Albuquerque, Summer of 2016

We are talking now of summer evenings in Albuquerque, New Mexico 

in the time that I lived there so successfully disguised to myself as a child.

 It was a little bit mixed sort of block, fairly solidly regular audience members,

with one or two juts apiece on either side of that.

The houses corresponded: middlesized gracefully constructed adobe houses built in the past hundred years,

with small front and side and more spacious back yards, and trees in the yards.

(with a little help from James Agee).

House-Music

The idea of the “portable concert” or “home concert” is nothing new.

As long as people have been willing to sit (or not), listen (or not), drink and eat (always), and contribute something to the affair, there have been incredible places that get transformed into concert venues.

The old idea of the “Schubertiade” took the first part of the 19th century by storm. The mother’s milk of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn were Sunday Musicales, hosted by their parents to show off their children. Practically around the corner from the Mendelssohn parties (decades later) was the house where Robert and Clara Schumann raised many children, composed, and lived a life of music.

So who knew that Albuquerque, the home of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” (both of which I love) could also be a fertile ground for house-concert music-making? 

I will write about the second “Moveable Sol” later today - that deserves another post. Two other things happened recently regarding house-music making, and both deserve their own posts. 

I had the good fortune to introduce myself musically to the Santa Fe Desert Chorale this past weekend. The invitation came from a recent UNM grad (now doing administrative work there!) and Dr. Michael Hix, my baritone colleague here at UNM (here is his website). 

The challenge with house concerts is of course, the instrument (or lack thereof). One of the reasons why I was able to take this gig was that I owned a Yamaha P70, or a weighted-key keyboard with a good sound and built-in speakers. It was a purchase I made back in 2008 and am glad every time I get a call when I need the instrument.

Bravo to the audience (and a big thank-you), to my partner Michael, and to the Santa Fe Desert Chorale on the beginnings of their summer season!

 

 

PHOTO: our “house concert performance"

Semi-simple summer

Greetings everyone! 

I was intentionally absent from the blog-o-sphere when Zheng and I took a much-needed vacation to the San Francisco Bay Area. Photos forthcoming. We had an amazing time exploring that time. I had not returned since my summer at Merola (2007!) so it was amazing to be back there. 

I’m now hard at work on a project involving the musical history of Darmstadt, Germany along with my current position and relationships at UNM. The project is to present solo piano works of current UNM composers and their pieces, alongside pair-able German works in the common repertoire (occasional Bach or Brahms) or with a composer who was at Darmstadt during the initial years of the summer course (Berio, Babbitt, Messiaen). 

 

 

I have my first “outing” of some of the pieces this coming Thursday and Saturday, for a house concert (visit this post if you haven’t seen it before).

I have downtime this summer as well - so the summer is some playing and some resting. 

Semi-simple.

PHOTO: The opening to Milton Babbitt’s “Semi-Simple Variations.”

Moveable Sol

One of my lifelong dreams as a musician is to cultivate small "groups" which are conduits to live, intimate performance in unconventional spaces. (This is nothing new on the classical music scene.) in fact, the idea of doing "opera on tap" (in bars), on-site in different places (my good friend and colleague from undergraduate has started On-site Opera (http://osopera.org) bringing people into wax museums and palaces to experience this medium live. 

Joel Becktell, cellist, friend, and entrepreneur (http://joelbecktell.com) had approached me back in January, while we were preparing the Schnittke Cello Sonata no. 1, about ... starting a house-concert series in Albuquerque. There are two salon-house-concert series which I know intimately from the East Coast - Rob Tannen's "Salon 33" and Andrea Clearfield's "Salon." (Princeton and Philadelphia, respectively). 

Joel's suggestion was to combine forces with his neighbor, a wonderful pianist, fellow creative, writer, teacher, and Albuquerque native Amy Greer (http://tenthousandstars.net). The suggestion was brilliant. 

After many emails going back-and-forth between us, we came up with a name. 

Moveable Sol. 

... many people thought is was "sun," others thought it was a play on moveable "do." (Drumroll please, for a musical pun). Others thought the sol had a "u" in it. The answer is, it's all of those things. 

We catered it. We shared our invitations with a mailing list. 

We sold out! 

One of the things that was most moving to me was hearing Amy and Joel perform a piece by Gjeljo, and also to hear Amy alone in some theme-and-variations on "O Sacred Head" (the latter by jazz pianist Fred Hersch). Since it was a house concert, and seating was fairly at a premium, I sat close to the crook of the piano. It had been forever since I've stood or sat there. It was a reminder about what my singers and instrumentalists deal with so frequently. 

I was reminded of the sheer power of music. 

The next performances are in June, with a location disclosed with reservation. 

PHOTOS: from the performance! One of these speaks so wonderfully to the name of the series.