On October 14 at Bowling Green State University, Mantra Percussion gives the US premiere of Michael Gordon’s percussion sextet, Timber — followed by a North American tour that includes the Canadian premiere on October 22 at the X Avant Festival (with indie rock-duo Buke & Gass).
The new work, an evening-length tour de force scored for six graduated wooden 2x4s brings the physicality, endurance and technique of percussion performance to a new level…
continue readingOn June 16 at Korzo Theatre in Den Haag, The Netherlands, the Dutch percussion group Slagwerk Den Haag gives the world premiere of Michael Gordon’s percussion sextet, Timber, an evening-length tour de force.
Scored for six graduated wooden 2x4s, or Simantras (Greek liturgical percussion instruments used by French composer Iannis Xenakis), the work brings the physicality, endurance and technique of percussion performance to a new level…
continue readingThe Kronos Quartet has been a long-time champion of the music of Michael Gordon, having commissioned Sad Park in 2006 and Potassium in 2000. This fall, they premiere two brand new pieces by Gordon: Clouded Yellow, with a world premiere at Dartmouth on October 2nd and at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City on October 9th, and another world premiere, Exalted, for string quartet and chorus, for which they will join forces with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City at Le Poisson Rouge
Listen above to Francisco Nuñez and 3 of his choristers from the Young People’s Chorus of NYC talk about their work on Gordon’s Exalted…
On April 27, the Melbourne Symphony gives the Australian premiere of Michael Gordon’s Dystopia at the 2012 Metropolis New Music Festival.
Mantra Percussion’s New York premiere of Timber at the Brooklyn Academy of Music received a great review from Steve Smith and great reactions from the three nights of audiences and BAM staff: “Michael Gordon’s Timber is its own religious experience, and the members of Mantra are the rhythmic monks who make it so.” — Sarah Garvey, Brooklyn Academy of Music
Click here to read Steve Smith’s review.
continue readingMichael Gordon’s percussion sextet Timber, “six players, six two-by-fours, one hour of aural hypnosis” (TimeOut NY) is toured from Canada to Ireland to Germany and beyond by co-commissioners Slagwerk Den Haag and Mantra Percussion.
Recognized by The New Yorker Magazine as one of the ten most memorable performances of 2012, Timber is a mesmerizing and unique evening-length work…
continue readingFrom May 11-19, Long Beach Opera stages Michael Gordon’s opera Van Gogh.
Based on Vincent Van Gogh’s letters to his beloved younger brother Tlusteheo, an art dealer and often Vincent’s sole means of personal and financial support, Gordon’s powerful opera has been praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as “puls[ing] with a distinctive brand of emotional energy that is hard to resist.”
Gordon writes:
I started composing Van Gogh because of my obsession with the letters Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo…
continue readingWhat is the hottest thing in music right now? A pair of video games ─ Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Anyone can play. The games allow you to become a member of the band. Each game offers a range of pop music hits on game controllers that look and feel like guitars and drums. What makes these video games so much more impressive than ‘air guitar’ is that through the use of something called the instrument game controller the player actually experiences the visceral feeling of performing music…
continue readingOn Sunday March 17, Michael Gordon’s newest work for orchestra, Beijing Harmony, is premiered by Kristjan Jarvi and the Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra.
Gordon writes about the new work:
I wrote Beijing Harmony as part of Composing China, a project in which I (along with four other composers) was asked to compose a work that reflected upon my first hand impressions of China…
continue reading(…) Concerto Köln, which has about 30 members, is a collective: They own their work and manage themselves. The members are involved in the creation of every project. This is very unusual. Orchestras usually are run from the top down. The board of directors hires the management, which hires the conductor and the orchestra. The low people on the totem pole are the musicians, whose professional lives are dictated to from above. Here with Concerto Köln, and with a few other orchestras that I have worked with (mostly in Europe), management is hired by the orchestra…
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