Hello All,

Just a quick posting today.

Firstly, I wanted to say that my Con Edison/Exploring the Metropolis Composer-in-Residence concert on February 18 at Flushing Town Hall was a ringing success. We played to a packed house–many were standing and sitting on the floor for lack of space/chairs–and the premiere of my work Autumn Yearning as well, if not better, than could’ve been expected. Other than the occasional bleeding in of traditional Korean drumming happening upstairs, it was a lovely afternoon.

Here is a write-up on the show from Exploring the Metropolis:

http://exploringthemetropolis.org/2012/02/east-and-west-and-yearning-for-autumn/

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Secondly, I have finally, FINALLY, added Paypal to my website so that interested parties can order my first two CDs (When Wind Comes To Sparse Bamboo and From A Far-off World) directly from me. Both of these CDs will be released digitally this year (including on the Naxos Music Library), but for a physical copy, directly from me is easiest. My third CD, Sfumato, may also be purchased directly from me, or at CD Baby where you can get either a physical or downloaded copy. My 2010 single Spoken Origins is also available at CD Baby.

Purchase Links:

For all physical CDs:

http://www.dspaneas.com/discography/

For Sfumato:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/spaneasparfenova

For Spoken Origins:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/demetriusspaneas

Thank you for your continued support!

Demetrius

Dear All,

Please join me on February 18, 2PM at Flushing Town Hall for my residency concert. Here is the official concert publicity:

Award winning composer and performer Demetrius Spaneas travels the world as a musical ambassador, connecting classical, jazz, and traditional music throughout the U.S., Eastern Europe, and Asia to create international dialogue through artistic collaboration. Recipient of the 2011 Exploring the Metropolis NYC Con Edison Musicians’ Residency Composition Program and a resident composer at Flushing Town Hall, Mr. Spaneas will perform work he has created during his residency, including new music based on traditional Chinese music.

This concert is part of the Composers Now Festival and will feature among other works the premiere of Mr. Spaneas’ Autumn Yearning for clarinet, viola, and piano, in which Mr. Spaneas will be joined by fellow members of Wolf’s Gang (Alexandra Honigsberg, viola, and Jed Distler, piano).

Autumn Yearning is based on the traditional Chinese folk song 妝臺秋思

Thank you for your continued support!

Demetrius

Hello All,

I am writing to share with you an amazing experience I had on February 5th…and it had NOTHING to do with the Superbowl (Game? What game?)…

I attended a concert as part of the Serial Underground series at Cornelia St. Cafe to see the famous composer/pianist Frederic Rzewskiperform a rare, intimate solo concert, in which he played not only his own works, but also compositions of Christian Wolff, Yuji Takahashi, Steve Lacy, and John Cage. The concert’s intimate setting allowed me the amazing opportunity to not only watch Rzewski’s hands and pedaling (I was sitting only about 5 feet away, and slightly to stage right) but I also was able to read the scores from the piano, which, by the way, he played one after an other without pause (or applause) for one hour ten minutes.

All I can say is that due to these factors, I learned more about composing for piano in that concert than I have in the last, oh, 25 or so years…very rarely have I had such a transcendent learning experience such as this…I was riveted to what was going on, watching ever color nuance, every gesture…seeing the old, handwritten scores (which, as far as I could tell, were probably originals) just added to the overall impact.

But it also got me thinking…

The concert was heavy on what is best described as mid-century Modernism, both academic and non- that reached it’s peak in the 1950s and 60s. By the 70s, Minimalism had started to take hold against the Modernist establishment and finally won the war (although some hold-outs still remain) by the 80s/early 90s. After the advent of Minimalism (and Post Minimalism) in the American sonic landscape, these composers eventually became the establishment and the new generation of American composers are following their tracks and their innovations.

