Introducing KAPOW!

Well, folks, it doesn’t get much "funner" than this.  Our concerts are usually more on the “serious” side, even if we do try to break the mold of the traditional classical music concert.  This time, however, the whole evening is, for the most part, tongue-in-cheek and hilariously entertaining.  For starters, Linus Roache is joining us.  That one is for the ladies…especially the wife, who has been smitten with him since watching “Wings of the Dove” in the late ‘90s.  I get it, I get it.  For once, there will be a handsomer man than I on stage!  (Just kidding, btw.)  Secondly, we have Tony Roberts, who needs no introduction if you’ve seen “Annie Hall” or “Play It Again, Sam.”  Then we have Tony Award-nominee Stephanie D’Abruzzo, whom you may know as Lucy the Slut from “Avenue Q.”  Add to that mix the multi-faceted Elliott Forrest – you New Yorkers out there will know his mellifluous voice on WQXR – as narrator for the evening, and you have a seriously interesting mix there. 

Did I mention that this awesome cast is bringing to life the adventures of caped crusader, The Green Lama?  For those of you who don’t know The Green Lama, that would be Jethro Dumont, rich New Yorker-turned-lama who – and I’m not making this up! – turns into the superhero crime-fighter by chanting “Om! Ma-ni pad-me Hum!”  If only transforming into a superhero were that easy…

So where does Sympho fit into all of this (besides putting the whole thing together)?  The music, of course!  We’ve spent many a day composing and compiling a live soundtrack for this event.  And did I mention sound effects?  If you come and hear bullets whizzing in the hall, never fear, that’s just yours truly on my trusty laptop.

Lastly, we’re excited to introduce new software art by Scott Draves, creator of “Electric Sheep.”  You may have to be a nerd to have heard of “Electric Sheep,” but you don’t have to be one to be awed by them.  It’s like watching universes folding into themselves and then emerging into new and hypnotic forms.  We’ll be presenting a new generation (in ultra hi-def, better than Blu-Ray!) of “Electric Sheep,” accompanied by live music, and I dare you not to be transported while you’re watching. 

So if you thought Sympho was all about high-brow, “serious” art, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn that we have a wicked sense of humor, too!  KAPOW!  This Wednesday, 7 p.m., at the Rubin Museum.  You can buy tickets here.

Cameos by...

Another one of the great things about putting together a Sympho concert is the incredibly talented artists we get to work with (this on top of the fantastic musicians of the orchestra, of course!).  So here we are, around the calendar corner from Ascending Darkness, and we have another brilliant line-up.

We have cameo appearances by classical guitar virtuoso David Leisner, who has been described by American Record Guide as "...among the finest guitarists currently performing," and he certainly lives up to that description.

And if you've ever wondered how gorgeous a theorbo can sound (or if you just wanted to know what a theorbo was), look no further than master theorbist Hank Heijink, who we've managed to snag for a special number.

We are also bringing back multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and composer Bora Yoon, who captivated our audiences on both coasts during ARCO and TOWER.

And, finally, Trio Eos, a female vocal trio whose voices are what we imagine angels sound like when they sing.

Two weeks until the big reveal, and we are itching with anticipation.  Hoping that some of you are as well.

Darkness, Blessed Darkness...

One of the exhilarating things about putting together a Sympho concert is that we never know how the many moving parts will coalesce on the night of.  One of the terrifying things about putting together a Sympho concert is that we never know how the many moving parts will coalesce on the night of. 

By that, I mean, we usually start with a concept, then search for the right venue to bring that concept to life, then curate a “playlist,” then compose or commission the interstitial pieces, then bring in guest artists (musical or other), then add lighting, then determine musician placement throughout the space, then figure out the logistics of getting musicians around the space if the program calls for it, etc.  (There’s more to it, of course, but I won’t bore you with minutiae.)  Needless to say, there’s always room for things to go wrong – like when one of our commissioned composers pulled out at the last minute for one of our concerts, or when our projector failed for another concert, or when, for yet another concert, the projections weren’t quite what we had been expecting.  But the unexpected is just par for the course for us, and we’ve learned to roll with the punches.

What we can’t take chances on, though, for our next concert, is darkness, given that we’ve entitled our concert Ascending Darkness, and that we’ve been describing this concert, more or less, as a concert in the dark.  Were we performing in a black box theater or standard interior concert space, the possibility of pitch blackness would be a given.  But this concert calls for resonant acoustics, and we were fortunate enough to have been granted use of the architectural marvel that is the Church of the Ascension in Greenwich Village.  While perfect in just about every aspect for “Ascending Darkness,” I had noted, though, a potential glitch in the possibility of light transmittal from the gorgeous, stain-glassed windows. 

