When we last played at Carnegie Hall, in 2008, Allan Kozinn wrote in the

We return to Carnegie’s Zankel Hall next Monday to present a motley concert highlighting the kaleidoscopic diversity of recent classical music. English composer Thomas Adès takes us to a children’s playground for the high-spirited hijinks of Catch, while Stephen Hartke’s Pulitzer Prize finalist, Meanwhile, evokes the surreal world of an imaginary Asian court theater. Frenchman Pierre Boulez’s Dérive 1 conjures an other-worldly beauty, punctured by countryman Philippe Hurel’s dense, swirling hive of notes, ...à mesure, which challenges even eighth blackbird’s formidable skills.

Music by two New York natives round out the program. Philip Glass’s Music in Similar Motion, with its radically bald, hypnotic repetitions, retains its power to shock and delight, and rising star Missy Mazzoli’s Still Life with Avalanche gives musical form to a torrent of powerful and unexpected emotions.

Visit Carnegie Hall’s website for tickets. As an eighth blackbird fan, you can get a 10% discount if you use the offer code EBB11265.*

When: Monday, January 31, 2011 at 7:30 PM
Where: Zankel Hall, 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, New York, NY

Program:

Missy Mazzoli Still Life with Avalanche (2008)

Pierre Boulez Dérive 1 (1984)

Philip Glass Music in Similar Motion (1969)

Philippe Hurel …à mesure (1996)

Thomas Adès Catch (1991)

Stephen Hartke Meanwhile (2007)

*This discount is valid from 11AM on January 27th through 11:59PM on January 30th.  Limit of eight tickets per purchase. Some limitations may apply. Offer is subject to availability and prior sale, is not valid on prior purchases, and cannot be combined with any other discounts or promotions. Valid by phone, at the Box Office, and/or online. No refunds or exchanges. Internet and phone orders are subject to standard convenience fees.

eighth blackbird
Chamber Music Society of Louisville (Louisville KY) | 15 November 2009

SUN 15 Nov

FLIGHT
8:03a Lv Chicago (ORD) – United 5992
10:20a Ar Louisville (SDF)

TRANSFER
You will be met by three drivers at the airport

University of Louisville – School of Music
Louisville, KY 40292

~11:00a REHEARSAL
Comstock Concert Hall
(percussion will have been delivered and set up)

3:00p CONCERT
Comstock Concert Hall

Program

Meanwhile:
Mazzoli: Still Life with Avalanche
Boulez: Derive I
Mellits: Spam
Turnage: Grazioso!
~ intermission ~
Perle: Critical Moments 2
Adès: Catch
Hartke: Meanwhile

~5:15p TRANSFER
Transportation back to the airport (10 min.)

FLIGHT
6:52p Lv Louisville (SDF) – United 6198
7:20p Ar Chicago (ORD)

8:30 Collapse @ home.

It’s a beautifully sunny day in downtown Los Angeles.  The birds are singing, a cool breeze blows through my window as I sip my morning coffee (Peet’s, to be sure) and gaze out from the penthouse guest suites at the Colburn School at the resplendent Disney Concert Hall. In a few minutes, I’ll head down to the seemingly unlimited supply of acoustically pure practice rooms (open 24 hours a day!) to do my warm-ups and some memory work on the Adès and Hartke in preparation for our show in La Jolla tomorrow. On the way I might pick up a healthy snack at the Colburn Café which is a far cry from any campus dining hall I’ve ever been to.  A great selection from carb-conscious nibbles to indulgent sweets.

This state of the art facility is home to 110 or so of today’s brightest upcoming young performers who have come to hone their skill, expand their range and hopefully open their minds to consider new and different ways of expression.  For the next week, 8bb will make our home here as we collaborate and cross-pollinate with several of the top students here.  On Sunday April 26 at 3pm we will present a program where we’ve split the group down the middle and filled in the gaps with young players to perform Stephen Hartke’s Meanwhile, the seminal Pierrot Lunaire of Arnold Schoenberg starring the inimitable Lucy Shelton, and Steve Reich’s Double Sextet.

