nEWS

www.patrickgrant.com

nEWS
01 JUL 09

July Performances in Rio de Janeiro & the São Paulo Region

23 JUN 09

New Blog Coming Soon...The MMiXdown

More iNFO TBA

17 JUN 09

Review of JOE'S PUB Performance & Screening

Photo credit: Jocelyn Gonzales. More photos HERE

Playing “Tag” With Adriana Kaegi and Her Coconuts
By Carol Cooper

Last night at Joe’s Pub in lower Manhattan I witnessed a quintessential
Downtown event: the simultaneous launch of a sultry caberet-rock album and a
feature-length video memoir. It was D.I.Y. multimedia at its finest! First,
Adriana Kaegi, co-founder (with August Darnell and “Sugar Coated” Andy Hernandez)
of Kid Creole and the Coconuts draped her curvy blonde frame in a spectacular
white and chocolate gown to perform excerpts from *Tag*, her brand new I-Tunes
release...

...On *Tag* information-age club rhythms in Latin, funk, and pop-jazz flavors
slide underneath Kaegi’s silky contralto as she makes wry observations about
financial anxiety, sex, rebellious trust-fund kids, sex, downsized career
expectations in career or romance, and well, sex. If David Bowie had been born Swiss and
female he might have made an album like this in 2009. In many ways *Tag* is the
perfect cool segue from overheated Kid Creole flashbacks…which is probably just
what Adriana and co-producer Patrick Grant had in mind.

Read the full review HERE

04 JUN 09

Happy Birthday, Judith Malina

Founded in 1947 as an imaginative alternative to the commercial theater by Judith Malina, the German-born student of Erwin Piscator, and Julian Beck, an abstract expressionist painter of the New York School, The Living Theatre has staged nearly a hundred productions performed in eight languages in 28 countries on five continents - a unique body of work that has influenced theater, and the arts in general, the world over.

in pre-production
RED NOIR
based on the writings of Anne Waldmann

adapted & directed by Judith Malina
original music by Patrick Grant
asst. director Brad Burgess

Opening Autumn 2009
More iNFO TBA

25 MAY 09

COMPLEXO SISTEMA Chosen as One of Two Works to Represent Brazil at the 2009 FESTLIP
(Theater Festival of the Portuguese Language) in Rio de Janeiro

COMPLEXO SISTEMA de Enfraquecimento da Sensibilidade
Concepção, texto e direção RUY FILHO
Música original PATRICK GRANT
com DIEGO TORRACA, GUILHERME GORSKI, GABRIELA ROSAS, GIULIANA ROCHA, RAIANNI TEICHMANN e TIAGO TORRACA
Cenografia e iluminação e operações de som e luz RUY FILHO
Figurinos JUNIA PAIVA
Preparação de ator GUSTAVO SOL
Preparação de ator convidado ALEXANDRE CAETANO
Fotografias e Design Gráfico PATRÌCIA CIVIDANES
Fotógrafo convidado FRED MESQUITA
Registro em DVD e edição final THIAGO DE MELLO
Produção CIA. DE TEATRO ANTRO EXPOSTO
Realização CIA. DE TEATRO ANTRO EXPOSTO E CENTRO CULTURAL RIO VERDE

More iNFO TBA or check out the Cia. Antro Exposto blog HERE

17 MAY 09

"NEITHER" performed by the Center for Contemporary Opera 5/13

The Center for Contemporary Opera performed "Neither," an opera by Morton Feldman with words by Samuel Beckett at The Cell Theater on May 13 and 14.
Kiera Duffy was the soprano soloist and Roman Maria Mueller was the stage actor. Video projections were created by David Haneke.
Thomas Desi was the stage director and Patrick Grant was the music director with the assistance of Michael Pilafian on piano.
Here are some vidcaps from video taken by Jocelyn Gonzales.

Roman Maria Mueller on the stage.

Soprano soloist Kiera Duffy behind the scrim.

Pianist Michael Pilafian to the right.

Video projections by David Haneke.

Composed by Morton Feldman in 1977.

Barley visible amidst the glow of lap top screen and clip light is Patrick Grant to the left.

The work will go on to be performed at the Wien Modern Festival in Vienna in Nov. 2009.

Words by Samuel Beckett.

Music Director/Performer Patrick Grant, Stage Director Thomas Desi and soprano Kiera Duffy.

24 APR 09

ONE-TWO-THREE-GO! New Music Series - Video Trailer

Theaterlab presents ONE-TWO-THREE-GO!, a six concert new music series curated by Patrick Grant that took place from March-May 2006.

This third version of Grant's series featured Kathleen Supove & Randall Woolf, Meredith Borden & Jon Catler, Todd Reynolds & Luke DuBois, David Simons & Lisa Karrer, Margaret Lancaster, and the Patrick Grant Group with astronomer Charles Liu.

All photos and audio by Jocelyn Gonzales except the May 21 concert which was: photos by Andrew Marks, audio by Erick Gonzales, and audio post by Jocelyn Gonzales. This video edited by Patrick Grant 2009.

21 APR 09

Music Direction & Score Realization of the Morton Feldman/Samuel Beckett Opera NEITHER

The Center for Contemporary Opera (CCO) in NYC has chosen Patrick Grant as the music director for their May 13 & 14 production of the Morton Feldman opera for solo soprano "Neither" with a libretto by Samuel Beckett. In a special arrangement with Feldman's publisher Universal Edition set up by CCO's artistic director Eric Salzman, Grant will be creating a realization of the original orchestration. Although the work has been performed many times in concert, this will be the first time it will be staged. This world premiere opera will be directed by Thomas Desi of ZOON Music Theater with Kiera Duffy as the soprano soloist. Grant will be joined by the renowned Michael Pilafian on piano. This work will continue on to the Wien Modern Festival later this year.

the cell
338 W 23rd St
New York, NY 10011
Tel: (347) 265-8943

More details can be found on CCO's web site HERE.

17 APR 09

String Orchestra Music Video Featured on Make Music New York Web Site

Make Music New York, the annual city-wide event held the first day of summer, is gearing up for their 2009 edition with a whole new slew of sponsors jumping on, quite literally, the bandwagon. As part of their promo they have posted photos and video from last summer's event. Included there is SONYC (String Orchestra of New York) performing Patrick Grant's piece "Children at War" as part of the contibution that ComposersCollaborative Inc. made that day on a sealed off Cornelia Street in the West Village.

Check out Make Music NY's web site HERE or see the video directly on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqxXYuja2Fs

05 APR 09

Introducing the "Eureka!" Video at the Edwin Booth Awards at the CUNY Graduate Center

video credit: Jocelyn Gonzales

The Edwin Booth Award as given to the Living Theatre at the CUNY Graudate Center in NYC for continued excellence in the creation of innovative theatrical works on March 25, 2009. Patrick Grant gives an introduction to a video screening of excerpts from the LT's 2008 production of "Eureka!" and speaks on the use of interactive music in theater.

04 APR 09

A Commission to Write 5 Miniatures for the Turtle Bay Music School's Orff Instrumentarium

The Turtle Bay Music School in NYC, under the direction of instructor Patti Onorato, has commissioned PG to create five miniatures for their Orff Instrumentarium to perform. No doubt that previous years of gamelan experience will come into play...

03 APR 09

"As Bacantes" DVD Premiere Screening on April 2nd in NYC with Ze Celso & Gerald Thomas at Theaterlab

UPDATE: O Globo Article, April 9th

Top: "As Bacantes" DVD Artwork
Middle: Ze Celso & gerald Thomas after-screening Q & A
Bottom: Gerald Thomas, Ze Celso, Patrick Grant

Theaterlab Q&A - Part 1

Theaterlab Q&A - Part 2

http://www.patrickgrant.com/asbacantes2009.html

Teatro Oficina's blog entry on the event HERE
Gerald Thomas' blog entry on the event HERE

21 MAR 09

Video, Photos & Review from Curitiba: COMPLEXO SISTEMA

CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW

fotos by Patricia Cividanes

More iNFO at: http://antroparticular.blogspot.com/

09 MAR 09

Curitiba Festival Blog Now Online - "Sonoplasta"?

http://festivaldecuritiba.blogspot.com/2009/03/sonoplasta-americano-assina-trilha.html

http://festivaldecuritiba.blogspot.com/

01 MAR 09

Adriana Releases Her New Album "TAG" on March 10th

Adriana will release her new album TAG into cyberspace on March 10th. The music, written and sung by Adriana, could be described as upscale downtempo for the recently unemployed. The album is co-produced by Patrick Grant.

Adriana Kaegi - co-founder, choreographer, and costume designer of the legendary band Kid Creole and the Coconuts (Island Records). Her contributions helped them land the British Music Award for Best International Live Act and appearances on The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, in the movie Against All Odds, the 1989 Presidential Inauguration, a benefit hosted by Princess Diana, the 40th anniversary of the United Nations, and much more. Adriana has also recorded with U2, Miguel Bose, Tawa Tai, Vodka Collins and created the all girl band Boomerang (Atlantic Records) before singing her own music in Paris, New York and Los Angeles.

More info TBA

15 FEB 09

Two Theater Works to be Featured at the Festival de Curitiba in Brazil, March 17-29

March 19-21 - Cia. Antro Exposto - written & directed by Ruy Filho

March 25 & 26 - Cia. dos Atores - written & directed by Gerald Thomas

Full PDF program information HERE

30 JAN 09

Philip GLASS on Gerald THOMAS

Philip Glass speaks about playwright, director and long time collaborator Gerald Thomas. Interview conducted January 2009 by Patrick Grant in New York City.

23 JAN 09

NEW REVIEW of COMPLEXO SISTEMA by ALBERTO GUZIK

“COMPLEXO SISTEMA de Enfraquecimento da Sensibilidade” ...sets up a very interesting interplay between the fragmentary, unwoven, and apocalyptic script of Ruy Filho and the magnificently composed musical score by the North American artist Patrick Grant, who came especially to Brazil to realize this work. A top artist of the USA, author of soundtracks for film and theater, composer of music for the spectacles of Gerald Thomas and many others, it’s absurd that Grant was stupidly ignored by the press during his trip to Brazil to make this sonorous score of “Complexo Sistema.” This is the face of the local press. That’s what we’ve come to!

Grant’s work is stupendous and is already known by its contribution to (Thomas’)...“Queen Liar.” In “Complexo Sistema” it establishes an uninterrupted dialogue of words and action, taking the risky games that Ruy Filho’s actors face to extreme intensities. With the dialogue between the music and sound design of Grant on one hand, and the parade of repressive and violent situations conceived by Ruy on the other, the piece could not be stronger. Here, text and soundtrack combine as a unified and inseparable whole in service of the storytelling. The result is powerful.

Alberto Guzik, theater critic
São Paulo, January 23, 2009
Portuguese original at http://os.dias.e.as.horas.zip.net/

Complexo Sistema Opens in it's 2nd Engagement in São Paulo, JAN 21-MAR 26

Graphics by Patricia Cividanes

More iNFO at eVENTS

1 JAN 09
hAPPY nEW yEAR!

Rio Wrap Up

The view from the terrace at the Casa de Cultura Laura Alvim on a rainy day (?) in Ipanema

Intro:
What a sTRANGE month it has been. I had barely just returned from three weeks São Paulo in early November and found myself bound for Rio de Janeiro in early December. The seeds for this particular trip were planted while still in SP when Gerald Thomas introduced me via email to the genial Gustavo Ariani, director of the drama school CAL – Casa das Artes de Laranjeiras in Rio. Gustavo had just brought down to Rio Judith Malina, of the Living Theatre, to accept an award given by the Brazilian government and to give workshops at his school. Gerald said that I should propose my workshop in Theatre Sound Design & Composition to Gustavo for early January which got the whole ball rolling.

I soon found out that nothing that is in the arts in Brazil has a single sponsor. They often have many sponsors. Many many. To make this new trip possible, Gerald also wanted to have me on board as the composer for his new piece Bate Man which was scheduled to premiere on December 12th and that threw another sponsor into the mix. In addition, Gustavo hooked me up with the 9th annual riocenacontemporanea festival to give a concert on Ipanema Beach no less. So, these three possibilities of work in Rio became immediate. Two NYC projects that I had been counting on upon my return from SP had fallen through/been postponed due to the recent "economic downturn." That meant if any $ were to be made in December, it'd have to be made in Brazil. In turn, I'd have to move a mixing project and my work on MC Larry Trevelyn's Apeirophobia into January and get myself together for three heavy-duty weeks of cranking out some new music.

SESC - Copacabana: all that and no internet...

Arriving in Rio on a Saturday morning, Gustavo picked me up at Rio's airport and the next thing I knew I was having a coconut water with him on Ipanema Beach looking at the Casa de Cultura Laura Alvim (photo below) where I'd be giving my concert in nine days. Then I checked into what would be my home during the stay, the internet-less SESC - Copacabana. I'm still not exactly sure what a SESC is because they themselves are made up of so many sponsors (and was relieved to find out that most Brazilians weren't exactly sure either) but they are all around Brazil, the bigger cities having more than one, housing offices, spaces for workshops and events, are party hotels, and in my case, are home to a number of theaters on the lower levels. So, I was staying in a room nine floors about the theater in which Bate Man was to be rehearsed and premiered. I was one block away from Copacabana beach at and all of the touristy lojas (shops) that one would expect to find.

From the riocenacontemporanea web site: http://www.riocenacontemporanea.com.br

Week 1:
This would be a very heavy week by anyone's standards and almost 90% involved with the creation of the Bate Man score. After checking into SESC, unpacking and having a shower, Gustavo picked me up and we went to Gerald's hotel to get him. He had arrived there two days before and had already adjusted to the 3-hour-ahead time difference. From there we went to the space of the Cia. dos Atores, the group which had commissioned the piece, a monologue, for one of their actors, Marcelo Olinto. The company was celebrating its 20th anniversary and to do so they created a program called Auto-Pecas, a series of one-person pieces for all of their lead actors. Their rehearsal space/theater is in the neighborhood of Lapa, a little bit up on the colorful hand-tiled folk-art steps that lead to Santa Teresa. We would rehearse here for two nights before moving into the Teatro de Arena at SESC - Copacabana on Monday.

The front of the card that Cia. dos Atores had made for Bate Man

So here I was, without sleep (the plane was impossible) on my first night and first rehearsal in Rio. Coming into the Cia. Dos Atores' space I just said hello to everybody knowing full well that I was in no condition to remember anybody’s name and began setting up. Based upon my recent work on the road I had been relying on my Macbook Pro powering Ableton LIVE 7, Reason 4.0, and Pro-Tools. I also had two external drives with me containing all of my sound FX libraries and just about my complete catalog of recorded music. A 4-octave M-Audio USB MIDI keyboard completed the picture.

There at the soundboard, I met Rodrigo Marçal, who along with Lucas Marcier (whom I’d meet later), were the regular composer/producers of the company. I was relieved to see that Rodrigo had an almost similar set up to mine, meaning, that if any technical concerns were to come up that I had two talented guys close by that spoke my language (literally and figuratively) and that there’d be technical back-up if needed.

All that existed of the score at this point was a temp cue that Gerald suggested from the James Bond film Goldeneye which he had seen recently on cable (and of which I had found on torrent and ripped the DVD audio from) and five tracks of electric guitar solos that he had recorded the day before over some Led Zeppelin beats with Rodrigo. Both Gerald and I had been using electric guitar in our recent work (he in Kepler, the Dog and I in Eureka! and Complexo Sistema) so it was a natural meeting of minds at the timbral level to continue to do so in this piece. Rodrigo had put them into Logic Studio 8 and he told me which of the tracks was the preferred one but I was too tired to remember. I could see that the rehearsal was going to be a baptism by fire.

Gerald had so many concerns with the actor Olinto he thankfully let me do my own thing. I have so much experience following actors with improvisation, I jumped right in as they were already doing run-throughs-with-stops of the piece. I didn’t worry about melodies and harmonies at this point, as I often don’t, and concentrated on the structure and the feel of the piece, trying to find the natural breaks in the text that weren’t immediately apparent. As I did this, Gerald followed Olinto around the space directing him with one hand while the other hand was reserved for me, raising it up and down like a conductor, cueing when to start, when to stop, when to crescendo and diminuendo. This method always works great and Gerald does it very well.

