This originally started out as a blog to provide more details about the music on Iowa Music Showcase.. But now it also features tags that have to do more with the individual artists and bands.
Showing posts with label modern classical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label modern classical. Show all posts
I had to reschedule this week's planned guest (stay tuned for February 3rd...). I've been obsessively working on a new composition for the past few days, so I decided that I'd use this week's show to present, demonstrate, and test drive some components of MODAL EXPLORATION!
Our next (*FREE*) iHearIC concert will be 1/25 8pm at The Mill, featuring performances by Maul of America, The Twisted Roots, and Treecloud! RSVP and invite your friends here: facebook.com/events/386069291938789
Next Sunday's show will be a preview of the 1/25 concert and will be broadcast live at 4pm on KRUI (krui.fm)!
"Randy Wells (b. 1992) began composing art music in 2012 after teaching himself keyboard and music theory during a winter of self-imposed exile after leaving a university science program. By 2013, he had finished his first compositions that were worth being cataloged, Coney Island Suite and a few guitar pieces.
"Randy’s music represents a continuation of the aesthetic philosophy of the Romantic era, and is characterized by emotional sensitivity and intensity, grandiose tendencies, and heavy influence of extra-musical ideas. Among his influences, Randy counts Mahler, Scriabin, Berg, and Shostakovich...
"andy enjoys playing guitar, piano, and organ, and is also an enthusiastic member of the UNI Varsity Men's Glee Club. Randy studies music composition at the University of Northern Iowa under Dr. Jonathan Schwabe. When not in front of a musical instrument, he can generally be found at the library, enjoying classic literature or reading up on the sciences (another source of musical inspiration)."
- from Randy Wells' home page
"I believe that music must always invoke strong emotion, and I treat every job with great urgency and craftsmanship..."
- from Randy Wells' Upwork page
"Randy Wells specializes in Ultra-Romantic music of a programmatic or autobiographical nature. The music is characterized by hyper-emotionalism, grandiose tendencies, and heavy influence of extra-musical ideas. He considers himself an heir to the legacies of Scriabin, Borodin, Korngold, Berg, and Mahler, among others. For further listening, Randy invites you to visit www.randywellsmusic.com"
- from an email to Iowa Music Showcase
"Mezzo-soprano and composer Lisa Neher thrives in the crossroads of the concert hall and the theatre stage... Lisa’s compositions are shaped by her keen sense of dramatic timing and feature aching, lyrical phrases, energetic rhythmic motives, and intensely dissonant pitch clusters...
"She is an active advocate for new music, frequently premiering new works as well as established masterworks of the last fifty years. Lisa is the creator of the One Voice Project, a call for scores, poetry, and prose which will be incorporated into a one-woman musical-theatrical performance in the fall of 2016. Through the call for scores, the project promotes the creation and performance of new works for unaccompanied voice...
Her compositions include solo and chamber music for instruments and vocal works in the operatic, song, and choral genres. Lisa is particularly passionate about writing works that set text and story to music, such as her chamber opera White Horizon, about a nineteenth-century Arctic expedition gone wrong, and her song cycle Snapshots...
- from Lisa Neher's home page
"A composer of unabashedly heartfelt, lyrical music, Lisa’s works include solo and chamber music for instrumentalists as well as vocal works in the operatic, song, and choral genres, which represent her deepest passion."
- from her Facebook page
Lineup:
Olivia Betzen - vocals
Nate Salazar - piano
But what some may not know, is that Paul Hertz, is a composer and performer of classical music. He has done some performances in Ames playing his material and having a choir perform it.
"Among Hertz’s many projects are playing bass trombone for the Ames folk rock dance band Mumford’s, playing keyboards for Jordan Mayland and the Thermal Detonators, and being involved in the Ames Choral Society. (He will be singing in an upcoming cabaret show called 'Down the Hobbit Hole'). He is also a composer and serves as the organist at Northminster Presbyterian Church in Ames."
- from an article on the Snap Twig website
"Paul Hertz is a composer, improviser, organist, trombonist, and pianist who lives in Ames, Iowa."
- from an email Paul Hertz sent to Iowa Music Showcase
Lineup:
Paul Hertz - all instruments and programming
"Nordic Choir, founded in 1946, enjoys national and international acclaim as a premier collegiate choral ensemble in the United States. The choir beings its tenure under the direction of Dr. Andrew Last this year. Last arrived at Luther in the fall of 2012 and begins his role as Director of Choral Activities in 2017. Previous conductors include Sigvart Steen (1946-48), Weston Noble '43 (1948-2005), Craig Arnold (2005-10), and Allen Hightower (2010-16).
"Nordic Choir is Luther’s flagship choir in a choral program that comprises three upper-class mixed touring choirs, two first-year choirs, and a women’s choir. More than 500 singers from these ensembles combine with Symphony Orchestra, Luther Ringers, and pipe organ for five Christmas at Luther performances each year...
'Traditions within the Nordic Choir include holding hands during all performances, the sapphire blue velvet robes, and singing Pavel Chesnokov's O Lord God as the signature benedictory since 1948."
- from their home page
"The Nordic Choir is a 62-voice a cappella choir of select mixed voices from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
"In 1948, just two years after its founding by Sigvart Steen, a Luther College alumnus, a young Weston Noble began a 57-year tenure as music director and conductor.[1] Together, Noble and The Nordic Choir cultivated the Lutheran collegiate choral traditions in the United States.
"Eventually five more choirs were added to the music program to accommodate the growing interest in choral music and voice at Luther. In 2005, Luther College named Craig Arnold to the position of Director of Choral Activities and conductor of the Nordic Choir following Noble’s retirement. Arnold held the position from 2005-2010. Allen Hightower was appointed conductor effective Fall 2010 and left for University of North Texas in 2016. The current conductor is Andrew Last."
- from their Wikipedia entry
"For those of you who don't know the Luther College choral program, this is a small school (about 2,500 students) of ambitious undergrads. Often when we hear great choirs from big schools we are hearing some much older, more mature voices (grad voice majors, grad teaching assistants, etc) in the top choir. The Lutheran singing tradition in Iowa, Minnesota, to some extent the Dakotas is remarkable. In addition to Luther, almost every college or university in the area fields outstanding choirs...
"This was something that I loved about this choir and Hightower- I felt that the choir under Arnold had one mode of bold, yet still warm singing and that it often sounded like a really great y'all come choir, in the sense that there was usually very little subtlety, nuance, phrasing, etc. Under Hightower every text and musical phrase is understood, and I also felt that the singers (holding hands in the Luther tradition) really heard all the other voice parts fitting into their own throughout every measure of every piece. There was an organic, communal process happening- seventy voices as one, if you will."
- from a review on composer Paul Carey's website
Lineup:
Vocals - 2013-2014 Nordic Choir
Conductor - Allan Hightower
The song had to be cut down on the podcast for time reasons, but you can hear the complete version on this video:
