Huge congratulations to Sung Eun Lee, who was named as one of four winners of the 2009 Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition on Sunday. As the NY Times cheekily says
"This singing competition is too venerable to be called 'Metropolitan Idol', but the consequences for young careers are just as great as with 'American Idol'"
Sung Eun created the role (as they say) of Ivan in the Bard College premiere of A Bird in Your Ear, and I'm thrilled to see his career is developing so well.
Pretty much everyone I've introduced Aimee Bender's work to has become an instant convert. Start with this online reading Aimee gave of her short story The Meeting, which for me is just the most perfect short story. A lot of Aimee's work seems to describe thoughts and feelings I thought only I had, often thoughts I hadn't even articulated to myself, indeed her ability to describe men's thoughts can be unnerving!
Apart from the depth, the other thing that attracts me to Aimee's writing is the surface which is witty and often surreal - but across the numerous short-stories there is never a dogmatic way of dealing with surrealism, it just crops up here and there when the story demands it. The work has a matter-of-fact acceptance of the extraordinary which I find very appealing.
The Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center have given me the great honour of commissioning a new piece for the opening gala concert of their 2009 season, in the newly revamped Alice Tully Hall. The piece will be a new song cycle, continuing my collaboration with Dawn Upshaw, who will be accompanied by a jaw-dropping collection of some of the world's finest chamber musicians, including three dear friends from recent years, Avi Avital, Bridget Kibbey, and Todd 'Gumboots' Palmer. As I discovered in the Groanbox concert, making music amongst friends is both an exceptional pleasure, and also an inspiration.
A further exciting development for this project is that I've been talking with the supremely talented and original writer Aimee Bender about writing these songs, and she's gamely launched into a collaboration process with me, of which more soon. Read my mini-introduction to Aimee's work here.
My latest piece, Groanbox, frantically worked on between Christmas pudding and New Year festivities, is completed. Details of the concert featuring Metropolis Ensemble and the Groanbox Boys are available here. Tickets available here. The fabulous picture of Michael Ward-Bergeman above is courtesy of The neepster who very generously allowed me to reuse it here.
This piece has a number of firsts:
my first use of banjo
my first incorporation of folk musicians, (or rather, in Cory's case in particular, of a musician whose principal area of expertise is the aural tradition)
my first use of a 2/6 bar (two thirds of a triplet)
my first use of sandpaper blocks, bicycle bell, goblet, stomp board, Tibetan cowbell and whip
my first piece to be inspired in part by the Teletubbies.
In video below, from Pitchfork TV, Steve Reich talks about his music (along with lots of nice, but brief examples) - he mentions a book called Studies in African Music by A.M. Jones which was his first introduction to the complexity of rhythms in African music. I went to hunt for this book, and to my surprise although not available on Amazon, it is available complete online for free, at archive.org. Here are the links:
My first performance of the new year takes place, alas, without me - the National Opera Association are performing extracts from my opera A Bird in Your Ear in Arlington, Virginia on the 9th Jan, as part of the finals for their new opera competition. It's a great shame I won't be able to make it, but I'm grateful to all involved, and I wish them all the very best for the performance.
Update
One thing this performance has galvanised me to do is get some better quality video excerpts up online, one above, more on the A Bird in Your Ear page,
My good friends Michael and Cory from the Groanbox Boys are proof that letting your hair down and great musicianship are not mutually exclusive. (Michael's schedule, for example, flits insanely between a tour of the English pub scene, and taking the stage with Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony; he's just off to Argentina to record for Francis Ford Coppola's latest film.) Safe to say, a Groanbox gig is usually both one of the most musically inspiring, as well as one of the more riotous events in my social calender... so imagine my delight when the Metropolis Ensemble's Andrew Cyr agreed it might be a great idea to create a heady cocktail by mixing the GBBs' talents with those of the fabulous classical players in his group. That's what's on the program for the Metropolis concert this Jan 28th, at Le Poisson Rouge in downtown New York.
For those of you who haven't yet come across the Metropolis Ensemble, this is a group that is clearly doing something right. Esa-Pekka Salonen surprised everyone by turning up for their last performance, and gave them one of the best press quotes you could hope for. John Corigliano called them the "future of classical music"; to continue that prestigious tradition, we're all hoping John Adams - whose Gnarly Buttons is on the program - may show up, as he's known to be in town for a Julliard performance of Klinghoffer, and has already been in touch with Andrew about the concert.
The new piece I'm writing for this concert, named simply 'Groanbox' will mix the GBBs' folk trio of accordion, banjo and 'home-made percussion' with the classically trained players from the Metropolis Ensemble, and although I still have a terrifyingly large amount of work to do on the piece, it's already emerging as one of the most ...i don't know what, just the MOST... suffice to say it looks like it may continue where Piosenki left off, the 'jamboree' approach to classical music.
The rest of the concert will include a new piece by Michael, celebrating the instrument we both love (video of him talking more about that below), John Adams's Gnarly Buttons (with Cory playing the banjo part), and rapping up with the Groanbox Boys themselves performing selections from their brilliant new album Gran Bwa. I guarantee you one thing, it will be a night to remember.
I'm currently working on two pieces at the same time, which happen to draw influences respectively from North and South America.
My solo harp piece for wonderful Bridget Kibbey's Carnegie Hall recital debut in April draws some inspiration from the vibrant joropo music from Venezuela. Most Joropo music that I know creates its cross-rhythms from a combination of harp, cuatro and maracas, so I'm giving Bridget a challenge to create them all by herself!
The other piece is for the Metropolis Ensemble, for a concert at NYC's funky Le Poisson Rouge this Jan 28th, it features my friends the Groanbox Boys and my piece will involve both the boys themselves, as well as elements of their North American-influenced style of playing.
Only 10 days after I heard A Bird in Your Ear had been selected for the finals of the National Opera Association Chamber Opera Competition, I'm delighted that the piece has also been selected for New York City Opera's Vox 2009 season. This will be a half-hour excerpt with full orchestra, choir and soloists, and will be performed at Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU, next May. Exciting times for birds.
Update
Exciting times for birds, but perhaps somewhat hairy times to be at City Opera, after the news that Gerard Mortier has stepped down. I was relieved to read in a comment on La Cieca 's site the NYCO press release confirming VOX is still going ahead.
