Category: Field Recordings of the Future

Ossia, the student-run new music performance group at the Eastman School of Music, held their last concert of the 2010-11 season last night in Kilbourn Hall. They performed Philip Glass’s “String Quartet No. 2: Company” and it stopped time. I have no idea how long it was but it wasn’t long enough. I had my eyes closed picturing the clouds in “Koyaanisqatsi” and then it stopped abruptly. My favorite piece of the evening though was “Marsias” for oboe and eight glass goblets by the Mexican born composer, Mario Lavista. The perfect fifth tones from the water filled glasses represented the “celestial” world of Apollo and the desperately melodic oboe stood for “the poet’s eternal search for perfect, precise expression”.

Lavista taught at Indiana University and currently teaches here at the Eastman. I visited his web site this morning and learned “He likes machines with hiccups and spiders with missing legs, looks at Paul Klee’s Notebooks everyday, hasn’t grown much since he reached adulthood at age 14, and tries to use the same set of ears to listen to Bach, Radiohead, or Ligeti.”

Margaret Explosion plays the Little Theater tonight without program notes or a score. Listen to Pit by Magaret Explosion.

We were in the last row of the Dryden Theater to hear Graham Nash talk about the Rock ‘n Roll photo show that he curated at the Eastman House so we were the first ones out of the theater. We had planned on seeing the show again so headed over to the gallery where we were the first ones in the door. Peggi had to visit the ladies room so I was standing at the entrance when Mr. Nash walked in. He stopped to look at the photo above and I thought wow, what can I ask Graham Nash. Then that moment was gone as someone came up to say “I really enjoyed your talk.” He pointed to this photo and said, “I really like this photo.” It was taken by Lew Allen when Buddy Holly performed in Rochester in January of 1958.

I never put it together that the Hollies were named after Buddy Holly and I learned that Carrie Ann was written about Marianne Faithful. One of the audience members asked Graham who he would most like to play music with and he answered Dylan. He called Dylan the best poet, singer and musician of our lifetime. It was interesting to hear the sweet voiced Graham put the word “singer” in that short list. He told a story about David Crosby singing on a Dylan track and how Dylan wouldn’t tell Crosby what the song was until the tape was rolling.