The Samuel Andreyev Podcast

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Michele Zaccagnini: the 'Adorno Rule' May 28, 2021

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Michele Zaccagnini studied clarinet at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome, graduated cum laude with a bachelor in Economics at Universita’ La Sapienza in Rome. At Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts he graduated with a Ph.D. in Music Composition and Theory where he studied with Martin Boykan, Yu-Hui Chang and Eric Chasalow.

Michele’s main area of theoretical research focuses on Algorithmic Composition; he published a paper about Aldo Clementi compositional process in Perspectives of New Music, a description of one of his own compositional processes in The OM Composer’s Book n.3 (published by Ircam) and a paper about the Nonlinear Sequencer for the SEAMUS Conference in 2020 which is also available as a tool package in MaxMsp’s Package Manager. His research on has been presented at University of Plymouth within the First International Workshop of Brain Computer Music Interface, at the Ircam Forum Conference in Sao Paulo, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Michigan Technological University within the 29th International Conference on Auditory Display.

Michele’s creative work consists of both music and audiovisuals implemented with idiosyncratic algorithmic techniques that are aimed at exploring static, non-narrative music. His music has been performed in the US, Italy and Germany by ensembles such as the Radnofski Saxophone Quartet, ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), Dedalo Ensemble and L’Arsenale Ensemble. More recently his work exists mainly on YouTube where he regularly posts new audiovisual works and tutorials about audiovisual composition.
More about Michele Zaccagnini
Michele’s YouTube channel
Michele on Twitter: @michele_zacca

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Podcast artwork photograph © 2019 Philippe Stirnweiss

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Ermir Bejo: the Scorefollower project May 18, 2021

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Ermir Bejo, born in 1987 in Tirana Albania, is a contemporary classical and electronic music composer. Both within and apart from his music, Bejo draws significant influence from visual art, cinema, classic literature, mathematics, and philosophy. Bejo’s approach is grounded in the exploration of hierarchies and conflicts arising from the treatment of musical time as a non-linear concept. His music is performed in concert halls and music festivals by a growing roster of internationally acclaimed performers and ensembles such as Ums ‘n Jip, Nova, Amorsima Trio, Duo Chromatica, Irvine Arditti, Malgorzata Walentynowicz, Elizabeth McNutt, Redi Llupa, Alexander Richards, Yumi Suehiro, and Juan Sebastian Delgado among others.

Bejo holds degrees in music composition from the University of North Texas (PhD, 2017), University of Louisville (MM, 2013), and Skidmore College (BA, 2010). He has additionally participated in numerous lessons and masterclasses with composers such as Chaya Czernowin, James Dillon, and Esa-Pekka Salonen among others. Since 2015, he has served as director of the Score Follower organization, a leading online new music resource. In collaboration with composers, performers, major publishers, and recording labels alike, the organization curates music projects with a wide international reach and participation. He has taught music composition and audio technology since 2012. From 2016 to 2017, he served as president of the Composers Forum organization at the University of North Texas. Currently, Bejo serves on the board of Kaleidoscope MusArt organization in Miami, and works as audio reinforcement technical director at the University of North Texas’ College of Music, which is the largest public university music program in the United States.
More about Ermir Bejo
MUSICAL EXCERPTS IN ORDER
Ermir Bejo, Opus 4 for piano, movement 1
Ermir Bejo, Opus 4 for piano, movement 3

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Marco Fusi: The Mystery of Scelsi May 03, 2021

Show notes

Marco Fusi is a violinist/violist, and a passionate advocate for the music of our time.

Among many collaborations with emerging and established composers, he has premiered works by Billone, Sciarrino, Eötvös, Cendo and Ferneyhough. Marco has performed with Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, Alan Gilbert, Beat Furrer, David Robertson, and frequently plays with leading contemporary ensembles including Klangforum Wien, MusikFabrik, Meitar Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, Ensemble Linea, Interface (Frankfurt), Phoenix (Basel) and Handwerk (Köln); Marco has recorded several solo albums, published by Kairos, Stradivarius, Col Legno, Da Vinci, Geiger Grammofon.

Marco also plays viola d’amore, commissioning new pieces and collaborating with composers to promote and expand existing repertoire for the instrument.

A strong advocate and educator of contemporary music, he lectures and workshops at Columbia University, University of California – Berkeley, Basel Musikhochschule, New York University, Boston University, Royal Danish Academy of Music – Copenhagen, Cité de la Musique et de la Danse – Strasbourg, University of Chicago.