I learned the piece quickly, the structure of it that is. The language barrier of the Portuguese still had me guessing at the exactness of the beginnings and ends of the cues but that would come later since I like working from the macro to the micro when I'm working this quickly. Rehearsal ended in a blur as I was really tired now and I could only hope that my reptilian brain was able to absorb and retain as much of what had happened as possible. Rodrigo burned me the electric guitar solos as a Logic session right onto my key drive, I packed up, and Olinto’s physical trainer, an incredibly nice yoga instructor named Daniela Visco drove me back to SESC – Copacabana where I fell into a deep, deep sleep. Dani Visco was to become my friend and even lent me a yoga mat to during my stay so I could do my morning routine and to help me prevent any ossification of my body from taking place while sitting at my desk putting this and the other shows together.

The next day set the rhythm upon which I was to exist for almost the entire stay in Rio: 1. Get up for the 7 AM breakfast 2. Check my email at the internet café around the corner 3. Create and record the new tracks for the day 4. Go to rehearsal 5. Get back to my room, edit a few things based on how the rehearsal went 6. Go to sleep and repeat the same routine the next day and the next day and the next day 7. Rinse, lather, repeat.

I couldn’t remember which of the electric guitar solos Gerald had recorded that was the one that Rodrigo had been using so, I decided to use them all simultaneously, panned across the stereo field. I liked its feel and better yet, the idea of it. Since the show opens with the character of Bate Man being tortured, I added in some whips from the BBC Sound FX library that I had edited together. That became the first real temp track that I made there and it worked well in rehearsal though I’d re-record my originall version of it in a day or two later once I roughed out some more sections.

The next rehearsal was a repeat of the night before except that I made sure that the ever-present videographers did a special taping of the run-through for me to take back, convert to a Quicktime movie, and use as a reference during the next few days as I worked alone in the hotel room. When one is working this quickly, I had learned from Eureka! and Complexo Sistema that this is the way to go. Rehearsals are rehearsals but it is the time spent between them that I do my real work and these videos are so helpful for the timing of each scene and how I can pace the musical elements, transitions, harmonic and rhythmic movement and such.

I’m also lucky that Gerald trusted my process. The lesser talents that I’ve sometimes worked with get nervous and panic because they can only hear what they hear. The bigger ones have the intuitive inner ear that fills in the blanks where the notes will eventually go, the ones that I hear in my head while I’ve got bigger fish to fry like the structure of the piece and the other smaller frameworks upon which they’ll ultimately find place. Consider also how much Gerald and I know each other as people, how we think and what we know we already like and that in itself cuts down on so much talk. When it comes to music, I’ve met a lot of collaborators who can overtalk their needs before a single note is even played whereas it’s always quicker and more fun to try out a string of ideas, keep the ones that work, reject the ones that don’t (no big deal), and keep moving forward.

By now we had moved the operation in the theater at SESC. So many new faces, I didn’t know who was who. It seemed that everybody I met was a “producer,” everybody, that is, who didn’t have something concrete to do that I understood as being theater. Many sponsors meant many producers I soon figured out. Still, the concrete things did get done. Lights were going up care of Gerald’s long time collaborator, the ever-so-smooth Caetano Vilela, the set was being built with the help of the technicians from the Cia. Dos Atores, and I was working away during the day nine floors above.

That last factor took the edge off my set up time and let me often, very often, work right up until the minute that I had to go downstairs. A few times I even came down in the elevator (no doubt one of the slowest I’ve ever had the displeasure to know) with my laptop in hand, it bouncing down tracks on battery power, its screen still in the upright position. A little hectic to be sure but, at this pace, every minute counted.

Rodrigo and Lucas were kind enough to let me borrow one of their studio’s guitars during my stay, a Brazilian Giannini, a copy of a Les Paul SG that did the trick. More and more the main music of Bate Man was becoming a multi-tracked ensemble of electric guitars playing over western classical instruments and rhythmic synthesizer textures. I decided to keep any percussion to a bare minimum so that the instrumental parts themselves would have to be created and played in a percussive way to compensate. Plus, it would keep the score from sounding too much like popular music and more as the post-modern take on it (as a sonic semiotic) that it was intended to be.

The sound demanded sub-woofer speakers and man, did I have to fight for them. I finally got them (with Gerald’s insistence) and whoa, the music was sounding good thanks to the Cia.’s sound tech Ricardo. Detroit was in the house and rock 'n' roll (or what was passing for it) was in the air. With two days to go at this point, the score was shaping up, I looked a bit ragged but had a smile because it was all coming together. And, I always like to save my "victory shaves" for opening nights.

Now, it must be said that there was a whole lot of peripheral inter-personal stuff going on while I was keeping to my production schedule with my daily trips to the juice stand for my beloved açai na tijela com banana batida or the glorious food-by-weight rodizios as my only change of scenery. Gerald was having grave problems with the production company (or companies as it seems to go down there) as well as getting the actor Olinto where he wanted him performance-wise. Oh yeah, there was fireworks going off but I was so grateful that what I had to do was clear and that I knew what it’d take to do it and I didn’t step off that path into any of that mess. In fact, Gerald’s and my work relationship was just great and if anything was brought away from this experience it was the inspiration for what we wanted to do in our future work. That in itself could not have been a better result than anything we could have hoped for over any short term success.

At this point, I will leave any further detail of the score’s creation to the notes I have written to the future operators of the music & sound of Bate Man in a document that can be found HERE.

Opening night came. It was a very full house. Gerald heckled the audience and the producers before the show. I loved it. I ran the sound and would continue to do so for the entire run here in Rio. This was because it is not an easy show to run and because it’s not a show that can be played on CD alpne. It’s done in LIVE 7 so it, and like all of my recent shows, requires not only a DJ’s technique and a musician’s sense of timing but also a very sensitive ear that relies upon years of theater experience and the mixing of music on-the-fly with live dialogue. It was all I could do to put it together in the timeframe given, and it was hard for me to imagine me teaching it to someone while I was still refining it and bringing in better mixes each performance. Even after opening night it would evolve.

But the real reason why I ran all the shows is that, even after all these years, I really love doing it, especially now that the technology is as interactive as it is and that it keeps me just as much a performer as anybody out there on the stage.

Afterwards, Gustavo Ariani, his friend Raphaelo (a German ex-patriate with interesting ideas on creating a foundation to preserve theater music), and Gustavo’s daughter all dragged my tired ass out to Lapa to celebrate after the show. I was so exhausted after maling this deadline. What had seemed like a bad idea to me at first quickly turned great in the lively streets of a Friday night and more especially in the chill environment of Nova Capela, Lapa's oldest restaurant at 105 years old, where my attitude was quickly adjusted by the best fried chicken with garlic that I’ve had since I could remember along with some bolas de aipim, fried balls of mashed yucca stuffed with cured and dried meat which I dipped in hot pepper oil. Caramba! The best meal I’ve had in six days, since Gerald had taken me out to Gero, Rio’s best Italian restaurant, the Sunday before. Two memorable meals which culinarily bookended all of the work described above.

Not bad for being here less than a week.

Marcelo Olinto in Bate Man. Photos taken from video

Week 2:
Part 1 - The Concert at the Casa de Cultura Laura Alvim
In order to describe the second week in Rio (my weeks there beginning on Saturdays) I’ll have to backtrack to NYC and the days before I left for Brazil.

One of the sponsors of my trip was the riocenacontemporanea festival. This was to be their 9th annual festival and due to organizational changes earlier in the year, it seemed amazing that they were able to have it at all. One of the three people behind this rebooted festival was César Augusto, also one of the actors and founders of the Cia. dos Atores. What a great man he is for helping to set this up for me (not to mention the entire festival) It was to take place on Friday through Sunday, December 12th to 14th. I had met him only in passing and through email the week of creating the Bate Man score, but I was to get to know him better later in my stay.

The festival was taking place at the Casa de Cultura Laura Alvim, a landmark-status private-residence turned cultural institution that is nestled between the high-rise apartments directly across the strip that bordered Ipanema Beach. The team here was responsible for hiring the visual artists that created all of the fine visuals that were used to promote the festival, my concert, and the workshops I was to give at SESC. I found out later that these graphics people, RADIOGRÁFICO, shared a building that houses ARPX, the studios of Rodrigo Marçal and Lucas Marcier, just another example of how all artists are interconnected and rely on each other everywhere.

The Casa de Cultura Laura Alvim on Av. Vieiro Souto in Ipanema

In NYC in the days leading up to my departure, and indeed up to the very morning of my flight, I was opening up and saving every sound file of mine possible that could be usable in my concert. Normally, my music is written for ensemble and this concert at the Casa Laura Alvim was an opportunity for me to augment my solo repertoire, in this case, as a DJ style performance using clips and instrumental tracks from my catalog with some live keyboard thrown in. Knowing that the first week would be as tight as it was with Bate Man, I was wise to get all of this done before I left.

However, I didn’t want to nail down exactly what I was going to perform until I had spent some time in Rio where I could get a sense of the scene and decide what would be the appropriate show to do. That meant that I truly had to bring everything possible that I could cram onto my external drives. Much of it did not get used but hey, you never know. Much of that prep work also included extracting bass lines and drum tracks from mixes, isolating string parts, horn lines, etc. because as the technology currently stands, I’m free to make real time mash ups using elements from any number of pieces thereby creating brand new works right in front of the public's eyes, or ears in this case.

One of the many promotional items made for the festival

So, fast forwarding to the present, this brings us back to the the Friday night opening of Bate Man and the after show mini-celebration in Lapa at Nova Capela. We did make one stop that night before going there and that was to the Casa Laura Alvim to catch the very end of the riocenacontemporanea opening night party. There I was able to properly meet the event organizers, César Augusto whom I’ve mentioned, Bia Junqueira, and Márcia Dias. Also it gave me an opportunity to see the space at which I was to perform in less than 48 hours time. Unfortunately the balcony was closed for the evening, it was late, but it was important to meet and thank the people who got me there. Then it was onto Lapa as described above.

César Augusto, Bia Junqueira, and Márcia Dias

Saturday morning arrived and, after my usual breakfast and email check, I was back in my room putting things together. It was a rainy day and perfect for that kind of work. It’s always a drag to work during the day when it’s outrageously gorgeous outside. Little did I know that this was just the tip of the meteorological iceberg for the days ahead.

Having a sense now of what I’d like to do, I began putting together the elements of my solo show in performance order. I also had the new music from Bate Man that I could incorporate as well as some music from Complexo Sistema. I figured that it would be good to include as much of the new music that I had created in Brazil itself as part of the show alongside some “greatest hits” and other tracks that would be perfect for the time and space. The day flew by, there’s never enough time, and soon enough I had to switch modes and get ready for that night’s performance of Bate Man in the theater downstairs.

I did some remixes of a few sections (I was to spend the entire run of the show tweaking little bits here and there throughout my stay, that’s how I do it) and ran the show. It was another good performance that began once again with Gerald poking fun at, and with, the audience. Good stuff. It was also to be the last performance that he would see in Rio. He was scheduled to fly to Sâo Paulo the next night and to stay a day and continue onto NYC, after my concert and after a showing and discussion of the video to his Blognovela: Kepler, the Dog, also at Casa Laura Alvim and as one of the closing events of the riocenacontemporanea.

I’ve been doing this kind of balls-to-the-wall, deadline-making music creation for so long now that I know how to pace my energy level and adjust my schedule accordingly to hit the mark and, this situation, the whole Rio trip in fact, was no exception. After the Bate Man performance, I declined the after-show dinner (I do regret missing this one with Gerald and César, but I had to), and went straight back to my room with a thermos of coffee that I swiped from the green room. I set my cell phone alarm clock to 3 AM and went straight to sleep, not hard to do since I was pretty tired. When the alarm went off, I got up, poured some coffee, fired up my two laptops )I had also brought a Sony Vaio for audio editing) and finishing the tracks and placing them into a LIVE 7 session that I'd run the show from.

I could hear it raining outside. Hard.

From the O Globo - Rio Show weekend magazine, Dec. 12, 2008. Of all the photos I send out, everyone seems to prefer this "Sonic Hedgehog" pic that Andrew Marks took.

I finished just before 12 noon, took a shower, packed up to be ready for Gustavo when he picked me up at 1:30. I was a little ragged, sure, but I was in high spirits and excited about the show. The only drag was that it was still raining. Hmmm. Not the best thing for a beachside gig. Hopefully it would clear up?

At the Casa Laura Alvim, the riocenacontemporanea festival was in full swing and we went upstairs to begin setting up on the balcony. They had good technicians and a really great sound system. I set up my equipment and saw that I would be listening to myself through two monitors set up on the balcony next to me. Downstairs, the system ran to two sets of speakers and sub-woofers that were worthy of any outdoor concert I ever attended. Man, they were HUGE and had a sound to match. BUT, the rain was still coming down and showed no sign of letting up. Sure, there were some beach creatures out there but definitely not the crowd that would normally be therw and not the crowd that the excellent press the event received in O Globo would be expected to attract. Professional that I am, I had no choice but to keep moving ahead and prepare for a killer concert nonetheless.

Meeting up with us on the balcony was Adriana Figueirdo, a filmmaker who lives in Rio. I met Adriana on Nov. 9th in NYC at the Living Theatre. I had just flown in that morning from Sâo Paulo having finished my work there on Complexo Sistema, the piece by Ruy Filho that I scored. It was the last performance of Eureka! and I wanted to be there at that show to take my bow with Judith Malina. Adriana had videotaped Judith’s recent workshop at Gustavo’s theater school CAL that I mentioned above a few weeks before. I was introduced to her by longtime LT member Ilion Troya, himself a Brazilian from SP and living in NYC for some decades now. We hit it off and before she returned to Rio, she stopped by my apartment with Ilion and taped an hour of me discussing the music to Eureka! and showing the techniques that I used in its performance on the equipment in my studio. How good that was to have somebody so curious about that aspect of the work. Not too many people do. I think that most folks take music for granted these days since we have had recorded media for the last 100+ years and that it sometimes diminishes their realization that this music is indeed original and is created for a specific theatrical purpose.

On the balcony with Adriana in the background

During that interview/demonstration I had stressed how much of the music I love and perform is music of ceremony. Whether it’s Bach cantatas, music in art galleries, Balinese gamelan, the communal effect of sitting in a cinema, the ritualized stage of theater pircr, or just a concert on a balcony on the beach in Ipanema, it’s all a form of ceremony to me and that is the sense in which I approach performance.

So here we were, reunited once again on that balcony on one of the rainiest days in Rio’s recent memory. I was so glad to have Adriana there videotaping the event. Not just for archival purposes but so that I could analyze what I did after the fact. People who know me will testify that I am a lousy picture taker. Not that I take bad pictures but that I just just don’t do it very often especially when I’m performing or am part of an event. It is too hard for me to be objective and subjective at the same time! Anyway, I wanted to get that footage because while I’m improvising and putting a show together in real time (a great aspect of how these shows can be technologically set up), I can see what worked, what could be improved etc. for my future shows. It’s all a process and this is but one part of an evolving presentation that I give.

SO, it got to be show time. Being that one of the sub-sponsors of the event was Red Bull, I bolted down two of those bad boys, pulled it together, greeted the passers-by (and whatever umbrella-toting crowd showed up) via the microphone, and hit it...

O Globo, Segundo Quaderno, Dec. 10, 2008

It went by in a blur, a steady stream of music that was coming out and onto the streets of Ipanema for the better part of 70 minutes. I pulled every rabbit-out-of-a-hat that I could: live keyboard playing, live mixes of tracks from Bate Man, dance-like mixes of music from Complexo Sistema, music from my theater catalog (it was a theater festival after all) and that meant playing live along with tracks from Eureka! and older pieces, sections of concert works, and especially the Frankenstein-ed real time creations of combining elements of all of these things together into seamless mini-pieces that kept flowing in and out of each other. The people out there on the Av. Vieira Souto would stop and cheer, some danced, and there was guy who I dubbed “my biggest fan in Rio.” Wow, he wouldn’t stop dancing and hung onto every note I played. I needed him badly! The rain had really kept the crowd down so there wasn’t the usual bio-feedback from a public that performers use as a renewable energy source. I just had to keep pulling it out of me, and I did, but man, was I tired afterwards. I was really happy with the show but I admit that I was a little disappointed that Mother Nature didn’t have the concert in her plans that day.

Still, the people at the festival realized that too (it was a blameless situation) and they also realized that I didn’t let the rain dampen my performance one bit. César and the ladies were very, very appreciative and that felt good that they were pleased. There was talk of having me do it again later that week in better weather, and I could have, and I would have, but little did we know then that it was to continue raining for the next seven days!

