I wanted to alert you to some videos from last month’s concert in Baltimore. The combination of fantastic performances, an enthusiastic, open-eared audience, and a venue that has really good feng shui (Baltimore people, if you haven’t been to The Metro Gallery, you must stop in for a drink asap!) made for a wonderful, completely satisfying experience.

Here is The Way of Ideas performed by Kelli Kathman, flute; Alicia Lee, clarinet; Yuki Numata, violin; and Joshua Roman, cello.

Joshua Roman playing Bloom.

There is a reason why performed by Alicia Lee, clarinet; Yuki Numata, violin; Joshua Roman, cello; Chris Thompson, drum set & melodica.

Almost like being there. Enjoy! There are plenty more where these came from too!

Here is Brian during sound check in the recital hall!

A highlight of the trip for me was working with the four student percussionists who performed “Coyote”. They practiced hard all year, guided by Dr. Kay Stonefelt, to prepare for this performance (did I mention that this piece is actually a BEAR to play?), and they did an outstanding job! Guitarist Jim Piorkowski also gave a lovely, thoughtful performance of “Luminoso”.

There was much talk about the composer-performer relationship – a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. It is a more complex issue than the nuts and bolts of writing clear notation and understanding how an instrument works. The performer and composer are collaborating in the creation of a new work.

Working with performers is one of my favorite parts of the composition process. After spending weeks/months in semi-solitary confinement creating a new thing, I am SO ready to go out into the world for a dose of basic human contact, not to mention additional sets of eyes and ears on the work. Together we iron out the details, and as that happens the performer develops a personal approach to playing the music. It is incredibly satisfying when a performer brings something of themselves to a composition! For example, Jim P. plays the last section of “Luminoso” (a structured improvisation) with a sense of drama that is completely wonderful and surprising, while Ben unleashes his Inner Percussionist with an intensity that makes me worry slightly (!) about his guitar. Same piece, very different approaches, both awesome. The performer adds new layers of meaning and depth to the work.

For the composer this requires being open to interpretation. Literally! Letting go of the music enough to allow a musician to add their own voice to the mix. In my experience, when a performer asks, “Do you want this phrase played this way? Or that way?” sometimes they present options that I hadn’t considered, and sometimes those options are better than what I initially had in mind! Similarly, if there is a more efficient way to achieve that double/triple/quadruple stop, or that harmonic, than what I have written, I see no reason not to change it. The score is a means to an end. Don’t get me wrong – I am very attached to my compositions. VERY. They are extremely personal to me, and I know how I want them to be. At the same time, I understand that when the score leaves my hands, it’s not totally mine anymore – I am entering into a partnership, and the best thing I can do is be open to how that might unfold.

To make a little, er, structured improvisation on the words of Kahlil Gibran:

Your music is not your music….once in my hands it is mine…..once in the ears of the audience it is theirs!

Another composer participating in that show was Annie Gosfield, who, in addition to writing exciting and original works of music, also writes clear, insightful words about music. Her “Advice to Young Composers” is traveling like wildfire across the internet, and I’m sure it will be quoted extensively for a long time to come. She has also written an essay that describes my life with frightening accuracy, towards which I direct those who want to know (or, ahem, NEED to understand) what it’s like to be a composer.

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An addendum to that recent post about becoming more interested in video:

Cellist Joshua Roman has a fine new project with photographer Chase Jarvis, which you can watch here. Chase has also made a very fun iPhone app called Best Camera, which makes the iPhone camera way more entertaining!

Also – I help manage a website called livingroommusic.org, which was created to honor the memory of Randy Hostetler, a super-talented young composer who left us much too early. A few months ago a friend of Randy’s gave us some wonderful video of Randy performing his own composition “8″ for piano and eight ball.

Having never properly met Randy (although we did attend the same high school and graduate school, at different times), this video is a lovely window into his personality.

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Listening:

• Roger Kleier, The Night Has Many Hours (Innova)

Reading:

• Amy Bloom, Come to Me

First of all, there was an amazing concert in Seattle! This was one of the very best premieres of a new work that I have ever experienced. Sometimes I am so nervous at a premiere that i don’t really hear the piece, and then all of a sudden it’s over and I wonder how it went (!), but this time I was fully present and when it was over all I could do was smile wide as can be.

The entire concert was truly excellent – every work had it’s own special personality. The ensemble, made up of Yuki Numata on violin, Bill Kalinkos (of Alarm Will Sound) on clarinet, Joshua Roman on cello, and Jason Treuting (of So Percussion) on drum set, also played works by Lisa Bielawa, Stefan Freund, Chuck Krenner and Matt Marks.

Below is a promo video for the performance – very cute, worth the watch even after the fact:

Although the camera didn’t come on this trip, the iPhone is always nice for a quick snap during rehearsal:

Last week I also participated in Molly Sheridan’s Blogger Book Club. We read and wrote about Dave Hickey’s The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty. Tackling this supercharged academic writing on visual art felt a bit like actually slaying a dragon!

