Curtis

A quintet performing at the Lilypad including Forbes Graham on trumpet, Andrew Neumann on electronics and Eric Rosenthal (not visible) on drums

MI3 trio led by Pandelis Karyorgis on Fender Rhodes, seen performing at the Lilypad

I’m at an age where everything basically works, but certain parts aren’t under warranty anymore, so there are days when my back just seizes up if I sit still for too long! So I couldn’t stay all the way through the excellent performances at the Lilypad tonight, but I sure enjoyed what I heard!

The trio on stage Aaron Street Arts acknowledges the audience at the end of their performance.

Kris Davis Trio! With Robert Hurst & Jonathan Blake.

One week into the latest forever-war, and it seems to me that the fact AI was used to make the actual DECISION to commit blatant war crimes within the first 24 hours is, just maybe, a little too far down on the list of things being avidly talked about.

…Yet as there have also been some really uplifting moments I decided finally to post these images chronicling stuff I heard last week, especially as this week I’m in snowy NH with no live music and am reflecting back. (Some of these are concerts I was only able to catch parts of.)

Curtis smiling in sunglasses in front of a snowy lake with mountains in the distance

Concert programs for Hinge Quartet, Lydian Quartet, Winsor Music and Collage New Music

Overlooking Calderwood Hall at the Isabella Stuart Gardner museum from the 2nd balcony, with concert program for Ensemble Signal.

In the last couple of weeks there’s been sad and difficult news both personally and of course in the world, and I couldn’t really bring myself to keep up with my routine of publicly posting about the live music I’ve been taking in…

They bombed a girls school you pricks
THEY BOMBED A GIRLS SCHOOL

Tickets are "pay-what-you-like" and it's a fantastic program that also includes music by Jason Huffman, Daniel Godfrey, and Carlos Carrillo.
It's been a 20+year wait for me to hear this thing, and now the wait is over...
nephilharmonic.org/concerts/new...

Come hear the premiere of my 2005 "Symphony in 3 Movements" at 3 PM on 3/15 at Boston University's Tsai Performance Center, feat. the New England Philharmonic conducted by Tian Hui Ng.
Forget your troubles just for ONE afternoon and be immersed in some orchestra music that aims to sweep you away.

You introduced me to this band via a Twitter post some years ago & I’m forever grateful.

"You caused the right-wing backlash by demanding too much freedom and dignity" is the political equivalent of an abusive partner punching you and saying "look what you made me do"

The trajectory of the men’s hockey team over a blistering 12 hours

TMBBLMC might be too long to become one of those snappy little ubiquitous things like WTAF or TL;DR but it should always be procedural bedrock.

A couple of people that I like to hang out were intrigued about what an arrangement of the Rite of Spring for 4 guitars would be like… so here we are at the Crystal Ballroom to see the Dublin Guitar Quartet!

Concert program showing the 6 members of YMusic with the stage of the Crystal Ballroom in Somerville MA in the background.

YMusic played with great finesse tonight! (In a program with music by Gabriella Smith, Timo Andres, Andrew Norman, @juddgreenstein.bsky.social, Sufjan Stevens, & group compositions)

Curtis grinning in a slightly nervous and unhinged way while holding a score with his name on it that says “Symphony in 3 Movements”

When you’ve waited 20 years to hear a great big multi-movement orchestra thing you wrote and now the wait is down to the last hour!

Steph Davis in flowing white shirt standing next to their marimba smiling to acknowledge an audience’s applause.

@stephdavismarimba ‘s “The Prayers of Black Folk (Black Utopia)” program, performed on marimba and gyil, is something everybody should hear. Had a magnificent experience of it today in Dorchester, with a gloriously uplifting dramatic arc as the sun gradually fell.

…but at the end they also actually PLAYED THE HITS, or at least that’s how you’d hear it if you happen to have frequently spun Creative Orchestra 1976!!

iPad screen showing the concert program for an Anthony Braxton Residency Concert at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, with the stage set up in the background for a large jazz ensemble

So…not only did AB himself play with a faculty/guest sextet in the middle of this epic event in a performance of exquisite intricacy and grit, and not only did the program cover a wide range of his output, diving right into ghost trance music to start out…

Life-affirming talk by Anthony Braxton in a packed hall at NEC, only time I’ve ever seen him in person, but he’s been one of my heroes since I first encountered his music 30+ years ago. Such a generous spirit, and the way he guided us through his modes of creative thought today was awe-inspiring.

Blueish ping pong balls on a stage among music stands, microphones and the bottom of a cimbalom

What could possibly be going on at Boston Conservatory’s Seully Hall that would result in ping pong balls scattered all over on stage underneath a cimbalom?

Members of Semiosis quartet with clarinetist Rane Moore standing to acknowledge applause

Lotsa great music on this concert by Semiosis Quartet with Rane Moore last night (at Gallery 263 in Cambridge) but one piece that especially stood out to me was Juri Seo’s eerily poignant “Lost Songs”

Curtis with glasses and Doria with blue hat standing in many layers of winter gear together.

When @doriastories.bsky.social & I really really really want to catch a concert, there’s no amount of cold that can keep us away!

Pianist Sakurako Kanemitsu and singer Rose Hegele standing together smiling after their performance at Berk Hall in Boston, with the stage behind them.

One of the most inspired vocal/piano recitals I can ever recall attending! Pairing art & music, & w/ highlights including intricate & constantly inventive works by @ryanthecomposer & elaborately gorgeous early Schoenberg songs I’ve long loved but never heard live before. Thanks to sakura & rose duo!

Piano recital program with BU concert hall stage in the background, showing music by Debussy, Ligeti, Ketty Nez, Chopin, Dan VanHassel, & Gershwin adapted by Earl Wild

Jihye Chang played quite an exhilarating program tonight at BU… (cut off from the image = music by Stratis Minakakis, Shinuh Lee, & Schubert)

Music notated in colors for “happy birthday” on a greeting card, but with the wrong rhythms and the first line of music used every time the lyrics are “happy birthday to you”

I was shopping for a birthday card last week for @doriastories.bsky.social & happened to see this & now can neither un-see it nor stop it playing in my head exactly as notated on a sadistic loop, so I’m posting it to exorcise it, but now YOU’VE all seen it & oh god so very sorry what have I done.

Performers and artists on stage with paintings at the Longy School of Music

4 composers, 1 visual artist & 1 spoken word artist - so many stylistic contrasts yet so many common threads, making for quite a memorable Saturday evening. Thank you New Gallery Concert Series!

After another (3rd or 4th?) round of shoveling, rather sore, & I’m kinda getting Winter 2015 vibes. Except something’s, uh, a little different for me physically, not sure what it is, but definitely NOT that I’m just slightly older than in 2015 (there’s no way to know by how much), nope def not that.

We have so much territory to cover (shoveling for our whole condo association) that it would be extremely cruel to myself to leave it all for the AM! I hope you are able to find your car under all this…

Curtis and Doria standing smiling with their shovels on a snowy walkway

Shoveling round one complete! Will be back at it first thing in the AM. (w/ @doriastories.bsky.social )

Concert program with pictures showing Duo Axis (flute and piano) and violinist Lilit Hartunian and listing works by Marti Epstein, Henri Dutilleux, Katherine Balch, and Bohuslav Martinu, being held in one hand on the left side with a snowy street visible through a window in the background.

No matter what’s going on in the world or whatever else may be on my mind, I’ve resolved that I’m always going to post about the live music I’m managing to catch in 2026, because it’s my lifeline. And this sure was a great way to spend a cold Friday evening.