Composer David Felder has long been recognized as a leader in his generation of American composers. His works have been featured at many of the leading international new music festivals, and earn continuing recognition through performance and commissioning programs. Felder’s work has been broadly characterized by its highly energetic profile, through its frequent employment of technological extension and elaboration of musical materials (including his Crossfire video series), and its lyrical qualities. Felder has received numerous grants and commissions including many awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, two New York State Council commissions, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Guggenheim, two Koussevitzky commissions, two Fromm Foundation Fellowships, two awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, Meet the Composer "New Residencies" (1993-1996), and many more. In May 2010, he received the Music Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a career recognition award. Watch a performance of David Felder's Inner Sky (1994) with flute soloist Mario Caroli . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

Judd Greenstein has attracted attention through his close collaboration with many of the best young solo musicians in New York and beyond, including violist Nadia Sirota, soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, percussionist Samuel Solomon, violinist Colin Jacobsen, pianists Michael Mizrahi and Blair McMillan, and flutist Alex Sopp. He has also received performances by and commissions from a wide array of ensembles around the country, including Present Music, the Seattle Chamber Players, as well as many prominent ensembles in New York, including Carnegie Hall, the Kaufman Center, Newspeak, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the New Millennium Ensemble. Central to his output is his work for NOW Ensemble, the composer/performer collective that has quickly established itself as one of the most prominent and promising sounds in 21st century chamber music. Butterfly Dream (2010) is a dance collaboration between Greenstein and choreographer Xiao-xiong Zhang. Based on a story by Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, the story deals with a man who dreams he is a butterfly and then upon waking questions the nature of existence; it explores the ideas of self-invention and re-creation. Watch an excerpt from Butterfly Dream performed by Nimbus Dance Works . . . it's our DANSES PYTHEUSES for the week.

I recently attended a performance of Andrew List's new work From The Temple of Dendera: 12 Etudes for Piano, featuring the work's dedicatee, pianist George Lopez. It was a wonderful experience - gorgeous music presented by a consummate artist in the beautiful Studzinski Recital Hall on the campus of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. The work is a fascinating and evocative exploration of Egyptian mythology through the sumptuous sound world of Andrew List. Read what the composer has to say about his new piano work . . . it's this week's PYTHEAS THOUGHT & IDEA.

Creative expression has always been a matter of course for Estonian composer Mirjam Tally. She has tried almost every medium, from writing to painting – even radio. But the one she eventually plumped for was also the one she finds the most difficult: composing music. Explore Tally's sound world through her gorgeous choral work Call Love to Mind (2009) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

... and find out more about Mirjam Tally, her life and her music, at her Pytheas Composer Page.

Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music