The Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, has appointed Conor Hanick as creative and artistic advisor, and Indigo Fischer as vice president of artistic planning. They will provide high-level artistic strategy and day-to-day artistic leadership for the Summer Music Festival and School and the organization’s year-round programs. Read announcement in full in "symphony" here.

Daniel Gilliam interviews Chelsea Komschlies for Louisville Public Radio Photo credit: Kyle Benjamin Turner Nearing the end of its third season, the Louisville Orchestra's unique Creators Corps program continues to be a training ground and creative outlet for composers who are looking for those rare opportunities to work full-time with a symphony. For current corps composer Chelsea Komschlies , working with the endless color and sound possibilities of the orchestra was a drea

Excerpted from interview b y Marke B. For 48hills The Living Earth Show. Photo by Essential Creatives Have you ever yearned to inject sludge metal into chamber music, or reunite your favorite avant-garde all-women ’90s band for a primal feminist scream, or bring a huge crowd in the SF Symphony’s cavernous loading dock to tears with a gentle tone poem? If you can dream it, Andy Meyerson and Travis Andrews of contemporary duo The Living Earth Show can do it (musically, at least

Pianist @conorlhanick 's recording of Hans Otte's "Book of Sounds" is out now on @ilpiratarecords . John Schaefer ( @newsounds ) featured the album on Friday's roundup. "'The Book Of Sounds' was recorded by Otte in the mid-80s, and despite being a mainstay of our early New Sounds shows, it seemed destined to be one of those overlooked, idiosyncratic masterpieces that dot the history of music. Then came Conor Hanick, who fell in love with the work and began playing it, in its

"From the very first pair of teetering thirds", Hanick says, "Book of Sounds wonders what worlds would exist between the cracks of two musical ideas if we simply allowed the notes to show us." With his "Book of Sounds," the visionary polymath Hans Otte penned one of the most magnificent creations in the contemporary piano repertoire. Although Otte completed the work in three years (1979-1982), "The Book" represents a lifetime of experimentation and a synthesis of methodology.

A "spectacular performance," a "magnificent account" Excerpts from review by Lisa Hirsch For San Francisco Chronicle. Photo credit: Lawrence Sumulong "Sandbox Percussion and American Modern Opera Company, aka AMOC*, gave a spectacular performance of “Canto Ostinato” on Sunday, Feb. 22, under the auspices of Cal Performances at Zellerbach Playhouse in Berkeley. The program notes said the work “feels like a long-lost cousin” to certain American minimalist pieces like Steve Rei

New album features four works by acclaimed composer Viet Cuong, performed by the Albany Symphony and conductor David Alan Miller GRAMMY®-nominated Sandbox Percussion performs on premiere recording of percussion quartet concerto “Re(new)al” Sandbox Percussion , the GRAMMY-nominated ensemble celebrated for its unwavering commitment to living composers and contemporary chamber music, partners with composer Viet Cuong , the Albany Symphony, and conductor David Alan Miller for

Douglas J. Cuomo’s captivating new work a raft, the sky, the wild sea performed by Grammy-winning saxophonist Joe Lovano with the Winston-Salem Symphony and Michelle Merrill, releases on Blue Cloud Music. "a raft, the sky, the wild sea is not only a musical depiction of a metaphysical journey - for millions of people throughout the world who are forced to flee their homeland to seek safety and a better life, it's a description of a harrowing physical reality. This piece also

Chris Cerrone's latest album, " Don't Look Down ," featuring Sandbox Percussion , Conor Hanick and Elspeth Davis wins a GRAMMY® Award for Best Engineered, Classical . Watch Mike Tierney’s acceptance speech here Listen to Don’t Look Down : lnk.to/CerroneDontLookDown A huge congratulations to the winners— Mike Tierney , the album’s engineer, and Alan Silverman , the mastering engineer—whose incredible ear and technical wizardry made the album sound crisp, big, and exci

Excerpts from review by Charles Burns SF Classical Voice Seth Parker Woods, Conor Hanick, Julia Bullock in performance at the Nimoy Theater. | Credit: Chanel Foster On Jan. 15, soprano Julia Bullock, cellist Seth Parker Woods, and pianist Conor Hanick presented the recital, “From Ordinary Things,” at UCLA’s Nimoy Theater. Their vast technical prowess and deep musical sensibilities were palpable from the first note to the last. The wide-ranging program moved fluidly among ar