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September 15, 2009

If Where Is Of To Why Released On Carrier Records


If where is of to why has been selected for release on independent New York label Carrier Records new CD entitled “New Music From San Diego”, featuring a sampling of the city’s most talented young composers.


Originally written for the Acanthes Festival in France, this recording of If where is of to why features performances by pianists Brendan Nguyen and Mark Polesky, as well as percussionists Ross Karre and Jon Hepfer, members of San Diego’s premiere percussion ensemble Redfishbluefish.


Carrier Records was formed in 2009 by members of New York’s feldgling Wet Ink Ensemble in order to create a venue for the release and dissemination of new improvised and experimental music by young artists from around the world. The label's goal is to release a wide range of styles and sound worlds, while maintaining the highest quality releases possible.


“New Music from San Diego” is available in CD or MP3 format, and can be purchased directly from Carrier Records or through one of their distributors (such as iTunes, eMusic, or CD Baby).  All proceeds go directly to the artists.

September 9, 2009

Helgeson Invited To Present Music At Stanford University


Aaron Helgeson has been invited to present his music at Stanford University, as part of its Composer Exchange Program.  The program, hosted by Stanford composition professor Mark Appelbaum, allows two composers each year to present and discuss their music to graduate students in the university’s Music Department.


Helgeson’s talk is scheduled for November 4.  Topics will focus on recent music (including his new setting of Anne Carson’s English translation of Sappho’s poetic fragments), as well as aesthetic influences from Phenomenologist philosophy to the radio plays of Samuel Beckett and the works of Hyperrealist painter Tim Eitel. Additional works presented will include Nothing from nothing (is black are white), If where is of to why, and the Five pieces for string quartet.


Other young composers featured in this year’s Composer Exchange Program include Brazilian composer Bruno Ruviaro, American composer Nicholas Deyoe, and Mexican composer Juan-Cristobal Cerrillo.

August 4, 2009

Palimpsest Commissions New Work For Inaugural Concert


Helgeson has been commissioned by UCSD’s new flagship contemporary music ensemble Palimpsest to write a work for chamber orchestra, to be paired with György Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto on Palimpsest’s inaugural concert taking place March 4, 2010 at 7:00pm in the new Conrad Prebys Concert Hall.


The commissioned work, entitled Transcriptions on listening to time, will be a set of miniatures based on early 20th century recordings of massive European clock chimes and mechanical orchestras.  In addition to the usual chamber orchestra instrumentation, the work will feature exotic keyboard instruments such as the Baroque harpsichord and Hungarian celesta.


Palimpsest’s inaugural concert “Duplicates” will be conducted by Rand Steiger - conductor of such ensembles as the California Ear Unit, Sonor, and Ensemble Sospeso - and feaures works including Elliott Carter’s Double Concerto and Philippe Manoury’s Instants Pluriel for two orchestras and two conductors.

June 19, 2009

Helgeson Receives Commission From Soprano Susan Narucki


Grammy award-winning soprano Susan Narucki has commissioned Aaron Helgeson to write a new vocal work, to be completed in 2010.


As a soloist and champion of new music, Narucki has an extensive performance history including collaborations with such renowned conductors as Pierre Boulez, James Levine, Esa-Pekka Solonen, and Michael Tilson Thomas, and world premieres of music by Gérard Grisey, Mauricio Kagel, Louis Andriessen, Claude Vivier, and others.


Growing out of their recent collaboration on a performance of John Cage’s Songbooks at the new Conrad Prebys Music Center, Helgeson’s new vocal work for Narucki will be based on the poetic songs of 12th-century French troubadors, and will offer a continuation of his recent work in attempting to recontextualize music of the past using a highly contemporary musical vocabulary.