Anne signed autographs of her new cd, Seasons...Dreams at Antonio Strad Violins. It was nice catching up and meeting her husband. So glad they are in Austin now!
David Mollenauer
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Friends in town
Tuesday had some great visitors to San Antonio - including a former classmate of mine, Anne Akiko Meyers!
Anne signed autographs of her new cd, Seasons...Dreams at Antonio Strad Violins. It was nice catching up and meeting her husband. So glad they are in Austin now!
David Mollenauer
Anne signed autographs of her new cd, Seasons...Dreams at Antonio Strad Violins. It was nice catching up and meeting her husband. So glad they are in Austin now!
David Mollenauer
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
10 things about sound
Some great insights about Sound from Julian Treasure:
1.) You are a chord.
2.) One definition of health may be that that chord is in complete harmony.
3.) We see one octave; we hear ten.
4.) We adopt listening positions.
5.) Noise harms and even kills.
6.) Schizophonia is unhealthy.
7. Compressed music makes you tired.
8. Headphone abuse is creating deaf kids.
9. Natural sound and silence are good for you.
10. Sound can heal.
More about TED, click here.
1.) You are a chord.
2.) One definition of health may be that that chord is in complete harmony.
3.) We see one octave; we hear ten.
4.) We adopt listening positions.
5.) Noise harms and even kills.
6.) Schizophonia is unhealthy.
7. Compressed music makes you tired.
8. Headphone abuse is creating deaf kids.
9. Natural sound and silence are good for you.
10. Sound can heal.
More about TED, click here.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Our friend David Heuser
SA Composer chosen by American Composer's Orchestra
American Composers Orchestra (ACO) announces Playing It UNsafe,
the first and only professional research and development lab to support the
creation of cutting-edge new American orchestral music through
no-holds-barred experimentation, encouraging composers to do anything
but “play it safe.” The composers participating in Playing It UNsafe
are Sean Friar, David Heuser, Joan La Barbara, Laura Schwendinger,
and Henry Threadgill, selected from a national search for their willingness
to experiment and stretch their own musical sensibilities, and their ability
to test the limits of the orchestra. Playing It UNsafe grew out of ACO’s
ongoing mission to commission and perform new music that expands
the range of possibilities for – and challenges convention notions
about – orchestral music.
Playing It UNsafe is a season-long initiative that includes a unique
incubation process of laboratory workshops and public readings,
and collaborative feedback, many open to the public. Audiences will
have their first opportunity to see and hear the composers’
works-in-progress at the opening lab workshop, free of charge
(no reservations required), on Monday, October 18 from 2-4:30pm
at the JCC in Manhattan (334 Amsterdam Avenue). Subsequent lab
workshops open to the public will take place on Thursday, December 9
(2-4:30pm); Saturday, January 29 (2-5pm), Tuesday, March 1 (2-4:30pm),
and Thursday, March 3 (2-4:30pm). Playing It UNsafe will culminate on
Friday, March 4, 2011 at 7:30pm with a concert featuring all of the “unsafe”
new works at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, conducted by ACO Music
Director George Manahan.
None of the new pieces developed for Playing It UNsafe will be conventional
or typical orchestral fare. Sean Friar’s Clunker Concerto will be for a
percussion ensemble playing a junked car with the orchestra; saxophonist
and composer/improviser Henry Threadgill asks orchestra members to
improvise and interact at an extremely high level, yielding a new strategy
for the conductor to lead the orchestra in No Gate, No White Trenches,
Butterfly Effect; vocalist and composer Joan La Barbara’s sound painting
for voice and orchestra, In solitude this fear is lived, will utilize orchestra
members placed throughout the entire concert hall; Laura Schwendinger
will collaborate with her lighting-designer cousin Leni Schwendinger to
fuse music and visuals into a seamless mix; and David Heuser’s Dysfunctional
Families will pit orchestral instrument families against each other in an
uprising that threatens to overthrow the conductor.