So we were worried, and not just a little…until our visit to the space last night.  Relief.  Finally, we were able to see the space with the lights turned off, and, oh, blessed, blessed darkness.  We were able to revel and dream in the limitless luxury of blackness – surprisingly black, given the aforementioned windows – imagining ourselves as the audience immersed in the dream we’re planning to weave.  So here we are, planning and prepping for this concert with a renewed commitment.  Finalizing touches to the musical offerings now, and our lighting designer – yes, we have a lighting designer for a concert in the dark, but more on that later – plotting his concept to execution, to assist us in enhancing the experience for our audience. 

Can’t wait to share this performance with you.  I suspect this will be an intensely memorable experience for most, if not all, of the audience.  And, if nothing else, it will be undoubtedly unique.

‘Til later.

Ascending Darkness - beginnings

Now that Sympho's Ascending Darkness is coming up (on May 8 in NYC), I figured I'd share something of its origins.  I've always been fascinated by the idea of a concert in the dark, so this one has been on the slate for years now.

About a year ago, though, I was struck by how light/dark opposition might be stretched -- in the concert context -- into a land of conscious/unconscious thought, or awake/dreaming.  That led to the "Aha!" moment that is about to culminate in Ascending Darkness (subtitled "Soundtrack to a Dream").

In my mind (and my mind only, unless someone else is drawn there by chance), the dramatic arc of this concert is very much informed by the writings of Joseph Campbell - specifically "Hero With a Thousand Faces."  It's a journey into the un- (or sub-) conscious, something akin to a quest.  With that said, I think the only important thing to know going into a concert like this is that you have the opportunity to make it into your own journey, your own quest.

The music and lighting are designed to draw you into a quasi-sleep state -- not that you'll be out cold, snoring, but more like withdrawn from the outside and paying serious attention to things sonic.  Once you're there, each piece develops the dream further.  Whatever associations or images you come up with along the way, they're all valid.  This is YOUR dream, remember?  One of the interesting things to know about archetypal hero quests/dream journeys is that they all share the same broad-based sequence of events, regardless of culture or time period.  Given that, it's likely that the sequence of associations and images you experience during this concert will be similar to what others experience.  Interesting post-concert discussion fodder, we hope!

Back to writing music for this.  More soon...

A belated Happy New Year's greeting to all of our Sympho supporters and fans.  2012 was an artistically fulfilling year, with events on both coasts (in NYC and California), but 2013 promises to be an even more exciting one.  Artistic ideas are percolating.  Sleeves have been rolled up.  We have two concerts coming up in NYC -- a multimedia follow-up to "Green Lama" and a concert that explores the ideas of darkness in music and music in darkness -- not to mention an educational initiative that mentors young musicians while teaching them how to perform for children in pediatric intensive care units.  The latter is a project near and dear to us, and we look forward to providing updates in the coming weeks.  Finally, we have an exciting commission in San Francisco that we can't wait to share with you!  Until the official press announcement, we have to keep it under wraps, but it's going to be quite the event, so stay tuned!

Happy Friday, and here's a little clip of something we've been listening to a lot recently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0wOV-w1ObI
It's not exactly "classical," but we like to mix things up a little!

Bionic Symphony

Given that Sympho's Bionic Symphony is coming up on June 6 at 8pm in NYC, I wanted to let our readers know what it is and why it's going to be so special. (Click here to buy tickets.)

This concert started in my mind with the idea of alternating electrical current, or more specifically the notion that extreme energy, and ultimately power, can be generated by alternating differing signal types in rapid succession. A quick glance at the program notes shows that this idea – switching back and forth between old (Classical) and new (Neo-Classical) music – is still very much alive.

Then I began to think about the very “Sympho” idea of using that generation of power to create something new and very large-scale, something specifically inspired by human aspirations.

Bionic Symphony is a large-scale work, composed of four “bionic symphonies” (Parts I, II, III, and IV in the program order), connected by interludes. The music in these “bionic symphonies” alternates between Classical (in this case by Mozart and Haydn) and Neoclassical (music that uses Classical forms and conventions as a starting point for the creative process) movements or short pieces.

