Video of Taruskin’s 2016 Lloyd Old Lecture Now Online! Good news for all who were unable to attend our sold out 2016 Lloyd Old Lecture, with Richard Taruskin and Prof. Scott Burnham! Taruskin’s thorough and provocative lecture is now online. The lecture featured musical guest Adam Kent, who performs a selection of Russian piano works. Last year’s lecture was a great success, requiring—for the first time in the series’ history—an overflow room to accommodate audience demand. We hope you enjoy this stimulating talk as much as we did.
Skyshadows (2013 Composer’s Commission) Sheet Music Available Sheet music for the 2013 Composer’s Commission, Skyshadows, by Albert Guinovart, is now available from Unión Musical Ediciones (a part of the Music Sales Classical group). This work for solo piano can be yours for the low price of €9,60, wherever sheet music is sold. Guinovart premiered the work in September 2014, which you can watch at the link above, and it has since been performed in Europe and at Carnegie Hall.
Oral Musical Traditions of the Balearic Islands IB3, a public television network of Spain’s Balearic Islands, has produced a new Catalan program dedicated to the Islands’ oral music and dance traditions. The program, called Aire, examines a unique tradition in each episode—such as el cant redoblat, els cossiers, and les gloses—looking at its historic place in the Islands and how it has evolved in the modern era. For example, episode 9, on el cant redoblat, visits with local musicians and scholars to provide an overview of the tradition and showcases the broad range of the style with several performances, from the truly traditional to modern rock. The Foundation for Iberian Music’s director, Antoni Pizà, served as a consultant for the series. He is interviewed in episode 13, Caçadors de Cançons (Song Hunters), which will air on January 23rd. The series unfortunately does not (yet) have subtitles available, but Catalan speakers should check out this enjoyable series. We think that it does an excellent job making scholarly work accessible. Episodes that have already aired can be streamed on IB3’s website, or on YouTube.
Spanish Baroque Choral Music at the Hispanic Society Meridionalis, the choral group of the Americas Society, will do a free concert of early Spanish music on December 8: “Luna sin mancha, Sol sin ocaso.” The program features polychoral works from the Hispanic Society’s Olmeda Collection, which includes composers such as Tomás Luis de Victoria, Juan de Madrid, Mateo Romero, Diego de Cáseda, and Manuel de Egüés. These works, for multiple choirs with instrumental accompaniment, represent the pinnacle of early Spanish liturgical music. For more about the Olmeda Collection and Thursday’s program, visit the Americas Society’s event page, where you can also see video from past concerts. Admission is free and open to the public! 7 pm Dec 8, 2016 The Hispanic Society of America Audubon Terrace Broadway between 155th and 156th Streets New York, NY
Overflow Room for Taruskin Lecture Tomorrow Advance registrations for tomorrow’s Lloyd Old Lecture, “The Many Dangers of Music,” with Richard Taruskin and Scott Burnham (with a piano interlude by Adam Kent), have been wildly successful. Tickets for the event are fully booked and we highly recommend that ticket holders arrive early. We expect a full house and latecomers may not be able find any available seats. However, there is good news for those who arrive late or were unable to make reservations! There will be an overflow room in the Segal Theater, which is on the main level of the Graduate Center. The Segal Theater can accommodate up to 70 additional people. Lastly, the Graduate Center’s Office of Public Programs broadcasts live streams of most events held at the GC. Tune into their website at 6:30 on the 7th to look for that. Additionally, video of the event will be available on our YouTube channel in a few weeks, so stay tuned for that announcement. Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm and support!
RCMI to be on CUNY TV CUNY TV will feature the Brook Center’s own Zdravko Blazekovic in an upcoming episode of Study with the Best! The series highlights professors, students, and programs at CUNY campuses. Blazekovic has worked with Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM), the world’s premiere database of music literature, since 1987 and he directs the Research Center for Music Iconography (RCMI). The RCMI was established in 1972 by Barry S. Brook himself, as the American headquarters of the international organization Répertoire International d’Iconographie Musicale (RIdIM). RCMI is one of the only visual indices of representations of music in art in the United States. Its collection of more than 20,000 images spans from antiquity to the early 20th century. In addition to their catalog, the RCMI publishes the journal Music in Art and regularly organizes exhibitions and conferences. The Brook Center has appeared on Study with the Best once before, when the Foundation for Iberian Music’s Antoni Pizà was interviewed. Pizà has also appeared on CUNY TV’s Nueva York, in an episode spotlighting Cuban jazz musician Paquito D’Riveira (with whom the Foundation has collaborated). Blazekovic’s interview will air in December of 2016. You can watch Study with the Best for free online, or in one of its regular times on Wednesday (8 am, 2 pm, 10 pm), Saturday (3:30 pm), or Sunday (8 am, 8 pm).