Wishing everyone a Happy Independence Day!!

Two weeks ago they outdid themselves with their benefit Future Party, and in my opinion have raised the bar for everyone as far as concert season announcements go. Behold!

See what I’m saying?? How can I possibly ever deal with a paper press release again?!

When I was little I used to freak out my younger brother by telling him that I really came from another planet. Turns out I wasn’t kidding!

Last Monday Joshua Roman premiered Bloom at The Flea Theater in NYC to a big, wonderfully responsive audience. I couldn’t be happier about the performance! Even though it did indeed happen in a standard concert setting, Joshua’s stage presence and playing style blurs the line between audience and performer, creating a surprisingly intimate experience. Here is a post-concert photo, in foggy iPhone style:

Here is a photo of us performing it last week, thanks to the impressive ninja photography of Mitch Eaton.

First, a quick bit of background: Randy Hostetler was a hugely talented composer who passed away much, much too early, at the age of 32. His family started up the Randy Hostetler Livingroom Music Project in his memory, named after the concerts he used to present in his living room in Los Angeles. They have a website which is a great resource for experimental music – I encourage you to check out the concert listings in the kitchen, the links to all sorts of interestingness in the resource room, and most of all to visit randy’s room, which contains a beautiful selection of writings by and about Randy, as well as samples of his music, pictures and remembrances of his inspirational life.

So the concert! It was lots of fun (even more than I expected), and very quirky…in a completely good way! There was a fantastic toy piano involved…

….of which I became very fond after “foster parenting” it for the past week. I didn’t want to give it back! So much personality….here it is trying to look like a grown-up piano:

There were also some crazy cabaret songs by the composer Jaroslav Jezek (apologies for the bad photo – practice needed!) arranged by Maurice Saylor:

Not to mention a bit of juggling! Jenny Lin, who has now distinguished herself as the first official new music stunt pianist, performed Randy’s composition 8, which involves tossing about a billiard ball – she was so fast I couldn’t even catch her:

This sort of thing doesn’t happen often in DC! What also doesn’t happen often is such a large and enthusiastic crowd – about 200 people! The audience connected with the music, and the event bubbled with a spirit of celebration. Satisfaction City!

Here’s the program:

Karlheinz Essl, Kalimba (2005) for toy piano and cd playback
Jenny Lin, Piano

Alexandra Gardner, electric blue pantsuit (2007) for violin and computer sound
Jennifer Choi, Violin
Alexandra Gardner, Computer

Greg Sandow, Short Talks, for Piano and Drum (2008)
Jenny Lin – piano and drum

Michael Henderson, Emerald Run (1990) for solo violin
Jennifer Choi – Violin

Derek Bermel, Thracian Sketches (2003) for solo clarinet
Derek Bermel, Clarinet

Intermission

Randall Woolf, Try to Believe (2008) for film and violin
Jennifer Choi – violin
UMBC Students of Eric Dyer – film

Derek Bermel, SchiZm (1994) for clarinet and piano
Derek Bermel – clarinet
Ruth Rose – piano

Randy Hostetler, 8 (1986) for piano and billiard ball
Jenny Lin – piano and 8 ball

Jaroslav Jezek, Five V+W Songs (l928-1938)
Arrangements and Singing Translations by Maurice Saylor

Already the leaves are changing big time in Maine!! I always feel clearer after a trip up north – like I’ve been internally realigned. Maybe it’s the air…or the lobster!

The concert in Baltimore went very well! Full house, good music. I particularly enjoyed Ingram Marshall’s Sea Tropes – his music, which is very sparse and delicate, has a gangling sense of balance, as if it might at any moment fall apart and tumble off into the distance, but manages to hold together. The Mobtown Modern team always puts a lot of thought and creativity into the theme of the evening – for this program, entitled Sound Ecology, the space was covered in plants, healthy snacks were served, the sound of crickets could be heard in the pauses between works, and there was even a little giraffe running around! I know some people say oh, who cares about ambience, it’s the music that really matters. Yes, the music is the most important part, but if people are going to be expected to travel somewhere and pay some money to have an experience, I really appreciate that the organizers of that experience are willing to go the extra mile to make it all-encompassing. It shows initiative and consideration for the audience, which, last time I checked, makes audiences happy and makes them want to come back next time.

There is a nice review here!

That, and I am gripped by the urge to buy notebooks and new shoes.

Some very exciting stuff will be happening this season, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it! For starters, I would like to direct your attention to the left sidebar, where a few upcoming concerts are listed….more on the way!

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Yesterday I met two virtual friends – one from flickr and another from facebook – face to face for the first time! We had lots to talk about and it was lovely. Having never been an internet dater or done that sort of thing, the idea of meeting online connections used to creep me out, but last year I met another flickr friend in person at a concert, and was so happily surprised that it seemed worth trying again. After all, there is a reason we connect in the first place – in all these cases it is a passion for music and art, and how can that be bad??