Playing It UNsafe is unusual in that it does away with the expectations
often associated with orchestral premieres that can squelch composers’
creative impulses – limited rehearsal time, restrictive instrumental possibilities,
pre-conceived programmatic or thematic ideas for concerts – and most
importantly, the overwhelming pressure on composers to do something “safe.”
Playing It UNsafe will feature Orchestra Underground, ACO’s groundbreaking
small orchestra ensemble that seeks to redefine orchestra music by embracing
a wide gamut of musical styles, unusual instrumentations and spatial orientations
of musicians, technological innovations, and multimedia/multidisciplinary
collaborations. Since its launch in 2004, Orchestra Underground has
commissioned and premiered nearly 50 cutting-edge new works. The program
is a major expansion of a pilot program ACO undertook two seasons ago,
and a desire by the orchestra to serve as a catalyst for new ideas within
the orchestra community.
About the Playing It UNsafe Composer David Heuser's Dysfunctional
Families(http://www.davidheuser.com/)
Dysfunctional Families is a piece about the orchestra reacting to itself,
where the supremacy of the conductor is undermined as the top-down hierarchy
of the orchestra meets grass-roots uprisings, and where the audience finds
themselves literally in the middle of inter- and intra-family battles. The piece
will marry orchestral music with theatrical elements, particularly those that
break the fourth wall. Performers fight within their section as well as across
sections in what ends up being an all-out war for control of the symphony.
The conflicts play out physically, with performers moving to different parts
of the stage as their allegiances change. The conductor strives always to be
in command of the ensemble, but, like war everywhere, he might put down a
rebellion in the brass only to turn and find out the strings in an uproar.
David Heuser’s music has been called “thoughtful, beautiful, and wonderfully
made” (San Antonio Express-News), “all-American music at its most dynamic
and visceral” (Houston Chronicle), and “just the sort of music classical music
needs more of” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Heuser considers himself a musical
storyteller. His most characteristic works are rhythmically active, strongly melodic,
and often deal with extremes of tempo, dynamics and register. Heuser began
composing almost immediately after his first piano lessons at the age of seven.
He attended the Eastman School of Music and then the Indiana University
School of Music, where he received his doctorate. He is now a Professor at the
University of Texas at San Antonio teaching music composition and theory,
and electronic music. He has received commissions from such ensembles as
the San Antonio Symphony, the New York Youth Symphony, SOLI Chamber Ensemble,
and the Texas Music Festival Orchestra.
About ACO
Now entering its 34th year, American Composers Orchestra is the only orchestra
in the world dedicated to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation
of music by American composers. ACO makes the creation of new opportunities
for American composers and new American orchestral music its central purpose.
Through concerts at Carnegie Hall and other venues, recordings, internet and radio
broadcasts, educational programs, New Music Readings, and commissions, ACO
identifies today’s brightest emerging composers, champions prominent established
composers as well as those lesser-known, and increases regional, national, and
international awareness of the infinite variety of American orchestral music,
reflecting geographic, stylistic, and temporal diversity. ACO also serves as an
incubator of ideas, research, and talent, as a catalyst for growth and change among
orchestras, and as an advocate for American composers and their music.
To date, ACO has performed music by more than 600 American composers,
including 200 world premieres and newly commissioned works. Among the orchestra’s
innovative programs have been Sonidos de las Américas, six annual festivals devoted
to Latin American composers and their music; Coming to America, a program immersing
audiences in the ongoing evolution of American music through the work of immigrant
composers; Orchestra Tech, a long-term initiative to integrate new digital technologies
in the symphony orchestra; Improvise!, a festival devoted to the exploration of
improvisation and the orchestra; Playing it Unsafe, a new laboratory for the research
and development of experimental new works for orchestra; and Orchestra Underground,
ACO’s entrepreneurial cutting-edge orchestral ensemble that embraces new technology,
eclectic instruments, influences, and spatial orientation of the orchestra, new experiments
in the concert format, and multimedia and multi-disciplinary collaborations.
