Night After Night

Another ending, and a new beginning.

[I intended to post this here on Monday, but the DDoS hacker attack on Typepad put paid to that notion, so I posted this on Facebook. Here it is, in case you missed it before now.—Steve]

A new baby…a new work status…and now, a new job. What started with a simple email I received a few weeks ago has transformed with head-spinning speed into an opportunity I never saw coming, and obviously could not refuse. 

On Monday, May 19, I report to work as the new Assistant Arts Editor of the Boston Globe. 

My territory covers music – classical, popular and all shades in between – as well as visual art, for which I've had an intense lifelong passion. My new boss is Rebecca Ostriker. My remarkable colleagues will include Jeremy Eichler — just one of whose large shoes I stepped into at The New York Times in 2006 — as well as Matthew Guerrieri, David Weininger, James Reed, Sarah Rodman, Jon Garelick, Geoff A. Edgers and Sebastian Smee. To what extent I'll be writing remains to be seen in the short term, but anyone who knows me also knows that I can't clam up for long. 

Lara and I have begun our hunt for a new domicile; I'm a bit stuck on Jamaica Plain, but we're certainly open to suggestion. I intend to be settled somewhere by Friday, May 16, with Lara, Annina, Bruno and Lola joining me as soon as feasible if not immediately. 

Understand, my NYC friends, neighbors, comrades and colleagues, that I never envisioned leaving the city I've come to call home over the past 20 years. I hope you'll come up the highway to visit me from time to time, and I promise at some point to do the same. I also hope that we can see as many of you as we can during the next few weeks. 

Farewell but not goodbye, New York City. And hey, Boston: let's dance.

Agenda.

Truth be told, there wasn't a lot happening on Monday or Tuesday night, thanks to the convergence of Holy Week and Tax Day. Still, late is late, and late is frustrating – I'm still trying to get the hang of a schedule in serious flux, and there are new developments afoot as well. So much for all that free time I was supposed to have when I ended my Time Out stint! I've got two official gigs for The New York Times this week, and they're both choice occasions.

Official business

Wednesday, April 16: MATA Festival
The Kitchen; 8pm; $20, students $15

Produced by composers for composers, this always intriguing festival gets underway with the American debut of Finnish new-music group Uusinta. The program includes one instantly appealing prospect, Hikari Kiyama's Jōruri Death Metal, "influenced by the unlikely bedfellows of metal, Brian Ferneyhough, and Japanese folk music," plus further works by Aaron Helgeson, Alexander Khubeev, Joan Arnau Pàmies, Ilari Kaila and Sampo Haapamäki. The festival continues through Monday, April 21, and there's something worth hearing every day.

Saturday, April 19: Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables)
Roulette; 3 and 8pm; $35, advance $30; seniors and students $30, advance $25
Opens Thursday, April 17 (Acts I & II) and Friday, April 18 (Acts III & IV) at 8pm

Anthony Braxton's latest four-act opera receives its premiere in a semi-staged multimedia concert setting with vocal and instrumental soloists and orchestra. "I believe that the medium of opera is directly relevant to cultural alignment and evolution," says Braxton: a properly utopian viewpoint for this quixotic, vital venture. If a full day is too much Trillium, you can catch the four acts spread across two evenings on Thursday and Friday. Me, I'm in for the long haul, and hope to bring Annina to the matinee at the Tri-Centric Foundation's express invitation.

Elsewhere and -when

Wednesday, April 16:

Jocelyn Ho & Chris Pidcock play Kaija Saariaho, Anna Clyne, Olga Neuwirth, Arvo Pärt, Mauricio Kagel, Giacinto Scelsi, Nikolai Kapustin and Jocelyn Ho at Spectrum; 9:30pm (more)

The Manhattan String Quartet plays Eric Moe, Craig Walsh, Henri Dutilleux, Anton Webern and Igor Stravinsky at Tenri Cultural Center; 8:30pm (more)

JG Thirlwell & Sarah Lipstate at the Stone; 10pm (more)

