Rhymes With Opera rocked
That went beautifully. Not that I knew it would. Rhymes With Opera put on a fantastic show last night, and it was just the way I like it. It was a great big party. There was food, there was wine, there was a staggeringly relaxed atmosphere, and there were these amazing musicians onstage playing extremely...
Poems Without Names- full score
I’ve never done this with a piece before, but I’m doing it now. I finished Poems Without Names last night, and emailed the score off to the performers and the poet, Burton Raffel. I really hope he likes it. What I’m doing is this: Here’s the full score of Poems Without Names Let me know...
Poems Without Names is written – but not notated
I agreed to write this piece at a party on December 30th. It’s being performed on March 17 by Rhymes With Opera. Rhymes With Opera Salon 7 PM, Saturday March 17 Christ Church United Methodist 520 Park Avenue, New York, NY FREE ADMISSION The salon’s going to be a wonderful event, with lots of musicians...
The Seafarer hits the Festival circuit
I did not expect to get into the land of film festivals when I started reading Burton Raffel’s translation of The Seafarer in a ratty used copy in my Peabody dorm back in whenever that was. 2004? But here we are. Michael Feldman, who directed the film, and I got to work on submitting our...
Ruckus Amongstus was a huge success!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you to the two dozen or so people (I never got an accurate head count) who performed in the show, filmed it, recorded it, served fantastic cocktails, and yes, carried a disassembled marimba around in travel bags. We had one hell of a day, starting with loading in and lunch,...
Always Carry Drums
I have a rule about this. It has broader implications, but for me it starts from putting on shows. And it’s this: Always Carry Drums. Here’s what I mean. If you’re putting on a show, and you’re not a drummer, at some point you’re going to be standing around, having totally finished “your bit” of...
These YouTube Videos Are Part of my Libretto
There aren’t any words, but they’re part of a script, not a performance. I’ve talked before about the dumbshow at the beginning of Summer’s Twilight. I don’t want to write a vamp with a few sound effects to be played underneath the mime. I want to score the physical beats of the scene, moment for...
Ruckus Amongstus: or, the rise and fall of the city of Muppet Darmstadt
This is going to be a wonderfully mad show. I’ve been looking forward to the day when the team behind No Signal got back together with some new friends in New York and put on shows again, and that time is finally upon us. This Saturday, 8 PM, at the Exapno New Music Community Center,...
Saxophone Players are great.
One of the weird side effects of coming out of Peabody is that you get to know a fair number of classical saxophone players who are also bizarrely accomplished recording engineers. Ian Richter is just such a one. I’ve crossed his path before, but the first time I got to know him properly we were...
Employees Must Wash Haiku
Journeyman is a fantastic restaurant. If you haven’t, go eat there. In the bathrooms at Journeyman you won’t see signs that say “Employees must wash hands”. You’ll see some pretty damned funny haiku nicely framed on the wall which meet the same legal requirement. When I read these haiku I thought one thing: Classical music...
Cucumbers & Gin, live at Exapno tomorrow night!
Tomorrow night, Sean-David Cunningham is going to perform Cucumbers & Gin live! After all our work on the Kickstarter campaign, on the recording, and on the film, it’s easy to forget that you can also just go up to people and perform for them. The concert’s at the Exapno New Music Community Center, where I’m...
Prufrock tomorrow, Gershwin Hotel, 3 PM
Tomorrow, as a cap to their rollickingly successful Kickstarter campaign, No Signal alums Zach Herchen and Elisabeth Halliday are giving a concert at the Gershwin Hotel. Tickets are $10. The program includes my piece for Zach, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, which Zach really owns every time he does it. You can hear...
