Two weeks ago, through the din in the basement of the International Beauty Show at the Jacob Javits Center, a peaceful melody could be discerned. Camped in front of a booth selling Hungarian organic skin cream, the musician David Young was playing two recorders at the same time. Beside him, a boom box purred with Read More
Bruce Brubaker leaned forward, crowding the diner booth where he had been talking to The Observer for an hour, and posed the dissertation-ready question that had emerged after a conversation veering from Beethoven to Barthes to the novels of Thomas Bernhard: “You’d like to think, ‘I’m an artist. I have my original response to this Read More
On the evening of Tuesday, April 28, composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich will be in the audience at the 92nd Street Y, listening to the premiere of her latest work, Septet for Piano Trio and String Quartet, performed by the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio together with Miami String Quartet. It will be the first time Ms. Zwilich has Read More
“I’m consciously trying to uproot my language and toss it and turn it,” said composer Phil Kline. “I just got unhappy with my own expression and I wanted to find new ways to go.”
Mr. Kline was talking about his recently released recording, a mass for string quartet called John the Revelator (Cantaloupe), and Read More
The Park Avenue Armory, that massive Victorian hulk situated between 66th and 67th streets, is well known for hosting the Annual Winter Antiques Show, where a well-heeled crowd enjoys its elegant preview parties, Young Collectors’ nights, and other pleasant rituals. Earlier this month, however, its cavernous Drill Hall was transformed for an event that demanded Read More
Last week in this newspaper, Rex Reed wrote, “The music scene has been more interesting lately than the movies, and that’s a fact.” I’ll drink to that—and did, at Minetta Tavern, just after attending the first session (on May 10) of “VOX 2008: Showcasing American Composers,” held at N.Y.U.’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Read More
Compared to the publicity blowout that preceded the season-opening production of Lucia di Lammermoor—a wild-eyed Natalie Dessay plastered over dozens of city buses—the Metropolitan Opera’s promotion of the company’s first production of Philip Glass’ 1980 opera, Satyagraha, which opened April 11, was almost restrained.
“Could an opera make us stand up for the truth?” Read More
In 1992, Moby was among the bristling avant garde of dance music, at a time when that genre seemed poised to break through to the mainstream in a big way. It was with him that it did break, just a few years later. 1999’s Play, mainly a roster of scratchy blues and gospel samples layered Read More
So there’s no way Adam Green could have known that, when asked by director Jason Reitman what music her character ought to listen to, Juno star Ellen Page would reply “The Moldy Peaches” faster than you can say “homeskillet.”
And there’s no way Mr. Green could have known the film would become such a runaway Read More
As this decade wanes, some of the chaos in the world of music seems to be settling, as those looking for new sounds grow tired of bottomless discovery. It’s exhausting, really, this omnivorous accumulation of songs. How many albums have been downloaded only to languish somewhere in the catacombs of sprawling hard drives? Yet everything Read More
