The Young Composer

Alex gets his choral on in performances with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Chamber Choir and in Michael Nyman’s new work.

A thrill for any young composer – the premiere of his music in the Big Apple.

I thought I’d take a moment to shed some light on what I’ve been listening to of late, as well as what a few Manhattan residents will hopefully be listening to this Sunday.

Today I remember a different kind of composer whose influence on my formative years as a musician can not be underestimated.

Tonight (actually, very early tomorrow morning), I will be on the phone speaking to Michael Nyman. If I were a real journalist, this would probably be a fairly insignificant occurrence. But, I’m not. And, it isn’t.

Within the space of 24 hours, I sat through a stage performance of a popular musical and an analysis class that felt more like a pure maths tutorial. How can I possibly link the two?

An interesting talk from a composer with an interesting neurological condition.

At the end of my blog last week, I concluded that the significant difference between humans and machines (more specifically, their music) is the inspiration that drives humans. It was therefore appropriate that, on Friday, I attended Elena Kats-Chernin‘s lecture “On Inspiration”.

Yesterday afternoon, I picked up a recent copy of Time magazine. I was drawn in by Lev Grossman’s cover story “2045 – The Year Man Becomes Immortal”. Naturally, I was intrigued so I read the article. This is what I discovered.

A number of recent events have led me to ponder the future of one of the most amazing forms of artistic expression: opera.