Extending its mission beyond New York City, ACO launched EarShot in 2008. EarShot
is a multi-institutional network that assists orchestras around the country in new
music readings and composer development opportunities. EarShot’s recent programs
include new music readings for emerging composers with the Nashville Symphony,
Memphis Symphony, New York Youth Symphony and Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
More information can be found at www.earshotnetwork.org.
Among the honors ACO has received are special awards from the American Academy
of Arts and Letters and from BMI recognizing the orchestra’s outstanding contribution
to American music. ASCAP has awarded its annual prize for adventurous programming
to ACO 32 times, singling out ACO as “the orchestra that has done the most for new
American music in the United States,” including the 2008 ASCAP Morton Gould Award
for Innovative Programming. ACO received the inaugural METLife Award for Excellence
in Audience Engagement, and a proclamation from the New York City Council. ACO
recordings are available on ARGO, CRI, ECM, Point, Phoenix USA, MusicMasters,
Nonesuch, Tzadik, New World Records, and InstantEncore.com. More information
about American Composers Orchestra is available online at http://www.americancomposers.org/.
the first and only professional research and development lab to support the
creation of cutting-edge new American orchestral music through
no-holds-barred experimentation, encouraging composers to do anything
but “play it safe.” The composers participating in Playing It UNsafe
are Sean Friar, David Heuser, Joan La Barbara, Laura Schwendinger,
and Henry Threadgill, selected from a national search for their willingness
to experiment and stretch their own musical sensibilities, and their ability
to test the limits of the orchestra. Playing It UNsafe grew out of ACO’s
ongoing mission to commission and perform new music that expands
the range of possibilities for – and challenges convention notions
about – orchestral music.
Playing It UNsafe is a season-long initiative that includes a unique
incubation process of laboratory workshops and public readings,
and collaborative feedback, many open to the public. Audiences will
have their first opportunity to see and hear the composers’
works-in-progress at the opening lab workshop, free of charge
(no reservations required), on Monday, October 18 from 2-4:30pm
at the JCC in Manhattan (334 Amsterdam Avenue). Subsequent lab
workshops open to the public will take place on Thursday, December 9
(2-4:30pm); Saturday, January 29 (2-5pm), Tuesday, March 1 (2-4:30pm),
and Thursday, March 3 (2-4:30pm). Playing It UNsafe will culminate on
Friday, March 4, 2011 at 7:30pm with a concert featuring all of the “unsafe”
new works at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, conducted by ACO Music
Director George Manahan.
None of the new pieces developed for Playing It UNsafe will be conventional
or typical orchestral fare. Sean Friar’s Clunker Concerto will be for a
percussion ensemble playing a junked car with the orchestra; saxophonist
and composer/improviser Henry Threadgill asks orchestra members to
improvise and interact at an extremely high level, yielding a new strategy
for the conductor to lead the orchestra in No Gate, No White Trenches,
Butterfly Effect; vocalist and composer Joan La Barbara’s sound painting
for voice and orchestra, In solitude this fear is lived, will utilize orchestra
members placed throughout the entire concert hall; Laura Schwendinger
will collaborate with her lighting-designer cousin Leni Schwendinger to
fuse music and visuals into a seamless mix; and David Heuser’s Dysfunctional
Families will pit orchestral instrument families against each other in an
uprising that threatens to overthrow the conductor.
Playing It UNsafe is unusual in that it does away with the expectations
often associated with orchestral premieres that can squelch composers’
creative impulses – limited rehearsal time, restrictive instrumental possibilities,
pre-conceived programmatic or thematic ideas for concerts – and most
importantly, the overwhelming pressure on composers to do something “safe.”
