Tag Archives: Birmingham

Kallay Tour Underway

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A History of Elevators in Film (excerpt)

A History of Elevators in Film (excerpt)

The Birmingham Art Music Alliance kicked off the Beyond 12, 2015 Tour featuring pianist Aron Kallay last night with a performance at the Hoover Library Theater. Aron will perform six more times through April 8. This tour features three premieres of pieces by Alabama-based composers including Monroe Golden, Brian Moon and myself.

My work is titled A History of Elevators in Film, and like all the pieces on the program it features a retuned and remapped piano keyboard. In my case, I’m using Max to retune and remap pitches on the fly in response to the pianist’s performance.

 

Hultgren Revisits Nine Islands

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07 3mvt1p3

Cellist and improviser Craig Hultgren will perform my Nine Islands, Nine Dialects for cello and speaking cellist as part of a retrospective concert presented by the Birmingham Art Music Alliance.

Wednesday February 4 7:30pm
Birmingham Art Music Alliance presents
Hultgren Cello Retrospective
Moonlight on the Mountain
Birmingham AL

It’s hard for me to believe this piece is more than 20 years old. I wrote it while living abroad as a fellow of the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, and I wrote it especially for Craig to perform. His support and encouragement was so important for me as a young composer as was the experience working alongside him in the newly-formed Birmingham Art Music Alliance. Craig premiered the piece at one of the first concerts presented by BAMA, and this will be one of his last BAMA concerts as a Birmingham resident. Craig will also perform pieces by Michael Angell, Edwin Robertson, James A. Jensen, Brian C. Moon, William Price, Monroe Golden, Bryan Page and Mark A. Lackey.

Sudden Swan Soars Saturday

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Susan WilliamsSoprano Susan Williams will premiere Sudden Swan for voice and live electronics at the Birmingham New Music Festival on Saturday August 23 at 7:30pm. The concert is at UAB’s Hulsey Recital Hall, 950 13th Street South, Birmingham, AL. Admission is free.

Susan and I have known each other since our college days at Birmingham-Southern.  Since then she’s landed leading opera roles and appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, Akron Symphony, Duke Symphony Orchestra and many others. This is the first time Susan and I have worked on a piece together, and we’re so excited to present it on Saturday.

The performer in Sudden Swan improvises a melody to a drone using a small set of just-tuned pitches. Each pitch is associated with one or more words which are strung together to create an ever-evolving poetry. The computer responds to variations in the vocal performance with subtle shifts of timbre, pulsating rhythms, and sometimes unpredictable flourishes.

Here’s a snippet of our working score:

sudden swan score snippet

The Audiovore Presents: John Wiese/Steve Jansen/Holland Hopson/Brad Davis

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john-wiese-balloon-72

I’m excited about sharing the bill tomorrow night with John Wiese, Steve Jansen and Brad Davis.

Wednesday April 9, 8pm
Parkside Cafe
4036 5th Ave S
Birmingham AL 3522

I’ll be presenting my Radicans project which uses small motors and soundbug transducers to transform ordinary objects in the performance space into speakers. Tables, chairs, trashcans and windows come to life in a chorus of electronic chirping, buzzing and spinning drones.

UAB Faculty Brass performs Purple Loosestrife (Satellite)

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euphonium 01

An excerpt from the score

 

Wednesday January 15 7:30 pm
Birmingham Art Music Alliance presents
UAB Faculty Brass
Samford University
Brock Recital Hall
Birmingham AL

This will be the premiere performance of my brass quintet, Purple Loosestrife (Satellite). The piece functions as a distributed network of musical gestures. Each musician can influence the behavior of any of the other musicians, while simultaneously being influenced by them. No one person is more “in charge” than another. There’s also no predetermined beginning, middle or ending. I sat in on a rehearsal this weekend and loved how the ensemble was working together. I can’t wait to hear how it comes together for the performance.

Also on the program:

  • Mark A. Lackey – Three Simple Prayers
  • Bryan Page – now does our world descend
  • Monroe Golden – Some Day
  • Jan Vi?ar – Three Marches for Dr. Kaybl
  • Wesley Johnson – Bluebrass Kebyar
  • Ron Wray – Dance Like It Hurts
  • William Price – Sans Titre VII
  • Fernando Deddos – Rabecando
  • Nancy Jensen – Polaris Fanfare

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Brass Quintet consists of Dr. James Zingara and Dr. Steve Roberts, trumpets, Dr. Martin Cochran, euphonium, Jeff Koonce, trombone, and Scott Robertson, tuba.

Piano Duo on Tour

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Cypher a Circle front

Tomorrow Kathryn Fouse and Adam Bowles kick off a four city tour presented by the Birmingham Art Music Alliance. They’ll perform a program of new compositions for piano duo, including the premiere of my piece Cypher, A Circle.

Thursday, Oct. 3, 8:00 pm – Oakwood University, Huntsville AL
Tuesday, Oct. 8, 7:30 pm – University of Montevallo, Montevallo AL
Friday, Oct. 18, 7:30 pm – Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville AL
Tuesday, Nov. 5, 1:15 pm – Shelton State University, Tuscaloosa AL

Spain on My Mind – Adriana Perera
Limited Transit – Michael Coleman
Frequent Flyer – Cynthia Miller
Left of Center – William Price
Cypher, A Circle – Holland Hopson
Three Movements for Two Pianos – Edwin Robertson
So I Can See Willy – Monroe Golden

PLAY – New and Improved Improv on Saturday

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Thollem McDonas, photo: Peter Gannushkin

LaDonna Smith has organized another jam-packed evening of improvised music with a host of special guests, featuring pianist Thollem McDonas.

Saturday, September 22 7:30pm
PLAY – New and Improved Improv
Homewood Community Center – CDF
1715 27th Court South
Homewood AL
$10/$5 students (sliding scale) kids free

Thollem will perform solo and with Stella Nystrom, dance; Davey Williams, guitar; Craig Hultgren, cello; Andrew DeWar, saxophone. Also on the bill are Hunter Bell, Si Reasoning, myself and LaDonna Smith. Dianne McNaron will preview her upcoming Marlene Dietrich retrospective and Caroline Karson will play Chopin. Come early and stay late, there’ll be lots to take in.