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My short song cycle True Encounters on poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay will be premiered by Veritas Musicae at Ilshin Hall in Seoul, South Korea on Thursday, November 14th at 7pm. Thanks to William Anderson and The Village Trip for organizing this project.
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When I was asked to set the work of a Greenwich Village poet my reading led me to Edna St. Vincent Millay. A fixture of the Greenwich Village literary scene in the 1920s, Millay wrote witty and sharply intelligent poems that were much admired and widely read. The poems I chose for True Encounters – three short settings for soprano, clarinet, and cello – consider love and lust, aging, and mortality with a wise amalgam of seriousness and irony.
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I was very pleased to come across this website with my essay “Back to the Future,” written in 2023 for the project Zukunftskonzert – Gedanken zur Musik für morgen (futureconcerts – Thoughts on our Music for Tomorrow), celebrating the 30th anniversary of Das Neue Ensemble. (It’s especially nice to be in the company of two wonderful writers: Paul Griffiths and Kenneth Baird.) The complete book of essays, edited by Stefan Fricke and Jan Ehlert, is available from Wallstein Verlag.
- I'll be giving an artist talk and composition master class at the University of New Mexico on Friday, August 30th, 2024 as part of the Robb Symposium Series. My thanks to two wonderful composers and friends Karola Obermüller and Peter Gilbert for inviting me to be on this terrific series.
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A wonderful performance by Daniel Lippel and Colleen Bernstein of my duet for guitar and vibraphone For Irving Lippel at the opening concert of The Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat, on Saturday, June 16th, 2024.
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I'm delighted that the superb cellist Caroline Stinson will give the world premiere of Continuance for cello and two-channel audio (fixed media) on her recital Singing Bodies with pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, on Sunday, March 3rd, 2024.
UPDATE: Here's the video (time stamped to Continuance, but be sure to check out the rest of the concert, with pieces by Daniel S. Godfrey, Steven Bryant, and Georges Enesco).
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My book Elliott Carter's Late Music is now available in paperback at a fraction of the price of the hardback edition. There's a page for it on the Cambridge University Press website, and you can order at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or your favorite bookseller.
- I'll be giving a short talk on Elliott Carter's Triple Duo to introduce the New York New Music Ensmeble's performance of the piece, conducted by Eduardo Leandro, at the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation, 87 Eldridge Street, on Monday, February 5th at 7:00pm.
- I'll be giving a talk on Elliott Carter’s music and my own at NYU on Tuesday, November 14, at 12:30pm. Musical examples will range from the Carter Cello Sonata to War’s “Cisco Kid”(!)
- I had a great time moderating a panel discussion with James Baker, Tyson Davis, and Louis Karchin at the Da Capo Chamber Players concert on October 15th, 2023 at the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York City. There were excellent performances of pieces by Tyson and Lou and three classics by Elliott Carter: Con Legerezza Pensosa, Enchanted Preludes, and Triple Duo. Kudos to Da Capo for fifty+ years of of inspiring performances and exemplary dedication to contemporary music.
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Continuance is the third in a series of pieces for live instrument and two-channel audio (fixed media) in which the audio part is entirely composed of samples of the live instrumentalist’s playing. It is thus a dialog between a cellist and her recorded image, akin to the way we “overhear” and respond to our own fanciful or even overwhelming thoughts. The piece is a single movement in which a slow and expressive line for the cello – sometimes alone and sometimes interacting with the audio part – is repeatedly intercut with episodes of rhythmically varied pizzicato. The piece was written in memory of Richard Evans, with thanks to Melissa Dibble, and it is dedicated to the wonderful cellist Caroline Stinson, who commissioned it, and who generously played the cello samples. They were recorded by Ryan Streber at Oktaven audiO.
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Baritone Christopher Dylan Herbert performed my setting of James Tate's poem “Goodtime Jesus,” as part of his his excellent, imaginative, and wide-ranging recital at William Paterson University in February.
Here's the video of just my piece:
And here's Chris's YouTube channel with links to many other pieces:
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My new book Elliott Carter's Late Music is now available. There's a page for it on the Cambridge University Press website, and you can order at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or your favorite bookseller.
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My review of Elliott Carter Speaks: Unpublished Lectures, Edited and with an introduction by Laura Emmery (University of Illinois Press, 2021) is out in Music Theory Online 29, no. 1 (March 2023).