This is where it gets interesting…

You see, I fall into the ‘in the cracks’ generation of American composers. The Minimalists (and Post-) came into full glory in the 70s and dominated by the 80s. I began my studies at New England Conservatory in the 80s with teachers firmly entrenched in Modernism, having either studies with or were from the same generation or studied with these composers. We were shown Minimalism, but it was mainly brushed aside by my teachers as a passing fad. So, I learned intimately the music of Stravinsky and Webern and Carter and Babbitt (even Crumb was considered a ‘newbie’; my teachers studies with Sessions and Milhaud and Boulanger) but not Reich or Glass or Riley or Adams save for passing references.

So, as this first group of Minimalists (and I use the term very broadly since they all hate it now…) became ‘established,’ their disciples and their disciples students became the ‘new academy,’ replacing the old. This happened at many institutions while I was studying, and became the norm well after I had left on my professional career. Students now are firmly entrenched in styles evolved from Minimalism. Nary a twelve tone row to be heard…

Hence, I am of the ‘lost generation’ between the Modernists and the Minimalists, mainly due to with whom, when, and where I studied.

So…I guess what I’m saying is that as a composer, I don’t write old style Modernism (far from it, but I do use many techniques from it) but in many ways, it is close to my heart. Rzewski’s concert reminded me how engaging this music can be, even though in many ways it does sound like ‘period performance’ after being awash in the Post Minimalist world (which I also don’t belong to). Hearing the crisp, angular phrasing and cell-based intervalic content in a way was rather…refreshing…

…and transcendent…

Until soon,

Demetrius

Hello All,

I have been spending a great deal of time lo these last days dealing with the launch of the new semester at the College. During this time, I have also been thinking about my latest performance(s) and completed the recording and editing of the new CD.

On January 23rd, we (Wolf’s Gang, me plus Alexandra Honigsberg and Jed Distler) had our debut performing Mozart’s lovely Kegelstatt Trio for clarinet, viola, and piano. The performance went beautifully, but it did inspire some deep thinking. Alexandra afterwards made a comment about how this was good for me because playing Mozart is not (or maybe ‘no longer’ is better) part of my world. She was right, of course, but it did really get me thinking about both the idea of performance specialization and of streamlining one’s performing (and maybe even composing) life as one matures.

There are some amazing Mozart players in the world. They specialize. This is what they do. Mozart is hard…real hard…there needs to be a certain sparkle, a perfect beauty in the clarity of the performance that takes years, decades, to begin to master. The great Mozart players have that…I don’t. It’s not my world. I’m OK with that. I can play Mozart valiantly with flawless technique and sweetness of sound, but I don’t–can’t–match the clarity brought out by a specialist in Mozart’s music. I’ve heard some amazing musicians play Mozart–some of the best players in the world–who played beautifully but didn’t have the ‘Mozart sparkle’ I’m mentioning.

Alexandra was right, this was good for me–good for us, methinks. It was fun and we got a great response from the audience, but did we ‘play Mozart’? Methinks no…a man like me who cut his teeth on Babbitt and Stockhausen is not going to be a ‘Mozart guy.’ But…I learn every time I do play it, and even though I’ll never be a Mozart specialist, I’m glad for the experience of it.

One has to do what one does. Younger artists who are still searching can dabble. Once one is established, you’ve got to chose your battles knowingly.’Who you are?’ and ‘what you do?’ need to be in the forefront of one’s professional artistic decisions.

Know thyself….

Which brings me to recording my new CD. I am delighted to say that the editing was completed this past Friday, which means that the CD is ready to go–well, ready to presented to labels, I should say.

My music is not like Mozart’s. Even though I use classical forms, my works have a great deal ‘indeterminacy’ about it, brought about by performer/conductor choices and/or through improvisation. Successful performances of much of my music have to be technically fiery and improvisationally inspired. Tall order. Works like …no longer to his father…which I recorded are practically impossible to play perfectly live due to the technical and creative demands on the performer (not to mention endurance…the piece can go 30 minutes…) and the acoustical properties of the saxophone. This, needless to say, created a conundrum in the studio: do I ‘make it perfect’ for the CD, even though perfect is not reality, and actually a lot of the interest in the piece comes from inconsistencies occurring and how the performer decides (or not) to develop them.

