Jazz Magazine

Neil Leonard Quartet at Philadelphia Art Museum

Neil Leonard Quartet performs "Sonic Memories In/Site" and other new works.

In 2007 Leonard and Cuban born artists Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons were commissioned by Philagrafika to create music and a multimedia installation to celebrate the renovation of the Paul Robeson House in West Philadelphia. Leonard composed "Sonic Memories In/Site" for an all-star group of Philadelphia jazz veterans and premiered the work in Robeson's home. This February, Leonard returns to Philadelphia to perform this suite and other new works at PMA and to record this music for an upcoming CD. A native of Philadelphia, Leonard spent his formative years playing in groups with local greats Odean Pope, Robin Eubanks, Bobby Zankel, Byard Lancaster, Tom Lawton, Jymmie Merritt and Uri Caine. Since then Leonard has lived and worked in Boston, Cuba and Italy. Leonard's upcoming performances include Carnegie Hall, Galleria Toledo, (Naples), and the Panama Jazz Festival.

February 27, 2009
Philadelphia Art Museum
Art After 5
Neil Leonard - woodwinds
Tom Lawton - piano (Dave Douglas, Don Byron)
Lee Smith - bass (Mongo Santamaria, Cedar Walton, Roberta Flack)
Craig McIver - drums (Max Roach M-Boom, Odean Pope)

February 28/29, 2009
Recording session with same group.

Performance at Carnegie Hall with Apostolos Paraskevas

I will be featured on Paraskevas' A Night With The Aristocrats for soprano saxophone, acoustic guitar and string quintet.

PRESENTED BY DISTINGUISHED CONCERTS INTERNATIONAL:

APOSTOLOS PARASKEVAS, GUITAR/COMPOSER

Distinguished Concerts Artist Series

Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
Friday, April 3, 2009 at 8 PM

6th Annual Panama Jazz Festival

6th Annual Panama Jazz Festival Set For January 12-17, 2009, Founder/Artistic Director Danilo Perez Announces

The Wayne Shorter Quartet and legendary pianist Chucho Valdes are among the headliners for the extraordinary Panama City-based festival, which includes performances, an extensive array of workshops and master classes, and auditions for admission and scholarships to several major music schools. Tickets go on sale December 1st.

Richmond, CA (Billboard Publicity Wire/PRWEB ) November 13, 2008 -- American jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter's acclaimed quartet with Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, and Brian Blade, and the legendary Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés are among the headliners at the 6th annual Panama Jazz Festival, which will take place in Panama City January 12 through 17, 2009. The Boston-based Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez, who founded the festival in 2003 and whose Danilo Perez Foundation coordinates its educational component, anticipates more than 16,000 attendees.

"The Panama Jazz Festival has been a magical journey to a dream we've had for years in Panama," says Perez. "We, as a country, see the entire world pass through the Panama Canal every day, and we are honored to be the bridge of the Americas. But today, we are proud to say that every year--for the past six years--the Panama Jazz Festival has been the national event where the world does not pass by, but makes a stop in our wonderful land. The world's best jazz artists, as well as students and volunteers from all over the globe, unite in Panama with one goal in mind: to celebrate the world's diversity through jazz."

For the fourth consecutive year, the Panama Jazz Festival will offer clinics and courses on music technology under the auspices of the Berklee College of Music Production and Engineering Department (MP&E) and Music Synthesis Department (MS). Courses on recording, mixing, and live sound will be presented by Rob Jaczko, Chair of MP&E; Alejandro Rodriguez, Associate Professor of the MP&E Department; and Neil Leonard, Chair of Berklee's Music Synthesis Department.

Upcoming recording by Quadraphonnes

Quadraphonnes saxophone quartets will be including my piece 4151 Walnut on their debut CD. More info TBA.

Chelsea Luker- Soprano/Alto Sax
Mary Sue Tobin- Soprano/Alto Sax
Michelle Medler- Tenor sax
Mieke Bruggeman- Baritone Sax

Recording EP with Oren Fader

In December I will be recording an EP of guitar music with NY based guitar virtuoso Oren Fader.

Oren Fader's web site

Oren Fader is active as a performer of both traditional and contemporary classical guitar repertoire. Reviewing his solo New York City recital, Guitar Review magazine stated: "His scholarship, technique, and intelligent musicianship are plainly evident and the beauty of his tone is consistently compelling." As Nylon Review wrote in a recent online interview, Mr. Fader “seems to have his hand in just about everything interesting.”

He has performed hundreds of concerts in the United States, Europe, and Asia with a wide range of classical and new music groups, including the Met Chamber Ensemble, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York City Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Mark Morris Dance Group, New World Symphony, Absolute Ensemble, Poetica Musica and Speculum Musicae. As a member of the award- winning new music ensembles Cygnus, Fireworks, and Glass Farm, he has premiered more than 100 solo and chamber works with classical and electric guitar, including compositions by Babbitt, Wuorinen, Machover, Biscardi, Currier, Naito, Pollock, and many others. Recent highlights include a performance of Boccherini "Fandango" Quintet with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the "Aranjuez" Concerto at Brooklyn College. Mr. Fader can be heard on over 20 commercial recordings and film; his work is featured in the classical guitar parts for the recent film Everything is Illuminated. Bridge Records recently released the Cygnus Ensemble's second CD, Gone for Foreign, and next fall the Anderson/Fader guitar duo will release a CD with music written for them, including works by Wuorinen, Lang, Rokeach, and Johnson. Mr. Fader’s latest solo recordings include Another's Fandango, featuring 500 years of guitar music, and First Flight, containing 10 premiere solos written for Mr. Fader by New York City composers. Guitar Review's recent review noted that his skill, “particularly his conductor-like understanding, is palpable on every track." Oren Fader is member of the Manhattan School of Music guitar and chamber music faculty.

