News
Our first contest! Win tickets to Gabriel Kahane and LACO this weekend
You read it right, folks. The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is premiering a new piece by Gabriel Kahane on Saturday and Sunday at the Alex Theatre and Royce Hall (and performing Ives’ Three Places in New England – YES), and we’ve got a pair of tickets to give away. To enter, just retweet the following tweet (yes, you have to be on Twitter):
Retweet this message to be entered to win a pair of tickets to see @LACOtweets and @GabrielKahane (and Charles Ives) this weekend!
— New Classic LA (@NewClassicLA) April 17, 2012
The winner will be picked at random on Friday at 11 AM. Cool?
Free Show Alert: Mark Robson in Pasadena in Two Hours
I just received an email from the fine folks over at Piano Spheres that basically said “short notice, but Mark Robson is playing today at noon as part of Play Me, I’m Yours, at the piano at One Colorado in Old Town Pasadena.”
So if you’re somewhere over there on a lunch break (or don’t have a job – and you’re luckier than you think you are), and want to catch a Mark Robson concert for free, now you know where to do it.
Free Show Alert: Cal Arts Orchestra at Wild Beast tomorrow
If you can make it out to Valencia tomorrow night by 7:30, the Cal Arts Orchestra is premiering Andrew Tholl’s violin concerto, titled Asphyxiation, at The Wild Beast on their campus. Tholl himself is the violinist. The program also has works by Devin Maxwell, Roger Reynolds, Mike Fink, Michael Pisaro, and Anastassis Philippakopoulos. Should be a good time, to say the very least.
This is a good weekend for independent opera in LA
This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, you can catch three (THREE!) operas – two by local composers – at clubs around town, and let me tell you, you really should.
Friday, our friends (yeah full disclosure, but they’re great musicians whether or not we’re friends) in What’s Next? Ensemble are presenting a double bill at Royal/T in Culver City. The shows are Michael Gordon’s Van Gogh and Shaun Naidoo’s Nigerian Spam. Tickets are available here.
Saturday and Sunday, Julia Adolphe’s psychodramatic chamber opera Sylvia gets its premiere at The Lost Studio in Hollywood. Julia wrote the libretto herself, and it seems like pretty heavy stuff involving young love with family friends and memories of the Holocaust. It’s $5, and I hear Saturday night is already sold out. I’ll be there Sunday, so say hello. Complete details are at sylviachamberopera.drupalgardens.com, and we’ll have an interview up here with Julia sometime shortly after the show.
See you this weekend.
In case you hadn’t heard, there are about to be pianos all over Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is up to it again, and have partnered up with artist Luke Jerram to present Play Me, I’m Yours, a city-wide, interactive music/art installation thing. Here’s the official lingo:
Touring internationally since 2008, Play Me, I’m Yours is an artwork by artist Luke Jerram. For three weeks beginning April 12, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra brings Play Me, I’m Yours to Los Angeles. Thirty pianos, designed and decorated by local artists and community organizations, are featured across Los Angeles County and are available for everyone to play, in celebration of acclaimed conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane’s 15th anniversary as LACO music director. Visit laco.org to learn more about Jeffrey and the Orchestra.
Join us at the piano nearest you on April 12 at 12 noon for the “lunch launch” of Play Me, I’m Yours. Thirty pianists kick off the installation with a simultaneous play-in of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier at all 30 pianos. After that, the pianos are available to you and any member of the public to play and enjoy.
A map of the pianos’ locations, and some more info, is available at streetpianos.com/la2012. I for one definitely want to go play the one on Santa Monica Pier at some point throughout the shindig.
Catch Definiens performing Higdon’s Piano Trio, and a world premiere, tonight
Jenni Brandon wrote to me the other day to tell me about a sweet show coming up tonight (!) at the Ivy Substation in Culver City. I was hoping to do a short interview on it, but the world managed to get in the way during the last week or so. In any case, the press release, quoted below, has all the info. See you there?
Definiens, a Los Angeles based chamber music ensemble, will present a concert of chamber music featuring music from the 20th and 21st century on Tuesday, March 20th at 8pm at the Ivy Substation (9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City, 90232). This program will feature Pulitzer prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s piano trio “Pale Yellow and Fiery Red”, French composer Albert Roussel’s work “Duo” for bassoon and double bass, and Definiens own Jennifer Stevenson’s “Distances” for oboe and piano. Definiens will also present the world premiere of Ian Munro’s work “UNstasis” for oboe, bassoon, violin and cello. Munro, a composer based in New York, is the winner of Definiens 2010 composition commission competition in the young composer category and wrote this piece specifically for Definiens.
Members of Definiens include Diana Morgan-flute, Ryan Zwahlen-oboe and English horn, Jennifer Stevenson-clarinets, Michael Kreiner- bassoon, Sakura Tsai-violin, Lars Hoefs-cello, Stephen Pfeifer-double bass and Jeanette Louise Yaryan-piano. This performance is made possible in part by the Culver City Performing Arts Grant Program with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Tickets are $10 and may be purchased online or at the door with cash or credit card. Please call 310-897-4111 or visit www.definiens.org for more information.
Calling all writers
You may have noticed that updates to the blog have been gradually slowing as of late. That’s not because I’m backing out in any way, but because my own musical activity has increased quite a bit lately. I just got back from a week in Montreal for shows (instead of updates), have three pieces to finish on my plate right now (instead of updates), and a proposal to write to the American Composers Orchestra (instead of updates). I’m in no way complaining. I love doing this blog, and I love being as busy with music as I am.
That said, I’d love to recruit a few people who might like to review shows, write features, interview people, etc. It’s unpaid, but often involves free tickets to things, which is nice, and you do get to meet a lot of cool people.
If you’d like to write for NewClassic.LA, please drop me a line using the contact form on the About page, and we’ll get something set up.
If you’re curious and would like to hear the piece we premiered in Montreal (and what’s been keeping me so busy), you can check out a recording and the score over on my own website, nickwritesmusic.com.
Free Show Alert: David Lang at CLU today
Yesterday my mom called to ask if I’d heard of a guy named David Lang (hint: I have), because she had read in the paper that a) his dad lives in Thousand Oaks (where I grew up/she lives) and b) a bunch of ensembles at CLU are doing a bunch of his pieces today, at 2, for free.
There’s not much available about it online, but I’m getting in my car right now to go check it out.
Free Show Alert: TOP this Saturday at Intelligentsia in Pasadena
In a shallow attempt to remain neutral, I’ve refrained from pushing this concert too hard, because they’re playing some of my music. But if you’re around Pasadena this Saturday at 8, come on by and say hello.
Free Show Alert: Classical Revolution LA Founder’s Jam is tonight!
If you’re anywhere near Echo Park/Silverlake/Downtown/Highland Park/etc. over on that side of town, I highly recommend heading over to Tribal Cafe on Temple Street at 7 pm tonight. Classical Revolution LA will be running a free show there, and Charith Premawardhana, the founder of the original Classical Revolution series up in the bay area, will be there to jam with a bunch of special guests.
Complete details are on classicalrevolutionla.org. I’ve been trying to get an interview together with the guys running it here, but it’s been an insanely hectic week. As such, a post-concert follow-up kind of thing will be posted in the very near future.