Upcoming Concert Events
January 2009 (date TBA) Lincoln Center, New York, New York
Pandora Jazz Event, featuring Nolan with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center
Details forthcoming
January 23, 2009, Paramount Theater, Oakland, CA
Premiere performance of Cello Concerto, with cellist Maya Beiser and the Oakland Symphony Orchestra
January 24, 2009, Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco, CA
Repeat performance of the Cello Concerto
Fall 2009 (date TBA), Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC
Premiere performance of Cosmic Reflections for orchestra and narrator (with visuals by NASA-Goddard), with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra and narrator Cary Harrison, in celebration of the 2009 International GLAST Symposium.
For more information on the companion piece, the GLAST Prelude, for brass quintet, see the GLAST Prelude Page
For more general information on GLAST:
http://glast.gsfc.nasa.gov/
For more information on the Kennedy Center concert, with the prospect of attending, contact:
Nancy Christensen: nchristiansen@stanford.edu
GLAST Prelude’s Surprising Success: Next-up: Cosmic Reflections
American Festivals Successfully Premiered at 2008 Festival del sole
Cello Concerto Performance Dates Scheduled
3 Jazz Preludes Receive 2 Key Performances
Benny & Joon: The Musical Gets Underway
Classical Archives’ Revamped Website To Launch Shortly
Pandora Classical Launch Party – Next Up: Major NY Classical and Jazz Events
GLAST Prelude’s Surprising Success: Next-up: Cosmic Reflections
The much-anticipated launch of the GLAST Space Telescope finally took place – after numerous delays – on Wednesday June 11, 2008 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Nolan and his family were among the lucky ones to witness this breath-taking event. Their invitation came by virtue of Nolan’s GLAST Prelude for brass quintet, written in celebration of the GLAST mission – recorded by the world-class American Brass Quintet and accompanied by state-of-the-art visuals by NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center’s video design team. The result of this collaboration is the GLAST Prelude music video, which was premiered at the pre-launch reception on June 9.
The earlier-announced date of June 3 determined their travel regiment, which had them arriving in Orlando on Sunday, June 1 and departing on Tuesday, June 10 – allowing for a healthy mixture of time on the Space Coast in conjunction with the launch events followed by several days at Disneyworld for the kids. But even before the plane landed, the launch date had slipped, whereby they reversed plans, and began with time at Disneyworld’s various theme parks – including two water parks (which given the heat was a welcome diversion). Finally, the launch date was fixed on June 11, whereby they adjusted their travel plans accordingly – and was it ever worth it! The pre-launch reception took place the Friday before in Cocoa Beach, hosted by Stanford University and General Dynamics, and to say that the “premiere” of the GLAST Prelude music video was a success is a vast understatement; Nolan signed autographs of the DVD for two hours after the performance! Since then, the enthusiasm for the music video, and the concepts behind it, have taken hold in the press and the Internet in a big way. NASA now features a dedicated webpage on this work on their site, and will be placing the music video in steady rotation on NASA TV; in addition, several articles have come out on this unique mix of art and science – including in the prestigious Science magazine!
As noted before, the GLAST Prelude is but the first of two musical projects associated with the GLAST mission. The second, and much larger composition – to be begun later this year – will be entitled Cosmic Reflections, for full orchestra and narrator. This will be a very ambitious work that attempts to relay the full history of the Universe (no less)! Famed physicist / author Lawrence Krauss, along with Classical Archives’ CEO Pierre Schwob (a gifted amateur cosmologist in his own right), are currently writing the “libretto” for the work, which will form a kind of 21st century update to Gustav Holst’s The Planets – with a nod to Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf by virtue of its quasi-theatrical nature. The new work will be premiered live at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. in fall, 2009, and will feature the Boston University Symphony Orchestra, along with visuals again provided by NASA-Goddard.
For complete information on the GLAST Prelude, its origins, aesthetic, and subsequent success in the press and the Internet, click here.
For more information on GLAST – including access to the actual launch video:
http://glast.gsfc.nasa.gov/
American Festivals Successfully Premiered at 2008 Festival del sole
On July 4, 2008, the long awaited complete performance of Nolan’s symphonic oratorio American Festivals – with poetic texts by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. – was premiered to great critical and popular success as part of the prestigious Festival del sole (produced by IMG Artists), in the beautiful Lincoln Theater in Yountville, CA. The performance was part of the July 4th festivities at the Veteran’s Park in Yountville, and was the featured work in a concert performed by the Napa Valley Symphony and Chorus under Maestro Asher Raboy, and featuring a bevy of soloists, including Metropolitan and SF Opera stars Jill Grove (mezzo-soprano), Eric Owens (baritone), tenor saxophonist Lawrence Miller, native flutist Mary Youngblood, and famed actor Craig T. Nelson as orator. This was the premiere of the final movement, “Thanksgiving”, and the first time that this hour-long secular oratorio – which also includes “Oration on July 4th”, “Memorial Day” and “Black Suit Blues” (for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) – was performed in its entirety. As the Napa Valley Register wrote, it was a “stirring world premier of an important new work… a rousing bit of Americana, delivering the same impact as the evocative quotations of Charles Ives.” To read the review of the American Festivals by the Napa Valley Register, click here.