Playing It UNsafe will feature Orchestra Underground, ACO’s groundbreaking
small orchestra ensemble that seeks to redefine orchestra music by embracing
a wide gamut of musical styles, unusual instrumentations and spatial orientations
of musicians, technological innovations, and multimedia/multidisciplinary
collaborations. Since its launch in 2004, Orchestra Underground has
commissioned and premiered nearly 50 cutting-edge new works. The program
is a major expansion of a pilot program ACO undertook two seasons ago,
and a desire by the orchestra to serve as a catalyst for new ideas within
the orchestra community.
About the Playing It UNsafe Composer David Heuser's Dysfunctional
Families(http://www.davidheuser.com/)
Dysfunctional Families is a piece about the orchestra reacting to itself,
where the supremacy of the conductor is undermined as the top-down hierarchy
of the orchestra meets grass-roots uprisings, and where the audience finds
themselves literally in the middle of inter- and intra-family battles. The piece
will marry orchestral music with theatrical elements, particularly those that
break the fourth wall. Performers fight within their section as well as across
sections in what ends up being an all-out war for control of the symphony.
The conflicts play out physically, with performers moving to different parts
of the stage as their allegiances change. The conductor strives always to be
in command of the ensemble, but, like war everywhere, he might put down a
rebellion in the brass only to turn and find out the strings in an uproar.
David Heuser’s music has been called “thoughtful, beautiful, and wonderfully
made” (San Antonio Express-News), “all-American music at its most dynamic
and visceral” (Houston Chronicle), and “just the sort of music classical music
needs more of” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Heuser considers himself a musical
storyteller. His most characteristic works are rhythmically active, strongly melodic,
and often deal with extremes of tempo, dynamics and register. Heuser began
composing almost immediately after his first piano lessons at the age of seven.
He attended the Eastman School of Music and then the Indiana University
School of Music, where he received his doctorate. He is now a Professor at the
University of Texas at San Antonio teaching music composition and theory,
and electronic music. He has received commissions from such ensembles as
the San Antonio Symphony, the New York Youth Symphony, SOLI Chamber Ensemble,
and the Texas Music Festival Orchestra.
About ACO
Now entering its 34th year, American Composers Orchestra is the only orchestra
in the world dedicated to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation
of music by American composers. ACO makes the creation of new opportunities
for American composers and new American orchestral music its central purpose.
Through concerts at Carnegie Hall and other venues, recordings, internet and radio
broadcasts, educational programs, New Music Readings, and commissions, ACO
identifies today’s brightest emerging composers, champions prominent established
composers as well as those lesser-known, and increases regional, national, and
international awareness of the infinite variety of American orchestral music,
reflecting geographic, stylistic, and temporal diversity. ACO also serves as an
incubator of ideas, research, and talent, as a catalyst for growth and change among
orchestras, and as an advocate for American composers and their music.
To date, ACO has performed music by more than 600 American composers,
including 200 world premieres and newly commissioned works. Among the orchestra’s
innovative programs have been Sonidos de las Américas, six annual festivals devoted
to Latin American composers and their music; Coming to America, a program immersing
audiences in the ongoing evolution of American music through the work of immigrant
composers; Orchestra Tech, a long-term initiative to integrate new digital technologies
in the symphony orchestra; Improvise!, a festival devoted to the exploration of
improvisation and the orchestra; Playing it Unsafe, a new laboratory for the research
and development of experimental new works for orchestra; and Orchestra Underground,
ACO’s entrepreneurial cutting-edge orchestral ensemble that embraces new technology,
eclectic instruments, influences, and spatial orientation of the orchestra, new experiments
in the concert format, and multimedia and multi-disciplinary collaborations.
Extending its mission beyond New York City, ACO launched EarShot in 2008. EarShot
is a multi-institutional network that assists orchestras around the country in new
music readings and composer development opportunities. EarShot’s recent programs
include new music readings for emerging composers with the Nashville Symphony,
Memphis Symphony, New York Youth Symphony and Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
More information can be found at www.earshotnetwork.org.
