NewMusicUSA

On Tuesday, November 8, the American Music Center and Meet The Composer officially completed their merger to become New Music USA.

Though the opportunities and challenges of 2011 could not have been imagined in 1939 at the time of AMC’s founding, nor even in 1974 when Meet The Composer first appeared on the scene, the core principles of both great organizations still ring clear and true. AMC was founded on a belief that access to information and active promotion could unlock the inherent power and promise of American music. A similar conviction guided MTC: that by giving creators of new work the opportunity to engage with their communities—and compensating them in a fair way—the landscape of new music could be changed forever.

At this moment we truly feel the energetic legacy of the people who have acted on these principles over the decades, beginning with Aaron Copland (above) and his colleagues in the 1930s and John Duffy and his colleagues in the 1970s. We honor their dedicated work, knowing the greatest tribute we can offer them is a commitment to look forward as they did to the possibilities of a new day.

And it is a new day. We have the fortune to be living in a time of explosive creativity and lightning-quick change. The kaleidoscopic range of music-making all around us defies labels and categories, both in terms of the way it sounds and the way it reaches listeners. As the spectrum of that kaleidoscope broadens, it reveals more and more ways to get people involved and excited by what we do. Let’s be clear: that public connection is the pathway to our bright collective future.

New Music USA is designed to build upon the combined and interconnected strengths of AMC and MTC. Its mission to increase opportunities for composers, performers, and audiences will be realized through two basic kinds of activity: Support and Promotion. By providing financial and other support it will enable composers and other musical artists to create the new work that is the beating heart of our musical culture. And through its strong and evolving new media dimensions it will seek relentlessly to bring more attention and engagement from a broad audience of potential listeners. We trust that the synergy between these two dimensions will evolve in powerful new ways over the coming months and years.

An institution is only as strong as the people who join together to carry out its mission. New Music USA is fortunate to be governed by a committed Board, activated by a supremely talented staff, and advised by two councils of stellar professionals from the artistic and media worlds respectively. Beyond those institutional borders, though, we see New Music USA as a trust held on behalf of the entire community, the thousands and thousands of us who create, perform, produce, support and listen to new American music. If we can tap into the collective power of that community, the possibilities can be endless.

TPR's own John Clare served on the AMC board from 2010 and is now on the New Music USA media advisory board.

From Mark Richter

It was announced yesterday that Mark Richter is retiring. Today he has sent this note:

Dear Friends of the San Antonio Opera,
Effective, November 15, 2011, I will be stepping down as General/Artistic Director of San Antonio Opera. My life has been rich these past 16 years. Helping to build San Antonio Opera from an idea into a major regional opera in the country has been the most gratifying experience in my life. There comes a time when the parent has done all it can do and must let go to follow other passions, as with so many other founders of organizations. After producing 61 operas, my fondest memories have been working with not only the exceptional talent that has performed in San Antonio, but the people who continue to make it all happen. Your opera staff is small, but powerful. They work hard, do many different tasks and receive very little pay and recognition. These professionals are the heroes of the organization.
It has been my great fortune to learn and work with some of our city’s most iconic leaders such as Lila Cockrell, Phil Hardberger, Edith McAllister, Nelson Wolff, Bruce Bugg and Jeanie Wyatt. I support them as they have supported me. My admiration goes out to all patrons and members of past boards that have supported and continue to support the opera through the years. This has always been your opera company and my work helping the company succeed is but a reflection of the generosity you have shown during these 16 years. Please continue this support as I join your ranks as an enthusiastic patron of the opera.
Things have certainly come full circle these past years, evidenced by watching adults that were introduced to opera through the company’s education programs, now returning to San Antonio as accomplished opera singers, as well as opera supporters and season tickets holders. All of my goals and wishes for the company have come to fruition, including finding a permanent home for the opera. Knowing that this will happen in 2014 at The Tobin Center fills my heart with pride. Most importantly, the goal of making San Antonio a regional spotlight for opera, again, after a 50 year tradition set by the San Antonio Symphony, has also been accomplished. My concentration has always been on finding the best voices to sing for our dedicated patrons. Many of these operatic talents are tomorrow’s superstars, such as the mega talent we have been fortunate in presenting in our city, such as Placido Domingo, Andre Bocelli and Jose Carreras. Concerts such as these have garnered national acclaim for San Antonio.
My emotions and respect run very deeply for the incredible musicians that accompany each opera, some of whom have played in the opera orchestra for 15 years. The opera is extremely fortunate to have such loyal talent in the pit. It has been my great honor of working with some of our city’s fine vocalists through the years, especially the opera’s very talented and hard working chorus. These passionate singers give so much and do it entirely for the love of the art. There have been friendships made with agents, artist managers and fellow opera associates through the years. My greatest hopes are they remain strong and productive, as new leaders of the opera continue to enhance the reputation of producing with high standards of excellence.
The decision to leave the San Antonio Opera was a difficult one to make, but the desire to pursue other passions and avenues in my life is a powerful calling. At 26, my ambition chose a door to enter which has led me to a treasure of filled with music and friends. Now at 43, there is an excitement hoping that the next door in my life will be as wonderful as the last. I may be leaving San Antonio Opera, however it will always and forever be close to my heart.

