Welcome to our recent conversation with Patrick McMinn. Patrick was a musician for our recent show (Pegasus) where he and film artist Meg Rorison gave a powerful close to the concert. Stay tuned! You'll get to see that very soon; we have some excellent video to post.
In our interview with Patrick, we talked about Dan Deacon, the Baltimore Warehouse Scene, Arvo Pärt, Rothko Chapel, and being on the road. Enter the noise! (transcript to come)
Hello and welcome to Part 2 of our enlightening interview with Joshua Bornfield. In this round, we talked about the role of new music, rejection, Thomas Ades, and more. Please enjoy. Full transcript after the break...
SONAR will be performing solos and duos by the recently passed Elliot Carter and other American composers to benefit the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. How appropriate! I'm still feeling the need to pause and reflect on these recent tragic events, and this seems like the best way to do it. Even if you've somehow moved on, it's still nice to get a concert like this in before the mad craze of Holiday shows that are sure to come in December. We hope to see you there!
We're still remembering Elliott Carter: the Symphonies (one for three orchestras), the concertos, the many modernist works... Carter lived the experience of the American composer in the 20th c. From the very start to the very end. Listen to this "early" piece, and enjoy this beautiful day.
Click play on the audio player above to hear our interview with composer Joshua Bornfield. The transcript, extra details, and pictures are after the jump. We had so much fun talking with Josh and would like to thank him a million times for being our first guest. He is a frequent consultant and supporter of Outerspaces and we love working with him! His depth of experience and knowledge are an inspiration. Enjoy!
Is there anyone you would like us to interview? Would YOU like to be interviewed? Drop us a line at info@outerspacesmusic.org.
I have been waiting for this ever since moving to Baltimore. After being burned by The Walters (they hired a "more qualified applicant"), I'm looking forward to a positive experience in an art museum here. It's really easy to get sucked into DC and forget the gems we have here in town, especially when you're a recent transplant from far away. I also have to note that I was generally unimpressed by the chaos that is the American Visionary Art Museum. I suppose that's the point of such a museum, but some thoughtful curating would serve artists more justice. Point being, with the Contemporary being closed, and MICA/small galleries aside, I've felt the absence of the BMA's contemporary wing. Baltimore has failed to reach my expectations for the level and quantity of contemporary art I'd expect in such a large Northeastern city. Mind you, I'm deadly homesick and came from Houston, home of it's own Contemporary Art Museum, the Menil Collection, and the Rothko Chapel. If I'm missing something in Baltimore, please let me know, I'll be delighted!
The reopening party promises live music by White Life, a sound art performance by Tim Nohe, art chats, the making of a collaborative art sculpture designed by Maren Hassinger, "light bites", and a cash bar. Be one of the first to see the new wing! The galleries will show off more than 100 new works as well as "old" standbys like Warhol, Matisse, and Jasper Johns.
I don't know about you, but I love "after hours" events; they feel so hip and novel. We look forward to seeing you there! Do you know of an awesome event coming up? Email us at info@outerspacesmusic.org.
Their name reminds me of middle school clicks and the game MASH, but I'll forgive that. Why? It's an improvisation trio; you have to just go with it. KGT is made up of Kate Olson on sax, Gary Prince on electric guitar, and Tim Cohen on drums. Somehow they also manage to mix in electronics and create a surprisingly mellow sound.
The track below comes to you by way of the thoughtfully sophisticated sax and guitar of Olson and Prince. It's a short, pure improvisation, and a beautiful musical conversation.
Come in out of the cold and grab some warm coffee. We hope to see you there!
There's a lot on the table in this year's presidential election, so make sure your vote is heard tomorrow! For us over here at OUTERSPACES, there's a clear winner when it comes to supporting the interests of new music, but there's a whole lot more to consider in the end. Still having trouble deciding? Check this site for a clear run down of the issues and each candidate's stance.
On the Maryland ballot there's some other important issues to vote on:
Question 4, voting YES will allow undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates if they meet certain conditions including graduating from a Maryland high school, filing income taxes, and intending to apply for permanent residency. Why? This.
Question 6, voting YES will establish that Maryland’s civil marriage laws allow gay and lesbian couples to obtain a civil marriage license. Why? This.
and
Question 7, voting NO will prevent the expansion of commercial gambling. Why? This & this.
Most importantly, let your voice be heard. GO VOTE!
Today we're launching a new series on the blog called "Pick of the Week." Each week we will attempt to highlight a different concert or event in the Baltimore area. Most of the time they will be related to new music, sometimes they won't. You'll just have to come back and see. These will be events we'll be going to, so introduce yourself. We'd love to meet you!
