New Music

I happened upon this intriguing video about a collaboration between one of my favorite vocal groups, Roomful of Teeth, and Nathalie Joachim, vocalist, flutist, and Professor of Composition at Princeton. Hear the sounds, discussion, and process of creating a new work that could not come into being without all of the constituents contributing to its […]

The Mizzou International Composers Festival is held every summer on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia. When I was a Missouri resident, I tried every year to get to Columbia to hear at least one concert, if not two. The resident ensemble is Alarm Will Sound, a new music band that got

Many of the “Great Composers” were virtuoso performers as well. Think J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, and Rachmaninoff. Among violinists, we have Paganini, Henryk Wieniawski, Fritz Kreisler, and Eugène Ysaÿe. Although perhaps not so common these days, we now have Tessa Lark, a violinist with a huge career, who performs her own compositions in

I will never forget my shock at hearing Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach for the first time. I was amazed that such a thing could be conceived. It was completely radical. It is still mesmerizing.

Be moved by this setting by Reena Esmail of the poem “When the Violin” by 14th century Persian poet Hafiz.

Taking its title from lines in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores was commissioned by the Jupiter Quartet and the Bay Chamber Series. This seven-movement composition is a tour de force that celebrates the natural world.

Tonight, I am just sharing something I came across that spoke to me: Christopher Cerrone’s High Windows, performed by the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra.

One of Gregor Huebner’s 14 Preludes for Piano, “African Heartbeat” is a soulful tune which is playable by developing pianists. Originally written for his wife, Huebner included it in his pandemic shutdown series of piano pieces. Hear Gregor’s composition along with his enviable improvisational skills in this YouTube video. 14 Preludes for Piano is available

If you weren’t around in the 1970s and 1980s, you might not have the sense of what a monumental achievement and influence Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians had on the music world. I daresay that this piece placed the word “minimalism” into the common lexicon. If you stay with it, you will enter a