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Journal Archives for ‘Artist Essays’

  • Carolina Chocolate Drops: "Leaving Eden" [cover]
    Thursday, January 26, 2012
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    Carolina Chocolate Drops Launch US Tour; Preview New Album's Opening Track

    Carolina Chocolate Drops are back in the US after a week in the UK, which saw four-star reviews from the Guardian and Times of London, to launch a months-long US tour in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, tonight. The tour will take the band up and down the East Coast and to the Midwest then out West before they head back east to play the New Orleans Jazz Fest in April. The band's new album, Leaving Eden, is due out February 28. Check out a preview video here, featuring the album's opening track, "Riro's House."

  • Kronos Quartet Polar Music Prize: ceremony
    Tuesday, September 6, 2011
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    Kronos Quartet's Polar Music Prize Acceptance Speech, Photos

    Kronos Quartet received the Polar Music Prize in a ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall last week, along with their fellow laureate, Patti Smith. "Music is one of humanity's most essential resources—the 'greenest' of substances—here one moment, a memory the next," said Kronos artistic director David Harrington in the group's acceptance speech. "The greatest piece has yet to be written, the most perfect note has yet to be played." Read the complete text of the speech and see several photos from the ceremony here.

  • Ry Cooder: "Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down" [cover]
    Wednesday, August 31, 2011
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    Ry Cooder Appears on PRI's "Here & Now"; BBC Calls New Album "Essential Listening"

    Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, was released yesterday, prompting David Dye, host of NPR's World Cafe, to tweet that the album "just shot to my best of list. Ry got pissed off enough to make another masterpiece." Cooder performs two sold-out shows at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall, tonight and tomorrow, and is today's guest on NPR's Here & Now. The BBC calls the album "a powerful state of the nation address" that "is about as good and sustained a riposte to the grubby, grabbing times we live in as any artist has mustered, which makes it essential listening."

  • Thursday, August 11, 2011
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    Steve Reich Comments on the “WTC 9/11” Album Cover

    Composer Steve Reich comments on his forthcoming Nonesuch Records release, featuring his piece WTC 9/11, performed by Kronos Quartet, and the album cover.

  • John Adams profile
    Monday, May 23, 2011
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    John Adams's Address for the Juilliard School's 106th Commencement Ceremony

    John Adams received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Juilliard School at the conservatory's 106th Commencement Ceremony and delivered the commencement address at the ceremony, held at Alice Tully Hally in New York City on Friday, May 20, 2011. Also receiving honorary doctoral degrees from Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi were pianist and producer Herbie Hancock, actor Derek Jacobi, and choreographer Twyla Tharp. The full text of Adams's commencement address is posted here.

  • Jessica Lea Mayfield couch close by Michael Wilson
    Tuesday, November 23, 2010
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    Jessica Lea Mayfield Adds February Tour Dates with Justin Townes Earle; Tour Coincides with New Album Release

    Jessica Lea Mayfield, whose debut Nonesuch album, Tell Me, is due out February 8, has just announced several new US tour dates in February with Justin Townes Earle. In fact, the tour will bring her back to her hometown of Kent, Ohio, on the record's release date. The tour kicks off in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and includes stops in Burlington, Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, Bloomington, Madison, and Minneapolis. The two will play previously scheduled shows in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and DC next month.

  • Henryk Górecki, David Harrington November 2006
    Friday, November 12, 2010
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    Kronos Quartet's David Harrington Remembers Henryk Górecki

    "The three string quartets Henryk Górecki wrote for Kronos are a totally unique body of work," writes Kronos Quartet Artistic Director David Harrington of the composer, who passed away earlier today. "With Already it is Dusk, Quasi una fantasia, and ...songs are sung, Górecki extended a tradition that includes Bach and Beethoven, among many others." Read Harrington's personal remembrances here and see photos of Kronos and the composer.

  • Brad Mehldau 2010 horiz color score (Augusta Quirk)
    Wednesday, October 20, 2010
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    Brad Mehldau Writes on "Creativity in Beethoven and Coltrane" in Advance of "Highway Rider" Premiere

    Brad Mehldau is set to launch his Highway Rider tour with the world premiere of the piece due at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis on November 5 and 6, followed by the New York premiere at Carnegie Hall on November 9. The latter is the first event of Mehldau's tenure as holder of the Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall. As such, he has published the first in a series of blog posts on the Carnegie Hall website, offering insight on composition and improvisation.

  • The Low Anthem 2009 bike fence
    Thursday, December 17, 2009
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    The Low Anthem's Ben Knox Miller Reflects, Looks Ahead As "Paste" Names Band's Nonesuch Debut Among Year's Best

    The Low Anthem's Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, has been named to the No. 4 spot on Paste's 25 Best Albums of 2009, with label mates Wilco on the list at No. 21. The album is "gorgeous chamber folk," says Paste. "[T]hese 12 songs are exquisite." Baeble names the video for "Charlie Darwin" the year's best. In a year that's brought such acclaim, the band's Ben Knox Miller reflects on all that's happened and looks forward to what's ahead.

  • Ry Cooder / Nick Lowe 2009 Japan Tour Program
    Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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    Ry Cooder Begins Japan, New Zealand, Australia Tour with Nick Lowe, Offers Preview of Program Note

    Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe's tour of Japan, New Zealand, and Australia begins in Nagoya, Japan, tonight. Joachim Cooder will join on drums, and singer Juliette Commagere as special guest vocalist. In the Japanese concert programs, Ry offers a short text giving a little taste of what to expect at the shows as only Cooder could. The Nonesuch Journal has an exclusive first-look at that here.

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