Well, the day is here.  Welcome back from your break!  Tonight should be real fun…  I need everyone there for soundcheck at 1:45.  Running order of the program and the Universal Pallettes you’ll need to have by memory are on the October 18th Page.  Check it out, please.

Now for the fun part.  We’ll convene at the Strathallan after the concert, but whether or not you join all of us there…

PLEEEEEZE join me for breakfast at the Strathallan on Thursday morning at 9am, just before i drive on outta here.  It’s gonna be heavily subsidized, and therefore wallet-friendly.  Come chow down with me, say goodbye, and celebrate all the work we’ve done together.  I’m so so happy to have had some time to work with you.

I’ll take a count tomorrow night, i need one in order to ask them to set up a table, or three.

see you Wednesday.

Todd

New York is being flooded with fuzziness! This past week was marked the premiere of Brad’s new piece Fuzzy Logic, written for the American Composer’s Orchestra as part of their Orchestra Underground series. Fuzzy Logic is scored for ensemble, electronic audio, amplified cello solo with sound processing and a virtuoso live video installation by Boom Design Group (all Eastman alumni!). Fuzzy had it’s premiere this past Friday at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. It was a wonderful experience for me to be a part of this and I enjoyed working with everyone…congrats to Brad on an amazing new work and Boom Design for a wacky and beautiful video!

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From Sequenza 21, an extraordinary article on Whassup With Brad Down In New York City Right Now. with Comments.
here.  check it out. 

I thought since I’m here, I might as well give you all as much of a heads up as to what types of things interest me as possible, especially since i’ll be using some of ‘these things’ in the concert on Wednesday.  I know I love to get know people as thoroughly as possible when I meet them, so i offer this in the same spirit.  The following is an article which was written a few months ago in Chamber Music America Magazine.  Written by Kyle Gann, one of our most important Contemporary Music writers, it focuses on electronics as it exists in my own work and in the work of a few other colleagues.  As Kyle is a great writer and has reviewed for the Village Voice for a long time, I’m thrilled that we got to spend some time together as he wrote this article.  You’ll notice to the right in the Blogroll I’ve listed his internet radio station and from there you can find his site as well.  Check him out.  Shortly after my tenure here, I head to Bard College to do a seminar on electronics in performance taking with me the joys of having done it with you here at ESM.  Link offered with permission of Chamber Music America

Here’s the article :  CMA_Article_KyleGann.pdf

To all my colleagues in Musica Nova, today it begins. Wednesday and Friday, 1:45-3:30 in 514 and Kilbourne Hall, respectively.

Also check out the October 18th Concert Page. 

You need to bring nothing but your bad selves, your instruments, and a notepad or notebook for taking some personal notes. oh, and toys, if you got’em. like, you know, noisemakers. It’s all good.

So, by the afternoon of October 11th, you’ll have a bunch of new tools with which to make music, and you won’t even know how it happened. Be very very scared. (just kidding)

I’ll give you all the basic principles in rehearsal, then i’ll post some of them here tomorrow afternoon as well. I just want you to hear them and work with them before seeing them in writing.

Want to hear what sort of music SoundPainting™ can produce?
Listen to this…

It’s from an Improvisation concert at the Bang on a Can Summer Institute last summer.

There were other completely unique and organic improvisations as well which were not led with SoundPainting™ , but rather from expanded listening.

Listen to them here…

One week, One big big party. Steve Reich turned 70. Here are some rehearsal pix of the prep for Daniel Variations, Steve’s new piece about Daniel Pearl, the tragically-killed journalist in Iraq. There is so much to the story, both Daniel Pearl’s, and the composition itself. Read more about it here. Brad and I felt privileged as we always do to play the music and to be part of the history-making. Several standing-ovations later, and simply teary-eyed from from being part of some great music-making, we’re once again reminded that this is a master of form and of rhythm, of simplicity and complexity all at once, and at 70 years, making some of the best music of his career. Let no one tell you it’s unemotional or at the same time unintellectual. That’s ignorance.

We weren’t able to nick a recording, but we hope you’ll hear it soon, in fact we hope we record it soon. The 1st pic is from The Cave, the second from the London Underground. Pics from Ben Rubin. Thanks, Ben

If you don’t know that Steve Reich turns 70 this year, please crawl out from underneath that rock! Brad and I set sail for London today to join with the Kronos Quartet and the Bang on a Can All-Stars as part of the Steve Reich Ensemble performing The Cave and Reich’s new composition, Daniel Variations, for the Barbican’s weeklong Steve Reich Birthday celebration.

