though there are some good things that have happened in New York and Chicago and a few other places, inevitably surviving on pitiful budgets, though. But E & A could certainly say more about all of this.
Let me chime in by sharing a bit of what I've done w/ my own pitiful budget as director of the New Music Northwestern concert/lecture series at Northwestern Univ in Chicago. In the 18 mo or so that I've been running this (admittedly tiny and often poorly-attended) series, we've performed works by the following:
New Music Marathon (including works by, among numerous others, Paul Koonce, Steve Takasugi, Arvo Pärt, Stefano Gervasoni, Jason Eckardt, and half a dozen or so works by Alvin Lucier, who was the featured guest)
Repetition & Loops (Peter Ablinger, Aldo Clementi, Philip Glass, Beat Furrer, Bernhard Lang, Jurg Frey, Lucier)
Steve Reich 70th Birthday tribute
New Voices (Sam Mirelman, Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri, Jean-Francois Laporte, Fred Gifford, Rob Wannamaker ... a second New Voices concert is planned for May)
Graeme Jennings, violin (Maderna, Berio, Sciarrino, Scodanibbio, Donatoni)
International Contemporary Ensemble (coming up in a week or so ... Rebecca Saunders, Carola Bauckholt, Philippe Hurel, Ignacio Baca Lobera, Donatoni)
JACK Quartet (in May ... Lachenmann, Xenakis)
In general, I completely agree w/ the assessments of Ian & Evan -- the situation here is a bit bleak, w/ little infrastructural support for new music, and in particular new music that lives anywhere outside of mainstream (American) orchestral music or various streams of post-minimalist and/or neo-thisorthat music -- but I actually see quite a lot of very interesting and increasingly hopeful bits of new music programming across the country. Chicago now has a whole slew of new music groups, including the CSO's notable MusicNOW series ... it's true that many (most?) are programming primarily conservative or conservative-ish music, but there is at least an effort being made to expand the offerings of new music. There are similar efforts in NYC (Ensemble 21, Ensemble Sospeso (which may or may not actually now be defunct), the Music at the Anthology festival, etc.) and LA (which seems to have quite a lot of interesting activity at the moment, ranging from the experimental music of places like CalArts to the LA Philharmonic's excellent Green Umbrella series (which has programmed everything from various big names like Saariaho or Gubaidulina (or, ehem, Ades) to Liza Lim and Anthony Pateras). And then there are excellent efforts in places like Buffalo (which now features a rather spectacular-sounding "Center for 21st Century Music," in addition to the June in Buffalo festival), the University of Iowa, Milwaukee, ... there are others.
There's nowhere near enough innovative programming, for my tastes, but there are at least steps in the right direction. There are a few rather significant (and perhaps even insurmountable) hurdles:
First, funding is extraordinarily scarce. Many of the best ensembles form with young, exceptional, and adventuresome performers often still in or just fresh out of school; there is rarely enough money for these ensembles to become fully professional groups that pay a fair wage to their performers after they get tired of still living like students well into their 30s. These groups seem to disband after 4-6 years.
Second, the major institutions (festivals, residency programs, etc.) are currently run by (or are composed of juries made up of) composers of the generation of American composers who came of age in an era of American composition which was rather heavy-handedly (?) controlled to squelch anything outside of a post-serial idiom. This younger group rebelled rather fiercely, and are responding by, it seems to me, supporting only work that looks back to the aesthetics and materials of late 19th/early 20th century music _or_ that draws on the influences of popular music (in the vein of Bang on a Can, misc. post-minimalism, Totalism, etc., etc.). Thus, commissions, residencies, grants, awards, etc. are now going to young composers who are writing similar work, which leaves composers like, say, me, Evan, Rob, etc., etc., etc.) to struggle to find support for our work, domestically.
Third, music of the adventuresome sort has for too long been restricted to the university (and, even then, only a select few universities). This seems to be directly connected to the first point -- the university is one of the few places where there is any funding to be able to support such pursuits; outside of the university, programming is (needs to be?) driven by its commercial/financial viability. The effect here is two-pronged: first, the impression is given that such music is intended only for a small cognoscenti, a kind of elite, 'insider art' that is only appreciated by other composers w/ or acquiring PhDs (there are many w/in the American mainstream who assert that this view is cultivated by musical academia -- it's a view I don't agree w/ in the slightest, but it does seem to be the prevailing image of this sort of music); second, because what few concerts of new/innovative/experimental/etc music happen primarily on university campuses, this work doesn't reach a wider audience, and, in particular, it doesn't reach the sorts of young, adventuresome listeners who might, for example, go listen to noise rock/free improvisation/sound installations/etc, much less the sort of audience that frequents contemporary art museums/galleries.
Fourth, because of the limits of funding, rehearsal time for professional ensembles is exceptionally scarce. This dramatically limits the sort of work that can be programmed. In these contexts, it's nearly impossible to successfully program even mainstream new work (a typical new piece in an orchestral setting might get 90 minutes of rehearsal time, at most).
Anyhow, all this said, I still see some signs of hope, and I see an increasing uprising from younger composers. Much of it is done in an underground, guerrilla fashion, but even this is useful, in its way.
And, as my days here on the faculty seem numbered, perhaps Evan & I will join forces next year to start a festival outside of the academic/orchestral limits. Anyone want to give us lots of money to try?
;-)
