A Conversation with Erik Spangler and Brian Sacawa from Mobtown Modern

Matthias Röder speaks with the founders of mobtown modern, saxophonist Brian Sacawa and composer Erik Spangler, about recliners and drinks at New Music concerts, how alternative listening environments and video projections create remixes of well-known repertories, and what’s coming up next in Baltimore’s most innovative New Music series.

Insects in a Tarkovskian Landscape: The Manhattan Sinfonietta at Harvard

I just returned from a great concert at Paine Hall and my ears are still resounding with the fabulous music I heard a few hours ago.

The program was part of the Fromm Foundation Series that always forms the high point of the concert season at the Harvard Music Department for me. This year, Hans Tutschku, the curator of the series, invited the Manhattan Sinfonietta under Jeff Milarsky to perform two programs of contemporary music that couldn’t be more exciting.

To Widen the Spectrum of Possibilities: An Interview with Marios Joannou Elia

The young Cypriot composer Marios Joannou Elia talks about his compositions for unusual performance spaces, the challenges of working outside of the opera house and concert hall, and his upcoming projects. Elia, who has studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, is the recipient of the Witold Lutoslawski Award and the Kazimierz Serocki Prize in Warsaw, the Edison Denisov Prize in Moscow and the BMW Patronize Award of the Musica Viva in Munich. He received numerous commissions and his music has been performed in prestigious performance venues such as the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Berliner Philharmonie, as well as the Staatsoper Hannover.

Grassroots Documentary

Derek Sivers, founder of CDBaby and ardent supporter of independent music and artists, has started a new initiative to help young musicians get ahead in the music business: Grassroots Documentary.

What is the new project about? Well, essentially Derek goes out with his video camera and produces short interviews with people from the music industry. In those short videos (ca. 10 minutes each) these insiders talk about how the business works and how artists can have an impact in today’s music world. The idea is that the more information young musicians have about the way the business works, the better they will be positioned to participate sucessfully in the music market.

We are listening to Istanbul

Istanbul is going to be European Capital of Culture in 2010 and in preparation of the big festivities zeitschichten.com is going to explore with you the New Music scene of Europe’s largest city. Over the next year or so we will introduce you to some of the most exiting new music that is being composed, improvised, and performed in Istanbul today.

New album Mozart.Brahms.Berg now available…

The debut album of Turkish pianist Seda Röder is now available on CD Baby: http://cdbaby.com/cd/sedaroder

How the Classical Music Industry will (likely) survive

I believe that digital media offers many opportunities for the classical music industry to reach out to new audiences, interact better with those who are interested in their music, and ultimately find new customers.

Here are three aspects that need to be addressed by the classical music industry:

Stille

Und hier, im 20. Stockwerk der Konzernzentrale, auf dicken Teppichen und hinter doppelten Scheiben, begriff er, was Istanbul am meisten fehlte: Stille.

Zu den Grautönen von Istanbul…

Zu den Grautönen von Istanbul im Dezember mischte sich nun noch das dreckige Weiß des nassen Schnees.

Essential listening – Part 1: Up to ca. 1500

One of my American friends asked me for a list of listening recommendations. She would like to get involved more with music and was wondering what the most essential pieces in the canon are. The idea was to come up with a list of approximately thirty titles which she could listen to and get to know a bit better over the period of a year or so. Here is the first part of my list. It contains music that was composed up to ca. 1500.

Opera in Germany after World War II: A Journey in Images

How German cities, how German cultural life reemerged after the Second World War has interested me for a long time. Earlier on today I was browsing the LIFE photo archive that contains quite a few images relating to the post-war music scence in Germany. Here are some of the treasures I found.

CFP: Un-Music, Harvard Graduate Music Forum Conference – March 7, 2009

The Harvard Graduate Music Forum announces its sixth graduate student conference, “Un-Music,” taking place on March 7, 2009. We invite graduate students from all disciplines to interpret this theme broadly and creatively. Historical, ethnographical, analytical, and compositional approaches are welcome.

HYDRA @ Harvard (Tonight and Tomorrow)

HYDRA @ Harvard Friday, December 12 and Saturday, December 13 at 8:00pm in John Knowles Paine Concert Hall Harvard University The concerts will feature new work by students of Hans Tutschku’s _Electronic Composition_ and _Electronics: Music and Space_ courses, plus performances of Iannis Xenakis’ Legende d’Eer (Friday), Bernard Parmegiani’s Capture Éphémère (Saturday), and Hans Tutschku’s […]

Johannes Brahms and Jean-Francois Charles

Listening to some Brahms piano quartets and trio in the morning, I felt the increasing need for something more contemporary. After a short browse in the web, I found this wonderful quartet for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano by my colleague Jean-Francois Charles. You can listen to a superb recording featuring Rane Moore (clarinet), Gabby […]

undr quartet, id m theft able, nmperign + Jake Meginsky, as well as Mike Bullock @ OPENSOUND

The undr quartet, id m theft able [the UGLIEST myspace page ever! ~Matthias], nmperign + Jake Meginsky, as well as Mike Bullock will perform at OPENSOUND this Saturday! Saturday, December 13, 2008 Third Life Studios 33 Union Square (Somerville Avenue) Somerville, MA Doors open at 7:30. / music at 8:00 p.m. $8 donation From Opensound‘s […]