2010
December 2010
Boston Globe Runs Story on Upcoming Ornstein Premier
On Friday, December 10, the Boston Globe ran a nice story about my upcoming premier of Leo Ornstein's Third Violin Sonata with Gabriel Boyers. The premier is set for Thursday, December 16th at 7:30. It will be at the Goethe-Institut in Boston (170 Beacon St.). On display at the concert will be a manuscript of the third sonata, original Ornstein concert programs, and rare Schubert first edition scores. Tickets are $10 and will be sold at the door.
To read the article, please visit this link:
The Globe also did a short video on a rehearsal of ours, also promoting the upcoming premier. This film can be viewed directly here.
November 2010
Composition Competition Winners Announced
It is with great pleasure that I can announce the winners of this year's Electro-Acoustic Composers Competition co-hosted by the University of Toronto and myself. The competition was to award two prizes: one specifically for a current student at the University of Toronto, and another from any composer of any age from anywhere in the world.
This being the first time I have hosted a competition, I was unsure what response I would receive. As it turns out, I got a wonderful response from composers all over the globe, receiving entries from several different countries.
Adam Scime was the winning composer from the University of Toronto for his composition Vagues. Adam is currently studying with Gary Kulesha at the U of T, and he previously studied composition at The University of Western Ontario with Peter Paul Koprowski and Paul Frehner. Recently, Adam was selected to participate in the Chrysalis Composers Workshop with the Continuum Contemporary Enemble during which his piece Fixity was performed under the baton of Christopher Butterfield. Adam has also been appointed Composer in residence with the GamUT contemporary ensemble for the 2010/2011 season. You can learn more about Adam's work on his website: www.adamscime.com
Elainie Lillios was the winning international composer for her composition Nostalgic Visions. Elainie, who is currently on faculty at Bowling Green University in Ohio, holds degrees from Northern Illinois University (BMus, MM, MM), the University of North Texas (DMA), and The University of Birmingham (MPhil) where she studied electroacoustic composition and sound diffusion with Jonty Harrison. She has been commissioned by the International Computer Music Association, ASCAP/SEAMUS, La Muse en Circuit (Paris), New Adventures in Sound Art (Toronto), and Rèseaux (Montreal), and awards/recognition from CIMESP (Brazil), Russolo (Italy), and IMEB (France) among others. Her music has been presented at conferences, concerts, and festivals internationally, including guest invitations to the GRM (Paris), Rien à Voir (Montreal), l’espace du son festival (Brussels), June in Buffalo (New York), and Sonorities (SARC Centre, Belfast). Elainie’s music is available on the Empreintes DIGITALes, StudioPANaroma, La Muse en Circuit, and SEAMUS labels, and is included on the CD accompaniment to New Adventures in Sound Art’s The Radio Art Companion. You can learn more about Elainie and her work on her website: www.elillios.com
Both pieces will be performed as a part of the University of Toronto's New Music Festival on January 26th. This program will also feature the world premier of Steven Rick's Medussa Fragments and Chen Yi's Duo Ye. This promises to be an exciting concert as every composer will be present at the event.
World Premier of 90 Year Old Piece
My ongoing Leo Ornstein project continues next month with the world premier of his Third Violin Sonata. This is a single movement work that was, presumably, left unfinished at the time of his death. Although the exact date of composition is unknown, judging from the musical language used by the composer, it was likely composed in the early to mid 1920s. This is a piece that was only recently discovered (within the past few years) by his son, Severo Ornstein, and I am thrilled to be able to present an Ornstein premier.
Also on the program is Ornstein's First Violin Sonata, Op. 26. Both of these pieces, performed with violinist Gabriel Boyers, are in preparation for our upcoming recording of Ornstein's complete works for violin and piano.
This concert, which also features works by Schubert and Bach and will be on December 16th at the Goethe-Institut in Boston, should be of particular interest to any musicologists and lovers of musical autographs. Courtesy of both Severo Ornstein and Schubertiade Music, the program will also feature first edition Schubert scores, an original Ornstein program from the 1910s, and a copy of the manuscript to the Third Sonata that is being premiered. This promises to be a wonderful evening!
For more details, click here.
August
ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC PIANO TOUR CONTINUES!
The Electro-Acoustic Piano (EAP) tour is about to begin its second season. This season's first shows will be in New York City in August, then continues to further engagements in Tennessee, Toronto, Belgium, upstate New York, and Mexico.
