ted hearne

interview in CompositionToday

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:01:39 -0400

just had a new interview posted on this website Composition Today. answering with the old political music question, always a good time, always a good time…

from the margins, this, unmentioned

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:38:44 -0400

thursday, friday and saturday i’m conducting FROM THE MARGINS, THIS, UNMENTIONED - a ballet composed by my good friend Bryan Senti. the brilliant choreographer Bronwen MacArthur has put crafted some sultry and extremely athletic moves with her team of dancers, and some sick video installation from Kohta Asakura, Jimmy Sakai and Nikolai Antonie.

we have had some long and rewarding rehearsals with the all-star band that’s been assembled for this performance (caroline shaw, andie springer, erin wight, jessie marino, eileen mack, samir zarif, nathan koci, mellissa hughes, daisy press, matt hensrud, scott dispensa, greg mayo, trevor gureckis, nate boguszweski) and i’d love to see you there.

tickets can be found here.

Oct. 15-17, 7:30pm at Brooklyn Lyceum

wish every weekend could be a carlsbad weekend

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:01:11 -0400

i just got to Southern California for a weekend at the Carlsbad Music Festival. I was warmly greeted by Matt McBane, the festival’s creator and artistic director, who within five minutes of my arrival had picked for me, from his very own orchard, what must be the most delicious and succulent fig i have ever had the privilege to taste. really nice.

the festival kicked off last night with a satellite concert in L.A., and looks to be packed with great music, including a performance by the California EAR Unit tomorrow night and premieres on Saturday of new pieces by Jason Treuting, Charles Punchatz, and a 15-minute commission from Daniel Wohl. The Calder Quartet will be playing those works, along with that intense 2nd string quartet of Janacek, and a new piece of mine called The one you guard the most. ALSO - Fred Frith will be around for performances of his works tomorrow and on Sunday, which i’m really looking forward to. should be a great experience.

and on top of all that it’s like 90 degrees - love it.

indulged in a decadent visit to the pancake carousel this morning...

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:00:57 -0400

Katrina Ballads won the Gaudeamus Prize last night!

this announcement, coming at the end of a nearly 3-hour orchestral concert, was not only a massive honor, but also came with some pretty overwhelming shock, causing me to, immediately after receiving the news, lumber around the crowded lobby in uncontrolled spasmic jolts. after no more than three minutes of this i managed to knock a few full wine glasses off a waiter’s tray by swinging around with the giant bouquet of flowers i was apparently holding in my hand, causing a general commotion and quickly reestablishing me as the hulking klutzy american those who know me will not deny i am. the whole night was a wild experience; so exciting, and truly truly humbling to be recognized among a group of composers from which each and every one possesses a strong and compelling voice.

one thing from this week that will stick with me is the discussion several of us composers had after the performance of katrina ballads on thursday. the topic of ‘political music’ - that is: music that, like KB, directly addresses a current subject matter - seemed to spark a lot of interest, and seemed to divide us into two opposing camps. this is of course a discussion a lot of us have had before, and i’ve had many debates about the reasons for directly addressing political subject matter times since writing this piece, but i’ve never before felt such a difference between my own motivations and those of european composers in my generation.

i tend to feel that all music is inherently political (whether there is text or not, whether it is ‘about’ anything or not), simply because it is inextricably linked to the place and time at which it was created. the ideas in music are born of other ideas and strains of artistic thought surrounding them, and because no human mind exists in a total vacuum, music has a powerful communicative ability. music that is structured to adhere to only its own constructive principles and be perfectly, beautifully inward looking - while so wonderful when done well - cannot escape its political identity. and composers who chase ‘music for eternity’ are lying to themselves. (if grad school is good for anything, it is good for learning how to repeat certain ideas over and over. this is one i seem to be repeating a lot, for better or worse.)

i got a lot of resistance from some (but not all) of my european colleagues, though. i was totally fascinated, and learned a lot from talking to everyone, but was perplexed by the idea i heard the most, which was not merely that europeans don’t think about music that way, but that they could not. that there was something about being a composer from europe that would not compute with writing a piece with external (and especially nonmusical) references.

of course the one dutch guy in the room (thomas bensdorp, one of the many sick composers i was privileged enough to meet this week) disagreed, but also made the point that luigi nono’s most ‘political’ work wasn’t his big communist pieces, or his music for the working people, but rather the experimental instrumental music he created at the end of his life by working with improvisation and jazz musicians. the hungarians were adamant that the recent history of communism meant their composers were conditioned to avoid all political references, i think the room was divided among those who felt that directly referencing current material did not necessarily diminish the power of a piece of music, and those who felt it cheapened the quality of the work… or made it something else entirely.

getting together with other people that think it’s a good idea to devote their lives to writing music, and listening to each other’s stuff, and discussing it, is such a valuable experience - especially when those people aren’t hanging out with all the same people you are, and especially when lots of those other people are from different cultures. grateful that i got the chance this week.

there’s one day left here at Gaudeamus, and so far the...

