Concert Updates and Stabat Mater

Friends:

The Traveling Schubert Society has been on a brief writing hiatus, but will be returning soon with several reviews and promotions.  A number of concerts have taken place since October, when last I wrote, and look forward to sharing with you these events.  Some include concerts at the Burke Library, Columbia University, while others are local and house concerts (old fashioned "salons" and "Schubertiades").  The Orpheus Duo and "What A Neighborhood!" have been active celebrating their 10th Anniversary, here on the Upper West Side, and we look forward to sharing their adventures in good music (as Karl Haas used to say!).

Here are just a few upcoming events:

TONIGHT: Feb. 15, 2013 ~ What a Neighborhood! Concert and Party on 111th Street
(Contact for Details)

WEDNESDAY, March 20th, 2013 ~ Orpheus Returns! Lyrical Interpretations with period instruments, performing Orphaic Hymns based on Marsilius Ficino's writings.  The Burke Library, 7:30PM, ALL WELCOME and FREE.

FRIDAYS in April (More info forthcoming) ~ Short Concerts at the Burke Library.

SATURDAY: May 4th, 2013 @ 3PM, join us at the Burke Library for a Greek Orthodox Choral performance.  ALL WELCOME and FREE.

AND...

The STABAT MATER Reading:

Early in April, after Easter, What a Neighborhood! and I are planning an informal reading/singing of my recently composed setting of STABAT MATER for mixed, unaccompanied choir.  We will likely meet on a week night here on the Upper West Side, and have refreshments or a pot-luck, depending on the location and time.  Stay tuned for further updates!

Be well and sing on!


Anthony

Sounds of China (Part 1): Beijing Band

                                        Sounds of China:  Beijing Band

Among the various pieces I put up for the Traveling Schubert Society, I will begin to add videos of music and other sounds I find during my travels--through the streets, in nature, and elsewhere.  Here we start with a band of Chinese musicians playing traditional music in a square in Beijing, near the Technology Museum.  There are several more videos coming...but for now, enjoy!

The Amore Opera: Small, Beautiful, "La Traviata"

 That's Amato, That's Amore!

For over sixty years, the Amato Opera was a mainstay of NYC opera--a place that cultivated young talents, fostered the art and craft of opera, and entertained opera lovers.  But once it closed, just a few years ago, New Yorkers lost--momentarily--a tradition that had been around for more than half a century.  One of the Amato's successors, the Amore, has proven to be a delightful option for those of us interested in experiencing opera on a more intimate scale.  And so, when I first had the opportunity to attend an Amore performance, I was pleasantly delighted by it.  Perhaps, it was seeing and hearing the quality of its burgeoning singers, getting a chance to perform such master works; or perhaps it was the cozy feeling of its theater, and the proximity that the audience could have with the performers.  In some way, it was like stepping back in time, to an old city theater, dark and dusty, yet full of life and a strong sense of commitment to the operatic genres.  The singers, musicians, stage crew, administrators, and the whole community of the Amore were delightfully friendly--from the moment I walked into the opera "house" (theater), to the intermissions, and the finale.  It was a treat to meet and speak with those who put the production together, to speak briefly with the director and conductor, and to interact with the musicians.  It isn't often--especially in NY--that one can cultivate that intimacy in such productions, especially operas, where we the audience are walled off from the performers, set in our seats, as mere observers.  Though, of course, it is understandable: could one imagine if the entirety of the Metropolitan Opera audience descended upon an exhausted post-performance Bryn Terfel or Deborah Voigt!  Nonetheless, it is a great opportunity for those opera enthusiasts out there.  So if you're ever in NYC and have the chance to experience the Amore, go for it.  For it is surely a night you won't forget!

Erik Satie on Wall Street--840 Times

As the summer solstice rolled in, so too did a number of intriguing activities around the globe.  One such series of events was to turn this old pagan festival into a music making day all around NYC (and other global towns).  I'd been invited to partake in one musical interlude in Central Park, but missed it as it was during my lunch hour, and I'd been busy at work during the day.  But there was another, which I somehow came across, and found completely intriguing: a global performance of Erik Satie's mesmerizing and haunting little (and grand!) piece titled "Vexations," which is marked to be repeated 840 times!  Among a dozen or so performances in some of the world's great cities, the NY performance was held just on Broadway and Wall Street, from early Thursday morning till sometime before midnight of the same day--whenever the 840th repeat was to take place.  A trio of percussionists took turns majestically divining the piece from their vibraphonic instruments, like earthy priests evoking spirits from a forest--right in the middle of the world's financial center!  The music is highly meditative, and done in such a location felt like prehistoric chimes echoing from the bottom of a chasm into the upper spheres!  Ayano Kataoka, Amy Garapic, and others performed this work with steadiness and poise, making for a truly unique musical event.  We look forward to their upcoming performances.

