Archives for March 2016

[contextly_auto_sidebar] Hiphop and arts organizations… Suppose the Kennedy Center, instead of naming Q-Tip as its Artistic Director for Hiphop Culture (see my last post), had named Kanye West instead. Or Jay-Z, or Dr. Dre. I’m not saying that, artistically, these would have been better choices, Or that these stars would even want the gig. Kanye, so famously, launched his new album with his own shown at Fashion Week in New York, giving him a more elite audience, and much more media, than the Kennedy Center could ever get. But … [Read more...]

"…Makes we wonder, sometimes, if arts institutions, trying to stretch beyond themselves, take time to ask who they’re stretching to. Which people, which subcultures, what these people and cultures are like, what really goes on the city the arts orgs are reaching to." [contextly_auto_sidebar] The Go-Go Symphony rises from the streets and clubs of Washington, DC, combining pop and classical music. And because of that poses — or ought to pose — a sharp challenge to the Kennedy Center, precisely because the Kennedy Center wants to reach past its … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar] There’s something I miss at classical new music concerts, even if I like the music I’m hearing. So yes, many of us in the classical biz think new music is important, crucial to support, deserving any prestige and funding it might get from major institutions. But… I miss a connection to any larger culture. Which I did get when I was a pop music critic, and for a while went to three, four, five shows each week. Of course not every band was good Many were meh. But two good things were always happening. Two … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar] My show, aka my reemergence as a composer, with a concert of my music on April 14. At the Strathmore Performing Arts Center, just outside Washington, DC. You can buy tickets now. I’m busy producing, rehearsing, promoting. And, soon, raising funds. Here’s a link to the program. The heart of the first part, as you'll see, is my wife: It starts with triadic music. An arioso from an opera I’m writing, based on Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Soft and wistful, for tenor. Never performed before. My wife is the … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar] Had a marvelous time last weekend at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music, a school just 10 years old at Gettysburg College, which is in — where else? — Gettysburg, PA, of Civil War fame. One quick tidbit: a major donor who writes a terrific march! That would be F. William Sunderman, a local physician whose money made the school possible. And who lived to be 104. And who wrote a march played on a gala concert I heard, which turned out to be a spirited, well-written piece. Clearly a man of many parts. Time to … [Read more...]