I am particularly excited to start presenting some new works on the program. In addition to last year's contributions by VanHassel and Strange, this year's program will include new works by Roberto Morales, Steve Ricks, and, starting in October, the winner of the EAP Composers Competition. Additionally, the first two shows will include a composition by German composer Michael Maierhof entitled Splitting 16. Although acoustic, we creates sounds that very much resemble digital distortion; I couldn't help but include it!
Check the upcoming concerts page for more details.
THE ADVENTURES OF THE ADVENTURES OF NORBY
Norby is about to embark upon a wonderful new series of adventures, as the work will be played by several different pianists in the coming months. Kai Schumacher will again be presenting the piece in January, and Benjamin Buchanan, a senior at the University of Tulsa, will be playing the work as a part of his senior recital on October 21, 7:30 pm. Also on the program is Size Doesn't Matter for toy piano and organ (which I composed years ago for my own senior recital). Additionally, pianist Oni Buchanan (no relation) will be including the piece in her 2011/12 concert tour. Keep checking back for more details.
INCOMPLETE IMPERFECTION
From the end of July through the beginning of August, I was in residency at the Music Omi International Artist Residency program. In addition to meeting a dozen amazing musicians from nine different countries, I also composed Incomplete Imperfection, a six minute piece for piano, flute, bass, electric guitar, and sampler. The world premier was given at Roulette in NYC on August 9th with Solomiya Moroz on flute, Matthew Hough on electric guitar, Dominic Lash on bass, Elisabeth Harnick on sampler, and myself on piano. Thank you to every one of those performers for a great show!
MAILING LIST APOLOGY
Lastly, I would like to issue an apology to everyone on my mailing list. It appears that I accidentally placed everyone's email in the "to" field as opposed to the "Bcc" field. I know many of you were upset or frustrated by this, and I do apologize. Immediately upon pressing "send" I realized my mistake, but as there is still no "undo" feature in email, there was nothing I could do but hope no one noticed. Alas, no such luck.
So again, my deepest apologies, and I thank everyone for your understanding in this mix up.
June
ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC PIANO TOUR FINISHED
The first year of the Electro-Acoustic Piano (EAP) is now over. It was a great success and was met with much enthusiasm at every venue. Again, I want to thank each of the composers who contributed music to this project: Christopher Trebue Moore, Christopher Jette, Dan VanHassel, Roberto Morales, and Annie Gosfield. This program would not have been nearly as interesting or rewarding without your amazing contributions!
The program got reviewed twice. Once in Kansas City by KCMetropolis and once by a student paper in Worcester, Massachusetts. If you would like to read the KCMetropolis review, click here.
The tour had some very interesting moments. Most notable was when my computer's motherboard crashed and the computer completely stopped running - literally a day after the warranty expired! With another show only 36 hours away, I had to rush to Best Buy and pick up a new machine. This, of course, led to other problems as each of the composers had to rush me their patches via email. As if that weren't enough, ten minutes before showtime, Jette's piece refused to work on the new machine; the computer simply could not communicate with my Wii remote. Thankfully, Jette fixed the problem during the first half of the concert and emailed me the repaired version. (Let me add that I was in Chicago, and he was in Santa Barbara!) This I downloaded during the first piece on the second half, installed during the second piece, and, after praying fervently that it would in fact work, played it without problem as the third piece. Ah, the joys of technology!
A couple weeks after the last concert, Jette, Trebue Moore, VanHassel, and myself met at UC Berkeley to record the entire recital. This recording will be released in two volumes, the first of which should be due later this year. For those who missed the recital - and for those who want to hear it again - keep checking back for more information.
Thankfully, EAP isn't over. With the project gaining steam and popularity, I am excited to present it for a second season next year. With a couple new composers added to the show, it promises to be every bit as exciting as it was this year.
I would also like to call your attention to the NEW Electro-Acoustic Piano page. The new page includes several video samples of this music, as well as a full project description. It also announces a new side project I've begun - the Electro-Acoustic Toy Piano!
KEITH KIRCHOFF TO BE FEATURED IN A NEW BOOK
YouTube is a remarkable invention. While I have certainly not reached the status of such YouTube greats as Tay Zonday, my performance of Matthew McConnell's Concerto for Toy Piano is at nearly 20,000 views. This number is apparently high enough to warrant including me in a new book that is getting published on the history of the toy piano. The author is Pawel Romanczuk, a Polish musician who himself has a fabulous toy piano project. I do not know when the book is to be published, but I am pretty excited to be included in it - even if it's being written in Polish!