With the concert over, I packed up and was eating some cheese covered popcorn (pipoca) from a street vendor just when Gerald pulled up in a taxi with his bags to do his thing at the festival before leaving town. I had to go soon and we hugged and I thanked him for everything. I told him to travel well and that we’d be talking as usual, almost everyday, and I’d keep him up to date on how his show and the other events were going. Adriana drove me back to SESC so I could do that night’s performance of Bate Man. During the ride we spoke of astrology (I am not a believer), semiotics, ancient calendars and all sorts of interesting esoterica. She is a very positive and bright spirit and I was lucky to have her be a part of what I was doing. She would play an even bigger role later in the week at my workshops which were to begin tomorrow, Monday. After the Bate Man performance I set my alarm and went straight to bed, ready to hit it again and get ready for the third project of my trip.

Part 2 - The Workshops at SESC - Copacabana
Did I mention that SESC does not have internet access? This became a mantra of mine especially because I had been relying on having one for the preparation of my workshops.

You can read the fine promotional material that was generated below about what the workshops were to entail. An aspect that I was hoping to have available in-between the cracks of my other work during that first week was the ability to download content such as JPEGs and GIFs from a DSL line to make my laptop projections a little sexier and to keep it from being solely talking. That included the ability to augment my research materials and to torrent various audio files (MP3s etc.) to use as musical examples. Well, that also wasn’t in the cards so I had to adapt and, after all, it really didn’t change the core content and purpose of the workshops. I had only hoped to spice it up a little.

Maybe I was a little spoiled from my trip to Sâo Paulo earlier this autumn where, at the Staybridge Suites, they had all kind of crazy wireless for me to use: at my desk, on the sofa, on the bed, wherever and whenever I could think of something to use, someone to write, or something to download. Here in Rio, my only recourse was the internet café around the corner. I had badgered them into letting me bring my laptop and download my email directly from the DSL but it really wasn’t conducive to working the way I like to work let alone letting something download overnight while I slept and other techniques that we all use our homes. I did download some stuff, just the essential things, but larger items and the ability to surf-at-will had to be worked-around.

These workshops were the original component of my work in Rio and that truly got me there in the first place and this was thanks to Gustavo Ariani. The initial emails that I had sent way back in Oct.-Nov. when I was in Sâo Paulo had fully blossomed into this trip and these workshops were the joint sponsorship of his theater school CAL and of the SESC – Rio de Janeiro, the larger regional SESC that contained the one in Copacabana. They took place in a second floor conference room complete with sound system, video projection, and whatever other peripherals I needed and in my case that meant coffee-on-demand.

CAL – Casa das Artes de Laranjeiras - Gustavo Ariani's theater school in Rio and workshop sponsor

I spent all of Monday morning and afternoon, the day after the Ipanema concert, arranging my notes and digital content for the 5:00-8:00 session. The workshop had an enrollment of over 30 participants signed up but only a little over 20 showed up, mostly due to the rain which continued in full force outside. It was explained to me that the cariocas, the people from the Rio region of Brazil, are very much like cats and will disappear at the slightest sign of rain. I guess that they’re so used to perfect beach weather that anything other than that really throws them off. How different they are from the landlocked Paulistas a five-hour drive/one-hour flight away.

At five o’clock we were all set up. What a bunch that showed up. Gustavo’s concern that my workshop may have been too music-oriented but we pulled in an even mix of actors, dancers, musicians and people that were simply curious and wanted to learn a few things. I was provided a translator but most of those who attended had some working knowledge of English. Most. For those that didn’t, the live translation helped and we quickly fell into a routine where the participants themselves would speak up and cross-translate for each other. It was a fun process though it did add on time onto what I wanted to cover in each session. My only danger was going too fast and speaking in chunks of info too large to translate effectively. That note taken, I was refining the presentation on my feet every second, adapting it for the individuals at hand as opposed to a generic mix of imaginary people which they had been up until this point.

How great it was to have a captive audience and be able to fully explain my origins and work and everything that had led me up to this moment in the classroom. I was happy to fully explain my geographic place of birth and upbringing, Detroit, Michigan a.k.a. The Motor City, Motown, etc. and it’s unique placement across the river from Canada and the influence of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., shows from the BBC, and how in many ways it placed us closer to what was going on musically in Europe, more so than the bigger coastal cities on the East Coast like NYC.

I listed the litany of musicians and performers to come out of that system and they were amazed at its length. I stressed the fact that even classically trained composers like me and others from Detroit have never, ever had issues with incorporating the popular music that surrounded us into our own works, as a general note, and way before other scenes in America adopted that aesthetic. Also, as an industrial city and the birthplace of Techno, Detroit musicians, serious or popular, also took more easily to making music with machines i.e. sequencers, drum boxes etc. and using them as legitimate tools of musical expression without sacrificing feel or funkiness. I’m sure that other Detroit-born composers like friend Randy Woolf for example will back me up on this.

I then went round-robin with the participants and found out a little about them, their name, discipline, what brought them here, what they hoped to get out of the workshop. That was very helpful to do in further tailoring the sessions ahead and maximizing the group itself as a resource. I found out that many of them were very skilled and knowledgeable about either music and/or theater so that meant that I didn’t have to cover the basics so much as that I could move beyond that into some more advanced and more interesting levels of ideas and concepts.

Then it was time for me to provide some historical background and it was given with the caveat that it was not meant to be all-inclusive but merely the line which I chose the draw, as it applied to the workshop at hand, and mainly that it drew from my own personal experience and formation. As advertised, I went back 100 years to the Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto and to Russolo’s The Art of Noise. From there we went through the Dada movement, the Surrealists, and stopped on Antonin Artaud where I explained his love of the Balinese gamelan, its non-textual forms and the gamelan ensemble itself as a community music and as a model for incorporating actors/dancers into musical compositions. I played examples of my own gamelan work, track by track, and showed them how a piece of it is built up. I also explained how this percussive sound influenced John Cage in his prepared piano works, dissected his CREDO: The Future of Music and how he, Artaud and the Epic Theater of Brecht all converged, on so many different levels, in the works of the incipient Living Theatre in 1950s New York City.

Whew! That was a lot of ground to cover. We closed out that session with a discussion about my recent work and played them relevent examples of my music. What a great group they were and how glad I was to have it go so well. All that and there was no performance tonight. I looked forward to resting, relaxing and getting myself centered again on what would be my first real break since arriving nine days ago.

On Tuesday I got a surprise phone call from Dani Visco. Rainy as it was, she asked, "Did I want to get out of Copacabana and go for a drive south of the city?" Sure! I needed a change of scenery badly having only seen theaters and hotel rooms since I arrived. We took a long and twisty mountainous drive down the coast to Grumari, an undeveloped and almost deserted beach, past the suburbs, favelas and wildlife preserves south of Rio. The beach was covered in roses and religious talismans that the locals leave as offerings to the ancient sea gods of Brazil. Peaceful beach dogs wandered around and only a few other people where there to witness all that beauty in all that grayness. Later, back in Rio, we had a Japanese dinner, a refreshing change from the rodizios. I prepared a little for the next day’s workshop but mostly recharged my batteries for more work ahead.

Wednesday brought us yet another rainy day. The cariocas were really freaking out now. Not only were they ill-equipped for this non-beach-like weather but it was the beginning of the tourist season and everything was empty. That was no skin off of my teeth since everything I had to do was indoors.

For today’s workshop we had some special visitors. Writer/director Ruy Filho had taken the bus up from Sâo Paulo that morning with three actors from his Cia. Antro Exposto, Guilherme Gorski, Diego Torraca and Raianni Teichmann. It was good to see friends and to practice my bad Portuguese in the more sing-songy Italian-influenced Paulista accent of which I was much more familiar with and can just hear better. The day before, just before going to the beach, I had received a special delivery of the complete Complexo Sistema DVD which I edited and dropped better audio into to show to the workshop at today's session. Up until then I’ve only had footage of the trailer length version we made.

I began the workshop by making the necessary introductions and Ruy and I went back and forth describing from the very beginning how our work came into being: an introduction from Gerald, months of garbled emails translated via Babelfish, rehearsal videos for me to work with posted by Ruy on YouTube, my arrival in SP and the rehearsals which were recorded into Reason 4.0 and their subsequent refinement and temporal lock into Ableton LIVE 7 and their orchestration, the interactive quality of the performance, and of my handing the reigns over to Ruy for running the show after I returned to NYC. That pretty much sums up how I’d been working all autumn and how I managed to put out four scores in as many months. It went great and it was also good to raise the Portuguese content of the classes, no translation needed. Also, I was very happy for Ruy and Co. that they were able to meet Gustavo and Beatriz (Bia) Radunsky, the director of the SESC –Copacabana because it meant a foothold for them in getting their work into the Rio system in the future.

It is interesting to note that the two pieces that I created for Brazil this autumn, Complexo Sistema and Bate Man, different as they may be, share a common feature in their creative processes though for very different reasons. That feature is in the way that talking about the work was kept to an incredibly bare minimun and the music and sound itself, all tried out in the theater, did the speaking for itself. With Gerald, the reason was because we knew each other's needs and aesthetic so well that there was no need for many words. In Ruy's case, we both were at a loss for each other's native tongue. That meant that we had no other recourse than to speak through the language of theater itself. Any ideas we wanted to share had to be through sound and movement, music or lights. Only then could we nod approvingly at each other when something worked or in the case of the Brazilians, give a hearty "thumbs up." I can easily see that in all my future theater work (or any other multi-disciplanary venture) that I have to find ways to keep that kind of flow. Just another reason to be happy that our musical technology has caught up with old school acoustic spantaneity, that is: if you know what you're doing, have the analog experience, and come prepared for any eventuality.

Adriana had showed up and made video of the entire workshop. I was/am so grateful for that. I haven’t gotten copies of it yet but when I do, there’ll be plenty of workshop content to post (that and the concert footage too!).

The rest of the workshop dealt with determining a workshop project of our own into which we could apply the theatrical music techniques I had been imparting. We had decided at the last session that we would find local stories in O Globo and mash them up into a scenario to which we could score. The more musical attendees had brought their instruments (electric guitars) and we chose three stories that, when spliced together from real news items, went something like this: an eldery mother cannot afford the adult diapers she needs so her son, a rapper, decides to go out and steal some, he robs a local drugstore, is chased by a policeman, they end up shooting each other when distratcted by the mother, the woman takes the diapers and runs off as police sirens are heard in the distance (really, every element came from that day's newspaper).

OK, so Shakespeare it wasn't, but it did provide us something to work with and afterall, the story was not the point of the workshop, but the sound design. Plus, we had a few laughs along the way. We cast the scenario with the available actors and dancers and roughed it out musically with me at the keyboard and others at their guitars scene by scene, all the while recording the takes into Reason 4.0 so we could find an average timing/duration on each of them. That done, it brought the second workshop to its conclusion. Everyone was excited that we were actually making something together. Me too.

That night, I took Cia. Antro Exposto to my favorite (and cheap) rodizio in the ‘hood where we caught up and traded stories about the goings on in SP before they all went to Raianni’s uncle’s house in Rio to crash for the night.

Thursday was another “day off,” at least the mornin and afternoon were, since the second week of Bate Man performances started up that night. Instead of squandering another rainy day with another field trip, I decided it was in my best interest to totally slack-off which I did with aplomb. Reading, writing and sleeping filled my morning and afternoon save for the usual trips out of the room for internet and food. One additional trip: to the liquor store to buy some sake for the post-performance Japanese-themed party at the Cia. dos Atores space in Lapa that night. They’d have the food and rice wine was the price of admission. I had gotten Ruy & Co. invited as well and made sure that they got sake too before the performance of which they attended.

The performance went well or at least I mean that I was happy with the improvements I had made in the multi-layered guitars in the score. In between the cracks of everything else in my schedule I was able to, over a period of days, go in "with a microscope" and tighten up the groove. Recording multitracked guitars in a hotel room can be less than scientific when being as extemporaneous as it was, so, with some patience, I was able to shuffle around the tracks until they all fell "in the pocket" and sounded like an ensemble instead of being takes done at different times and stacked one on top of the other.

The party was great! It probably was, and also sad to say, the social highlight of my trip. The Cia. had people from the local Japanese restaurant upstairs working in the kitchen preparing all kinds of food and bringing it down on trays in regular intervals. I was able to pour my water into the traditional box-like sake cup so, all evening long, I wasn't pestered with the usual, "Why aren't you drinking? Aren't you having fun?" Well, I was having fun actually. I really got to speak with all of the people with I had been working all week but didn't have time to hang with. I really got to know César Agusto and learn more about the Cia.'s history. I mean, it was their 20th anniversary that got Bate Man created. Good folks, good times and I even threw in a little dancing of my own when everybody was too wasted to notice.

Eventually, Ruy and the gang had to get back to the uncle's house because of the early morning bus departure back to SP. It was great that they came and that they also got to meet the people in the Cia. dos Atores too. I'm glad that Complexo Sistema in opening again at a different theater in SP and will run from January to March and that my artistic presence can continue in Brazil until I return again hopefully in the spring. With them on their way back, it was just a matter of time before we took a poll and I found two other takers for a cab back to Copacabana.

Friday was here and it was the last day of the workshop. After my usual morning routine, which at this point included my daily phone call from Gerald so I could give him any updates and news, I went back to the room to edit our work from the previous session and to create recording templates so we could work as quickly as possible.

A handful of the key musicians in the workshop were going to be late today. They had a gig earlier in the afternoon and were, no surprise in Brazil, stuck in traffic. This included my translator Giulio who is their singer. No problem. It gave me time to bring the historical part of the workshop up to the present. I picked up in the late 1950s where I had left off and brought it into the Sixties with Mabou Mines, The Wooster Group, Robert Wilson/ Philip Glass and the rise of Performance Art and other downtown genres. I made the point that we here in the Americas, North and South, being so far from a total gravitational pull of Europe, had been able to successfully begin the trend of combining “high” art and “low” art, a Post-Modern feature of the avant-garde that permeates almost all work done by any artists worth their salt now in the 21st century. This of course includes the work of Gerald who has had no problem with the meeting on the stage of classical characters from theatrical history with a sudden appearance from, say, Batman or Donald Duck, if it truly helps the narrative. The score the Bate Man itself features all kinds of “classical” and “contemporary” music right along the side of good old rock ‘n’ roll, punk and disco.

The last technical lesson I gave them was that on the use of sound effect libraries and how to implement them for rapid use in sound design for theater. That was fun and, like the TV chef, I already had a number of sound FX that were applicable to our crazy scenario ready to go, just like how the chef takes the finished dish out of the oven to save on time. We still had to agree as to what worked best and I let them make those choices.

By now the musicians had cut through traffic and had shown up. I got them all plugged into the sound system and we recorded music for each of the sub-scenes as determined by the templates we created last session and which I had edited-down for today. We got it done but time was running short. All I needed now was time to throw all of these elements into a LIVE 7 session so we could run it with the actors. This I had to do alone but my laptop’s screen was being projected behind me so they could see what I was doing as I explained each move aloud. Some people started talking during these intervals and it got a bit hard for me to concentrate on what I was doing and so I had to keep telling them to keep it down. I couldn’t blame them, at least the actors and the dancers in the bunch. Editing audio isn’t exactly a spectator sport but I got through it and was ready to go.

Adriana was there again, shooting video all the time. I wonder how crazy it’ll be to see when I finally get the footage. I was working away like a mad man but, as I explained, “it’s all about making the deadlines.” And so we did.

In the last half hour of the workshop, Gustavo gave me a stack of certificates I was to sign for each of the attendees (see below). I did this between the cracks as usual but what was most important was that we run the piece a couple of times for practice. This we did and when we all felt ready, we did it once ‘for real” and counted that as our performance. It always amazes me but, it came together, everybody was happy, we had fun, and most important, we all learned and grew during these nine hours spent together. Having developed and refined a format for this kind of work, I look forward to doing it again as soon as possible.

As I thanked everyone individually and gave them their certificates, Gustavo announced that as a bonus that they would have free admission to see Bate Man as a way of seeing their teacher in action in a real show. Many came who were free and the rest came on the weekend. I felt very good that I made the students and the organizers feel that this was a worthwhile experience. Something to consider and pursue when having something else to offer the presenters who get me out of NYC and on the road.

The performance that night went on without a hitch. With the workshop successfully behind me, I had free time hang out at the Café Pierrot on the corner of Av. Santa Clara with the crew from Bate Man and kick back a little, eat some damn decent pub grub, and have a few laughs. A nice change of pace to bring my second week to a close.

The certificate that the attendees of my three day workshop on The Future of Music & Sound in the Theater were given

Week 3:
The third Saturday arrived and I was a short-timer now, my flight to go back to NYC set for late Tuesday night, Dec. 23rd.

There were only two performances of Bate Man left to do, finish up any contractual business with the producers, and prepare the music and cue sheets for handing over to the Cia. dos Atores.

One thing that I've always liked about performances outside of the USA is that each country has pretty decent legislation when it comes to the rights of the composer in regards to theatrical works. For instance, above and beyond any fees for the actual creation of the work, the composer is guaranteed a certain percentage of the box office. In Brazil for example, it is 5% of the gross ticket sales. Not a lot but, should a show go on tour and get multiple performances, it does add up. In the USA, anything that is staged - theater or dance, is considered "Grand Rights" and that is let up solely to the composer and producers to hack out for themselves. In other words there are absolutely no enforceable guidelines in place so that often means that the composer, in smaller productions, will more than often receive nothing off the door. A shame really.

Now with all but Bate Man winding down, it was starting to dawn on me that Christmas was right around the corner. It was so hard to tell in Rio with the palm trees and, at least near the beach, not the plethora of decorations I was used to seeing back home though they were there. It just didn't register. It was hard to sort them out from the usual festive bric-a-brac that seems like it was probably there all year round, beachy stuff, strings of flashing lights and other baubles not necessarily related to the Nativity. That was just my take on it. When I brought it up with the Brazilians they told me it's there if you know where to find it and if I were to visit one of their shopping malls, I'd see everyone out in full force just like I would in any other large Western city. It must be that the beach culture was dominating everything from where I was situated.

I didn't have much interest on that third Saturday to venture into any areas of intense commerce. I just did my usual and begin writing down a coherent cue sheet of Bate Man to pass on to Rodrigo from the Cia. It was taking a while because I was trying to be so thorough and would be, by the time I finalized my mixes and LIVE 7 sessions, a two-day job.

That night the performance came and went and I went out to dinner with Dani Visco, Claudia Dorei and Claudia's girlfriend, another Claudia who is an actress on a telenovela. Claudia is the DJ/musician who ran the sound for Gerald's Kepler, the Dog in SP a month before. We pretty much talked shop and traded info on sound gear.

The day of the last performance arrived and I finished the cues. It was the first semi-sunny day in a long time. I even took a walk to the beach! I began writing and sending thank you emails to all in Rio who were involved as well as, for lack of cards, printing up slips of paper with my contact info to give out to the new friends I made during my stay. After the show, it was a good closing night house, we had another hang at the corner cafe and traded info, thanked each other and wished each other Feliz Natal. I had passed on the audio files and cue sheets to Rodrigo so that was the finalization of that particular stint. I would hope that Bate Man gets toured around Brazil in 2009 but that is still in formation.

The last two days were simply packing and tying up loose ends. This included getting notarized contracts and my split of the door from the producers, DVDs of the show for Gerald and a personal thank you card with chocolates form Olinto, a trip to the studio of Rodrigo and Lucas (very cool), and a hang at Adriana's house in the afternoon/early evening with her family.

The best close to my stay in Rio was, after checking out of SESC, was getting picked up by Gustavo Ariani and hanging out at the studio in his house for the afternoon. Before becoming director of CAL, Gustavo wrote a lot of music for theater. We listened to a score of his from a production of Dracula (winds and percussion), children's music on early MIDI keyboards, and many other pieces, all good. We sight read Bach on his piano, watched a video of Bernstein rehearsing The Rite of Spring, and all sorts of stuff that musicians like to do together. What a great guy he had been to me the entire trip. I only hope that we'll be able to do it again some day soon.

I was glad that he helped me at the desk at the airport. With one too many bags, a keyboard, and most of my luggage filled with all kinds of electronic equipment (I would love to see that X-Ray), one never knows how you'll be treated. The desk person in NYC almost charged me an extra $125 for being 2 pounds overweight. This young lady, with the help of Gustavo, let it slide and really took her time getting everything of mine checked. That was a great relief because I always have a semi-heart attack traveling alone, continent-to-continent, with all that stuff. A sad goodbye with Gustavo and I was on the plane for an 11 hour filght.

Arriving back in NYC, the morning of Christmas Eve, could not have been more different that the place I just left. The solstice had passed so, while Rio was just beginning summer, here was my city in winter. Cold, snowy, and everybody running around getting in their last minute shopping done. Ho ho ho - indeed. I had exactly 10 hours to get into the holiday spirit...

And I did.

Happy New Year!!!

01 DEC 08

3 Projects Just Announced for Rio de Janeiro in December

DEC 12 to 21
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

BATE MAN
A New Theater Piece

Written & Directed by
GERALD THOMAS

Sponsored by Petrobras
and SESC Rio de Janeiro

with
Marcelo Olinto
of the Cia. dos Atores
celebrating its 20th anniversary

Original Music & Sound Design by
Patrick Grant

More details at eVENTS

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

DEC 14
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

sTRANGEmUSIC
LIVE ReMIX
From the Balcony of Ipamena Beach's
Casa de Cultura Laura Alvim

Sponsored by FUNARTE / MINC / SESC Rio de Janeiro

As part of riocenacontemporanea's 9th Annual Festival,
Patrick Grant will be giving a live performance w/ realtime
remixes of his works for theater, video & contemporary
ensemble for the festival crowd from the balcony
of one of Rio's brightest cultural landmarks.

Between 3:00-5:00 PM

FREE

Casa de Cultura Laura Alvim
Av. Vieira Souto, 176 - Ipanema - Rio de Janeiro - RJ
Informações: 2267-1647

More details at eVENTS

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

DEC 15, 17, & 19
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

THE FUTURE OF MUSIC & SOUND ON THE STAGE
a three part lecture-demonstration-workshop
with special consideration to the upcoming
100th anniversary of the Futurist Manifesto

More iNFO HERE

Sponsored by SESC Rio de Janeiro
and CAL – Casa das Artes de Laranjeiras

FREE
open to the public

Mon-Wed-Fri
5:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Espaço SESC
Rua Domingos Ferreira, 160
tel:. (21) 2548-1088

From “The Art of Noise”(1913) to contemporary Noise-as-Art, this series traces the lines drawn from Marinetti’s 1909 manifesto, through the Surrealists, the Epic Theater, John Cage’s “The Future of Music: Credo,” The Living Theatre, Robert Wilson & his collaborators, Downtown New York Performance Art, and the digital boom that since the 80s has made the latter day artistic visions of what theater could be a modern day reality.

Sonically, anybody can have anything from an orchestra to a traffic jam available at their fingertips. Now that everybody is using computers and that the playing field has become so even, what qualities make certain works stand out? To find out where we’re going it’s necessary to find out where we’ve been.

This 3 part event is comprised of lecture, multi-media projection, and full of audio examples. Geared for the curious artistic community at large, by the final session, willing participants will be able to create small, staged narratives using current techniques and readily available software.

More details at eVENTS

29 NOV 08

Theaters Against War - On The Air

web site: http://www.thawaction.org/

21 NOV 08

Happy Birthday, Delores

Wherever you are...

18 NOV 08

Guest Lecture at NYU - Tisch School of the Arts - Film School

An excerpt from a 90 min. guest lecture which demonstrates film scoring techniques using Reason 4.0 as a ReWire device in Pro-Tools 7.4

17 NOV 08

Gerald Thomas Premieres his BlogNovela “O CÃO QUE INSULTAVA MULHERES, KEPLER, THE DOG” via WebCast

Photo: Lenise Pinheiro

On November 13th, Gerald Thomas and the Dry Opera Co. premiered part 1 of his BlogNovela in a live webcast on TV IG.

You can watch a recording of it HERE

Gerald Thomas Apresenta a Primeira Blognovela da Historia
“O CÃO QUE INSULTAVA MULHERES, KEPLER, THE DOG”
Conceito, escrito e dirigido por Gerald Thomas

Com:
Fabiana Gugli
Pancho Capelletti
Duda Mamberti
Anna Americo
Luciana Froes
Simone Martins
Caca Manica

Luz: Caetano Vilela
Som: Claudia Dorei

Produção: Plato Produções (Dora Leão)

Assistência: Ivan Andrade

Realização SESC unidade Av Paulista gravação TV IG

13 NOV 08

COMPLEXO SISTEMA - Video Trailer

Video: Patricia Cividanes

30 OCT 08

Pix from "The Making of...COMPLEXO SISTEMA"

Photos & graphics by Patricia Cividanes

20 OCT 08

New Performance Added to Brazilian Itinerary: Satyrianas 2008 Theater Festival

More details HERE

13 OCT 08

"Evolution?" from the Living Theatre's EUREKA!

From the Living Theatre's multimedia stage production
Edited by Evan True & Eric Olson
Original music by Patrick Grant

05 OCT 08

NYTheatre.com Review of EUREKA! by Mitchell Conway

More photos by Jocelyn Gonzales on FLICKR

Eureka! is a fantastic show, unlike anything I've ever experienced. Whatever I describe in this review will in no way satisfactorily replicate the wonderful experience of this production because it is defined by the audience being a part of it. Being it! This performance is not passively "watched" by its audience. It is created by the performers inviting the audience to be an active part of its creation. Although there is a structure to play, most of the specifics are defined by the audience involvement. Over the period of 75 minutes, a crowd of strangers is transformed into a dynamic group singing, dancing, and celebrating the possibilities for humanity. This is truly The Living Theatre.

Director Judith Malina has fulfilled the concept of the late Hanon Reznikov, to create an interactive play based on Edgar Allan Poe's prose poem, "Eureka." This poem deals with the creation of the universe—the big bang as well as its inevitable destruction. The true beauty of this production comes from the parallel between the universe's creation and our own capacity for creation as people.

The audience enters the theatre and wanders aimlessly about a dimly lit space with tube-like beams crisscrossing the perimeter (designed by Gary Brackett). There is a low hum, and various space-like electronic sounds filling the room. Along the perimeter, the performers are scattered in stillness up among the pipes, the crew is running sound and lights, and a number of cameramen are filming the wandering audience. Two screens on either side of the room show animated imagery combined with the footage of people from the audience. Edgar Allan Poe, played by Anthony Sisco, is seated, staring intently in contemplation through the audience, bathed in a soft red spotlight.

One by one, the performers slowly move from their perches into the floor space. Alexander von Humboldt, played by Silas Inches, emerges tapping a small hammer at various points on the floor and on beams. The repeated metallic click-click-click of his hammer penetrates the low hum distinctly yet delicately. Eventually the performers corral the audience into a tight clump at the center of the space. At this point they begin a low hum. Being so close to people, I could literally feel the humming running through my chest. I was compelled to hum along. The pitch slowly rises, and the performers lead the way raising jiggling hands. As the sound climaxes, the group waving their hands in the air begins to break apart and expand, in a superb recreation of the big bang that the entire audience could feel ring through their bones. This beginning, especially after allowing the time for the audience to become slightly eager in the period of inaction preceding it, was breathtaking.

The first time the audience was asked to speak was when the performers asked what elements we felt like. The periodic table appeared on the screen and performers began by naming their respective elements in the form of a song. But once prompted, "Phosphorus!" one man hollered. "Gold!" a woman exclaimed! After many declared their elements accompanied by a representative gesture, one man excitedly called out "Wind!" as the element he connected with. To which a performer politely said, "Okay, how about Oxygen? Oxygen!"

Similar sections developed, each engaging the audience differently, and progressively asking for more initiation of the action. There was always a gentle invitation, a soft hand against the shoulder, an outreached arm with open eyes looking into mine asking for me to join, and this generosity on the part of the performers is what allowed the audience to become comfortable enough with the situation to become fully engaged in it. There was an environment where we were given the opportunity to give a little bit of ourselves to each other. The performers' fearless giving served as model for how the audience was permitted to treat them and each other.

The effect this had on the members of its audience was in many cases astounding. I watched a man leaning skeptically cross-armed against pillar for much of the beginning of the show, but by the end he was frolicking around the space, singing at full volume, grabbing people he didn't know to frolic and dance with him, and wearing an expression of utter jubilation.

The production was constantly raising questions such as: How does zero become one? Is there any point in living when we know we will end in annihilation? Is not destruction inherent in creation? Poe sporadically recites passages from the prose poem, and Humboldt brings up similarly important queries on the matter of meaning. But the answer was apparent that we were the creators of meaning. We have the possibility to offer our hands to each other and create something greater. We could just as easily wander aimlessly, disconnected, as the audience did at the beginning of the show. But after seeing the possibility of offering a hand to a stranger without fear, we are made aware of what we can create if we are willing. The terrifying void is not worth being afraid of. Emptiness is not merely nothing; it is the potential for something.

The profundity of its interactivity coupled with the grand scope of its content is remarkably intelligent and undoubtedly visionary. This play is personal, social, political, philosophical, spiritual, and a lot of fun. Judith Malina and the Living Theatre have some true wisdom to share in this production. The wisdom that you have the wisdom. You may know the science of the big bang already, but you've never experienced it like this before. - NYTheatre.com

05 SEP 08

Living Theatre to Open 2008-2009 Season with Eureka!

Based on the prose poem by Edgar Allan Poe

Performances are on Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 4 p.m. Tickets will be $20 with a discounted ticket of $15 for students, seniors andmilitary. The production involves audience interaction, so there are no seats and each performance can only accommodate 50 people.

The Living Theatre will begin its 2008-2009 season with the limited run of Judith Malina and Hanon Reznikov's Eureka!, based on an Edgar Allan Poe essay about the origin of the Universe.

Previews begin on Saturday, September 27, 2008 and will officially open on Wednesday, October 1. The production is directed by Judith Malina and features an original score by Patrick Grant.

Published in 1847, the "Prose Poem," as Poe called it, lays out with astonishing forethought what has since come to be called the Big Bang Theory. The Living Theatre has adapted Poe's text to a theatrical form, which will provide the audience with an awareness of participating actively in the creation of the universe and realize the parallel between the development of the elements of the cosmos and our own human development.

Eureka! was conceived and written by Hanon Reznikov when he read Poe's text - but he did not live to finish the task. Judith Malina, his collaborator and the director of the play completed the script.

The purpose of the play is to provide the audience with a sense of empowerment. By participating in the creation of the known universe we communicate the possibility of creating a more harmonious social structure. 'Eureka!' joins nearly one hundred Living Theatre productions created since 1951, all of which seek to expand our knowledge of the universe.

The cast of Eureka! features Anthony Sisco as Edgar Allan Poe, Silas Inches as Alexander von Humboldt, Gene Ardor, Yasemin Ozumerzifon, Eric Olson, Maia Larraz, Erin Downhour, Natalia De Campo, Kennedy Yanko, Enoch Wu, Katherine Nook, Isaac Scranton, Eitan Brigantonelli, and you the audience.

The Assistant Director is Brad Burgess. Set & Lighting Designer is Gary Brackett, Technical Direction is by Evan True. Choreography is by Gene Ardor.

Curious? Stop by! Here's our rehearsal schedule.

Other links:
Eureka! at TheaterMania
Eureka! at BroadwayWorld

For further information, visit www.livingtheatre.org

01 SEP 08

The DX Synthony Orchestra - 1985/86

Yes, I was very influenced by all those electronic classical albums that were so prevalent when I was a teen. When I could finally afford the gear, I made some realizations of my own as etudes and Xmas presents in ‘85 - ‘86.

Just wanted to share now that they’re digitized.

-PG

To listen: http://www.strangemusic.com/dxsynth.html

29 JUL 08

Patricia McKenna 1937-2008

Patricia E. McKenna, beloved mother, political activist and supporter of the arts, aged 70, formerly of Huntington Woods, Birmingham and Troy, Michigan, passed away in the arms of her children on July 29, 2008 in Tucson, AZ.

The daughter of Irish immigrant Patrick McKenna and Michigan native Helen Keene, she attended the Kingswood Cranbrook School and graduated in 1959 from Denison University in Ohio with a BA in Theatre and English. Her marriage in 1961 to Detroit police officer Gordon “Buck” Grant produced three children: Patrick Grant (1963), Daniel (1969) [Stacey] Grant, and Gael (1971) [Michael] Giles. Patricia and Gordon divorced in 1974.

Patricia’s many talents and interests were reflected in her multi-faceted career. Amongst the positions and activities she held were: model for the International Car Shows held in Detroit, investigative journalist for the Detroit News, director/actress of amateur theater for the Ridgedale Players in Pleasant Ridge, private investigator for a retired FBI agent (she obtained a degree in Law Enforcement and Protection from Mercy College in 1978), talent booking agent (clients included incipient comedian Tim Allen), and assisting the administration of McKenna Industries Inc., an automotive model making firm established by her late father. She was accepted as a member in the American Academy of Certified Geniuses in 1987.

In the last two decades of her life she lived in the American southwest (NM and AZ) where she wrote poetry and plays, articles for the local newspapers, fought corruption in her local government, helped youths with substance abuse problems and sponsored local immigrant families.

