PUBLISHED BY PRISM PROJECTS, a project of PRISM CHAMBER ORCHESTRA>
THE UPHOLSTERED PLAYPEN
C/O ELM, 411 WEST 21ST STREET,
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10011-2950
THEODORE MOOK, PRESIDENT
ROGER ZAHAB, VICE PRESIDENT
SANDRA ELM, SECRETARY/TREASURER
"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in proportion." Francis Bacon
Newsletter time again. We send newsletters for several reasons, all
of which will be stated here below. One, we like to list our projects
and their current states. This helps to reassure our donors that we haven't
flown to Maui to listen to new music discs and surf. Particularly attentive
readers can also, by comparing old issues, actually see that PRISM has
completed quite a few very nice projects. Even militantly inattentive readers
will see, as this newsletter passes from mailbox to trashcan, that PRISM still
lives. Two, we like to place a candle in the window for those weary
new music pilgrims travelling on this long, cold and rainy night. As is well
documented, new music, even in the best of times, has been held up for public
scorn and ridicule. Lately, some of the public's scorn and ridicule has been
set aside, reserved for the likes of the performing arts labor unions and the
NEA, which have been variously reviled for driving up recording rates
exorbitantly (thus sending jobs to Eastern Europe), ruining the music industry
specifically and the culture in general. At least, thus spake writers from the
Gray Lady and her more business oriented competitor, mere lackeys of capitalist
running dogs though they may be...but I digress. For those of us who happen to
be appreciative of the NEA, members of performing arts labor unions and artists
involved in new music, it is a rainy night, hence the candle. Three, we
need to raise money. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,
and 9 times out of 10, it is a bill. That is why we send newsletters to you.
Today's constrained cultural climate (see above, rainy night) has not so much
curtailed activities as delayed them. One now must wait to see what will
happen to the funder's funders, to whom funding will be awarded, then
to pool funds, consolidate resources, form consortia with groups of similar
interest, etc. In the meantime, we construct elaborate fund-catching devices
and wait for it to rain. Strangely enough, with almost no fanfare at all, the
most obvious interpretation of "trickle down" economics has become a reality.
Even stranger, through some miracle of collective hypnosis, the term always
conjured the images of an eventual deluge of private money...but I digress.
During these periods of waiting, some of the more interesting fantasies involve
the commissioning of new works. There are several projects queued, two of
which are briefly described below:
PRISM will rectify this condition by recording the first full CD of Hovda's music for release on O.O. Discs. Once again, we are most grateful to the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust for pro-viding partial funding for this project that will allow Ms. Hovda to join Louise Talma, Miriam Gideon, Judith Shatin and Clare Shore, among others, on the growing PRISM discography. Conductor/Music Director for the project will be Jeannine Wagar, a frequent collaborator of the composer. Sessions will take place during the late summer/early fall of 1997; works to be recorded are:
SNAPDRAGON (1992) (Holland Festival commission for Netherlands Wind Ensemble)
ONYX (1991) (Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra commission)
LEANING INTO AND AWAY (1994) (US/Mexican Fund for Culture/Cervantino Festival commission for Cuicani Chamber Orchestra
ARIADNE MUSIC (1984) (Jerome Foundation/MN Composers Forum commission for Boston Musica Viva 1984/ revised 1996)
SONG IN HIGH GRASSES (1986)
Dan Rothman is a similarly distinguished composer who writes extremely controversial music of uncommon lustre and beauty. He has based his camp on the outer reaches of instrumental technique, utilizing multiphonics and harmonics from the upper limits of the overtone series, real time sound processing, filtered feedback, difference tones and other equally elusive ephemera. Prism is considering making an application to commission him to write a chamber opera similar to his Cezanne's Doubt, premiered in Graz last fall. More on these projects later.
In the meantime, we wait.
The recording project whimsically titled "The Music of Mathew Rosenblum"
trudges on. As last reported, Prism recorded two works, Ancient Eyes and
Nu Kuan Tzu, last fall, and these pieces have been mixed and edited. The
next step, the recording of Picture Show by the dedicated new music
ensemble California E.A.R. Unit, is planned for the fall. Wearing the hat of
producer, Prism Projects will oversee the project through the recording, into
post-production and onto the Mode label. Fund raising continues, and we need to
raise an additional $5000 for rehearsal fees, mastering, graphic design and
duplication. We are profoundly thankful to the Aaron Copland Fund, the Fromm
Foundation, the University of Pittsburgh and numerous individual contributors
for having jointly gathered the sum of $19,000 for this project, not the least
of whom are the artists themselves, whose contributions are without measure:
Jayn Rosenfeld, Tim Smith, Dan Grabois, Ben Herrington, Dale Turk, Dominic Donato, Michael Lipsey, Eric Moe, Curt Macomber, Lois Martin, Joe Bongiorno, Brad Lubman, Kristin Norderval, Mary Nessinger, Lee Hyla, the composer himself and yet..
