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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2012
Week one of To Begin the World Over Again went wonderfully with Delirious Dances and Numinous! Read some enthusiastic reviews here and here, and then come this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to see for yourself. And don't forget there are some FREE community events Oct. 2, 3 and 6th too! Dancers: Angel Chinn, Victor Gonzalez, Jenni Hong, Sharifa Linton, Devin Oshiro, Ricarrdo Valentino and Michael Henry as MC. Musicians: Mike Baggetta (guitar), Greg Chudzik (bass), Brenda Earle (piano), Andy Green (guitar), Nancy Harms (vocals), Jackie Ludwig (cello), Ana Milosavljevic (violin), Rob Mosher (woodwinds), Chris Reza (woodwinds), Stephanie Richards (trumpet), Sara Serpa (vocals), Carmen Staaf (keyboard), Ben Thomas (bass; 9/29 & 10/6 only), Melissa Stylianou( vocals), Emilie Weibel (voice, 9/29 only). To Begin the World Over Again October 4, 5, 6 Irondale Center 85 South Oxford Street Brooklyn, NY 8:00 PM Tickets here $20 General Admission/$15 Students and Seniors POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 7:07 PM
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 Composers, Choreographers, Dancers, Musicians, Crew of FIVE POINTS (photo by Kokyat) Last night ended a quite successful run of the project FIVE POINTS with Pulse and Take Dance! Thanks to all that came to Merce Cunningham Studios to fill the house each night. Here's a good write-up with photos from Oberon's Grove, also here's a link to an interview I gave to Sequenza 21 about FIVE POINTS.
POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 1:23 PM Last Monday April 5th one of the movements from Vipassana, "Stillness Flows Ever Changing", was featured on WNYC's New Sounds program (#3059 Music with Mallets). Thanks to host John Schaefer, who has featured us a number of times over the years. If you didn't get a chance to check it out, you can do so at the above link or you can listen to some our other archived appearances (links below) or just listen to some of the other great music and artists on this wonderful new music program:
PROGRAM #2237, The Minimalist Influence (First aired Tues. 1/20/04) PROGRAM #2922, New Concert Music (First aired on Tues. 4/7/09) PROGRAM #2940, Mid-sized ensembles (First aired on Fri. 5/22/09) POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 10:20 PM Just a quickie post: on Friday Lara Pellegrinelli wrote a good feature on NPR's A Blog Supreme about my last Composer Salon on Inspiration (January 2010).
Keep checking back for details on the March Salon. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 1:49 AM   Here's the article from the most recent December 2009 BBC Music Magazine featuring myself, Evan Ziporyn, Lisa Bielawa, Philip Lasser, and David Balakrishnan. In the article titled American Dreams, writer Nick Shave asks a number of composers the question where is music heading next? A protean topic with no clear answers, I have been thinking about this for some years now. I do write a bit about this in my posting for the upcoming Composer Salon, but it is interesting reading what the other composers feel is going on in contemporary music circles. My interview with Nick was done back in the beginning of September and while he didn't use much from our conversation (with a few things in the article lacking the context and clarification found in the conversation), it was an honor to be included and fun discussing what I think is happening now in the US music scene and being a prognosticator to speculate on where things seem to be going next.
For old, tired eyes here is what was quoted I said in the article: "Tonality is a defining feature of much new music; but then it never really went away. You only have to look at the pop and rock world to see people have always been writing tonal music. When Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass started experimenting with minimalism in the 1960s, people in the classical world would look down on them, because they were writing tonal music. But they completely changed the classical world because they said, "Hey, I'm not going to wait for these establishment people', and just played the music they enjoyed. This is very much the way it is today--you have people trying to get their music out there without any labels for classical or jazz audiences. As composers, we've all grown up with this approach, so now it just seems natural to filter into [everything]. But looking around I can see tonal language expanding again--you only have to think of John Adams, whose language is starting to be more chromatic, to sense the way in which composers are re-introducing all sorts of dissonances." Check out the December 20009 BBC Music Magazine at a favorite music periodical outlet near you. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 3:43 PM
Here's a brief article in today's Daily News about the PS 321 Neighborhood Series, which Simone Dinnerstein has organized. It starts this Thursday with Clive Greensmith, cellist from the Toyko String Quartet and pianist Jean Schneider. While they didn't use much from my interview, the photo shoot on Monday was fun with Simone and one of my kindergarten classes and we hope the article will help draw people to the concerts.