She will be lovingly remembered by her children and grandchildren Courtney, Meghan and Grant Thomas, her brother Michael McKenna of West Bloomfield, her nephews Mick - (Eulalia and family), Brian and niece, Stephanie. Her body will be cremated and a memorial service will be held in the greater Detroit area in Spring 2009.

17 JUL 08

Studio Museum in Harlem Opening

14 JUL 08

Original Music for a Kehinde Wiley Video at The Studio Museum in Harlem

The World Stage: Africa, Lagos ~ Dakar is Kehinde Wiley’s (b. 1977) first solo exhibition at The Studio Museum in Harlem (July 17-October 26, 2008) and features ten new paintings from his multinational “The World Stage” series. Wiley is known for his stylized paintings of young, urban African-American men in poses borrowed from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European figurative paintings, a practice he started in the early 2000s while an artist in residence at the Studio Museum. Over the last two years, Wiley has expanded his project by living and working abroad; he temporarily relocates to different countries and opens satellite studios to become familiar with local culture, history and art. His “The World Stage” series is the result of these travels.

For the exhibition, Patrick Grant added original music to a promotional video showing the process behind the creation of these paintings. The direct link to the video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq8Yr-Se7mc

More info at: http://www.studiomuseum.org/
Time Out New York article HERE

11 JUL 08

A Commission to Score a New Theater Piece in São Paolo, Brazil

COMPLEXO SISTEMA
de Enfraquecimento da Sensibilidade

based on the writings & philosophies of
Edgar Morin & Gilles Deleuze

Written & Directed by Ruy Filho
Performed by the Cia. de Teatro Antro Exposto

São Paolo, Brazil
Premiering November 2008

=============================================

04 JUL 08

On Becoming a Recurring Character in Director GERALD THOMAS' Blog Novella

I've been many things in my day but now I'm a recurring character in theater director Gerald Thomas' BlogNovela. The blog is based in Brazil so it is in Portugeuese, of course. My character speaks it a lot more fluently that I do in reality, by far, but I am learning it in preparation for performances there later this year. Until then I'm at the mercy of BabelFish translation software and the convoluted communications it produces (Até lá I' m na mercê do software da tradução de BabelFish e das comunicações que complicado produz). See?

Below is an excerpt from my first appearance in the novella, a musical one...

You can follow the storyline as each episode gets published on Thomas' blog HERE.

01 JUL 08

A Collaboration with Nigerian Musicians

Ogunyemi "Titus" Oladimeji, a violist from Lagos, Nigeria (pictured above on the left), has initiated a project with Patrick Grant for string quartet. Titus and musicians have been recording and collecting local songs from their region and are presenting them to PG as the musical material from which new compositions will be written. This group has presented the African premieres of other works by Grant in 2007, amongst them Hip-Hop Experience and are currently working on Children at War (see below) and a quartet arrangement of Three Choral Pieces in Latin.

More details TBA

22 JUN 08

"Children at War - 1988" - Music for Strings

SONYC: String Orchestra of New York City performs "Children at War - 1988" at ComposerCollaborative's Music for a Change, part of the city-wide Make Music New York festival, June 21, 2008.

Premiered at The New Theater, this is a Cold War piece written for Protean Forms Collective’s Spring ‘88 New Works Festival. It was the last summer of Reagan’s Presidency, New Wave was old, nuclear holocaust television dramas were the entertainment, and the events that led up to the Tompkins Square Park Riots were brewing. Musically, the piece uses that age-old pentatonic (Eastern scale) taunt used by children in many cultures (c-A-d-c-A) as a sonic commentary on the inherent childishness of violence. This is placed in various formations and textures against minimalist rhythms and harmonies (Western) prevalent in New York City in the late 80s.

See pictures from the full day's event HERE.

16 JUN 08

APEIROPHOBIA - a fantasy concept album

For summer 2008, Patrick Grant has signed a deal to compose and produce a fantasy concept album for children of all ages, APEIROPHOBIA, with the Australian MC Larry Trevelyan. Part contemporary hip-hop and part orchestral soundtrack, it is about a young witch who is terrified of infinity itself. She casts a spell to eradicate infinity's existence without first contemplating the consequences that follow.

More details TBA

06 JUN 08

PG to Sound Design & Mix for New Documentary About 80s Band KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS

"Kid Creole and My Coconuts" is a new documentary by producer, director and "Mama Coconut" Adriana Kaegi about the rise and fall and rise again of the 80s multicultural tropical funk machine "Kid Creole and the Coconuts" called by many "the best live band in the world."

Kid Creole and the Coconuts are an American musical group created and led by August Darnell. Their music incorporates styles like big band jazz, disco, and in particular Caribbean/Latin American salsa. The Coconuts are a glamorous trio of female backing vocalists whose lineup has changed throughout the years. Darnell began producing for other artists before adopting the name Kid Creole (from the Elvis Presley film King Creole) in 1980, and forming The Coconuts, a trio of female backing vocalist/dancers, including his wife Adriana Kaegi, and a band including his associate vibraphone player Andy Hernandez aka Coati Mundi, who served as co-leader as well as musical director and arranger.

One of their standout works was Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places, a concept album matched with a New York Public Theatre stage production; it received rave reviews, and Darnell was recognized as a clever lyricist and astute composer, arranger and producer.

The documentary features concert footage, never-before-seen home movies, and a new interview/commentary with producer and ex-coconut Kaegi with "The Punk Professor" Vivien Goldman. The movie is edited by Peter Shelton.

For more iNFO, go to the "Kid Creole and My Coconuts" documentary's official web site HERE.

01 JUN 08

WHITNEY BIENNIAL BROADCAST - Transistor Radio Theatre - May 31

Storefront studio at 941 Madison Avenue

Running original music & sound design cues off of LIVE 7 into the board

Foley crew and actors

Transistor Radio Theatre w/ producer Sigi Arnejo (center)

21 MAY 08

Three Choral Pieces in Latin Completed

the guidonian hand

Whew. Just finished some choral music in Latin no less that was commissioned by Bruce Barrett who just loves music from 1350-1750. This was a real switch for me. Good thing I remembered that modal counterpoint book I read during breaks when I drove a car service back in ‘86!

It's all pretty foreboding yet otherworldly sounding stuff and a couple of centuries behind the times even though there's plenty of 21st century rule breaking going on that fed my interest in doing it. It'll be hard for all but a few folks to catch any of the genre-hopping mash-ups going on here because it’s bouncing around stylistically anywhere between 1350 and 1750 though I did throw in plenty of contemporary twists and turns.

The real trick is to see if it can get a performance or better yet, to get a recording. THEN it might sound like something, that is, with the human expression that an acappella vocal group would bring to it.

Any inquiries are welcome.

THREE CHORAL PIECES IN LATIN (2008)
SATB chorus
music by Patrick Grant
text by Bruce Barrett

Full Score in PDF - 788 kb

More iNFO and text HERE

19 MAY 08

"JACKTOWN": a very B-Movie from 1962 starring my grandfather, Gordon Grant, as Lefty the prison inmate

I've heard legend of this movie in my family since I was a kid but never saw it because it came out before I was born. Even then, my grandfather died when I was an infant so I never knew him let alone could I recall what his voice sounded like etc. Now, with everything it seems available on DVD, I was able to finally see him in action. Wow, what a big and burly dude he was though by all accounts he was real teddy bear of a man (much unlike Lefty seen here) and much loved by family and community.

In this drama, a punk is caught messing around with a 15-year-old girl in the back seat of his car, gets arrested for statutory rape and is sentenced to Southern Michigan Prison. There he is cared for by the kindly warden who lets him tend his beloved garden. Their friendship is destroyed when the warden's daughter falls for the young convict. During a prison riot, the boy escapes and is concealed by his lover. Eventually he turns himself in. His girl promises to wait for him. The film was shot on location and includes actual newsreel footage of the prison's 1952 riots. Directed by William Martin.

Scene 1: Gordon Grant (Lefty) and Richard Meade (Frankie).

Scene 2: Again with Gordon Grant (Lefty) and Richard Meade (Frankie).

07 MAY 08

HIP-HOP EXPERIENCE THE HIGHLIGHT OF A YOUNG EIGHT CONCERT IN SEATTLE

The Young Eight, America's only professional touring string octet and led by Seattle U Director of Chamber and Instrumental Music, Quinton Morris, knocked 'em dead with a performance of one of the Hip-Hop Experience series that I created for Kehinde Wiley from hip-hop themes. The Seattle University Spectator writes:

The night peaked with the performance of "Hip Hop Experience I." Four performers returned to the stage wearing black dress shoes, jeans and either a collared shirt and blazer or blouse, to unanimously declare, "One-two-three!" before playing Outkast's "Hey Ya."

The Young Eight transitioned smoothly into Beyonce's "Crazy in Love," invoking a few chuckles and many grins. They continued into a plethora of hip-hop hits including Salt-n-Pepa's "Push It" and The Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps." The Eight performed with their whole bodies. With each glide of the bow, their upper bodies rocked into and out of the note and their faces winced and furrowed with concentration.

Read the full review from the Seattle University Spectator HERE.

03 MAY 08

The Death of Hanon Reznikov (1950-2008)

Very sad news. Writer, performer and director Hanon Reznikov, husband of Living Theatre co-founder Judith Malina, died today of complications from a stroke suffered on April 13. I worked and collaborated with him on many projects since 1990 and I will miss him deeply.

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MP3: Scene 7 from The Zero Method
performed by Hanon Reznikov (author) and Judith Malina
Recorded from an Italian radio broadcast, 1992.

"Whereof I cannot speak, thereof I must remain silent" - Ludwig Wittgenstein

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"Don't speak of death or wounds or melancholy things. Change the discourse if you can."
- Rule 62 from "110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation," text attributed to George Washington and adapted for the stage by Hanon Reznikov, 1991.

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MP3: Five Songs from "THE RULES OF CIVILITY" - 5'51"
music for 2 singers, flute, oboe, trumpet, 2 horns, timpani, organ, harpsichord & strings

This is a section from a scene of the chamber opera based upon text by George Washington who, as a teen, wrote 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation. The scoring is for 13 period instruments from the 18th century and reflects the highly baroque and antiquated nature of, these often hilarious, rules. These particular five songs are all of the ones that deal with how to eat at the table and, in the opera, are used as a dark counterpoint to a staging that depicts the horrors of war by Hanon Reznikov of the Living Theatre. The singers are Joanie Fritz Zosike, mezzo-soprano, and Robert Hieger, tenor.

PDF Score - 51 pp - 1.8 MB

1. Don't sit at the head of the table unless it is your proper place or if the master of the house wishes it. It is the decent thing to do to give anyone at table a meal. Try to help others unless your master desires it not.

2. Pay attention when others talk at the table. Don't lay your arm but only your hand on the table. Keep your fingers clean and when dirty wipe them on a napkin.

3. Don't eat in the street or in the house out of season. Don't eat too leisurely or too hastily. Don't spit, don't scratch, don't cough or blow your nose except when really necessary. Don't cut your bread with a greasy knife.

4. Don't put your food in your mouth with a knife. Don't stare while you are eating. Don't put another bite of food in until the first bite is finished (gone) and do not talk when your mouth is full.

5. Don't get angry at the table no matter what should happen especially if there are strangers present you should put on a cheerful face. Good humor makes one dish of food a feast.

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21 APR 08

THE MODERN 'TIL MIDNIGHT: Hip-Hop Experience VI in Fort Worth, April 18
a co-commision of the Modern Museum of Fort Worth, Kehinde Wiley Studio, & Deitch Projects

The Chancellor Seguier on Horseback (2005) currently on view at the Modern Museum Fort Worth
Collection of Jean Pigozzi, Geneva

PG introducing the Trimble Tech HS Marching Band before the performance of Focus Fort Worth: Hip-Hop Experience VI, a sTRANGEmUSIC mash-up of Fanfare for the Common Man, Buffalo Soldier, War, Jesus Walks, Golddigger, Crazy in Love, Gangsta Paradise, Ridin' Dirty, Good Life, Umbrella, My Humps, Push It, Low, Stronger, and Don't Stop the Music.

Black faces are rarely seen on the walls of art museums. Contemporary painter Kehinde Wiley is singlehandedly changing that. His paintings that marry historical portraits of popes, emperors and saints and replace the decrepit old white guys with handsome young African-American men in the same poses are changing the demographics of art-museum representation.

Three of his large, arresting portraits of street toughs dressed in sagging jeans and hoodies posed on horses like conquering heroes are hanging on the walls of Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. It's one of the most dynamic "Focus" shows in the Modern's history.

Wiley's subjects look down from the walls with imperious expression. On the street, they would look dangerous, but on canvas, the proud bearing and haughtiness mimics that of the original sitters. No one is reaching out to this disenfranchised group to include them in the art canon the way Wiley does.

For his Texas debut, Wiley chose three of his monumental equestrian works. Their titles reference three obscure original works titled Colonel Platoff on his Charger, Prince Tommaso Francesco of Savoy and The Chancellor Seguier on Horseback.

At a museum party Friday night they were greeted with fanfare provided by the Trimble Tech Marching Band...This is typical of a Wiley first night; he includes the musical preferences of his sitters played by musicians their age. "I like to have fun with my shows," Wiley said in a National Public Radio interview, "to get rid of the high seriousness with the art."

The Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, TX

NOTE: ensembles interested in scores & parts to this and other mash-ups of the hip-hop experience created for Kehinde Wiley (for string quartet, baroque ensemble, marching band, etc.) please inquire by sending an email to: iNFO@strangemusic.com.

01 MAR 08

Capoiera NYC: Sound Design for Rockstar Energy Drink by dGoMedia

Here's a capoiera-themed promo by dGoMedia for Rockstar Energy Drink that I worked on last week. Amongst other elements (like recording the traffic on the FDR out of my studio window), that's 18 tracks of me clapping my hands off to match the energy of the featured dancer/athlete/fighters.

Director: Chris Zonnas, Producer: Donn Gobin, Editor: Matt Grzan/DV8R Post

15 FEB 08

New Commission for Music at the Modern Museum in Fort Worth, TX

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Kehinde Wiley Studio & Deitch Projects have commissioned Patrick Grant to create live music for large ensemble especially for the opening gala on the night of April 18th.

FOCUS: Kehinde Wiley
Exhibition April 19–May 25, 2008

Kehinde Wiley creates larger-than-life-size portraits that mix historical Western European painting styles such as French Romanticism, Rococo, and Baroque with images from contemporary urban streets. The resulting monumental works are painted in Wiley’s characteristic, flamboyant style and presented in ornate gold frames. While the artist evokes important and highly recognizable paintings from the past, he replaces those works’ elite white sitters with African-American men.

Modern Art Museum-Fort Worth
3200 Darnell St
Fort Worth, TX 76107
(817) 738-9215

More details

01 FEB 08

Found on Web: International Strange Music Day - August 24

Wow. I've been kidding around about this since I founded Strange Music in 1998. And now it's a news item on the web, so it must be real! So, let's say that this Sunday, August 24, 2008 will be the First Annual Strange Music Marathon? With composers and musicians of all kinds from all over? Yeah, I like the sound of it. Anyway, August needs a holiday for those of us without summer homes...

More details TBA

Living Theatre logo created by Jean Cocteau

The Living Theatre (19-21 Clinton St.) will extend its production of Maudie & Jane, an adaptation of The Diary of Jane Somers, starring Judith Malina as Maudie and with Monica Hunken taking over the role of Jane, in which an old bag lady seduces a high-profile fashion editor into taking care of her. The production will now run until March 9. The official opening was on December 7. Hanon Reznikov Directs.

The Assistant Director is Brad Burgess. Set & Lighting Designer is Gary Brackett, and music is by Patrick Grant.

Covering ethnic communities in your city is one thing. Covering your city from an immigrant perspective is something else altogether. Through training and mentoring immigrant journalists, the Feet in 2 Worlds project brings new voices into the discussions of immigration, globalization and transnational culture. The award-winning program gives public radio listeners a unique window into the lives of immigrant communities while at the same time helping immigrant journalists advance their careers. We also sponsor town hall events on issues of critical importance to immigrants, and help public radio stations around the nation work with ethnic media in their local communities.

The musical ins & outs of these podcasts are by Patrick Grant with performers John Ferrari and Don Vitsentzos.

01 JAN 08

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

21 DEC 07

sTRANGE mUSIC Closed for the Holidays

sTRANGEmUSIC will be closed from Friday, December 21, 2007 until Wednesday, January 2, 2008.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

05 DEC 07

LIVING GAMELAN - MP3s & Photos

LIVING GAMELAN: Music about Theater & Politics
December 2, 3 & 4, 2007
The Living Theatre, 21 Clinton Street, New York, NY
Free Workshops, Open Rehearsals, Concert Performance

Funded in part through Meet The Composer's MetLife Creative Connections program and through public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.

