Fantasia was conceived as an ongoing series combining music and animation. Each new presentation of Fantasia would combine old favorites with new productions. Unfortunately during World War II Disney Studios suffered many financial troubles and the project was subsequently canceled. That is until 1999 when Disney revived Fantasia with Fantasia 2000.

I recently purchased the Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 combo pack on Blu-ray. I already own the Fantasia Anthology three-disc DVD set which contains Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 and Fantasia Legacy, which has all of the special features for both movies. Of course with these being a pair of my favorite movies I had to pick up the high-def version on Blu-ray.

This review was written in March 2001.

Violinist Hilary Hahn joined conductor Carlos Kalamar and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from March 16-18 to perform Samuel Barber’s haunting Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 14. The concert series also included John Corigliano’s Tournaments and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6.

The highlight of the 2002 Oregon Bach Festival came on Friday, July 5th. Tan Dun, this year’s festival composer, gave the American premiere of his Water Passion After St. Matthew. One could tell just by looking at the program this piece was going to be something special. The instrumentation was unusual consisting of a 47-piece chorus, 3 percussionists, an electronic sampler, and 4 soloists (soprano, bass, violin, and violoncello)…

I came across this CD in the closeout section of Rasputin’s, a local CD store chain, a couple of weeks ago. At the time I knew nothing of Asenjo’s music. I recognized the record label, Albany Records, and decided to take a chance on his music.

Florencio Asenjo is an Argentinean-born composer who now resides around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In his music Asenjo tries to avoid the overt repetition that he has found overwhelming in western music…

New York composer-performer Kitty Brazelton brings together many different styles and genres in her late works of the 20th century. This CRI album presents a diverse selection of her creative and exploratory work from the last decade of the last century…

Hilary Hahn’s latest recording is one that is not to be missed. The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen joins her on this recording. Ms. Hahn makes a seemingly unlikely pairing of two concertos by two major composers of the early 20th Century. Arnold Schoenberg and Jean Sibelius. They are two of the more diametrically opposed composers from the first half of the 20th Century. However, upon listening to these works and learning more about how these pieces came to be, the pairing may actually be a logical choice.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was born in Germany, fathered the serialist movement and later immigrated to the United States as the Nazi regime came into power. Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) was born in Finland, and began his musical life as a concert violinist. While in college he began studying composition. The allure of composing caused him to set aside his violin.

So why put these two composers, much less these compositions on the same recording?…

Over the next few weeks, I will be going through the New Music Forum Archive and posting interviews, concert and album reviews and other related materials.  The archive posts will occur at least twice a week.  So please check back frequently as we will be adding a lot of content to New Music Forum!

This past Wednesday (March 5, 2008) I had the pleasure of attending a concert featuring the music of Dr. Elainie Lillios at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR. This concert was presented as a part of WOU’s 2nd Annual Electro-Acoustic Music Festival. Seven of Elainie’s compositions were performed that night. Before the performance of each piece Elainie gave the audience a brief introduction and insight to the composition.

Elainie serves as Associate Professor of Composition and Coordinator of Music Technology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. “Elainie Lillios’s music focuses on the essence of sound and suspension of time, conveying different emotions and taking listeners on ‘sonic journeys’.” (Excerpt taken from the biographical information found in the program notes from the concert.) Elainie’s compositions are based primarily on…