Category Archives: public

Tufts Composers: Extra Extra Read All about it

Tufts Composers Concert Series is an outgrowth of two composition courses: Music 118 and 119, Contemporary Composition (Seminar) and Composition Practicum. These advanced, project-based courses open to both graduate and undergraduate students assume musical fluency, familiarity with forms of notation, and a practical level of performance experience in a variety of styles and techniques.

If your interest is to create your own musical work, and/or to play new music by your peers and colleagues, then please consider Tufts Composers as your possible outlet. Our Fall 2019 concert schedule appears below. Contact Professor and Composer/Pianist John McDonald for more information. john.mcdonald@tufts.edu

Fall 2019 Tufts Composers Events: All at Distler Hall, 20 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA 02155

Tuesday September 24, 2019 at 8 pm, — Guest Ensemble!
Ludovico Ensemble: Rhythm and Myth (Music by J Aylward; M Salkind-Pearl; J Werntz)

Wednesday October 16, 2019 at 8 pm
How to Fall Slowly. Ease into Autumn with a varied program of new works by Tufts Composers— students, faculty, and alumni. With music by Samuel Graber-Hahn, Jacquelyn Hazle, Mark Bolan Konigsmark, guest composer Ryan Vigil (Tufts MA 2004), and others.

Friday October 25, 2019 at 12 pm
New @ Noon #1: How To Finish. How do pieces of music end? Whimpers? Screams? Static? Tufts Composers provide possible answers with new chamber works.

Monday November 4, 2019 at 8 pm
Nova November. Undergraduate and graduate Tufts Composers start a new month with some novel musical audacity.

Friday November 15, 2019 at 12 pm
New @ Noon #2: How To Let Things Fall Apart. And not put them back together. Music by Tufts Composers highlighting unexpected approaches to structure

Tuesday December 3, 2019 at 8 pm
ROBERT BLACK, Guest Artist and Double Bass Virtuoso, presents Insomniac Do’s and Don’t’s, a recital featuring Philip Glass’s The Not Doings of an Insomniac, commissioned by Black. Betwixt each of its 7 parts, Black recites poetry by Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Yoko Ono, David Byrne, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, and Arthur Russell. Featuring several works made for Black by Tufts Composers alongside an improvised dialogue with guest bassist Andrew Blickendorfer.

Tufts Sunday Concert Series – Work and Life

Thank you for these great remarks, Thomas Stumpf:

“Yesterday afternoon there was a deeply affecting concert at Tufts, beautifully curated by John McDonald on the subject of work and life. John played the piano throughout with his usual brilliance, his playing of the amazing Poulenc cycle on painters was particularly strong… Julia Cavallaro used her gorgeous mezzo sound and total emotional commitment all afternoon – and turned out to be a very fine composer with the guts to set Anne Sexton’s take on Van Gogh!! The (as usual) amazing Philipp A. Stäudlin’s alto sax matched her timbre astonishingly… And then there was the ending. A glorious performance of Schubert’s „Nacht und Träume“. And just when the last chord had faded, John started to play his P.S. on the song. Which turned out to be no post scriptum at all, but an incredibly courageous extension and exploration into emotional areas Schubert only hinted at. Philipp played his heart out all the way to the irresolute ending that left us all hanging….
All the consummate skill and immense courage and emotional thrill that was missing in the Super Bowl game (despite the fact that of course the right team won) – here it was in abundance. I’m deeply grateful.”

Lecture and Demonstration by Professor John McDonald: “Stirring Up the Music: The Life and Works of Composer T.J. Anderson”

As Amherst College’s 2016-2017 Valentine Visiting Professor of Music, I was invited to present a talk on my in-progress biography on T.J. Anderson Jr. at the college’s Frost Library.

My talk partitioned and analyzed Anderson’s work and influence in five chronological phases.

Aphorisms for Composers – April 2016

April 29, 2016

There are many career levels for composers, all equally desperate.

April 19, 2016

Composers hack themselves.

April 16, 2016

Give out energy freely; the fact that one can’t expect it given back in equal measure doesn’t mean hold out. Offer what you have.

April 5, 2016

Would you, as a composer, feel comfortable with a free use statement like this?

Via Craig Murray, political writer (April 3, 2016): I would remind you that much of my [this blog] music is produced free “for the public good,” and you are welcome to [republish this] perform these works or any other material freely anywhere without requesting [further ]permission. Write to me if you would like the sheet music.

April 4, 2016

Can composers expect to adequately express intangibles?