[B&E CD][Dresden] [O Death iTunes][CD Reviews] [Pick of the Week] [O Death CD] [Bang On A Can Premiere] [Old Archives] [London, Jan 2010] [C:T] [Nov/Dec 2009 Perf] [BOAC] [Interview and an Article][Rec Session Photos][Summer Projects][Peabody][O Death Euro Prem][March 2009][New Recordings][New Sounds Podcast][September 2008][August 2008] [July 2008] [April 2008] [Nov 2007][O Death] [May] [Mr Brown (Dec)] [July][Ligeti] [April]
New Recording PostedI just posted a recording of my piano/percussion piece for Danny Holt. Danny has played it a number of times, but this is a live recording from the L.A performance that I attended last month. At some point I'll post a photo of the wierd and wonderful set-up required for the piece, but for the meantime, there recording on my sounds page will have to do.
L.A. Phil Commission AnnouncedMy next project, I am very happy to say, is a commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic for their Green Umbrella series. The new piece,the premiere of which will take place on April 10, 2012, is for the L.A. Phil New Music Group, Conducted by John Adams.
New Music Box Article/Video Interview & New RecordingI was recently interviewed for New Music Box. You can read the article and view the video here: http://newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=6695. I've also just added a live recording of my new piece for Four Drum Kits: "Four Drums for Dresden" on my sounds page. As I'm off on my travels, this is likely the last post for 2010. There are some really exciting projects in the works for 2011 that will be announced soon, so please stay tuned either here or on twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/OscarBettison B&E on New Amsterdam RecordsB&E (with aggravated assault) was released in November as part of Newspeak's debut CD on New Amsterdam Records. It's a terrific album and I'm thrilled with the way it sounds. It's available at a lot of places but, perhaps the most obvious is here: https://www.newamsterdamrecords.com/#Album/sweet_light_crude Drum-Kit Quartet PremiereI was thrilled by the Drum-Kit Quartet premiere in Dresden. Thanks to fantastic players and the wonderful Hellerau Festival, I don't think it could have been any better. I hope to have a recording of the piece very soon, and once I do, I'll post it to the sounds page. In the meantime other projects are in the works, so I'd better get back to work. [Back to top]New Video AddedI've just uploaded video of two performances of my multi-piano piece "Liminal" as performed in The Roundhouse, London in January of this year. The piece is scored for six pianos, percussion and audience percussion and was performed twice in the concert, once at the begining and once at the end. I've uploaded both versions, although I prefer the second. I'm currently working on a new version of this piece for two pianos and two keyboards (sans percussion) which, I hope, will be slightly less unwieldy. [Back to top]Dresden Premiere, Oct 2010I'm going to Dresden soon for the premiere of a new piece that has been occupying me for the last few months. It's for four drum-kits and was especially written for the principal percussionists of four of Europe's leading new music ensembles: Lukas Schiske from Klangforum Wien, Rainer Römer from Ensemble Modern, Dirk Rothbrust from Musikfabrik and Gerrit Nulens from Ictus. "Four Drums For Dresden" was commissioned by Hellerau and will be premiered there on October 3rd as part of the Tonlagen Festival. Here's a link to the concert (in German): http://www.hellerau.org/spielplan/programm/tonlagen-2010/tonlagen--batterie-drumset/ and the festival: http://www.hellerau.org/spielplan/programm/tonlagen-2010/ [Back to top]O Death now on iTunesJust a quick announcement that 'O Death' is now available on iTunes. Here's the link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/o-death-oscar-bettison/id376564462 [Back to top]CD ReviewsI'm very happy with the response that the CD has received. There have been great reviews on both sides of the Atlantic including a 5-star review in the NRC Handelsblad, one of Holland's leading broadsheets. Here's one from the Baltimore City Paper: http://www.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=15973 Tracks from the album are available for streaming on the website 22 Tracks: http://www.22tracks.com/#/contemporary/ in fact, they seem to like it so much that they've added extra tracks so, at the moment, the whole album can be streamed there. Writing continues apace. I'm working on a couple of things that are due for performance quite soon in various places. Indeed, I just realised that the other day, almost at the same time as a new piece of mine was being performed in California, sketches of an unfinished piece were being rehearsed/workshopped in Germany. Looking at a globe I was somewhere in the middle. [Back to top]CD "Pick of the Week" on SoundcheckI just got back from Holland, dodging a volcano, where BOAC played my new piece. Upon arrival, I was greeted with some good news. The CD has barely come out and I'm thrilled with the respose it has received. I just found out that the CD of "O Death" was John Schaefer's Pick or the Week on WNYC's Soundcheck. Here's a link: http://culture.wnyc.org/articles/music-hub/2010/apr/16/soundcheck-cd-picks-week/ John Schaefer also featured the CD on his New Sounds show on April 15th: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/newsounds/episodes/2010/04/15 [Back to top]
O Death CD Now AvailableI am thrilled to announce that the CD of "O Death" has just been released. I recently received advance copies and I am extremely happy with how it turned out. The CD is available from Ensemble Klang's online shop here:: http://music.ensembleklang.com/album/o-death-oscar-bettison where you can also stream the entire album. Each purchase comes with a free download. The entire album can also be streamed from my sounds page. [Back to top]
Bang On A Can European US/EU PremiereMy new piece for the Bang On A Can All-Stars, "The Afflicted Girl", commissioned through their "People's Commissioning Fund" was premiered on Feb 24th in NYC. I was extremely pleased with how it went and I must say that it was an absolute pleasure working with them. The also gave the European Premeiere on April 13th in The Hague. To hear the piece please go to my sounds page.