Yesterday we held our second rehearsal for Meanwhile which is getting some extra attention this week since we’ve asked the students to memorize the score and learn our choreography for the piece.  The group as it appears below in the gorgeous Olive St. rehearsal room is 50% Aussie and 50% American.  Tim now has a chance to speak his native tongue in rehearsals, excusing himself to the dunny, correcting someone’s unevenly executed, semi-quavers and planning for a bloody bonzer arvo trip to Amoeba Records.

Did I mention the students are good?  Bloody good. Well prepared, musically sensitive and all around fun folks.  I’m sure more documents of this exciting project will come out over the next week so keep a look-out.  I’ve got to get to the practice room!

After being gone for almost 2 weeks, with most of my colleagues still away taking a short European holiday, I am back in Chicago rehearsing and putting the finishing touches on Lee Hyla’s rockin’ tour de force for bass clarinet and baritone saxophone We Speak Etruscan. It crazy-fun and has been kicking my ass for weeks.  It hurts so good.

Several months ago, after being away for a long holiday, we returned to find that our case of quinoa (yes, we have a suitcase filled with 50 pounds of quinoa in our studio, we’re a new music group after all.) had been discovered by a (now potentially really obese) mouse.  It had gnawed through one of the inner bags and feasted upon the delights within leaving a trail piles of grain dust and mouse excrement in its wake.  There was also a box of chocolates we received as a gift on our meeting table which had been ripped to shreds and emptied of its precious cargo, an open package of crackers with…surprise…no crackers in it in the kitchen area, several mostly-empty Coke cans on the floor and a bucket of dirty dishes next to the fridge. When I found this, I enjoyed a brief inner tantrum, cursing the unsanitary conditions of the studio and general lackadaisical approach to cleanliness.

I cleaned up the mess as best I could, bleached all surfaces which may have been trod upon by the critter’s dirty claws or subject to its…leavings.  Swept, vacuumed, air-freshened, washed the dishes, discarded partially consumed human-food and secured that which had been spared.

After this, things got better.  Dishes were no longer left in the bucket overnight, food was sealed and put away, trash was removed before it escaped the confines of its bin, spills were wiped up.  For months, there was no sign of our cohabitant.  It was lovely, but all good things must come to an end.

I came to the studio today to practice and rehearse and saw a pile of pistachio shells on the floor in the kitchen area.  (insert mini-tantrum here) Near the pile, a bucket of dirty dishes.  (the viscosity of my blood increases as my hate gland secretes its inky blackness into my veins) On the counter an open bag of pistachios with a trail of partially eaten chocolates leading to a bowl of candy ringed with that which was most certainly NOT long grain brown rice.  (full on fury of disgust)

I cleaned up the mess as best I could, bleached all surfaces which may have been trod upon by the critter’s dirty claws or subject to its…leavings.  Swept, vacuumed, air-freshened, washed the dishes, discarded partially consumed human-food and secured that which had been spared.

Rehearsal went well, we played a successful and convincing performance of “Etruscan” for the composer.  Happy day.

Until 6:15 PM when I am quietly sanding some new reeds.  I hear a “tink” from the kitchen area.  Under the din of the heating system I think nothing of it until a few minutes later, “tink.” I head to the kitchen and look around.  Nothing.  Back to reed profiling.

“Tink.”

“Tink”

I look under the mixing/recording desk and see…

I’m quite certain those shells weren’t there after I swept the floor just hours before.  As I slowly stood from this investigation, my gaze (and face) passed by the opened back end of the electronics rack above where the shells had been found.  To my delight and surprise (read: horror and disgust) I found myself staring into the beady black eyes of our brown-furred uninvited guest.  Inside this dark and complicated box, he had built for himself a comfortable home of wires, shredded wrappers, dung and…pistachio shells.

When he noticed me, he retreated deep within the component rack and I went to work, pulling out the cables and instruction manuals before reattaching the lids to the case and turning it up on its end trapping the lil’ fella inside.

As I write, I can hear his pestilent little claws scratching to find an escape.  Not gonna happen little one.  We’re going to go on a holiday of our own, perhaps to a lovely field or a nearby dumpster.  You’ll have all the pistachios you can eat there.  I’ll even through in some dried mango.  Buon appetito, little guy.