Juan Blanco remembered in the Miami Herald

Posted on Fri, Nov. 07, 2008
Cuban composer who was innovator

By DANIEL FERNANDEZ
EL NUEVO HERALD

Cuban composer Juan Blanco, a pioneer of Latin American electro-acoustic music, died Wednesday in Havana of respiratory failure. He was 89. Blanco died at Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, where he was being treated for kidney problems and hypertension.
Born in Mariel, Cuba, in 1919, Blanco established himself early as a defender of experimental music without forsaking the sensibility of traditional Cuban sounds. He defined himself as the inheritor of modern Cuban composers such as Alejandro Garcia Caturla and Amadeo Roldan.

Blanco composed more than 160 works that have been interpreted by the National Symphonic Orchestra of Cuba and by soloists such as Paquito D'Rivera, Leo Brower, Merceditas Valdes and Tata. He also composed pieces for television, movies, ballet and outdoor performances.

Neil Leonard III, a performer and authority on music for multimedia, wrote of Blanco in 1991: ``The fact is that the music of Blanco is Cuban music. He cannot get away from Cuban music. Regardless of his selection of instruments or themes . . . he could base a piece on an Asian theme, and it would still be Cuban music. He is Cuban -- deeply Cuban, in the purest sense of the philosophy represented by idiosyncrasy of a Cuban people.''

During the 1960s, Blanco was music director of the Cuban National Council for Culture. In that position he opposed censorship of foreign music, especially from the United States.

Although he could not teach officially at a government institution for several decades, he organized vanguard concerts out of a small studio at the Cuban Institute for Friendship with People that influenced new generations of composers, such as Juan Piñera and his own son, Juan Marcos Blanco.

In 1981, he established the International Festival of Electro-acoustic Music that was entitled Springtime in Varadero.

During the 1990s, Blanco continued his musical experimentation with the use of computers. His studio was renamed as the National Laboratory of Electro-acoustic Music. Various institutions commissioned pieces of music from him, allowing him to travel throughout Europe, Latin America and China. In 1993, he presented several of his compositions in Boston.

In 2002, Blanco was awarded the Cuban National Prize for Music.

He had six children, two of whom live in Miami.

In memory of Juan Blanco (1919-2008)

En el dia de hoy, a las 10:50 am falleció a los 92 años producto de un paro respiratorio, el Maestro Juan Pedro Blanco Rodriguez, pionero de la música electroacústica en América y fundador y director del Laboratorio Nacional de Música Electroacústica.
Su cadáver estará tendido en la funeraria de Calzada y K y el entierro se efectuará mañana a las 9:00 de la mañana.

Juan Pedro Blanco Rodriguez, aged 92, pioneer of electroacoustic music in America, as well as founder and director of the National Electroaocustic Music Laboratory, passed away today in Havana at 10:50 am due to a respiratory arrest.
His burial will take place tomorrow morning at the Cemetery Cristobal Colon in Havana.

Neil Leonard's articles on Juan Blanco

Teaching Music at the College Level Seminar at New England Conservatory

Teaching Music at the College Level
Thurs. Nov. 6: 6-7:30 pm Keller room

Do you really NEED a Doctorate?
What are the types of schools that need music faculty?
What kinds of jobs are available?
Come to the workshop and find out:
What employers look for
How to make your applications competitive
How to gain experience now
Cover letters, CVs, interview strategies and more!

About the panelists:

Neil Leonard works as a sound artist, composer and saxophonist. His ensemble featured Marshall Allen, Bruce Barth, Don Byron, Robin Eubanks and Uri Caine. Leonard’s Dreaming of an Island, (for orchestra, electronics and live-video) was premiered by Kirk Trevor and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. Leonard's composition Totems was premiered at Carnegie Hall. His Echoes and Footsteps was featured by the Tel Aviv Biennial for New Music, Issue Project Room (NYC) and the Auditorium di Roma. Leonard's collaborative work with visual artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons was featured by the 49th Venice Biennial, Museum of Modern Art (NYC); purchased by the National Gallery of Canada; and presented by the U.S. State Department at Dakar Biennial. Leonard composed the music for Relatives, by Tony Oursler and Constance DeJong featured by the Whitney Biennial. Leonard is co-owner of Gallery Artist Studio Project in Boston. In the past year Leonard organized two festivals of electronic music with concerts in Rome, Venice, La Spezia, Siena, Tel Aviv, Haifa, New York and Boston. Leonard is Interim Chair of the Music Synthesis Department and Professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He taught sound installation at the University of Padova and the C. Pollini Conservatory, Italy. He has taught courses in electronic music and multimedia at Northeastern University, Massachusetts College of Art and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Pianist Deborah Nemko is on the faculty at Bridgewater State College and also teaches in the NEC Preparatory program. She appears in concerts throughout the United States and Europe as both soloist and collaborative artist. In 2002 she performed the Belgian debut of Diane Goolkasian Rahbee's Sonata No. 2 in the Vresse sur Semois International Festival for Pianists and appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall in Rahbee's Concert in a retrospective of her compositions in 2004. Her performance of Rahbee's Preludes from her compact disc Preludes and Toccatinas was featured on Radio Mona Lisa, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and on The Classical Discoveries Radio Program, Princeton. A champion of contemporary music, composers Dianne Rahbee, Scott Brickman and Justin Rubin have written works for her. Dr. Nemko is a frequent adjudicator for the New England Conservatory Preparatory Program's Concerto Competition, the Music Teachers National Association Arizona, and Massachusetts State Competitions. Much in demand for her teaching as well as performances, she has conducted master-classes at Buffalo State College, Chapman University, and at Greenfields Chamber Music Institute, Vermont. She is currently on the faculty of the New England Conservatory's Piano Preparatory Program. Dr. Nemko regularly presents papers and lecture recitals at the International Conference on Arts and Humanities, the International Festival of Women Composers, the College Music Society National and Regional Conferences, MTNA National Conference and the Schubert Club. Dr. Nemko was on the faculty of the International Piano Week, Belgium, from 2001-2005. She is currently the president of the Northeast Region of the College Music Society.

