Impish Über-talent Nico Muhly, known to some as Philip Glass’s protégée, to others as the guy who helps make Björk, Rufus Wainwright, and Antony sound better, and to most as the one of the next great hopes for the future of classical music, is about the head to Paris for the premiere of his second [...]
The climax of the concert was a riveting performance of “The Only Tune,” from Muhly’s new album, “Mothertongue.” Starting with a quirky little folk song called “The Wind and the Rain,” Muhly built “Tune” into a searing, explosive powerhouse that defies categorization: a work of brain-bending originality and power.
The composer’s reaction against one tradition is actually a re-embrace of an older one.
The last time Nico Muhly played Boston, in the spring of 2007, he was put up at the Copley Place Hotel and given a prime seat at Symphony Hall. That’s when the Boston Pops performed his orchestral piece “Wish You Were Here.”
This time, Muhly will arrive by van. He’s going the indie-rock route, coming to [...]
Muhly, 27, is difficult to write about.
Monday, August 18th, 2008. Look at this crowd! Rarely have I seen such a mix of people: hippie intellectuals and super-young music scenesters. Not anyone I recognized from sfSound or the improv scene or from SF Conservatory, although my drummer/percussionist Fred Morgan did. The house was full but not sold out; [...]
You know you’re in trouble when the audio sample of a burbling coffee machine or the sound of a knife scraping butter on toast exerts as great a hold on the listener’s interest as everything that preceded it.
One of the genre’s most impressive innovators is also one of its youngest: 27-year-old Nico Muhly. With an impressive list of collaborators, Mothertongue is a stunning meditation on the anxiety of the human experience broken into three movements.
Nico Muhly, a 20-something prodigy and Juilliard grad who may be one of the few surprises left to emerge from the classical milieu.
When Nico Muhly debuted a new piece of music at the Kitchen on March 7, he introduced a new instrument: the beautiful blonde. The composer teased, shook, and combed three women’s hair according to the score, below, while violist Nadia Sirota simultaneously performed the piece as a looped-track solo.
1. “The piece starts with my rustling [...]