05.13.2008 Last week was full of activity and concerts. I went to go hear Braxton's Small Ensemble concert with Anne. He played two sets of Falling River Music. Both sets were great. On Thursday I went to go play bass clarinet with Braxton's Large Ensemble. We played some Falling River Music as well as Composition 169 as well as some Ghost Trance compositions. I had a great time and I am really looking forward to playing with the septet in Pittsburgh at the end of May. On Saturday we had the Uncertainty Music Series concert with Forbes Graham. First Gergely and I played a set for clarinet and electronics. I hadn't had time to finish all of the work to get my electronics ready, so I wasn't completely happy with my set. Forbes sounded really great. I could tell that he has really developed his electronic set up. Everything flowed well and he had a great variety within his set. On Sunday Gergely and I went up to Wesleyan to perform a short set as part of Adam Tinkle's mini-festival entitled WDWNDS. Adam and Rod O'Connor performed a set for alto saxophone and electronics and Phillip Schulze and Andrew Raffo Dewar performed a set for soprano saxophone and electronics. Andrew was working with a great stereo microphone setup. He would move his saxophone between two mics and the sound would swing across the space. I thought that it was really effective, and of course Phillip's electronics are really advanced and he does some really great work. Gergely and I played 2 pieces, my piece 23-melodic for 2 clarinets and electronics and a new piece that involved Gergely playing multiphonics, long tones, breath sounds, and puckering sounds, while I did some short live sampling and granular synthesis. I had fixed some things that weren't working Saturday night, and I think that Sunday's performance went much better. See pictures at the right. Photos by Phillip Schulze
05.04.2008 Anne and I had a great show on Friday in Boston at GASP. Allen Chase and Bruno Raberg played a beautiful opening set. We then performed a set of pieces by Chris McDonald, Sabrina Schroeder, Katherine Young, Anne Rhodes, myself, and one piece by Neil Leonard. We got a great response from the audience and all the pieces seemed to go over well. Take a look at some pictures on the right. This week I will be performing with the Anthony Braxton Large Ensemble at Wesleyan. I will also be performing on the Uncertainty Music Series. I will play an opening set for electronics, clarinetist Gergely Kiss will be joining me for the set as well. We will be opening for the trumpeter, electronicist, and composer Forbes Graham who will play a solo set for trumpet and electronics. I did an interview with him recently. You can listen to it at the Uncertainty Music Series Podcast website. Gergely and I will also perform a short set at Wesleyan the next day as part of Adam Tinkle's Mini-Festival of woodwind/electronic music. Stay tuned for more updates.
04.28.2008 Bruxism, my duo with vocalist Anne Rhodes has a performance coming up in Boston on Friday. Anne will feature some of the compositions that she performed at her solo concert in New Haven back in November. We will also be performing a new piece of Anne's, a new piece by Neil Leonard, and my piece for two bullhorns. It will be good to get another solid performance of the bullhorn under our belts. I am trying to finish up a new piece for my concerts in early May. I will be opening on May 10th for Forbes Graham on the Uncertainty Music Series. I will then be playing again up at Wesleyan the next day as part of a woodwind/electronic music mini-festival that Adam Tinkle is arranging. Gergely Kiss will be joining me on clarinet for both shows. I am in the process of writing some new material for solo clarinet. I am reaching towards a slightly different aesthetic with this new music. I am trying to incorporate more space and breath into the melodic lines. This piece will also incorporate new electronic music, but the electronics will have a lighter touch. I will be posting some news soon about an upcoming podcast of my music as well as my first official release of my clarinet trio music. More info soon!
04.27.2008 This weekend I had the opportunity to play a new electronic piece at MonkeyTown as part of David Jensenius's concert entitled SPACE. The piece involved combining my recorded material for clarinets and my materials for electronics that utilize sounds of appliances. On Friday I went to go see Aaron Siegel's new composition for string quartet and voices entitled The Swan Catchers which was performed at the Chocolate Factory by the FLUX String Quartet. You can find more information about the piece at http://theswancatchers.com I really enjoyed the piece and I thought that it all came together well. I hope to hear a recording sometime soon, because there were so many layers to the piece, and it was hard to catch everything that was going on. After the concert I went down to the East Village to the BENT Festival to check out my friend Chris McDonald's photo-booth/installation entitled Gertrude. The photo that he took is to the right. For more information about Gertrude check out http://vanitaphonecompany.com
04.21.2008 Welcome everyone to the news section of my site. I have decided to create a dedicated space where I could update those interested about what is happening with the site and my music in general. Check back here for news about upcoming performances, projects, or changes with the site. Soon you will be able to subscribe to this news feed with your favorite RSS reader and easily stay up to date with changes to the site. This past weekend I had a very successful performance at the Chocolate Factory as part of the Live Sh--* series. Matt Bauder and Jeremy Viner joined me on clarinets for 2 pieces and I think that the music was well received by the audience. This weekend I will be presenting a new electronic piece as part of David Jensenius's project entitled "SPACE" at Monkeytown in Brooklyn. Check the Performances page for more details. Pictures from the concert are pictured at the right.
contact me - carl (at) carltesta (dot) net