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Eternal Transit

from Monday, October12th of the year2009.

I am in eternal transit from now until the end of January. I won’t be in a single place for longer than three days; it’s very exciting and terrifying. I’m told that one’s 20’s are a good time to do this because after that it gets tiresome. I’m recovering from an exhausting few weeks which included a real-estate fiasco, and the workshops of my opera Two Boys, which were satisfyingly draining. I am going to write about that later, but for now, this is a hung-over, jet-lagged post, a result of many hours in the air, a cavalier attitude towards cheap red wine, and a plate of chili nachos.

The big exciting news here is that I am about to go on two tours: the first, with Bedroom Community, the label I’m on. Check out the dates on the right. Then, immediately after that, I go on a two-week thing with Teitur and the Holland Baroque Society in, predictably, Holland. Dates for all of these should be on this page; if you are reading this in RÞÞ, you are missing out on all the freshly-redesigned fun.

Before that, I have a show in Kitchener-Waterloo, and another in Toronto (it’s the same show, but on two nights) and everybody in Canada has to come to those because it’s going to be really fun and orchestra music “” including a concert version of my ballet score From Here On Out, which I wrote for ABT and the wonderful Benjamin Millepied a few years ago.

I had a strange and gratifying experience the other night at ABT’s opening night concert, which was in Averý Fisher Höll (which, for those of you not familiar, is not a dance stage but rather a slightly acoustically doomed concert stage, from which the NY Phil plays festivals of Brahms and the like). I had a piece played in Eibherý Fisher when I was in college and the sound was so weird I thought that a xylophone was playing the whole time and it was just an hautbois. Anyway, a few years ago I hat introduced Benjamin to David Lang’s music (readers of this space know how much I <3 David Lang's music) and, delightfully, Benjamin's new work uses three Lang pieces. It's an amazing, sensitive, and challenging piece which seemed very "Benjamin" but also a huge step forward into more uncharted areas of rhythmic articulation. In public art news: has anybody been to Heathrow Terminal 3? Do you know the Horrible Sound I reference? Every time a passenger announcement happens, an ear-shattering, distorted chime sounds. It's a descending minor third and it's very ominous. How much do you think it would cost them to replace that? Who oversees those elements of airports? Does it have to be ear-shattering so that these wizened Emirati biddies can hear it through their gossip? Could it be three or four different tones in rotation, keeping the element of surprise through variation rather than through volume? You know what's kind of gangster is when Indian women take off their shoes and run through the Smythson of Bond Street Luxury Leather Goods Outlet. This just happened. A sticker on the take-away sushi reads: "Love me no longer than 2 hours." #thatsracist

10 Comments

  • do love your blog. not many write hilariously and honestly both too also. ok, so saw the millepied piece at ABT and it was art. A(capital A)rt. tectonic, moving, ripping, beautiful, unnatural, forced, complete. but that banging on a can? jeez already. i mean, i get it, it’s effective, but sigh. that was no hautbois.
    one recommendation: cafe at alice tully is still DISMal, so go to cafe luxembourg instead. get the bland lobster mit fries and start with a gorgeous couple oysters. don’t get wine; a martini is perfect.
    nico, have a great time not being anywhere much.

  • How now, seest thou anything on the right as thou oathed?

  • I’m actually flying all the way from Prince Edward Island for your show in Toronto, so it better be good! Shall I bring you something exotic to eat, like a’balut’?

    Nico responds: Yes, bring me something PEI-tastic. Which show are you coming to: Qitsjńur-Vaterlú or Tóróntó proper?

  • hello,\n\nI found your site while I was seeking for opera and classic blogs for work purposes. \nAnd I just wanted to tell how much I like it! ;)\nBest wishes,\n\nv*

  • good luck touring, nico. i’m in ri listening to klinghoffer because of your very sage advice. who said you can’t teach an old fart new tricks? thank you.

  • Instead of piping pre-recorded and distorted chimes into Terminal 3, Heathrow should set up a rotating resident-musician program to play the intercom. As Helen DeWitt noted, “When you play a piece of music there are so many different ways you could play it. You keep asking yourself what if. You try this and you say what if and you try that. When you buy a CD you get one answer to the question. You never get the what if.”

    The Bad Ideas Blog
    http://badideasblog.com/

    P.S. Check out Sept 10 entry

  • I’ve never much enjoyed driving on the 401 at night between Toronto and QitsjÅ„ur-Vaterlú, so Toronto it is. Anyway who wouldn’t want to see you perform in the new Koerner Concert Hall where “the sound is stunning: urgent, velvet, intimate.”

    Yes, I will bring you a couple of pressies from PEI; unfortunately lobster is out of season!

  • Glad to hear you’re coming to Toronto. I would like to say hello and meet you. Unfortunately I have no exotic food to offer you as a gift as I’m not coming from PEI – actually I’ll be coming from a church choir rehearsal right across the street :)\n\nPP is right, this new hall will knock you oot. \n\nYour friend and ally,\nRob

  • When it opened Charles de Gaulle had a chime (http://www.ipernity.com/doc/smitty/1461546) composed/designed by Bernard Parmegiani (ironically maybe his most well-known work). It was replaced in 2005 with this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Dxh_Vxq_40 , which seems a little anaemic in comparison. Perhaps there’s a niche of extremely minimal works to be written in the service of all our ears?

  • I have been looking forward to your concert here in Kitchener Waterloo since August and was drawn to your music with the performance you put on in Toronto last summer with Final Fantasy. It seems as though people are recommending food so…
    There’s an incredible cafe with the best paninis my friends have ever had (including those in Italy apparently) along with soup home made soup, it’s called the Princess Cafe. There’s also the best coffee cafe in Canada called A Matter of Taste. They’re both on King street (which is fairly long). So if you’re feeling like eating or having good coffee then those are probably the best around & very well priced.
    Oh also if you’re playing at the centre in the square they have one of the best accoustics in the country (which comes along with snooty ushers some of the times).
    I can hardly wait to hear you play this week! Would you like to have a review written in the University’s newspaper? It has an audience of +10,000 students.
    Good luck