PS 321 Neighborhood Concert Series October 29th, 2009: Clive Greensmith (cello) and Jean Schneider (piano) January 10th, 2010: Simone Dinnerstein with American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) February 4th, 2010: The Chiara String Quartet April 15th, 2010: Face the Music featuring premiere of a composition by Joseph C. Phillips Jr. Also, I have my own concert tonight: Numinous performs Vipassana Wednesday October 28, 2009 8 PM to 9 PM $10 Brooklyn Lyceum 227 4th Avenue Park Slope Take the M, R Train to Union Street POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 7:41 AM In an earlier post in May 2009, I mentioned that world-acclaimed pianist Simone Dinnerstein was curating a new concert series in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope. Well, this week is the beginning of that series: the PS 321 Neighborhood Concert Series. All of the concerts are open to the general public and are held in the PS 321 Auditorium (180 7th Avenue). The musicians on the series are artists Simone has worked with or admired over the years and are donating their time and efforts in order for all of the proceeds to benefit the school's Parent Teacher Association.
Simone states her reasons for starting the series: "I wanted to start a concert series that would bring families together to listen to classical music, and doing this in my own neighborhood seemed like a good place to begin [and] my hope is that other musicians will similarly 'adopt' schools and bring performances to students in their own communities. We can all look just outside our front doors for opportunities like this." Here's the incredible line-up Simone has put together for the inaugural season of the series: October 29th, 2009: Clive Greensmith (cello) and Jean Schneider (piano) January 10th, 2010: Simone Dinnerstein with American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) February 4th, 2010: The Chiara String Quartet April 15th, 2010: Face the Music featuring premiere of a composition by Joseph C. Phillips Jr. Now the astute reader might have noticed that my name is part of the line-up. I do have a connection to PS 321 and Simone because it is where I have been teaching kindergarten music for a number of years now and where her husband is one of my colleagues and where her son attends (who I had when he was a kindergartener). PS 321 is one of the top elementary schools in New York City but you don't have to take my word for it, you can read this. Maybe one of these days I'll write another post about what it is like to stand in front of 24 cute little four-, five-, and six-year olds. As you might imagine, I'll have plenty of fun and interesting stories! So with my experience with kids, of course I said yes when Simone asked if I wanted a commission to write a work for Face the Music. The students of Face the Music are "20 classically trained musicians ranging from 6th to 12th grade"and come from the Special Music School at the Kaufman Center in Manhattan, a public school for "musically gifted children". They are champions of new and contemporary music and have performed compositions written by composers such as Phil Kline, David Lang, and later in 2010 Nico Muhly. In future posts, I will be writing more about my composition and what it is like working with the students in rehearsals, but for now, since I'm still writing the piece, all I will say is it will be in honor of Gustav Mahler for his upcoming 'Gala Years' of 2010 and 2011 ('10 being the 150th anniversary of his birth and '11 being the 100th anniversary of his death). And although it will be inspired by Mahler and his symphonic world, it won't sound like Mahler... Coming out and supporting this great concert series means you are going to hear great music AND help benefit public school students at the same time. With the economy and the looming budget cuts in the state capital, public education needs all the help it can get. Even at a school such as PS 321 with an active and incredible PTA, we do feel the effects of less money from Albany. This series is a way to help alleviate some of those effects. Remember the performers are graciously donating their services so that ALL of the money earned from the concerts goes to the school! With starting this concert series Simone shows that supporting public education is important to her and she is hoping that you also share in that support. We hope you consider being a good neighbor (whether you live in Park Slope or not) and coming to one or more of the concerts! PS 321 Neighborhood Concert Series 180 7th Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11215 To purchase tickets or more information, you can go to www.ps321.org. Update: NY Daily News article about series POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 8:00 AM A few weeks ago I was interviewed for Texas Public Radio by the latest maven in the new music world, John Clare. His show, Classical Spotlight, includes interviews and recordings from some of the top performers, composers, and conductors in classical and new music today.
My interview, along with audio from Vipassana, will be broadcast tomorrow July 3rd at 3PM Eastern (2PM Central) on KPAC in San Antonio as part of John Clare's July 4th special on American music. If you miss it tomorrow, then you can listen to the archive on the Classical Spotlight website or check out their blog. It was a fun time and I'm honored John chose me to be a guest for his July 4th special. I hope you get a chance to listen. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 1:51 PM Here is a just published feature interview with me at TheRoot.com. It is written by John Murph, a contributing writer not only for The Root but also for NPR, The Washington Post Express, JazzTimes, downbeat, and JazzWise magazines. We conducted the interview in D.C. at Union Station the morning after the premiere of The Gates of the Wonder-World Open by the University of Maryland Wind Ensemble. It was a good and far-flung discussion on many issues relating to me and my music, but also to cultural topics and influences as well (although, as is typical, not everything we discussed made it into the finished interview).
