subtropics.org

subtropics 19 - testimonials and coverage

ST-19 unsolicited responses

"just wanted to tell you again how much i enjoyed participating in the festival. i'd be happy to come back any time." - joan la barbara

"damn if it had been only a few days/weeks later i'd have flown over. oh well keep me informed thanks. it looks fun - im jealous" - paul robertson, heart fine art ltd., scotland, uk

"check this review out regarding subtropics from today's paper (monday) -- you may want to buy the paper again for your collection. a very nice review about a show earlier in the week and the event in general. congratulations and may you sleep well tonight! check it out at ==> http://www.miamiherald.com/277/story/28031.html" - vicki cerda

"you wrote: ... and, for all who asked, that is when the events are happening.
'no, no. that is when the events are happenings. don't forget the 's'." - mossmag

"sounds great! wish you a great day tomorrow! - sarah wong, zeitkratzer

"thank you so much for a wonderful festival, for having me there to perform, was great to meet all the players on the fest and you are doing amazing work. i realize its tough for experimental music in miami but you did a great job." - john king

"i loved being a part of vexations. I hope the rest of the performance is a success. please think of me again for other musical projects." - alan jason

"i would like to congratulate you on a fantastic festival. It has been a very
enjoyable journey! your commitment to experimental music and sound is inspiring. thank you for all the performance opportunities. ps: my friends commented on their vexations performances last night. one said that it was challenging to keep her attention on the material, while the other discovered the piece to be a mediation. certainly playing the piece twice helped me to overcome the initial 'concert' performance mood and slip into a more hypnotic state. i was not to imagine that experience when i looked at the score." - juraj kojs

"sounds great. wd love to be there for the fun. take care." - phil dadson, dadsonics, new zealand

"can you put me on the mailing list for future subtropics….fluxus day sounds great, wish i had heard about it sooner" - frank stieber, tempe, az

"hope you will have a little time to relax now that it's all over! i thought it was a wonderful festival. i had a great time (what a thrill to play on the graphic music / cage concerts with those pros!) and everything went so smoothly. i hope it works out for you to stay at the carnival center--the crew was very (too?) professional and generous. anyway, it was an excellent event and i was thrilled to be a part of it. on a business note, if you happen to have a hard-copy of our miami herald review, can you send it to me? that's one I'd like to put in my tenure review!" - amy williams

"i'll never ever forget those mini-coopers blinking in that space! bravo!" - sara seagull, nyc

"just wanted to thank you for putting together this extraordinary event [vexations], and for all your work in making this -- and the subtropics festival -- happen. it was a real joy to participate. frankly, I wish I could have played twice as long, and I heard a couple other pianists say the same thing! It's funny that I had planned to stage a performance at u.m., the same year you put this together. it must have been "in the air" or something. :-) In the event that we do a full performance sometime, i'll certainly let you know." - lansing mcloskey, miami

Subtropics Fest shines with Merce connection

By LAWRENCE A. JOHNSON
lajohnson@miamiherald.com

A recent Saturday evening gave a stimulating vision of what the Carnival Center can accomplish on its most dynamic and prolific nights. After Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony delivered a canopy-shaking powerhouse performance of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony at the Knight Concert Hall, one could quickly exit, dash across Biscayne Boulevard to the Ziff Ballet Opera House, and view soprano Leah Partridge on the lobby screen performing in the final act of Florida Grand Opera's La Sonnambula. After watching for a bit, you could then amble over to the Studio Theater and catch the final minutes of modernist composer-pianist Christian Wolff performing his own music.

The Carnival Center and artistic director Justin Macdonnell have taken a fair amount of criticism for the idiosyncratic, internationally flavored programming this inaugural season. But Macdonnell deserves some credit for bringing some of Miami's smaller avant-garde groups into the center, particularly with this year's Subtropics Festival.

For nearly 20 years, fest founder and artistic director Gustavo Matamoros has been bringing experimental music to Miami, often staging events in small storefronts and tiny venues with the artists outnumbering the audience.

This year's tribute to John Cage, a collaboration with the Merce in Miami series, spotlighted a variety of artists and music by composers who were influenced by or worked directly with Cage, Merce Cunningham's longtime partner and collaborator, and Cunningham.

Due to a busy week of conflicting concerts, I caught just a handful of Subtropics events. But the programs were consistently fascinating and performed with supreme technical facility and dedication. The Carnival Center's black box Studio Theatre is an ideal space for these events, informal and intimate with fine sight lines, bringing the audience within a few feet of the performers.

One aspect that needs to be reexamined is the strange scheduling: It's tough for people to catch Subtropics events when they overlap with those taking place in the two larger venues.

Still, with the thunderous bombast of the final bars of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 still ringing in one's ears, Christian Wolff's spare, angular piano music formed a bracing musical palate-cleanser. Wolff's ascetic music can be a tough listen, but the composer's spacious, precisely delineated playing consistently compelled interest.

Tuesday evening offered an extraordinary double bill, leading off with longtime Cage collaborator, singer and composer Joan La Barbara performing a generous sampler from her Singing Through John Cage album.

The soprano's voice remains impressive, a pure, flexible instrument, with wide range and subtle array of colors. La Barbara's alert precision and characterization of Cage's daunting demands was a tour de force of chortled laughter, snorts, wild shrieks, guttural imprecations and trilling bird calls.

Despite the acrobatic vocalism and arresting range of sounds, I confess I would have liked to hear La Barbara's lovely voice in something that would have allowed more traditional expression, say Mahler or Fauré.

A different type of bravura followed with the short but intensely demanding program by the Bugallo/Williams Piano Duo. In four-hand arrangements by Yvar Mikhashoff of several of Conlon Nancarrow's Studies for Player Piano, the two women displayed a nearly unbelievable virtuosity The complexity, flurry of notes and competing meters and lines require much hand-crossing and even one pianist playing with one hand between her partner's for long stretches.

Bugallo and Williams also showed their poetic side, with a hypnotic performance of Morton Feldman's canonic Two Pianos, the measured, widely spaced notes, distilled with the greatest concentration.

More astounding even than the Nancarrow Studies was the Sonata for Two Pianos by Salvatore Sciarrino. Though the notes are confined entirely to the top half of the keyboard, the Italian composer makes tortuous demands with lightning alternation between 14 types of specified trills, cluster chords and sweeping glissandi played with the forearm. The women's digital and physical virtuosity was nothing short of jaw-dropping as they managed to surmount all the technical hurdles and put across a graceful communicative musical performance that stands as one of the most thrilling feats of musical virtuosity heard this year.

erik satie museum, montmatre, paris - france