Best Wishes,
Mark A. Richter
Founder Emeritus

Big Sing

Ready, set, sing! The season’s first Conspirare Big Sing (where the audience is the choir) is coming up next week! Vocalists should start warming up those pipes now - sing in the shower, the car, on the trail. Clear your schedule for 6pm on Thursday, November 17 and go to downtown Austin and join the ensemble. Remember, no experience is needed for this FREE opportunity to make truly beautiful music together with several hundred singing friends. Conducted by Craig Hella Johnson and hosted by the Conspirare Symphonic Choir.

Vote on Facebook for the song you’d most like to sing on November 17, choosing from several suggested by Craig Hella Johnson. Like their Facebook page (if you haven’t already) and watch for voting instructions in the next few days. Make your voice heard in more ways than one!

Conspirare - we sing together
BIG SING
Thursday, November 17, 6:00 pm
First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity St., Austin
FREE admission

Listen to an interview with Craig Hella Johnson about Conspirare's latest cd, Sing Freedom! with John Clare.

O'Riley Radiohead tour conspiracy

Coincidence? We think not!

Radiohead March 1 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena

Christopher O’Riley 2 March, 2012 -- Out Of My Hands recital, Emory University, Atlanta, GA

Here's SOLI in one of O'Riley's arrangements of Radiohead - SOLI Chamber Ensemble performs next Monday and Tuesday!

The pianist behind the curtain…

There are extroverts and then there are the rest of us. Adolph Henselt was a great pianist in a time of great performers and yet we know little about him because of an unfortunate accident, he had a memory slip. This happens to pianists and when it happened in Henselt's debut recital he tried to find his way, could not and fled the stage and this traumatized the artist. It is unfortunate because the pianist had a lot to offer. Liszt spoke of Henselt's "velvet paws" and said he would have to work to develop what Henselt already achieved. Other artists were amazed by the stretches in the composer's music and wondered if Henselt was a freak of nature. He wasn't, but few pianists worked as diligently on their technique as this German who would sit at a piano with damped strings playing Bach's fugues while talking to friends for hours at a time.

For a glimpse of what all this hard work accomplished tune to the Piano this Sunday afternoon at 5 on KPAC and KTXI and let music from one of the quiet geniuses of the Romantic movement sweep you away.

host, Randy Anderson

Donizetti & Mary Stuart's Great Drama

Whether you believe that Mary Stuart was the most amoral, conniving and ruthless female of Elizabethan England or the most tragic victim of overwhelming and relentless circumstances and doomed to tragic grandeur, her life is one of the great historical dramas. It was the kind of life that was perhaps made even more interesting because of the contradictions and controversies that rage to this day. It was a story made for opera (and later film,with Glenda Jackson as Liz and Vanessa Redgrave as Mary) and has been dramatized for the stage most famously by Schiller(1800) then the musical theatre by Donizetti (1835) and into our own with Thea Musgrave's 1977 composition .

To be tied to three great kingdoms such as France, Scotland and England by marriage or birthright.To marry three times with mounting and catastrophic results. To live in an unending enmity with a powerful sister always wary of the dangers that haunted her reign; to be the focus of religious fanatics, to be pursued by men both bewitched by her beauty and grace and even more enthralled with power. It was inevitable perhaps that she was marked for both exceptionalism and martyrdom. From the unceasing fear of Queen Elizabeth's advisors,afraid she would spark rebellion or the Scots nobles terrified of a triumphant return. It speaks volumes that neither exile nor impoverishment (she left Scotland literally with nothing and had to barter for clothes with the family silver), nor the forging of the Casket Letters to implicate her in the murder of her second husband or finally even the strategic abandoning her to the wilderness of Bolton Castle followed by almost 19 years of virtual imprisonment. None of this was enough, only her death would suffice.