Oliver Chamberlain is the former co-chair of the Composition and History Department in theCollege of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University and the former Executive Director of the Center for the Arts at the Universityof Massachusetts Lowell. Chamberlain has been president of New England Presenters, Merrimack Lyric Opera and Indian Hill Music Center. He has helped a number of people edit their applications, including his own daughter who has just begun the position of associate production manager at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. He gained experience in teaching, publishing, directing and performing before applying to a university. He has coached people prepare cover letters, CVs and interviews. He has been published on the subjects of medieval motets, computer projection of arts center revenue, arts marketing and pricing the performing arts. He holds graduate degrees in Choral Conducting from NEC, in Music History from Brandeis University and in Arts Administration from the American University in Washington, D. C. He has interests in collecting American art glass, designing gardens and is a prize-winning photographer.

Eric Hewitt serves as the music director and conductor of The Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, as well as chair of the woodwind department. He also serves as music director and conductor of the White Rabbit avant-garde ensemble, which is the ensemble-in-residence at Harvard University, and the Charles River Wind Ensemble in Watertown, MA. As a saxophonist, Eric Hewitt has presented critically acclaimed premieres by Luciano Berio, Gunther Schuller, Christian Lauba, and dozens of young and up-and-coming composers. He has been a soloist with nine Boston area ensembles, including the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the FROMM Players at Harvard, and the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble and has been featured as soloist on tours to Japan, Venezuela, and Cuba. He is also a member of the Radnofsky Saxophone Quartet. Mr. Hewitt recorded the Donald Martino Saxophone Concerto in piano reduction (previously unreleased), working with Dr. Martino at the sessions, and has recorded the saxophone quartet music of Iannis Xenakis and Franco Donatoni. He was a member of the Ryles Jazz Orchestra from 2000 until 2004 and performed with jazz legends such as Arturo Sandoval, John Faddis, Bob Brookmeyer, Ed Calle, George Garzone, Frank Vardarous, Jerry Bergonzi, Slide Hampton, George Russell, Marvin Stam, and Phil Wilson.

Panama Jazz Festival

Panama Jazz Festival Site

I will be performing in and teaching at the Panama Jazz Festival, Jan. 12-17, 2009.

Other participants include:

Wayne Shorter, Johnn Patitucci, Danilo Pérez, Brian Blade, Chucho Valdés, Marco Pignataro, Eddie Gómez, Billy Drummond, Luba Mason, Hubert Laws, Rubén Blades.

I Pedoni dell' Aria presents Medea

I will be performing with the Italian group I Pedoni dell' Aria in an adaptation of Euripides' Medea. The work will be featured by Galleria Toledo, Napoli.

5e6 marzo 2009________________Prima Nazionale

Galleria Toledo
Teatro Stabile d'Innovazione (Napoli)
Via concezione a montecalvario 34
Ore 21:00

Me/ dea è un viaggio nel corpo di un uomo e non di una donna. Me/dea è Euripide/Seneca/IO. È il continuo di un percorso sull’assassinio di sé, sulla necessità dell’eliminazione del sentimento a favore del proprio egotismo. Cannibalismo del cuore per il cuore, Me/Dea è un padre che compra pace col sangue, che lega il silenzio al rumore assordante dei propri respiri che ora dopo ora meditano la strage.

È un antichissimo mito che si ripete nel tempo e nei modi, ma questa volta riscritto, drammatizzato e reso exemplum. È la possibilità di perdersi nella “sragione” ; nella vecchia stanza della propria memoria tutto è ricomposto in modo malsano e pericoloso. La realtà è immaginazione per l’ ennesima volta. Il prezzo della propria rivolta è lo stesso sangue generato e lasciato decomporre nella terra in cui sarà sepolto.

L’ orrore cieco dell’insensibilità che non ha colpe perché vive al di là dell’agire. La mia Me/Dea è la breve storia illustrata della capitolazione dell’ altro, divismo crudele di un cuore bucato
e ingordo.

Con :
Lucio De Cicco
Luca Marra
Francesca Esposito
Marina Esposito

Testo/regia/Video
Alessandro De Vita

Musiche
Cristian Sommaiuolo
Neil Leonard

Scene e supporto tecnico
Raffaele Galiero

Grafica e artwork
Teresa Orazio

Dave Bryant Quartet

This is a review of a concert review of the Dave Bryant Quartet by composer Jim Ricci:

Dave Bryant Quarte @ Outpost

Dave Bryant – keyboards
Neil Leonard – reeds and electronics
Jane Wang – bass
Curt Newton – drums

Saturday, October 25, 2008
Outpost 186
186 1/2 Hampshire Street
Inman Square

Concert @ University of Wyoming

Berklee Newbury Comics Faculty Fellowship

Farewell to Post-Colonialism

Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou

Guangdong Museum of Art
38 Yanyu Road, Er-sha dao, Guangzhou, China
Tel: 86 (20) 87351261
Email: gztriennial@gdmoa.org
Website: http://www.gdmoa.org/
When: 6/9/2008 - 16/11/2008
Where: Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou
Region: Asia/East/Pearl River Delta
Country: China