Composer’s Commission Recipients Receive National Award for Music We at the Foundation for Iberian Music are very proud of composer Antoni Parera Fons, who has just been awarded the 2016 Premio Nacional de Música (National Award for Music). The Spanish government awards two prizes annually, one for creation (composition) and one for interpretation (such as performance or musicology). In addition to the prestige, recipients are awarded 30,000 euros. Parera received the Foundation’s Composer’s Commission in 2008, for which he composed Mentum. (Visit the link to hear a recording of the premiere performance.) But Parera is not the first Composer’s Commission alum to receive the Premio Nacional! Our frequent collaborator and guest Benet Casablancas received the award in 2013. Casablancas was the Composer’s Commission recipient in 2012, which he fulfilled with an homage to Xavier Montsalvatge. (Click the link for a video recording of the premiere.) Congratulations to Parera!
The Arrival of Rock in Spain This week, Teresa Fraile gave a lecture at the Graduate Center, organized by the Foundation for Iberian Music, on the arrival of rock music in Spain. Fraile is Professor of Didactics of Music at Universidad de Extremadura (Spain), president of Sibe (Sociedad de Etnomusicología), and past visiting scholar at the Foundation. Her lecture looked at the infrequently explored relationship between Spain and the US when it comes to the development of rock music. Many assume that the Franco regime did not allow foreign trends, according to Fraile, but she argues that in spite of Franco’s reign, Spanish popular music received many varied foreign influences. She looked in particular that the influence that Mexican and Cuban rock bands had on Spain (such as in the music of Los Teen Tops and Los Llopis), as well as the influence that Spanish artists in exile had in Latin America. She also looked at the impact of Chilean broadcaster Raúl Matas, who went to Spain after spending 4 years as a NYC radio DJ and introduced the country to new music through his show “Discomanía.” Fraile’s lecture presented only a small part of an ongoing project to examine the development of popular musics in Spain as it “awakened to modernity.” To further wet your whistle, check out Rock Around Spain: Historia, industria, escenas y medios de comunicación, edited by Kiko Mora and Eduardo Viñuela (Universidad de Lleida, 2013), with a contributed essay from Fraile.
“Cant de les Estrelles” Concert Preview, Feb 2 As we’ve previously announced, our ongoing Granados Celebration will be capped with a performance of Grandos’s masterpiece, Cant de les Estrelles, by the Voices of Ascension, on February 9 at the Church of Ascension in NYC. One week before this concert, 6:30–8:30 on February 2, the Voices of Ascension will hold a concert preview and lecture at the Graduate Center’s Elebash Recital Hall. This preview event is free and open to the public. It will be followed by a reception. About the concert, Voices of Ascension writes, This is a very special performance as it features Granados’ long-lost masterpiece Cant de les Estrelles for 4 choruses, piano and organ. Our 2007 New York premiere performance with pianist Douglas Riva was supported by funding from the Ramon Llull Foundation, recorded by Naxos records and received a Grammy nomination. The concert includes masterworks of 20th Century Catalan choral music relatively unknown in New York, as well as Granados compositions for violin, piano and organ, Granados arias for soprano including the famous La maja y el ruisenor from Goyescas and also de Falla’s El Amor Brujo for piano. Collaborating artists include pianist Douglas Riva whose discovery of the Granados manuscript prompted this entire project, soprano Vanessa Vasquez, a rising star in the world of opera, award-winning violinist Francesca dePasquale and Steinway Artist, pianist Vanessa Perez. Voices of Ascension under the direction of conductor Dennis Keene is a highly respected professional chorus and orchestra. Collaborating institutions include the Foundation for Iberian Music, producer of the Granados Centenary Celebration concert series and The Hispanic Society of America who have graciously provided access to the manuscript of Granados’ Goyescas. Tickets are available to the public at $85, $40, and $10. A reception will follow the concert.