A glimpse of Dreaming/Undreaming, premiering on June 17th, 2021, at the Princeton Festival!
Categories: art, art and paradox, art music video, Carmen's work, contemporary music, context and perception, gesamtkünstwerk, interdiscipline, music composition, women in music • Tags: Dreaming/Undreaming, interdisciplinary art, new music composition, video art
I am delighted to announce that Ensemble Concept/21 has invited the Euclid Quartet, Kosmologia, and the Notre Dame Children’s Choir to premiere the oratorios The Tower and the Garden by Gregory Spears and Beatitudes by Jorge Muñiz, under my direction, next Friday, May 10, at 7 pm, in the Campus Auditorium of Indiana University South Bend. This project joins together two important sponsors of creativity in this country– The New Frontiers Program at Indiana University, and the Ann Stookey Fund […]
Categories: art and religion, art and society, gesamtkünstwerk, intermedia, music composition, new choral music, new forms of presentation, new opera and music drama, postclassical music, sacred music • Tags: CARMEN HELENA TELLEZ, Denise Levertov, Gregory Spears, Jorge Muñiz, Notre Dame Vocale, Thomas Merton
It was only a matter of time that the brilliant music writer of the New Yorker magazine, Alex Ross, would address the musical treatment of leitmotifs in John Williams’ music for the Star Wars movies. Perhaps there is more than just a musical homage of a living composer to the grand master of the Gesamtkünstwerk; it may reveal Star Wars as a “total work of art”, collectively created under the vision of George Lucas. Just like Wagner’s serialized mythology in his Ring operas […]
Categories: art and ritual, context and perception, gesamtkünstwerk, Uncategorized • Tags: space opera, Star Wars, Wagner's Ring Cycle
On December 11 the University of Notre Dame approved a new Doctor of Musical Arts program with specializations in Choral Conducting and in Organ. The approach to training the new conductors includes deep study of the relationship of music with other arts and other disciplines. Although conductors will study the broad choral repertoires, it is inevitable to study Western sacred music, which lies a the foundation of most Western art music. After all, in my personal view, liturgy is one […]
Categories: art and religion, art and ritual, gesamtkünstwerk, interdiscipline, new choral music, new conductor, new opera and music drama, sacred music, scholarship • Tags: DMA at Notre Dame, James MacMillan
An interdisciplinary project produced last May, that has opened so many avenues for reflection! The interaction with great artists lighting designer Rob Shakespeare, video artist Susanne Schwibs. digital artist Margaret Dolinsky, choreographer Liz Shea, digital designer Ed Dambik, stage mechanics designer Paul Brunner and stage director Jonathan Courtemanche can change a life, in this case, mine. Bravo–composer Don Freund! (In the picture, tenor Nick Fitzer and digital art by Margaret Dolinsky).For more pictures, visit Margaret Dolinsky’s page here
Categories: art and religion, art and ritual, gesamtkünstwerk, interdiscipline, multimedia, my work, new opera and music drama • Tags: DON FREUND
…not only the opera as a musical work, but its production, such as the MET has done it for Philip Glass’s Satyagraha last November. Satyagraha means The Force of Truth in Sanskrit. We were stunned by the extraordinary marriage of the music and its visual and choreographic manifestation. I saw it at the movies only yesterday, through one of the wonderful Met HD broadcasts that are changing the consumption of opera. The camera work in itself was extraordinary, and speaks […]
Categories: art and ritual, contemporary music, gesamtkünstwerk, interdiscipline, music, new opera and music drama, postclassical music
Composer Jeremy Podgursky has just published his review of Don Freund’s PASSION with Tropes in the excellent online journal Sequenza21.com. His full account and considered opinion teach us how an interdisciplinary presentation of a musical work originally conceived for concert oratorio format may provoke surprising revelations about the work itself. The layers multiply beyond the performance through the reception and critique of viewers. Podgursky’s impression of PASSION was affected by his experience of important films by Fellini and Godard. This […]
Categories: art, art and religion, art and ritual, art music video, contemporary music, gesamtkünstwerk, interdiscipline, meta-composition, multimedia, music composition, my work, new choral music, new conductor, new opera and music drama, postclassical music, sacred music
…an interview with the composer and some scenes here Working in the round poses some unique challenges. Clearly, conventional proscenium presentation offers acoustic advantages, and in particular, more control by the conductor of the overall perception by the audience. When working in the round for an immersive concept, especially if the work is staged, balances and emphases are constantly shifting, but the sense of “belonging” is greater…
Categories: contemporary music, context and perception, gesamtkünstwerk, interdiscipline, meta-composition, multimedia, new choral music, new conductor, new opera and music drama, Uncategorized • Tags: DON FREUND, MARGARET DOLINSKY, PASSION WITH TROPES, ROBERT A. SHAKESPEARE, Susanne Schwibs
Assistant Conductor Greg Geehern testing images for Passion with Tropes by Margaret Dolinsky and Susanne Schwibs …and Don Freund has left these notes in the Event’s Site. For him, it is about the friction of several scriptural and poetic texts as well as musical styles. For me it has been to find an unexpected message that the audience takes away from the conflict of ideas. My assistant, the brilliant young conductor and interdisciplinary artist Mark Doerries expresses it as this: […]
Categories: contemporary music, gesamtkünstwerk, interdiscipline, meta-composition, multimedia, new choral music, new conductor, new opera and music drama, sacred music, Uncategorized • Tags: CARMEN HELENA TELLEZ, DON FREUND, Greg Geehern, MARGARET DOLINSKY, MARK DOERRIES, PASSION WITH TROPES, ROBERT A. SHAKESPEARE, Susanne Schwibs