I decided to keep the inconsistencies because the track(s) would have been altered significantly had I made them perfect; the phrasing and raw power of the original performance would’ve been lost. I do admit to ‘ironing out’ one or two things, but even then only a couple of glaring micro-moments that I couldn’t live with. In an age of digitized perfection, my performance is raw emotionally, maybe flawed, but honest and powerful–I prefer it, it’s real, and I like it.

And maybe the Platonic Ideal in this case is in its impact, not in its perfection.

And speaking of raw, I uploaded a youtube video of another of the pieces on the new album, Soho Sophisticate. This is from my performance on December 4, 2011 at Cornelia Street Cafe.

Thank you all again for your continued support.

Until soon,

Demetrius

Dear All,

Writing to share with you the information for two upcoming January shows.

On Monday, January 23rd, I will be joined by my great friends and colleagues Alexandra Honigsberg and Jed Distler for our debut performance as ‘Wolf’s Gang’ for the ‘Classical at the Cornelia’ series at the Cornelia Street Cafe. The program will feature Mozart’s ‘Kegelstatt’ Trio for clarinet, viola, and piano, Jed performing Alvin Currans’ For Cornelius (1982) for solo piano, and Jed and I engaging in a rather randy version of the 2nd movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. We’ll also freely improvise at the end.

Here’s a little history about the ‘Kegelstatt’ (thanks to Alexandra)

Written for his friends, the Jacquin family, for their intimate house concerts in Vienna (with Mozart on viola), this piece is the first of its kind scored for these instruments, breaks many standard musical conventions of tempi and forms (including a 7-part, multi-rondo finale with piano intermezzi), and helped raise the clarinet, a new instrument, to prominence. Its instrumentation is often swapped around to suit the musicians available on a particular occasion, as Mozart did, but this is the original. It is said to be all about delicacy, dialogue, and intimacy (“Kegelstatt,” “Skittle Alley,” added by others after the fact due to improbable tales of Mozart’s gaming during its composition).”

The performance will be held at the Cornelia Street Cafe, NYC, January 23rd at 8:30 PM.

This’ll be fun

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Boston-based guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan will once again perform my composition A Child Sings At Thanksgiving as part of his New Lullaby Project. I am delighted that Aaron is getting such great mileage out of this piece, and I hope it continues to bring him joy and success. The concert will also feature works by Boyadjian, Takemitsu, Fletcher, and a Boston Premiere of Upward (2011) by John McDonald.

The performance will be held at the Church of the Advent Library, Boston, January 27th at 8PM.

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If you’re in the area(s), please consider stopping by one, or both, of these performances.

Thank you again for your continued support.

Demetrius

Hello All,

As many–if not all–of you know, my 43rd birthday was on January 14…an interesting age. You know, I remember vividly an interview with Paul McCartney in 1985. He had just released Give My Regards To Broadstreet, and was musing about his age, which was 43..almost as a ‘when did *this* happen’ vibe to it. I don’t know if I have this vibe about me–I am, however, hopeful that my career has more of an upward trajectory from this point on than McCartney’s has…

Regardless, this past week has been…eventful…so I want to share it with you.

The main thing I was to accomplish this January was to begin my new CD, with the first recording session being January 12…well, due to unforeseen circumstances, the content of that recording session had to be changed last-minute, like the night before (everything was booked…). Because of this, the entire CD concept had to change–I ended up recording pieces that I wasn’t planning on, so the content will be very different–and many of the pieces that I planned on recording this spring will no longer be on it because they no longer fit with what I had to record Thursday…

…make sense?

