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Ensemble Dal Niente performs Charon at the Issue Project Room

On Friday, March 12, 2010, Ensemble Dal Niente will perform one of my latest works, Charon for clarinet, violin and cello. The concert begins at 7pm and will take place at the Issue Project Room in Brooklyn (232 3rd St.) Tickets are $15 at the door, $12 in advance and $10 for members. I've had the good fortune to work with Ensemble Dal Niente for the last few years and have long admired their dedication to presenting truly unique programs. Friday's concert continues this tradition, featuring works by Liza Lim, Tristan Murail, Aaron Einbond, Colin Tucker and Keeril Makan.

As a teaser for the program, click the links below to hear past performances of my music by Ensemble Dal Niente.

• Click to hear Ensemble Dal Niente perform an excerpt of Drew Baker's Ellipsis for nine players.
• Click to hear Ensemble Dal Niente perform an excerpt of Drew Baker's Inter for flute, bass clarinet, violin and cello.

Note: see bottom of the page for Xenakis concert links

New York is currently enjoying a wide array of events celebrating Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001). In addition to various concerts throughout the city, The Drawing Center is hosting Iannis Xenakis Composer, Architect, Visionary. The exhibit, which runs until April 10, 2010, presents pre-compositional sketches as well as hand-written scores and architectural plans. The Drawing Center's site describes the show as exploring "the fundamental role of drawing in the work of Greek avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis." Indeed, the exhibit reveals how Xenakis often began his creative process by sketching shapes, color-coded patterns and motifs. In Sharon Kanach's essay Music to be Seen: Tracing Xenakis's Creative Processes (featured in the show catalogue), Xenakis is quoted as saying, "In retrospect, I think it was more natural for me to draw...I was convinced that one could invent another way of writing music. I started imagining sound phenomena with the help of drawings."

On Wednesday, January 27th (tomorrow), the ai ensemble will perform works by Alvin Lucier and Morton Feldman. The concert is at the Gershwin Hotel in NYC (7 E. 27th St. between Fifth and Madison) and will begin at 7pm. I am of the opinion that the music of Lucier and Feldman is best experienced live. This is perhaps most apparent in Lucier's Music for Cello with One or More Vases, one of the works to be presented on Wednesday. Each performance ensures a unique rendering given the differences in venue and setup (number of vases). Lucier further articulates this point in a conversation with cellist Arne Deforce:

"I think of the vases as small rooms, in which the sound of the cello gets trapped. We know that every room has a set of resonances, determined by its size and physical dimensions. It’s the same for a pot, where there is one strong resonance frequency. I think of the pots as resonant environments. The theatrical and visual aspect that goes with the piece, comes afterwards. Each player that plays the piece uses a different set of pots. So, there isn't only one visual image, it’s just sounds of the cello getting trapped in the pots, and each pot has its own resonant frequency."