Richard D. Russell » New York City

Video of PUBLIQuartet’s “Adagio” performance at Bargemusic

Richard D. Russell — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:49:46 +0000

My “Adagio for String Quartet” was performed in September, 2011 at Bargemusic, a prestigious performance venue in New York City. The performers were the superb young string ensemble, PUBLIQuartet — more information about them can be found at their website.

The concert was presented by the New York Composers Circle. A video was recorded and I include it here.

The New York Composers Circle always asks composers to introduce their piece by speaking a few words about their composition; this provides the audience with some context and details to listen for in the music.

The post Video of PUBLIQuartet’s “Adagio” performance at Bargemusic appeared first on Richard D. Russell.

Why move to New York?

Richard D. Russell — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:01:24 +0000

New York City

Like many other people before me, and many others after me, I moved to New York City because it was the center of it all, especially for classical music.

This has become (and will continue to become) less necessary. In a July 30 2009 op-ed piece in the New York Times, Bill Wasik writes:

Online…the audience can be yours right away, direct and unmediated–if you can figure out how to find it…

In other words, why move to New York when you can just go online? The whole article, with all its implications, can be read here.

The post Why move to New York? appeared first on Richard D. Russell.

Sofia Dimitrova’s performance of “When Time Is Over”

Richard D. Russell — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:27:00 +0000

Here’s a pic from Sofia Dimitrova’s performance in Varna, Bulgaria from July 17. The pianist (obscured) is Diana Koynova. She performed my piece, “When Time is Over”, four songs on poems by Emily Dicksinson. This song cycle is due to be performed again in New York City on February 23, 2010.

The post Sofia Dimitrova’s performance of “When Time Is Over” appeared first on Richard D. Russell.

Another element of music?

Richard D. Russell — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:45:41 +0000

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

My friend Haim Avitsur participated in a performance of “Orbits” for 80 trombones, soprano, and organ. (Haim was not the soprano, and he doesn’t play the organ!) The piece is by Henry Brant (1913–2008) and was performed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

In a New York Times review of the concert, the critic Anthony Tomassini writes that Brant

…regarded space as the fourth dimension of music, along with pitch, time and timbre.

As you can see from the picture, the space of the Guggenheim is quite an evocative arena to make use of space as a compositional element! I have argued in my audio podcast that the “missing element” of music is form, but I thought I would toss this in — space — as another possible element of music for composers to consider experimenting with.

The post Another element of music? appeared first on Richard D. Russell.