Carter, 10 Years On - I'll be co-chairing a paper session – Carter, 10 Years On – at the joint AMS/SEM/SMT conference in New Orleans on Thursday, November 10, 2022. The session, organized with my colleagues Marguerite Boland and Guy Capuzzo, features three papers: “Narratology in the ‘Practice Session Model’ of Elliott Carter’s Fifth String Quartet” by Christian Carey, “Carter, Pedagogy, and the Undergraduate Theory Curriculum” by Peter Smucker, and “Carter the Romantic” by James Wierzbicki. Anne Shreffler will be the Discussant.
UPDATE: Unfortunately James Wierzbicki has had to withdraw from the panel, so I'll be taking his place with a paper on “The Publication of Elliott Carter’s Epigrams.“
Interview in eQuarternotes - Thanks to Boosey & Hawkes for publishing this interview about my new book Elliott Carter's Late Music in their newsletter eQuarternotes.
Interview with Andrew Ford for The Music Show - Delighted to be a guest on The Music Show with Andrew Ford to talk about my new book Elliott Carter's Late Music. The program features some classic Carter recordings as well as excerpts from some of the terrific interviews Andrew did with E.C. over the years.
Interview with Dan Lippel of New Focus Recordings - It was a pleasure to talk with Dan Lippel about my compositions on New Focus Recordings. He did a great job of editing in excerpts of the pieces in a way that connects seamlessly with our conversation.
But Wait... The Luxury Continues on the New Music Series at William Paterson - Thanks to Alejandro De Los Santos, Shanna Echeverry, John Ferrari, Kayleigh Morpeth, James Nelson, and Timothy Schneider for their terrific performance of my fantasia for six voice-over announcers But Wait... The Luxury Continues (with texts from print advertising) on the William Paterson University New Music Series, Monday, November 29th, 2021. Co-Directors Carl Patrick Bolleia and John Ferrari are doing a great job with the series and John coached the But Wait... rehearsals as well.
Around the Bend Score Video - Great performance of Around the Bend by Flexible Music: Timothy Ruedeman (saxophones), Haruka Fujii (percussion), Daniel Lippel (guitar), and Eric Huebner (piano) from their New Focus Recordings release FM.
Like Minds Score Video - The amazing Daniel Lippel plays Like Minds, from his New Focus Recordings release Mirrored Spaces.
“Goodtime Jesus” world premiere - Baritone Andrew White premieres my setting of James Tate's poem “Goodtime Jesus,” streamed live on YouTube, Saturday, July 17, 2:00pm, EST (link below).
UPDATE: Here's the video of just my piece.
And here's the entire concert.
Only Human Score Video - The wonderful Marianne Gythfeldt plays Only Human, from her New Focus Recordings release Only Human.
For Irving Lippel Score Video - Great performance by Jeffrey Irving (vibraphone), and Daniel Lippel (guitar). From the New Focus Recordings release Sustenance by Daniel Lippel.
Elliott Carter Studies Online - Volume 4 of Elliott Carter Studies Online is out, with contributions by Daniel Guberman, Andrew W. Mead, and Mark Sallmen, and three previously unpublished interviews with Elliott Carter. You can find it at studies.elliottcarter.org.
Guest Appearance on John Lamberton's Bridge Podcast - Topics include Elliott Carter, my own compositions, and (of course) coffee!
Desire Paths in Tokyo - Pianist Mari Asakawa plays Desire Paths, written for her, on a program [pdf] with pieces by Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Jason Eckardt, and Hiroya Miura in Tokyo, Japan, on October 29, 2020.
Desire Paths world premiere - Pianist Mari Asakawa gives the world premiere of my new piano piece Desire Paths, written for her and commissioned by the Yame Bösendorfer Music Festival Project, in Yame, Japan, on March 17, 2020.
Mirrored Spaces - Daniel Lippel's album Mirrored Spaces is out now on New Focus Recordings, with pieces by Christopher Bailey, Kyle Bartlett, Douglas Boyce, Sidney Corbett, Sergio Kafejian, Daniel Lippel, Ryan Streber, Orianna Webb, Karin Wetzel, Ethan Wickman, Dalia Raudonikyté With, and my piece Like Minds.