Participating artists: Cláudia Cristóvão (Angola/Portugal/ the Netherlands), feld72 (Austria), Christian Jankowski (Germany), Daniel Malone (New Zealand), Carlos Garaicoa Manso (Cuba), Zarina Bhimji (UK), Ecke Bonk (Germany), Jean-Philippe Toussaint(France), Thembinkosi Goniwe (South Africa), Matts Leiderstam (Sweden), Tank TV (UK), Georges Adéagbo(Benin), Maria Thereza Alves (Brazil/USA), Conrad Botes (South Africa), Matthew Buckingham (USA), Lyn Carter (Canada), Maria Magdalena Compos-Pons&Neil Leonard (Cuba/USA), Joseph DeLappe (USA), Allan deSouza (Kenya/USA), Dilomprizulike (Nigeria), Maria Eichhorn (Germany), Mary Evans (Nigeria/UK), Tamar Guimaraes (USA/Danmark/Brazil), Sharon Hayes (USA), Kiluanji Kia Henda (Angola), Michelle Heon (Canada) Nicholas Hlobo (South Africa), John Kelly (Australia), Lin + Lam (USA/Canada), Hew Locke (UK), Felipe Mujica (Chile/USA), Vik Muniz (USA/Brazil), Mario Navarro (Chile), Uriel Orlow (UK/Switzerland), Steve Ouditt (Trinidad), Amilcar Packer (Brazil), Jenny Perlin (USA), Khaled Ramadan& Larissa Sansour (Lebanon), Hans Hamid Rasmussen (Norway), Neo Rauch (Germany), Josephine Starrs & Leon Cmielewski (Australia), Althea Thauberger (Canada), Barthélémy Toguo (Cameron/France), Gabriel Acevedo Velarde (Lima), Dalia Al-Kury (Jordan), Yasmina Ben Ari (Egypt), Mireille AstorE (Libanon), Reem Bader (Jordan), Kaya Behkalam (Iran), Alia El Bialy (Egypt), Hisham Bizri (Libanon), Shahram Entekhabi (Iran), Lamia Joreige (Libanon), Khaled Kafez (Egypt), Gülsün Karamustafa (Turkey), Nadine Khan (Egypt), Shula Lipski (Libanon), Waheeda Malullah (Bahrain), WaëL Noureddine (Libanon), Ahmet Ogut (Turkey), Ayman Ramadana (Egypt), Hamed Sahihi (Iran), Larissa Sansour ( Palestine / USA), Silke Schmickl (Germany), Rania Stephan (Libanon), Wooloo Productions (Denmark), Nanna Guldhammer Wraae (Denmark), Akram Zaatari (Libanon), Marc Behrens (Germany), Jens Brand (Germany), Werner Herzog (Germany), Kristina Ask (Denmark), Daniel Andersson (Finland), Avi Alpert (USA), Eric Anglès (France/USA), Ricardo Cuevas (Mexico), Asa Elzen (Sweden), Tamar Guimaraes (USA/Danmark/Brazil), Carla Herrerra-Prats (USA/Mexico), Jesal Kapadia (USA/India), Runo Lagomarsino (Sweden/Argentina), Steven Lam (USA), Erin Ming Lee (USA), Sarah Lookofsky (Denmark/USA), Kasper Akhøj (Denmark), Sreshta Rit Premnath (USA/India), Rebecka Thor (Sweden), Edward Schexnayder (USA), Dorothee Albrecht (Germany), Moira Zoitl (Austria), Daniela Comani (Italy), Different Voices (Nepal/Denmark/Sweden), Dreams of Art Spaces Collected (Transnational artistic group project), Stina Edblom (Sweden), Thomas Locher (Germany), Elke Marhoefer (Germany), Giancarlo Pazzanese (Chile), Oda Projesi (Turkey), Reynold Reynolds (USA), Asa Sonjasdotter (Sweden), Mayling To (UK), UNWETTER (Transnational artistic group project), Pablo Wendel (Germany)

This is a quote from a Blog by Thembinkosi Goniwe. I am presenting work in this show with Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons.

Thembinkosi Goniwe's blog

The Third Guanzhou Triennial, which will run from September 6th to November 16 2008, has proposed to say ‘Farewell to Post-Colonialism’. This proposition denotes the theoretical basis from which the curatorial team and participating artists, intellectuals, critics and scholars intend to explore their critical vision in revising post-colonialism. Driving this undertaking is an observation that post-colonialism has become defunct as a critical tool in spite of its significance and incentive as an intellectual tradition that has been crucial in criticizing political conditions. Argued is that, “in the real world, the political conditions criticised by post-colonialism have not receded, but in many ways are even further entrenched under the machinery of globalisation.” As such, “as a leading discourse for art curatorial practice and criticism, post-colonialism is showing its limitations in being increasingly institutionalized as an ideological concept. Not only is it losing its edge as a critical tool, it has generated restrictions that hinder the emergence of artistic creativity and fresh theoretical interface.”

There is no doubt that the ever changing social circumstances of contemporary society, particularly of the post-colonial worlds, require updated critical tools. Required is a need for sharp and reflective critical consciousness necessary to dealing with oppressive regimes and the machinery of capitalist globalisation that affect lives of people in dehumanizing ways. Yet critical consciousness at the level of theoretical articulation is not enough without practical action, without pragmatic ends. In fact, artistic theory without practical ends is as useless as artistic productions that are self-referential, self-serving in their obsession with high theory, in their circulation within elitist institutions mainly accessible to and accessed by schooled classes.

I therefore ask, what is the role of visual arts in society? How can visual arts affect people’s lives in ways that create hope? What economies and agencies do visual arts have in dealing with the rapid pace of changing social, political and economical conditions in societies under the stress of inter-nationalisms and trans-nationalisms? Other poignant questions: what is the point of initiatives or events such as biennales and triennials to the meaning of people’s life in their everyday social practices? Is the role and impact of creative arts and intellectual thoughts effective enough to contribute practical changes for the betterment of peoples’ lives in society, and how so or in what ways? Are museums and galleries effective sites for such practical changes for the betterment of peoples’ lives, peoples who are not privileged to bourgeoisie or affluent lifestyle around which contemporary art revolves?

A Power Stronger Than Itself

A Power Stronger Than Itself - view on Amazon

I am now reading "A Power Stronger Than Itself - The AACM and American Experimental Music" by friend and mentor George Lewis. I was pleasantly surprised to see my name in the acknowledgements.