On top of that, now, instead of having to spread the recording out over the spring, I will have everything done in the studio by this coming Friday, January 20! The logistics of the ‘new’ project now make this possible. Many of this is due to the flexibility of the wonderful pianists (and great friends!) Elaine Kwon and Jed Distler for helping save this project last moment. So what will be on it, you ask…? Well, I’m not going to say just yet (don’t want to jinx this…again!), but I will say that I am now looking for a new title for the CD…maybe I’ll hold a competition or something…maybe…

Well, onto all of the other crazy good news this week:

Firstly, I got word from the Rome-based ensemble Piccola Academia degli Specchi that they will perform my composition for chamber ensemble Love Letters in the Ether (for flute, soprano saxophone, violin, cello, and piano 4-hands), which was written for them in 2010. This is great news; from what I have heard from the ensemble and other sources, it is very difficult to get funding in Italy to perform non-Italian composers, so we are all delighted! The concert will be held April 4th in Rome, and my great friend Bill Susman will also be represented on the concert!

Secondly, I was contacted by Parma Recordings. Parma is the record company that took over Capstone Records, the company with whom I released my first two CDs. We have been in discussion about re-releasing these two CDs, and I just received word that the first, When Wind Comes To Sparse Bamboo, will be released this March, both for purchase and also into the catalog of the Naxos Online Music Library. I’m delighted, needless to say.

And thirdly, I was put in contact towards the end of last week with Woomyung Choe, the Music Director of the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra in New Jersey. He is commissioning me to compose a new concerto for saxophone and full symphony orchestra for their 2012-13 season opener in September…yes, you heard right, for SEPTEMBER…he said that he wants a big piece that can be as long as 25 minutes…I guess I won’t be doing much else this summer, will I…? Not only am I writing it, I’m also the soloist. This is great for so many reasons, probably the main one being that I have been wanting for years to write a big piece for saxophone and orchestra that I could play, but like any major work, why write it if you’ve got no where yet to do it? My teacher Chinary Ung told me this. Hundreds of symphonies and operas are sitting gathering dust on composer’s shelves…well, I am honored and delighted to finally have an opportunity–at 43–to compose a large orchestral work that will actually get played.

So…that was *my* week…never boring…let’s see what this week brings with the final two recording sessions for the CD.

Of course, I still have to finish composing Roots Music for the Beijing Irish Modern Music Festival in March, but as I always say: “one major crisis at a time…”

Until soon,

Demetrius

Happy New Year to All!

As many of you have probably noticed by now, I am in the midst of updating my website. I needed to make the browsing experience here more user friendly and sleek (read: get rid of all of the excess clutter on my pages…). I will most certainly announce when everything is in place and fully operational…to be honest, I mainly need time to figure it all out, myself…

Well, you already heard the big news on my last posting. I have been appointed to the Fulbright Specialist Roster in the field of American Studies, Music. This week, I have started the process of creating projects and deciding where to go. I have many invitations from countries that I have already visited, but I also want to focus some on places that I haven’t been where my presence and teaching would have the most impact. I hope to have my first project underway shortly, and am aiming to travel and be in-residence (wherever that may be…sorry, no hints yet…don’t want to jinx anything…) by either fall 2012 or spring 2013.

…OK, one hint…the top of my list is a place where I absolutely love the cuisine…somehow, food always comes back into the picture, doesn’t it…?

Since this is January, I am off from teaching for the bulk of the month. During this time, I will be focusing on some large-scale projects that I want to share with you:

I have finally decided to take the plunge and record my next CD. This one–my 4th–will include my chamber music compositions (classical) written for/with clarinet: solos, duos, and trios. This will be the first CD containing only my written (through-composed) music, so it is an exciting (and daunting) endeavor. My first, When Wind Comes To Sparse Bamboo, included my favorite solo music (from across the centuries) to play on saxophone. My second, From a Far-off World, featured music by friends (for saxophone and bass clarinet), as well as my first compositions on a commercial recording. The third, Sfumato, my duo recording (for flutes and voice) with vocalist Galina Parfenova contained exclusively improvisations, although I did compose and realize electronic ‘backdrops’ for the improvisations.

[Note: one of the updated features to my new website will be the ability to purchase all of my CDs here...still figuring this one out...hopefully soon...]

