Tomorrow (Monday, 6/21), Mantra Percussion is performing if when without itself, for 3 drumsets and (wii-controlled) electronics as part of the annual Make Music NY festival (the performance is in the archway under the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO, and starts at 5pm.  More info here.)  They’ll also be playing their KILLER arrangement for drumsets of Xenakis’s Okho.

Then on Wednesday, 6/23, choreographer Tzveta Kassabova, a frequent collaborator these last few years, is premiering her new dance/multimedia work, Memoria, as part of the Source festival in Washington, DC, for which I composed several 2-4 minute sound pieces.  The piece will play again on Friday, June 25.

Also on Friday is my good friend Barry’s wedding.  Barry was a classmate during my undergrad years at Connecticut College, and is now a lawyer and successful blogger.  Check out his blog, Is it Luck?, where he mixes awe at the natural world and the universe with awe at the stupidity of the American religious right, using equal parts sincerity and humor.  I’m a huge fan of his writing, as are more and more people – if you haven’t clicked, yet, click.  Now.  Anyway, I wrote a string quartet for his wedding ceremony, which I’m thrilled will be performed by Joanna Frankel, Guy Figer, Erin Wight, and Yoed Nir.  Sorry not to be able to invite you all to this one, but I’ll put up a recording later this month.

Lastly, on Sunday, my old friend and classmate from MSM, fellow composer Ronna Na Rong will be playing a short movement for piano which I wrote a couple years ago while in residency at MacDowell.  It’s a small piece of which I’m fond, and which I wrote for no particular occasion (probably why it’s never been performed yet).  This performance will be during the New York Composers Circle monthly salon, in the Symphony Space Thalia Rehearsal Studio on Sunday, 6/27, at 3:30 pm.  I’m curious about this group – seems like an interesting network of musicians, and they invite any and all NY-based composers to present a work at their monthly salons.  Jacob Goodman is the coordinator, and has been great to work with so far.  We’ll see how it goes.  (you can check out their site here)

Looking forward to a busy week of performances, then a short rest, and then diving into three exciting projects that are happening in the fall (which ought to occupy my entire summer).  More on these soon.

I end up rather conspicuous, hunched over large manuscript paper with my automatic pencil and straightedge. I suppose it’s natural that some would be curious and come over and ask me what I’m doing. The first question is usually, “Are you writing music?”.  I’m always tempted to say something snarky like, “No, I’m scrambling eggs,” but I never do. I just say yes, which is in almost every case enough to elicit awe-struck bulging eyes or a “wow….”. It reminds me just how few people there are that actually do this (not composing – but specifically writing notes on staves).   I think, if the guy at the table next to me were sketching designs for a building, I’d feel the same way. It wouldn’t matter whether it were any good. I’d just be amazed to see someone with those faculties at work, because they’re so mysterious to me.

The usual follow-up is, “What kind of music do you write?”. This is a tricky on for me. How do I explain what I do to the (probably) uninitiated? “Classical,” to most people, means Mozart. “Electronic” means Ace of Base. “Experimental” means nothing, except perhaps the vulgar stereotype of the performance artist wearing scuba gear and angel wings and peeing on the American flag while reciting Shakespeare sonnets in binary code. Give me a minute or two, and I can explain it pretty well, but I feel that that’s giving them more than they bargained for. I usually end up just telling them in very broad strokes about the piece I’m currently working on, often no more than the instrumentation. Again, this tiny piece of information is met with wows and impressed expressions. (I wish it was this easy to impress audiences and my peers).

In any case, today, it was an elderly woman who asked me the above questions. I explained that I was working on a piece for 3 drumsets and electonic sounds, to b played in the Make Music NY festival next month.   Her response: “It’s not that metal, is it?”. I assured her it wasn’t metal, and she said, “Good. That stuff’s just too much. No one wants to hear that.” I smiled. She asked when the concert is, and then said she’d try to come. I really hope she does, although if so, I may feel compelled to lower the threshold on my limiter.  No one wants shouts of “Keep it down!” during a premiere.

The premiere will be June 12 at the CD release party for the electric guitar quartet Dither. The party starts at 7 at The Invisible Dog in Brooklyn (map). You must check Dither out – they are incredible.  The lineup for the release party includes a ton of amazing performers, including Mantra, Kathleen Supové, Elliott Sharp, Nick Didkovsky, Loud Objects, Love Like Deloreans, Matthew Welch, Redhooker, and The Deprivation Orchestra of NYC (and, of course, Dither themselves).

