Rzewski in Cincinnati
Frederic Rzewski has been coming to Cincinnati since 1986 (I think) when he filled in for Joel Hoffman during his sabbatical at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He has been coming to Cincinnati consistently as a guest composer at CCM's MusicX festivals (until they moved it to Blonay, Switzerland). He was here this past weekend.
Rzewski is somewhat cool and crotchety, being an ex-pat (he has lived in Belgium since the 70s) and being a person IN his 70s. He's an opinionated fellow; he shoots down ideas he disagrees with.
I had a masterclass with him on Friday afternoon along with my friend Rebecca Danard; we performed Sounds from the Gray Goo II. (I am still workshopping this piece; hopefully I'll have a good version in time for the SonicX concert.)
Unfortunately, we got absolutely no feedback from him; in fact, I'm willing to bet that his hearing has deteriorated. My other friends presented their pieces with the same results. This was a bit frustrating: many of us brought per…
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