Tigue Voices Up: New Poems Set to Music at Fordham University–Lincon Center 12th floor lounge; 7:30pm (more) FREE

Thursday, April 17:

Robert Ashley and Alex Waterman Vidas Perfectas at the Whitney Museum of American Art; 1:30 and 4:30pm (more)
Also Friday, April 18 at 1:30 and 6:30pm; Saturday, April 19 and Sunday, April 20 at noon and 4:30pm; various segments at each performance

Axiom plays Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez at Alice Tully Hall; 8pm (more) FREE

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center plays Ezequiel Viñao, Detlev Glanert, Sebastian Currier, Osvaldo Golijov and Fred Lerdahl at the Kaplan Penthouse; 7:30pm, live stream on CMS website (more)

Curtis 20/21 plays Joan Tower and Johann Sebastian Bach at Miller Theatre; 8pm (more)

Mary Jane Leach at the Old Stone House of Brooklyn; 8pm (more)

Nate Wooley with Giacomo Merega at Prospect Range; 8:30pm (more)

Friday, April 18:

Lucian Ban with Mat Maneri and Tony Malaby at Greenwich House Music School; 7:30pm (more)

Brooklyn New Music Collective plays Glen Roven, Herschel Garfein, Thomas Millioto, Michael Rose, Ben Morss, Lowell Liebermann, Steven Gerber, Jen Baker, Adam Tendler and Julia Wolfe; 7:30pm (more)

Jason Lescalleet Trophy Tape at Anthology Film Archives; 7:30pm (more)

Karen Mantler Trio at Barbès; 8pm (more)

Gilles Vonsattel plays Frederic Rzewski, George Benjamin, Heinz Holliger, Olivier Messiaen, Franz Liszt and Leoš Janáček at Bargemusic; 7pm (more)

Saturday, April 19:

Composers Concordance All About Japan at Goddard Riverside—Bernie Wohl Center; 8pm (more) FREE

Luke Gullickson To Evening Lands and Marcel with Eliot Cole and Majel Connery at Spectrum; 8:45pm (more)

Nadav Lev plays Fausto Romitelli and more at Spectrum; 7:30pm (more)

Evan Calder Williams Violent X with Taku Unami at Issue Project Room; 8pm (more)

Sunday, April 20:

Architeuthis Walks on Land (Katherine Young and Amy Cimini) at Spectrum; 8:30pm (more)

Ramin Arjomand, Andrew Niess & Sarah Segner play Morton Feldman at Spectrum; 3pm (more)

Koen Holtcamp, Mind Over Mirrors and Mike Wexler at Union Pool; 8pm (more)

David Virelles Continuum at Greenwich House Music School; 7:30pm (more)

RIP Steve Backer, June 3, 1937 - April 10, 2014

As America takes stock of itself in this complex time-cycle, it is important to understand that one person can still make a difference. That not everyone has to follow the tried-and-true traditional path—to get tried-and-true traditional results. Steve Backer opened a door for a generation of creative artists to connect to the greater culture (and planet). He is as much of an American pioneer as the creative artists he has championed. As for the idea of one person being able to change another person’s life, I can say this: Steve Backer’s decision to work with me would change my life on every level, and there are no words to properly thank him for that decision—except thank you sir.—Anthony Braxton

Among the many privileges involved with my brief but heady tenure in the jazz and world music division of BMG Classics—together with working alongside David Neidhart, Josh Sherman and the late, great Steven Gates—was the chance to get to know Steve Backer, one of a handful of record producers and industry executives I wouldn't hesitate to call visionary. The first time I spent any real quality time talking to Steve, I told him with breathless zeal that his name was surely on more albums in my personal collection than any other, artists included.

Countless significant albums exist now because of Steve's work, from Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington collections to classic LPs by Cecil Taylor, the Brecker Brothers and Roy Hargrove. More than anything, though, music lovers owe Steve a debt of bottomless gratitude for championing Anthony Braxton, whose work he documented most notably with a string of classic sets on the Arista label.