This week's pick is the Occasional Symphony's presentation of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Set to music by Baltimore's own composers, Scott Lee and James Young, and the most ominous music from the 19th and 20th centuries, this screening includes a creepy carnival, murder and an infamous sleepwalker. Join us as we celebrate All Hallows' Eve- we're just sorry Halloween only comes once a year.
Yeah, us too! We can't wait. 9pm 2640 Space October 31, 2012
BTW, did you know composer James Young's birthday is Halloween? Let's show him some love.
If you know of a great event and want to point our nose towards it, give us a shout at info@outerspacesmusic.org!
Have you ever thought of what music does to a space you’re
in? A dirty bar becomes an energized party. A stage becomes a living
loudspeaker. A cathedral becomes a place of worship. An ascetic studio becomes
a creative workshop. And so on…
Yes. I am sure you have thought of this. But have you
thought of what a space does to the music being played?
Let’s start with an example and the wrong lesson learned
from it.
Here's an excerpt from Michael Gordon's Timber, a concert-long work for six 2x4's. Who knew you could rock out so hard on construction materials? Enjoy.
I want you to think very hard about this question I am about to ask you.
What is the value of music? If you're a musician, what is your value?
And I want you to think about the question in terms of money. Now I want you to tell me exactly what service a musician provides. What makes his or her (or your) service as valuable or worthless as you say?
Now do you know Amanda Palmer? You know, Amanda Palmer of the (late) Dresden Dolls?Married to urban-fantasy hero-author Neil Gaiman? Founder of the newly minted Grand Theft Orchestra? She's fun... But just watch out for her videos if you're the squeamish type.
Like so:
Well Ms. Palmer recently called for "professional-ish" musicians to play their instruments on tour with her. "Professional-ish" is an important term we'll be getting back to here. So at every stop at in Palmer's tour with Grand Theft Orchestra (GTO) there would be a tiny battalion of trained horns and strings waiting to jump on stage:
http://www.amandapalmer.net/blog/20120821/
Her payment as follows: "we will feed you beer, hug/high-five you up and down (pick your poison), give you merch, and thank you mightily." As you might have noticed, there's no mention of any monetary compensation. Well... Musicians on the internet didn't like that at all:
They didn't like the concept of not being paid for their job. Not to single out Ms. Vaillancourt-Sals (other militant voices can easily be found), but this is who Amanda Palmer responded to:
Vaillancourt-Sals's (VS's) point is that each musician who works for free then de-values the rest. As she points out, it is difficult to keep the electricity on with the power of hugs and beer. Palmer understood VS's concern (while continuing to praise the power of a good brew of course), but began defining payment differently. How much is exposure worth for instance? These musicians will be on stage with a well known indie musician. That's a great connection and experience to have. Should musicians only be concerned with money? I don't know. Amanda Palmer raised over a million dollars for her tour then claimed she couldn't pay 35k for strings and horns.
Musicians work for free all the time. This is true. I'm a musician. I work for free all the time. This is the culture that we have created as "classical" musicians for ourselves. We enjoy making music. So we'll make it for free. And the act of providing free music shouldn't change. There's an interesting/foolish comment under Amanda Palmer's open letter to Amy from one "Joyce Ford": "Call up a plumber and ask him to work for three hours on a Saturday night. I say whatever he charges you is what a musician should be paid."
This is a ridiculous analogy. The plumber uses their impressive skill to fix a physical pipe. They perform a service to save your home from damage. A musician's skill-set doesn't have an easily attached measurable product. A musician has to deal with taste. Plumber is to musician as fixed pipe is to...? What is a musician providing? Why should a musician be paid at all? Continue thinking about it.
Palmer's argument is faulty as well. Exposure? No. Any musician getting on stage with Amanda Palmer (especially since there's a new set of "professional-ish" musicians at every show) will only get the barest of recognition before being completely forgotten the next day. Both sides of the argument were either being disingenuous or they were believing their own fiction.
But here's what happened anyway. Amanda Palmer felt guilty and, being who she is, decided to pay every "volunteer" musician she pulled up on stage (retroactively as well):
So here we are at the end of the Palmer saga. But we shouldn't be done with it.
How did Ms. Palmer become the villain of thousands un and underpaid musicians? She had a very cool idea and was up front about her intentions. Interested musicians answered the call and good times were had. Look. I would jump at the chance to perform with a high profile band I loved too. I would do it for the experience and for a free show and for a chance to share a drink with a musician I liked. Wouldn't you? The answer is yes. Yes you would. Let me tell you what I think she did wrong. She used the word "professional-ish."
Think of our friend the plumber. They have trained years to achieve mastery of their craft so that they may do one specific task flawlessly: repair pipes. When we make that late weekend call to a plumber, we expect a person that can do a job efficiently and flawlessly. They are professional. When Palmer made a call for musicians, she wanted people that knew how to play their instruments efficiently and flawlessly, that would stay in tune and make on the fly changes to suit the music. She wanted people that knew how to amplify the vibe from the stage and project it out over the audience. Amanda Palmer wanted musicians who had trained years to achieve a mastery of their craft. She wanted professionals.
