A Million Alien Gospels: “alien GALAxy”
February 26, 2022
KMFA Draylen Mason Music Studio, Austin, Texas
“alien GALAxy:”
An evening of music, dance, and conversation in support of
the June 2022 world premiere of
A Million Alien Gospels
composed by Michael Alec Rose
and presented by Ventana Ballet & Austin Camerata
For more information: alien GALAxy (https://www.ventanaballet.com/aliens)
***
Q&A with Ali Smith and Michael Alec Rose
Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery presents:
A Q&A with Ali Smith and Michael Alec Rose
Moderated by Leonard Folgarait, Professor of History of Art
Friday, October 30, 1:00pm CST via Zoom
Join us for a conversation between composer Michael Alec Rose and painter Ali Smith, moderated by Leonard Folgarait, distinguished professor of History of Art at Vanderbilt University.
Artist, composer and art historian will venture behind the scenes of Dream for Light Years, in their discussion of the creative and collaborative processes that led to an inspired exhibition at the Fine Arts Gallery.
This talk is open to the public and will be held via Zoom.
2020
2020:
“Beethoven Now!”
Digital Salon hosted by the Goethe-Institut of New York City, May 30, 2020
(Michael Alec Rose’s spiel begins @36:35)
– –
To The Four Winds (for flute, oboe, horn, and bassoon)
Composed for members of the Blair Woodwind Quintet, to be included on their 2020 recording of new works for various instrumentations.
– –
Dream for Light Years: Ali Smith & Michael Alec Rose
An exhibition of paintings and music at the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery:
Ali Smith, Border, 2020. Oil on canvas
Description of project at Vanderbilt News:
https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2020/04/15/visit-dream-for-light-years-visual-musical-exhibition-online/
https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2020/04/15/visit-dream-for-light-years-visual-musical-exhibition-online/
(postponed to the fall of 2020)
Lolly Willowes: Opera in Two Acts
Poster and promotional videos for Lolly Willowes (Opera in Two Acts):
Lolly Willowes (Opera in Two Acts, 2017-18) by Michael Alec Rose, is based on the 1926 novel by Sylvia Townsend Warner. The opera was funded by the maximum Artist Development Grant ($15,000) from the Houston Arts Alliance, together with an online fundraising campaign (which reached a stretch goal of $8,500), with a professional company of singers, players, theatrical director, choreography for two dancers, costume designer, set designer, etc.). Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston (MATCH), April 18 and 20, 2019:
https://matchouston.org/events/2019/lolly-willowes
2019
John Marin, Sun, Sea, Land – Maine, 1921
String Quartet No. 3 (1986), Puck Quartet, The Baltimore Station Shelter for Veterans, March 29, 2019; Maryland Correctional Institution for Women, March 30, 2019:
https://ourjoyfulnoisebaltimore.org/2018-2019-season
Lolly Willowes (Opera in Two Acts, 2017-18), funded by the maximum Artist Development Grant ($15,000) from the Houston Arts Alliance, together with an online fundraising campaign (which reached a stretch goal of $8,500), with a professional company of singers, players, theatrical director, choreography for two dancers, costume designer, set designer, etc.). Based on the novel by Sylvia Townsend Warner. Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston (MATCH), April 18 and 20, 2019:
https://matchouston.org/events/2019/lolly-willowes
Message of Puissant Baal (for mixed chorus and piano), Inversion Ensemble, conducted by Trevor Shaw, on its Summer Concerts (“Heroes/Monsters”), June 1 & 2, 2019, Austin, Texas.
A Tree of Life, ALIAS Ensemble, Nashville, Tennessee, June 4, 2019.
Composer-in-Residence with the Cassatt String Quartet, Seal Bay Festival, Vinalhaven Island, Maine, with premiere performances throughout the region of Maine Title (String Quartet No. 7, 2018) July 11-18, 2019:
http://www.sealbayfestival.org/main.html
Myotonic (Caprice No. 4 for Solo Viola, 2018), Diana Mathews, viola, Concert Series, Wimbledon, London, October 25, 2019.
(photo credit: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts)
In memoriam: Mary Oliver (1935-2019)
Michael Alec Rose has set three of Mary Oliver’s poems, now accessible via Soundcloud:
1) “In Blackwater Woods,” Mezzo-soprano Sharon Mabry and pianist Lynn Rice-See.
(The second song of Rose’s song cycle titled “The Way In” (1986).)
2) “First Snow,” Mezzo-soprano Sharon Mabry and pianist Lynn Rice-See.
(The fourth and final song of Rose’s song cycle titled “The Way In” (1986).)
3) “Sleeping in the Forest,” Tenor Tony Boutté and pianist Margaret Kampmeir.