EAP COMPOSERS COMPETITION
Lastly, I would like to remind everyone of the composition competition that I am co-hosting this year together with the University of Toronto. Open to all composers, the contest is looking for new works for piano and live electronics. Two winners will be selected (one to be a current student from the University of Toronto), and I will perform both pieces at the University of Toronto's New Music Festival in January 2011. Of these two winners, one will be selected to be included on a forthcoming album: The Electro-Acoustic Piano, vol. 2 (yes, that does mean a volume one is in the works).
The University of Toronto's New Music Festival is a long-standing festival that can safely be counted amongst the best in Canada. This year's festival - of which I was not a part - was a huge success, and they already have Chen Yi lined up to be the guest composer next season. I am anxious to begin reviewing the entries, as I am sure to be introduced to several amazing new composers.
For more information on the competition, visit: keithkirchoff.com/commission.html
Also, please join us on Facebook! To join the "Composition Competition" group, please click here.
March
NEW COMPOSITION COMPETITION ANNOUNCED
I am very excited to announce a new composition competition that I will be co-hosting this year together with the University of Toronto. Open to all composers, the contest is looking for new works for piano and live electronics. Two winners will be selected (one to be a current student from the University of Toronto), and I will perform both pieces at the University of Toronto's New Music Festival in January 2011. Of these two winners, one will be selected to be included on a forthcoming album: The Electro-Acoustic Piano, vol. 2 (yes, that does mean a volume one is in the works).
The University of Toronto's New Music Festival is a long-standing festival that can safely be counted amongst the best in Canada. This year's festival - of which I was not a part - was a huge success, and they already have Chen Yi lined up to be the guest composer next season. I am anxious to begin reviewing the entries, as I am sure to be introduced to several amazing new composers.
For more information on the competition, visit: keithkirchoff.com/commission.html
Also, please join us on Facebook! To join the "Composition Competition" group, please click here.
ELECTRO-TOUR MOVING EAST
The Electro-Acoustic Piano tour enjoyed a successful first month with four different shows throughout Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and the Bay Area. During March the show is going to Boston, New York, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Provo, and Tulsa. Check here for dates and times.
SHIAU-UEN DING TO PREMIER PIANO SONATA
Pianist Shiau-uen Ding is set to premier my Piano Sonata on May 26th at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York City. It was written as a part of a large commissioning project she did a couple years ago when she asked several composers to write musical responses to Liszt's Dante Sonata. Good luck to Shiau-uen on this recital!
RECOEMENDED LISTENING
Edwin Fischer Plays Schubert
The last several posts have focused on both new cutting edge works that bridge the gaps between rock, jazz, and classical (Zorn & Alasnoaxis), and the work that inspired such artists (Antheil). Thus for this month's column I would like to take a step back to some older music and an older pianist.
Edwin Fischer remains to this day one of my absolute favorite artists. As a pianist he had the most perfect mastery of touch: he not only could control the tone of the piano better than any other pianist alive (then or now), but he had absolute command over every single contrapuntal line. Each line is heard as an independent voice, and each line is given such tender care it is jaw dropping and soul stirring to listen to his work.
With this said, it should come as little surprise that Fischer is most known for his Bach recordings. These are great recordings and in my opinion are the greatest Bach keyboard albums out there (no offense Mr. Gould).
But for this column, I want to focus on one particular album that remains among my top five favorite albums of any genre: Fischer's recording of the Schubert Impromptus.
The pieces themselves are tremendous masterworks: both charming and deep, they are pensive reflections that I consider among the best works of the 19th century. Fischer does more than simply play these works, though, as he presents them in a wholly new way. His warm tone immediately caresses you, and as he intricately weaves each voice through the texture, he holds you captivated.
I have never heard piano playing like this before. This isn't virtuosic playing in the modern sense of the word; he isn't playing dazzling octaves or whipping off lightning fast scales. But what few people today realize is that the level of care and refinement of touch and tone that Fischer brings to the piano is in fact far more virtuosic than any Lang Lang recording. Anyone can play octaves (OK, not anyone), but no other pianist in the age of recordings has ever rivaled Fischer's sound. Take my word for it: playing the piano with an infinite sound palate, applying a different color to each independent simultaneous line (whether melodic or otherwise), and being able to listen and concentrate 100% to each one of those lines at all times may just be the single hardest thing to do in piano playing. No technical etude comes close to that level of difficulty.