Putting all of this together was no easy feat, and there were many heroes to make it happen. Chief among them are Charles Letourneau of IMG Artists, who had the vision and enthusiasm to see this performance through, as well the entire staff and musicians of the Napa Valley Symphony, choirmaster Lynne Morrow and the wonderful chorale she put together, each of the outstanding soloists, and not least the generosity of Craig T. Nelson to take time out of his busy schedule to join in the performance. Nolan and his friend-colleague Robert Trent Jones, Jr. were ecstatic beyond words to see this take place, and the enthusiastic response by the capacity crowd – including a very rousing standing ovation – was a magical reward for the nearly 5 years of effort they put into this work! The performance was a true joy to experience, and Maestro Raboy did a fabulous job of pulling all the complexities together. The response of the audience and the critics give the authors proof that there is a desire for this kind of artistic and provocative account of our nation, and they are convinced that the work indeed has some serious “legs”, and will soon be making its way across the country. Much work still remains to realize the full vision of the work – including a complete video accompaniment – but with this success behind them, they are convinced that achieving this vision is now only a matter of time! Stay tuned…
Following the concert – which also included a stellar performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue by the piano prodigy Conrad Tao – the authors and their families, along with many of the performers and good friends, were treated to a great fireworks display out over the 7th fairway of the Vintner’s Golf Club; a magical ending to a magical day.
More information on the Festival del sole can be found at:
http://www.festivaldelsole.com/napavalley/press.html
Cello Concerto Performance Dates Scheduled
Thanks to a generous commission from Jim Bell of Oakland’s Bell Investment Advisors, Nolan is currently hard at work on his Cello Concerto, or its full title, the World Concerto for Cello and Orchestra: a three movement work that will incorporate elements of World music in the latter two movements, in part to reflect the nature of Bell Investment Advisor’s new Worldwide Trends Fund – whose launch is the impetus of the commission. Internationally acclaimed cellist Maya Beiser will be featured in the premiere performances, along with soloists of various World instruments – including acclaimed Erhu player Jiebing Chen – all supported by the Oakland East Bay Symphony under Maestro Michael Morgan. The premiere performance will take place at the beautiful Paramount Theater in Oakland on Friday, January 23, 2009. A follow-up performance will then take place in the Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on Saturday, January 24. Future performances will be scheduled later.
For information and tickets to both performances, keep your eyes on this site, as well as at the Oakland Symphony’s website: www.oebs.org
3 Jazz Preludes Receive 2 Key Performances
The 3 Jazz Preludes, for piano (2007) received two key performances within the past few months. The set was premiered at the 2007 Festival San Miguel de Allende (Mexico) by pianist Keven Fitz-Gerald (USC piano faculty) on December 31, 2007; they then received their US Premiere at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall) in New York by pianist Kimball Gallagher, a promising young competition winner.
Nolan traveled to enjoy both performances in person, the latter with his entire family. The trip to Mexico followed a week of concerts with his Quartet and singer Marcus Lovett in Idaho (Tamarack Resort) and Colorado (private concert). Thanks to a series of airline delays, Nolan literally arrived at the theater just as the concert began – with the help of friend Jerry Sherman and his wife, who were tremendous hosts. This was Nolan’s first time in San Miguel – though he’ll hopefully be back with his Quartet for the city’s Jazz Festival in November.
The trip to New York was extraordinary, and included – beyond the Carnegie Hall concert – the thrill of seeing four Broadway musicals (two with the kids); this made for great “research” for his upcoming task to write his own Broadway musical (see the news on Benny & Joon: The Musical, below). The Carnegie concert was an amazing experience, and featured an exceptional performance of the Preludes by Kimball Gallagher; Kimball brought to them the perfect blend of great technical skills with the appropriate spirit and energy. Nolan is grateful for Kimball’s openness to work together to understand the composer’s thoughts and ideas, which the pianist then synthesized to make his own. The terrific audience reaction proved that the effort was well worth it. We look forward to future performances of the Preludes by Kimball, perhaps even a recording… (An audio stream featuring Nolan is available on the Composition page).
