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Category: cello

Tuesday, January 7th

Henry Theadgill’s Zooid,* live, New York (Roulette), 2012


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lagniappe

radio

Today WKCR-FM (Columbia University) is featuring Threadgill and a host of other musicians who came out of Chicago in the ’60s and ’70s.

In May of 1977, members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) collaborated with students at WKCR to present “Chicago Comes to New York,” a four-day music festival at Columbia University’s Wollman Auditorium.  Join us starting midnight on January 7, 2014 as we revisit this momentous event with a 24-hour marathon broadcast featuring music and interviews by the AACM.

Thirty members of the AACM came to New York with their families and friends for the festival, many for the first time. The festival also included an on-air component in the form of a ninety-hour broadcast of music and interviews with AACM artists. Over the last year, two recent WKCR alums restored and digitized the entire collection of reel-to-reel tapes from the festival, hearing the music for the first time since it was recorded.

Celebrate the incredibly important work that members of the AACM have been doing to promote artistic freedom and self-determination for nearly half a century. Help us revitalize and share these unique pieces of recorded history that WKCR is so privileged to have regained access to.

WKCR-FM

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*Henry Threadgill (alto saxophone, flute), Liberty Ellman (acoustic guitar), Jose Davila (tuba), Elliot Humberto Kavee (drums), Zachary Lober (bass), Christopher Hoffman (cello), Ben Gerstein (trombone), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Stephanie Richards (trumpet), Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet).

Saturday, December 28th

never enough

Johann Sebastian Bach, Suite No. 3 in C major for Unaccompanied Cello; Jean-Guihen Queyras, live, c. 2007


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lagniappe

radio

WKCR’s annual Bach Festival continues through New Year’s Eve.

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random thoughts

Life is one long lesson in learning how to breathe.

Thursday, December 19th

Heaven isn’t somewhere else. It’s right here, right now. Don’t believe me? Put on a pair of headphones. Close your eyes. Listen. 

Johann Sebastian Bach, Suite No. 5 in C minor for Unaccompanied Cello; Anner Bylsma, live, Germany (Dornheim), 2000

#1

#2 (ends at 9:15)

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lagniappe

art beat

Lee Friedlander (1934-), Kyoto, 1984

2. Kyoto, 1984

Thursday, December 5th

soundtrack to a dream

Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994), String Quartet (1964); Tetris Quartet, live, Thailand (Bangkok), 2012


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lagniappe

art beat

Lee Friedlander (1934-), Japan (Kyoto), 1981

MG_7620

Tuesday, December 3rd

career plans for the next life

If none of those other things pan out (tap dancer, rubboard playerreggae bassist, guitarist in a Malian band), I might give cellist-in-a-string-quartet a shot.

Keller String Quartet, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), The Art of the Fugue (excerpts); György Kurtág (1926-), Officium Breve (excerpts)

Wednesday, November 27th

serendipity

This I bumped into the other day on the radio.*

Salvatore Sciarrino (1947-), Piano Trio No. 2 (1987); Alter Ego Ensemble, 1999

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lagniappe

art beat

Paul Strand (1890-1976)
Abstraction, Porch Shadows, Twin Lakes, Connecticut, 1916

h2_1987.1100.10

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*WKCR-FM (Columbia University), Afternoon New Music (11/25/13).

Thursday, November 14th

Georg Friedrich Haas (1953-), String Quartet No. 5; Crash Ensemble, live, Ireland (Dublin), 2013


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lagniappe

musical thoughts

All theater is musical and all music theatrical.

Wednesday, October 16th

mesmerizing

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), Lachrymae (1950; arranged for viola and string orchestra, 1976); A Far Cry with Roger Tapping (viola), live, Cambridge, Mass., 2008

#1


#2

Saturday, October 12th


This I could listen to forever.

Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Piano and String Quartet (1985)
Aki Takahashi (piano) and Kronos Quartet


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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Earlier in my life there seemed to be unlimited possibilities, but my mind was closed. Now, years later and with an open mind, possibilities no longer interest me. I seem content to be continually rearranging the same furniture in the same room. My concern at times is nothing more than establishing a series of practical conditions that will enable me to work. For years I said if I could only find a comfortable chair I would rival Mozart.

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If a man teaches composition in a university, how can he not be a composer? He has worked hard, learned his craft. Ergo, he is a composer. A professional. Like a doctor. But there is that doctor who opens you up, does exactly the right thing, closes you up—and you die. He failed to take the chance that might have saved you. Art is a crucial, dangerous operation we perform on ourselves. Unless we take a chance, we die in art.

Morton Feldman

Saturday, October 5th

alone

Arthur Russell (1951-1992), “Soon-To-Be Innocent Fun,” 1985