BBC Radio 3: World of Classical

This Sunday will see the premiere broadcast of the three-part BBC Radio 3 feature, World of Classical, that I've been working on over the past year. Each episode focuses on some core themes (e.g. Music Notation) in Global music histories and makes connections between different music traditions and how those themes were approached or used. …

Changing US Demographics and Classical Music

Re-posting Ramon Ricker's blog about Changing US Demographics and Classical Music in full, just because it can never be said enough! Posted on November 9, 2009 at 5:00 am by Ramon Ricker in General Tags: concerts, opinion, orchestras Here’s a personal observation and some thoughts. When my wife and I visited the Netherlands a couple …

Too Many Notes, too few orchestras

While reading the comments to a post by Drew McManus that I mentioned in my previous post, I came across a reference to a post that drew had written about the issue of having too many groups offering the same thing in a metropolitan area. While Drew disagrees than in general there may be too …

“Eurocentrism? We Aren’t The World” by Jon Pareles

Can't believe this was written over twenty years ago: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/23/arts/pop-view-eurocentrism-we-aren-t-the-world.html excerpt: What does this have to do with music? Plenty. Music, popular and classical, is a potent cultural symbol, one that arouses visceral reactions as well as rational ones. It speaks to its listeners' sense of place and history, and to deep-seated beliefs about the …

“The Dawn of Indian Music in the West: Bhairavi”

Found this excellent quote from Peter Lavezzoli's book, The dawn of Indian music in the West: Bhairavi Well, Western music has been Eurocentric for hundreds of years.  When I was a student at Julliard, if you wanted to hear a record of Indian or African music, you looked in the library under Ethnomusicology.  It was …

Music of the Whole World: The ABCs of Intercultural Music

So tonight, the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra is having their "Music of the Whole World: The ABCs of Intercultural Music" event that I mentioned in a previous post. The performances details: Thursday March 3, 2011 at 7 pm Vancouver Public Library Central Branch 350 Georgia St. Alice MacKay Hall (Lower Level) FREE Admission But what really …

Performance: Greek Islands Hafla

If you are reading this, it's because it was written earlier today and set to future post as I will be performing at the Greek Islands Restaurant in Indianapolis when this autoposts.  The group I'll be playing with is one I co-founded with vocalist and mandolinist, Robert Bruce Scott, in May of 2004, il Troubadore.  …

Music diversity for a new millennium?

Greg Sandow has recently posted a blurb from Ramon Ricker's blog post, Changing US Demographics and Classical Music.  This is very much an issue and theme I've been exploring a bit here.  I especially enjoyed Janis' comments to Greg's post. I've had at least one response at Greg's site get eaten, so i thought I'd …

Greyhouse Coffee & Supply Co.

This is a prewritten post as I will be performing at the Greyhouse Coffee & Supply Co. with il Troubadore. If any readers are so inclined then please come to the show for live world music as only il Troubadore can present. Show info follows: il Troubadore at Greyhouse Coffee & Supply Co. 100 Northwestern …

Raks Makam

Glossary of non-Western cello techniques?

I remember reading about a book years ago that cellist, Frances-Marie Uitti (she invented a playing technique using two bows so that she could play four part polyphonic music on the cello), that would be a technical manual on alternative 20th century cello techniques. What she ended up publishing was a chapter in the Cambridge …

Earth House

This is a prewritten post as I will be performing at the Earth House with il Troubadore. If any readers are so inclined then please come to the show for live world music as only il Troubadore can present. On top of that, enjoy the 100% organic and fair trade cafe with vegetarian and vegan …

Sparrow Quartet R.I.P.

Yesterday I finally had the opportunity to see the wonderful Sparrow Quartet--and apparently not a second too soon as that concert was to be their last as a group. The group is an all-star cast of Americana/Bluegrass/Old-Time music: Abigail Washburn (banjo and voice); Béla Fleck (banjo); Casey Driessen (violin); and Ben Sollee (cello). As Carey …

“Musical Diversity for a New Millenneum”

This is a just a brief post, but while doing a little research to decompress after the show, I came upon the International Opus website. The title of this post is the subtitle of the website. Tons of gems there!

Zorba's Valentine's Day Hafla

This is a prewritten post as I will be performing at a hafla at Zorba's Greek and Middle Eastern Restaurant with il Troubadore. If any readers are so inclined then please come to the show for live bellydancing by one of Zorba's house dancers, Ja'Niesa, and live world music as only il Troubadore can present. …

Non-Western Cello Techniques

Eventually I will blog more about using non-Western cello playing techniques. There's a whole world of music out there and finding ways to adapt those styles to the cello isn't without some precedent, but obviously it's not something that's easy to find. Until then I leave the reader with a few videos and links. A …

Scala

Screenshot of Scala's Chromatic Clavier Scala: http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/index.html A powerfool tool programmed by Manuel op de Coul, for the experimentation, creation, editing, comparison, analysis, storage, digital adjustment, and MIDI sounding and recording of Western & non-Western, just intonation, equal, microtonal, and macrotonal tunings. SCALA is accompanied by a library of more than three thousand scales, is …

Lafayette Music League HOOT Night

This is a prewritten blog post as I will be performing with il Troubadore and special guest, Taletha, at the the February 2009 edition of the Lafayette Music League HOOT Night (see previous post). The Lafayette Journal and Courier had a fun little write-up of the show yesterday: One varied Hoot Night SATURDAY: It’s a …