Brian Sacawa | Sounds Like Now

A not-so-recent post I dug up on Lisa Hirsch’s blog links to an article about classical music bloggers. Join the revolution!

Non-Zero played NYU last night. A fun concert, but what a day. Tim and I left Boston at 7:30am and arrived in NYC at 12:30pm thanks to the rain. A full day of work-shopping new works with the NYU graduate composers, a short recording session, and finally a concert shared with the stellar Janus trio. […]

The Tower Records in Harvard Square has been singing its siren song to me all week long. It lures me in seductively, flaunting its assets–a good sized section devoted entirely to new music–while simultaneously draining mine. Ever since the Borders in Ann Arbor scaled down its classical music section I haven’t had many opportunities recently […]

Great article in today’s New York Times. An interview by Daniel Wakin with James Levine, John Harbison, and Charles Wuorinen. It’s a polite conversation despite Wakin’s attempt to provoke an argument between Harbison and Wuorinen over the latter’s statement in 1979 that tonality has been replaced by the 12-tone system and that no serious composer […]

I heard two concerts last week–one by the clarinetist Karl Leister and another by Sir James Galway, the consumate entertainer. Two legendary player and two very different concerts. Mr. Leister, the former principal clarinetist of the Berlin Philharmonic, played an exquisite recital that included Brahms’ F minor Sonata, op. 120, no. 1. His tone is […]

Arthur listens as Non-Zero labors.

An area of instrumental technique and history that interests me a great deal is extended techniques and Matt Burtner has a pretty good article on the topic over at NewMusicBox.
Extended techniques, as the name implies, requires the performer to play an instrument in a manner outside of what would be considered a traditionally established norm. […]

Music has an amazing ability to reconnect you with another time and place. Earth, Wind & Fire, “September,” Emotions, “Best Of My Love,” Foo Fighters, “Up In Arms.”

If you’re in the mood to procrastinate or simply need a new addiction, allow me to recommend Zookeeper, an unassuming but highly addictive little Japanese flash game.

Non-Zero plays New York University’s Kimmel Center next Monday so I’m off to Boston tomorrow for a few days of rehearsing with Tim. The show is part of NYU’s First Performance concert series, and features three new works written for us by members of the graduate composition department. Represented on the program will be Sophocles […]