What is a Symphony? In Reader’s Digest terms, it’s a musical piece of Classical origins, usually but not necessarily in four movements, where those movements were typically in the order fast-slow-dance-fast. (The dance movements could be slow or fast but were usually in triple meter.) The first movement is typically in sonata form, where (after an optional slow introduction) initial material is presented in an “exposition”, then toyed with in the“development”, and finally re-presented in more final terms in the “recapitulation”.

More importantly, and in terms we can all understand, a Symphony is a journey contemplated and then travelled, a problem encountered and then solved. As we progress from the Classical into the Romantic period, especially with composers like Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms, we start to encounter thematic and other organic links between movements. In some later instances (e.g., Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7), there are no breaks, yielding a Symphony in one movement.

Our “bionic symphonies” are designed to integrate the feeling and sweep of a Symphony: in either two, three, or four movements, they have their own journey to travel or their own problem to solve. Indeed, the evening as a whole, if you look at it carefully, is itself of Symphonic proportions: four movements, each with its own flavor, and designed with a forward momentum from beginning to end.

In the end, though, you'll be able to put all of that in the background, because this evening has been designed to transport you into an exciting, emotional space: a movie-length, nonstop, century-hopping smorgasbord of great music.  I can't wait to share it all with you!

(Again, for tickets, click here.)

Salon.com review

OK, we at Sympho are pretty happy with this one. The Green Lama was, according to salon.com, "a mixed-media sensory experience that was like nothing I’ve seen before and, dare I say it, it even bordered on the spiritual." To check out the full review, please click here.

Sold out!

Just got back from the Green Lama concert at the Rubin Museum. Absolutely incredible performance by all, and I've gotta say...I really loved the experience. Creating sound effects and composing music, as well as choosing music by (mostly contemporary) composers and, uh, mashing it all up proved to be great fun. It didn't hurt that we had stellar performers, both musicians (MAYA) and actors (including Linus Roache as the Green Lama and Brian Cox as Willie the Sleeper). Food for thought - it certainly was a new direction for Sympho, and the audience was really receptive to it. Very happy.

Green Lama today!

Today's the big day! Yesterday all the actors came together, Elliott Forrest and I coached them on their roles, and we put it together with the soundtrack. Amazing. Everyone involved in this, from the musicians to the actors to the tech crew, is incredible, and the whole piece is wildly exceeding my expectations. If you're reading this, please help me spread the word. This is a one-time event and seriously not to be missed. If you want to link to the Facebook event page, here's that link.

Too much fun in Green Lama rehearsal?

Well, I'm a big believer in accomplishing a lot in rehearsals, and also in highly-detailed time management. That said, I love it when you hit a rhythm in rehearsal and have a great time. Today was one of those days: MAYA and I rehearsed The Green Lama for four hours this afternoon, and we had a blast. John Hadfield (percussionist) had worked with me earlier to set up our electronics, and today was the rehearsal where we put the "soundtrack" together, playing all the musical snippets and various electronica elements in order, along with a reading of the script from the Green Lama comic book. I'm not sure what it was about this piece - perhaps it's just such a crazy mish-mash of styles, times, and places - but we were, ahem, ROFL the whole time. MAYA plays brilliantly, and it's incredibly rewarding to be able to work with them on such an intimate level.

The actors are WQXR’s Elliott Forrest as narrator, with Law and Order's Linus Roache as the voice of the Green Lama, and Brian Cox—who opens in "Coriolanus" this week opposite Ralph Fiennes—as master crook Willie the Sleeper. Darrell Larson will also be joining us.

Tomorrow we put together the entire Green Lama multimedia project. We'll do a tech run-through with the video projection element (devised by Elliott Forrest), and then the actors will join us for a full-cast rehearsal and then run-through. Should be a great day!

Then Sunday's the big day. Dress rehearsal at 2:30, and the performance at 4pm. Get your tickets here.

Kapow!!!

In just under a week (Sunday the 29th at 4pm, to be exact), Sympho will be collaborating with the extraordinary MAYA Trio (Sato Moughalian, Bridget Kibbey, and John Hadfield) to create a somewhat composed, somewhat improvised soundtrack to a screening of panels from the 1940's cult comic book "Green Lama". Yes, that's with only one "l". A superhero who spends time in Tibet, amassing mysterious powers during his sojourn...not your typical comic book, but certainly a fun one.