We are professionals, and we have sunk too many hours into music to take our professionalism for granted. And this is what we have done. Amidst all the fun we've had, all the "experiences" we've shared, the jam sessions, odysseys, improvisations, amidst all the DIY concerts, and all the chord progressions we have forgotten that we are valuable. What we do is provide a service. But unlike plumbers each of us provides a radically different service. Each of us has a responsibility to ourselves to assign our own value. And yes, I do mean price tag.
Now, musicians please keep having fun. Keep working for free. Keep doing exactly what you love. Just think about what you're doing. Think about the value of the music you create. Think about why it is valuable. Think about it every time. Think about it when you go on stage with Amanda F. Palmer. Our value starts and ends with us.
James and I are off to see "Einstein on the Beach" by Philip Glass in Brooklyn this weekend. I never thought I'd get to see it since it's quite unusual, so when I heard about the revival I jumped at the opportunity. It's sure to be an experience; I'll let you know how it goes next week.
I checked this VHS recording out of the library during undergrad and was blown away. I hope you enjoy it too!
This season all of our concerts are named after celestial bodies. The first, Bellerophon, is coming up in just 9 days!
“Bellerophon” was the nickname given to “51 Pegasi b,” the first planet discovered outside of our solar system. It's a planet 50 light years away discovered in the year 1995 orbiting a star in the Pegasus constellation. Temperatures there exceed 1,000°C (1,832°F)!
Bellerophon was also the name of the mythological hero who tamed Pegasus and slew the Chimera. After many victories, becoming a king, and marrying, he decided he could travel to Mount Olympus to be among the gods. In anger, Zeus sent a fly to sting Bellerophon causing the prideful hero to fall back to earth.
The story behind Bellerophon inspires our music series to promote the discovery of new music in a grounded way. We hope to see you at our epic first concert!
1. The music you will hear at our shows is on the outer edge of what's played in concert halls today. It's unknown and different from what's going on in major art hubs like NYC or LA. It's our own movement: there is no specific musical style to what we present, but it all shares a collective intention. New music can sometimes be quite alien, but it's something worth being explored, discovered, and understood. Outerspaces strives to put new music within reach.
AND
2. We play in spaces outside of the formal concert hall. This season all of our shows are at Mount Vernon Music Space, an intimate homelike venue. In the future, we'd like to expand to bars, art galleries, restaurants, and other innovative atmospheres. In addition to a different setting, our concert experience strives for something new. Music is played without breaks, freely flowing from one set to the next. There's no need for polite applause, react how you want at anytime.
For our first season, we decided to name all of our concerts after celestial bodies in celebration of exploration of the unknown. Later in the week we'll give you more info behind the name for our first concert: Bellerophon, the first planet that was discovered outside of our solar system. In the mean time, check out this video showing spectacular rarely seen views of our own planet :
James Young looks at "Honor Pythagoras, Per I-Per VI" by Alfred Jensen at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
The arts are all intrinsically linked to me. In fact, I'll go a step further and claim that most studies are interconnected and related. What is literature without history? Or, what is cooking without chemistry? And for me as a singer, what is vocal music without poetry? In Alfred Jensen's painting, shown above, he expresses the unity between mathematics and art. The geometric shapes stand out from each other by the use of bright yellow, green, red, blue and white color. These colors and shapes that make up our entire world.
Throughout time humans have looked to abstract creation to express complex feelings. Knowing visual art helps me to better know music. So often music is described like a painting: bright, red, thin, vivid, chromatic, dark, etc. I have heard devoted musicians in all seriousness describe music as being "blue". I don't mean sad, I mean the color blue. Blue as a concept is linked to a certain type of feeling in us. The same feeling that is activated by a series of tones or a certain sonic timbre.
This is one of the fundamental goals of all art: to connect people together through shared a feeling or experience. What have you heard in art or seen in music?
outerspaces is music you have most likely never heard.
outerspaces is an organization dedicated to the discovery, promotion, and performance of contemporary art music. We are young, and we are new. Our goal is to present fresh music at a high level of quality from local musicians at the top of their ability. We want to share our passion with you.
BELLEROPHON is our inaugural concert, named after the first planet discovered beyond our solar system. Bethany Pietroniro will revisit Sean Doyle’s Etudes-Tableaux, a trio of smart, gripping piano pieces. Danielle Buonaiuto will premier a new work for voice and electronics by me (James Young), using auto-tune and “sweet beats.” Lisa Perry will sing and play the piano for Joshua Bornfield’s Yes, a work painted by nostalgia and brilliant reflection. This is a powerful start. Come join us for an hour.
