May 2008
14 posts
4 tags
Introducing new Iowa music
This is the kick-off for a series of six consecutive posts highlighting the featured composers from a May 10 WCFSO concert celebrating 25 years of the Iowa Composers Forum. Many thanks to Ralph Kendrick of the ICF for his dedication to the project. Here’s my introduction from the stage:
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Introduction WCFSO – May 2008
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Introducing Jonathan Chenette
When he’s not busy writing witty, approachable music Jon Chenette is associate dean at Grinnell College. He’ll be back with the WCFSO in October with an arrangement of Macapay for our mutual friends Calle Sur. This is the conclusion of Oh Millersville!, from which the WCFSO performed five movements with Susan Bender on May 10.
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Jonathan Chenette – Before the...
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Introducing Michael Gilbertson
Michael Gilberston is currently studying composition at Juilliard. He’s originally from Dubuque, Iowa and wrote Polovitsia as a teenager there and at Tanglewood.
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Michael Gilbertson – Polovitsia: Music to an Imaginary Ballet [2005], excerpt WCFSO – May 2008
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Introducing Brooke Joyce
Brooke Joyce is currently on faculty at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. October Skies, his concertino for piano and small orchestra, is drawn from an earlier work of the same title for flute quartet; at the conclusion of this version the ensemble melts away into an evocative passage with three offstage flutes trailing the meanderings of the piano.
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Brooke Joyce – October...
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Introducing Jeremy Beck
Sinfonietta by Jeremy Beck is a four-movement work for strings. Even though Jeremy no longer resides in Iowa [and couldn’t make it to Cedar Falls for our ICF event due to an emergency] it has been a great pleasure to get to know him personally this year in his current hometown of Louisville.
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Jeremy Beck – Sinfonietta [2000], 2nd movement WCFSO – May 2008
Sinfonietta is...
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Introducing Jerry Owen
Jerry Owen is the elder stateman of our composer group from May 10. He has been a member of the Iowa Composers Forum for several decades and is recently retired from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, where he led the symphony orchestra in addition to teaching theory and composition. I’ve had the opportunity to perform Jerry’s work on a number of occasions; May 10 was our first go around...
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New art? Can do.
A collection of postings are on the way this weekend highlighting new music created in Iowa. In the meantime check out some new visual art in progress in a somewhat more urban setting, courtesy of artist Bansky and The Cans Festival.
Here are more photos.
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Mastodons of the music industry
The record business wallows in [or, is now finally indistiguishable from] the La Brea tar pits. Once again, the Ramber has plenty to say in a handful of words.
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Ace
Robert Rauschenberg, the ‘ace’ of American art in the second half of the 20th century, has died at age 82.
Ace Robert Rauschenberg, 1962
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Digital debut
Honda’s mechanical maestro debuted with the Detroit Symphony last night. Morning Edition was there:
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Robot conducts the Detroit Symphony NPR Morning Edition – May 14, 2008
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Just another day at the office
This was my day on May 8, 2008:
9:30 am – Stravinsky, Debussy, Prokofiev & Copland in concert at Buechel Metro High School in Louisville. [See High School Musical Orchestra]
7:30 pm – Gilbertson, Chenette, Beck, Joyce, Owen in rehearsal with the WCFSO ahead of our Iowa Composer’s Forum celebration this weekend.
I cannot imagine a more rewarding way to finish my concert season –...
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High School Musical Orchestra
This week I am in a variety of Louisville-area high schools, working with music students and leading the LO in a special program at two unique campuses.
On Monday I rehearsed with members of the JCPS [Johnson County Public Schools] All-County Orchestra at the Youth Performing Arts School. A group of students from this year’s All-County ensemble will be...
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Yom Hashoah
This week I am taking part in two major Yom Hashoah events in Iowa for Holocaust Remembrance Day 2008. Here are the details:
Holocaust Remembrance Day – Thursday, May 1, at 7 pm
The UNI Holocaust Remembrance and Education Program, in conjunction with the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Waterloo, presents a Holocaust Remembrance Day [Yom Hashoah] ceremony at the Waterloo Center for the Arts. The...
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Judaica
The first post of each month offers favorite links grouped around a non-musical theme. I’ll be performing for several Holocaust Remembrance Day events in the next few days – May’s links draw on my perspective as a Jewish-American grandchild of survivors.
Jews with Hogs, Miami Beach, Florida, USA Frederic Brenner, 1994
Nextbook Contemporary Jewish perspectives Socalled Klezmer meets...