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I've been very fortunate to work with many living composers during my career, but my favorite collaboration by far has been with Amanda Harberg, who is not only a composer of amazing skill and profundity but also a stellar pianist as well. She recently wrote a clarinet sonata for me, which I consider to be an incredible gift - and also a fantastic contribution to the wind repertoire. The performance below, with Amanda at the piano, is from a recent composer portrait showcasing many of her fine works.
It's always a great pleasure playing with my colleagues in the Dorian Wind Quintet, and an honor to be part of such an esteemed ensemble. Formed in 1961, we're believed to be the longest continuously-active wind quintet on the planet - with many commissions and honors to our credit, such as being the first wind quintet in history to play in Carnegie Hall. While none of the original members are still with us, the current personnel are proudly carrying on the founders' vision of bringing wind chamber music of the highest artistic quality to audiences all over the world. Here are two selections from some recent performances. On the right: a broadcast at WCLV in Cleveland, featuring one of our favorites: Bach's "Little Fugue" in G minor; and then the Furlana movement from "Suite for Wind Quintet" - our recent commission from Amanda Harberg. On the left: an encore from one of our concerts in Aguascalientes, Mexico: the finale of Reicha's famous Eb quintet - played at rather a brisk pace! www.dorianwindquintet.org
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A real gem of the NYC cultural scene is the phenomenal music program at Trinity Wall Street, under the direction of Julian Wachner. In addition to producing a vast amount of traditional liturgical music to accompany numerous worship services and many other events, Trinity is on the cutting edge of both the early and new music scenes of not only NYC, but the entire country. Numerous commissions, collaborations, recordings and productions pour out of Trinity, and their concerts have received much critical acclaim while bringing fantastic music of the highest quality to both their live and livestreamed audiences. I'm proud to be part of the NOVUS contemporary ensemble there. This is a performance of Christopher Rouse's "Compline" at the Chapel of Trinity Wall Street, roughly 230 years after George Washington worshipped there after being sworn in as first president of the United States. Lots of history in that building! Please click on the image from the concert below to be directed to Trinity's video site.
The Magnus Lindberg Clarinet Quintet is quite an endurance test: in addition to its numerous technical challenges it also requires the clarinetist to be constantly engaged with the instrument for the full 17-minute duration of the piece: a true chop-buster. I was very fortunate to have my amazing string colleagues in counter)induction as collaborators for this performance: their astonishing accuracy and level-headedness really made all of Magnus' details and interactions between clarinet and strings shine.
counter)induction website: www.counterinduction.com
I've been privileged to know and work with the legendary composer Mario Davidovsky, who is one of the great pioneers of electronic music. Sadly, he passed away in August of 2019, but he left a huge legacy of innovation and artistry. His landmark 'Synchronisms' unite the worlds of acoustic instruments and electronic sounds in a thoroughly complementary and seamless fashion. His final Synchronisms, Number 12, is a fantastic capstone of this half century of exploration, and I was honored to perform this piece for Mario at several of his 80th birthday celebrations - both in his native Buenos Aires and at the annual Composers Conference.
I've been privileged to know and work with the legendary composer Mario Davidovsky, who is one of the great pioneers of electronic music. Sadly, he passed away in August of 2019, but he left a huge legacy of innovation and artistry. His landmark 'Synchronisms' unite the worlds of acoustic instruments and electronic sounds in a thoroughly complementary and seamless fashion. His final Synchronisms, Number 12, is a fantastic capstone of this half century of exploration, and I was honored to perform this piece for Mario at several of his 80th birthday celebrations - both in his native Buenos Aires and at the annual Composers Conference.
I'm also a fan of Eric Moe's music. Eric wrote a fantastic piece for counter)induction for our 10th anniversary season, called Dead Cat Bounce, which we've recently recorded for our debut CD. Here are three movements from an earlier work of his - On The Tip Of My Tongue, for bass clarinet, Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer and TX802 tone generator. Again with pianist Steve Gosling, they're entitled Tim's Tune, Double Take and What The Drums Say. Eric's website: www.ericmoe.net
From the archives: something a bit more traditional, included for its historical significance: This recording of the last movement of the Brahms Eb Sonata is from a recital which took place in NYC shortly after September 11th, 2001 with pianist Eric Hachinski. Needless to say, there were a lot of emotions running rampant during that time. Due to travel and scheduling problems which arose from those horrific events, we were only able to manage one brief rehearsal for each of the venerable works on that program. We had to simply trust each other in performance, communicate on stage, and make music spontaneously, without contrivance - much as the rest of NYC, the country and the world were suddenly dealing with a very different global outlook and also metaphorically 'playing everything by ear'. Those were times that will not be soon forgotten.
And finally, one of the great youthful works for clarinet - the Bernstein Sonata. In two short movements, it's his first published composition - at the age of 24, shortly before he began his path to stardom. I think it's a fantastic example of economic compositional technique, idiomatic writing for the instrument, and expressive lyricism all in one. Here's the second movement, with pianist Eric Hachinski.