The Loose Filter Project

"Does it smell like a dance party in here?"

Dustin Soiseth — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 20:49:03 PDT

The Living Frobius Octet - an unholy combination of the Living Earth Show, Mobius Trio, and Friction Quartet - capped off the Hot Air New Music Festival with a fantastic, beer-fueled show at the Hotel Utah Saloon, which has to be the tinest venue in the world to still have a balcony. The concert featured works by Adrian Knight, Brendon Randall-Myers, Aaron Jay Kernis, Danny Clay, and Nick Benavides. Aaron Jay Kernis' campy 100 Greatest...

The audience is driving now

Stuart Sims — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:16:26 PDT

If anyone needed a clear, message-on-the-mountain kind of symbol for how fundamentally the creation, consumption, sharing, and general experience and means of culture have radically changed (and continue to change), here it is: A Kickstarter page to make a movie version of TV show Veronica Mars (which ended its TV run in 2007) raised its goal of TWO MILLION DOLLARS in less than a day. So now not only is the movie that fans want...

So the LA Phil 2013-14 season is pretty awesome...

Stuart Sims — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:43:39 PST

...like, refreshingly great and focused on modern and contemporary music. You must check out the full season here. Just a quick tally of the highlights: 13 commissioned works 11 world premieres 4 U.S. premieres 4 West Coast premieres Revival of the Minimalist Jukebox Festival (including a new Death of Klinghoffer) Salonen conducting Zappa A little bit of commentary on this delightfully present- and forward-looking programming here, here, and here. It almost makes me wish I...

Conductors giving TED Talks

Stuart Sims — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:10:00 PST

A playlist of mostly conductors, from TED.

A beautiful animated short about music

Stuart Sims — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:52:20 PST

Enjoy: Understand Music from finally. on Vimeo.

Neither common nor simple

Dustin Soiseth — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:49:38 PST

I love this piece. It's the one that always seems to be playing when I'm driving through the mountains and to me it sounds the way pine needles look when they flutter in the breeze - a gentle shimmer. I've lisetned to Common Tones in Simple Time a thousand times but tonight is my first look at the score, courtesy of Schirmer OnDemand. I think this is one of those pieces that would work really...

Good Programs: Anna Clyne and Brahms

Dustin Soiseth — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 08:09:03 PST

In an profile with San Francisco Classical Voice long-time Bay Area conductor Alasdair Neale was asked about a program he conducted with the Marin Symphony that paired Brahms' A German Requirem with Anna Clyne's Within Her Arms. Here's the exchange. SFCV: How do you program your season? You tend to pair warhorses with new works in interesting ways. Your April program features the Brahms Requiem and a 21st-century work, Within Her Arms, by British composer...

Running a marathon in jeans

Dustin Soiseth — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:32:18 PST

Another great idea from Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. They've partnered with the Parsons School of Design to help design concert atire that is tailored to the needs of performers. Concert attire is still such an loaded issue for many musicians so it makes great sense to seek outside perspectives by teaming up with people who 1) are pursuing design studies and 2) not too emotionally invensted in what orchestral musicians wear on...

Conducting as expressive collaboration: two of the best

Stuart Sims — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:13:13 PDT

At the beginning of each fall semester in my introductory conducting course, we spend some time exploring and discussing what the act of conducting is--what it's about, how that's accomplished--in a fundamental sense. This involves several components like critical/comparative listening, body awareness exercises, expressive movement improvisation, and watching video. I use video examples to show how conducting can be a whole-body, expressive act in collaboration with an ensemble of musicians, and that really exciting music-making...

The Rite of Appalachian Spring (who says you can't mash up the classics?)

Stuart Sims — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 12:53:33 PDT

Back from hiatus, dear readers, and wow do we have a lot to catch up on! To start, here's a great short clip mashing up Stravinsky and Copland (source):

Gone fishing

Dustin Soiseth — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 16:44:32 PDT

Hey folks, creating mind-blowing new paradigms is hard work so we're taking some time off from posting to recharge. In the meantime you can search the archives, catagories, and Best of LFP for some summertime stimulation.

Playing the room

Dustin Soiseth — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 08:03:43 PDT

Well, this looks cool. More via Hypebot.