links to interesting music
The following annotated list contains links to friends and colleagues and a few other sites that interest me.
This Queens-based organization has four musical groups associated with it: The Astoria Symphony, The Lost Dog New Music Ensemble, Astoria Jazz Nights, and a composer’s consortium called Random Access Music. The artistic director of AMS is conductor and composer Silas N. Huff.
The homepage of friend, colleague, and task-master, David Fetherolf. “Fethy”, as he is sometimes called by his friends, is one of the few working music editors that still cares about quality music typography. David is the production editor at G. Schirmer/Music Sales here in New York–my primary client in the music editing and copying business.
David is also a gifted composer and a member of the Random Access Music composers’ collective. You may purchase David’s CD When Only the Moon Rages from Albany Records.
You will be astounded at Dom’s performances, which include a menagerie of percussive techniques, redesigning the guitars he plays, and a host of innovative ideas. His CD, Deviations, includes works by Marc Mellits and original compositions by Dominic himself.
This is my favorite small performance venue in NYC, located on 26th Street between 6th and Broadway. The venue supports work in 5.1 surround sound.
Kithara Editions and David Nadal
Kithara Editions is a small, boutique publisher of guitar music, owned by David Nadal (see below under Ursula’s End). David’s goal with Kithara Editions is to offer new and interesting arrangement and works for the guitar. Kithara is the sole publisher of all of my music for guitar.
Ollie Powers and the Hamony Syncopaters
This is a link to two audio files and some info about my great grandfather’s dixieland jazz band. Ollie was a fairly famous vaudevillian and early jazzer, and can be heard singing at this site. Ollie was good friends with and much admired by Louis Armstrong. In fact, Armstrong adored my great grandfather’s singing. When Ollie died (tragically quite young) from, we assume, tuberculosis, the funeral was front-page news in african-american newspapers like the Chicago Defender. In fact, the Defender reports that Armstrong, himself, played a trumpet solo during the services–and many other early luminaries of jazz also attended or performed. My uncle Ollie, the grandson of the famed musician, maintains a webpage with biographical info, pictures and a copy of the Chicago Defender article listed above. My uncle Ollie, is a good composer and musician in his own right, too. I include this link not for the artistic content, which is not particularly strong, but for purely personal and historical reasons.
Manly is a good friend and one of the most gifted composers that I know. His music is satisfying every time out.
This composer’s consortium consists of David Fetherolf, Jonathan Pieslak, Erin Rogers, Manly Romero, Allen Schulz, and Stefan Weisman. Founded by Allen Schulz in 2005, the group has already presented multiple concerts in its first three seasons.
A duo with Holly and David Nadal. Holly is a sublime vocalist who specializes in “straight-tone” vocal technique. She is a proponent of both ancient and new music. Meredith Monk has called Holly “her musical grand-daughter.” David is a master of both the acoustic and electric guitar. He has published books (by Dover Press) in genres ranging from guitar arrangements of the music of John Dowland to arrangements of baroque and classical masterpieces for electric guitar. David is also the greatest supporter of new music for guitar that I know, having commissioned, arranged and played works for his instrument too numerous to mention. David is also a guitarist for the tango band Zvi Migdal.
New York-based composer. Founding member of Random Access Music.