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9 juin 2015 : Infuse présente L'eau sur l'eau : musique d'Idin Samimi Mofakham, Chiayu, et moi, le 9 juin à partir de 19h30 dans le 19e arrondissement, sur la Péniche Grande Fantaisie ! (en face de 9, quai de la Loire) Avec en première partie (et peut-être en dernière partie aussi ...), un set de « chant, loops, échantillons et bruitage » avec IMWIM (Maja Bieler)

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    February 21, 2015, 8pm

    [New Music for Old Instruments La Societe de Curiosites Paris Feb. 21, 2015 8pm]

    Fete de lancement parisien (Parisian release party) pour New Music for Old Instruments. A La Societe de Curiosites, 123 rue de Clignancourt, Metro Simplon, a 20h00. Avec la participation de la claveciniste Alissa Duryee. Musique de Schaul, des compositeurs du 17e siecle, et un peu d'impro aussi !

    December 21, 2014, 4pm

    Didn't make it to Prospect Park for Wheels, a participatory parade for moving bicycle bells? (As in, you play the bells while you ride your bike.) Then here's a little taste of what it was like!

    Wheels gathers seasoned and casual cyclists to perform by riding in groups through Prospect Park, following a score transmitted from the lead bike using a special helmet embedded with lights (created by Merche Blasco), which cues bicycle bells of different pitches. The groups will come together and split up along the park's southern bike paths, performing music that is at once stand-alone and complementary, creating concentric circles of sound and echo.

    Bicycle bells will be distributed to the first 50 participants at the beginning of the parade. Bring a screwdriver to attach yours! If you're not one of the first 50, there are special plans in the works so you can perform, too. If you're worried, though, you can also get your own bell. Here's a list of many of the bells we'll be using:

    Wheels is part of Make Music New York's Make Music Winter 2014 festival and is produced in association with the Prospect Park Alliance.

  • Web interview about Wheels!
  • Wheels in Time Out New York!
  • December 18, 2014, 7:30pm = World premiere of Two Birds, as yet Unheard, for solo flute (Roberta Michel, who commissioned the piece) and electronics. That's at The Firehouse Space (246 Frost Street), in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at 7:30pm. The rest of the program is other pieces Roberta has commissioned over the last couple of years: Quinn Collins's homage to Roy Orbison, Like Dreamers Do, Angelica Negron's intimate Hush, and Eric Allen's wonderfully absurd Ringtones for a Greater Tomorrow, a duet for flute and virtuoso melodica.
  • On Friday, November 15, 2014, Faythe Vollrath played Retouchage in Sacramento, CA, it's (and my) West Coast debut! This wonderful, lively performance is still on livestream (you should listen to the whole recital, but if you're pressed for time, skip ahead to 56:30 for Retouchage). Thank you to Faythe and to the FeNAM festival for making this performance happen!
  • We launched New Music for Old Instruments at The Baroque Room to an enthusiastic crowd on October 13. Flying Forms performed excerpts from Nuevos Misterios, we listened to the CD, and we answered some excellent questions from the audience about the music, the artists, and the approach. Coming soon: Release parties in Paris, New York, and the hometown crowd in Raleigh, NC!
  • I gave a talk at Gustavus Adolpus College, in Minnesota, on Oct. 9. It was really fun talking to the music students there about my favorite subject: Indeterminacy since 1945, but especially before 1750. Thank you to Esther Wang and the Gustavus music department for the invitation!
  • Overture to Oedipus premiered at Aubervillers Conservatory, just outside Paris, on April 9, 2014. Franois Leyrit, who commissioned the piece, was fierce and powerful as the Baroque double bass soloist, with noisy back-up from Samuel Rotsztejn, Gabriel Pidoux, Laurent Sauron, Marina Voznyuk, Koji Yoda, Tania-lio Faucon-Cohen, Nicolas Verhoeven, and Adrien Alix. Brilliantly conducted by Mauricio Ahumada. It was pretty darned cool.
  • G Train performed at Classical Revolution France on January 28, 2014 at Le Chinois in Montreuil, just outside Paris.
  • Shadow in the Hot Sun, but in a new, special arrangement for organ, was performed by Alia Musica in Pittsburgh on October 20, 2013, at 7pm. The concert took place in East Liberty Presbyterian Church, and featured soprano Desiree Soteres and organist Edward A. Moore. The program also included premieres of pieces by by Matt Aelmore and Aaron Brooks, as well as works by Ramteen Sazegari, Kerrith Livengood, and Krzystof Penderecki. Also, have a look at the promo video which features the good old accordion version of Shadow.

  • August 31 at 3pm at The Jancek Conservatory in Ostrava: Hell Study, slightly revised, was performed in Ostrava in the Czech Republic. (I attended the Ostrava Days Institute composition workshop.) The highlight among many highlights was Bohdan Hilash's inspired bass clarinet playing.
  • Ensemble Sillages played the heck out of Hell Study: nature morte with hurdy gurdy for flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, and 'cello at La Courneuve Conservatory on May 21, 2013.
  • Tami Morse reports that all four performances of Retouchage from On retouche les nouveaux habits du roi went swimmingly! Thank you to Tami, and to The Baroque Room (April 21, 2013) and Studio Z (May 17-19) for their hospitality!.
  • US premiere of Shadow in the Hot Sun by Alia Musica with soprano Jamie Jordan and accordionist Henry Doktoski on Apr. 6, 2013. Henry put up a nice little blurb about the concert, and Shadow here.
  • Trio was performed by Cadillac Moon Ensemble on Feb. 1, 2013 at Firehouse in Brooklyn.
  • "Pre-premiere" of Retouchage at La Courneuve Conservatory by Alissa Duryee on Jan. 29, 2013.
  • Irish premiere of Harpsichord Swirl on Dublin Sound Lab's Nov. 21, 2012 program, reSounding Dublin.

Other stuff

  • Allan Kozinn on Trio in the June 11, 2012 New York Times:
    Nissim Schaul’s Trio for violin, cello and percussion (2010) made its points less noisily but nearly as powerfully. You could hear a hint of Feldman here. Mr. Schaul’s sounds are spare and whispered, with a dissonant but compelling edge that keeps you fascinated.

    My thanks to June in Buffalo and Ensemble Interface for making this crazy thing possible!

  • The performance by Ostravska Banda of Hell Study: Nature morte with hurdy-gurdy has been reviewed three times now, in diverse languages! Kurt Gottschalk wrote in English, and in newmusicbox, and he said something really observant, that the piece is "cinematic, but there were several movies playing at the same time." Thank you Kurt -- that's basically exactly what's happening! The piece also shows up in two reviews over here, in both Czech and Polish. I don't know who you are, betonowechabry, but thank you for listening! Google translate doesn't make the review especially clear in English, but the tone is positive. The last one is in Czech, and its meaning is even more obtuse when translated, though it seems a bit less enthusiastic. However, the photo on the top of the page is of my devilishy happy octet!