Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center presented Sonic Palooza yesterday, June 25th, a 10 hour free festival of contemporary music that went on until midnight.

I spent an hour or so over in the galleria and caught the first program; Steve Reich, David Lang, Tristan Perich and Philip Glass. All compositions were performed by Sonic Generator & Friends, a Georgia Tech ensemble in residence founded in 2006.

My little Canon caught some rough clips of the performances, of which I’ll include truncated versions below.

David Lang – Press Release, perfomed by Ted Gurch.

Steve Reich – Nagoya Marimbas, performed by Tom Sherwood and Charles Settle.

Tristan Perich- A/B/C/D, performed by Jessica Peek Sherwood.

My favorite was the piano piece by Philip Glass- Mad Rush, performed by Tim Whitehead.

And Glass himself plays the same piece from the television production Two Moon July (1986). A friend took me to see him play a lengthy composition at Emory in the early 1980′s, and I recall being impressed with his stamina.

A first for Atlanta, this marathon should raise the profile for the composers and young musicians in the area who play contemporary music. The turnout at the event’s 2 pm start time was fairly good; about 50 rapt people (and kids) in the audience.

San Francisco has a strong audience for new music, thanks to Michael Tilson Thomas, the SF Symphony’s brilliant Director. He presented his second edition of American Mavericks in the summer of 1997, a year after I had moved to the city. I remember being blown away by Steven Mackey’s guitar and Lou Harrison’s piano; his 80th birthday was celebrated during that program.  Tilson’s inaugural marathon was repeated in 2000, albeit in a shorter program.

My friend, music and WSJ’s cultural critic Steve Dollar, had tickets courtesy of his pal Tom Welsh at New Albion Records, a longtime label out of San Francisco that promoted new contemporary music. Welsh has gone on to be Music Director of the Cleveland Symphony, and Foster Reed moved to upstate NY a few years ago.

Here’s hoping that Atlanta’s music lovers will support efforts to bring innovative and exciting new works of music to the city.

This entry was posted Sunday, June 26th, 2011 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Daily meanderings, Music. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.