These are beautiful works played more beautifully than you will ever hear them again. Treat yourself to a spiritual spa and listen to this album.
January
Happy New Year, everyone! 2010 is officially underway, and the Electro-Acoustic Piano tour is just about ready to roll. All the scores are in, all the gear is purchased, and I'm anxiously looking forward to February 7th.
Shortly before the New Year, I heard the electronics to Christopher Trebue Moore's praya dubia for the first time. And I must say, they are really fabulous. While I certainly had high expectations, I can honestly say his work on this piece has nonetheless exceeded them.
Also in December, Dan VanHassel sent me a new and updated version of his piece, Lush Intrinsic. While the piece was very good before, the new version really blew me away.
But the great music does not stop there; every single piece on this program is of such a high quality, I feel truly honored to have had the opportunity to work so closely with these great composers. Thank you again to each of you!
Aside from my frantic practice schedule, there is little news at the start of the new decade. (No news is good news, right?) However, I am excited to report:
SHIAU-UEN DING TO PREMIER PIANO SONATA
Pianist Shiau-uen Ding is set to premier my Piano Sonata on May 26th at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York City. It was written as a part of a large commissioning project she did a couple years ago when she asked several composers to write musical responses to Liszt's Dante Sonata. Good luck to Shiau-uen on this recital!
RECOEMENDED LISTENING
George Antheil: Violin Sonatas 1, 2, & 4
Vera Beths (violin) and Reinbert de Leeuw (piano)
It remains a mystery to me: why are the Antheil violin sonatas not a part of the standard sonata repertoire? I would say that they are "great," but that would only be a gross understatement.
Instead, I will say that the first two sonatas, both included on this recording, are of equal quality to the Ives and, dare I say it?, the Beethoven sonatas.
These pieces have everything: they are virtuosic, satirical, and fun. Yet they are psychologically deep pieces that demand an active listener. They are compositional masterworks that are decades before their time, and the styles embraced in them harkens to the modern-era of industrial music and John Zorn (see my earlier post on Naked City; Zorn owes a great deal of his style to Antheil).
Structurally, the pieces are quite unique. Almost completely bereft of transitions, Antheil gives the listener dozens of short, rhythmically complex, but immediately recognizable musical vignettes that continue to return in various forms throughout the length of the piece. He cuts from one event to the next like a patchwork quilt: there isn't a blending of styles, but from a distance, everything makes perfect sense. One minute, the pianist is banging tonal clusters up and down the length of the instrument, the next the violin is playing a sweet little tune, the next we're listening to ragtime. All this within the span of about five seconds.
While Ballet Mechanique is Antheil's most talked about piece, it is in his first two violin sonatas that he really captures the musical language he was trying to communicate. When they were premiered in the 1920's, they certainly made a splash: no one had ever heard music like that (and for that matter, we haven't since!) and listeners were stunned - and outraged.
But artists took immediate note and his work influenced composers from Ornstein to Nancarrow to Bolcom and writers like Ezra Pound.
There have been pitifully few recordings of his violin sonatas (and to this day, there has still not been a complete recording made - something I've been hoping to rectify for several years), and what few exist lack the sparkle and maniacal wit needed to play these pieces successfully. (Trust me, they don't play themselves!) But Vera Beths and Reinbert de Leeuw nail it. They really, really nail it. They capture the essence of every single measure, jump from idea to idea flawlessly, and are constantly in perfect sync. It is obvious that they play together a lot, and they enjoy every minute of it.
I have been enjoying my recording of these sonatas for several months now (I heard it for the first time in February), and I've planned on including it in this column for about that long. So imagine my surprise when I went to amazon.com for a link and discovered that the disc was out of print. Out of print?! The greatest recording of some of the greatest works for violin no longer available. This is heresy of the highest order.
So as the New Year gets started, I challenge you, dear reader, open your web browser and find a recording of these pieces. And please, find the recording by Vera Beths and Reinbert de Leeuw; don't settle for the one on Naxos (which not only lacks the character of the music, but also is curiously missing about sixty measures of the second sonata), for I can assure you will not understand my enthusiasm if you do. But scour the web and find this album. It was released on the Disques Montaigne label. And you have my promise that every minute it takes to find this record will be well worth the effort.