I last heard George when he was in Boston playing on one of Steve Lacy's final concerts. Both Lacy and Lewis were astounding! I took this photo at Decordova Museum to see a show that included my wife's photography. Here we are - George, Magdalena and Arcadio.

Sharpening the Cutting Edge

Dear friends,

I just wanted to let you know about some of the work I did in Europe this summer. The Berklee's Newbury Comics Faculty Fellowship was one of the sponsors.

Best wishes,
Neil Leonard

The article in its entirety is posted here:
Newbury Comics Faculty Fellowship Grants: Sharpening the Cutting Edge
by Susan Gedutis Lindsay

Sharpening the Cutting Edge - online

55 Workshop/Performance, Essen, Germany

The Third Guangzhou Triennial

I will be presenting a work with Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons. Details TBA.

The Third Guangzhou Triennial will open from September 6th to November 16th, 2008 in Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China. Opening preview will be on September 6th, 2008. The Curatorial Committee includes Gao Shiming, Sarat Maharaj and Johnson Chang Tsong-zung.

Farewell to Post-Colonialism

For the curatorial discourse of this Triennial, we propose to say ‘Farewell to Post-Colonialism’. This represents the theoretical basis from which we hope to explore our critical vision. ‘Farewell to Post-colonialism’ is not a denial of the importance and rewards of this intellectual tradition; in the real world, the political conditions criticised by post-colonialism have not receded, but in many ways are even further entrenched under the machinery of globalisation. However, as a leading discourse for art curatorial practice and criticism, post-colonialism is showing its limitations in being increasingly institutionalised as an ideological concept. Not only is it losing its edge as a critical tool, it has generated its own restrictions that hinder the emergence of artistic creativity and fresh theoretical interface. To say ‘Farewell to Post-Colonialism’ is not simply a departure, but a re-visit and a re-start.

11. Juli 2008
20:00 Uhr
Alte Aula
Media | Music | Design | Interaction
Workshopkonzert

Neil Leonhard, Saxophonist, Komponist und Lehrer am Berklee College of Music, USA, und Studierende seiner Klasse

Folkwang Studierende der Klassen Prof. C. Lazzeroni, Kommunikationsdesign | Interface Design, Prof. Th. Neuhaus, Musikinformatik, und Prof. D. Hahne, Komposition und Visualisierung das Konzert findet statt im Rahmen des Workshops Media | Music | Design | Interaction“ der vom 7. bis 11. Juli an der Folkwang Hochschule angeboten wird – das Ergebnis der interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit wird im Workshopkonzert präsentiert

Folkwang Hochschule
Klemensborn 39
45239 Essen
Telefon: 0201_4903_0 Telefax: 0201_4903_288

www.folkwang-hochschule.de

“ReVisioning the (W)hole II: Curious Intersections

I will present music and give a talk at “ReVisioning the (W)hole II: Curious Intersections”:
University of Wyoming
September 23-25, 2008

The event was organized by Margaret Wilson, Meg Van Baalen-Wood, Margaret Haydon and Mark Sheridan Rabideau based around the concepts of Curiosity, Creativity, and Collaboration.

Mark Sheridan Rabideau does a wonderful job of articulating many of the themes of the conference in the interview below. This is one quote that really hit home for me as both an artists and teacher!

"What students learn while actualizing their ideas, on any scale, is that failure is an inevitable consequence of the act of invention, that tenacity and resilience are required throughout the process, and that the world can be changed in ways big and small."

arts entrepreneurship educator's network

Juan Blanco's Espacios V in Daniel Langlois Foundation Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection

Composer Ricardo Dal Farra worked for twenty five years to compile the Daniel Langlois Foundation Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection. It is an amazing archive of recordings, biographies, interviews, scores and pictures.

Included are many works by Juan Blanco (Cuba), one of the founding fathers of electronic music in Latin America.

Daniel Langlois Foundation Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection

I play on this work by Blanco:

Juan Blanco, Espacios V, 1986; Recording time: 11 min 42 s.
Instruments: Tape and sax; Neil Leonard, soprano and tenor sax.

Juan Blanco, Espacios V, 1986

Juan Blanco: Cuba's Pioneer of Electroacoustic Music; by Neil Leonard - published in Computer Music Journal, MIT Press, 1997

Juan Blanco: Cuba's Pioneer of Electroacoustic Music; by Neil Leonard

Concert with Gadi Sassoon (aka MEMORY9)

ECHO RESONANCE & MEMORY premiere performance - NAPOLI

The sound for ECHO RESONANCE & MEMORY is inspired by Jannis Kounellis’ work at La Marrana Arte Ambientale (La Spezia), an installation made up of large church bells that appear to be spiraling out from the earth’s core. I was struck by the intensity by which this arrangement of bells, a chorus of silent tongues, caused sound to resonate in my mind. The work that I have created for ER&M uses computer processed voice and recordings of Kounellis’ bells, and invites us to reconsider how our memory records and abstracts sonic events. This is the first work in which I have collaborated with the choreographer/dancer from the formulation of concept, to the staging of the work and live performance. It is fitting that the premiere takes place on Monte Vesuvio, a sometimes-silent tongue, and like church bell, is the source of a hallmark sound in local history.

