The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage : Blog

American Impresario: Claire Chase

2013-04-04T13:50:13+00:00

The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is pleased to present a series of articles under the banner American Impresario. The series explores the careers and contributions of leading U.S. music curators whose creative work has profoundly influenced the field by giving listeners new ways to experience and understand music. The fifth and final article in the American Impresario series features Claire Chase, flutist and founding director of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). ICE has been described by the New York Times as “one of the most adventurous and accomplished groups in new music.” The ensemble includes approximately 30 conservatory-trained musicians, including Chase, devoted to advancing new music and playing an expansive repertoire and range of styles. As artistic director of ICE, Chase has overseen the premieres of more than 650 new works since 2001, as well as 10 album releases and a thriving education program for public school children. In...

Crossroads: Preconcert Program for the 24 hour “Raga Samay Festival”

2013-04-01T18:54:55+00:00

"It's not a marathon. Some people will come for the entire 24 hours...and some people will come and go... There are plenty of opportunities for rests and breaks," says Daniel Flaumenhaft, director of Crossroads Music. In this Preconcert piece, Flaumenhaft discusses the significance and logistics of the upcoming 24-hour Raga Samay Festival with host Rodney Whittenberg. On April 6 and 7, 2013, 10 soloists from India and the United States will perform 15 consecutive concerts, each improvised within a raga—a composed melodic and rhythmic system that serves as a framework for improvisation—traditionally reserved for that time of day or night. This gives audiences a unique opportunity to listen to music that was specifically composed for a certain time of day. The event will be the first 24-hour concert of Hindustani (North Indian) classical music to take place in the Western Hemisphere in decades. The festival will include vocal solo performances accompanied...

The Academy of Vocal Arts: Preconcert Program for “Don Quichotte”

2013-03-02T19:54:51+00:00

"It’s something really special and very difficult to do,” says Tito Capobianco, the noted stage director behind the Academy of Vocal Arts’ (AVA) upcoming production of Jules Massenet’s Don Quichotte. “We are doing an opera to honor […] the sublime man, Don Quichotte. [The] music is in response to the […] individual and the desire to sing to another human being.” This production of Don Quichotte is the first in AVA’s storied history—a lyrical ode to the chivalrous idealist Don Quixote, in which Cervantes’ tale meets the music of Massenet, complete with windmills, Spanish serenades, and a profoundly poignant finale. Award‐winning AVA resident artists will be joined by Turkish bass and alumnus Burak Bilgili ('04), who will return to sing the title role. Listen as Preconcert host Rodney Whittenberg discusses the significance of this restaging with Capobianco and AVA Artistic Director Kevin McDowell. This installment of Preconcert is produced...

Opera Philadelphia: Preconcert Program for “Silent Night”

2013-02-05T19:55:14+00:00

“The main character is what interests me the most about [Silent Night] because he is an opera singer,” says baritone William Burden. “So although I’m not playing myself in any way, this character is allowed to feel extreme emotions under really unique, challenging, remarkable circumstances, and that is very fulfilling for the actor in me.” Silent Night, the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera from American composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell, makes its East coast debut on February 8 at the Academy of Music, produced by Opera Philadelphia. Listen here as Preconcert host Rodney Whittenberg chats with several key contributors to the work, including Burden, Puts, Opera Philadelphia’s David Devan, and soprano Kelly Kaduce. This installment of Preconcert is produced by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage's music program, to highlight current grantees. Silent Night has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and runs in five...

Electronic Music 2012 Recap: Seth Cluett on Hybrid Practices and Physical Spaces

2013-01-29T19:05:00+00:00

Electronic Music 2012, presented by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage at Philadelphia’s Latvian Society on December 13, 2012, investigated the evolving American electronic musical experience and how it relates now to cultural expectations. Within this evolution, electronic music stands at the forefront of several avenues of discovery, including new leaps in technology; the emergence of DIY communities, alternative spaces, and formats of distribution; and a general re-thinking of what defines an artist or musician. Marina Rosenfeld, Keith Fullerton Whitman, and C. Spencer Yeh, joined us for an in-depth conversation about these topics and more. The discussion between these influential leading practitioners in this genre was moderated by Seth Cluett, Assistant Professor of Music in the School of Contemporary Arts at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Cluett provided us with a detailed synopsis of the day—read an excerpt below, and listen to part of C. Spencer Yeh's performance. ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————...