Satchidananda by Peter Max

An original musical score for a documentary based on the life and teachings of
Swami Satchidananda

Satchidananda (1914–2002) was an Indian religious figure who gained fame and followers in the West, especially in the United States.

After serving his guru in India for many years, in 1966 he visited New York City at the request of a U.S. disciple, the artist Peter Max. Soon after his initial visit, Swamiji, as he was known to disciples, formally moved to the United States and became a citizen. From his new home he spread his teachings of yoga and enlightenment.

Satchidananda first came to public attention as the opening speaker at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in 1969. Over the years he wrote numerous books and gave hundreds of lectures. He also ordained a number of western disciples into the holy order of sanyasa. He was the founder of the Integral Yoga Institute,and in 1986 opened the LOTUS, the Light of Truth Universal Shrine at Yogaville in Buckingham, Virginia.

Satchidananda's better-known disciples included Alice Coltrane, Allen Ginsberg, Jeff Goldblum, Carole King and Scott Shaw. Guitarist John Fahey spent some time living in Yogaville, and endorsed the ideals of Integral Yoga, even going so far as to dedicate his 1973 album Fare Forward Voyagers to Satchidananda. Even Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo grew up in Yogaville.

A video documentary by Stories to Remember
in association with Integral Yoga Multimedia

Produced & Directed by Joshua M. Greene and Shiva Kumar
Music composed & produced by Patrick Grant

Additional musicians:
Prakash - vocals
John Ferrari - percussion
Steve Murphy - drums & vocals
Godfrey Townsend - e. guitar, e. bass & vocals
Don Vitsentzos - e. sitar & e. guitar

Kehinde Wiley and Artware Editions are collaborating to recreate a late-French rococo mantle clock with matching candlesticks.

Like Wiley’s paintings, this traditionally-styled clock will synthesize historical and vernacular references through several surprising updates: the classical figures, or putti, traditionally shown supporting the timepiece, will be replaced with urban African American men in contemporary clothing.

While the exterior of the gilded bronze clock will be recreated with exacting attention to authenticity, it will contrast with the modernized inner-workings of the clock that incorporate a classically rearranged version by Patrick Grant of the Salt-N-Pepa hip-hop song, “Push It,” in collaboration with and sung by the brilliant contemporary performer, Shequida.

At each hour, a fragment of the song will play, and at noon and midnight the song will play in its entirety. Historically aesthetically accurate, but also blinged out, this clock will explore the intersection of power, identity, and luxury.

More details TBA

23 OCT 07

hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III in Chicago

Quinton I. Morris, violin, Mariana Green-Hill, violin, Tyrone Tidwell,
viola, Chala Yancy, violin, Monica Davis, Violin,Dawn M. Smith,
viola, Ryan Murphy, cello, Tahirah Whittington, cello

The Young Eight will perform their mix of hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III at Northeastern University in Chicago on November 16th. The music was created through co-commissions of Kehinde Wiley Studio, Deitch Projects, & Roberts & Tilton Gallery, and The Columbus Museum of Art

More iNFO HERE

15 OCT 07

01. Main Title & The Accident
02. Hospital
03. Nine Months Later
04. Daily Living (Gnossienne No. 3.5)
05. Baiting the Trap
06. Going for a Drive

Total Running: 8'48"

Part Two

07. Cemetery
08. Hitchhiker No. 3
09. Unsuspecting Victim
10. Under the Knife
11. Evening Prayer
12. New Day to Face
13. End Title

Total Running: 7'45"

Patrick Grant & Marija Ilic - keyboards, John Ferrari - drums & percussion, with Keith Bonner - flute, Thomas P. Oberle - clarinet, Darryl Gregory - trombone, Martha Mooke - viola, Maxine Neumann - cello, David Simons - theremin & percussion, Dominic Frasca - electric guitar, Mark Steven Brooks - electric bass, and Alexandra Montano - voice

11 OCT 07

Doris Lessing Wins the Nobel Prize in Literature 2007

"that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny"

Doris Lessing is, amongst many other works, the author of The Diary of Jane Somers, the writings upon which the play Maudie and Jane is based.

The play, with Judith Malina and Pat Russell, directed by Hanon Reznikov with lights and design by Gary Brackett and incidental music by Patrick Grant, opens on November 21 at the Living Theatre (recipient of two Obie Awards in 2007) in NYC.

More iNFO HERE

01 OCT 07

Web Stats for the Third Quarter

Almost 28,000 vistors in the months of July to September. Wow.

01 OCT 07

Rainha Mentira / Queen Liar plays in Argentina

The play, with music by Patrick Grant & Edson Secco, plays the Festival Internacional de Teatro MERCOSUR in Cordoba, Argentina.

More iNFO and an interview with the director/writer Gerald Thomas can be found on his blog HERE.

01 SEP 07

Meet the Composer awards grants for performances including "tHE pHILOSOPHER'S sTONE" and workshops

This event made possible through support from MetLife Creative Connections

The Living Theatre will host the new music repertory ensemble Gamelan Son of Lion who will feature works by Patrick Grant, Daniel Goode, David Demnitz. The composers will participate in half-hour pre-concert discussions, open rehearsals and workshops. All events will be free and open to the public (concert admission by donation). There will be an open rehearsal on December 2, and on December 3-4 there will be free community gamelan workshops, a spiraling introduction to gamelan performance practice and rhythmic structure.

Patrick Grant produces his tone-poem for gamelan based on a scenario, tHE pHILOSOPHER'S sTONE, by Antonin Artaud (1931).

http://www.linkstew.org/1998/05/313/

Adieu à Elvire Braunschweig 1922-2007

I was very saddened to have heard the news of the passing of Elvire, a friend and an original board member of Strange Music Inc...

Adieu à Elvire Braunschweig

Elvire Braunschweig-Krémis est subitement décédée à son domicile en Suisse le 5 août 2007.

Elle avait fondé avec son mari, Philippe Braunschweig, le Prix de Lausanne en 1972.

Elvire Braunschweig possédait à la fois la rigueur et la souplesse - qualités essentielles pour le ballet - qui lui permettaient d’avoir la clairvoyance nécessaire pour encourager les jeunes artistes qui, à ses yeux, avaient de l’avenir, tout en amenant les autres à affronter la réalité.

Souvent, au cours des 35 années d’existence du Prix de Lausanne, elle a pris sous son aile des jeunes danseurs et danseuses démunis mais dont elle percevait le talent, et ces jeunes sont grâce à elle devenus de grands artistes.

Officiellement retirée depuis dix ans du Prix de Lausanne, Elvire Braunschweig continuait cependant de s’intéresser de très près au développement de cette institution. Elle assistait régulièrement aux séances du conseil en tant que membre d’honneur, et elle ne manquait aucune épreuve du concours.

Elvire Braunschweig continuera de vivre dans son œuvre en faveur des jeunes danseurs et danseuses, et dans le cœur de celles et ceux qui l’ont connue et appréciée.

Lausanne, le 8 août 2007

http://www.danse-light-magazine.com/spip.php?article232

Le Prix de Lausanne est orphelin

Elvire Braunschweig, 85 ans, cofondatrice du Prix de Lausanne, est subitement décédée à son domicile veveysan. Vivant en parfaite osmose depuis 55 ans, le couple Braunschweig a fortement marqué le développement de la danse en Suisse. A Philippe, le leadership ; à Elvire, l’influence qu’autorisait une riche expérience artistique. C’est d’ailleurs dans le studio de danse de Madame Sedova, à Nice, que le jeune Chaux-de-fonnier, alors étudiant à l’EPFZ, et Elvira Kremis, Russe blanche établie sur la Côte d’Azur, s’étaient rencontrés en juin 1950. Leur mariage, deux ans plus tard, puis la naissance de leur premier enfant, mirent prématurément fin à une prometteuse carrière chorégraphique. De ces brillantes saisons au Ballet de Vichy, notamment, elle conserva d’inaltérables amitiés, à commencer par celle de Maurice Béjart.

Par la suite, un long séjour à New York, puis de nombreux voyages autour du monde permirent au couple Braunschweig de nouer et d’entretenir des liens étroits avec la fine fleur de la danse internationale, de Rosella Hightower à Yvette Chauviré. La connaissance de la langue et de la culture russes qu’avait Elvire favorisa l’ouverture à l’Est du Prix de Lausanne. Plusieurs graines d’étoile, en provenance de ce qui était alors le bloc soviétique, n’ont pas oublié son accueil, sa générosité et son soutien indéfectible. Katarzyna Gdaniec, co-directrice de la compagnie Linga, à Pully, après avoir brillé chez Béjart, est de celles-là.

Nouveaux horizons

Partie prenante dans toutes les entreprises artistiques de son mari, Elvire Braunschweig aurait pu vivre difficilement la décision de ce dernier de se retirer, l’âge venu, de la présidence du Béjart Ballet Lausanne, puis du Prix. La peinture lui ouvrit de nouveaux horizons. A la surprise générale, elle se découvrit une palette des plus imaginatives, riche de rythmes et de couleurs, dont témoignent deux expositions à la galerie Nelly L’Eplattenier, à Lausanne.

Mais la danse restait la première de ses préoccupations, avec sa famille. Une famille dispersée : ses deux enfants, Valerie Filipovna et Georgik, vivent respectivement à New York et Paris. Et ses deux petits-fils, à Washington et Los Angeles. La mort a d’ailleurs saisi Elvire à la veille d’un voyage en Bielo-Russie où elle comptait retrouver de lointains cousins.

http://www.prixdelausanne.org/pdf/SadNews2.pdf

05 AUG 07

Reviews for Rainha Mentira / Queen Liar from São Paolo, Brazil

"Queen Liar" is a total Wagnerian spectacle! What a soundtrack! What lighting! A 'dry opera' with the raw musicality of this eddy of words and images that is the world in which we live! I loved it!
- Evaldo Mocarzel (filmmaker & former cultural editor of the Estado de Sao Paulo - Aug. 9, 2007)

Rainha Mentira / Queen Liar
A new play by GERALD THOMAS
& The Dry Opera Company

Original music by
Patrick GRANT & Edson SECCO

Com Fabiana Gugli, Fábio Pinheiro, Pancho Cappeletti e Anna Américo

Read the reviews at Gerald Thomas' blog HERE

21 JUL 07

hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE - Charts & Parts

"...the third piece was arranged in such a colorful manner that it was even difficult for some of the younger audience members to tell which song belonged to which Grammy-winning artist." - June 5, 2007 - The Jibsheet

Kehinde Wiley, The Three Graces, 2005

hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III
permutations on hip-hop themes 4 string quartet+
(optional flute, harpsichord/piano& double bass)
by Patrick GRANT
2005-2006

Created through co-commissions of Kehinde Wiley Studio, Deitch Projects, Roberts & Tilton Gallery, and the Columbus Museum of Art

PDF Charts & Parts

=====================================================================================

As an extension of his exhibitions and events throughout 2005 & 2006, the artist Kehinde Wiley, with Deitch Projects, Roberts & Tilton Gallery and the Columbus Museum commissioned hip-hop inspired classical & baroque music productions for me to create and organize for his openings. Performers have included Shequida, the West Village Quartet & Ensemble, the Young Eight, and the Malcolm X. Shabazz High School Marching Band as well as Patrick Grant Group and other ensembles outside the context of Wiley's events.

In order to keep it, you have to give it away: I've decided to post some early incarnations from the series partly due to public curiosity regarding the work (I even found out about some unauthorized performances!) but mostly with how I went about transforming the CD audio we know into readable music to be performed. Also, it's due to the fact that I'm now working on bigger and better hip-hop-hybrids and they've become my focus. Plus, it's good that these earlier pieces start getting around some more. The public response at every performance has been great.

In selecting the material for this particular instrumental suite much care was put into selecting pieces that could more or less be easily identified by the musical content alone when the rap vocal is not present, and with more than a fistful of original hooks and grooves running throughout the mix to hold it together. A lot of figurations had to be invented to make up for the lack of percussion though body sounds like clapping, stomping and finger snapping have always been welcome in my performances.

The scores and parts presented are Urtext Editions, very much like a score by Bach, that is, without dynamics, articulations and idiomatic embellishments like grace notes and glissandi. These, as in the Baroque and Classical eras, were always left up to the descretion of the performers and worked out in the rehearsal process if not extemporaneously, a very similar performance practice that lives on today in the contemporary music scene of Downtown New York City and other urban hotbeds of creativity where the ideas are coming so fast that it just doesn't make any sense to waste time writing these kinds of details down. At least that's what they say.

Besides, it does enable every performer and every performance to find their unique way through the notes. Especially when I'm part of the performance, it's just much faster to call things out as they're discovered especially when working in forms and styles that have no classical origin.

Also, all the sections presented here are modular, just like a set list, and may be moved around, edited, cut and pasted as to the performing ensemble's need and to match whatever particular flow they wish to project. Any re-ordering of the movements is acceptable.

Not one of the above mentioned performances ever did, nor was meant to, stick hard and fast to the printed page. The movements are numbered then, not for order, but for reference. In a way, they're more jazz charts than actual scores if one wants to take them that way, although they do stay within the margins of certain classical techniques. It's a mood of conviviality not too far from Terry Riley's "In C," although that piece doesn't allow re-ordering.

So, though the instruments used here may be antique, hip-hop is not, and this music should be adapted to the feel of the venue and to the spirit of the performers. Thus, any reordering will be referred to as a "mix," i.e. "hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE - The Imaginary Quartet Mix" - etc. - by Patrick Grant, to use an example. This also keeps a parallel with DJ culture and acknowledges the contributions of the performing ensemble.

I do look forward to performances of this work and others from the series (i.e. Historical Black Music Roller Coaster) taking place in the upcoming season. Stay tuned for nEWS of other scores from this series being posted as soon as I can make them available.

Thanks again to Kehinde for getting the ball rolling.

Patrick GRANT
NYC

For hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III Charts & Parts click HERE

18 JUL 07

SERVER PROBLEMS or "Dare Thou Goest in the Machine?"

I deeply regret the problems caused by a new and problematic server in NJ to all those on my mailing list though I'll man-up and take responsibility if a human face need be attached. It is not a virus. Breathe easy. It is a sTRANGE loop that was caused by the changing of a simple setting that an unpersoned machine couldn't handle due to something that must have hit it at its end. Still don't know exactly what that was except that it was benign although extremely annoying.

In all fairness to all those involved, the mailing list server is currently being dismantled, PERMANENTLY, and I will be starting afresh when the season resumes in September. I was due for a change anyway, like so many things this year.

BTW: If you've received spam from others on the list, your email was never compromised. It was a function of a "Reply to All" feature of the list which is now, like all its features, inert.

Once again, my deepest regrets. I'm sure it's not my idea, or more importantly, your idea of how to start a day! Whew. Give me strength...

PG*
NYC
09:59 EDT

UPDATE 11:30 PM

Whatta day. Looks like it's over and that the server has queued and spewed about all it can do.

My deepest regrets again for hitting the button that sent a server going crazy. I did everything I could as fast as I could do take care of it. A special mention to the fine folks at WAMU FM-Radio in Washington, D.C. and to all Dianes everywhere who seemed to have beared the major brunt of this technological misadventure.

HOW IT HAPPENED

1. I, the list-owner, tried to send out an announcement.

2. It bounced back to me saying that only the list-owner had permission to do that (?)

3. I went to my server's settings page and changed it so that it would accept postings from anybody to see if my announcement would go through that way. It did. I changed the setting back to what it was, postings from list-owner only. Still, that was weird why it did that.

4. I went to bed then, at 1:30 AM

5. Right away, automatic responses started coming in, while I was logged-off, notably from WAMU-FM in Wash., D.C. These went out to everybody on the list.

6. People, understandably irate, responded to be taken off the list. These too went out to the list initiating more responses to be taken off, etc. etc. etc.

7. The telephone calls start coming in at 6:15 AM and the general opinion, if one were to have taken a poll, was that I was the assh*le du jour.

8. I logged-on and went back to the settings page. It was set to "Accept postings from list-owner only." But I had changed it back! I tried to do so again. It wouldn't budge. It and all other settings on the page were, and are still, jammed, broken, NFG. F--k!

9. Even more people now, as the Western world awoke, and even more understandably irate, responded to be taken off the list. These too went out to the list initiating more responses to be taken off, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

10. My only recourse was to go to the one page of the list-serve that was working, the list itself, and unsubscribe everybody. But that took forever. The system was so jammed with everything going on it was taking forever for it to load. I knew it was looping but couldn't stop it until, after an hour, I eventually could get into it.