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 06:48:09 -0400

there’s one day left here at Gaudeamus, and so far the whole thing has been a great experience for me. the music center of the netherlands should be commended for their diverse programming. everyone seems to be surprised at the aesthetic variety going on here. last night, for instance, gaudeamus put on a show dubiously called Night of The Unexpected… which took place at a club-type venue with limited seating and a ton of standing room, and actually did turn out to be pretty unexpected. among the music on that show was a performance by chinese performer Yu Tao, playing a very flashy percussion set-up with cymbals strung up to the ceiling, and a haunting performance of Luigi Nono’s per Donau by Berlin-based tuba player Robin Hayward (whose high notes were tender and clear - and this piece is basically all high notes). Also played was Three Variations on a Canon By Johann Pachelbel by Brian Eno (which was nice but was played at the wrong place in the program for me to personally get into it) and some unobtrusive but also unexciting Aphex Twin arrangements by Anthony Fiumara and Arnold Marinissen, performed by the string quartet Lunapark.

the highlight, though, by far, was Talibam! new york drummer kevin shea (pictured here, sorry about the crappy iphone dark room quality), from mostly other people do the killing, among other groups, is an absolute monster. and the keyboardist, matt mottel, is the cleanest dirtiest player i’ve ever heard. these guys put on a hell of a show, finding really tight grooves out of this complex web of noises they’re always spastically constructing, and transitioning from one to the next with total precision. i have to give mad props to gaudeamus for recognizing that these guys are sick musicians.

Igra sudjaja by Drasko Adzic ==> the selections of Gaudeamus...

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:41:01 -0400

Igra sudjaja by Drasko Adzic

==> the selections of Gaudeamus finalists have been refreshingly diverse. i was relieved not to have encountered a whole bunch of one type of sound. Tuesday night’s concert at the Muziekgebouw was a good example of this. it started with a long set by the Vocallab Netherlands - this is a vocal octet that blew me away; they were totally polished and flawless in their intonation and everything, but they didn’t have that automatron sound some other top vocal ensembles seem to rock. (tallis scholars, for instance, i have always found totally impressive but kind of robotic) yeah, Vocallab had a really vulnerable human characteristic to their sound sometimes, which put me over the edge.

the second half of the concert featured three gaudeamus finalists. this piece, by Serbian composer Drasko Adzic, for two trumpets and piano, is one of my favorites presented so far. this recording is from tuesday night.

Apeldoorn, Netherlands

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:36:52 -0400

Apeldoorn, Netherlands

Jeroen van Dijk, horn soloist for Katrina Ballads tomorrow at...

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:32:35 -0400

Jeroen van Dijk, horn soloist for Katrina Ballads tomorrow at Gaudeamus

NKo doppleganger?

first rehearsal at Gaudeamus

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:30:48 -0400

i arrived in Amsterdam on monday, and will be here until sunday, participating in the 2009 Gaudeamus Festival. there are 14 of us composers under 30 competing for the top prize, but along with all our nominated works is lots of music from all over the world. there are 3 concerts a day - and, this being holland, the general public seems to give a shit! (or, at least there have been sizable audiences)

anyway. i was shocked and flustered to realize, when i get to the opening reception for the festival, an hour after i arrived via train from berlin, that i needed to take the train back east, to a little town called Apeldoorn an hour and a half out of Amsterdam, to attend my rehearsals. i’ve been hooked up with this group called De Ereprijs, who will be playing some movements from Katrina Ballads on wednesday, and this is where they’re based. and the train departs at 6:30. (this i’m told at 6:10.)

so i rush to the train station and can’t find nothing about no ‘apeldoorn’ so i go to the information desk and stand behind a couple of older ladies asking many slow questions about what is in my opinion much less pressing shit and finally get to the front of the line where i am informed my train departs in 2 minutes! on the track way down at the end that long-ass hallway! so i’m unable to escape from my inevitable roll as running, sweating, hulking american, but i do make the train.

