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

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.

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/.

Hear David's Catching Updrafts
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

Thursday, September 30, 2010

New Season

A new season is coming! This December join SOLI Chamber Ensemble for a concert, For the Record. It's music that will be on Volume 1 of our cd containing tailor made works!
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!

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.