|| General || § ¶Nora in Palestine
My daughter, Nora, is in Palestine, teaching radio arts to teenagers and reporting back to Flashpoints on KPFA. She sent back this picture taken of her in the mountains near Beit Jalla. We're all very proud about what she is doing. Me especially. It totally amazes me that Nora is working at KPFA. I used to bring her to the station when she was little and I was doing music programs. Now when I mention her name people say "You're Nora's Dad!? Everybody knows who Nora on KPFA is!" . Gee.You can hear some of her reports at http://www.flashpoints.net/.
For a picture of ME at KPFA back sometime in the 80's, click here
|| General || § ¶Thursday's Other Minds, Reviewed
Joshua Kosman's review of Thursday's concert appears in today's Chronicle. I didn't see him there last night, which is too bad because he missed Maria de Alvear's Gran Sol.It's always interesting to read the review of a concert you attended yourself. Sometimes it makes you wonder if it was the same concert.
|| default || § ¶Other Minds Festival!
Tonight and last night I've been at the performances of the Other Minds Festival here in San Francisco. (See earlier entries in this blog about the festival.)I am speechless. The concerts so far have been amazing.
Tonight, Maria de Alvear's Gran Sol had its world premiere, with Maria and Amelia Cuni, vocals, and Joan Jeanrenaud, cello. It got a standing ovation. What an absolutely amazing piece of music.
I'll have more to say at some later point.
|| General || § ¶My Desk
These days I'm doing so many things (work, radio programs, my own music) that my desk is overflowing. We live in a small house. I spend most of my time in this little corner, surrounded by piles of CDs, paper, notebooks, keyboards, wires, etc. etc.
One advantage is that it is all in front of me. One disadvantage is that it is all in front of me. I've never been good at putting things away. I've found that as soon as I put something away (e.g. in a file cabinet), I need it again. The frustration is trying to find something buried somewhere underneath all this stuff. I have those dreams of discovering a new room in the house that I never knew was there before. Such rooms always disappear in the morning.
|| default || § ¶Other Minds Wins Award!
The Other Minds Festival has been chosen to receive one of this year's Letter of Distinction awards from the American Music Center! This is wonderful news! This award, given annually since 1964, is "intended to recognize those who have made significant contributions to the field of contemporary American music." In previous years it has been awarded to individuals and organizations such as Aaron Copland, Merce Cunningham, the American Composer's Orchestra, Ornette Coleman, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Philip Glass, Composers Recordings Incorporated, and others. The award ceremony will take place in New York City on May 2nd. And, as V.P. of the OM Board of Directors, I plan to be there.Putting on these festivals represents quite a lot of work for the (small) OM staff in San Francisco, and the many volunteers. This year's festival, OM11, is next weekend. The invited composers will be arriving tomorrow, Saturday, at the Djerassi Resident Artist Program ranch in the hills above Woodside for private presentations and discussions. Rehearsals are later in the week at the Yerba Buena Center. It's all very exciting. Congratulations to everyone involved.
|| default || § ¶My Photos on TV! 15 Seconds of Fame Dept.
So back in November I get this call from someone at CBS News saying they saw some of my photos from the 60's and wanted to use some of them in a documentary they were producing about the 60's and Abbie Hoffman. This led to a discussion and choice of some of the photos (I SO wish I had taken more pictures back then!)
Well, I just found out that the program will be on the Arts and Entertainment Biography cable channel on March 9th at 9pm (I assume Eastern/Pacific, 8pm Central). I have no idea how they used the 3 photos I leased to them, or when or where they will appear. The photos they chose are from the 1967 Be-In in Central Park, which, oddly enough, took place in March of that year.
I just hope they spell my name right.
They told me that they had a great deal of trouble trying to find photos from the actual Be-In. Which sounds strange because so many people were taking pictures. In fact, the joke going around was "This Event Is Being Brought To You By Kodak!". This was the time of the Pentax and the cheap Japanese 35mm cameras. (Mine was a Nikkormat, as I recall.) I bet the NYTimes vault has plenty of pictures. Also the NYPD.
|| default || § ¶More Radio
So far I've broadcast six programs on KALW-FM 91.7 San Francisco. And I just finished producing programs 7, 8, and 9. It's always good to be a little bit ahead.Music From Other Minds
7: (Feb 18) Philip Glass/Joan Jeanrenaud, Evan Ziporyn, Maria de Alvear, John Luther Adams
8: (Feb 25) Marc Blitzstein talks about his music, from a 1956 Spoken Arts recording
9: (March 4) An hommage to soprano Cathy Berberian
11pm on KALW
|| General || § ¶Winter Music
John Luther Adams' book, Winter Music, is worth reading. John Luther Adams, not to be confused with John Adams of Nixon in China and other operas, lives in Alaska, and his music reflects the world in which he lives. A number of composers have written about their world, craft, and music before. Hindemith wrote a number of books, mostly technical though. Stravinsky wrote Poetics of Music, but revealed little. John Cage, of course, wrote many books, and revealed much. Here Adams writes about what it is like to be a composer, especially a composer in the North, and how that works its way into his music.
The book also contains an excellent introductory essay by Kyle Gann, and a CD of some selections of Adams's music, including the wonderful Red Arc/Blue Veil for a small ensemble. Here is what Kyle has to say about John's book.
How does the frozen north work its way into a composer's music? Can music describe a world of white snow and ice, or does it become just part of it? Read the book. It's a wonderful journey.
John Luther Adams is one of the composers featured at this year's Other Minds Festival. Selections from Strange and Sacred Noise will be performed on Saturday night, February 26. And I'll be featuring more of John's music on my KALW radio program Music From Other Minds Friday night February 11 at 11pm.
|| General || § ¶No Comment(s)
Unfortunately, I have had to turn off the ability to leave comments in this blog because of BLOGSPAM.We've been attacked by some idiot with automated comments about video poker, blackjack, Texas hold'em and the like. The whole thing is quite bogus. And I spent most of this morning deleting them all, one by one.
This is the modern way to stop free discussion. Or maybe this sort of antisocial behavior is a new form of anti-free-speech. It's painful to have to take actions like this. And it leaves me fearful for the future of the species. The spam serves no purpose that I can see. Other than making me pity the poor soul who created it all. It probably took some effort to develop a script that would find all the articles in this blog and submit multiple bogus comments to each one. That sort of creativity could be rewarded if it only had been positive. Unfortunately, this slob gets off on doing stuff like this. Bad wiring in his/her brain may be the cause. Short circuit might be the solution.
So no more comments on this blog until I can add a security layer.
But you can always send me email. Click on the rchrd link below.