For all who don’t me, my name is Brian Malnassy and I am eighth blackbird’s intern/artistic assistant and this is my story and perspective of eighth blackbird’s concerto: “On A Wire.” I was in eighth blackbird’s studio when Jennifer Higdon’s concerto came in the mail. I have witnessed this piece’s growth from its infancy to its world [...]
Our practice of performing pieces memorized is consistently a topic of inquiry during interviews and other Q&A situations. While audiences are generally enthusiastic, musicians tend to go back and forth on pros and cons. We’ve been accused of using it as a stunt. If one hasn’t personally experienced performing chamber music memorized, the conversation usually [...]
There is a sense, I believe, that while enjoying new theater only requires you to be human and open, appreciating new music requires training, initiation into the secret meaning of all those farts and squeaks. This to me is the great challenge of new music: how to disabuse wider audiences of the notion that they need to come to a concert with anything other than open ears in order to have an engaging aesthetic experience.
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