While at O’Hare this morning, a curiously typical financial transaction occurred.

[Nick throws a dollar bill in my lap]

Michael: “What’s this for?”
Nick: “You gave me a dollar for the vending machine last night.”
Michael: “Oh yeah, I forgot.”

[Michael hands the dollar bill to Tim]

Tim: “What’s this for?”
Michael: “I owe you some money for the cab driver’s tip.”
Tim: “Oh whatever.  No big deal.”

[Tim hands the dollar bill to Nick]

Nick: “Why are you giving this to me?”
Tim: “I owed you change from dinner in Kennesaw.”

[Nick puts the dollar back in his wallet]

George Perle as photographed by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

George Perle died yesterday.  I didn’t know him well but, his passing has made me sad and nostalgic.  As a member of a new music ensemble which prides itself on performing works of living composers, George’s death is significant.  He is the first composer who has written for us, with whom we have had the honor and privilege of working, who has passed on.  He will certainly be missed. Our deepest condolences to his wife Shirley.

A beautiful obituary by Allan Kozinn appears in today’s New York Times.

There are many stories, various and sundry from the past few months. Keep our RSS active, I promise it will come to life. Soon (ish.)

We’re going on holiday vacation for a bit, but we’ll be back in the new year with some crazy-fun new projects, winsome antics, and good times for all!

For those of you just tuning into “Thirteen Ways” I feel compelled to reiterate that Tim is a self-proclaimed classical music tragic. Classical music is the egg in his omelette, the coal in his locomotive, etc. His love for the genre is so all consuming I have found little evidence that he has any idea that other types of music even exist.

Before settling into the podcasts, we happened upon a local classical radio station which was fading in and out of service. The announcer prepared us to listen to a Telemann overture for harpsichord at which point I made a snarky comment about my apathy towards the Baroque period in general. This fell upon deaf ears as Tim listened intently to the recording.

After a few moments passed he said something which both shocked and delighted me. I leave it to you, our esteemed readers to conjecture.

[UPDATE: Of course, the answer is bedpans and self-flagellation.  On ya!)

[poll id="5"]

The poll closes on Friday September 19th at 11:59 PM.

What better to do when stuck at an airport on holiday than find the nearest microbrewpub and have a few cold (or room temperature) ones.

There has been a tremendous heat wave out here on the Cape this weekend and I’m ready for a brew or two.

My first is the Buckeye Oatmeal Stout from Boston Beer Works.  Served at just the right temperature with a rich and frothy head, expertly poured by my bartender, Mike.  Hopefully my garden burger with smoked gouda will live up to expectations as well.

Next the Boston Common.  “Created by a unique brewing process.” Pretty un-unique if you ask me.  Coppery and a bit sweeter than I had hoped.  Alas.

Tangentially…today as I was working on setting up a new computer network for my Mom’s family business, I met a young man named Scotty McKeowen who works as a carpenter for my sister’s husband’s construction company.  (They were preparing my Mom’s house to be re-shingled.)  Scotty introduced himself and asked if I “was the guy who had a piece written by Steve Reich.” In this context I was caught completely by surpise.  I told him yes, that’s me.  Apparently, he was at the Bang on a Can Marathon earlier this summer and had a chance to meet Steve Reich.  I didn’t have a chance to chat much with him (they were quite busy with the construction) but it gave me that “Huh, what a small world” thought.  As it turns out, he figured out a way to perform Steve’s “Piano Phase” in an arrangement for himself playing 2 bass guitars.  As I sit here reflecting on it, I realize I’ve missed out on quite an opportunity!  On my next trip out east, I’ll be sure to track him down to hear what he’s come up with! If you’re reading, thanks for the Dunkin’ coffee, Scotty!

The flute part uses especially effective features such as singing and/or humming simultaneously while playing — something that Ian Anderson of the rock group Jethro Tull would later use to amass quite a fortune.

I cannot take credit for the idea, you have JCGIII to thank for that. I simply provided the digital handiwork.