Tim Munro of eighth blackbird introduces Nico Muhly, who will be playing with the ensemble at the Modlin Center on March 20th. Tickets are available here.
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Composer Nico Muhly thinks fast, talks fast, writes fast, cooks fast. Sitting still is simply not for him. One week he's writing a ballet for the Paris Opera Ballet, the next touring Australia as keyboardist/composer with Sufjan Stevens and Bryce Dessner, the next working on a hollywood film score.
A conversation with Nico is a dizzying but thrilling intellectual roller coaster ride through myriad musical, pop-cultural, culinary, philosophical, cultural worlds. Loves: international phonetic alphabet, William Byrd, Benjamin Britten, Roland Barthes and A.M. Holmes. Hates: Whole Foods and "jib-jab music" (his term for the terminally avant-garde). His compositions reflect his omnivorousness. Philip Glass, Steve Reich and John Adams may be Nico's compositional grandparents, but his music fluently speaks so many languages (indie rock, 16th- and 17th-century English choral music) that it's better to just say that Nico's music sounds like...well, like Nico.
In rehearsal, Nico is a mood-enhancing drug. He almost never says "play softer" or "it should be faster," but will riff on a wild and LSD-trip-like conjunction of musical, poetic, literary or pop-cultural images (Rihanna or Chinese cooking or Mozart or Stravinsky) to make his point.
eighth blackbird's Modlin concert is a celebration of this fascinating young star's wildly fertile imagination. It features a clutch of four diverse pieces written by Nico over the past ten years (including two works commissioned by eighth blackbird), as well as music by Glass and Reich, huge figures in Nico's musical landscape. And Nico himself will appear with eighth blackbird (on organ and toy piano!) for two pieces.
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About Tim Munro
Born in Brisbane, Australia, Tim studied flute at Oberlin College, Queensland Conservatorium (Australia) and Australian National Academy of Music. His teachers included Michel Debost, Margaret Crawford and Patrick Nolan.
Tim has played with professional orchestras, chamber groups and new music ensembles around Australia. Highlights include concerto performances with the Queensland Orchestra, solo performances at the Melbourne Arts Festival and Bangalow Festival, and recordings for Australian radio and commercial CD release. He also participated in the Carnegie Hall Training Workshops and the Pacific Music Festival.
Composers he has worked with include Elliott Carter, Oliver Knussen, Aaron Jay Kernis, Joseph Schwantner, Tania Leon, Peter Sculthorpe and Brett Dean.
A classical music tragic, Tim likes to write and speak about music, and in an earlier life was Publications Coordinator of the Tasmanian Symphony.
Born in Brisbane, Australia, Tim studied flute at Oberlin College, Queensland Conservatorium (Australia) and Australian National Academy of Music. His teachers included Michel Debost, Margaret Crawford and Patrick Nolan.
Tim has played with professional orchestras, chamber groups and new music ensembles around Australia. Highlights include concerto performances with the Queensland Orchestra, solo performances at the Melbourne Arts Festival and Bangalow Festival, and recordings for Australian radio and commercial CD release. He also participated in the Carnegie Hall Training Workshops and the Pacific Music Festival.
Composers he has worked with include Elliott Carter, Oliver Knussen, Aaron Jay Kernis, Joseph Schwantner, Tania Leon, Peter Sculthorpe and Brett Dean.
A classical music tragic, Tim likes to write and speak about music, and in an earlier life was Publications Coordinator of the Tasmanian Symphony.
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