when i get to apeldoorn, i realize the map the guy back in amsterdam has drawn for me is missing some key information. such as the address or phone number of the rehearsal location. also missing cross-streets, directions and any legible words in any language. so i get horribly lost and wander around this quaint little town for an hour or so. around 8pm (when my rehearsal is scheduled to start) i freak out a bit and make the mistake of turning on my phone (it’s not like i even had a phone number i could call), and then of course i immediately get 12 text messages which have built up on the server, two of which are “free texts” from AT&T informing me that my wireless plan does not apply here and i will be charged the international rate of $15.99/1MB of data transmitted. and other ten of which are from random people back home and can pretty much all be summed up as saying essentially: “yo what up.” so now i’m sure i owe like $200. (this is what i get for year after year sending people text messages that say “hoadie” and “shabooms” or some such nonsense, for no reason whatsoever, despite their perplexed pleas for me to for the love of god stop it.)

so i finally ask a dutch couple i encounter on the street if they can please please please help me make sense of this map, and while they too can’t decipher it, they have a pretty good idea of where De Ereprijs might rehearse… so i am walked over there and arrive 15 minutes late, with my heart beating in my teeth. (see, ‘running, sweating, hulking american.’)

luckily, De Ereprijs turns out to be awesome. it is a true pleasure to work with them. they are determined musicians with real heart; warm people with a surprisingly biting sense of humor. i’m into it. a woman with the ensemble has made brownies, and it’s not till halfway through the rehearsal that i realize they’re for me - because i’m singing “Brownie.” i mean, how sweet is that?!

Jeroen van Dijk is playing the horn solo in the 2nd movement of KB (“when we awoke, it was to that familiar phrase: new orleans dodged a bullet.”) he’s a great player. rather than doing the looping in this movement live, jeroen has made a sick recording in his home studio.

i rode the train back with Hans Witteman, the clarinet player, and as we were kicking back a few beers, he told me he’s been in the group for 13 years and he is one of the members with the shortest tenure. Wim Boerman (who is conducting my piece on wednesday) founded the ensemble 30 years ago. i’m told he started the group because nobody wanted to do new music in east holland and so he got a scrappy group of players together and they did what they had to do. when they entered their first big festival they blew everyone away, but the panel of judges refused to award them first prize - out of pride or something, or as hans put it, because they were not “conventional enough” - so instead they received the honorable mention, or “Honor Prize.” In Dutch the Honor Prize is De Ereprijs. and as if that wasn’t an awesome enough justification for a group name, Ereprijs is also apparently a kind of blue weed that will grow in any conditions whatsoever, will push up from one little bit of soil through feet of cement. so i am now a huge fan of this group. and best of all, they clearly could care less about the scene: it’s clear that they play music because they love to do it.

no one ever said berlin was known for its japanese food.

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:01:42 -0400

no one ever said berlin was known for its japanese food.

i am in berlin. i’m staying here with my friend dan vezza...

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:02:06 -0400

i am in berlin.

i’m staying here with my friend dan vezza for a week before heading to the gaudeamus festival in amsterdam. it’s perfect weather here right now - 80 degrees and sunny - and i can’t wait to sleep this jet lag away and hit the beer and donor kabobs….

katrina ballads broadcast on WRIU tomorrow

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:37:34 -0400

katrina ballads broadcast on WRIU tomorrow:

if you get a chance, listen in to a broadcast of Katrina Ballads, in full, tomorrow at 11am. based out of providence, justin brierley has been playing a lot of young composers’ stuff on his show “music for internets” up at WRIU.

the nine eyes

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:29:32 -0400

the nine eyes

Timberbrit story on All Things Considered

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:29:27 -0400

Timberbrit story on All Things Considered:

mellissa and i are interviewed on this story from NPR’s All Things Considered, which aired today. the link also has great pictures of Mel looking hot at a photo shoot.

i am deep in trumpet land, working on a piece for chris coletti...

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:02:32 -0400

i am deep in trumpet land, working on a piece for chris coletti and the huntsville symphony orchestra. i guess you could call it a concerto. (which seems weird). i’m really excited about this, and chris is one of the best musicians i’ve ever met, but it’s been hard to get going on this one. i’ve been listening to a lot of peter evans, though. this guy is a monster. this album “more is more” is blowing my mind. he has cultivated some confounding combination of buzzing and double-buzzing and singing and spitting and crackling and sliding and lipping that makes a universe out of one trumpet. (i know the first part of that sentence makes me sound like i’m getting all TMI about some illicit experience you would just assume not know about, but those are all real trumpet terms, right?)

this is “Ritual”- from More is More - Peter Evans

ethan and tim at the stone

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:22:30 -0400

my friend taylor always inadvertently refers to the musicians he loves by their first names. i love that - it’s like once he feels where they’re coming from, that’s an intimate enough experience to be on a first-name basis.