The new CD, titled Autumn Yearning, will have a different vibe since although I am playing on every track, the CD is about my compositions and not my solo playing. This is the exciting part, and this is also why that even though I could’ve easily done a CD with all of my solo/electro-acoustic saxophone, clarinet, and flute compositions, I wanted to focus mostly on chamber music where I am part of the texture and not necessarily the main attraction, although the parts I wrote for myself are never ‘subdued’ by any means…plus, after my first 2 CDs being solo/electro-acoustic projects, it was high time for a change. Also, the one instrument which strangely I haven’t recorded on under my own name on is clarinet (and piccolo, but I don’t count that…); this is funny since in the classical world, for all intent and purpose, I am a clarinetist…funny…

So then, this month, I will record my song cycle Moonlight of Lost Dreams (text by Jacquelyn Familant) with Ms. Familant, soprano and Elaine Kwon, piano with yours truly on clarinet; my Gymnopaedia for clarinet and piano (again with Ms. Kwon); and my Three Graces for Clarinet Solo.

During this same time, I am preparing for a concert on January 23rd at Cornelia Street Cafe where I–along with violist Alexandra Honigsberg and pianist Jed Distler–will be playing the Mozart “Kagelstatt” Trio for clarinet, viola, and piano…we’re calling ourselves ‘Wolf’s Gang’…get it…WOLFGANG Amadeus Mozart…Jed came up with this one…brilliant

Wolf’s Gang is also the same crew who is premiering and recording the title track to the new CD, Autumn Yearning. We’ll record it sometime around the premiere on February 18th at Flushing Town Hall.

And speaking of premieres, I must also finish composing Roots Music within the next couple of weeks so as to send to my colleague Benoit Granier and the TIMI Modern Music Ensemble for its premiere at the Beijing Irish Modern Music Festival in March in China. As I’m sure you recall, I was commissioned by Dr. Granier and the festival to compose a large scale work that combines western classical instruments with traditional Chinese and Irish instruments and a jazz saxophone (me). My Con Edison/Exploring the Metropolis Composer Residency this fall was to research the traditional music of these cultures and to organize and create this piece. Well, as you all know, I was successful in finishing the groundwork for the composition and am now writing it all down and preparing the score for performance. This’ll be fun!

And, well, if that weren’t enough, I was also given the task over this winter break to create a two-year undergraduate composer’s workshop for Five Towns College, where I teach composition and performance. This will redefine the entire composition program, and they are giving me full reign to organize it however I wish…scary…of course, I pushed for this, so this is what I get…but I’m delighted that it’s being implemented.

And if I get bored, there are plenty of residency and grant applications due this month…will be sending out a few of those, as well…

So, here is my January…I’ll keep you all updated as the month proceeds.

Until soon,

Demetrius

Dear All,

It is with great honor and pleasure that I share with you the news that I have been selected for the Fulbright Specialist Roster for the next five years, beginning in 2012. This grant/award/appointment is administered by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA), and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES).

As you all know, the main focus of my musical career is in the arena of cultural diplomacy. My work over recent years has been to bring American music to the far reaches of the globe, connect with local artists and cultural and academic institutions, and create an artistic dialogue that benefits artists, students, and audiences on both sides. Selection to the Fulbright Specialist Roster brings me better opportunity to achieve these goals by giving me the full support of the organizations mentioned above.

I plan on continuing my work in Eurasia, most especially in the former Soviet Union and China, and hope to eventually expand my work to include projects in South Asia, the Middle East, and South America.

I am proud of the fact that the US Department of State does take the idea of cultural diplomacy seriously and that it supports such programs as the Fulbright. I am also always pleased that many of the countries across the globe are receptive to such an exchange of culture.

It means that we all just might have a chance of making a difference…a real, peaceful difference. It all begins with dialogue and education.

Yours always,

Demetrius

Me with young students in Tajikistan

Me giving a master class at the Baku Academy of Music, Azerbaijan

Greetings All,

I am delighted to announce that I have two (premiere) performances–in the great white north of New England–of my composition A Child Sings at Thanksgiving for solo guitar. This work was written for Boston-based guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan and the New Lullaby Project.

