SALON is running a series on labor unions in the 21st century. My contribution is a piece asking if struggling artists, musicians, authors, scribes, etc. can make use of a union or collective to negotiate these strange times.I spoke to a number of folks -- a laid-off journalist, a music historian, screenwriter who helped lead the Hollywood writers strike, cultural observer Thomas Frank -- for this … [Read more...]
Brilliant Chamber Music Series
SINCE I first fell hard for classical music in my mid-20s, my favorite style to see live is chamber music. Early on, I think that came from my love of seeing rock n roll and small-combo jazz in small clubs. The intimacy of a string quartet in, say, an old stone church had some of the same energy and directness.In recent years, perhaps the best venue for chamber music I've found is the Clark … [Read more...]
The Long Shadow of John Cage
ONE hundred years ago today, a child was born in Los Angeles who would go on to... well, what exactly was Cage's impact anyway? I've been trying to figure that out since I studied experimental music at Wesleyan two decades ago.Whatever it is, part of what interests me about Cage is how his influence -- ideas like indeterminacy, his reworking of certain Asian ideas including the Tao, prepared … [Read more...]
Classical Music on the Radio
NOT long ago I got to hang out at the Hollywood Bowl in the middle of the day -- which was a decadent pleasure in itself -- while talking to Brian Lauritzen, the KUSC deejay who has come to dominate classical broadcasting in town.Brian is still young yet, but he has several decades of commitment to both music and public radio, and he has a deep feeling for the sometimes complex role that music can … [Read more...]
True Eclecticism with Wild Up
ONE of the oddest and most beautiful concerts I've been to this year took place at the Hammer Museum a few weeks ago.Here's a bit of what was on offer as the museum and the musician's collective wild Up (they don't cap the "w") came together:The fruit of this union was a July concert that began with a conductor in a cowboy hat, a menacing toreador, the sound of tumbleweed being rolled through the … [Read more...]
The Roots of a Film Composer
THIS week, British film composer George Fenton -- he wrote the scores to Gandhi, Groundhog Day, The History Boys, lots of Ken Loach films, and dozens more -- comes to the Hollywood Bowl to conduct Frozen Planet, a documentary that's shown on the BBC to much acclaim.I corresponded with him for my Influences column and he came up with some expected choices -- playwright Alan Bennett, who he's worked … [Read more...]
Wily Finn Magnus Lindberg
NEXT to Esa-Pekka Salonen, the most visible Finnish classical musician over the last few decades has been his old partner in crime Magnus Lindberg, who is completing a three-year term as composer-in-residence with the New York Philharmonic.Lindberg is a playful kind of modernist who has recently, as he told me, started to blend his avant-garde tendencies (interest in electronica, industrial music, … [Read more...]
Roots of a Music Series
THE Santa Monica-based chamber series Jacaranda puts on some of the consistently most intriguing programs I know. Along with UCLA's Royce Hall and the Hammer Museum, it's one of the things that makes me wish I lived on the Westside.Composer Olivier MessiaenThe weekend's program included a piece by Olivier Messiaen, a hero to some in the group; West Coasters Terry Riley and Lou Harrison works will … [Read more...]
Brooklyn Composer Gabriel Kahane
I'VE been hearing about the rock songwriter and chamber music composer Gabriel Kahane for a few years now, and was glad to have the chance to speak to the hipster hero about his new piece, based on Hart Crane's The Bridge, which makes its West Coast debut this weekend.I also spoke to the esteemed Jeffrey Kahane and got a sense of how Gabe's eclecticism grew out of family tradition. HERE's my … [Read more...]
The Roots of Leila Josefowicz
I EXPECT I'm not the only one looking forward to the concert at Disney Hall tonight, which continues over the weekend: the new Philip Glass symphony, in its West Coast premiere, with John Adams' Violin Concerto, both conducted by Adams himself. And the violin part in the Adams piece -- some days, my favorite piece by the bearded Bay Area composer -- will be played by the lovely and talented Leila … [Read more...]