--- Italian press release ---

ECHO RESONANCE & MEMORY

di e con NEIL LEONARD & GABRIELLA RICCIO
performance multimediale danza musica immagini
prima assoluta

domenica 25 maggio 2008 ore 21.30
teatro IL TORCHIO spazio per le arti di Somma Vesuviana – Napoli
via colonnello Aliperta – Parco degli Aromi

ECHO RESONANCE & MEMORY performance site-specific multimediale (musica danza immagini) nasce dall'incontro di Gabriella Riccio artista-coreografa napoletana di formazione e percorso europeo - una delle figure più interessanti nel panorama cittadino della giovane coreografia d'autore e della nuova danza di ricerca della regione Campania - e Neil Leonard - sound artist, compositore e sassofonista di Boston, professore di musica elettronica al Berklee College of Music, curatore di GASP sonic art series a Boston, direttore di festival di musica elettronica di respiro internazionale. Neil Leonard si esibisce tra gli altri alla 49a edizione della Biennale di Venezia, all'Auditorium di Roma, al MOMA di NY, alla Carnegie Hall. E' attualmente in tourné in Europa per collaborazioni con il Conservaotrio Pollini di Padova e la Folkswangschule di Essen.
E' proprio Neil Leonard che apprezzando il lavoro di Gabriella Riccio ha lanciato l'idea per una collaborazione che vede la luce proprio nei prossimi giorni con un debutto nel suggestivo teatro Il Torchio spazio per le arti di Somma Vesuviana.

GR: Il tema è emerso dai primi suoni proposti da Neil, suoni arcaici, ancestrali, metallici. Materia, appunto. Ed evocazione/memoria. Abbiamo iniziato a parlare di eco e di risonanza del suono e l'impianto del suono è diventato ragione fondamentale per la ricerca e l'indagine sul corpo e sul movimento. Indagare le possibilità coreografico-compositive per i concetti di eco e risonanza con un uso dell'immagine ripetuta moltiplicata e riprodotta del corpo, per andare oltre ed arrivare ad un corpo/movimento visionario. Offrire allo sguardo/corpo suggestioni che possano risuonare questa volta in senso poetico con lo spettatore. La possibilità di lavorare in composizione istantanea sia con il corpo, sia con il suono, sia con l'impianto visivo (disegno luci di Fernado Siciliano, camera mobile di Alia Scalvini e missaggio video di Alessandro De Vita) offrono una rara possibilità di indagine dello scarto tra evento e reazione della mente, intelletto vs istinto, dentro vs fuori, luce vs buio, tra sacro e profano, perché il corpo ed in particolare il corpo-danzato resta sempre ed inevitabilmente materia della terra, ma che da questa materia può come corpo-poetico lasciare apparire, trasformarsi, evocare.

NL: "I suoni per Echo Resonance & Memory sono ispirati ad un lavoro che Jannis Kounellis ha presentato a La Maranna Arte Ambientale di La Spezia, una istallazione realizzata con grandi campane che affiorano in una spirale dal centro della terra. Mi ha colpito allora l'intensità con la quale l'organizzazione di queste campane, come un coro di lingue silenti, potesse fare risuonare il suono nella mia mente. Il lavoro che ho creato usa voci elaborate elettronicamente e registrazioni di suoni che ho generato dall'installazione delle campane di Kounellis in modo da suggerire il primo apparire del suono come riportato dai miti dell'antichità. Il lavoro invita a riconsiderare come la nostra mente registra e trasforma il suono e la musica. Questo è il primo lavoro in cui ho collaborato con l'artista coreografa/danzatrice sin dalla formulazione del concetto fino alla messa in scena dell'opera nella formula della "live performance". Non è un caso credo che il lavoro debutti alle falde del Vesuvio, una lingua a volte silente e come le campane un segno sonico della storia locale.

ECHO RESONANCE & MEMORY

My first view of Mt. Vesuvius - site of the premiere performance.

Ariel shot from Google Earth - Somma Vesuviana us in the bottom left corner, just below the cloud.

After recording vocal tracks with Dagon Lorai and Alessia De Capua, residents of Somma Vesuviana. Alessia's voice is amazing and it was a real pleasure to work with these musicians from Somma Vesuviana, a small town near the summit of the volcano.

Rehearsing with Gabriella Riccio, Alia Scalvino and Alessandro De Vita at Il Torchio, Somma Vesuviana.

SECOND PERFORMANCE IN THE WORKS - MORE INFO TBA THIS WEEK!

Concert at Discoteca Di Stato - Sguardi Sonori 2008

In addition to concert, there will be a conference in the afternoon at 16.00 at the Center for American Studies in Via Caetani 32, Roma.

Turn up the Volume: The Audio Archive and Ways of Listening
Sguardi Sonori presentation at Discoteca di Stato and the Center for American Studies
Rome, Italy
June 27, 2008

By Neil Leonard

This year’s edition of Sguardi Sonori is hosted, in part, by Discoteca di Stato (DDS), an extensive archive and study center dedicated to the preservation of sonic memory. The archive houses tens of thousands of hours of sound from around the world, with an emphasis on the unique sonic culture of Italy, including music, political speeches, and ambient sound of social events.
In this venue, Scanner (Robin Rimbaud), Kim Cascone, and I will present a concert of live electronics works. The personal collections of sounds we each work and tour with mirror DDS’s comprehensive collection. In our case, however, the collections are not the final product or center of discourse, but rather, raw material that we process to generate new works.

I was introduced to Scanner’s early work by my students at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in the early 1990’s. They were fascinated by Scanner’s inventive recycling of disposable sounds from police scanners, which he collected for his early compositions – and from which he adopted his stage name, Scanner. His use of the disembodied voices and electronic noises, produced by scanning devices, did much to focus our critical discussion on the writings of Luigi Russolo and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and on the work of Marcel Duchamp, whose readymade sculptures of the early 20th century strongly suggested that sonic equivalents were just a matter of time.

Mining the airwaves, Scanner built an important body of work that changed to reflect the character of each location in which he eavesdropped. While John Cage explored similar ideas of appropriated broadcast and sound maps in his Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1951) for 12 radios, digital technology handed Scanner the means to create real-time sound-maps that include the most private transmissions.

Like Scanner, Cascone has spent years constructing a sonic archive that fuels his current performances. Cascone’s work draws on a vast collection of sounds he created with hardware and software synthesizers. He builds home-brew software to navigate this repository in concert. After recycling and mixing these sounds algorithmically, to create a meta-soundscape, Cascone remixes them again on stage.