A Child Sings at Thanksgiving was adapted and rewritten for guitar from the final selection from my Songs for Children, composed for solo piano in 1994. By presenting the Thanksgiving Hymn We Gather Together in an abstracted and fleeting way, the work perhaps evokes an adult’s distant memories of holidays past.

The performances on December 10 and 18 will take place in Cambridge, MA and Nashua, NH respectively. I am very happy that I will be in attendance for the December 10 premiere.

Information on the concerts here:

#1 – Saturday, Dec. 10 at 8pm
Wild Night of New Lullabies in Cambridge
FB Event (click here)
Tickets & Information: www.BrownPaperTickets.com/event/212596 or call: 1-800-838-3006 (event 212596)
New School of Music
25 Lowell Street
Cambridge, MA

#2 – Sunday, Dec. 18 at 3pm  
Studio 99 Nashua, NH
FB Event (click here)
Tickets & Information:  www.BrownPaperTickets.com/event/214063 or call: 1-800-838-3006 (event 214063)
Studio 99 Nashua
17 Factory Street
Nashua, NH

Thank you all for your continued support!

Demetrius

All things must pass…

Here I sit, writing the final blog of my Flushing Town Hall composer residency, looking out the window of the ‘jail cell’ (the room which was actually a jail cell, now the green room of the performance hall) looking out the window over hustling and bustling Flushing with its Chinese restaurants and Korean markets. I can’t barely believe that this three month period has passed…tempus fugit…

It has been a wonderful experience. Director Ellen Kodadek and the rest of the Flushing Town Hall staff have been kind and gracious with their space and time. The composition residency, sponsored by Exploring the Metropolis in collaboration with Con Edison, is a fantastic program which I can’t praise enough.

And I even have lots to show for my time beyond an enhanced palate for Chinese cuisine…

The smallest of my three composition projects was Soho Sophisticate for solo saxophone, which was premiered on November 20th as part of a collaborative concert between me, Benoit Granier, and Paul Miller/DJ Spooky in Soho. This work will get a second showing on my December 4th concert at the Cornelia Street Cafe.

While it started out as a transcription and a side project for my residency concert in Februrary, Autumn Yearning has become a major piece in its own right, potentially dwarfing even Roots Music in length, clocking in at a whopping 14 minutes! This work, for clarinet, viola, and piano, is positioned to be the title track of my next CD which I hope to release by (wait for it…) autumn (of course) of 2012. Explorations and negotiations are being made into labels and distribution, and I plan to have this piece recorded soon after its February 18 premiere. More on this later…

The main focus of my residency was the research and creation of Roots Music, the work which will be premiered as part of the Beijing Irish Modern Music Festival in March, 2012. I spent much of time meeting with traditional musicians and researching everything from the traditional music of China and Ireland to individual instruments, including spending much time mastering the Chinese dizi flute. My goal was not to complete the composition, but to have all of the preliminary work finished to begin the composing process during the winter break from my college teaching. This I have accomplished to the fullest extent my choosing all of my source material for the work, and also by mapping out the entire structure of the piece (which I completed today!).

Since the piece is about the primordial musical connection that flows between all cultures, I have taken traditional/popular music from Ireland, China, and the US as source material for the piece. I can’t give away too much about the process or structure or final product, but I can give you these three videos that may get your musical taste buds a-salivating…

How’s that for starters?

Now, the work begins on constructing the piece for it to be sent off to China for early January.

The honor of the Flushing Town hall residency gave me the time, the space, and the opportunity to research and create all of this music. I am truly indebted to Con Edison and Exploring the Metropolis and can only hope that this wonderful program thrives to support other composers for years to come.

Until soon,

Demetrius

ps–I never did encounter any of the supposed ghosts that haunt Flushing Town Hall, and especially this jail cell in which I’m working in now…well, maybe as I pack up for the day I’ll get lucky…