i went with nathan and dan vezza (thankfully back from germany for a few months) to see ethan iverson and tim berne at the stone tonight. of course that’s always an intimate space, but for this show it was especially so. the ensemble seemed almost embryonic; i know the two of them have played together publically many many times, but i imagine most if not all of those performances have been in the context of trios or quartets. this felt exposed, careful, fragile… sometimes i wasn’t entirely convinced - sometimes their improvisations stopped breathing for a while, sometimes the two would jump to the written page and fall into a staid reading of the head.

but it was clear we were watching an energy just beginning to form, and i felt lucky to be there to hear it. here are two heady-ass musicians, not only creating complex musical constructions but using them as a runway from which to embark into various states of improvisation. some of these tunes sounded almost like hindemith, rigid and thorny, only more mathy and (thankfully) with weirder bass lines. the project of using tunes like these to experiment with elasticity, falling in and out of time and togetherness, seems like it would be made even more difficult with only two performers. (as nathan pointed out, there’s almost nowhere to hide in this texture.)

but this duo could be, and hopefully it wil be, gripping and mesmerizing, and i know this because at times the music really took off, and occasionally tim and ethan found the perfect place to hide, and then all of a sudden the timbral obstacles fell away. it was heartening to see these two badasses searching for a new sound and honoring the process.

hard work, worth it

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:10:03 -0400

In the midst of our first tour, Your Bad Self just played a show at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia. we had a full house and really supportive audience - and whoa, we totally need a manager. or at least a roadie. (many many public props to nathan and ron for lugging all their gear everywhere and then setting it up.) every time i think i’m not a logistical mess i realize that oh wait - actually i am. but that’s ok, i love playing with these people and we’re having a great time.

we have a show Sunday at 9pm at the Pour House in Charleston, and on Monday at 9pm at Bobo Gallery in Asheville.

YOUR BAD SELF at the Bang on a Can Marathon this Sunday after a...

Wed, 27 May 2009 12:40:54 -0400

YOUR BAD SELF at the Bang on a Can Marathon this Sunday

after a frenetic month of finally finishing school FOREVER, i’m gearing up for a little tour with Your Bad Self - hopefully the first of many. We’ll be hitting Charleston, SC; Columbia, SC; and Asheville, NC next weekend. But first, we are stoked to be playing at the famed Bang on a Can Marathon, this Sunday, at the World Financial Center Winter Garden. We’ll be rocking a short but intense set at 2:45pm, just following Bill Frisell (!)

more soon…..

Red Light at Kennedy Center tonight

Tue, 05 May 2009 14:34:35 -0400

first, it must be noted that i am making this post from a bus with free wifi! ladies and gentlemen, a BUS. with WIRELESS INTERNET. woot.

also i should say that i have completed the MMA program and am officially done with classes for the rest of my life.

also i will mention that i am on a bus because i have just arrived in washington, DC because tonight i will be conducting the Red Light Ensemble in a performance at the Kennedy Center, and YOU - yes you - can watch this performance thanks to the very same internet that is bringing you this post, because it will be streaming online at the Kennedy Center’s website.

that will be at 6pm eastern time. we’ll be playing grisey’s VORTEX TEMPORUM as well as pieces by scott wollschleger, chris cerrone, vince raikhel and liam robinson.

The Third Coast (is actually freezing even though it is well into the month of April)

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:35:33 -0400

i’m home! living it up in chicago, and true to form it’s 31 degrees and raining/snowing and the wind is blowing my face off - but it feels right somehow. i treated myself to a nice car and have been cruising around hanging with my old friends, meeting new babies, catching up with the moms, etc…

what brings me to the chi? it’s THIRD COAST PERCUSSION. colleague and friend david skidmore’s group has commissioned and is premiering my new piece THAW at a concert this tuesday at the ever-hip chopin theater. this piece uses three glockenspiels for nearly all its pitched material, and getting the music to move exactly how i want has proven to be really difficult. in fact, i’m still tweaking things. but third coast has tackled it and they all sound great, so i’m really excited for the show. i’ll also be performing the narration part on Rweski’s Coming Together - although this piece is a classic in new music circles, it’s the first time i’ve done this part and it is thrilling.

also on the program is a high-octane performance of Andriessen’s Workers Union (featuring Clay Condon hammering away at a disembodied piano, pictured below), Rweski’s To The Earth and David T. Little’s Speak Softly, an aggressive and muscular work for big sticks, which the dudes play while kneeling (also pictured).

if you’re in chicago, you should definitely come out to this show. my mom will be there. here’s the info:

THIRD COAST PERCUSSION
Tuesday, April 7 at 7:30pm
Chopin Theater
1543 W. Division Ave.
advance tickets here