Richard Buckner released his most recent album, Our Blood, last year on Merge and toured in support of it with labelmate David Kilgour. That tour was supposed to hit The Bell House in August but was cancelled due to the hurricane which cancelled every other show that day too.

Richard Buckner is once again planning a NYC show, which is set to happen on January 19 at Symphony Space for the "Rebels + Reds" series which pairs an artist with a wine chosen for the evening by wine connoisseur Keith Beavers. We're giving away a pair of tickets to this show (details on how to enter below) and are also offering the opportunity to purchase tickets at a reduced rate by entering the word "VEGAN" when purchasing tickets (you enter the code towards the end of checkout).

The Symphony Space show is one of few shows he has scheduled at the moment. All dates and contest details below...

Continue reading "Richard Buckner playing shows -- one at Symphony Space (win tix OR buy them at a reduced rate)"

George Wein & Pete Seeger

Clearwater, founded by Pete Seeger, honors George Wein (founder of the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals) with the first annual "Power of Song Award." Performers include Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Suzanne Vega, Joan Osborne, Guy Davis, David Amram, Toshi Reagon, Lucy Kaplansky, George Wein and others to be announced soon. Proceeds benefit Clearwater's educational programs. For more on Clearwater visit www.clearwater.org.

The show is Friday, October 21 at Symphony Space in NYC and tickets are on sale.

by Andrew Frisicano, photos by Stephanie Berger

NYP rehearsing Nico's "Detailed Instructions" (via)

Members of New York Philharmonic and conductor/NYP music director Alan Gilbert premiered new works by Nico Muhly, Matthias Pintscher and Sean Shepherd at Symphony Space last Friday (4/16). The show was the second edition of NYP's CONTACT! series, which comissions new music from young composers and debuted in December. Online radio station Q2 will be broadcasting the performance, which included live interviews conducted by WNYC's John Schaefer, on Thursday, April 22nd at 7 pm and Saturday, April 24th at 4pm.

With a darker hued string section led by the violas, [Nico Muhly] work Detailed Instructions takes on a sound world that stood apart from the other pieces on the program. Muhly is post-minimal in orientation. And while a couple of the composers in the audience who sat near me groused at intermission that his work is 'indebted to Philip Glass,' what they didn't seem to hear was Muhly's playful departures from mainstream minimalism.

Instead of Glass' symmetrical use of ostinati, Muhly's repeating figures dart in and out of the 'expected phrase lengths,' creating delightful surprises and heady syncopations. In the more reposeful central section, he channeled an appealing lyricism from his recent pop-based excursions into a spacious orchestral mold. The third section gave the NYPO musicians a chance to up the bpm quotient, in a breakneck paced, dazzling finale. Make no mistake, Muhly is no mere retro-minimalist; quite the contrary, he's a compelling new voice on the scene. [File Under?]

As mentioned before, Nico Muhly's arrangements can be found on the new records by Jonsi and Sam Amidon.

The Symphony Space show was followed by a performance at Metropolitan Museum of Art the day after, which was the last Contact! show of the NY Phil "season" (which runs through July). The series picks up again with three new commissions next December. Pictures from Friday's show are below...

Continue reading "NY Phil's recent CONTACT! show streaming online & in pics"

My Brightest Diamond @ Bowery Ballroom in January (more by Chris La Putt)

Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) will be curating a two-night event with music, film and more at 92YTribeca in NYC on March 5th and 6th.

Over two nights, Shara hosts a tremendous cast of artists to showcase the different ways people create. From the sewing installations of Dena Verdesca, to the yarn circle lead by Amy Fritch, to the provocative photography and Tableau Vivant performances of Sarah Small, to the paper art installation and spontaneous poetry of Tim Fite, to the live projections by video artist Deborah Johnson and the flower graffiti of Nikki Borodi - you will hardly recognize the 92YTribeca gallery and mainstage as the spaces are transformed by these wildly creative artists. To add to the magic, Shara has brought together live performances by puppeteer Lake Simons, Brooklyn acappella group Black Sea Hotel, songwriters Dayna Kurtz & Mamie Minch, a screening by filmmaker Cathryn Davis Zommer, plus a special performance by Shara Worden with the dynamic chamber ensemble yMusic and other surprise guests artists to be announced.

The nights - dubbed "Diamonds, Teeth and Yarn" - will kick off 92YTribeca's Women's History Month calendar. Tickets to both nights are on sale. The full schedule, as listed below, includes at least one "Special Guest To Be Announced".

Shara played Bowery Ballroom in January. She's also on the new Clogs' album; she and the band will be at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville at the end of March, where yMusic (playing with Shara at 92YTribeca) will perform a piece by St. Vincent.

yMusic will be playing with Gabriel Kahane on Wednesday, March 3rd as part of the American Songbook Series at Lincoln Center's Allen Room (where Dirty Projectors will play Getty Address with Alarm Will Sound this Friday). On March 5th and 6th (the same nights as these 92YTribeca shows), yMusic will be at Symphony Space with Gina Gibney Dance Company.

All tour dates and the lineup for Shara's two 92YTribeca events are below...

Continue reading "Shara Worden curates 2 nights @ 92YTribeca -lineup includes yMusic who play w/ Gabriel Kahane, St Vincent & more"

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 Lori Baily

"I just saw Robyn last night, at the Symphony Space here in Manhattan, performing his oddball 1984 "psych-folk" album I Often Dream of Trains in its more-or-less entirety to be filmed for an upcoming documentary. Now, those of you who read this blog regularly know what a sucker I am for Robyn Hitchcock -- for his floppy gray hair, his loud shirts, his spaced-out free association stage monologues, his haunting melodies, his wicked sense of humor, his absurdist lyrics about death, sex, and decay. Last night's show was a delight from start to finish, even the moments when he blew a line or played the wrong chord and, with a nonchalant "take 2", redid it. I sincerely hope the film's editors don't cut out all the bits he prefaced by saying, "This is the part they'll edit out," because with Robyn Hitchcock those are definitely the choicest moments." [The Song in My Head Today]

Lori agreed that the show was really fun. more pictures below...

Continue reading "Robyn Hitchcock @ Symphony Space, NYC - pics"

Spend an evening of funky, folky, fantastic fun with Nellie McKay and other young and emerging artists to benefit the New York Civil Liberties Union and honor the long-standing link between music and social change.

Starring Nellie McKay, "Voices" brings together established and up-and-coming artists to celebrate, protect, and practice the principle of free expression - a cornerstone of civil liberties......

.....Also performances by Jenny Bruce, Clinton Curtis, Megan, Fogarty, Rachael Sage, Liana Stampur and Lucy Woodward.

All Nellie McKay dates (8 in the NYC area included) below...

Continue reading "Nellie McKay - 'for Change' and other 2008 Tour Dates"