11. So, everyone's unsubscribed from my list. That's cool, that's the price one pays. BUT STILL, the server had to spew out all the data from this strange loop that had been created and that was stuck in the queue. It was a matter of letting it run out. AND IT HAS.

* * * * * * * *

Oh, and did I mention that the person who had been in charge of the server died two years ago and left in running in perpetuo without any contact information? I've been coasting ever since sans problem until now. Truly, that's the ghost in my machine until I can change my situation (asap). May he rest in piece.

So, enjoy being off the list. When I do start one up again, it will be up to the subscriber's descretion whether to join or not via my web site. Fair enough.

All my best,
-Patrick*

15 JUL 07

Young and Hip and Classical, Too

hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE performed by The Young Eight
w/ LIVE WEBCASTS on WSU Internet Radio

The Young Eight, an African-American string octet, plays a new kind of concert this week at Chamber Music at the Barn
July 15, 2007 By Chris Schull - The Wichita Eagle

Audiences have learned to accept more than straight classical music at Chamber Music at the Barn - July 18, 19 & 20

The Barn will take another step away from the classical music mainstream at concerts Wednesday through Friday at the Barn at Prairie Pines when it presents hip-hop music -- hit songs by Beyonce, 50 Cent, Kanye West and others arranged as string quartets. The hip-hop quartets are part of an adventurous, innovative program to be played by guest artists The Young Eight, a string octet of young African-American string players. The ensemble will also present two new octets by young composers and the classical "Lyric for Strings" by George Walker and "Introduction and Allegro" by Edward Elgar.

Though they are bringing new twists to classical concerts, playing hip-hop quartets is no gimmick for the musicians in the Young Eight. "We did not want to sound like classical musicians trying to play hip hop," said Quinton Morris, the group's founder and artistic director. "We didn't want to sound like we were trying to be hip. We just wanted to be us. "We're the Young Eight. We're all in our 20s and early 30s" -- serious musicians in tune with all aspects of the musical culture around them.

Morris, 29, founded the Young Eight in 2002 during his senior year at the North Carolina School of the Arts. The groundwork for the ensemble was laid during a career development class. The ensemble's membership was filled by friends and friends-of-friends -- violinists, violists and cellists from many of America's top music schools. "The day after I graduated was our first concert," Morris said. "I managed in six weeks to do all the fundraising and marketing. That was my first step into the music biz."

Morris' decision to form a string octet was calculated. "There's a bunch of string quartets out here and there are gobs of piano trios out here -- why not do something different?" Morris said. Since that first concert in 2002, Morris has helped steer the Young Eight toward greater prominence. Last year, the group initiated a competition to inspire young composers to write pieces for string octet.

During its performances this week at the Barn, the Young Eight will perform the winning pieces, each about five minutes long --"African Rhapsody" by Michael Mikulka and "Conch Shells Memories" by Robert Tanner. "Both pieces are really cute and humorous," Morris said. "They are not the kind of contemporary pieces that people will frown upon and say, 'Oh, god, it's another 'new' work.' "These are young composers and you can hear the youthfulness in the music. And I think we do an excellent job of displaying that on stage."

Besides playing concerts, the Young Eight presents many workshops and music camps for young musicians. On Friday, they'll work with African-American students enrolled in the Northeast Area Strings Academy of Wichita. "We stress academics a lot to our students," Morris said. "We tell them it is not good enough to just be talented; you have to be smart as well."

The Young Eight's performances this week of "hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III" -- hip hop hits arranged for strings by Patrick Grant -- is intended to interest young people who are into today's pop music. "Ensembles all the time are looking for ways to build audiences, to get kids more interested and involved in classical music," Morris said. "Well, the way that you do that is by being able to bring something (into concerts) that they know and can relate to. "That is how we are able to get kids so involved in classical music. We're able to play Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn but also 50 Cent 'In Da Club' and make it sound like it is off of the radio. And kids love it."

Morris' musical ideas are gaining momentum -- and paying dividends. Morris recently accepted a position as assistant professor of music at Seattle University. The Young Eight will be artists-in-residence there.

LIVE BROADCASTS on Wichita State University Internet Radio
Click HERE for Details on How to Listen
Note: Concerts are at 8PM Central Daylight Time (-5 hrs. UTC)

====================================

IN A RELATED STORY:

A promo video of the opening of Kehinde Wiley's "Rumors of War" at Deitch Projects has just been posted by someone on YouTube.

You can watch it HERE.

This was the event where I was commissioned to create a hip-hop performance for The Malcolm X. Shabazz High School Marching Band as led by the inimitable Hassan Williams. If you look closely, that's me asking the audience to give it up for the band at the 3:08 mark.

07 JUL 07

www.verisimilitunes.com

The Treachery of Notation (2007)

music & audio for visual media
A division of sTRANGEmUSIC

Ver-i-si-mil'-i-tune (from Latin verisimilitudo, from verus true + similitudo similitude + tune organized sound), is the state or quality of works that exhibit the appearance of truth or reality. The term denotes the extent to which a work exhibits realism or authenticity, or otherwise conforms to our sense of reality. A work with a high degree of verisimilitune means that the work is very realistic and believable; works of this nature are often said to be "true to life." Verisimilitune can also refer to a neoclassic idea of reality (realism), morality, and universality. Universality means that certain tunes are common to all people. A verisimilitune that is true of one person is true of all.

www.verisimilitunes.com

05 JUL 07

PG Signs to Create Original Score for Documentary

Satchidananda by Peter Max

An original musical score for a documentary based on the life and teachings of Swami Satchidananda: more details TBA

Satchidananda (1914–2002) was an Indian religious figure who gained fame and followers in the West, especially in the United States.

After serving his guru in India for many years, in 1966 he visited New York City at the request of a U.S. disciple, the artist Peter Max. Soon after his initial visit, Swamiji, as he was known to disciples, formally moved to the United States and became a citizen. From his new home he spread his teachings of yoga and enlightenment.

Satchidananda first came to public attention as the opening speaker at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in 1969. Over the years he wrote numerous books and gave hundreds of lectures. He also ordained a number of western disciples into the holy order of sanyasa. He was the founder of the Integral Yoga Institute,and in 1986 opened the LOTUS, the Light of Truth Universal Shrine at Yogaville in Buckingham, Virginia.

NY Times Review - Terry Riley's "In C"

By Vivien Schweitzer

An unsuspecting passerby wandering down Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village on Thursday evening would have been surprised to hear pulsating waves of sound from a large, eclectic orchestra massed in the middle of the street.

The alfresco performance of “In C,” Terry Riley’s minimalist classic, was one of hundreds of musical events, by amateurs and professionals of all ages in genres from classical to hip-hop, that took place in all five boroughs throughout the day as part of the inaugural Make Music New York festival. It was modeled on Fête de la Musique, an annual French project, founded in 1982, that has spurred similar events in more than 300 cities around the world on the summer solstice.

Read the full review of this All-Day Festival of Sounds HERE.

CCi's Performance of Terry Riley's "In C" on Cornelia Street, NYC

Pictures of just a tiny fraction of the near 100 musicians who played Terry Riley's "In C" as the Mighty CCi House Band & Friends on June 21. This page cannot do it justice until some of the more aerial-oriented photographs come in (showing larger perspectives of the show), but here goes:

Left to right, top to bottom: 1. Composers Collaborative Inc.'s artistic director and conductor for the event Jed Distler, 2. composer/performer and event co-organizer Patrick Grant on the analog synthesizer, 3. Jenny Lin on the Casio, Kathleen Supové on the Exploding Melodica, and Chris Tignor (wearing red) playing violin in the background, 4. some of the many accordionists, 5. the dudes blowing in the reed section, 6. violist Stephanie Griffin, 7. composer/percussionist David Simons playing various metallic objects, 8. keyboardist Marija Ilic at the toy piano, 9. Theaterlab co-director and composer/performer Carlo Altomare on the SK-1, 10. some of the many woodwinds and, 11. an oboe up against the brass section.

Maximalism?

A very special thanks to the Home Restaurant for letting us borrow some electricity in a pinch.

On June 8th in NYC, the Don Vitsentzos Trio (Don Vitsentzos - guitar, Aloke Dasgupta - the featured musician on sitar, and Aditya Bannerji - tablas), played one of the hottest concerts in town that night at the Jivamukti Center. It was hosted by Joshua Greene.

Click HERE to see more pictures from the event.

24 MAY 07

Catalog of Works Updated

After quite some time, a selective catalog of works has been updated. Scores and MP3s will be added to this page as it continues to evolve.

To view it click HERE.

21 MAY 07

Living Theatre Wins 2 Obie Awards for Direction & Ensemble!

Living Theatre logo created by Jean Cocteau, "The Brig" poster art by Luba Lukova

On Monday night at NYU's Skirball Center, the Living Theatre won two awards at the Village Voice's Obie Awards for Off-Off Broadway. The awards were for Direction and for Ensemble.

"Which brings us to a quip by the first playwright ever to win an Obie Award, Lionel Abel. Close on 60 years ago, when a young couple, Julian Beck and Judith Malina, announced that they would name their newly formed troupe the Living Theatre, Abel joked, "You can't have a living theater until you've had a dead one." In a sense, it's taken us till now to discover that he was right. The old theater—every old way of making theater, even the old Off-Off theater—is dead and gone. All that remains is to take the scripts it left behind and make them live again, older than Methuselah and yet brand-new. The Living Theatre itself, living again as of this spring, with a new young company, in a shiny new Lower East Side space, must know exactly what I mean, busy as they are displaying the bleakest truths of 1963, painfully true again today, to the eager young faces lining up nightly to see The Brig." --- Michael Feingold, The Village Voice

“The Brig” at the Living Theatre, 21 Clinton Street, Lower East Side, Wed-Sun (212) 352-3101

See the show. More info HERE.

15 MAY 07

Private Goodbyes Win Tomorrow (Thus) Avoiding Confusion When It Rains

A (not so) secret desire to be Scottish?

A singer/songwriter in Pennsylvania named Patrick J. Mencel (unhappy with his own heritage?) recently announced that, in order to have a better stage name, has changed it to "Patrick Grant." His brother Paul Mencel, in back-up band The Rising, so far seems content with his birth-given moniker.

Gosh. I guess that Patrick Grants everywhere should be deeply honored.

Anyway, I thought that was kinda sTRANGE...

Craigellachie!
patrick mencel and the rising star

01 MAY 07

Projects-in-Development are Now Updated

Get the iNFO HERE

26 APR 07

The Living Theatre Opens a New Space on NYC's Lower East Side with "The Brig"

Richard Termine for The New York Times - Clink on image for NY Times Review

The big event (this week) is the return of the LIVING THEATRE, the celebrated avant-garde company founded by Judith Malina and Julian Beck. This unabashedly radical troupe hit its stride in the early 1960s, winning its third Obie award in 1963 for “The Brig,” the autobiographical play by Kenneth H. Brown about the brutality of a Marine Corps prison. Itinerant for many years, the company now has a permanent space to play in, and Ms. Malina, still very much in charge (Mr. Beck died in 1985), will direct the new production.

“The Brig” opens Thursday, April 26th at the Living Theatre, 21 Clinton Street, Lower East Side, (212) 352-3101, livingtheatre.org; $20 to $30, Wed-Sun (Wed. is pay-what-you-can).

Living Theatre WIKI

Added April 27: REVIEWS Updated May 1

On National Public Radio's "Day to Day"

On a musical note: a page about John Cage and the Living Theatre

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From the sTRANGEmUSIC archives:

MP3: FIVE SONGS from "THE RULES OF CIVILITY"

a production of the Living Theatre 1991/1993
adapted & directed by Hanon Reznikov
text: George Washington, music: Patrick Grant
vocals: Joanie Fritz Zosike & Robert Hieger

PDF Score

1. Don't sit at the head of the table unless it is your proper place or if the master of the house wishes it. It is the decent thing to do to give anyone at table a meal. Try to help others unless your master desires it not.

2. Pay attention when others talk at the table. Don't lay your arm but only your hand on the table. Keep your fingers clean and when dirty wipe them on a napkin.

3. Don't eat in the street or in the house out of season. Don't eat too leisurely or too hastily. Don't spit, don't scratch, don't cough or blow your nose except when really necessary. Don't cut your bread with a greasy knife.

4. Don't put your food in your mouth with a knife. Don't stare while you are eating. Don't put another bite of food in until the first bite is finished (gone) and do not talk when your mouth is full.

5. Don't get angry at the table no matter what should happen especially if there are strangers present you should put on a cheerful face. Good humor makes one dish of food a feast.

Patrick Grant is the current Music Director of the Living Theatre.

18 APR 07

The Young Eight Featured in the Seattle Times

The Young Eight, a stellar octet of classical strings and performers of PG's "hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III," are featured in the Seattle Times in a piece in support of their current national tour.

Read all about it HERE.

After completing its run in Rio de Janeiro, Rainha Mentira/Queen Liar moves to São Paolo in an expanded form. From there it will go on to performances in Rome, Vienna, Munich and Copenhagen.

More details TBA

05 APR 07

If One Should Happen To Fall...

"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall,
Ninety-nine bottles of beer,
If one of those bottles should happen to fall..."
-Traditional

If One Should Happen To Fall
music: Patrick Grant
lyrics: Roget's Thesaurus
vocal: Lisa Karrer
drums: John Ferrari
© sTRANGE mUSIC

MP3 - 3.3 MB

Reviews of Terra em trânsito & Rainha mentira / Queen Liar are coming in...

In Portugese for now. Click HERE.

21 MAR 07

Roamin' Numeral

12 MAR 07

O GLOBO Preview of "Rainha Mentira" from Rio de Janiero

Click on the above images for the article (in Portugese).

03 MAR 07

The moon over NYC

The year's first total lunar eclipse occurs on Saturday, March 3, 2007, as Earth's shadow crosses in front of the full moon.

The moon first enters the faint part of Earth's shadow at 3:16 p.m. EST. During the penumbral stage of lunar eclipses, it can be very hard to notice any change taking place with only a slight darkening. The moon enters the dark part of Earth's shadow at 4:30 p.m. EST. At this time the moon will still be behind the horizon for US observers. The moon finally crests over the horizon for the northeast at the onset of total eclipse (5:44 p.m. EST). Remember that the Sun has to be opposite the Moon in our sky in order to produce a total eclipse. The point of mideclipse, when the moon will be darkest, is at 6:21 p.m. EST. The total eclipse phase ends at 6:58 p.m. EST, and the moon will then begin to slowly regain some of its reflected light, slowing spreading across the surface. By 8:12 p.m. EST, the darkest part of Earth's shadow will have completely left the Moon's surface.

01 MAR 07

A New Play by GERALD THOMAS & The Dry Opera Company

at the
Espaço Cultural Oi Futuro

Nesse espetáculo, Gerald Thomas faz um levantamento alegórico da pulverização das tragédias históricas, como o holocausto, as guerras em geral e de assuntos absolutamente pessoaís. Como a vida extremamente triste de sua mãe, acusada aos nove anos de idade pelo enforcamento do próprio irmão, um jovem de 17 anos em uma Alemanha já por WWII.

L to R: Chala Yancy, Quinton I. Morris, Amber Archibald, Caleb Jones

Last night scores of New Yorkers braved the arctic cold and and packed the auditorium in the Performing Arts Center at CUNY's York College in Queens. They came to hear The Young Eight, a string octet of highly talented players, as they stopped in town for the NY leg of their Black Colleges Tour. On the program was the NY Premiere of Hip-Hop Experience III, a concert suite of mash-ups for string quartet. Needless to say, the public, young and old, went wild hearing this music in a classical context and played with much fire by members of the group led by Quinton I. Morris.

14 FEB 07

I've been away in sunnier places for the last 6 weeks and have just returned to this cold, cold city where the current climate keeps my thermostat set to its highest power. Brrr!

As they say, pardon the impersonal nature of this notice, and, if you had been trying to get a hold of me during my absence, I will be making amends in this New Year.

Hoping to see you all soon, and thanks to all who've hung with me. You make the city, the world, a warmer place. And we need that.

It Takes a Village

6+1=x

sTRANGEmUSIC's studio will be closed for the holidays and will open again in late January. Happy New Year.

Come on lucky Number?

Legendary Avant Garde Brazilian Director Gerald Thomas Debuts New Work in NYC

“ a daring innovator of form and content... highly personal and visually beautiful creations” -- The New York Times

“ingenious and daring... Thomas, together with Peter Sellars and Robert Wilson, makes up that trio of wild boys who have been shaking and moving European and American theatre for the last decade.” -- The Independent

La MaMa E.T.C. presents the New York Premiere of Brazil's Dry Opera Theater Company in EARTH IN TRANCE. This highly stylized comedy is written and directed by avant garde legend Gerald Thomas. The original Brazilian cast, which includes Fabiana Gugli and puppeteer Juliano Antunes, stars in Thomas' new English language translation of the piece.

