New Releasings
Labor Records in collaboration with Naxos is releasing a series of recordings of my work covering more than half a century! The most recent release is "Jukebox in the Tavern of Love" paired with a new work by Meredith Monk. "The Nude Paper Sermon" and "Wiretap" is a double album containing no fewer than five works; see below for details. "Civilization & its Discontents" is a words-and-music collaboration with Michael Sahl. More information, reviews and ordering (physical or digital editions) is available below or by going to Labor Records.
Premiere of Salzman’s Five Dances for String Quartet
On October 30th, Eric Salzman’s Five Dances for String Quartet, based on prepared piano music written in the 1940s by John Cage, will be performed for a concert of Cage’s music at Bard College as part of a three-day symposium on Cage, celebrating the Cage Trust at Bard. Read the full press release (PDF). Note that, although individual pieces have been performed separately (Totem Ancestor was widely performed and recorded by the Kronos Quartet), this is the premiere of the set as a whole.
Date Posted // October 03, 2009
In Categories // Events, Five Dances for String Quartet, News, Works and Productions
Report on the Bargemusic Performance
The performances of Jukebox in the Tavern of Love in July at Bargemusic were a big success. Both performances were sold out and were well noticed in the press and online. A CD and DVD of the Western Wind performance of this work will be available shortly. Jukebox was commissioned from librettist/director Valeria Vasilevski and Salzman as a companion piece to a 1605 madrigal comedy by Andriano Banchieri and the two works are performed together as a double bill.
Date Posted // August 02, 2009
In Categories // Jukebox in the Tavern of Love, News, Works and Productions
Performance of Salzman’s Music for La Bonne Ame de Setchouan
A new suite taken from Eric Salzman’s music for La Bonne Ame de Setchouan—a French-language production of the Bertolt Brecht “Good Person of Sezchuan” at Quebec’s Theatre du Trident—will be performed on May 16th at the Southampton Cultural Center by mezzo Laila Salins and accordionist William Schimmel.
Date Posted // April 04, 2009
In Categories // Events, La Bonne Ame de Setchouan, News, Works and Productions
Salzman and Desi Working Together Again
Eric Salzman and Thomas Desi are working together again, this time on a production of the Morty Feldman/Sam Beckett Neither—the only opera/music theater work either of them ever wrote. The Center for Contemporary Opera will present a workshop version at The Cell in May with Keira Duffy in the principal role and featuring a mime and videographer from Vienna. The whole production will then move to Vienna where it will be performed at the Wien Modern Festival in November. Productions with full orchestra will follow in Vienna and New York in 2010.
Date Posted // March 16, 2009
In Categories // Events, News, Works and Productions
Western Wind Vocal Ensemble Performs Excerpts from Jukebox in the Tavern of Love
An excerpt from Jukebox in the Tavern of Love was performed by the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble on their O Beautiful American Music program (originally created for National Public Radio) in November at the New York Historical Society and they will perform another excerpt or two at their big anniversary celebration on May 16th. Jukebox is a “madrigal comedy” commissioned by the Western Wind on an original text by Valeria Vasilevski about six people trapped in a bar during a huge storm and blackout. The Western Wind has performed it, together with a madrigal comedy of 1607 by Adriano Banchieri about people on a ferryboat going from Venice to Padua, at the Tenri Center in Greenwich Village, and at The Flea in downtown NYC. They plan to bring it back next season in New York and on tour. There will also be a CD and DVD of the work to be released later this year.
Date Posted // February 18, 2009
In Categories // Events, Jukebox in the Tavern of Love, News, Works and Productions