This song comes from my 1985 song cycle News of the Universe. This performance was part of the 2015 retrospective of music by Michael Alec Rose at Opera America/National Opera Center in New York City. Reflections by the composer:
Especially moving for me is Tony and Peggy’s interpretation of this song, performed here 30 years after the two of them premiered the song cycle at the Eastman School. Back then, I was the first composer to ask and receive Ms. Oliver’s permission to set her work to music. I’m thinking of putting what she said to me (when I finally met her a few years ago) on my tombstone: “You still doing that? Composing? You know, you’re the only one I ever liked.” I was so flabbergasted I didn’t know what to say. I won’t tell you what foolish and inarticulate thing I said. To be painfully evenhanded, it too should go on my tombstone.
Michael Alec Rose: Three Interventions
—Premiere of THREE INTERVENTIONS at the Blanton Museum, Austin, Texas, May 19, 2018:
—Interview with Michael Alec Rose on KMFA 89.5 Austin Classical Radio:
http://www.kmfa.org/programs/6-classical-austin/episodes/3004-austin-camerata-s-music-festival
2018
Recent Completed Works, Premieres:
-Musica senza rumore (2017), suite for solo piano, composed for Prince Jonathan Doria and the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in Rome, Italy, premiere (TBA) in collaboration with the Rome Chamber Music Festival.
– Lolly Willowes, music drama in two acts, performances in April 2019 at MATCH Midtown Arts & Theater Center in Houston, Texas.
February 11, 2018
Ching-Yi Lin, violin
Andrew Braddock, viola
Cole Concert Hall
Stephen F. Austin State University
Nacodoches, Texas
—performances of Caprices #1 and #3 for solo viola, and Mornington Caprice (#2) for violin and viola
February 25, 2018
Melissa Treinkman, mezzo-soprano (doctoral recital)
Jasper Jimenez, piano
USC Thornton School of Music
Rilke Songs: Music set to poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke
—performances of “October Day” and “The Way In” from the song cycle The Way In
This recital will be live-streamed at: https://youtu.be/uVz-9TmSQfs
Wednesday, April 18, 2018, 8:00 PM
Violins of Hope: Music of the Holocaust for Strings and Winds
Musicians of the Blair School of Music and the Nashville Symphony
The program includes the following:
Michael Alec Rose, The Entire World: Jewish Songs from Eastern Europe (flute, violin, and cello)
https://events.vanderbilt.edu/index.php?eID=120120
Friday, May 4, 2018
“Pastorals”: a program celebrating the links between music and craft
Peter Sheppard Skaerved, violin
London premiere of Il Ritorno: Perambulation for Solo Violin (composed for Peter, 2014-2016)
Performance at The Forge, Craft Central, Isle of Dogs, London
May 17, 2018
Three Interventions for string quartet, commissioned by Austin Camerata for its premiere at the Blanton Museum of Art, in front of the three artworks which inspired the music.
June 5, 2018
Featured guest artist, joining photographer Brian Peterson for a special event at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The event will focus on the elusive subject of Beauty, honoring the release of Mr. Peterson’s new book I Give My Eyes…
September 15, 2018
One Day University lecture, New York City (registration required)
“Beethoven and the Beatles: Hearing the Connection”
September 21, 2018
Il Ritorno: Perambulation for Unaccompanied Violin (2013-2015), Peter Sheppard Skaerved, violin. Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre, De Montfort University (Leicester, UK): “Bringing New Music to New Audiences” (International Conference).
October 3, 2018
Hopeful Monsters (for string orchestra, 2011), Ramakrishnan Kumaran, conductor, Faculty Composers Concert, Blair School of Music, Nashville, Tennessee.
2017
November 2017 release (click here to read four international reviews of this recording):
2017 CD
Musica senza rumore: research trip to the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Rome, Italy to meet with Prince Jonathan Doria and begin composing a new work for him, inspired by his gallery’s great collection.
March 20, 2017
–copia, pour Cor (nu?) en Fa (2015), Leslie Norton, horn. Blair School of Music, Nashville, Tennessee,.
Fall semester, 2017
Academic leave, for the composition of Lolly Willowes
October 19, 2017
Canticle (Fourth Viola Sonata, 2015). World premiere by Kathryn Plummer, viola and Craig Nies, piano,, Ingram Hall, Blair School of Music.
October 21, 2017
Rousseaux (Sixth String Quartet, 2016). World premiere by the Blair String Quartet, Ingram Hall, Blair School of Music. Each movement belongs to a different Rousseau—Jean-Jacques, Théodore, and Henri—and the ways they (respectively) defined, fulfilled, and departed from the Romantic spirit.
November 17, 2017
Release of CD of music for solo and two violins (Divine Art/Metier Records), including the large-scale cycle Il Ritorno: Perambulation for Unaccompanied Violin (2013-2015), Diaphany (2016), Mornington Caprice (2016), and Unturned Stones: Duo for Violin and Viola (2012).
Click here to read four international reviews of this recording.
Michael Alec Rose 