In celebration of Philip Glass's 75th birthday, the American Composers Orchestra is presenting the US premiere of Glass's Ninth Symphony plus the NYC premiere of Arvo Part's Lamentate, with pianist Maki Namekawa at Carnegie Hall on Glass's birthday, January 31. The orchestra will be led by ACO co-founder Dennis Russell Davies. According to a press release:

The program notes describe Glass's Symphony No. 9 as "a large scale, three movement work for orchestra, and while direct in form, it will be formidable in performance with piccolos doubled, horn section fortified, and with bass brass, and timpani doubled. The Ninth promises to be, in the composer's words 'big and unrelenting,' with an avoidance of solo passagework, this piece will be a real team effort throughout. Each movement follows a similar plan: an opening theme broadly stated a contrasting highly energized middle section, and a slower ending with a newer version of the opening theme. Throughout the work becomes increasingly dense and contrapuntal thereby giving the whole work its overall dramatic shape."

Glass's birthday will also be celebrated two days earlier (1/29) at Le Poisson Rouge with Orange Mountain Music and special guests Kronos Quartet, Dennis Russell Davies, Maki Namekawa, Ira Glass, Michael Riesman, Ensemble Signal, Bruce Brubaker, Tim Fain and more. Tickets for this show are on sale now.

It will again be celebrated at the Tune-In Music Festival at Park Avenue Armory which takes place from February 23-26. "Highlights Include: A World Premiere by Hal Wilner, Bill Frisell and Ralph Steadman, Glass's Music in Twelve Parts, An Evening of Music and Poetry with Patti Smith and Philip Glass, and Glass's Another Look At Harmony." Tickets for the Tune-In festival's events are on sale now.

The Metropolitan Museum is also hosting a celebration for Philip Glass this April (it appears to have been rescheduled from 1/21). The event is taking place on April 21 at The Temple of Dendur and will feature Glass performing his chamber music with violinist Tim Fain. Unreserved seating is on sale now.

Program information on the Carnegie Hall show below...

Continue reading "Philip Glass birthday parties -- Tune-In Music Festival & more"

by Andrew Frisicano

Many of the weekend's 9/11 memorials chose to mark the anniversary with music. The official commemoration at Ground Zero included performances by Paul Simon (who performed "The Sound of Silence"), James Taylor (who played "You Can Close Your Eyes"), the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Video of those tributes are below.

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Wordless Music Orchestra commemorated the anniversary with three pieces of music for string quartet--Ingram Marshall's "Fog Tropes II," Osvaldo Golijov's "Tenebrae" and Alfred Schnittke's "Collected Songs Where Every Verse Is Filled with Grief"--and the debut of an orchestrated version of William Basinski's "The Disintegration Loops dpl 1.1." The musicians played seated at the center of the Temple of Dendur (where St. Vincent recently performed) while the audience faced them and the looming sandstone structures.

The afternoon's second half was dedicated to Basinski's piece, which has served as a 9/11 elegy since its creation. That relationship will continue: before the start of the program, it was announced that the work would be a permanent fixture at the 9/11 Memorial Museum. The full room listened in reverential silence to Maxim Moston's live arrangement, which unfolded over a reflective 40 minutes. After the last note died out, conductor Ryan McAdams paused for a several-minutes-long moment of silence, before giving way to a round of applause, which both composer and arranger were in attendance to receive.

The entire concert is streaming (with some insightful commentary between pieces) and the live version of "The Disintegration Loops dpl 1.1" will be available as a limited-time download at NPR Music.

Videos are below...

Continue reading "Wordless Orchestra at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (and other 9/11 memorial shows that happened too)"

William Basinski at Issue Project Room (more by Lori Baily)

William Basinski's "The Disintegration Loops" will illuminate the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday, as part of a FREE show "for the people of New York City on September 11". Basinski will not be in attendance but Maxim Moston's live orchestration of his piece, as well as works by Ingram Marshall, Osvaldo Golijov and Alfred Schnittke, will be highlighted by the Wordless Music Orchestra (as previously mentioned). If you can't make it to the 3:30PM showing, then catch the webcast.

