John Adams, The Gospel According to the Other Mary – Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Master Chorale, Gustavo Dudamel John Luther Adams, Become Ocean – Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot D’Angelo and The Vanguard, Black Messiah Morton Feldman, String Quartet No. 1 – FLUX Quartet Flying Lotus, You’re Dead! Philip Glass, The Complete Piano Etudes – Maki… Continue reading Best of 2014
Category: Piano
Like It’s 1994/95: Uhuru
A recurring introspective retrospective of my music as it sounded twenty years earlier. In early 1994, I took my first trip to Europe, spending a week in Lyon where my music was heard at a university dance festival as well as in the subway for a pop up freestyle contemporary dance event. I spent the… Continue reading Like It’s 1994/95: Uhuru
Kenza, for piano
Today is the second birthday of my second child Kenza, firstborn to my wife Nehal El-Hadi. Just before her birth, I wrote a short three-movement work for piano dedicated to her. I have posted the first movement here. Like the work written for her older sister Remi, the music here is diatonic, in the key… Continue reading Kenza, for piano
Radio Rewrite Is ‘Everything’ and Then Some
An excerpt of my review of the Nonesuch album for I Care If You Listen; full version available with a subscription.
I Care If You Listen – Hamelin performs Feldman
I’m delighted to share my debut piece for the excellent contemporary classical magazine I Care If You Listen. It’s a review of Marc-André Hamelin’s performance of Morton Feldman’s For Bunita Marcus at the 21C Music Festival in May. Have a look and let me know what you think!
I Am Somewhere
For most of my life, I have been someone who was for the most part visibly, identifiably mixed race black, but lacking any other evidence of my ethnicity — biological relatives, genealogy, language, cultural items or history — beyond an adoption file that listed me as “Negroid.” I had no roots. I knew that my… Continue reading I Am Somewhere
Anni
Anni is for solo piano in three movements; the first and last a prelude and postlude, respectively, to the longer and more developed middle. I have posted the audio for this movement only. The key of the second movement is ambiguous during the opening chorale, then settles into A major/F-sharp minor. It is based around… Continue reading Anni
EL MAHBOOB 