![[Mirrored Spaces CD cover]](images/mirroredSpaces.jpg)
Available from bandcamp, Naxos Direct, Amazon, and Apple Music
Night Fantasies Lecture Recitals - Very pleased to announce that Tokyo-based pianist Mari Asakawa and I will be presenting a series of lecture recitals on Elliott Carter's Night Fantasies in September, 2019. Subtitled "A Modernist Romantic Vision," the presentation covers the Romantic influences that inspired Night Fantasies, the intricacies of the piece’s harmonic and rhythmic language, and the issues of performance practice raised by a piece that the great pianist and critic Charles Rosen called “the most extraordinary large keyboard work written since the death of Ravel.” The presentation concludes with a complete performance of Night Fantasies by Ms. Asakawa. The events at Eastman, CUNY, and New England Conservatory are free and open to the public, but let me know if you'd like to attend one of the others and we'll invite you as a guest.
- Fri Sep 13, 3:30pm, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY
- Thu Sep 19, Manhattan School of Music, New York, NY
- Fri Sep 20, 3:30pm, New York University, New York, NY
- Tue Sep 24, 12:30pm, The CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY
- Fri Sep 27, 10:00am, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA
Carter's Harmony - My article "Harmony in Elliott Carter's Late Music" is out now in the new issue of Music Theory Online.
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Seven Minutes in New Jersey - Seven Minutes is an anthology of six very short (one minute) pieces for two-channel audio, largely written for Rob Voisey’s 60x60 project over the past fifteen years. The outlier is a new piece, Eagles, which clocks in at a whopping 1:47.
Thursday, March 7, 2019, 12:30pm
William Paterson University Composer-in-residence Day
300 Pompton Road
Wayne, NJBonkers in New Jersey - The wonderful Glen Velez and the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, conducted by Payton MacDonald, will give the New Jersey premiere of Bonkers for solo frame drum and six percussionists:
Monday, February 4, 2019, 7:00pm
The New Music Series at William Paterson University
300 Pompton Road
Wayne, NJOnly Human - Marianne Gythfeldt's Only Human is out now on New Focus Recordings, with pieces by Elizabeth Hoffman, Mikel Kuehn, Eric Lyon, Robert Morris, David Taddie, and my piece Only Human.
![[Only Human CD cover]](images/gythfeldtOnlyHuman.jpg)
Available from bandcamp, Naxos Direct, Amazon, and Apple Music
"Gythfeldt is setting a new standard for her instrument here."
—Jeremy Shatan, Anearful, Best of 2018"The technology never overshadows the essentially human rhythms underlying the music and the equally human urge to convey, though sound, an expressive message from one person to another."
—Daniel Barbiero, Avant Music NewsElliott Carter Studies Online - Volume 3 of Elliott Carter Studies Online is out, with contributions by Nancy Black, Marguerite Boland, Guy Capuzzo, Elliott Carter, Laura Emmery, and Gregor Herzfeld. You can find it at studies.elliottcarter.org.
Bonkers world premiere - The amazing Glen Velez and the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, conducted by Payton MacDonald, will give the world premiere of Bonkers for solo frame drum and six percussionists:
Saturday, November 18, 2018, 2:00pm
PASIC18
Indianapolis, IN
Lamed Lamed Hey world premiere - My contribution to the Chorus 72 project – a series of 72 choral pieces by 72 composers, inspired by Ranier Gross's painting "72 Names" – will receive its world premiere by the CompCord Chorus, conducted by Peter Jarvis.
Monday, September 24, 2018, 7:00pm
Shea Center for the Performing Arts
300 Pompton Rd, Wayne, NJ
Ranier Gross, "Lamed Lamed Hey," 2013 - 2014, oil and pigments on paper, 20 x 20", 51 x 51cm
Silex Variations in NYC - The wonderful pianist Mari Asakawa will be playing my Silex Variations on her NYC recital in September, with a full slate of pieces by two of my musical heroes: Elliott Carter (Night Fantasies, Matribute, 90+, Two Diversions, Caténaires) and Milton Babbitt (Post-Partitions; Overtime). The recital celebrates the U.S. release of her new CD The Flow of Music on Centaur Records.