Please check out this most interesting article written by the man himself on the future of music as he saw it 36 years ago, how it has actually unfolded, and his impressions on the music business of today. This is a fascinating glimpse into how time passes and defies expectation while at the same time fulfilling it in unforeseen ways.

Beyond learning from the perspective and experience of a master who changed the face of what we do and changed how the world hears music, it’s great to hear some thoughts from the composers mouth.  Speaking of “Future of Music”, this is truly your time, your music business, yours to make next. “New Music”, in its very broadest understanding, is where this happens, and has happened, ever since the very beginning of what we do.

Please pardon the preachin’ – “Music is my Life Dude”-quality rant. But really, click here to Read the Article, and stay informed. (Back to the future… Steve Reich. Photograph: Martin Godwin)

See you all on October 12th, and i’ll post more than a few times before then. stay tuned, stay in touch. comment on this post even! Don’t know how? Click on the ‘no comments’ link directly below, and you’ll figure it out. And you’ll be the first. Once one person has posted, that disappears, the comments list themselves in chron.

Stay Well, Brad and I will post some from London soon!

Todd

To all of you folks who attended the seminar yesterday, thanks for coming, and thanks for your interest and participation!

As promised, here are all the links i mentioned yesterday and a few more to support both composer and performer on your journey. I’ll post this on Todd’s Page as well, so that it will remain accessible long after this post has made it’s way to the background. I’ll also continue to put more links up as i remember that i forgot to mention them yesterday. (or just plain ran out of time) Don’t forget to check out Ableton Live!

I remembered as well that i didn’t even get to describe Soundpainting™ to you, which will be almost the entire basis of what we do for Musica Nova in October, so i’ll start to post some things about that soon, mostly on the October 18th Page, but i’ll let you know via the blog as well.

So, more links after the jump… but to get us started… here’s where I live, and you can listen to my music here . Once again, i’ve had a fantastic time here with you all, and i can’t wait to return in October! all the best, Todd click here to ==>

ARDITTI QUARTET

one of the best string quartets in the world

KALA RAMNATH

Indian Classical Music Violinist

LRBAGGS

the pickup of choice for discriminating amplified players everywhere. for violin, viola and cello.

THE REALIST

Absolutely the best i’ve heard for amplifying the cello

ABLETON.COM

makers of Live, software for win or mac, visit the site to see more.

CYCLING74.COM

creators of max/msp/jitter, and a bunch of other cutting edge software.

LOOPERSDELIGHT.COM

this is THE resource for all things looping. i’ve linked to the ‘tools of the trade’ page, so you’ll have access to all the neat stuff to investigate, do look on the rest of the site, though!

toddreynolds.com

todd’s music

Want to know what it’s like out there right now in the music business? Want to know about life after Eastman? What’s possible? Have any tendencies toward other art forms or toward other disciplines within music? Like computers? Have questions about what a ‘creative voice’ means, and if you even have one? Like to ‘improvise’, but don’t know how to get started?
Todd will meet with performers and composers alike to share things learned from his own journey and experience in the music world, having forged close alliances with countless composers, performers and entities such as Yo-Yo Ma, Bang on a Can, Steve Reich, John Cale, Joe Jackson, Todd Rundgren and Tan Dun, to name a few, and having established an international presence as an innovator in music and performance, touring concert halls and clubs around the world with his own projects and in support of the projects of others.

Todd also recently completed six years of building a string quartet which rose to prominence in the music industry, leaving his band Ethel to focus on solo and educational projects. Building a not-for-profit organization and classical music ensemble is a viable and exciting option after graduate school, and there is much to be aware of even now if that exists for you in the back of your mind as a possibility.

If you have questions, or are just interested in what’s possible as you begin to think about your own future, do consider attending. Subjects covered include: computers and amplification in music training and performance, general practice techniques, music as socially relevant art form, classical music as ambassador for peace, and… Music as Play. like, as in, FUN.

Also embedded in the conversation is a demonstration of Ableton Live, a generation of music software which is indispensible to every musician, especially creative types, and one of the only packages which provides every tool necessary to music creation and production.  Imagine Garage Band but with 70 years of wisdom and an exhaustive array of paint and brushes.  A basic practice and rehearsal toolkit will be created in realtime, then used to create your own music quickly and easily over which to play and interact.  This is the perfect way to introduce yourself to electronic music.

This seminar is offered as sponsored by Brad Lubman and Musica Nova and is open to anyone, and a plentiful question and answer session will complete the event. Y’all come! We promise a ton of value and a good time to boot.  Milk and Cookies included in the price of admission.  $00.00