CANCELLED
22 June, 2008, -- Elliptical Midnight
(Nocturne 2005) recital cancelled.
back to DC Meckler music home page
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Events
that have floated on the River of Time into the Ocean of the Past . . .
Feb 29 & March 1, 2008 – Doors & Mirrors –
an evening of song, dance & film that will include selections from the Albion Diety Songbook
sung by Meghan Dibble; in San Francisco.
PlayWorks Productions Presents An Evening of Art Song, Dance Theater,
and Film Doors and Mirrors February 29-March 1, 2008, 8 pm NOHspace,
2840 Mariposa Street, San Francisco
Reservations: (415) 621-7978 www.nohspace.org Tickets: $10-20 sliding
scale Hamlin House Songs by Jude
Navari, Albion Deity Songs by DC Meckler, Deborah Hull's dance film Undone
and PlayWorks’ new dance theater piece Atlas on Skids. Featuring John Baumann, Lisi DeHaas, Meghan
Dibble, Christy Funsch, Deborah Hull, Adnan Iftekhar, Elizabeth Ingber; Erin
Neff, Sarah Sass, and Jenny Schaffer. PlayWorks Productions is a fiscally
sponsored project of Dancers' Group
Hard but not Difficult: my music & contemporary trends
[NOTE NEW DATE] A lecture by David Meckler in the Cañada College Humanities
Faculty Lecture Series, Monday, 26 November 2007, 2 p.m. I will present ideas from George Steiner’s
essay “On Difficulty” and apply them to music by Brian Ferneyhough, a poem,
“Where Shall I Wander,” by John Ashbery, and my own not-so-difficult
music. I will use examples from my
recent pieces Sonata
Rocinante and Undercurrent.
October 6,
2007 – “Cameo Appearances” -- New music with guests from the past. Featuring performances by Ann Yi, Meghan Dibble,
and Jude Navari of music by DC Meckler, Jude Navari and that Chopin dude. Saturday, 8 p.m. Oct 6, 2007, Cañada College
Main Theater, Redwood City, CA. .The program features art songs from DC
Meckler's Albion
Deity Songbook, and Jude Navari's Hamlin songs. The Meckler songs contain a distant echo of
German art song texts, and the Navari songs spin their web from filaments drawn
from Chopin. Chopin also casts a shadow
on Elliptical
Midnight, a nocturne by Meckler.
We'll hear a Chopin nocturne performed by pianist Ann Yi, and a
‘valentine to Chopin's nocturnes’ written and performed by Navari. The Meckler songs will be sung by Meghan Dibble, fresh from premiere
performances of Dionysus, an electronic chamber opera. Although she played the part of a mortal,
she sang like a goddess.
28 July
2007 -- Cast & Crew Premiere of Y
Not, a film by Derek W Beck, with music composed by DC
Meckler, Saturday July 28th at 1pm, at the Actors Theatre Ensemble of Ohio, 23
E Main St, Fairborn, OH.
Fresh
Voices VII presents WordMusic: A Precarious Balance. Friday, June 22, 8 pm, Sunday, June 24, 7 pm, GOAT HALL, 400
Missouri Street @ 19th St., Potrero Hill, San Francisco 94107. 6 selections from the Albion Deity Songbook,
performed by Harriet March Page and Meghan
Dibble.
Cozy
Concert for Climate Concerns, 7:30 Saturday, 14 April 2007, at the First Unitarian
Universalist Church, corner of Franklin and Geary in San Francisco. Sponsored by Step It Up. “Mining Song,” from the Albion Deity Songbook,
performed by Alexis Lane Jensen and Sara Jobin, piano.
May 21,
2006 -- premiere of Two Republics (Shine, Perishing Republic, and Shine, Republic) as part of Goat Hall Productions' Festival of
Song. 5 pm.
April 2006
- Scientists Say at the Cañada
College Theater Department. A theater piece about journalism, behavior,
and DNA. 6 performances in all.
2006 Feb
17 -- Adesso opens their concert at Old
First Church in San Francisco with unnamed
dance. On Friday evening, February 17th, 2006 at
8 PM, the remarkably innovative, idiosyncratic and delightful Adesso returns to
Old First Concerts. Adesso is, to begin with, perhaps the only chamber music
ensemble whose percussionists outnumber the rest of the musicians. Beyond that,
it is an extraordinary compilation of talent that was formed in 1997 by members
of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in order to stretch artistically, perform
during the opera off-season and experiment with presentations of musical pieces
they themselves find most interesting and challenging. In the process, they
bring an unusually large measure of pure joy to classical performances. Much of
their repertoire has been composed or arranged by member of Adesso and the
result is a contemporary energy that ripples through their work with an almost
jazzy, upbeat feel. From sultry to sizzling, Adesso returns with sensuous
tango music by Piazzolla, a fabulous chamber piece for soprano and octet, Mirabai
Songs by American composer John Harbison, and a trio for ‘cello, piano and
marimba, The Despot’s Rage/The Slave’s Revenge by San Francisco Opera Orchestra
colleague Shinji Eshima.