[Back to top]
Old ArchivesI recently found a few old recordings of ancient pieces of mine on cassette tapes. Cassette tapes were something that people used in the olden days to record and distribute music before better means of piracy were invented. Anyway, through the wonders on modern technology, I converted them to Mp3 and have posted them on my sounds page. The newest of these is an arrangement I made back in 1998 (I think), the oldest of which was my first orchestral piece written when I was sixteen! [Back to top]London, Jan 2010My recent project for six pianos,entitled 'Liminal" was performed as the finale of the Reverb Series in the Roundhouse on January 31st in London. The concert, was curated and lead by Rolf Hind and featured works for multiple pianos by a whole host of composers. If you'd like to know more about the compositional process in fulfilling this somewhat odd commission you can read about it here: http://www.compositiontoday.com/blog/49.asp [Back to top]C:TI've joined Composition:Today as a guest blogger, I'll be writing about all sorts of things that interest me, but my first blog entry is about creativity tools and strategies for composers. I've added this to my links page, but as it's current news I thought I'd add a little something about it here too. Here's a link: http://www.compositiontoday.com In other news work continues apace, so much so that I might not get around to posting new recordings of various things for a while. Once I get a moment I will, as there's at least two brand new live recordings to post. [Back to top]November/December, 2009 PerformancesEnsemble Klang premiered my new piece for them, ppopp, on October 11th as part of the Nederlanse Muziekdagen (Netherlands Music Days) and will perform O Death in its entirity in Theater Kikker, Utrecht on December 3rd. Here's a link to the Utrecht show: http://www.theaterkikker.nl/agenda/1039//rumor/ On the other side of the pond, Courtney Orlando from Alarm Will Sound, gave the world premiere of my piece for solo detuned violin, Neolithic Airs on December 7th. Ensemble Klang's recording of O Death is due to be released soon, and I'll be sure to post release news as soon as I get it. [Back to top]Bang on a Can CommissionI've just started work on a new commission for the legendary Bang on a Can All-Stars for their 2010 People's Commissioning Concert, which, needless to say, I'm very excited about. The premiere will take place on February 24, 2010 at Merkin Hall, NYC. [Back to top]Interview and an ArticleThere are a couple of things up on the net about my music. I recently did an interview with Composition Today which can be found here: http://www.compositiontoday.com/interviews/oscar_bettison.asp. There's also a great article on my piece Gauze Vespers on the Loose Filter Project: [link] Apart from that, the CD of O Death is very much in the works (I've seen the cover-art) and should be out in the next couple of months. [Back to top]Recording Session PhotosI've added some photos from the recording session of O Death (see images.) Seeing as these are the first new images I've added to this website for almost four years, this is quite an event. [Back to top]Summer 2009 ProjectsI have a few projects on this summer, the first of which is a new piece commissioned by the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for pianist/percussionist extraordinaire Danny Holt. The piece will feature Danny playing piano and percussion simultaneously. It's going to be a tricky to write and more than a little tricky to play I'm sure, but, as any one who has heard my music knows, it's definitely the kind of thing that I love doing. The premiere will take place sometime early next year in Los Angeles and other cities yet to be announced... After that, I'm going to start on a new piece for Ensemble Klang for their One-Song Song Cycle Project. This project due to be performed as part of the Nederlands Muziek Dagen '09 (Netherlands Music Days '09) involves ten composers representing such diverse countries as South Korea, Mexico, the US, Argentina and Sweden responding to and/or setting the same newly written text by one of Holland's leading poets, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. The performance will take place in the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam on October 11th and will be broadcast on Dutch radio. [Back to top]PeabodyI'm very happy to announce that I'll be joining the composition faculty at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University this fall (autumn for those of you on the other side of the pond.) Here's a link to the composition website. [Back to top]European Premiere of O Death/New SoundsEnsemble Klang gave the European Premiere of 'O Death' on May 19th in the Korzo Theater, Den Haag. The day after the premiere Klang recorded 'O Death' as part of their composer portrait series, a set of CD portraits of Tom Johnson, Peter Adriaansz and yours truly. I'm honoured to be in such company. Lastly, I'm happy to say that my music featured on New Sounds again. This time John Schaefer played extracts from Gauze Vespers and O Death. Here's a link; this can downloaded as a podcast too. [Back to top]March 2009The amazing California Ear Unit gave the west coast premiere of 'Gauze Vespers' in their concert at REDCAT, Disney Hall, Los Angeles on March 21st. I was very happy with the performance and it was an especially nice event for me as it was the first time that my music has been performed on the west coast. [Back to top]New RecordingsI've just posted two new recordings. The first is a new live recording of Ensemble Klang performing the sixth movement of 'O Death', 'I Believe I'm Sinking Down'; the second a new studio recording of SOIL playing 'Gauze Vespers'. I've put excerpts of them on my myspace page, but, as always, they're posted in full here on my sounds page. [Back to top]'O Death' Podcast on New Sounds, WNYC.In October, 'O Death' was featured on WNYC's New Sounds show. It is now available for streaming and as a podcast: here. For those of you unfamiliar with New Sounds it's a really fantastic programme and I'm honoured that they're featuring my music. [Back to top]September 2008Italy was fantastic, and I hope to have some audio evidence of the goings on at some point in the near future (I'll probably just post samples as the piece isn't finished.) To give some idea as to what I've been up to, let's just say that I've spent a lot of my time playing around with violin strings. All will be revealed. [Back to top]August 2008I'm off travelling again, this time to Italy (Stresa to be exact) but I'm happy to say that I've managed to find time to post another recording. This is of my 1-minute signature for Ensemble Klang on the occasion of their 5th birthday. Those of us who have had the distinct pleasure of writing for them over the last five years of their existence were asked to write very brief compositional signatures for them which were then strung together in a 30-or-so minute continuity. To hear my contribution go to my sounds page. [Back to top]July 2008Lastly,
|
|