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Eckardt
celebrates John Cage's 100th birthday with two composition projects
To mark what would have been John Cage's 100th birthday, Eckardt will contribute to two large multi-composer works.
First, Third Coast Percussion is creating a "Renga," a work that is
comprised of several composers contributing a short segment for the
group. These segments will be assembled into a large composition to be
previewed at Chicago's Mayne Stage on 25 May and premiered at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York on 9 August. Forum
Zeitgenössischer Musik Leipzig's Cage 100 festival has
requested Eckardt to compose a segment for another large
composition involving 100 composers. The complete composition will be
premiered in Leipzig and New York in 2013.
to
be held... for singing violist and electronics premiered at the
Guggenheim
Museum
Inspired by the talents of violist Wendy Richman and Charles Olson's
essay "Projective Verse," to be held... for singing violist and
electronics was be premiered by Richman at the Guggenheim Museum in
New York on 22 April. Bruce Hodges of Seen & Heard wrote, "The
other [high point of the evening] was Jason Eckardt’s to be
held…, a meditation for viola and electronics....
Eckardt’s sinuous phrases—he was inspired by some of the
pitches in Giacinto Scelsi’s Manto III—were adroitly
handled by violist Wendy Richman (also required to sing) with Nicholas
Nelson on electronics." The program will paid homage to sculptor
John
Chamberlain, who was simultaneously receiving a major
retrospective. Chamberlian and Olson were friends and worked together
at Black Mountain College. to be held... was commissioned by Works
& Process at the Guggenheim.
Subject
unnerves Pittsburgh Post-Gazette music critic
The
JACK Quartet's recent
performance of Subject, which includes special lighting suggesting
certain "enhanced" interrogation techniques. Critic Andrew Druckenbrod
remarked, "The work that best fit the experimentation tag was Jason
Eckardt's bold 'Subject.' It used two studio flashbulbs and umbrellas
to approximate the horrible torture technique that combines sensory
deprivation with bursts of pupil-burning light and ear-splitting noise.
The randomness of the blasts made for an uncomfortable, unsettling
experience." Hear JACK in the premiere performance from October 2011
here (courtesy of WQXR's Q2):
Koussevitzky
Foundation commissions new work for piano and strings
The Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress has commissioned
a new work for piano and strings to be premiered by Jason Hardink on
the NOVA Chamber Music Series in Salt Lake City in the 2012-13 season.
This is Eckardt's second Koussevitzky commission, the first for Tongues
in collabration with Melbourne's Ensemble Libra.
Undersong CD
now available on Mode
The
Undersong cycle (2002-2008) has just been released by Mode records.
The recording features performances by Fred Sherry, Claire Chase, Tony
Arnold, and the International
Contemporary Ensemble conducted by Steven Schick. "Undersong," taken
from
the working title of Laura Mullen's poem which is set to music at the
conclusion
of the cycle, refers to the powerful and unyielding voice of the
oppressed as well as the lyrical strands of interconnection that lie
beneath the cycle's fragmented surface. The CD was recently described
as "a mind-blowing and aesthetics-expanding journey" by Christian Carey
of Sequenza 21 and "fiercely
engaged and stoical" by Brian Morton of The Wire. Dan Warburton of
Paris Transatlantic declared, "I expect to be listening to this fine
music for years to come." [ buy
]
Last
update: 11 May
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