Hi all,

For anyone interested in recent classical compositions and/or those close to Boston:

I'm performing at the Boston Conservatory's New Music Festival in two concerts on consecutive days.

I playing tenor banjo for a performance of Terry Riley's piece "In C" on Friday (11/13). For those unfamiliar with it, "In C" is considered to be one of the seminal minimalist works -- it's for a large ensemble (flexible instrumentation -- I'm playing banjo at the behest of the conductor)

I'm also playing in a performance of john Adams' Gnarly Buttons (chamber ensemble with clarinet solo) on Saturday the 14th. It has banjo (5 string) in the 1st movement (my part also has mandolin in the 2nd movement and guitar in the 3rd.)

It's a fine piece -- challenging mostly because of the shift of instruments from one movement to the next without time to really adjust technique (finger picks for the banjo, flat pick with a fair amount of tremolo for the mandolin and fingernails [i.e. standard classical technique] for the guitar).

The details are as follows:

Friday (11/13) at 8 pm (In C)
Saturday (11/14) at 8 pm (Gnarly Buttons)

Seully Hall
The Boston Conservatory
8 The Fenway
Boston MA


Jim Dalton

Jim Dalton

Posted - 11/07/2009 :  07:37:36  

Terrific! I saw "In C" with Terry Riley's group at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, many years ago (1979?). It's great. Are you playing for a score specifically made for (tenor) banjo, or from a "generic" (non-transposing) score? It's really important, IMHO, to keep the banjo moving forward with contemporary music.

KingStudent

Posted - 11/07/2009 :  14:38:36      

that's great jim!

gnarly buttons is one my favourite pieces by one my favourite composers.

J

www.jaymestone.com
www.woodhallmusic.com

Posted - 11/13/2009 :  05:58:50  

Hi again,

Just bumping this to the top as a reminder. The concerts are tonight and tomorrow. If you're in the Boston Area and are interested in this sort of thing, please come. Info in my original post.

...and be sure to say "hi."

The soloist for Saturday's concert is my colleague Michael Norsworthy, a remarkable clarinetist. There is a recording of John Adam's Gnarly Buttons at his website. http://www.michaelnorsworthy.com/live/ It's an earlier recording with a different ensemble (obviously a different banjo/mandolin/guitarist as well) The first movement has banjo (2nd movement - mandolin and 3rd, guitar)

Jim Dalton

Edited by - JimD on 11/13/2009 06:49:46