After the webcast slide on over to VH1 (on the web or on your telly) to catch a rebroadcast of the 9/11 tribute concert that originally aired on TV 10 years ago.

Also slated in rememberance of 9/11 is Music After, a marathon of music that kicks off at 9:18AM and lasts until midnight at Joyce SoHo (155 Mercer Street). The show is FREE, and will feature a plaethora of performances from names like Laurie Anderson and Nicole Atkins performing works by David Bowie, David Byrne, Lou Reed, and many many others. Full list of performers and the composers are below.

And finally, opera singer Jessye Norman will not sing but speak spoken word at "A Concert of Commemoration, Honoring the 10th Anniversary of 9/11" at 2PM on 9/11 at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. More than 600 musicians will join the not-singing vocalist including England's Really Big Chorus, with the concert highlighting "iconic music of war and peace". Tickets are on sale.

Patti Smith played a concert to remember 9/11 last night. How was that?

More details on the Music After marathon, and its considerable list of contributors, below...

Continue reading "musicians remembering 9/11 on 9/11 (shows at the Met, Linoln Center, in SoHo, on your computer...)"

words by Andrew Frisicano, photos by Bao Nguyen

By the time St. Vincent's Thursday night show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art started, the sky was once again clear (the calm before this weekend's storm). The concert was scheduled to happen on the roof, surrounded by the museum's collection of Anthony Caro sculptures. Instead, because of earlier rain, it was moved to the Temple of Dendur, an Egyptian temple housed its own wing with massively arched ceilings, a mesmerizing reflecting pool and a leafy view of Central Park (it's the same room where Glenn Hansard played and where the Met will be hosting Wordless Orchestra's free September 11th show).

The show itself was designed to serve as a preview for Annie's fall tour (and also as a release party for the new issue of Spin, the cover of which she graces). The bulk of the set came from her new album, Strange Mercy, out September 12th. For me, the record is one that I've been looking forward to all year. Annie's LPs (two so far) are always meticulously constructed, slightly damaged in subject matter and perfectly balanced between poppiness and otherworldlyness. To be honest, I was hoping the new one would jump off from her Our Band Could Be Your Life performance--all dragon-slaying guitar and ear-blasting feedback. Having heard much of Strange Mercy at the Met show, it's safe to say she went another way entirely.

From the start of the show--with its chilly synths and calculated beats--Annie refuted expectations. "I don't want to be a cheerleader no more," was an early hook in the 40-minute set that laid out just what Strange Mercy was all about. The song twisted in her characteristic way, but also had some of the synthy-sheen that's cropped up on two of my other favorite records this year (Kaputt and Bon Iver). She dictated that tone through her backing band--one member on Korg, one on Roland and a drummer with a laptop. Guitar, on other hand, seldom took center-stage: the two tunes that utilized it the most were Actor singles "Save Me From What I Want" and "Marrow."

Instead of flaunting her ability to shred, Annie showed off her talents as a singer and songwriter. On two ballads in particular, "Champagne Year" and Strange Mercy's title track (which had one repeated riff that reminded me of this), Annie gave the songs an emotional reading (you could see someone like Leonard Cohen singing up either tune). "Year of the Tiger" was another new tune that radiated classic composition. The send-off, "Surgeon," a song we've heard, was similarly ear-pleasing and heartbreaking, ending with a raw guitar solo and an explosion of jet-engine whirr.

People wanted an encore--the guys behind me clapped for what seemed like 10 minutes--but that was it.

More picyures from the show below...

Continue reading "St. Vincent played the Met (pics & review)"

Jonathan Toubin's shindig at Beekman Beer Garden tonight is cancelled, but may be rescheduled.

St Vincent's Met roof show tonight "WILL NOW TAKE PLACE IN A GALLERY SPACE WITHIN THE MUSEUM." Check out St. Vincent's brand new video HERE.

As mentioned, St. Vincent Met rooftop show tickets are going on sale HERE, and the're apparently supposed to be on sale today and soon (so keep checking). St. Vincent's Webster Hall show tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster.

Last month we announced that St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) will release her new album Strange Mercy on September 13 via 4AD. We've now got the tracklist and album art for Strange Mercy below.