The Root is a sister site of Slate. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 5:29 PM Here's a recent review from Kathodik, an Italian music source. While the link is the original review in Italian, I have a Google translation below (got to love that tool!). While I'm sure not quite accurate, I liked the wrongness of some of the translated grammar; but at least it does give an idea of what was said (any Italian speakers out there wanna help out!):
Numinous / Joseph C. Phillips Jr. 'Vipassana' (Innova 2009) Numinous is the name of the group of musicians founded and led, since 2000, by Joseph C. Phillips Jr. The group is made up of musicians from classical music and jazz, and specializes in executing the works of Phillips, it is no accident that [have] influences both in classical and jazz. The so-called Vipassana innovative features four songs from Phillips, each of which exemplifies the style of the composer, I would call with these three words: sensual, dreamy, flowing. The compositions of Phillips certainly feel the influence of Steve Reich, in particular the seminal Music for 18 Musicians (which by the way has certainly been recorded for Innova), which are reflected both the impact minimal and gradual, as the 'original sound mix of voices, percussion, woodwinds and strings. But another similarity is that with Gavin Bryars and Toru Takemitsu, with whom Phillips shares a taste for the nuances, the sensitivity to the more subtle nuances, and the search for a sound liquidity. But Phillips's music is not limited to the influences and similarities, while important and well amalgamated, then here is that the rigid conceptual structures opens a minimalist improvisational moments of ecstatic beauty, the nuances and refractions sound is more compact, lower-long quarterly and enveloping melodic and harmonic, and then fall apart again, sliding with a harmony that makes us breathe and live and move in harmony with nature, which ultimately we feel deeply and pleasantly immersed. ORIGINALLY POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 9:22 PM Somehow I missed this: a few weeks ago Vipassana was one of the picks of the week on April 14th, 2009 at Avant Music News.
ORIGINALLY POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 9:08 PM  Vipassana will be released worldwide on innova recordings on Tuesday April 14. You can hear some excerpts atwww.numinousmusic.com and read more about it at www.innova.mu. I'm very excited about sharing Vipassana to the wider world and hope you have an opportunity to check it out at your favorite on-line or brick and morter musical outlet.
The new CD can be found worldwide at iTunes, eMusic.com, Amazon.com,Barnes and Noble.com, innova.mu, numinousmusic.com and most retail/online establishments. Vipassana In the Pali language of early Buddhist texts, vipassana means “to see things as they really are.” Today, vipassana is a type of meditation that seeks spiritual clarity and insight through silence. A four-part composition featuring 25 instrumentalists and singers, Vipassana is 60 minutes of “beautiful noise”—a fluid and organic fusion of elements from contemporary classical, jazz, and popular music. Early reviews of Vipassana: “Phillips' writing is brilliant, and the ensemble performs it with clarity and passion. Count me as a believer.”--Ted Gioia (jazz.com) "And I just got a copy of a (still to be released) CD earlier this week that knocks my socks off . . Vipassana: Numinous Plays the Music of Joseph C. Phillips, Jr. Imagine Steve Reich collaborating with Maria Schneider . . . If you get a chance to hear it, check it out." - Ted Gioia “…this is certainly head music for the cerebral, but it’s a dandy listening date for people that really like their alternative stuff from left field. More of a spiritual descendant of [Steve Reich’s] “Music for 18 Musicians” than anything else, it has the appeal of that dense work but takes you to a different place. Wild and worth it.”--Midwest Record Review “Musically, this quartet of stylish and provocative pieces stands somewhere between the style of Steve Reich and contemporary jazz… [a] blend that succeeds in being the sum of its parts and to illustrate his program, which is an unusual one: part symphonic, part spiritual exegesis… Vipassana is never less than likeable, is sincere in intent, and is greatly enjoyable to listen to; Joseph C. Phillips Jr. is a young composer to watch.”--All Music Guide "...while there have been a couple of attempts at [blending] minimalism and jazz, they haven't really worked as convincingly as this album."—John Schaefer, WNYC's New Sounds ORIGINALLY POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 7:34 AM  Last Tuesday WNYC's New Sounds featured a track from my new CD, Vipassana. PROGRAM # 2922, New Concert Music (First aired on Tues. 4/7/09)
John Schaefer has been a good supporter of Numinous over the years and I hope you get a chance to check out the show. ORIGINALLY POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 6:58 AM |
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