It seems fitting, then, that as Steve was taken from this world on April 10 after a brief fight with double pneumonia, just as Braxton's new Tri-Centric Festival was getting underway at Roulette in Brooklyn, the first word on the subject belongs to that masterly beneficiary of Steve's concerted efforts. I know that a part of me will always regret having been too busy to collaborate with Steve on an official memoir, a project we discussed in passing several times up until a few years ago, when we both realized we were just too contrarily busy to make it happen.

Thankfully, another writer, David Sokol, has been working on that very welcome project, and he is quoted at length in a press release circulated this morning by industry expert Kim Smith. The complete text follows the jump, if you'd like to know more about an unsung American master.

An ending.

Time Out New York, farewell—what an amazing 13 years it was. I'll always be grateful. Please be good to my friends and colleagues, especially Hank and Seth.

Agenda.

Monday night was a wash in more ways than one, given nasty weather outside and more than a few loose ends to tie up during my final week at Time Out New York. Still, there's lots to look forward to during the next six days, most of all the world premiere of Robert Ashley's final completed opera. Which brings me to my assignments for The New York Times, actually…

Official business

Saturday, April 12: Crash
Whitney Museum of American Art; 4pm; $20, seniors and students $16
Opens Thursday, April 10, at 4pm; also on Friday, April 11, at 6:30pm and Sunday, April 13, at 4pm

Said to be strikingly autobiographical in at least some respects, Crash is the last opera Robert Ashley completed before his death on March 3. He helped to supervise its preparation, I understand, but Alex Waterman is in charge of this Whitney Biennial presentation, and Tom Hamilton, the mage behind the mixer in so many of Ashley's pieces, is the music director. The cast, all younger performers who are helping to turn Ashley's idiosyncratic oeuvre into a durable, performable canon, includes Amirtha Kidambi and the five members of Varispeed Collective (Gelsey Bell, Brian McCorkle, Paul Pinto, Dave Ruder and Aliza Simons), all of whom have proved their mettle in previous Ashley affairs. Crash is the first of three Ashley presentations during the Whitney Biennial, which will also mount Vidas Perfectas (1983/2011) April 17-20, and The Trial of Anne Opie Wehrer and Unknown Accomplices for Crimes Against Humanity (1968) April 23-25.

Sunday, April 13: Stephen Hough
Alice Tully Hall (at Lincoln Center); 5pm; $45–$77

Did you know that Stephen Hough was the first classical-music performer ever awarded a MacArthur Foundation "Genius grant"? I didn't, but I'm not surprised: Hough's an intelligent pianist, concert programmer and writer. This particular concert spans a post-Romantic gamut from Schoenberg backward to Liszt, with stops for late Brahms and three composers not closely linked to the piano: Bruckner, Wagner and Richard Strauss.

Elsewhere and -when

Tuesday, April 8:

David Grubbs Records Ruin the Landscape book launch at Issue Project Room; 8pm (more)

Gabrielle Herbst Bodiless at Roulette; 8pm (more)

Matthias Pintscher conducts the Juilliard Orchestra in Pintscher, Michael Jarrell and Béla Bartók at Alice Tully Hall; 8pm (more)

Wednesday, April 9:

Lucy Crowe sings Alban Berg, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton and more at Weill Recital Hall; 7:30pm (more)

Thursday, April 10:

Miranda Cuckson and Steven Beck play Milton Babbitt, Béla Bartók, Brian Ferneyhough, Andrew Rudin and Roger Sessions at Bargemusic; 7pm (more)

Iestyn Davies sings Nico Muhly, Dowland and more at Weill Recital Hall; 7:30pm (more)

Ensemble ACJW plays Georg Friedrich Haas and Beethoven at Trinity Church; 1pm (more) FREE

Liza Lim Composer Portrait by the International Contemporary Ensemble at Miller Theatre; 8pm (more)

Trillium Chamber Players and James Fei Ensemble at Roulette; 8pm (more)

Friday, April 11:

