Steven Mackey is far from the first composer to try his hand at the Orpheus myth, but he may be the first to treat it in what he calls a wordless opera for electric guitar. The piece, “Orpheus Unsung,” which also has a drum part written with Jason Treuting of So Percussion, came to Princeton …
When the PRISM Quartet decided to commission a body of work built around the idea of musical colors, it seemed a natural next step for a group that has already created a substantial and diverse repertoire of music built around the almost infinitely variable sounds of the saxophone family. The sax has a long tradition …
Anthony Marwood weaves different eras together in an extraordinary concert built around Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. He performs this musical monument in conjunction with one compelling 21st century work : Four Iconoclastic Episodes, composed especially for Mr. Marwood by Steven Mackey. Here is M. Mackey describing his compositions. www.violonsduroy.com
“Some of my favorite pianistic influences have a charming wrongness to them, like Thelonious Monk, who just managed to play the right ‘wrong’ notes,” Mr. Mackey said. “At the other end of the spectrum is Bach’s ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ — to me that is still the most virtuosic sounding piano music.”