Kevin's Picks
Hannah Lash
Hailed by the New York Times as “striking and resourceful…handsomely brooding,” Hannah Lash has emerged as a leading voice of her generation.
Suggested listening:
C: For vibraphone and piano (commissioned by Zuzanna Szewczyk)
World Premiere November 3, 2011, Sprague Hall, Yale School of Music, Paul Kerekes and Michael Compitello
Frayed: for string quartet (written for the Jack Quartet)
World Premiere 05/07/10 Jack Quartet, Look and Listen Festival, NYC
Ted Hearne
(b. 1982, Chicago) is a dynamic composer, conductor and performer with polyglot sensibilities in new and traditional classical music. As comfortable in operatic and orchestral works as in rock and choral music, Hearne's compositions are socially engaging, exploring the complexity of contemporary experience with visceral power and raw emotional beauty.
Suggested listening:
Katrina Ballads: WHEN WE AWOKE, IT WAS TO THAT FAMILIAR PHRASE: NEW ORLEANS DODGED A BULLET
Featuring Nathan Koci, horn; video by Bill Morrison
Katrina Ballads: PROLOGUE: KEEPING ITS HEAD ABOVE WATER
Featuring Rene Marie, vocalist; video by Bill Morrison
Leah Collof
player of CELLO, singer of LOUD, soft, punk, rock, pretty, CRAZY, songs
Suggested listening:
Next of Kin: from Lucibel Crater record The Family Album
Leah Coloff: cello, voice, Sarth Calhoun: beats, bass, keys, Paul Chuffo: drums, Lou Reed: guitar
John Luther Adams
Called "one of the most original musical thinkers of the new century" (Alex Ross, The New Yorker), John Luther Adams is a composer whose life and work are deeply rooted in the natural world. Adams composes for orchestra, chamber ensembles, percussion and electronic media.
Suggested listening:
INUKSUIT:
A work for “nine to ninety-nine percussionists,” intended to be played outdoors, John Luther Adams' Inuksuit is designed to heighten our awareness of the sights and sounds that surround us every day and to energize our experience of our own environment.