Steven Beck, Stephen Gosling and Eric Heubner play Chopin, Debussy, Roger Reynolds, György Ligeti, David Rakowski and Ezequiel Viñao at Bargemusic; 7pm (more)

Anthony Braxton Composition No. 146 and Nate Wooley Ensemble at Roulette; 8pm (more)

Ensemble ACJW plays George Crumb and Schubert at Weill Recital Hall; 7pm (more)

Propheta x Kid Millions performance and all-night gong at Wythe Hotel; 11pm–5am (more)

Jane Sheldon sings Morton Feldman at Spectrum; 7:30pm (more)

Saturday, April 12:

American Festival of Microtonal Music MicroFest at Spectrum; 9pm (more; also Sunday, April 13, 8:30pm; Monday, April 14, 7pm; Tuesday, April 15, 7pm)

Tim Berne & Michael Formanek at Greenwich House Music School; 8pm (more)

Anthony Braxton Falling River Music Nonet and Fay Victor Ensemble at Roulette; 8pm (more)

Sunday, April 13:

Miranda Cuckson, Julia Bruskin and Steven Beck play Jeffrey Mumford at Spectrum; 7pm (more)

Duo RoMi plays Viet Cuong, Michel Blavet and Haydn at Spectrum; 3pm (more)

Vimbayi Kaziboni, New Morse Code and International Ensemble Modern Academy musicians play Gérard Grisey and George Benjamin at Spectrum; 12pm (more)

Seth Cluett The Persistence of Traces at Audio Visual Arts (AVA); 12–6pm (more)

String Noise plays John King, John Cage and Eric Lyons at Rockwood Music Hall; 8pm (more)

Wandelwatching: Music for Contemplation, April 5, 2014

I start where I am and do what I can, practicing in my inner hearing and on the trombone what I can do, refining it and hearing it as clearly as I can in the time that I have available to me. I show up on Saturday where I am, giving the best that I can, intending to respond during the concert to what the other musicians are doing and hopefully, to the music itself.—Craig Shepard

By all rights, this should have been last Friday's post. Alas, and onward. Following an impressive initial event back in early March that included an Eva-Maria Houben piece I'd really like to hear again, the new Music for Contemplation series returns for another program on Saturday, April 5, at the lavishly appointed, structurally impressive Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 229 North 5th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Featured on the program is a single piece, Peckinpah Trios, a 2004 composition for three instruments by Dutch composer and Edition Wandelweiser co-founder Antoine Beuger. The recording posted above, from a Listen/Space performance in 2009, features the Peckinpah Trio—saxophonist Christian Kobi, trombonist Craig Shepard and guitarist Beat Keller—after which I presume Beuger named his piece.

Shepard, himself a Wandelweiser Group composer, is the common thread between that performance and the new one, which finds him playing alongside fellow Music for Contemplation co-founders Ty Wilcox on saxophone and Dan Joseph on hammered dulcimer. Whether you plan to be there or can't attend, Shepard's thoughtful, extensive essay about preparing the piece is well worth reading.

Shepard maintains a lively schedule filled with fascinating events; you'd do well to keep an eye on his website. And if you don't yet have a copy of his wonderful Edition Wandelweiser CD, On Foot, you should track it down promptly. (The sequel, On Foot: Brooklyn, is due in fall.)

Having posted and promoted this concert in Time Out New York, I received an earnest entreaty to help spread word about the house rule: namely, the concert will start promptly at 8:05pm, and there will be no late seating – all in the name of promoting genuine contemplation, so don't muck about.

There's another Wandelweiser-related performance coming up in New York City – and, wouldn't you know it, it's also on Saturday. Performing under the auspices of an Unsound Festival showcase at Issue Project Room, Norwegian percussionist Håkon Stene will perform ricefall (1) by Michael Pisaro. It's part of an impressive all-percussion concert that also includes sets by Hubert Zemler and the quietly dazzling Sean Meehan with Ben Manley.

And hey! Since it's a 3pm matinee, you can catch it and still get to Williamsburg by 8:05pm…

…sharp.