Marco teaches Contemporary Chamber Music at the Milano conservatory “G. Verdi” and is Researcher in Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp.
More about Marco Fusi
Order Marco Fusi’s new recital CD of Scelsi's music (Kairos Records)
MUSICAL EXCERPTS IN ORDER
Giacinto Scelsi, Divertimento n° 2 (1954)
Giacinto Scelsi, Divertimento n° 4 (1955)

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Linda Catlin Smith, composer Apr 14, 2021

Show notes

Linda Catlin Smith grew up in New York and lives in Toronto. She studied music in NY, and at the University of Victoria (Canada). Her music has been performed and/or recorded by: BBC Scottish Orchestra, Exaudi, Tafelmusik, Other Minds Festival, California Ear Unit, Kitchener-Waterloo, Victoria and Vancouver Symphonies, Arraymusic, Tapestry New Opera, Gryphon Trio, Via Salzburg, Evergreen Club Gamelan, Turning Point Ensemble, Vancouver New Music, and the Del Sol, Penderecki, and Bozzini quartets, among many others; she has been performed by many notable soloists, including Eve Egoyan, Elinor Frey, Philip Thomas, Colin Tilney, Vivienne Spiteri, and Jamie Parker. Â She has been supported in her work by the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, Chalmers Foundation, K.M. Hunter Award, Banff Centre, SOCAN Foundation and Toronto Arts Council; in 2005 her work Garland (for Tafelmusik) was awarded Canada’s prestigious Jules Léger Prize. In addition to her work as an independent composer, she was Artistic Director of the Toronto ensemble Arraymusic from 1988 to 1993, and she was a member of the ground-breaking multidisciplinary performance collective, URGE, from 1992-2006. Linda teaches composition privately and at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada.
More about Linda Catlin Smith
Linda Catlin Smith Soundcloud page
EXCERPT HEARD AT START OF SHOW
Piano Quintet (2014)

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Why You Need Carl Ruggles in Your Life Mar 19, 2021

Show notes

Carl Ruggles (1876-1971) lived to the age of 95, but published only 8 works in his lifetime — less than an hour of music. In this podcast, I present an overview of this enigmatic composer, as well as an analysis of Lilacs, the central movement of Men and Mountains, for orchestra (1924).
This episode begins with a recording of Lilacs by Michael Tilson Thomas, conducting the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Alexander Sigman, composer Mar 14, 2021

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With a unique background in music composition + technology, cognitive science, and data science, Alexander Sigman has been active internationally as an interdisciplinary composer, performer, researcher, software engineer, and educator.
His compositions have been featured on a number of commercial releases, including portrait recordings on the Carrier and New Focus labels. Sigman has published and presented extensively on a broad range of research topics, including music information retrieval, innovative auditory warning design, technical and aesthetic aspects of robot opera, and approaches to creative audiovisual media integration.
Throughout his career, he has held diverse leadership roles, which have ranged founding faculty member and Music program director of the International College of Liberal Arts (iCLA) of Yamanashi Gakuin University in Kofu, Japan, to Artistic Co-Director of the Menlo-Atherton Academy of Contemporary Music (MAACM), an arts education non-profit offering concerts and workshops to high school students in San Mateo County, CA, to Managing Director of Ensemble Modelo62, an 11-member new music consort based in The Hague, NL.
MUSIC EXCERPTS, IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
1. il y va d’un certain pas (2004-05), for ensemble
2. xy xy I II III (2006), for cimbalom and 3 percussion
3. fcremaperc (2014), for percussion and live electronics

More about Alexander Sigman
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Podcast artwork photograph © 2019 Philippe Stirnweiss

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Brian Ferneyhough interview Feb 19, 2021

