Photograph by Steve Gunther
Since 1959 the New Music Circle has brought new, improvised and avant-garde music to St. Louis audiences. Now, for its 50th season—NMC is the longest-running organization of its kind—it’s welcoming more out-of-town composers and furthering a fresh initiative introduced last year, “Collaborating Artists Manifest Adventure” or CAMA, centering on an effort to fund local artists in varying performance media. The season kicked off in September with a 27-piece ensemble led by acclaimed composer Vinny Golia. This month, local composer and CAMA member James Hegarty displays his talents in digital music on November 7 at the Three Sinks Gallery in Webster Groves. NMC and Cinema St. Louis continue their partnership with the 22nd Annual Circle/Cinema, live accompaniments to silent films, during the St. Louis Film Festival on November 16. And on November 22 NMC presents legendary electronic composer Morton Subotnick. A pioneer in the analog synth field and founder of the San Francisco Tape Music Center, Subotnick is most famous for his 1967 best-selling composition-for-recording Silver Apples of the Moon (named from a line in a W.B. Yeats poem, “The Song of Wandering Aengus”). The composer is remarkable not only for his innovative works and performances, but also for his reach into the minds and tastes of those not appreciative of electronic music. He will be performing Until Spring Revisited, a rework of a piece initially composed in 1975 for solo synthesizer on record, rather than public performance. Subotnick now performs it live using multiple laptops and his own software (which interprets the speed and “gestural quality” of mouse movements and projects the images of the performer’s hands onto two enormous video screens). NMC’s season beyond November is well worth catching too and includes performances, compositions, installations and productions by Hegarty and the other four CAMA artists, Rich O’Donnell, Tom Hamilton, Van McElwee and Kelsey LaPoint.
Until Spring Revisited will be performed November 22 at the Mildred Bastian Theater, 5600 Oakland, at 7:30 p.m. Call 314-567-5384 or visit newmusiccircle.org for ticket information and a complete schedule of New Music Circle events.
