Brave New World - Music by Living Composers

Thanks to Marc Satterwhite for these announcements:
Wednesday, 4/9, 8:00 pm, Comstock Hall. The UofL New Music Ensemble concert will include a world premiere of music by Grawemeyer Award winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis. Details:

UofL School of Music will present the world premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis’s “Ballad” for solo cello and cello ensemble on April 9. Aaron Jay Kernis won the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 2002 for his “Colored Field,” a concerto for cello and orchestra. Paul York played “Colored Field” with the Louisville Orchestra in 2005. In 2007, UofL celebrated the 75th anniversary of the School of Music with performances and a symposium in New York. As these events featured works and discussion by Grawemeyer Award-winning composers, York was able to renew his acquaintance with Kernis and speak about upcoming projects. “I was interested in performing and recording [Ballad], so I approached Kernis,” York said. When Kernis mentioned that the version for solo cello and cello ensemble had never been premiered, York began gathering forces for a spring 2008 performance.

York will be joined by guest artists, including cellists Keith Robinson of the Miami String Quartet, Felix Wang of the Blair String Quartet at Vanderbilt University, Peter McCaffrey of the Louisville Orchestra. UofL students Erin Cassel, Byron Farrar, Molly Goforth and Nicole Boguslaw will round out the ensemble, while Frederick Speck, Director of Bands at UofL, will conduct the performance.

This eight-minute work is dedicated to the memory of the composer’s parents. In the composer’s words, “The piece reflects their fondness for lyrical music, and is lightly colored by the influence of jazz harmonies touched on beneath the cello’s arching, elegiac lines.”

The premiere is part of the New Music Ensemble concert on April 9 at 8:00 p.m. in Margaret Comstock Concert Hall, free and open to the public.

Here are some upcoming concerts in Louisville (many at U of L): (Thanks to Marc Satterwhite for most of these)

Tuesday, 3/18, 7:30pm, First Unitarian Church, 809 S. Fourth St.
The Red Light Ensemble from NYC plays new compositions for flute, cello, and percussion. Works by Reiko Fueting, A. Vincent Raikhel, Scott Wollschleger, Kyle Hillbrand and Derek Muro. Performers include Natacha Diels, flute; Kevin Sims, percussion; Jessie Marino and John Popham, cello. More information at http://www.redlightnewmusic.org

Tuesday, 3/18, 8:00 pm, Comstock Hall.  Guest violinist Kia-Hui Tan will present a program of music by living American composers for unaccompanied violin.  Composers represented will be Daniel Perttu, Elliott Carter, Ronald Caltabiano, David Vayo and John Corigliano.

Wednesday, 3/19, 4:00-5:30 pm, Room 125, U of L School of Music.  American composer John Eaton, a pioneer in electronic and microtonal music, as well as a winner of the highly prestigious MacArthur “genius” Award, will give a presentation of his music to the UofL Composition Seminar.

Wednesday, 3/19, 8:00 pm, Comstock Hall.  Faculty artists John Moore, tenor saxophone and Krista Wallace-Boaz, will present a recital.  Their program consists of almost all recent American music.  Composers represented are Steven Stucky (Pulitzer Prize winner and guest at the Fall ’07 New Music Festival), Grawemeyer Award winner Aaron Jay Kernis, UofL faculty composer Frederick Speck, and Ronald Caravan.

Thursday, 3/20, 8:00 pm, Comstock Hall.  U of L Student composers concert.

Wednesday, 3/26, 4:00-5:30 pm, Room 125, U of L School of Music.  Distinguished Mexican musicologist and critic Ricardo Miranda will give a presentation on recent music by Mexican composers to the UofL Composition Seminar.

Wednesday, 3/26, 8:00 pm, Comstock Hall.  UofL student Aaron Stepp presents his senior composition recital.

This week on Brave New World: George Crumb’s The River of Life (2003) and Modus by George Walker.

March 10 & 17: Deus Passus by Wolfgang Rihm

Tonight’s Brave New World is a special Valentine’s episode, featuring compositions by Augusta Read Thomas, Bernard Rands, and Daron Hagen.  We’ll hear from Charles Mason about being married to composer Dorothy Hindman and talk with Daron Hagen and Gilda Lyons.

Of interest to BNW listeners, this comes from Kyle Gann’s blog:

Next week I’ll have a short residency at the University of Kentucky at Lexington. Of public interest is that on Friday, Feb. 8, at 3:30 I’m giving the Rey M. Longyear Musicology Lecture, in honor of a well-known scholar in Classical and Romantic music, endowed by his widow. That’s at the Niles Gallery of the Lucille Little Fine Arts Library. Later that evening at 7:30, there will be a concert of my music organized by grad-student percussionist Andy Bliss. He’s premiering a vibraphone solo I wrote for him titled Olana, and his group will play my Snake Dance No. 2, Last Chance Sonata, and On Reading Emerson. I may play a couple of tunes myself.

Tina Davidson’s Paper, Glass, String & Wood performed by the Cassat String Quartet; Monroe Golden’s Iron Road; Chris Theofanidis’ Netherland; and two works by Thomas Ades.

Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble
Friday, February 1, 7:30pm
IUS Ogle Center
Tickets are available at the Ogle Center Ticket Office, at all Ticketmaster locations, by calling (502) 361-3100, or online at ticketmaster.com

University of Louisville School of Music - Student Composers Concert
Thursday, February 14, 8:00 pm, Comstock Hall.
The first student composers recital of the semester. Premieres by UofL undergrad and grad composers.

University of Louisville School of Music - The Chamber Music Society
Sunday, 2/17 3:00 pm, Comstock Hall.
The Chamber Music Society presents the Diaz Trio, whose program will Lowell Lieberman’s Cello Sonata no. 3, with the composer at the keyboard. Tickets available at the door.

Louisville Ballet
Friday, February 29 & Saturday, March 1, 8pm
The Louisville Ballet premieres a new work by UofL composer Steve Rouse, Between Stillness, with choreography by Graham Lustig, artistic director of the American Repertory Ballet. The UofL Symphony Orchestra will provide the live
music. Tickets available from the Louisville Ballet.

BNW will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day with two works:

Nicolas Flagello’s The Passion of Martin Luther King (196 & Daniel Bernard Roumain’s String Quartet No. 5 “Rosa Parks”

Tune in at 8pm on Monday!

Would you like to know more about contemporary concert music or living composers, but just don’t know where to start? Naxos has released a CD that just might help. Sonic Rebellion is a compilation 16 different composers who are or were mavericks in their own right. From Penderecki’s chilling Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima to Ligeti’s charming bagatelles for woodwind quintet, Sonic Rebellion offers an affordable way ($3.99 at Amazon and $3.49 at Arkivmusic) to figure out what you like and don’t like. The music represented on this unique album represents a good cross-section of styles with excellent performances by ensembles such as ARS NOVA Copenhagen led by Paul Hillier, the Bournemouth SO led by Marin Alsop, the Albert Schweitzer quintet, and baritone Nathan Gunn. The insert offers a wealth of information about the composers, their featured composition, and the source recording to purchase the full work.

If you missed State of Affairs (see below) on 89.3 WFPL, you can listen to the archived show here.