Mantra are then playing the piece again 9 days later, June 21, as part of this year’s Make Music NY.  Other works on the program are by Xenakis and Mantra percussionist Mike McCurdy.  I will update shortly with exact time and location and other details.

The show will feature 3 pieces from the past couple years, performanced by Jessica Schmitz, James Moore, and Eleonore Oppenheim, and a laptop duet with one of my favorite electronic composers, Jennifer Stock.  Here’s the program:

Slipstream, for flute and tape
Jessica Schmitz, flute

Duet for two laptops
Jennifer Stock and Aleksei Stevens, laptops

Cirrus, for flute and live electronics
Jessica Schmitz, flute; Aleksei Stevens, laptop

Pop., for flute, electric guitar, contrabass, and live elecctronics
Jessica Schmitz, flute; James Moore, electric guitar; Eleonore Oppenheim, contrabass; Aleksei Stevens, laptop

I’m very thankful to be given this opportunity by friend and colleague, and owner of Cafe Orwell, Inhyun Kim.  I saw a concert there a couple weeks ago, and it’s a really cool space.  Great coffee, too!

Here’s all the info in short form:

Electronic Music at Cafe Orwell
Aleksei Stevens, Jessica Schmitz, Jennifer Stock, James Moore, and Eleonore Oppenheim
Cafe Orwell, 247 Varet Street (between White and Bogart), Bushwick, NY
7:30 pm
$10 General Admission

Happily, she saw fit to ask me to put something together as well.  I’ll be performing with cellist Jessie Marino and flutist Jessica Schmitz on Tuesday, October 27th at 10pm.

It’s been an interesting experience preparing for this show, my first real performance gig since Ben was born.  That’s not really true.  I’ve had a few pieces here and there, and did manage to complete one major project back in February, but returning to The Stone (this will be my third appearance there) feels like reintroducing myself to the scene in many respects.  Thinking of it this way, it turns out, adds a certain amount of undue pressure.  There are a lot of different aspects to my musical personality.  Which one am I going to go with?  People haven’t heard much from me in a little while, so which me do I want to reconnect?  There’s this, but then there’s also this.  The upshot is that I’ve been writing for 10 weeks or so, I’ve taken many of my musical inclinations for a good walk around the block, and I have a number of new pieces I’m excited to present at some point in the future.  Just not at this show.

About a month ago, I went to Canada Gallery to check out a new piece by video artist (and my aunt) Cecilia Dougherty. Entitled The Third Space, the piece is in four sections, each a vignette on a different quotidian activity or experience, juxtaposed with unrelated borrowed text from authors writing on diverse subjects.  They’re spacious (no pun intended), reflective, and somehow very provocative, and I just fell in love with them.  Click on her name (above) to link to her site.  One of the four sections, shot in the Swiss Alps, is on her home page.  Another is here.

Reflecting on them on the train ride home, the thought occurred to me to try using the videos as the focal point of an extended improvisation.  Jessica, Jessie, and I finally got together to try it out, tease out some of the challenges and strong points, and we’ve now got an idea for how to use them that I’m really excited about.  The show will run about forty minutes and feature sections of video with structured improv accompaniment, with musical interludes between the sections.

Here’s all the info in short form:

Jessica Schmitz, Jessie Marino, and Aleksei Stevens
featuring video by Cecilia Dougherty
Tuesday, October 27, 10pm
The Stone (E 2nd St & Ave C)
$10 General Admission

Hope to see you there.  Bring your friends.

Love,

Alek

when colors blend into sound, a new evening-length dance work by tzveta kassabova, will be premiered in the clarice smith performing arts center at the university of maryland, college park on march 5-7.

i composed a 2-movement sound score for the piece, the movements of which will be sandwiched around a work for 3 percussionists by martin gendelman.

this is the third time i’ve written music for tzveta, who is just a wonderful choreographer and a terrific person.  i have really enjoyed our working relationship so far and i hope it continues into the future.  our previous collaborations are the stairs in my house (2006), and to blue (2007), which was the recipient of a metro dc dance award.

i’ll be heading down to hear it in person on the 7th.