Amor & Pscyhe by Opera Feroce (Morningside Heights)

When I say "delightful surprise," I really mean it.  And there was never more delightful a surprise than when I literally stumbled across a hand made poster stuck to a telephone pole a few months ago in Morningside Heights, just outside of a Youth Hostel on 106th Street--advertising a chamber opera inside the hostel!  It turns out that a local group called "Opera Feroce" was putting on a baroque opera pastiche called "Amor & Psyche."  This wonderfully small, and magnificently talented group came together and put on one of the most amazing chamber operas I've ever seen!  I was so surprised--perhaps because of the venue and perhaps because I wasn't really sure what to expect--that I left the event in awe of the work, the musicians, and the singers...all simply amazing individuals and performers. 

In short, three singers, Hayden DeWitt, Alan Dornak, and Beth Anne Hatton, bring together a magically twisted tale of baroque intrigue, love, and life, through characters, who make us laugh along the way.  The accompanying micro-orchestra of Motomi Igarashi (viola da gamba), Vita Wallace (violin), and Kelly Savage (harpsichord) plays with great skill and finesse.  And together, the group works in a very precise and beautiful way.   We look forward to more of their concerts, especially in November with plans for a performance of "Amor & Psyche" at the Burke Library, Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University.

Riverside House Party: Music of Mark Enslin

Mark Enslin: Composer and More...!

I hope that a tradition will emerge from this reporting of small venue musicales, whether in NYC or elsewhere.  Specifically, I hope to begin introducing the musically-interested world to regionally disparate composers and musicians.

About a month ago, I had the privilege of meeting Mark Enslin, an extremely talented composer and wonderful individual who lives and works in Champaign-Urbana, IL.  Mr. Enslin works at the School for Designing a Society, and utilizes many of his talents in his position(s) there.  He is a "composer, performer, actor, activist, organizer, and teacher"...and much more.  We met at a House Party given by "What a Neighborhood!" (Vita and Ishmael Wallace) in Morningside Heights, and the two pieces performed were by Mr. Enslin.  One was a solo piano piece with spoken accompaniment, performed by Susan Parenti (also of the School for Designing a Society), called "Unentitled," which was an absolutely fantastic work of about half an hour, and had audience participation linked to its performance--it was a musical event + performative art event.  The second work was a piece designed for a "one-man-band" consisting of some 17 instruments, including such "invented" instruments as the "UtterBot," which can create a range of almost infinite pitches and inter-pitches through modulating the water level in the instrument.  It also included an instrument called the "Trombrella," as you might imagine--a trombone + umbrella.  These were both pieces that will long be remembered by the audience, and we hope that Mr. Enslin continues his excellent craft, as his work was much enjoyed by all.  And it is surely a craft that made many of those present think more creatively and constructively about music, sound, and art itself.

Elliot Carter: A Premiere at 103

(NB: That's not Mr. Carter in the photo, by the way  ;-)

Some amazing sights and sounds a few weeks ago at the premiere of a new Elliot Carter piece: first, Elliot Carter himself showed up at the concert premiering his work along with two other contemporary composers, and offered up some background to the work entitled by its parts "Two Controversies and a Conversation."  The work was a New York Philharmonic co-commission with Aldeburgh Festival and Radio France.  And as the website of CONTACT! noted..."Two Controversies and a Conversation is more compact in scale and intent than Carter’s pioneering Double Concerto (1961) and takes a different approach to the relationship between the soloists and orchestra."

The second delight, the piece itself by Carter seemed to emerge delightfully out of his atonal Phoenix: a career based on a harsh panoply of sound, deconstructing any semblance of tonality, finally arising in his 104th year with an atonality that no longer bludgeoned the listener, but invited and warmed him/her.  I was very happy to see this iconic composer in person, and hear him speak about the work, and his process.  And I can now see/hear why so many commentators are saying "your work after 90 is your best!"  Truly, he's polished it to a point that it is a suave and unpretentious compositional style, that isn't quite cliched (though, there is always that risk) as other atonal compositions.  The problem with many contemporary works is that their style, structure, and context often buries them in a gutter of unrecognizable modern atonality, so that for many untrained ears (and some trained!), baroque music all sounds nauseatingly the same--but at least it is not abusive on the ear.  Somehow, Carter has achieved something better, greater, and completely inviting, and we are happy for that, and for his continued contributions to contemporary classical music.