This week marks the New York Premiere of a project we’ve been working on for a very long time.  Together, The Meredith Monk Ensemble and The Todd Reynolds String Quartet, together first at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, then Stanford Lively Arts, then at Ann Hamilton’s Tower in Geyserville, California, we finally return home to New York to present the work here on BAM’s Next Wave festival which we’ve been looking forward to for a long time.

Photo by Todd Reynolds

Songs of Ascension is Meredith Monk’s seminal work for her own vocal ensemble and string quartet.  It’s the first time Meredith has used string quartet as part of a larger work, and of course, as Meredith is one of my most-revered interdisciplinary and musical heroes, I am honored to be a part.  Early on, Meredith asked me to collaborate with her on this project and to put together the perfect string quartet team with great-spirited, flexible, excellent players, willing to seek virtuosity in the clear and simple, willing to memorize an hour’s worth of music and treat physical space as if it were the greatest musical score.

And that’s what we did.  Matt Albert (from Eighth Blackbird), Nadia Sirota (from WNYC & ACME) and cellist/composer Ha-Yang Kim join me in this beautiful piece, supporting and folding into Meredith Monk’s longstanding ensemble.

Performances at BAM begin tonight at 7:30 with a video description and tickets to be found at the BAM website. The Harvey Theater looks unbelievably beautiful with Ann Hamilton’s projections amplifying and lighting that space, already spectacular in its raw beauty.

This is indeed a performance not to be missed, and as an early show, it’s also the perfect precursor “feast for the senses” to precede or follow a great meal in in the area (which is saturated with lovely restaurants), with friends and companions.

I’m excited to visit Baltimore at the invitation of Brian Sacawa and Erik Spangler for Mobtown Modern. It’s a series which deals with some of the more exciting and progressive sides of the fresh music spectrum. The program is called Loopy (not surprised they asked me now?) I’m looking forward to the other pieces on the program as well, which include music from Prefuse73 and DJ Krush.  I’ll also be offering up an Ableton introductory seminar early in the day. Click here for details.

Loopy

Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 8 p.m. @ Metro Gallery

Mobtown Modern kicks off its 3rd season in style with an uber-ecclectic program that straddles the genre-rational divide. With special guest, famed NYC violinist and Master of the Loopiverse, Todd Reynolds, we waste no time getting down to business with decidedly non-minimalist loop-based works ranging from spectral to hip-hop. And we’re rounding out the program with choreography by Noelle Powers and the Fluid Movement Hula Hoopers. What’s not to love about that?

Tickets are $10, general admission and $5 for Contemporary Museum members and students with a valid ID.

An Introduction to Ableton Live, (one of my more favorite things to do, by the way) as part of my one day residency in Baltimore.   Click here for the complete details posted at Ableton.com

When:
September 16, 2009
Noon to 1 pm

Where:
MICA, Falvey Hall
1300 Mount Royal Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland 21217
(410) 669-9200
www.mica.edu

Alright, Folks.   Here’s a special one for ya.

Pamela and I have often performed on the same concerts, or same series, but never ever together.

On August 28th at Monkeytown, we share an evening along with my partner-in-crime, Luke DuBois working his video magic on those multiple screens.  I promise an evening to remember, and it will be my inaugural performance at this remarkable venue.  Please come join us!

Monkeytown serves food.  GOOD food.  This is  perfect date hang for dinner and/or dessert. Festivities begin at 9pm.

Working separately and together, Z and Reynolds/Dubois will surround you with moving images and a sonic frenzy of sampled concrète sounds, voice & processing, and violin & processing. Make reservations early because seating is limited

http://www.monkeytownhq.com/reservations.html

And here’s a facebook event page to whet your appetite as well.

Here’s a revealing video article in preparation for this week’s Shen Wei Dance Arts performances at Lincoln Center. You won’t see me (except for a very brief cut shot, lol), or actually see David Lang, but you can hear some of the music we’ve created together and some of the dance in rehearsal, and even more importantly, recall Shen Wei’s brilliant work for the Beijing Olympics, hear him talk about his work, and see a fantastic cross-section of performance and rehearsal footage.   Photo by Lois Greenfield

Click here to see it.