Performances of this limited engagement run begin December 14th at La MaMa as part of its 45th Anniversary Season.

EARTH IN TRANCE orbits around a diva who is trapped in her dressing room. While she slowly goes mad, she tells her life story to a swan who lives back stage. Descending into madness, she never stops feeding the animal “for foie gras purposes.”

Described by The New York Times as “the eternal enfant terrible of Brazilian theater” Gerald Thomas has established a reputation as a visionary director of the avant garde while working in collaboration with artists including Samuel Beckett, Heiner Muller and Philip Glass. From 1979 - 1984 he directed 98 plays by Beckett at La MaMa; included among these were All Strange Away and That Time starring Julian Beck in his only performances outside The Living Theatre. In 1985, Thomas founded The Dry Opera Theater Company in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Here he has created nearly two dozen works including The Flash and Crash Days, The Kafka Trilogy, The Ventriloquist and Waiting for Beckett that have been seen in 15 countries with stops including Lincoln Center, Munich State Theater and Vienna's Wiener Festwochen. Thomas is the recipient of three Moliere Prizes and eighteen other awards. He has been the subject of television documentaries for the Germany's NDR 3, Brazil's TV Cultura, USA's PBS and Austria's ORF. In 2003, he was indicted for public indecency in Brazil after mooning an audience who booed his radical reworking of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, sparking debate and landing his derriere on newspaper covers internationally. He is currently working on his autobiography, Suicide Note.

EARTH IN TRANCE runs December 14 - 30, Thursday - Saturday at 8:00pm and Sunday at 2:30pm & 8:00pm. (Note: no performance on December 24.) La MaMa E.T.C. is located at 74 East 4th Street (between 2nd Avenue and Bowery -- accessible from the F/V train at 2nd Avenue or the 6 train at Astor Place). Tickets are $15.

To purchase tickets call 212-475-7710 or visit www.lamama.org.

27 NOV 06

Photo: John Ranard

"At the end, the characters recede out of sight, and all we are left with is music. Music qualifies as an organizing principle for this play because it is a collapse of science and art, mathematical and emotional, imaginative. The play itself becomes a song, that age-old bearer of history, or vision and poetry, and of freedom." - Anitta Santiago

"The new music, composed by Patrick Grant, adds to the otherworldliness." - Maria Micheles

Full reviews of the recent play NEW SCIENCE can be found HERE.

01 NOV 06

New Science

Directed by Martin Reckhaus
Book by Jessica Slote
Designed by Gary Brackett & Pamela Mayo
Music by Patrick Grant

A rare opportunity to catch this defiant theater group accompanied by the musicians:

Adela María Bolet - mezzo
& Naisha Walton - acoustic bass

Theater for the New City
Seven Performances Only! • $10
Theater for the New City • 155 First Avenue @ 10th St.
Thurs.-Sun., Nov. 16-19 • Fri.-Sun., Nov. 24-26

For information go to
Theater for the New City
Limited Seating • For reservations call (212) 254-1109

New World Records has released a recording of the music of Barbara Benary called Sun on Snow. PG is a performer with old pals Gamelan Son of Lion on her piece "Aural Shoehorning." The title refers to the listener’s tendency to confront unusual tuning systems, such as those of Javanese gamelan, by trying to “shoehorn” them into the framework of our familiar diatonic scales. Heterophony is the overall theme of the piece, and the various ways in which a gamelan and a diatonic ensemble of clarinet/bass clarinet and keyboard percussion can interact as a mixed marriage in which neither partner attempts to convert the other.

More iNFO HERE

27 SEP 06

A clip of Part 3 from the Columbus performance noted below can be seen above and HERE on YouTube. Thanks to Jeff Sims at the Columbus Museum for creating this and getting it up. As he said, just gotta love that YouTube compression quality <--- irony

HISTORICAL BLACK MUSIC ROLLER COASTER
Featuring Shequida
Music arranged and produced by Patrick Grant
A co-commission of the Columbus Museum of Art and Kehinde Wiley Studio

Part 3: Rap Medley (06:16)
Crazy in Love (Intro)
Naughty Girl
Golddigger
How Many Licks?
Nasty Girl
Push It

Soprano solo - Shequida
Tenor - Eric McKeever
Baritone - Patrick Carmichael
Bass - Cory Williams

The West Village Ensemble
Flute - Richard Stewart
Violin - Orlando Wells
Violin - David Burnett
Viola - Adam Hill
Cello - Ryan Murphy
Harpsichord - Byron Sean
Double Bass - Jonathan Colbert

15 SEP 06

To get a little perspective on the artist behind the Columbus Museum of Art exhibition Kehinde Wiley: Columbus, last Thursday's opening reception was a great place to start.

After the introductions were made, an all-black orchestra accompanied by the striking black drag queen Shequida launched into a rousing operatic version of Salt 'n Pepa's "Push It."

Rhythmically challenged or not, most everyone from silver-haired arts patrons to neighborhood teenagers sang along while Shequida, looking exquisite in her pistachio appliquéd evening gown, launched into the worm.

It was an amazing spectacle, and probably the most incongruent gathering of people seen at the museum in recent memory. But it all seemed so right—and it was hands-down the best place to be in the city that night.

Read more...

Photo credits: Pam Edwards - Columbus Museum of Art

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11 SEP 06

New York City

10 SEP 06

COLUMBUS, OH & The Art Parade, NYC

For the opening of Kehinde Wiley's exhibition COLUMBUS, the Columbus Museum of Art and Kehinde Wiley Studio co-commissioned two pieces of music for the events collectively called HISTORICAL BLACK MUSIC ROLLER COASTER (Hip-Hop Experience V).

The first piece, Featuring SHEQUIDA, performed on Sept. 7, was a veritable cantata in 12 parts making up its four larger sections. It is scored for Shequida as soprano solo, tenor, baritone and bass singers, flute, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass and harpsichord.

PERFORMANCE PIX COMING SOON

The second piece, performed on Sept. 8, is called hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE IV, a suite of instrumental pieces of hip-hop played the the musicians for both of these events, The West Village Ensemble.

Inquiries regarding the AUDIO files of the performance can be sent to: iNFO@strangemusic.com

Kehinde Wiley on The TODAY Show - May 06 - YouTube

The performance took place in the museum's Derby Court.

The harpsichord was built and supplied by the clavier guy of Central Ohio, Ben Bechtel. Beautiful instrument.

Back view of the Derby Court.

At reheasal - members of The West Village Ensemble from NYC: Orlando Wells (violin), David Burnett (violin), Adam Hill (viola), and Richard Stewart (flute).

At rehearsal - the continuo, the rhythm section for the performances: Ryan Murphy (cello), Byron Sean (harpsichord), and Jonathan Colbert (double bass).

Rumors of War at Deitch Projects - Nov. 05 - Quicktime Movie - 77 MB

Making a joyful noise...

During the march, band director Hassan Williams gives a shout out.

Self-portrait taken in a passing mirror.

11 JUL 06

The musical work BIG BANG Version 1.0 is been further developed for multimedia building upon the work done last spring. Stay tuned for next phase!

More details TBA

23 JUN 06

The Musée du quai Branly, known in English as the Quai Branly Museum, nicknamed MKB, is a new museum in Paris, France, situated close to the Eiffel Tower.

It opened on June 23, 2006.

The Quai Branly Museum features indigenous art, cultures and civilisations from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. It contains over 300,000 objects and has 10 special exhibits every year.

During its creation PG's music has been used in its promotional videos and he was commissioned to create music for one of its interactive installations, a piece titled, appropriately, *musique du quai Branly.

04 JUN 06

hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III by Patrick Grant was performed by string quartet members of The Young Eight at the opening reception June 3rd.

(From Supertouch by Jaime O'Shea): LA's native son Kehinde Wiley brought the heat back home when his new show "Columbus" opened at Roberts & Tilton last nite. Needless to say it was a mob scene as K-Dub's fans packed the gallery, spilling into the parking lot as the nite wore on. Six enormous paintings were debuted along with a small series of drawings, all spoken for before the doors even opened. The highlight of the evening? A quartet of violinists playing classical versions of hip-hop songs. Our man does it up right...

On May 21, the new music series ONE-TWO-THREE-GO! Version 3.0 finished its season at THEATERLAB with Patrick Grant Group performing the initial version of BIG BANG, instrumental works, and screenings of films by Gary Beeber.

Charles Liu narrated, Meredith Borden sang, and Kathleen Supové, Marija Ilic and John Ferrari rocked the roof off. Audio & video to be posted soon.

Click HERE for more iNFO

08 MAY 06

On May 7, the new music series ONE-TWO-THREE-GO! Version 3.0 continued its season at THEATERLAB with Margaret Lancasterr - Fierce Flute Fusion + Guests..

Complete photos from this event can be found HERE.

This 6 concert series takes place on aLTernate Sundays with the next event taking place on May 21.

Click HERE for more iNFO

01 MAY 06

Kehinde Wiley
Columbus
June 3 – July 8, 2006

Opening Reception Saturday, June 3rd, 6 - 8 pm

Columbus, an exhibition by New York based artist Kehinde Wiley, whose portraits of African American men combine elements of modern culture with an Old Master’s influence, will be on view June 3, 2006 through July 8, 2006 at Roberts & Tilton.

hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE III by Patrick Grant will be performed by members of The Young Eight at the opening reception.

The exhibition will consist of an environment referencing staid, museum traditions and philosophies. Each of Wiley’s paintings included in the exhibition is based on specific masterworks from the Columbus Museum’s permanent collection where the exhibit will travel in September, 2006. For this event the music's instrumentation will be augmented to that of a full baroque ensemble and will feature the vocals of the coloratura soprano Shequida.

25 APR 06

Anti-Dyspeptic Inflammable Flapping Chewable Cymbal Crushers

On April 23, the new music series ONE-TWO-THREE-GO! Version 3.0 continued its season at THEATERLAB with David Simons and Lisa Karrer - New Music for Voice, Theremin, Slide Guitar & Percussion. Audio & video to be posted soon.

This 6 concert series takes place on aLTernate Sundays with the next event taking place on May 7.

Click HERE for more iNFO

22 APR 06

Listen to the clangorous sounds of gamelan-inspired music from New York’s "downtown" scene on this New Sounds. Gamelan is a group of instruments meant to be played together, generally struck or hammered, from the Javanese, "gamel," and can include tuned metallophones, various gongs, flutes, drums and other percussion. Hear works from the new music ensemble Gamelan Son of Lion, whose instruments were built by Barbara Benary using hubcaps, PVC pipes, steel keys and cans. There’s also music from composer David Simons, whose instrument textures range from theremin to the chain saw, and from the Slinky® to gamelan. Plus, music by Patrick Grant, and more.

On April 9, the new music series ONE-TWO-THREE-GO! Version 3.0 continued its season at THEATERLAB with Todd Reynolds and Luke DuBois - Audio & Video Tag-Teaming for Fun & Profit a.k.a. The Todd and Luke Show. Audio & video to be posted soon.

This 6 concert series takes place on aLTernate Sundays with the next event taking place on April 23.

Click HERE for more iNFO

27 MAR 06

On March 26, the new music series ONE-TWO-THREE-GO! Version 3.0 continued its season at THEATERLAB with DogHouse Blues performed by vocalist Meredith Borden and composer/guitarist Jon Catler. Audio & video to be posted soon.

This 6 concert series takes place on aLTernate Sundays with the next event taking place on April 9.

Click HERE for more iNFO

15 MAR 06

On March 12, the new music series ONE-TWO-THREE-GO! Version 3.0 kicked off its season at THEATERLAB with The Exploding Piano performed by pianist/rant-euse Kathleen Supové with composer/CD turntablist Randall Woolf. Audio & video to be posted soon.

This 6 concert series takes place on aLTernate Sundays with the second concert taking place on March 26.

Click HERE for more iNFO.

01 MAR 06

RESIST! with the Living Theatre
Winner for Best Picture - San Francisco Documentary Film Festival
Winner of the EuropaCinema Award for Best Documentary

2004 - 89 mins - Color

Nudity, Violence, Adult Language, Adult Content

The SUNDANCE Channel
Monday, March 6 at 09:00 PM
Monday, March 6 at 05:15 AM
Wednesday, March 15 at 12:00 PM

More than 50 years ago, Judith Malina and her husband, painter Julian Beck, founded The Living Theatre, a revolutionary ensemble that altered the history of the western stage. Filmmakers Karin Kaper and Living Theatre veteran Dirk Szuszies trace the company's dramatic and colorful history with interviews and archive film clips. Today The Living Theatre remains vibrant under the direction of Malina, and is seen staging politically active events and locations around the world, from the Genoa G8 conference in 2001 to New York's Ground Zero.

Starring Julian Beck, Judith Malina, Hanon Reznikov & the Living Theatre
Narrated by Dirk Szuszies
Produced by Eric Van Beuren (Belgium/Germany)
Screenplay by Dirk Szuszies
Photography by Dieter Vervuurt
Edited by Alain De Halleux
Original Music by Carlo Altomare, Patrick Grant, & Andrea Liberovici

ONE-TWO-THREE-GO! Web Page

06 JAN 06

A Commission for a Concert Theater Work about the Big Bang and the Origins of the Universe

The City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center New Media Lab has commissioned a new piece of concert theater that will be created and directed by Patrick Grant for its Spring 2006 Science & the Arts series. The piece will feature renowned astronomer Charles Liu as narrator. The premiere will take place on May 15, 2006 at CUNY's Elebash Recital Hall.

More details TBA

PG Named Co-Director of the Paralelo Festival in Madrid, Spain & Monterrey, Mexico

The impact that a Festival like Paralelo has on the community is primarily due to the possibility offered to all citizens to be active in this cultural melting pot. This is an event of the highest artistic level and it involves everyone. Paralelo brings artists and music closer to the public, with the ultimate purpose of musical creation in a much less rigid structure.

Parelelo takes advantage of public and private spaces, to use them as auditoriums that revitalize the city and free the music from clichés. Paralelo is directly involved with and participates in the cultural and artistic development of the neighborhoods that are chosen, regardless of their economic status. Paralelo brings the artists and the public closer together. Paralelo is a cultural meeting point where artists of all nationalities find the right setting for artistic creation.

Paralelo presents concert cycles that take place in un-conventional venues, with the main objective of stimulating and welcoming all citizens to enjoy the music of our time. Paralelo offers the public an unusually broad repertoire and premieres a significant number of new works. Paralelo constantly searches for a public that is stimulated by an attractive, dynamic and innovative offering.

Paralelo not only presents different musical trends, but it also fosters interaction with other artistic disciplines which encourages creation.

The Sociedad Artística Daniel is in charge of Paralelo's programming. The Sociedad, founded in New York City almost one hundred years ago, has been responsible for the promotion of classical music in North and South America as well as in Europe. NYC composer Patrick Grant, founder of sTRANGEmUSIC, and Indonesian musician Ananda Sukarlan, pianist responsible for the premier of more than 100 works, are co-directors of Paralelo.

More details TBA

01 JAN 06

Hey spuds! It's a silly song for the New Year sung by PG's nieces and family in Detroit.

Written by Patrick & Daniel Grant
Performed by Courtney & Meghan Gowan, Mike & Gael Giles, Patrick & Daniel Grant
Engineered by and recorded at the studio of Warren Williams

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2005 nEWS Items

2004 nEWS Items

2003 nEWS Items

2002 nEWS Items

hOME

ARTIST(S)	RECORDING	CUT(S)	SOURCE
David Simons	Prismatic Hearing	The Unraveling [6:00]	Tzadik #9001** www.tzadik.com*
Patrick Grant	Music From The Red Night	Monogram for Gamelan [4:30]	Private CD http://www.strangemusic.com/
Gamelan Galak Tika	Dangerous Things	D.Schmidt: A Dangerous Thing [5:30]	Gamelan Galak Tika, no # http://www.galaktika.org/
Evan Ziporyn & Nyoman Windha	American Works For Balinese Gamelan	Kekembangan [15:30]	New World #80430 http://www.newworldrecords.com/
Gamelan Son of Lion	Bending The Gending	Pitu Ping Pitu [5:30]	GSOL #3 http://www.gamelan.org/sonoflion*
Gamelan Pacifica	Trance Gong	Jeff Morris: Rain [11:00]	WhatNext #0016 http://www.gamelanpacifica.org/gamelan