Cascone’s work epitomizes the extent to which new technologies are continually reshaping the ways we listen to, and work with, audio. In his recent Spectral Space, for example, Cascone uses indeterminacy to mimic the media overload that surrounds us. The work examines our ability to assimilate and decode this dense, omnipresent chorus of disembodied sound that has nothing to say, and yet, dominates our cultural soundscape. The result is a non-narrative performance in which Cascone finds “tangles of sounds that glint, shimmer, collide and implode within the fabric of noise.”

My own sonic archive has a distinct component of field recordings I collected while I was living in Italy for much of 2006. The sounds range from recordings of ancient Lazio ritual, that Dr. Massimo Pistacchi, Director of DDS, generously shared with me to recordings I made of Joseph Kournelli’s installation (located at La Marrana, the private estate for environmental art in La Spezia) to my recordings of Padovan a cappella groups -- comprised of workers from the open marketplace whose voices are quickly being replaced by the homogenous din of broadcast media. With the aid of computer processing, I have extracted, exaggerated and juxtaposed aspects of these keynote sounds to create a personal sonic statement.

My recent Italian commissions provided opportunities to leverage these sounds in three large scale works, including a permanent installation on the top of a mountain overlooking the Ligurian Sea, in a surround audio installation in the remains of the Templar church, Chiesa San Galgano, and most recently, as part of a 400-meter installation in the porticos of Padova’s historic district. These works explore the colliding sonic identities of new and old worlds and the relationship of the visitor to local histories.
Our short residency at Discoteca di Stato and the Center for American Studies provides several ways to reconsider the audio archive as an essential resource for 21st century art and examine how technological is changing the way we listen to and create sound works.

Neil Leonard
Boston
Director, Sonic Arts @ GASP
Professor, Berklee College of Music
May 2008

uscir ad ascoltar le stelle…

Photos of Rondò da Passeggio can be found here:

Nicola Bernardi's photos of Rondo da Passegio

Commission from Mimi Rabson

Violinist Mimi Rabson commissions Neil Leonard, JoAnne Brackeen, Stephen Webber, Winston Maccow, Norm Zocher, Victor Mendoza to create new works for solo violin. More details coming soon!

ECHO RESONANCE & MEMORY

ECHO RESONANCE & MEMORY
performance multimediale
idea Gabriella Riccio e Neil Leonard
coreografia e danza Gabriella Riccio
musica originale dal vivo Neil Leonard
camera mobile Alia Scalvino
mix video Alexis - Alessandro De Vita
luci Fernando Siciliano



Il Torchio, Somma Vesuviana, Napoli
(on the active volcano Mt. Vesuvius)
May 25, 2008
http://www.myspace.com/il_torchio



ECHO RESONANCE & MEMORY has been selected for a repeat performance by
La Fondazione Campania dei Festival per il triennio a Napoli il NAPOLI TEATRO FESTIVAL ITALIA
June 28, 2008
www.teatrofestivalitalia.it

RONDÒ DA PASSEGGIO

RONDÒ DA PASSEGGIO
Giornata dell'Ascolto 2008
Padova, Via Roma, May 18th 2008, 10:00 AM – 08:00 PM

Would you like to taste music like an ice-cream to go? Or walk on a sunny afternoon without the usual annoying presence of daily chores? You may want to try the Rondò da Passeggio (Rondeau to Go), a musical form that can only be completely appreciated by walking under the beautiful porticoes of Padova, in via Roma, on Sunday May 18th, 2008. The second edition of the Giornata dell'Ascolto (the listening day), the entire day will dedicated to the activity of listening in all its forms.

The Rondò da Passeggio takes place in the context of a musical installation that will rebuild the classical form of a seven-part rondeau (a b a c a b a) in a central street of Padova, Via Roma. Along its 900 feet of porticoes, where no cars are allowed, seven distinct compositions, each lasting 10 hours (from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM), will accompany walkers, strollers and joggers. Instead of the usual disturbing collection of sonic junk – dazed and confused – that emanates from pedestrian audio appliances that surround us, music will meet the city. Streets, squares, boulevards and buildings, a whole city will start whispering, playing and singing.

A “composition of compositions,” the Rondò da Passeggio is created by eight composers and installed by a horde of sound engineers. While each composition will be a distinct vision by a specific composer, the seven compositions will all be tied together by the formal scheme of the rondeau.

Rondò da Passeggio is a project commissioned by Prof. Sergio Durante (inventor of the Giornata dell'Ascolto) to the Conservatory “C.Pollini” of Padova and coordinated by Prof. Nicola Bernardini. The project involves numerous Conservatory teachers, composition students, electronic music students, and students from the Sound Engineering curriculum with the extraordinary participation of Neil Leonard and two of his students from Berklee College of Music, Boston.

Francesco Babolin, Anthony Baldino, Nicola Bernardini, Giovanni Bonato, Marco Braggion, Mirko Brigo, Gennaro Cantoro, Maura Capuzzo, Davide Ceccon, Andrea Cera, Raffaele Cipriano, Davide Corsato, Matteo Costa, Dario Dassenno, Pierluigi Duravia, Giacomo Frega, Gianni Giacomazzo, Francesco Guerra, Neil Leonard, Michele Marelli, Francesco Marescotti, Francesco Morosinotto, Marco Petrone, Matteo Pilotto, Spencer Putnam, Alberto Schiavo, Stefano Trento, Luca Uggias, Michele Vaccarotto, Andrea Versolatto, Riccardo Xotta. Rondò da Passeggio: 31 participants, 10 hours of music, 7 compositions, a single project.