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Brian Ferneyhough is widely recognized as one of today's foremost living composers. Since the mid-1970s, when he first gained widespread international recognition, his music has earned him an enviable reputation as one of the most influential creative personalities and significant musical thinkers on the contemporary scene. Ferneyhough was born in Coventry, England, in 1943 and received formal musical training at the Birmingham School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, London. In 1968 he was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship, which enabled him to continue his studies in Amsterdam with Ton de Leeuw, and the following year obtained a scholarship to study with Klaus Huber at the Basel Conservatoire. Following Ferneyhough’s move to mainland Europe, his music began to receive much wider recognition. The Gaudeamus Composers’ Competition in the Netherlands awarded Ferneyhough prizes in three successive years (1968-70) for his Sonatas for String Quartet, Epicycle and Missa Brevis respectively. The Italian section of the ISCM at its 1972 competition gave Ferneyhough an honourable mention (second place) for Firecycle Beta and two years later a special prize for Time and Motion Study III which was considered the best work submitted in all categories. Recent works have included Inconjunctions (2014), Contraccolpi (2016), and a collection of encounters influenced by Christopher Tye, Umbrations (2001-2017), premiered by the Arditti Quartet and Ensemble Modern at Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik. Associated with the most prestigious teaching institutions and international summer schools for contemporary music, from 1984 to 1996 Ferneyhough was Composition Course Co-ordinator at the biennial Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik. In 1984 he was made Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and he has since been named a member of the Berlin Akademie der Künste, the Bayrische Akademie der Schönen Künste and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. Most recently, he was awarded the 2007 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.
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Podcast artwork photograph © 2019 Philippe Stirnweiss

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Ask Me Anything! Jan 28, 2021

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In this episode, I took questions live from my YouTube subscribers. Thanks to everyone who participated.
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Podcast artwork photograph © 2019 Philippe Stirnweiss

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Colin Matthews and Julian Anderson: a conversation among composers Jan 07, 2021

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In this episode I present a 3-way conversation between English composers Colin Matthews, Julian Anderson and myself.
Colin Matthews was born in London in 1946. He studied with Arnold Whittall and Nicholas Maw; in the 1970s he was assistant to Benjamin Britten, and worked for many years with Imogen Holst. His collaboration with Deryck Cooke on the performing version of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony lasted from 1963 until its publication in 1975. Over four decades his music has ranged from solo piano music through five string quartets and many ensemble and orchestral works. He was Associate Composer with the London Symphony Orchestra between 1992 and 1999, and Composer-in-Association with the Hallé from 2001-10, now their Composer Emeritus.

Colin Matthews’ music is published by Faber Music.
Julian Anderson is one of the most talented composers of his generation. Born in London in 1967, he studied with John Lambert, Alexander Goehr and Tristan Murail and first came to prominence when his orchestral Diptych (1990) won the RPS Composition Prize in 1992. Anderson has held Composer in Residence positions with the City of Birmingham Symphony, Cleveland and London Philharmonic orchestras, relationships which produced an impressive body of orchestral works including Stations of the Sun (1998, a BBC Proms Commission) and Eden (2005, Cheltenham Festival). Fantasias (2009), written for the Cleveland Orchestra, won a British Composer Award and The Discovery of Heaven (2011), a co-commission by the New York Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic Orchestra was awarded a South Bank Sky Arts Award. Both works were recorded by the LPO live label.

Anderson has enjoyed commissions from bodies including the BCMG, London Sinfonietta, Asko-Schönberg Ensemble and Cheltenham Festival. Book of Hours for ensemble and electronics (2004) won the 2006 RPS Award for Large Scale Composition and featured on a NMC portrait disc. This was one of two recordings of his music to be nominated for a 2007 Gramophone Award, the other being the eventual winner, Alhambra Fantasy (Ondine). Poetry Nearing Silence (1997), originally a commission from the Nash Ensemble, was later arranged to become a successful ballet choreographed by Mark Baldwin. In 2009, Anderson and Baldwin collaborated again on a Darwin-inspired ballet, The Comedy of Change, which toured nationally.
Julian Anderson's music is published by Faber Music and by Schott Music.

More about Julian Anderson
More about Colin Matthews
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Podcast artwork photograph © 2019 Philippe Stirnweiss

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Studying composition in 2020 Dec 18, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, I spoke with three composition students about the musical and professional landscape they are about to graduate into: Jonty Watt, of Oxford, England; Ben Schweitzer, of the University of Massachussetts Amherst, and Thomas McGee, of Williams College. All three have one thing in common: they have all worked with me as private composition students over Skype, and though I have worked with some of them for years, we have never met in person. They are candid about the challenges they are facing, as well as some of the ways in which the world of composition seems to be evolving.
More about Ben Schweitzer
More about Jonty Watt
More about Thomas McGee
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EPISODE CREDITS
Podcast artwork photograph © 2019 Philippe Stirnweiss

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