14, 15
& 22 May 2005 -- premiere of Natural
Music and Wind & Stone for women's
chorus by Voci,
conducted by Jude Navari.
Oakland: Saturday, May 14, 2005, 3 PM, Lake Merritt United Methodist
Church, 1330 Lakeshore Avenue,
San Francisco: Sunday, May 15, 2005, 3 PM "Viva la Voce" Concert
Series ($15 and $10, 415-863-6811), St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, 3281 - 16th
Street (at Dolores),
Berkeley: Sunday, May 22, 2005, 7:30 PM; St. Mark's Episcopal Church,
2300 Bancroft Way,
Tickets: $20 general, $15 students,
seniors and groups. Tickets available at the door or online at www.coolcommunity.org/voci;
Information: (510) 531-8714. With major works by Holst and Brahms
featuring harpist Dan Levitan. Also on the program are works by Debussy,
Ann Calloway, Libby Larsen, Brian Banks and Ann Boyd. Performances
supported in part through Subito, the quick advancement grant program of the
San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the American Composers Forum.
May 5th
and 6th at 7:00pm - the Skyline College Dance Ensemble's
2005 Spring Dance Concert includes HOUSE: Stability/Fragility.
Music for HOUSE: Stability/Fragility was composed by DC Meckler in
collaboration with choreographer Diana Evans Cushway. This work is a
non-narrative dance theater piece that includes texts written by Skyline students
working with poet Katherine Harer. This very eclectic program will also
include popular and show music & dance styles. (In past shows the
sound engineer was a bit too enthusiastic, so ear protection is recommended for
sensitive ears!) Skyline College, Main Theater Bldg 1, 3300 College
Drive, San Bruno, California. Tickets $8.00 in advance, $10 at door,
Artistic Director: Diana Evans Cushway.
The
first movement of the two movement DC Meckler Piano Trio, A Hazardous
Similar Harmony, will receive premiere performances by the Picasso Ensemble
Sunday, April 25, 2004, 3 p.m., at the Sesnon House at Cabrillo College (6500
Soquel Drive, Aptos; tickets available at the door, $9/6) and Saturday, May 1,
8 p.m. at the Palo Alto Arts Center (1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto; tickets
available at the door, $14/12.) The trio was composed for the Picasso
Ensemble. Performers in the Picasso Ensemble are Susan Brown, violin, Karen
Andrie, cello, Josephine Gandolfi, and Wendy Hillhouse, mezzo-soprano. In
addition to the Meckler premiere, the program includes works by CPE Bach,
Beethoven, Frank Martin, and Vaughan Williams.
July 2002 features performances of
an Apollo 14 scene by Goat Hall Productions in San Francisco in Fresh Voices
III, a festival of new works of opera and music theater. The program will be presented on July 19-20
(8pm) and 21 (7pm). Tickets are $20; Goat Hall, 400 Missouri Street
at 19th, San Francisco. 415 289-6877, www.goathall.org
9 May 2002 will bring a
presentation of excerpts from Apollo 14, A Space Opera by the New York City Opera in their Showcasing
American Composers series. The selected
excerpts include On The Moon, Climb, and The Altruistic Astronaut aria. The work will be presented by the New York
City Opera orchestra and singers from the New York City Opera. The program is free and open to the public. Apollo 14 will be presented at 5 PM,
Thursday, May 9, 2002, at the Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew on West End
Ave. at 86th Street in Manhattan. (The
Newport Rivals, by San Francisco composer Kirke Mechem, will be heard at 4:00
on the same day.) This work was funded in part by the Copying Assistance
Program of the American Music Center.
4 May 2002 will hear the premiere
of Black Cat, commissioned by the Skyline College Poetry and Music
Project. The work is for SATB chorus,
alto flute, percussion, and piano. The
text is a poem by Lourdes Sian, a member of the Skyline College Choir. Jim Yowell conducts. 7:30, Skyline College Theater, San Bruno,
California.
