good things coming

Last weekend I played for George Crumb in Media, PA; it was just a lovely afternoon, talking about all kinds of things from the Second Viennese School to the pros and cons of iTunes. George is a dream to work with.

Next week I'm performing at Buffalo alone and with friends. With my wonderful colleagues Tony Arnold, Alex Hurd, and Alison d'Amato, I'm doing a charming piece by John Musto, and I'll also be performing the Crumb solo pieces which I'll be recording for Bridge Records the week after.

This week in my course it's all about Strauss's Salome. The Decca recording with Birgit Nilsson, WOW.

After the storm

It's been a crazy month of concerts and teaching. Five programs over four weekends, and I've been busy with my lecture course in Buffalo. The course, with the too-trashy title of "Sex, Death, and Classical Music," is a real course, in fact--a music history survey from John Dowland to the present of all that's sexy and morbid in so-called classical music. It's turned out to be a goldmine of a topic. Last week was spent on Tristan und Isolde, and this week it's the Tchaikovsky sixth symphony. Anything we can do to warm up the temperatures here in Buffalo...

This coming weekend in Boston I'm conducting a piece by one of ICE's amazing founding composers, Du Yun, for ICE's new recording on Dan Lippel's Focus Records label. Two new releases of mine have come out in the last month--the Wolpe disc on Bridge and ICE's Huang Ruo CD on Naxos. Both turned out remarkably well. Check out my recordings page for details and links to iTunes.