Tune in to this Saturday Afternoon at the Opera presentation of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda,with Beverly Sills as the tragic heroine and Eileen Farrell as Elizabeth, this Saturday at noon on KPAC and KTXI.

host, Ron Moore

Paul Moravec

Today composer Paul Moravec turns 54 years young. He'll have a world premiere this January in San Antonio with SOLI Chamber Ensemble, basing a quartet on Beethoven's Grosse Fuge - part of the Beethoven Festival.
Moravec is also the commissioned composer for the San Antonio International Piano Competition in October 2012 and will be in town to judge.
Host John Clare has interviewed Moravec numerous times and shares this insightful talk from 2006: mp3 file
We'll have more coverage with Paul this January and October, but wish Paul a very happy birthday!
From WQXR a live performance of Moravec's Pulitzer Prize winning Tempest Fantasy:

Cadenzas at ten paces

We thought we'd put the cadenzas to Mozart's Piano Concerto #23 through the paces as it has been in the news lately with Hélène Grimaud and Claudio Abbado.

First, you can see the musical scores in question...here is the musical score of Mozart's cadenza (the one Abbado preferred) [pdf]

The one Hélène preferred, by Busoni [pdf]

An alternate cadenza by Muller [pdf]

Next, take a listen to the passages in question with host John Clare [mp3 file]

The New Yorker has a great profile of Grimaud here, and be sure to check out the last time Grimaud was in Houston and spoke with Clare.

Here's some fun, a mashup of three cadenzas of Grimaud, Abbado and Lubin for the 23rd Piano Concerto, first movement, listen to an mp3 created by John Clare here.

After all this, the 2nd movement is stunning and beautiful:

The Don a hit!

Did you go see it this weekend? What other productions do you plan on catching? Let us know in the comments!
The Met: Live in HD continued its sixth season Saturday with a live transmission of its new production of Don Giovanni, starring Mariusz Kwiecien, with an estimated attendance of 107,000 in North America earning a gross of $2.3 million. It was seen live on more than 850 screens. An estimated additional 109,000 people saw it live on 625 screens in 42 additional countries; 28 in Europe, nine in Latin America, and Russia, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, and the Bahamas.
Delayed showings in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and encore performances in North America and Europe, are expected to boost worldwide attendance of Don Giovanni to 265,000. The encore screening of Don Giovanni in the U.S. is on November 16; the Canadian encores are December 17 and January 9.
The new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, by Tony Award winner Michael Grandage, was conducted by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi in his Live in HD debut. In a dramatic offstage twist, star Kwiecien was injured in the final dress rehearsal of the production on October 10 but underwent back surgery and a rigorous physical therapy regimen so that he would be able to return to the Met stage in time for this performance. The other stars of Don Giovanni included Mojca Erdmann as Zerlina, Barbara Frittoli as Donna Elvira, Marina Rebeka as Donna Anna, Ramón Vargas as Don Ottavio, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello, Joshua Bloom as Masetto, and Štefan Kocán as the Commendatore.
The live transmission, hosted by soprano Renée Fleming (who vists San Antonio this March with the San Antonio Symphony!), was directed by Barbara Willis Sweete.
The Met: Live in HD, the Met’s award-winning series of live transmissions to movie theaters around the world, has expanded its worldwide distribution to more than 1,600 theaters in 54 countries, the largest global audience the initiative has ever reached. In addition to Russia, Italy and Israel, new countries joining the Live in HD network this season include China, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Morocco, Slovenia, and the territory of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Don Giovanni was the second of 11 live transmissions to be shown this season. The next transmission will be the new production of Wagner’s Siegfried on November 5, the third installment of Robert Lepage’s new Ring Cycle at the Met.

In Memory of Eugenio Toussaint and Daniel Catan

In remembrance of several important Mexican musicians who passed away during the year past, the Orquesta Filarmonica de la Ciudad de Mexico has erected a Dia de los Muertos altar in the lobby of their hall, the Sala Ollin Yolitzli, honoring Daniel Catan (1949-2011) and Eugenio Toussaint (1954-2011). May they Rest in Peace.

Listen to their music on the October 30, 2011 edition of Itinerarios.