Among the honors ACO has received are special awards from the American Academy
of Arts and Letters and from BMI recognizing the orchestra’s outstanding contribution
to American music. ASCAP has awarded its annual prize for adventurous programming
to ACO 32 times, singling out ACO as “the orchestra that has done the most for new
American music in the United States,” including the 2008 ASCAP Morton Gould Award
for Innovative Programming. ACO received the inaugural METLife Award for Excellence
in Audience Engagement, and a proclamation from the New York City Council. ACO
recordings are available on ARGO, CRI, ECM, Point, Phoenix USA, MusicMasters,
Nonesuch, Tzadik, New World Records, and InstantEncore.com. More information
about American Composers Orchestra is available online at http://www.americancomposers.org/.
Hear David's Catching Updrafts
on our Season opener,
For the Record!
on our Season opener,
For the Record!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
News from all over
Here are good vibes for the musicians in Detroit, who are now on strike. We hope the DSO plight is resolved sooner than later!
There is good news this morning though, read about the Cleveland Chamber Symphony getting back on track. Here is the latest on them: http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2010/10/cleveland_chamber_symphony_rev.html
There is good news this morning though, read about the Cleveland Chamber Symphony getting back on track. Here is the latest on them: http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2010/10/cleveland_chamber_symphony_rev.html
Thursday, September 30, 2010
New Season
Watch solichamberensemble.com for more details and tickets!
Monday, March 29, 2010
In the mix
So we have just finished our first part of recording commissioned works by SOLI up in Boerne. It was a quick two days at First Presbyterian Church with our producer, engineer, tuner, page tuner and myself besides the quartet.
We enjoyed the process and are looking forward to continuing in May. In the meantime, we'll perform in May a wonderful program of Texas music - that is, composers living in Texas or that are from the Lone Star state. We also have a wonderful guest who will read poetry!
We enjoyed the process and are looking forward to continuing in May. In the meantime, we'll perform in May a wonderful program of Texas music - that is, composers living in Texas or that are from the Lone Star state. We also have a wonderful guest who will read poetry!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Welcome!
Welcome to SOLI Chamber Ensemble and our blog - I'm executive director John Clare.
We'll have all sorts of discussions and demonstrations, and I hope you'll participate - not just online but at concerts, receptions and whereever great new music is being performed!
I thought I'd share just a few thoughts today. Basically my role here will be to support SOLI. We already have lots of plans and one of the things I enjoy most is discussing the future of classical music with musicians and friends. What do you see for the future?
At the end of 2009 I decided to look back at the last ten years - what a difference a decade makes, lol! In that glance I would have never imagined where I would be today. Of course, it makes me wonder what will happen in the next ten years. I for one imagine still being involved with SOLI, this position is one that I take quite seriously. I also predict that in 2019 SOLI Chamber Ensemble will have ten more new pieces for quartet, some with orchestral accompaniment!
Finally, I would invite you to take a good look and listen around the SOLI website. It's been created by Gene Hopstetter and includes graphic designs by Steve & Josh @ design2marketinc.com. It has great info about San Antonio's premier new music ensemble, including video and audio recordings.
We'll have all sorts of discussions and demonstrations, and I hope you'll participate - not just online but at concerts, receptions and whereever great new music is being performed!
I thought I'd share just a few thoughts today. Basically my role here will be to support SOLI. We already have lots of plans and one of the things I enjoy most is discussing the future of classical music with musicians and friends. What do you see for the future?
At the end of 2009 I decided to look back at the last ten years - what a difference a decade makes, lol! In that glance I would have never imagined where I would be today. Of course, it makes me wonder what will happen in the next ten years. I for one imagine still being involved with SOLI, this position is one that I take quite seriously. I also predict that in 2019 SOLI Chamber Ensemble will have ten more new pieces for quartet, some with orchestral accompaniment!
Finally, I would invite you to take a good look and listen around the SOLI website. It's been created by Gene Hopstetter and includes graphic designs by Steve & Josh @ design2marketinc.com. It has great info about San Antonio's premier new music ensemble, including video and audio recordings.
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