Saturday, September 22, 2018, 8:00pm
(I’ll be giving a pre-concert talk at 7:30pm)
Benzaquen Hall, The DiMenna Center
450 West 37th Street, New York, NY
For information and to reserve tickets, please write to tickets9222018@gmail.com
MTSMA & MTSNYS - I’ll be giving two talks on “Harmony in Elliott Carter’s Late Music”:
Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic
Sixteenth Annual Meeting
March 23-24, 2018
William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ
(Session on Sat. Mar. 24, 9:30-11:00am)Music Theory Society of New York State
47th Annual Conference
April 14-15, 2018
Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, NY
(Session on Sat. Apr. 14, 9:00am-12:00pm)
Silex Variations in Tokyo - Pianist Mari Asakawa plays my Silex Variations on a program that also includes Babbitt (Post-Partitions; Overtime) and Carter (Night Fantasies, Matribute, 90+, Two Diversions, Caténaires) to celebrate the release of her new CD The Flow of Music on Centaur Records.
Friday, January 26, 2018, 7:00pm
(I’ll be giving a pre-concert talk with Yuriko Hase Kojima at 6:30pm)
Suginami Koukaidou, Tokyo, Japan
Like Minds performance - Daniel Lippel - guitar
Saturday, December 9, 2017, 7:00pm
Spectrum, 70 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn, NYClarinet Concerto world premiere - The world premiere of my Clarinet Concerto with Marianne Gythfeldt as soloist and Paul Hostetter conducting the Schwob Philharmonic will take place at Columbus State University in Columbus, GA on Sunday, October 1st, 2017.
UPDATE: ...and there‘s video:
“The Late Elliott Carter” - My article “The Late Elliott Carter” is up at NewMusicBox.org. Part of their series “Elliott Carter: An Anniversary Celebration of his Life and Legacy.”
JUL 7, 2017Elliott Carter Studies Online - Volume 2 of Elliott Carter Studies Online is out, with contributions by Jonathan W. Bernard, Elliott Carter, Felix Meyer, Brenda Ravenscroft, and Douglas Rust. Check it out at studies.elliottcarter.org.
FEB 21, 2017“Lost Jewelry” at Spectrum - The fabulous Nina Berman and Steven Beck will be performing my song “Lost Jewelry” – a setting of Hilda Raz‘s poem – along with music by Milton Babbitt and Roger Stubblefield on Sat Mar 18, 2017 at Spectrum, 121 Ludlow St, New York, NY, 7:00pm.
FEB 10, 2017Elliott Carter Studies - Now in paperback.
JUN 26, 2016What Next? - A longer version of my essay “Sense and Sensibility: Music on Stage in What Next?” is out in the collection In Search of the “Great American Opera”: Tendenzen des amerikanischen Musiktheaters, edited by Frédéric Döhl and Gregor Herzfeld, available from Waxmann.
APR 8, 2016Piano Quartet performance - I’ll be a guest on the Mannes Faculty Composers concert on Wed. April 13, 2016 at 5:00pm at the Mannes Concert Hall, 55 W 13 Street, New York, NY. A terrific group of Mannes students and alumni will be performing my Piano Quartet along with pieces by David Loeb, Lowell Liebermann, and a world ememiere by Robert Cuckson. All are invited!
MAR 15, 2016Elliott Carter Studies Online - The first issue of Elliott Carter Studies Online is out, with contributions by Joe Barron, Richard Derby, Jake Johnson, Andrew Mead, Jeff Nichols, Nancy Yunhwa Rao, and Helen C. Thomas. Check it out at studies.elliottcarter.org.
JAN 23, 2016Visiting Scholar at Mannes - I‘ve been asked to be the first Visiting Scholar at the Mannes School of Music at The New School for the Spring semester 2016. I’ll be giving a talk on my Elliott Carter research and presenting some of my own music as well.