Benny & Joon: The Musical Gets Underway
Nolan Gasser writes a Broadway musical? Who woulda thunk it?? Not something on his radar, until veteran theater producer and head of MGM On Stage, Dean Stolber, approached Nolan last summer with a proposition: how’d you like to write a Broadway musical? MGM On Stage is the entity behind the enormously successful musical adaptation of Legally Blonde (which Nolan and his family recently enjoyed in New York), as well as several others (Prisilla Queen of the Desert, Saved, Desperately Seeking Susan, etc.) that are now making their way to Broadway as musical adaptations of MGM films. Dean Stolber gave Nolan a list of good candidates of MGM films and told him to “pick one that moves you”. After watching a bunch of movies, he found one that did – the 1993 film “Benny & Joon”, starring Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Aidan Quinn. A proposal/treatment was prepared and sent to Mr. Stolber, who happily liked what he read. The next task: find a lyricist. Thanks to some connections to Broadway legend Stephen Schwartz (composer/lyricist of Wicked), ASCAP’s theater guru Michael Kerker, and others – especially friend Greg Pliska – he found one; she is Mindi Dickstein, whose Broadway credits include being the lyricist for Little Woman: The Musical. Mindi has many high-profile off-Broadway musical credits to her name, has won numerous awards, and is on staff at the New York University Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program.
And things are moving along nicely: Nolan and Mindi have now completed two songs, and are fired up about both of them! When they complete another two or so, they’ll present their efforts to Dean Stolber, and hopefully the project will kick into a higher gear. Certainly both Nolan and Mindi are convinced that Benny & Joon: The Musical will be Broadway-bound in no time! Stay tuned…
Classical Archives’ Revamped Website To Launch Shortly
The Classical Archives (www.classicalarchives.com) has been a premier classical music website for well over 10 years. The site, founded by Mr. Pierre Schwob, began in 1994 as a site to share and submit MIDI (synthesized) file versions of classical works, but in the year 2000 expanded to include some “live audio” recordings – principally by independent artists in Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union. Nolan came on board as Artistic Director of the site in 2002, and immediately set out to organize the vast classical content in a manner that would ease navigation and provide state-of-the-art musicology, as well as to enlarge the roster of independent artists. At the same time, Nolan and Pierre began to forge a strategy to expand the musical offerings on the site to include content from the Major and Independent Classical Labels. After nearly 5 years and much hard-fought negotiations, this dream is about to come true. Around Aug. 15, 2008, the new and vastly improved Classical Archives will launch its new streaming and downloading services, and the differences will astound the user. At last will be an online music site that truly appreciates the challenges and opportunities for classical music online, and provides its users – from the classical newcomer to the scholar – with the best navigation and search capability anywhere. They have signed nearly all the Major Labels and many Independents, and the expected intention is to become the dominant site for classical music (and soon thereafter Jazz, Theater/Film music, and World Music) online, and a singular source for all aspects of the classical music world – including concerts, merchandise, etc. Stay tuned here, and keep checking out www.classicalarchives.com
Pandora Classical Launch Party – Next Up: Major NY Jazz and Classical Events
Last summer, Nolan worked furiously at his old stomping grounds, the Oakland offices of Pandora Media, Inc. – where he has been the chief architect of the Music Genome Project, the backbone of the hugely successful Pandora Internet radio service, and is still the company’s Chief Musicologist – to complete the final Music Genome, the Classical Genome. This was a long-sought goal of Nolan’s, to see the rigorous power of the Musical Genome Project applied to the granddaddy of musical genres, classical. With enough Pandora users getting empty results from their queries of Mozart and Beethoven, the powers-that-be said, “okay, it’s time”. Then, after months of workshop with a highly-trained team of Pandora classical analysts, the Classical Genome launched in November 2007 – to rave reviews. To celebrate the occasion, Pandora organized an extravagant Launch Party at the beautiful Regency Theater in San Francisco. Nolan and Pandora founder Tim Westergren wrote and starred in a humorous, quasi-theatrical “realization” of the Classical Genome, featuring Nolan conducting the Jubilate Orchestra with such guest soloists as famed trumpeter Jens Lindemann (of Canadian Brass fame). Nolan portrayed the role of the “little conductor inside the computer” trying to please and understand the tastes of the first classical user, played by Tim Westergren. It was a great success and a quite a hoot. Bose, a key partner of Pandora, sponsored the event.
With such success, there has been non-stop talk of a reprise of the Classical Launch Party – on an even larger scale – as well as to extend the quasi-theatrical musical event to other genres, especially Jazz. To that end, some new developments are under way. First, Pandora has now scheduled its first Pandora Jazz Event, with none other than famed jazz trumpeter and director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wynton Marsalis. At this point, only the location and approximate date – January 2009 (date TBA) at Lincoln Center, NY – have been decided; exactly what the program will consist of is something that Nolan, Tim Westergren, and Wynton Marsalis will have to work out – but it will surely be pretty amazing. In addition, there are varying discussions concerning the reprise of the Classical Event. Initial discussions with the New York Philharmonic went well, but led to no specific schedule so far. On the other hand, another type of event is coalescing in the minds of Nolan, Tim, and others – involving a smaller chamber orchestra and some world-class soloists, including the likes of Joshua Bell, diva Renée Fleming, etc., with Nolan conducting. Stay tuned for further developments in this exciting story.
For more on Pandora, which now boasts more than 13 million subscribers, visit www.pandora.com |
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Copyright 2008 Nolan Gasser |
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