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Composition competition finalists announced!

Well, it was a struggle, but we have whittled down our composition contest pool from 504 to 3. And it was not without its struggles: more than 150 hours of judging time was needed; 143 cups of coffee were drunk; 34.5 arguments were fought; one very large bag of M&Ms was consumed.

The contest is a partnership between MakeMusic, the American Composers Forum and eighth blackbird, and we thank our partners in this process for their significant financial, administrative and moral support.

All eighth blackbird members took part in the process, and, surprisingly, there was a significant amount of group consensus throughout the process.

The three finalists are: Andy Akiho of New Haven, Conn., Eric Lindsay of Bloomington, Ind., and Kurt Rohde of San Francisco, Calif. Each finalist will receive a cash prize and will write a piece for eighth blackbird, which will be workshopped and performed in the ensemble’s Chicago studio. One composer will be chosen to receive the final prize, which includes an additional cash award and a future public performance by eighth blackbird.

We were floored by the quality of submissions, and thought it fair to recognize twelve additional composers, whose pieces made it to our last internal round of judging. They were of such a uniformly high standard, with such diverse and distinctive voices, that we had to give them some sort of recognition.

They are:

Alex Freeman (Northfield, Minn.)
Sean Friar (Princeton, N.J.)
J.M. Gerraughty (Nashua, N.H.)
Aaron Gervais (San Francisco, Calif.)
Yotam Haber (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Derek Johnson (Carmel, Ind.)
Amy Kirsten (New Haven, Conn.)
Zibuokle Martinaityte (New York, N.Y.)
Douglas Pew (Erlanger, Ky.)
Jeremy Podgursky (Bloomington, Ind.)
Mike Solomon (Gainesville, Fla.)
Daniel Wohl (New Haven, Conn.)

For more information, you can visit the American Composers Forum website. We will provide more details (with dates and location) of the finalists’ workshop sometime in the near future. Thanks to all who entered, and rest assured that there were many marvelous, creative, bizarre, accomplished composers who didn’t make it into the final 15.

Posted 01 February 2011 † Tim § eighth blackbird ‡ Comments (6) °

We return to Carnegie Hall!

8BB_SSchwartz2When we last played at Carnegie Hall, in 2008, Allan Kozinn wrote in the New York Times that the ensemble “is now in another league… [The performance was] “virtuosic, polished and played largely from memory.”

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.

Posted 27 January 2011 † Michael § eighth blackbird § On tour ‡ Comments (0) °

Composition contest backlog

Thanks to all those who applied for 8bb’s first ever composition contest. Let’s get the really great news out of the way first. We were totally flooded with new musical love, in the form of 503 entries that ran the stylistic gamut, embracing all known and several unknown -isms, and drawing influences from anywhere and everywhere and nowhere.

Unfortunately, the downside to this totally unexpected, glorious tidal wave of scores and CDs (currently clogging our office/kitchen/rehearsal-room/new-music-lab) is that it has taken us longer to narrow the field down to three sterling applicants.

We don’t want to compromise the quality of our judging, so we have decided to postpone the announcement of the three finalists until February 1st. Our sincere apologies if this inconveniences any applicants, but we feel it with ensure the best possible outcome for both entrants and the ensemble.

Posted 03 January 2011 † Tim § eighth blackbird ‡ Comments (0) °