Like Minds performances - Daniel Lippel - guitar
- Monday, February 1, 2016, 7:00pm
New Music Series at William Paterson University
300 Pompton Road, Wayne, NJ- Thursday, January 28, 2016, 12:30pm
Midday Artist Series at William Paterson University
300 Pompton Road, Wayne, NJ
JAN 7, 2016Like Minds performance - Daniel Lippel - guitar
Sunday, January 10, 2016, 8:00pm
Frequency Series at Constellation, curated by Peter Margasak
3111 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL
OCT 5, 2015Like Minds performance - Daniel Lippel - guitar
Sunday, October 11, 2015, 7:00pm
Spectrum NYC, 121 Ludlow Street, New York, NY
FEB 17, 2015Like Minds performance - Daniel Lippel - guitar
Outside the Box Festival
University of Southern Illinois Carbondale
Thursday, April 2, 2015, 7:30pmLike Minds performance - Daniel Lippel - guitar
Spectrum NYC, 121 Ludlow Street, New York, NY
Thursday, March 29, 2015, 5:00pmLike Minds performance - World premiere of Like Minds for guitar and two-channel audio, written for the wonderful guitarist Daniel Lippel
Midday Artists Series, Shea Center at William Paterson University
Thursday, March 12, 2015, 12:30pm
AUG 20, 2014What Next? - My essay “Sense and Sensibility: Music on Stage in What Next?” is out in the Summer 2014 issue of The Chicago Review.
OCT 13, 2014Teleplay II performance - August 21, 2014, 7:30 PM
Birmingham New Music Festival 2014 – Opening Concert
Moonlight on the Mountain, 585 Shades Crest Road, Birmingham, AL
60x60 (2012) 10th International Mix
APR 16, 2014Talk at Juilliard - I’ll be giving a talk on Elliott Carter‘s late music at the Juilliard Graduate Forum on Tues. Apr. 22 at 5pm in Morse Recital Hall.
JAN 24, 2014Like Minds - Very pleased to announce a new piece: Like Minds for guitar and two-channel audio, written for the wonderful guitarist Daniel Lippel. Thanks for your patience Dan!
Teleplay II performance - January 29, 2014, 8:00 PM
Gerald R. Daniel Recital Hall, Long Beach, CA
60x60 (2012) 10th International MixTeleplay II performance - January 29, 2014, 8:00 PM
Earlids Sound Festival at The New School
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
60x60 (2012) New York Minutes Mix
NOV 15, 2013Teleplay II performance - Big Apple Bytes
November 15, 2013, 4:30 PM
Ives Hall, Lewis University, Romeoville, IL
60x60 (2012) New York Minutes Mix
NOV 12, 2013Elliott Carter Studies review - by Mark Sealey on ClassicalNet.
“…a collection of over a dozen expertly-wrought essays amounting to a highly useful in-depth survey and summary of Carter‘s achievement.”
NOV 1, 2013Teleplay II selected - for the 60x60 (2012) 10th Annual International Mix
Electronic Music Midwest Festival
October 24, 2013, 8:00 PM
Performing Arts Center, Kansas City, KS Community College
SEP 20, 2013Teleplay II performance - September 23, 2013, 8:00 PM, Clarke Recital Hall, Frost School of Music, University of Miami, 60x60 (2012) Presenters Mix
AUG 29, 2013Elliott Carter Studies review - by Laura Emmery in Twentieth-Century Music 10, no. 2 (September, 2013).
“Elliott Carter Studies is an extraordinary volume and a vital contribution to Carter scholarship.”
AUG 9, 2013Elliott Carter Studies review - by Edward Jurkowski in Music Library Association Notes, September, 2013.
“In sum, this is a most valuable addition to the growing body of Elliott Carter literature.”
MAY 27, 2013Teleplay II performance - May 31, 2013, Webster University Film Series, Winifred Moore Auditorium, 470 E. Lockwood, St. Louis, MO, 60x60 (2012) Presenters Mix
MAY 18, 2013Elliott Carter tribute concert at Juilliard - Wed. May 22, 2013, 5pm, Peter Jay Sharp Theater (155 West 65th Street). NY premiere of Carter‘s song cycle What Are Years (poems by Marianne Moore), along with Mad Regales (poems by John Ashbery), and a few surprises. Pick up an invitation on my Facebook page or Twitter feed and RSVP so you won‘t have to wait in line on the day of the show.
- I'll be co-chairing a paper session – Carter, 10 Years On – at the joint AMS/SEM/SMT conference in New Orleans on Thursday, November 10, 2022. The session, organized with my colleagues Marguerite Boland and Guy Capuzzo, features three papers: “Narratology in the ‘Practice Session Model’ of Elliott Carter’s Fifth String Quartet” by Christian Carey, “Carter, Pedagogy, and the Undergraduate Theory Curriculum” by Peter Smucker, and “Carter the Romantic” by James Wierzbicki. Anne Shreffler will be the Discussant.