The showcase entitled “Reich, Rags, & Road Movies: Music by Steve Reich & Friends," which will take place on Wednesday, March 12 at St. David's Episcopal Church (304 E. 7th St. @ San Jacinto Blvd.) from 9:00 - 11:00 pm, brings the fresh sounds of B&H's contemporary composers to SXSW audiences through live performances by guitarist C.E. Whalen, New York City's So Percussion, San Antonio's own SOLI chamber ensemble, and pianist Michelle Schumann of the Austin Chamber Music Center.
Steve Reich will be guest of honor at the March 12 showcase, and will be heard in discussion with Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore at 1:15 on Thursday, March 13, at the Austin Convention Center (Room 18 ABC).
The premiere composer showcase will feature intimate performances of solo and chamber works, leading off with pianist Michelle Schumann playing Elena Kats-Chernin's “Russian Rag I and II" (1996), before being joined by violinist Ertan Torgu for a performance of John Adams's “Road Movies" (1995).
SOLI chamber ensemble will follow with Michael Torke's “Yellow Pages" (1985), Elliott Carter's “Gra" (1993) for solo clarinet, Kats-Chernin's “Slicked Back Tango" (2002), and audience favorite Eliza Aria (2005), closing the first half of the showcase with Steve Reich's “New York Counterpoint" (1985) for clarinet and tape.
Guitarist C. E. Whalen will open the second half of the showcase, all devoted to Reich, with “Electric Counterpoint" (1987) -- originally written for Pat Metheny, before So Percussion takes the stage to perform “Music for Pieces of Wood" (1973), “Nagoya Marimbas" (1994), “Drumming" (1970-71), and “Clapping Music" (1972).
Steve Reich turned the musical world upside down in the 1960's with his experimentation involving taped loops and “phase" music. The Guardian (UK) said he “altered the direction of musical history" and The New Yorker has called him “the most original musical thinker of our time." Widely accepted as a founding father of Minimalism, some would even call him a grandfather of Electronica. In 2006-07 his 70th birthday was celebrated internationally with major performances across the world including the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and BAM.
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams writes music with the rhythmic energy of rock, the harmonic complexity of symphonic masters, and the vivid imagination of a storyteller. Adams is known for bringing modern politics to the stage with his operas “Nixon in China," “The Death of Klinghoffer," and “Doctor Atomic," as well as making a powerful case for orchestral and chamber music that is both sophisticated and engaging.
Elliott Carter is currently enjoying a year-long celebration of his 100th birthday (December 11, 2008) this season, with performances from St. Louis to Tokyo. His formidable compositions demand nothing short of virtuosity from performers, who navigate his gnarly, capricious, and playful music with astounding technique and a strong dose of good humor. Raised on the avant-garde sounds of the early 20th century, Carter continues to push music forward, having written nine new pieces in his 99th year.
Elena Kats-Chernin's music opened the 2000 Summer Olympics and has been at the top of the UK classical charts since last Spring, when British bank Lloyds TSB used her spell-binding piece, “Eliza Aria" (from the ballet Wild Swans), for an ad campaign called “For the Journey." Fans flocked to YouTube, Myspace, iTunes, and Booseytones, to get their hands on her magical music, and created demand for a recently released remix of Eliza Aria by Mark Brown. An Australian composer by way of Uzbekistan, Kats-Chernin brings Romantic Russian lyricism to the 21st century.
Michael Torke paints with a psychedelic palette, splashing color and sound across a contemporary canvas with exuberant energy. Well-versed in everything from orchestra to punk, Torke speaks to a generation of modern-day omnivores where high-tops are just as likely to be seen as top hats at the concert hall. He left graduate school to become one of the most successful composers of his generation and, in 2003, started his own record label, Ecstatic Records.
Boosey & Hawkes is the world's largest independent publisher of classical music and jazz, representing legends such as Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Andrew Hill, Igor Stravinsky, and Sergei Prokofieff, as well as contemporary greats such as John Adams, Elliott Carter, Chick Corea, Paquito D'Rivera, Elena Kats-Chernin, Wynton Marsalis, Charles Mingus, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and Ned Rorem.
Since 1987 SXSW has produced the internationally recognized Music and Media Conference & Festival, created as a forum to bring together creative people and companies from a wide area to meet and share ideas. Originally a music festival, SXSW has grown from 700 people in 1987 to nearly 10,000 people today, now including a film conference and interactive festival in its annual March events.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
