May is typically the month when our season begins to wind down, and although we might have a couple of summer gigs, the most intense and nutso stuff is usually behind us, and we can enjoy the slow emergence from hibernation of our wonderful hometown, Chicago.
Not this year, and I must say that it is mighty good to be busy given the current climate!
On May 30 we head to Ojai, CA, for two weeks of 12-hours-per-day rehearsals prior to our Music Directorship of the Ojai Festival. This will be a test of our powers of endurance, but, well, we only have ourselves to blame for programming so much music to play!
Then we make a six-day pit stop at the Great Lakes Festival in Bloomfield Hills, MI. This is a fantastic festival with a hugely diverse program, and if you come, you’ll hear us playing Bach, Haydn and Copland in collaboration with some of the festival’s outstanding guests, including Jeremy Denk, piano. There is a focus on the wonderful music of Stephen Hartke, and there will be performances of almost all of his chamber works during the festival. The history of the festival itself is worth mentioning; according to the website, it was founded as a “secular event,” but one that was “sponsored by three religious institutions (representing Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant faiths).”
Next is a flight to Europe for the Music09 Festival, newly relocated from its previous home in Cincinnati to the Hindemith Foundation in gorgeous Blonay, Switzerland. In addition to its own concert at the festival, 8bb will split up to perform the music of student composers in ensembles of student musicians. We will also give a performance of the Music09 composition competition winner, David Brynjar Franzson’s Il dolce fare niente. You can hear a recording of this fascinating and truly bloody crazy piece here.
Finally, after a few weeks off (during which I will try to get some of my Aussie accent back in the Motherland), 8bb makes a trip to the illustrious Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, where we will give the world premiere of hot English composer (and current CSO composer-in-residence) Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ironically-named Grazioso. Here is what the composer has written about the work:
It is one of a group of my recent pieces inspired by the music of Led Zeppelin. In this case the influence is mostly a general one, although there is a very slight allusion to the group’s 1971 Black Dog. The title refers to the first model of instrument played by Led Zeppelin’s guitarist Jimmy Page. Applied to this piece, it is ironic, as the music is not “grazioso” (graceful) at all. It is mostly aggressive and riff-based, using the extremes of register of the piccolo, bass clarinet and piano, and with a percussion set-up including a pedal bass drum, tom-toms and a large anvil.
The Mac, the Alb and I will also be taking part in Marin Alsop’s crazy festival of contemporary orchestral music, the Cabrillo Festival, which takes place in impossibly beautiful Santa Cruz, CA. Lots of reasons to get excited about this, not the least of which is working with and playing the music of two very different but equally interesting Aussie composers, Matthew Hindson and 2009 Grawemeyer Award winner Brett Dean. Also at the festival will be old friends of 8bb, Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Ward-Bergeman and Kevin Puts.