St. Vincent will also be heading on a fall tour in support of the album which hits NYC on November 3 at Webster Hall. Ticket info coming soon. Luckily, New Yorkers won't have to wait that long to see St. Vincent though, as she will perform the first ever rooftop concert in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art on August 25. More details on this show coming soon.

All tour dates, album art, and tracklist below...

Continue reading "St. Vincent announces tour dates, Met rooftop show & more new album info"

Nick Zinner at MoMA in 2010 (more by Bao Nguyen)

The Met is hosting an evening with Cinema 16 on June 3. The event features Nick Zinner and Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Shahin Motia of Oneida, and MV Carbon of Metalux performing an original score for six short experimental films. Admission is free with museum admission. No reserved seats; space is limited.

Films:

Poeme Electronique (1958), dir. Edgard Varse and Le Corbusier
Screen Test: Salvador Dali (1966), dir. Andy Warhol
The Face (1967), dir. Herbert Kosower
Seeing the World (1937), dir. Rudy Burckhardt
Stone Welcome Mat (2003), dir. Gina Carducci
NY, NY (1957), dir. Francis Thompson

Speaking of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and movies, Karen O recorded a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" with Trent Reznor for the upcoming film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The film is the second adaptation of the Swedish novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson, and the first in English. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is written by Steven Zallian and directed by David Fincher.

Check out Karen O and Trent Reznor's take on "Immigrant Song" in the trailer for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as well as the preview video for Cinema 16 at The Met below.

Continue reading "Nick Zinner, Brian Chase & friends playing w/ films @ the Met, Karen O & Trent Reznor covered Led Zeppelin (listen)"

photos by Andrew Bisdale

Glen Hansard in Temple of Dendur @ The Met -- 5/26/2011

Eddie Vedder will release his second solo album this Tuesday (5/31) Ukulele Songs via Universal, plus a live concert film Water on the Road. The album features guest vocals from Glen Hansard (The Frames, The Swell Season) and Cat Power's Chan Marshall. The DVD, directed by Brendan Canty of Fugzazi and Christoph Green, features performances from Vedder's 2008 solo tour. Ukulele Songs is currently streaming on NPR.

Vedder and Hansard will tour in support of the album this June and July. They will both also perform at the Pearl Jam Labor Day Destination Weekend festival at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, WI on September 3 and 4. Other performers include The Strokes, Queens of the Stone Age, Mudhoney, John Doe, Joseph Arthur, Liam Finn, and special guests to be announced. Tickets go on sale June 4 at 10 AM CST.

Pearl Jam are following the festival with a ten-day Canadian tour and a documentary film, Pearl Jam Twenty, directed by Cameron Crowe. The film will be released with an accompanying book and soundtrack album, for which Cameron Crowe selected the track listing, this fall.

Glen Hansard played a solo acoustic set in the Temple of Dendur at The Met last night (5/26). The show was "in celebration of the exhibition Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York" which is at the museum through July 4th. More pictures from that show, and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Glen Hansard played the Met (pics), on new Eddie Vedder LP (stream it), playing Pearl Jam Labor Day Destination Weekend"

"Tenderly dismantling the romantic mythology surrounding 2006's indie smash Once, The Swell Season chronicles the surprise musical success of that movie's stars Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová and presents a couple that, however deep their bonds, can't live a storybook life for long. An easy sell with viewers who fell for the original film (and the albums it spawned), the doc by Nick August-Perna, Chris Dapkins and Carlo Mirabella-Davis does right by both fans and subjects and could make a profitable arthouse run." [Hollywood Reporter]

Continue reading "Glen Hansard is playing the Met, 'The Swell Season' movie played @ Tribeca Film Fest"

"When Mogwai asked me to shoot a live film with them, it was supposed to happen in Japan. Finally, it had to be in Brooklyn, at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, over 3 nights. Yeah, a bit less exciting, but hey it wasn't really the point. The point was: how to film Mogwai? How to take up the challenge of filming, not only a band on stage (i already expressed many times my lack of interest for the exercice), but MOGWAI!?
Who ever saw Mogwai? a band you would feel more than see - i spent most of their shows eyes closed. How to add images to their sounds, and why?
I asked old pal Nathanael Le Scouarnec to work with me on this. He did most of the edit on the film, and i have to say it's a mindblowing work. The combination of its edit skills and a cherished b/w aesthetic, makes Burning, a 50 minutes experience hopefully reaching towards abstraction at some point. Ah but, it's a film you have to see on a BIG screen with a BIG sound, deal?" - [Vincent Moon, Burning's director]

