There is no harmonic goal in Scriabin's 9th piano sonata ( Read more... )

This is some commentary on the violent paradigm of music to which I consider myself, more than aligned with...I would say inextricably married to.

http://militantesthetix.co.uk/polemix/violence.html

There is no way I could, in a single effort, list the most brilliant or important musical works of all time so this is but one installment of suggested listening and/or supplemental music history ( Read more... )

Jeffrey Emmett Hayes III called me yesterday to inform me that he and I are on the back of the Manowar - Hell on Earth III DVD.

Due to a prior engagement of Ian's, the program order on Saturday has been changed. My piano sonata is being played FIRST. That means you need to arrive BEFORE 7:30 if you intend to hear it. Once again, the info is as follows ( Read more... )

New Music Concert

Saturday April 24th 7:30PM @ St. Clement's Shrine - 1105 Boylston

This is a FREE event open to the public.
I am headlining this concert. Ian Schugel will be playing my piano sonata. Those who have played the work have said that it sounds very Russian (surprise, right?) in the vein of Shostakovich and Stravinsky (shocking, eh ( Read more... )

Me: You remind me of myself at your age ( Read more... )

On Tuesday, I went to NEC to see the Borromeo String Quartet perform Ligeti's 1st String Quartet. The way these early evening concerts are setup is that they say something about the piece, play it, talk about it at some length and then play it again. They said that once when they played it, a student in the audience had been writing a paper on it ( Read more... )

So, as some of you may know, I study with Yakov Gubanov who was one of Shostakovich's last students. The more astute (or obsessed) of you will know that Shostakovich is one of my heros. Well, today Yakov told a story about how when he was at conservatory in Russia one of his professors, whose name is too long to be recounted and thus was ( Read more... )