Listening Session, November 2012: Byron Coley on the Evolving Musical Experience in America

2013-01-14T15:59:04+00:00

Listening Sessions at The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage provide a forum to actively listen to and discuss music. In these sessions, we examine the evolving culture of listening and investigate the larger lineage of music and how a plethora of styles are interconnected. Artists and presenters contribute examples of music that have informed their artistic and curatorial process. This music serves as a catalyst for questions and critical discussion. On November 29, 2012, Byron Coley facilitated a listening session with a focus on indie and underground music. Coley, born in New York City in 1956, has written extensively about underground culture since the mid-'70s. He's one of the first writers to have extensively documented indie rock from its inception to the present day. Coley was a contributing writer to Spin in the 1980s and '90s, and currently writes for The Wire and Arthur magazine with Thurston Moore. He...

Electronic Music 2012: Keith Fullerton Whitman on Music Production and Distribution

2013-01-09T12:14:20+00:00

Electronic Music 2012, presented by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage at Philadelphia’s Latvian Society on December 13, 2012, investigated the evolving musical experience in America and how it relates to our cultural expectations, with specific regards to electronic music. Within this evolution, electronic music stands on the forefront of several avenues of discovery, including new leaps in technology; the emergence of DIY communities, alternative spaces, and formats of distribution; and a general re-thinking of what defines an artist or musician. Keith Fullerton Whitman, along with Marina Rosenfeld and C. Spencer Yeh, joined us for an in-depth conversation about these topics and more. The discussion between these leading practitioners and influencers in electronic music was moderated by Seth Cluett, Assistant Professor of Music in the School of Contemporary Arts at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Watch our video of Whitman discussing the influence of changing production and distribution modes...

Bowerbird - December 7: Preconcert program for Song Books by John Cage

2012-12-03T16:51:07+00:00

BSC director Bhob Rainey discusses the freedom or lack of freedom within John Cage’s work: The question about what freedoms that you have is a really good one with Cage’s work because often it’s misinterpreted as something that is extremely free, such that the performers can do what they want, when in fact, Cage is really specific about what you can do. It’s a little different than what other composers are specific about what you can do. So there are a lot of freedoms but it’s not like you have a license to be free. I like to say that the mandate from Cage is not to be free but to produce or express freedom. You are giving voice to a freedom and with that comes a lot of responsibility. You are not just doing what you want you are almost showing what freedom can be and what is good...

Sruti: Preconcert Program for Influences of Folk Music on Indian Carnatic Music

2012-11-05T14:35:15+00:00

Preconcert host Rodney Whittenberg provides a preview of the upcoming SRUTI program "Influences of Folk Music on Indian Carnatic Music" at Montgomery County Community College, at 340 Dekalb Pike in Blue Bell, PA on November 10, 2012. Listen below: Sruti: Preconcert Program for Influences of Folk Music on Indian Carnatic Music by pcah Founded in 1986, SRUTI is Philadelphia's premier India music and dance society. On November 10, SRUTI will present the second of two concerts that explore the influence of native and folk traditions upon Carnatic (South Indian classical) music. This program, "Influences of Folk Music on Indian Carnatic Music," brings Sowmya and Bharat Sundar with all of their accompanists on stage together to present a traditional Carnatic format concert that will showcase this evolution of Carnatic music from the indigenous music of South India by presenting the connection between folk tunes such as the Kavadi Chindu, talattu to...

Noise from the 18th Floor: Klezmer

2012-10-23T16:18:07+00:00

Klezmer: Voices from Three Generations Featuring Elaine Hoffman Watts, Susan Watts, and Dan Blacksberg Traditions in folk music are often defined and influenced by other forms and styles of popular music. In return, folk music has always been a rich source of inspiration for contemporary musicians and composers. Klezmer has pollinated and cross-pollinated with many genres of music since its inception, American jazz being the most obvious example. Klezmer is a musical tradition with roots in Eastern and Central European Jewish culture, and was later transplanted to the United States by immigrants from these regions. "Klezmer" is a compound word made from two Hebrew words: "kley" (vessel or tools) and "zmer" (melody), but the term was not commonly used to define the music and its musicians until the 20th century. It is a very eclectic style of music; the rhythms, melodies, and instrumentation give it a distinctive sound. During a...