This would be a good time to stress the importance of non-commercial recording efforts in today's cultural arena, and one way to communicate this idea would be through metaphor. Our perception of reality, as conveyed by our senses, even when aided by inference, differs radically from REALITY, as in "Wake up and smell the coffee!", "In your dreams..", or "Get a life" . Things we can't hear, taste, smell, see or feel, some good, like vitamins, true love, and compound interest, some bad, like uv rays, free radicals and compound interest, affect us. So it is with a tiny, insignificant non-commercial recording, unseen among the towering stacks of Brahms 3rd recordings: its existence affects all of us. Though some would have you believe differently (see lackeys of capitalist running dogs, above), a culture is not like a human body, it is a non-judgmental, value-free receptacle of human endeavor that takes all comers. Naturally we think Rosenblum is good music, but mostly it's important because it's from the heart and not from an impulse to capture a market share.
One of the advantages of slow and steady work is that sometimes projects produce offspring. Our long work with Mr. Rosenblum has paid off with a pup, "Two Evenings of Pittsburgh Premieres". Prism will produce two performances of premieres of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) composers. And even better news, it's already almost paid for...but not quite. We have engaged the services of another poorly paid, patient laborer to raise an additional $5000 for this project. So, please..
The Pittsburgh concerts will include music by Stock, Moe, Dutoit, Rosenblum, LeBaron, Kaptur, Vali, Coyner, Kaiser, Diesendruck, Zahab, White and Chamins, and players will be provided by the estimable Prism Chamber Orchestra. More on this in your next issue.
JEANNINE WAGAR
Wagar has conducted extensively in the U.S., Mexico, Latin
America, and Europe, and has been a frequent guest conductor in international
music festivals, most recently appearing in the acclaimed Cervantino Festival
in Guanajuato, Mexico. She is currently Music Director/ Conductor of the
Philharmonic Society Symphony (NJ), Music Director and co-founder of
Cuicani - a US/Mexico based ensemble specializing in new music for large
ensembles, and a cover conductor for the Greenwich (CT) Symphony Orchestra.
She has conducted numerous premiere performances and has a special interest in
Latin American music.
Wagar will undertake two projects with PRISM:
The Orchestra Music of Eleanor Hovda recording for 0. 0. Discs (see above)
The Hispanic Connection (see below)
Wagar received her doctorate in conducting from Stanford University. Her teachers and coaches include David Gilbert, Jorma Panula, Kirk Trevor, Mark Starr, Herbert Blomstedt, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. Her discography includes Common Sense a CD featuring seven premiere recordings just released by CRI. She has hosted television and radio broadcasts and recently published a book "Conductors in Conversation" (G.K. Hall/ Macmillan) based on extensive interviews with 15 internationally recognized conductors.
"As the lives of talented artists reach fulfillment and then are suddenly snuffed out, neglect all too often follows and the products of a brilliant mind and heart are soon forgotten. ...be thankful for the power of the recording medium to render a life meaningful, particularly after listening to this CD and mulling over its contents. ... Just before he died of cancer in 1993 at the age of 43, he wrote a brilliant caprice for orchestra. ... Black knew the resources of the symphony orchestra inside and out and ...if he had survived longer would surely have produced a substantial body of orchestral works."
"The inclusion of Stravinsky's `Dumbarton Oaks' Concerto is not at all an arbitrary one. ... Black, now as conductor, elicits the kinetic energy of the work but also its lightheartedness. Another good reason for inclusion was, no doubt, to let us hear the precise playing of the PRISM Orchestra which Black founded in 1983."
www.mindspring.com/~mook
Roger Zahab rzahab+@pitt.edu
Sandra Elm elm@interport.net
Currently showing are some detailed pages on the Mathew Rosenblum projects, complete with some nifty sound files and pictures, info on the Hispanic Connection and the fabled back issues of the Prism newsletter.
Plans for the 1997-98 season include a staged presentation of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire as part of an evening of staged interpretations of 20th Century music-theatre compositions.
THE HISPANIC CONNECTION
GUEST CONDUCTOR, JEANNINE WAGAR
Project Composer-in-Residence, MARIO LAVISTA
This Prism Chamber Orchestra project has been developed in conjunction with HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY where the debut performance will occur on FRIDAY OCTOBER 17th as part of a multi-disciplinary arts festival (OCTOBER 16-18) .
THE PROGRAM
Music by modern Latin American composers and composers influenced by Spanish-language literature, including works by Manuel de Falla, the premiere of commissioned works by composers Ricardo Zohn and Mario Lavista of Mexico, and other works to be announced
* regional premieres of Zohn and Lavista works
* add a relevant work by a local composer
* create a multi-disciplinary festival by comple-menting PRISM's performance with gallery ex-hibitions, lectures, poetry/literature readings, dance performances, discussion groups.
* orchestra residency - in a college or university setting - PRISM appears with its principal players supplemented by student instrumentalists.
We are always most grateful for whatever you are able to contribute, not only to the well-being of PRISM, but to the future of new music...
SEND YOUR TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS TO:
PRISM, c/o Elm
411 West 21st Street, New York, NY 10011-2950
(c) Prism Chamber Orchestra, Inc. he Upholstered Playpen is a sporadically published newsletter on the musical arts and the activities of PRISM. To contact the editors, please use the address in the masthead or e-mail addresses listed herein. Non-commercial usage is encouraged, pets not permitted (sorry), and batteries not included. Caveat lector. Over and out.
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