Reconsidering prior musical information
David Sanford
Elizabeth T. Kennan Professor of Music, Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, MA)
Ultimately, this discussion will involve talking and — hopefully — thinking aloud about the possibility of ideal discourse for presenting unfamiliar musical works, as a prelude to presenting an unfamiliar musical work. It will touch upon the conventions of program notes and pre-concert talks, and raise questions such as what is the ideal mindset for the listener to bring to the work, what does the composer (or presenter, or classroom teacher) want the audience to hear, how should this information be conveyed, and is the musical work conveying these ideas clearly on a first/single hearing. And is less (or no) prior information preferable?
About David Sanford
Composer David Sanford has received commissions from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Speculum Musicae, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, the Fromm and Koussevitzky Foundations, and the Barlow Endowment; his works have been performed by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra under Kent Nagano, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra under Marin Alsop, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Chicago Symphony Chamber Players among others. His honors include the Rome Prize, fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Radcliffe Institute, and he was the arranger for cellist Matt Haimovitz’s Grammy Award-nominated disc Meeting of the Spirits. He received degrees in theory and composition from the University of Northern Colorado, New England Conservatory, and Princeton University, and is currently Elizabeth T. Kennan Professor of Music at Mount Holyoke College and the director of the David Sanford Big Band.