Portrait gallery.

With all the schedule announcements that have been floating around the web lately, last night I remembered a little slip of paper I've been carrying around for a little more than a week and intending to share. While the complete Miller Theatre schedule for next year has yet to be revealed -- and will surely include some surprises, as usual -- here is a list of next year's Composer Portrait concerts. (It was printed on a slip tucked into the programs at the last Miller concert I attended, so I'm not betraying any confidences here.)

Milton Babbitt
Marc-André Dalbavie
Jason Eckardt
Jefferson Friedman
Georg Friedrich Haas
Leon Kirchner
Peter Lieberson*
Olivier Messiaen
Arlene Sierra

*postponed from 2007-08

That's a fascinating, nicely diversified lineup right there, including an icon, two elder statesmen and a number of vital younger composers from a variety of traditions. As is frequently the case, there is one concert featuring a composer whose name is completely unfamiliar to me (Arlene Sierra). I'm especially excited about the Friedman showcase, given how much I've admired the works I've heard, and the one devoted to Haas -- I've heard almost nothing, but what I've heard has been extremely compelling.

Playlist:

Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphonies Nos. 1 & 6 - Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä (Bis)

Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 3 - Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/Leif Segerstam (Ondine)

Franz Schubert - Piano Sonata in B-flat, D. 960 - Mitsuko Uchida (Philips)

Eliane Radigue - Adnos I (Table of the Elements)

Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene and Magnetic Fields (Dreyfus)

Grateful Dead - Road Trips, Vol. 1, No. 2: October '77 (Grateful Dead)

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks: Season Two Music and More (David Lynch MC)

Lisle Ellis - Sucker Punch Requiem (Henceforth)

Giancarlo Vulcano - Vetro (Innova)

Comments

[Chris Becker]

This feels like a cheap shot, but with it being Black History Month I'd like to point out that black composers are seriously underrepresented on "new music" blogs and on programs like the Miller Theatre. I'm sort of waiting for one of these blogs I surf to to put SOMETHING up this month about black composers either past or present...but so far, nothing.

Not that I don't appreciate and enjoy the coverage I read here, at NewMusicBox or at Greg Sandow's site...but come ON people. If we composers are so diverse and eclectic - why is it the demographic of composers represented in the press and in programming isn't even MORE diverse. Can't we push the envelope a little?

[Martin Bernheimer]

Great chatting with you sunday at the park with George. Your trip sounds dazzling. Eager to see the details. In the meantime, keep the home fires burning....

Best,

martin