For years I’ve heard of the beauty of Bali, of the art seeping from every pore of every village. I fell in love with the music long ago. not as deeply as many of my friends, but nevertheless, some of its very essence has found its way into my own sensibilities. Evan Ziporyn, one of my most longstanding musical partners, has been traveling here for 30 years, studying the music, learning the language, and becoming part of the cultural life here.

After these many years of knowing and making music with Evan, it’s a special thing to finally see and hear and experience what he has, and take part in it with him at his invitation. Evan has chosen to mount his first opera here, in Bali. An exploration of Colin McPhee’s famous memoirs, A House in Bali. It will be performed in California in the fall, but for now, one thing at a time, we are HERE for two weeks. Working, playing, relaxing, eating, enjoying.  Friday, the 26th of July, we execute the first performance of this truly extraordinary piece.

This won’t be my last visit, I keep assuring myself. It’s the only way to actually get on a plane to leave. If you’re interested in more information on A House in Bali, there are photos and video documentation of the rehearsals here, or if you’re interested in my personal photo documentation of the trip, please visit my flickr site.

In other news… I really must change this wordpress template, as it’s harder to post and I think to read in this column view, methinks.  Let me know if you think so too. I tend to post less rather than more as a result of it.

Todd Reynolds, his laptop, an extraordinary lullaby and some rustling metal on May 2nd at the Gary Snyder/Project Space as part of The Look & Listen Festival.

This annual festival is committed to combining the visual and aural experience of art, bringing both together in a unique combined experience.  I’ve visited before, though not for a long time and am happy to be invited back. I’ll be playing The Solution, in addition to a few other pieces of my own work, and also doing a reprise of Meredith Monk’s gorgeous vocal work, Gotham Lullaby,  an arrangement with So Percussion,  after its first performance at the  Whitney Museum’s Marathon celebration of Meredith Monk’s music earlier this year.

The festival is also committed to dialogue around music and visual art wherein creative artists enjoy the opportunity to share a dialogue, and audience members gain an insider’s view into the creative processes in the visual and musical arts.  This is the definition of a holistic event, to be sure.

The festival spans three days and the full schedule can be found here, as well as a link to reserve and buy tickets.

Tonight, at Carnegie Hall, David Harrington and The Kronos Quartet have assembled a wonderful cast of characters to play and celebrate the 45th anniversary of Terry Riley’s landmark work, In C. Today, as I sit on my porch in the beauty of the Berkshires in northwestern Massachussetts, writing music toward an upcoming deadline and unable to get down to New York, I feel intense gratitude for Terry Riley’s spirit and work, and the impact both the man and the music have had on my own musical life and journey, and thought I’d put some sentiments down on paper. er… screen.

This is the eighth year that Bang on a Can will host a summer festival and educational institute up here at Massachussetts Museum of Contemporary Art, (MassMoCA), and Terry has been our artist-in-residence several times. The first time was several years ago, and it was there that I first met him in person. The Bang on a Can All-Stars had already been traveling with him for a time, and needless to say, I was excited to meet him after so many years of enjoying and following his music. I remember Evan Ziporyn saying to me, ” You’ll love him, Todd. It’s sort of like he’s the father of us all.”

I’ve endeavored for years to travel to India to study, to learn, but this man is the one who actually did it, who spent years studying with Pandit Pran Nath and living there at times, thereby soaking up that wonderful culture alongside LaMonte Young. Of course, during Terry’s first tenure at the Festival, he taught Raga class which was inspirational, but even more precious was time I got to spend with the man himself, whose being is imbued with a calm life force borne of spiritual connection and practice.

A few more links:
Cantaloupe Music, ‘In C’, Bang on a Can

New Sounds Live, Terry Riley and David Harrington.

Grand Valley State University, ‘In C’ YouTube trailer

In C has served as a ritual beginning for each of our Bang on a Can Institutes for many years, and our recording of it on Cantaloupe remains a favorite. This piece is the quintessential community work, open to an undefined number of players, an undefined instrumentation, with an undefined time length, and the players involved use the score to create an absolutely unique performance every time, with an arc as organic as is possible in music. Each summer, on the first day after faculty and fellows arrive, in a welcoming, bonding gathering around In C, I find myself playing everything from violin to marimba and walking around the room participating both as listener and player, always a rapturous experience which sets the tone for our three subsequent weeks of making music together.

