, you may eat, drink and surf the net while you view the concert through live simulcast in our Cantaloupe Café, where signature food and drink will be offered, or you may choose to enjoy the concert in June Swaner Gates Concert Hall as part of a new culture of listeners, a freer, more interactive audience, or do a bit of both. There are 2 concerts on Fri-Sat Feb. 19-20, including:

Andy Akiho - award winning young composer and steel pan performer. Recently featured on PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

Burkina Electric - Led by Artistic Director Lukas Ligeti, this band from West Africa mingles the traditions and rhythms of Burkina Faso with contemporary electronic dance culture, making it a trailblazer in electronic world music.

Evan Ziporyn - Composer/clarinetist Evan Ziporyn is a founding member of the Bang on a Can All-stars. He is Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Michael Harrison - One of the present day masters of alternative tuning creates mystical and memorable piano soundscapes. A long-time collaborator of minimalist masters Terry Riley and LaMonte Young, Harrison also brings his own aesthetic point of view into a deeply reflective and emotionally powerful composition.

Sö Percussion - Since coming together at the Yale School of Music in 1999, Sö Percussion has performed its music all over the world. Sö will perform its new work "Imaginary City," which will be played on a transforming percussion instrument constructed on stage during the work and will include video featuring reflections and images of the co-commissioning cities.

The Playground - Made up primarily of graduates of the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music Masters Program, The Playground expands common conceptions of both contemporary music and the chamber ensemble.

Tom Moon - Festival Moderator (Award-winning music journalist Tom Moon is the author of 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: A Listener's Life List, a New York Times bestseller. He is a regular contributor to National Public Radio's All Things Considered as well as Rolling Stone, Blender and other publications.)

Lukas Ligeti writes this will be "my first performance ever in Colorado!" He does have a local connection, however. Boulder's Starkland label commissioned a surround sound piece from Lukas that premiered on Starkland's first-of-its-kind Immersion DVD, released in 2000.

We hope Denver audiences will pack the hall and café for these superb performers and the worthwhile new music.

Sound + Vision Praises Surround Sound, Starkland

The most widely read consumer electronics magazine in the world, Sound + Vision, focuses on surround sound and compliments Starkland's 2 surround DVDs in the new December issue. Their editorial comments include:

"We here at S+V continue to wholeheartedly embrace music in surround... Groundbreaking surround-sound releases are still coming from the likes of King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and Genesis... Music in surround is here to stay."

They add that Phil Kline's Around the World in a Daze is one of the new "multi-channel titles that deserve a shout-out." Daze has also been praised in The New York Times, Stereophile, New York Magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer, and over a dozen other publications.

We are also quite pleased that Entertainment Editor Ken Richardson ranks Starkland's Immersion DVD as a "landmark" surround sound release. We agree! Immersion was the first commissioned hi-res surround recording, as well as being the first new music hi-res surround recording.

For the Immersion DVD, Starkland commissioned new surround works from Paul Dolden, Paul Dresher, Ellen Fullman, Phil Kline, Lukas Ligeti, Ingram Marshall, Merzbow, Meredith Monk, Bruce Odland, Pauline Oliveros, Maggi Payne, Carl Stone, and Pamela Z.

Pro Sound News declared that Immersion is the "first DVD-A released featuring works composed specifically for the new surround medium." Over a dozen publications praised the DVD, including Billboard, Stereophile, and Fanfare.

Tomlinson Holman, one of the world's leading surround sound authorities, stated "this fascinating disc" is among the first "to show composers stretching the boundaries of recorded sound by exploring the new possibilities inherent in DVD-Audio."

Visit Starkland for more about these 2 groundbreaking DVDs.

Starkland Composers (K-L) + Recordings

Starkland's composers (K-L) linked to their recordings:

• Joseph Kasinskas
• Aaron Jay Kernis
• Jerome Kitzke
• Roger Kleier
• Phil Kline
• Guy Klucevsek (Transylvanian Softwear)
• Guy Klucevsek (Full Range Accordion)
• Lukas Ligeti
• Joseph Lukasik