I'll be working with MAYA during rehearsals starting this Wednesday, putting it all together, and then we'll join with a wonderful group of actors (Linus Roache, Brian Cox, Darrell Larson, and WQXR's Elliott Forrest) on Saturday to put it all together. This is a first for me, because I'll be performing on laptop instead of conducting. It'll be a wonderful chance to hear some live chamber music in a crazy mash-up of artistic genres (visual art, music, and theater, to be precise). The "soundtrack" portion will be about 15 minutes, followed by an artist discussion. The remainder of the concert will be a mixture of chamber music and electronica, primarily composed of source material for the soundtrack in extended form.

Should be a good one, and I'll hope to see you there! Details here.

Great Phone Call!

I had a wonderful conversation with Ann Hamilton yesterday. Ann is the acclaimed artist creator of the Tower, the 80-foot-high, 16-foot-diameter venue with double helix staircases in which Sympho will perform next June in California. The concert is entitled, appropriately enough, TOWER. I'll share some of the tantalizing details:

• She met Steve Oliver, the man who eventually commissioned the Tower, through a friend who knew that 1) Ann needed some live sheep for a current project, and 2) Steve happened to be raising sheep.

• The double helix staircase is modeled on a specific well in Orvieto, Italy - sheep descend to the water via one staircase, and they ascend via the other.

• OK, enough about sheep! More intriguingly, the Tower is designed to connect the sky and the ground, and Ann conceptualized it as a throat. (Funnily enough, one of the first images that came to mind upon entering the Tower was the vibrating column of air inside the throat or in a woodwind instrument.)

• It's a very INTERIOR space, even though it's outside. You won't get this until you're standing inside, but it's very true.

• Rhythmically, the staircase looks very regular, but it's not. The stairs get narrower and narrower as they ascend - this compression in ascension and relaxation in descent was integral to Hamilton's design.

• The primary experience was intended to be about movement. The stairs have a nice "gait" to them, though I wouldn't recommend walking them for extended periods of time, unless you're going for a great workout!

• You can look very intimately at the person opposite you on the other staircase, but you can't reach them.

• Finally, given its location in an earthquake zone, there is at least as much built UNDER the ground as there is above ground. During the construction, the team brought in workers from a bridge-building company with airtanks to go underground and make sure the concrete pillars penetrated into bedrock.

For more pictures of this singular venue just click here. The Sympho collaborative team is off to experiment in the Tower for a week, starting on October 17. Can. Not. Wait.

TOWER Beginnings

Just a quick note to our fans: after an intense period of reflection over the past months, we are ready to launch into the beginnings of the artistic development of TOWER, commissioned by the Oliver Ranch Foundation and following in the footsteps of artistic luminaries Meredith Monk and Kronos Quartet. The concerts will take place on June 16 and 17, 2012 in Geyserville, CA. Artistic Director Paul Haas and collaborating artists will be in residence in Ann Hamilton's 80-foot-tall structure for an entire week this coming October. Stay posted for further developments.

Conversation with Sympho Artistic Director Paul Haas

A conversation with Sympho Artistic Director Paul Haas as he talks about the ambitious scope of ARCO, what it's like to develop a site-specific piece for the Park Avenue Armory, the confluence of the old and the new in both the venue and the music, and how the themes of struggle, aggression, protection, ecstasy and revelation are treated by and shared among the three composers of ARCO.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW

Tomorrow we go in!

We've been rehearsing the orchestra for two days now, and I've got to tell you - this is one incredible band. I feel like I'm driving a Lamborghini. They can do absolutely anything - crazy mixed meters, the whole range of dynamics, colors, and styles, and it's almost as if they're able to intuit what I want. Really phenomenal.

Tomorrow night, we move in to the 55,000 square foot Drill Hall to put this concert in its home. Up until now, we've been in a gorgeous historic room in the Armory, but what we've heard bears little resemblance to how it will actually sound in the Drill Hall. Luckily, Bora Yoon, Paul Fowler and I have done tons of research in the Drill Hall, figuring out its acoustics, even before we wrote a note of music.

This may be the last post I write before ARCO. It's gonna get pretty crazy.

Seriously...come to ARCO.

And it begins

Rehearsals for Sympho's ARCO start tomorrow at the Armory - long days on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, including the performance at 7:30pm. Believe it or not, the first time we'll actually be in the enormous Drill Hall as an ensemble is Tuesday night. Paul Fowler, Bora Yoon, and I cannot wait to hear this music live in that fantastic venue, and we can't wait to share it with YOU.