The Toccata
di Luna (the landing on the moon) scene of Apollo 14, A Space
Opera will be done in the Fresh Voices II workshop presentation in
San Francisco by Goat Hall Productions the 1st weekend of August 2001. 8
pm Friday August 3 and Saturday August 4, 7 pm Sunday August 5. Goat
Hall, 400 Missouri Street at 19th, San Francisco.
more
details on Goat Hall's website
a
description of the Toccata di Luna scene
interior
of Antares (the Apollo 14 Lunar Module)
vocal forces: Shepherd, Mitchell,
Houston, Space Spirit 2
The scene
depicts the process of landing on the moon during the Apollo 14 mission. Because of a technical problem, later
determined to be a loose bit of solder floating around in a switch, the
automated Abort Program threatened to begin, unbidden, at any moment,
endangering the mission and the lives of the astronauts. Back on Earth, a computer programmer quickly
wrote a software patch instructing the Lunar Module's computer to ignore
signals from the Abort Switch. This
program was relayed to the Lunar Module, and astronaut Ed Mitchell entered the
program in the computer as they were landing.
The problem seemed to be solved, but the process of loading the new
computer program caused the Landing Radar Altimeter to fail. (Meanwhile, Shepard declares his intention
to disregard procedure and land the spacecraft manually.) To get around the problem, the astronauts
resorted to what computer users today often do – just turn the thing off and
when you turn it on again, it will work.
It does; they land.
I wanted to have fun with
NASA jargon, and compose a "techno-patter" song. (The words "noun" and
"verb" in the libretto refer to commands that are actual keys on the
primitive computer keyboard.) The music
features broad text-painting – the computer keyboard virtuosity of Mitchell
rapidly reentering the new program is translated into fast piano keyboard
work. A friend, in Italy at the time of
the first moon landing, told me that the radio announced the lunar touch down
as the "toccata di luna," and so the musical image was complete – a
keyboard toccata. A final musical hocket
depicts the exquisite teamwork and brilliant coordination between Shepard and
Mitchell.
Bliss will be
incorporated in a work for dance to be presented by Skyline Dance Productions,
May 4, 2001. Skyline College Theater, 8 pm, $10. San Bruno, CA.
6 May 2000 -- Splashdown/Accomplishment
6 May 2000 -- Go
Chorus from Apollo 14
9 May 2000 -- Rebound
20 May 2000 -- Bright
Love
21 May 2000 -- Bright
Love
Rebound (flute,
clarinet, violin, cello, piano; circa 5 minutes) -- 2 May 2000, 8 p.m., San
Francisco State University, Knuth Hall; 9 May 2000, 1:15 p.m., San Francisco
School of the Arts. Performed by the
new music group Earplay. Rebound is a light five-minute romp that also borrows some musical
materials from Apollo 14. With
music by student composers that I have been working with in the American
Composers Forum Composers-in-the-Schools Program. Free admission. More comments on
Rebound.
Splashdown/Accomplishment:
Music from Apollo 14, A Space Opera (featuring
tenor Mark Adams, accompanied by piano and percussion; circa 11 minutes) -- 6
May, 8 p.m., American Composers Forum Salon, Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana Street,
Berkeley. This is
selected from music near the end of Apollo 14, A Space
Opera. Astronaut Alan Shepard
has successfully walked (and golfed) on the moon and reflects on the
experience. A contemplative aria is
framed by brief snatches of the Splashdown March, a miniature emblem of a
parade. ACF salons are informal concerts
that feature moderated discussions with the composers, performers and the
audience. http://www.sfcomposersforum.org/
Go Chorus (chorus and orchestra, about 3
minutes) -- 6 May 2000, Skyline College Choir, Skyline College Theater, San
Bruno, 8 p.m. The exciting conclusion
to the countdown sequence at the beginning of Apollo 14, A Space Opera. The piece will conclude a wonderful concert
that will sample across one millennium of choral music highlights, from
Gregorian chant through great composers such as Josquin, Bach, Mozart, and
Brahms and then finishing off with something freshly composed.
On the 6 May Dilemma:
My wife and I will start the evening in Berkeley where Splashdown/Accomplishment
(music from the end of the opera) opens the program. We will then dash across the Bay Bridge,
traffic gods willing, and catch the Go Chorus (music from the beginning
of the opera) on the Peninsula. The next step is to have all of the music of the opera
performed in the same place, on the same date, in the proper order . . .
Bright
Love (women's chorus,
piano, vibes; circa 7 minutes) -- Peninsula Women's Chorus. 20 May, 8 p.m., Grace Lutheran Church, Palo
Alto; 21 May, 2 p.m., Santa Clara Mission, Santa Clara. On a program featuring works written for the
PWC. Bright Love was
written as a wedding present for my wife MaryLouise, who just so happens to
sing soprano in the PWC. http://www.pwchorus.org/