Album Review @ Touching Extremes, May '08

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Nothing works as planned (Interval)

There is a good variety of styles and atmospheres in this double CD, which collects live performances of new music by American and Israeli composers (Ido Govrin, Amnon Wolman, Jonathan Chen, Neil Leonard, Kiki Keren-Huss, Beth Denisch, Arie Shapira, Keren Rosenbaum and Yossi Mar-Chaim). The pieces should represent different approaches to the phrase that gives the title to this set, but in truth it's rather perceivable as the effort of a community - led in this occasion by the American Composers Forum of New England - to find a common ground amidst variegated compositional methods and interpretations of contemporary visions, the whole presented in unconventional intimate settings. There's difference between the two discs in terms of aesthetic: the first contains works that could almost be placed into a quasi-newfangled electronica sector (Govrin's static minimalism, Chen's unfolding spirals of noise, Leonard's organic mysteriousness-cum-saxophone), while the second winks more to XX-century classic scores, with the majority of the situations involving acoustic instruments in pretty dissonant clothes and tendencies to non-serene disillusion (Mar-Chaim's piece for violin, contrabassoon and electronics, but also the disturbing "War" by Keren-Huss, which includes disquieting human voices expressing sufferance). The impression remains one of a reunion of people familiar with the reciprocal particularities, and the rarefied applause heard at the end of the performances gave me the idea of an audience formed by few knowledgeable aficionados. Interesting disc, in any case.

Dates with Giuliano Perin Ensemble in Padova:

Venerdì 16 maggio Lazise club "I Paparazzi"
Sabato 17 maggio Abano Terme Teatro Kursaal
Domenica 18 maggio Padova Palazzo Zukermann
Lunedi 19 maggio Padova Poesia e Musica

Plus

Domenica 18 maggio:
L'installazione della scuola di Musica Elettronica, di Composizione, il corso di Tecnico di Sala di Registrazione per la Giornata dell'Ascolto 2008 lungo via Roma. Nuovo lavoro con Maura Capuzzo

Domenica 25 maggio
Il Torchio, Somma Vesuviana, Napoli
Multimedia work with choreographer Gabriella Riccio

Multimedia performance @ Folkwang Hochschule, July 11, Essen

Premiere of Multimedia performance created in collaboration with Claudius Lazzeroni, Dietrich Hanne, Thomas Neuhaus. More info coming soon ...

Uscir ad ascoltar le Stelle - May 18th, Padova

The Giornata dell'Ascolta (Listening Day) festival commissioned the site specific sound installation, "uscir ad ascoltar le stelle…,” for the entrance of the Santa Maria dei Servi Church in the medieval city of Padova, Italy. As listeners enter the church for Sunday mass, they will experience an audio triptych that echoes themes and structures linked to the ancient architecture, painting, literature, and sounds that are essential to Padova's cultural heritage. Sound will emanate from the top of the portico structure, an architectural hallmark of the city.

I created the sound in collaboration with composer Maura Capuzzo, using sounds of sacred music from around the world. The title,  "uscir ad ascoltar le stelle....,"  is derived from the final words of Dante's Inferno: "Then we came forth, to see again the stars." The title suggests the idea of listening to, and feeling, something immaterial that comes from another word, the world of  sacred feelings and attitude. In the case of our installation, the title asks our listeners to "listen to the sacred world of our collective civilization ..."

The piece is a departure from any work that I have done in the past. Our commissioners asked for ten hours of continuous, non-repeating sound. I tell my composition students that duration is the first consideration when planning a work. Setting out to create a ten hour sound installation changed the way that Maura and I approached everything, from sonic result to process to artistic dialog. In addition, the site itself suggested things that were new, such as devising a three speaker configuration to match the theme of the trinity.

"uscir ad ascoltar le stelle...."  is one of seven sound installations that will adorn a 400-meter stretch of Padova's main boulevard, via Roma. Together, these seven installations form a rondeau form (i.e., A1 - B1 - A2 - C - A3 - B2 - A4). Nicola Bernardini (Berklee '81), installation organizer and director of electronic music at Padova's Pollini Conservatory, titled this series of installations "Rondò da Passeggio" or "Rondeau to go." This is a pun on the classic rondo form and an ice-cream they do in Venice, the 'gianduiotto da passeggio'. It's an ice-cream that you pick up and stroll around with, you are not supposed to eat it on the premises (double whipped cream: top *and* bottom). Festival director Dr. Sergio Durante is encouraging all stores and restaurants to give their radio and CD playback a rest for the day and emphasize the unique sounds of the city and its musicians.

Berkee alumni Anthony Baldino and Spencer Putnam assisted in the realization of the audio.

Mil Manera para Decir Adios with The Simple Company

Mil Manera para Decir Adios for computer generated sound, guitar and dancers
November 2007, Padova, Teatro delle Maddalene with The Simple Company and Interensemble

Music: Neil Leonard (music copyright Neil Leonard 2007)
Choreography: Elena Borgatti
Dancers: Hoda el Deib, Tiziana Maiuro, Veronica Pasqualotto
Guitar: Marco Pavin

Neil Leonard @ Auditorium di Roma

Echoes and Footsteps - live at the Auditorium di Roma. Music copyright Neil Leonard, 2007.

Neil Leonard performs Tre Fiati with The Simple Company

Tre Fiati for computer generated sound, soprano saxophone and dancers
November 2007, Padova, Teatro delle Maddalene with The Simple Company and Interensemble

Music: Neil Leonard (music copyright Neil Leonard 2007)
Choreography: Elena Borgatti
Soprano saxohone: Neil Leonard
Dancers: Claudia Baldan, Giulia Colombo

Giuliano Perin Sextet guest Neil Leonard - video

April 2008
Imola Forum cafè, Bologna, Italia
Giuliano Perin Ensemble: Giuliano Perin (vibes), Neil Leonard (sax), Maurizio Scomparin (trumpet), Marcello Tonolo (piano), Luciano Milanese (bass), Massimo Chiarella (drums)