As you can imagine, the next few days will be packed with activity for everyone involved in this production, so I'll try to get all the important details out right now, before it all hits:

1) Come. You will not want to miss this one. Wednesday, February 16 at 7:30 at the Park Avenue Armory's 55,000 square foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall at 643 Park Avenue, New York City. Buy your tickets here.

2) Read the program notes, beautifully written by Ruth Pongstaphone, ARCO's Staging and Visual Design Director. I can't stress enough how much this piece rewards deeper levels of knowledge.

3) Come to the 6pm pre-concert talk at the Armory, free for ticket-holders. You have to pre-register for this, though.

That's it for now. I'll try to post between now and the concert, but...no promises.

Addendum

For those of you who want to geek out on the nitty-gritty, here are the instruments/singers involved in ARCO:

Instruments:

14 Violins
5 Violas
4 Celli
3 Basses
3 Flutes/Piccolos
3 Oboes/1 English Horn
3 Clarinets/1 Bass Clarinet
3 Bassoons
4 Horns
3 Trumpets
2 Tenor Trombones
1 Bass Trombone
1 Tuba
2 Percussionists, playing all sorts of interesting instruments (10-gallon water jugs, anyone?)
2 Laptops
1 Harp
2 Pianos
1 Celesta

Singers:

1 Soprano (Bora Yoon)
1 Bass-Baritone (Charles Perry Sprawls)
New York Polyphony (early music quartet)

And...a partridge in a pear tree. I think that's it.

One Week Out...

A lot has happened since I wrote my last post. The score to ARCO is completely done. We've constructed and printed the orchestral parts. We've devised the movement paradigm - i.e., who plays what from where (did I mention that the Armory takes up an entire city block?). We've recruited yet another fantastic addition to our team, in the person of Ruth Pongstaphone, who is acting as our Staging and Visual Design Director. The orchestra has been hired.

Basically, we're ready to go. Supremely exciting. We're very honored to be the opening night of the Armory's Tune-In festival, which New York's WQXR is calling the Top New Music Event of 2011.

Our program notes are up and ready for download here. We definitely recommend reading them in advance, as this concert rewards the listener for entering successively deeper levels of understanding.

Tickets are still available, but reserved seats are becoming scarce. Once you've bought your tickets, don't forget to register for the 6pm pre-concert talk with Paul Fowler, Bora Yoon, and me. We'll be discussing the evolution and work process of ARCO, along with getting into more detail even than the program notes.

Things are about to get hectic, as rehearsals commence Sunday. I'll try to keep you posted as we go along. See you at ARCO!

Happy New Year!

So here we are in the brave new world of 2011, and it's been a couple of months since my last posting. Paul Fowler, Bora Yoon, and I have been writing music and creating the structure for our next project: the vast ARCO. At this point, the score is almost finalized, and the three of us are a little giddy with anticipation. As you can see on our website, this concert attempts to translate into music the course of a human life. I know, I know...you're thinking, who does something like that? It's a staggering undertaking, and one that has certainly humbled us as we went about doing it. I suppose you could even say IT did US, rather than the reverse. On the flip, if you're looking for inspiration in an artistic undertaking, well...what better subject to delve into than the raw human experience?

It's amazing to me that this is actually happening. We're going to be in the Armory's cathedral-like Drill Hall, with a 53-member orchestra, a bevy of phenomenal singers, a production team to die for, with our vision laid out on the table. Enormous. Can. Not. Wait.

Some things that are going to happen:

• orchestra members will be playing together and separately from everywhere (and I mean everywhere) in the Drill Hall - balconies, über-balconies, stairwells, interior rooms. You name it, we'll be using it.

• pieces will be played where the singer is singing backwards. That's right, like those old LP's where some message reveals itself when you spin the record player backwards. You know what I'm talking about if you're an old man like me.

• you will hear, at key points, 3 or even 4 pieces played simultaneously, layered over one another.

And that's just for starters. More to come, of course, but hopefully this gives you a hint of what's in store.

We've been busy...

Sympho has been busy cooking something up over the past, oh, 5 months. Co-conspirators Paul Fowler, Bora Yoon, and I have been dreaming up something on a previously unimagined scale. Picture, if you will, a performing space that takes up an entire city block, with multiple performing levels and galleries. Now, add to that an orchestra twice the size of any Sympho has ever used before. That's all I'm going to say for now, but this is going to be tremendous. We cannot wait to share this with you. Stay tuned...