Thursday, December 10, 2015

composer Michael Dellaira





New York omposer Michael Dellaira



http://composers.com/michael-dellaira

http://michaeldellaira.com



Michael Dellaira is known for his “haunting harmonies”

(NewMusicBox.org), “eloquence and sensitivity” (New York Times)

and “flair for vocal writing” (ClassicsToday.com).

Friday, December 4, 2015

National Sawdust

In the music business there are more ways than one to succeed. As a composer, one can simply write good music, and hope that someone else will choose to champion that music.

Or, one can take action. One way to take action is to become the “middle man” - open
your own performance space. George Friedrich Handel did this when in 1722 he started his own opera company in London. Benjamin Britten did it in 1948 when he started the Aldeburgh Festival. Here in New York composer John Zorn did with
“The Stone” in 2005. http://www.thestonenyc.com/



Now again, here in New York, composer Paola Prestini has opened a new Brooklyn Space, National Sawdust, http://nationalsawdust.org/

which opened on Oct. 1, 2015 in Williamsburg. A century old sawdust factory, it has been re-imagined as a concert hall, rehearsal room. recording studio, and arts incubator. Paola is National Sawdust’s Creative and Executive Director.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

British company Nova Music Opera
does interesting things for contemporary
and not-so-contemporary British composers

Nova Music has been involved in the production of chamber opera for several years. For its 2014 UK tour, Nova Music Opera coupled two specially commissioned works to great acclaim: Airborne, Cecilia McDowall's work, to a libretto by Andy Rashleigh, about a WW1 pilot and his sweetheart and Stephen McNeff's Prometheus Drowned which examines the curious circumstances of Percy Bysshe Shelley's death in Livorno, Italy in 1822.


On the video, samples of the work of Cecilia McDowall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEcAVSch4A8
Born in London, 1951, Cecilia McDowall has been described by the International Record Review as having 'a communicative gift that is very rare in modern music'. Often inspired by extra-musical influences, her writing combines a rhythmic vitality with expressive lyricism 'which is, at times, intensely moving'. She has won many awards and has been short-listed seven times for the British Composer Awards. In 2014 she won the British Composer Award for choral music. Her music has been commissioned and performed by leading choirs, including the BBC Singers, ensembles and at major festivals both in Britain and abroad and has been broadcast on BBC Radio and worldwide.

Her recent commissions include the Musicians Benevolent Fund St Cecilia anthem for the service of St Cecilia at St Paul's Cathedral, sung by the joint choirs of Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral and St Paul's Cathedral, and liturgical works for Durham and Liverpool Cathedrals; a commission from the BBC (for Scunthorpe Cooperative Junior Choir, the winner of the BBC Radio 3 2008 Choir of the Year): the Welsh Chamber Orchestra, Jeremy Huw Williams, baritone, David Juritz, violin, conductor, Anthony Hose at the Beaumaris Festival; the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus in conjunction with the NE Community Choir for performance in Aberdeen in October, 2011, and from the City of London Sinfonia (a commission from the Scott Polar research Institute to celebrate the centenary of Scott's death in 1912) which was performed in the Birmingham Symphony Hall in February, 2012.
Another recent choral work, the Shipping Forecast (commissioned by the Portsmouth Choir), gained national media attention. Cecilia says, 'There's something rather beguiling and mysterious about the Shipping Forecast which sounds most poetic, but at the same time is so crucial for those at sea'. The work reflects the mystery and force of the sea, drawing together the poetry of Seán Street, the psalm, 'They that go down to the sea in ships',  and the words of the Shipping Forecast itself.
Much of her music is on disc; the Deux-Elles label has recorded her works for flute and piano and wind ensemble, performed by Ensemble Lumiere and pianist, Richard Shaw (Piper's Dream, 2002 - DXL1033) and includes the specially commissioned Arctic Circle (for piano and wind quintet). Dutton Epoch have released four CDs performed by the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir, Orchestra Nova, conductor, George Vass, and the Joyful Company of Singers, conductor Peter Broadbent. Three Antiphons have been recorded by the International Celebrity Trumpet Ensemble consisting of players from the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic on the Brass Classics label. The renowned American choir, Phoenix Chorale, have recordedThree Latin Motets on the Chandos label (Spotless Rose: Hymns to the Virgin Mary).This CD won a Grammy award in February, 2009, and was nominated for Best Classical Album.
Commissions for 2014-2015 include a short chamber opera, Airborne, marking the centenary of the First World War and works for the BBC Singers and Westminster Cathedral amongst others. In March, 2015 Dulwich College will give the premiere of Some corner of a foreign field at King's College, Cambridge with the tenor soloist, Andrew Kennedy. Oxford University Press have signed Cecilia McDowall as an 'Oxford' composer and she is currently 'composer-in-residence' at Dulwich College, London. In 2013 she received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of Portsmouth.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Infanta Marina for viola and piano





















Review by Mark Greenfest for SoundWordSight.com
Voice Afire held a concert hosted by composer Ray Luedeke at
Tenri Cultural Center (13th St. near 6th Av.) in New York, Friday, May 22,
2015, at 8 pm.  The program
consisted of pieces by Mr. 
Luedeke, by Vincent Persichetti, and by Daniel Godfrey.  The performers included Milan
Milisavljvevic, viola; Laura Gilbert, flute; Jared Egan, double bass; Caroline
Stinson, cello; and, Jennifer Chu, piano. 
Robert Sutherland, chief librarian of the Metropolitan Opera, hosted a
wine tasting of Chilean wines.  The
artists in Voice Afire ranged in abilities from excellent to superb, and, when
they performed together had fine ensemble. . . . .
I caught Vincent Persichetti, Infanta Marina, for viola and
piano.  This piece is very
beautiful and has sophisticated writing by the late Julliard professor and
master composer.