Composers Talking: Wyner, Boyce, Bartlett, Karchin

Yehudi showing us all how it is done!

One of the things that I love about working with counter)induction is opportunity for conversations and interactions with other composers.  Our composer members (Kyle Bartlett, Ryan Streber, and myself) are good talkers, but I love to be surprised and engaged with new things that I haven't thought about.  This certainly happened during the conversation embedded below, a conversation among Yehudi Wyner, Kyle Bartlett, Lou Karchin and myself at counter)induction's last concert.

I think it's great the way we all dance around the issue of variety, and particularly American responses to that diversity.  I've written a bit about this issue before, and here I was particularly struck with the ways that the four of us wrestle with and admit to the fact that we don't really know what it is to be an 'American composer:'  even the general idea of 'openness' doesn't capture the back and forth between faction and community that seems to constantly and eternally renegotiated.

Not surprisingly, the best part is when Yehudi stands up and explains it all...

upcoming show with the rockin' MATTHEW LEVY!

counter)induction is super-revved for our upcoming concert MULTIPLE MODERNISMS. On October 30 we'll be playing Boulez, Bartlett and Davidovsky, PLUS we'll be joined by the renowned saxophonist Matthew Levy (of the Prism Saxophone Quartet) for Webern's Quartet Op. 22, and the fiendishly complex Whirled Series by Milton Babbitt. He'll also play Scelsi's solo Tre Pezzi.

Matthew sends along this message...

"I've been a huge fan of c)i for many years. The group plays with breathtaking sensitivity and virtuosity, and their programs are brilliantly conceived. I was deeply honored to be invited to join them. Plus, I dig me some modernism."

Ah, Matt, you know how to talk to the ladies!

MULTIPLE MODERNISMS is the first concert in a year celebrating the art of collaboration. First Matthew Levy, then Magnus Lindberg, then Paula Robison, and then... YOU, as you help us celebrate the release of our first cd later this spring. See you soon!