Marcus Maroney - Sounds Like New

Iron Composer - Friday!

On Friday, I will compete as a finalist in the Analog Arts Ensemble's Iron Composer - An Instant Composition Competition.

Please tune in to 104.9 WCLV` if your'e in Cleveland and cannot attend, or follow the competition live on their website. 

She Told Me This

This Saturday, Musiqa is proud to present the world premiere of Stewart Wallace's She Told Me This, a concert work adapted from his opera The Bonesetter's Daughter and written specifically for the magnificent Zheng Cao.

 

This promises to be an extraorindary event, and projects like this make me prouder and prouder every year to be on the Artistic Board of Musiqa.

Great press for Musiqa!

In today's Houston Chronicle, Musiqa is named as one of "5 Lone Star State classical musicians to make us proud":

Musiqa: The five composers who make up Musiqa are looking for a few good audiences, listeners who want to open their minds to contemporary classical music. The current roster features Karim Al-Zand, Anthony Brandt and Pierre Jalbert, of Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, and Marcus Karl Maroney and Rob Smith of the University of Houston.

When the nonprofit organization was founded in 2002, part of the goal was to take new music out of the academy and put it in the public arena with contemporary art and dance. The group puts on free concerts and offers a regular subscription season. The group is also recognized nationally for its free educational programs for elementary school students in struggling neighborhoods. This year, the five composers will expand their efforts and offer lessons in music and creativity to middle school students.

We are thrilled to be included in such a prestigious list!

Review

Houston Symphony: Opera without Words

Musiqa: 2010-11 Season Kicks Off!

Musiqa presents the first event of its 2010-11 season Thursday at 6:30pm with a FREE concert at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

In conjunction with the exhibit "Dance with Camera", Musiqa continues its impressive record of inter-arts collaboration by teaming up with the awesome video design artists Be Johnny for "Music with Camera".  On the program:

• Karlheinz Stockhausen: Vibra-Elufa

• Alvin Lucier: The Queen of the South

• Andy Pape: CADance for Two

Come hear some of the most dynamic contemporary works performed by Houston's finest musicians.  Free & unique - it's the perfect combination! 

Confusing Review Remark of the Day

In a review of a new disc of Penderecki's 2008 horn concerto, David Hurwitz asserts:

"Certainly there is no finer 20th-century concerto for the instrument: this is a masterpiece that you will return to often, and the performance here is entirely worthy of the work."

Hurwitz's site and reviews are often frustrating, and not just because I often disagree with both his and his reviewers' opinions on the merits of various recordings but also on their aesthetic viewpoints.

The problem is, Penderecki's horn concerto is a 21st-century work.  And even if it weren't, does Mr. Hurwitz really think the Penderecki (which, after admittedly only hearing a live broadcast and not this particular recording, I find dreadfully boring and neither idiomatic nor gratifyingly unidiomatic for the instrument, despite Radovan Vlatkovic's solid technique) is "finer" than Strauss' second concerto, not to mention essays in the genre by Hindemith and Knussen? 

Review - Rigoletto at HGO

Fresh Voices Triumph in Verdi's Thriller

Review: Repin/Brahms

Vadim Repin, Truls Mork, Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhausorchester tackle the Brahms string concertos.

Review: Houston Symphony

Peter Oundjian and William VerMeulen in works by Vaughan Williams, John Williams and Rachmaninoff. 

Review

Eschenbach conducts Hindemith & Dvorák