With Wilbert de Joode and Korhan Erel in Istanbul, December 2011
With Wilbert de Joode and Korhan Erel in Istanbul, December 20 – 24, 2011. Haghia Sophia, Kadıköy, Fazıl Bey’in Türk Kahvecisi, Çiya, recording with Şevket Akıncı and Wilbert’s fascination with a small lyre-shaped table.
Viola Duo: Mat Maneri and Tanya Kalmanovitch
Last September the Contemporary Improvisation Department at New England Conservatory paid tribute to the life, music and legacy of Joe Maneri. Joe’s son Mat and I improvised this viola duet. From the concert “Love Lines: A Tribute to Joe Maneri”. Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston, 15 September 2011.
Making A Life In Music: Not Surviving, but Thriving In the Outside World
You may remember the parting letter to students that I co-authored last spring with Eva Heinstein from NEC’s Entrepreneurial Musicianship department. Well, I’ve decided to make it a semi-annual tradition. The points raised here speak to the concerns that came up in my undergraduate section of my entrepreneurship class. These are little nuggets of advice, ...
Last afternoon in Kabul.
I spent my last afternoon in Kabul with the girls. Marjan covered our palms and forearms in drizzles of henna paste. After, we sat out in the yard, arms outstretched, palms up, waiting for the paste to dry. A posture of pleasant helplessness. More girls gathered to use the rest of the tube, sketching intricate ...
Musicians Speak for Themselves
In July, before I left for London, and eventually Kabul, I convened a group of musicians – friends, students and colleagues from Boston’s New England Conservatory – to perform in a fund-raising concert. I asked each performer to choose a piece of music that reflected his or her thoughts, feelings and hopes for the culture, ...
Renee Loth in the Boston Globe on NEC-ANIM
The songs of Kabul The radical sound of music comes back to Afghanistan Renee Loth, The Boston Globe, July 16 2011 IMAGINE A world without music. It’s like something out of a soul-deadening, dystopian future. And yet the people of Afghanistan living under Taliban rule in the 1990s were forbidden to sing, play an instrument, ...
Photographer Jason Eskenazi in Afghanistan (2002)
Performers on the July 18, 2011 concert Music From the Front Pages are drawing musical inspiration from a variety of documentary perspectives on Afghanistan. My friend, photographer Jason Eskenazi has contributed images he shot in Afghanistan in 2002. Visit Jason’s website to purchase his extraordinary book Wonderland: A Fairytale of the Soviet Monolith. Read this ...
Music From the Front Pages: A Benefit for Teaching Music in Kabul
Music From the Front Pages: A Benefit Concert for Tanya Kalmanovitch’s Residency at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music — July 18, Cambridge MA Date: Monday, July 18, 2011, 7:30 – 9:30 PM Place: The Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge Street, Inman Square Tickets: $10 (students $7) “When we are sad or grieving, listening to music ...
Sunrise, Sunset: A Parting Letter to Students
I wrote this letter with Eva Heinstein for the students in my section of The Entrepreneurial Musician course at New England Conservatory. Eva is the Program Manager of Entrepreneurial Musicianship, and our writing together is an organic outcome of our regular post-class conversations. The Entrepreneurial Musician is a survey of important professional skills and resources, ...