…with James MacMillan and a stellar panel of guest composers and scholars. Check the site here It was a privilege to be part of it!
Categories: art and religion, art and ritual, art and society, my work, new choral music, new conductor, sacred music
What a great opportunity for the lovers of this Trilogy! My favorite is still the first film of the three, Koyaanisqatsi. I still remember viewing for the first time just by accident, as it was broadcast late one night (perhaps on PBS?) in 1984. I have rarely been more grateful for insomnia. I was immediately fascinated, and I ended telling my fellow students the next day that I had viewed the art of the future. I think Koyaanisqatsi is extremely […]
Categories: art and ritual, art and society, art music video, contemporary music, postmodernism • Tags: Koyaanisqatsi, Philip Glass
A piece of news is rapidly circulating among classical musicians, and particularly, choral conductors and composers. Eric Whitacre, a favorite composer of choral music, has signed with Storm Models, just as he is entering a new phase in his career that includes his YouTube virtual choir and collaborations with film composer Hans Zimmer for the music for Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Classical composers are likely to have one of two reactions: some will declare that Whitacre has abandoned all […]
Categories: art and society, new choral music, postclassical music, social media • Tags: Eric Whitacre, virtual choir, virtual music ensembles, YouTube
The future of classical music presentation and education occupies much of the discussions — online and elsewhere — enacted by art managers and college administrators in the USA today. Of course, there are many definitions of what “classical music” is, and diverse repertoires come along with said definitions. However, for the broad public, classical music is that repertoire performed with symphony orchestras. Could the orchestra itself undergo a radical transformation, not only in its modus operandi, but also in its […]
Categories: art and society, contemporary music, music • Tags: composition, conducting, orchestra, Paul Dresher
My conducting students at the Jacobs School of Music sometimes manifest (with varying degrees of unease) their ambivalence towards music scholarship. It is not always clear to them that more knowledge about the context, technique, structure and rhetoric of a composition will enhance their interpretation in the real time of performance. You may surmise I believe it does, but the process is not necessarily direct. On the contrary, how an artist processes information and experience is akin to a mysterious […]
Categories: art and society, scholarship • Tags: art, art institute of chicago, art scholarship, Frick Collection, Giovanni Bellini, Huffington Post, jacobs school of music, james elkins, perception