Terry Riley, with his kind face and flowing beard does have that sort of guru visage, and I’ve learned much from simply talking, playing, and being around him, and I’m pleased to call him my friend. It is no secret that my own performance and composing life has been greatly influenced by the Minimalists and my work with them, with constant pulses and drones and interlocking rhythms being a cornerstone of how I hear and write music, and from In C, I take more than a few cues. As a ‘post-minimalist’, however, it’s not the ‘minimalism’ which so much interests me. It’s not the groundbreaking use of tight, finite, small amounts of musical material, but rather the organic connection to time and humanity that those structures tend to create for me, as is so evident in this seminal work – the heartbeat, as it were.

Deep behind this music is ancient history and tradition. African music, Indian classical music, folk music, the singing voice, tribal and community sentiment are all evident here, where individuality, often celebrated as the bedrock of American culture, is offered up as a contribution to a larger whole.

It is that conversation that we can have musically, the ‘chamber music’ of it all, which is dependent on a willingness to jump on and ride the bus together to a transcendent experience; that is what I celebrate. It is what I enjoy so heartily, and believe in so deeply. There is something so fundamentally truthful, authentic, and foundational about this piece which makes it the landmark work that it is. And Terry Riley, well, there are aspects of his practice that I will always seek to emulate. The gentle giving up of total control, the releasing of the score as birds into the sky, the celebration of each human being’s individual contribution.

Many of my most celebrated and dearest colleagues will be part of tonight’s event, as well as original performers of the first recordings and performances of the work. In addition, members of the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble from Michigan have been included. Later this year they will release a version of In C on Innova records, complete with a number of remixed versions, my own humbly included.

Ironically, In C was written in the year of my birth, 1964, and that reminds me that this will be my own 45th year on the planet. Here’s hoping that our lives become as rich as this piece is, with as many incarnations and instrumentations, more and more performances, and perhaps an offering someday which contributes as much to global community as Terry has. May this Carnegie/Kronos curatorial effort be only the first of many which celebrate the man, the music, and most importantly the central position that collective music-making takes in all of our global cultures.

In (C)elebration.

Todd Reynolds

–

Northwestern Massachussetts, The Berkshires, Heaven… Whatever you want to call it, it’s where I’ve been calling home for the past 4 years, whoa, how time flies. That’s ‘Winter’ in the picture on the right. Though I’ve never met her, I betcha she’s contributed to my cereal directly. Buy some milk or cheese while you join us at this concert…Farm-fresh food simply rocks.

So…

Jason Ennis, my good guitar-playing friend and colleague has organized this very intimate concert series above the farm store at Cricket Creek Farm. With Jason and my OTHER great friend, double bassist Michael O’Brien from Minnesota/New York, we’ll offer up some really lovely jazz and pop tunes, many of which you’ll know, plus some freeform wanderings.

What is ‘AmboJazz’? Not worth taxing yourself over, it’s always been difficult for me to really come up with a suitable label for this quasi-jazz, quasi-ambient electronic music I play. However, if YOU come up with a label that resonates, I buy you a beer, or in this case, a loaf of farmfresh bread or eggs, or even a pound of beef. Quantum-Ambient is already taken though, perhaps that’ll start ya thinkin’. Suffice it to say that this trio creates an atmosphere that you can feel, along with a musical conversation between us that we enjoy as much as we hope you do, and some rockin’ jazz and funk standards to boot.

Come enjoy the evening with us, won’t you! We’d love to be the soundtrack for your weekend.

Here’s the extra D-Tails from the Cricket Creek website. http://bit.ly/j2Zy5 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Todd Reynolds Trio
— Friday, April 17 8:00PM
Todd Reynolds (www.toddreynolds.com), Jascha Heifetz-educated, rock-inspired, classically-informed, post-minimal art-music infused, jazz-damaged, laptop-armed, downright funky violinist – leads a unique trio rounded out by Jason Ennis on Guitar and Michael O’Brien on acoustic bass. Music as friendly as it is interesting, and a musical conversation which will leave you humming melodies you didn’t know you had in your consciousness. Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for students. Space is limited. Please call 413-458-5888 to reserve a space, or email lesley@cricketcreekfarm.com

For those of you on Facebook, we offer up this event link to you as well.