Want to go to MHOW tonight? We have two pairs of tickets available for giveaway. Details on how to win, with videos and UK tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Mogwai live DVD out & screening today & at the Met (win tix)"

by Andrew Frisicano

ACME...outdoors in warmer times

Tonight (12/17) at the Tank, American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) perform music from Phil Kline and John Cage (two earlier works, String Quartet in Four Parts and Credo In Us). Kline's annual Unsilent Night event just happened in NYC on December 12th (and is still to come in other cities). His piece Exquisite Corpses, on the program for ACME, also prominently features boomboxes. He's also put together a new acoustic arrangement of his string quartet The Blue Room and Other Stories (originally written for Ethel whose version is below), which ACME will be debuting. Tickets are on sale.

Kicking off tonight and running through this weekend, the Tank heads to Brooklyn to present the Blip Festival at the Bell House. If you can't be there, you can listen on WFMU.

Across town and also tonight (12/17), the New York Philharmonic will be launching its Contact! new music series at Symphony Space (95th and Broadway). Four composers - Arlene Sierra, Lei Liang, Marc-André Dalbavie & Arthur Kampela - will be debuting very different compositions with the group. Video and audio previews of those are below. Tickets are on sale. An encore performance (to borrow a phrase) takes place Saturday, December 19th at Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The second Contact! program - with new music from Sean Shepherd, Nico Muhly and Matthias Pintscher - comes April 16th at Symphony Space and April 17th at Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Videos and more info are below...

Continue reading "NY Philharmonic launches Contact! series tonight & ACME performs @ The Tank ++ other dates & videos"

photos by Daniel Solomon

The songs [Patti] Smith chose to perform veered away from her own material. She only performed four original songs ("Trampin'," "Beneath the Southern Cross," "Ghost Dance" and "People Have the Power"), instead imagining what [Robert] Frank might have heard coming over the AM as he drove across the country in the mid-'50s. She has never publicly performed before many of these songs before, and may never again. [Dylan Etc]

Continue reading "Patti Smith saluted Robert Frank @ The Met - pics, setlist"

by Andrew Frisicano

Celebrated downtown composer Rhys Chatham will lead his group in a performance of his seminal 1977 composition Guitar Trio, accompanied by a slide presentation by the artist Robert Longo entitled Pictures for Music, on Friday, April 24, 2009, at 6:00 PM as part of the Metropolitan Museum Concerts series. Longo was one of the original guitarists in Chatham's group, and will perform with the ensemble. In addition to Chatham and Longo on electric guitar, the other performers are Sarah Lipstate, Ned Sublette, Robert Poss, and Adam Wills, electric guitar; Ernie Brooks, electric bass; and Jonathan Kane, drums. John Gernand is the sound engineer.

Guitar Trio, scored for three electric guitars, bass guitar and drums, was a dangerously decibeled exploration of upper overtones emitted in furious strumming across fretboards. As violent articulations shifted, the cacophonous rock sound became background for a highpitched overtone line that sounded with a seemingly independent life, suggesting soft gentility or irritating shrillness.-[NY Times]

Continue reading "Rhys Chatham will perform 'Guitar Trio' at the Met"

About a week after he had his own Superman moment, Jack White made a rare public appearance with his wife, supermodel Karen Elson, to the opening of the "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual Costume Institute Gala on Monday, May 5th. [The Modern Age]

Thursday, May 8, 7:00-10:00 p.m.
Superheroes and Super Chic
The College Group at the Met invites you to join us for a super soirÉe in celebration of the opening of the Costume Institute's spring exhibition "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy." Students will also tour the Wrightsman Galleries, home to the Museum's renowned collection of French furniture and related decorative arts pieces. The event will take place in the Great Hall and the Carroll and Milton Petrie European Sculpture Court.