Curtis
@curtiscomposer
Composer, musical adventurer, and concert-going fanatic. www.curtiskhughes.com
This here Boston New Music Calendar has been updated with tons of events for the 2026-27 season, but it's still early enough that I hope it can be ESPECIALLY helpful to people still planning concerts, so you can see when lots of stuff is going AND when it ISN'T. newmusiccalendar.com/boston.html
Tonight at the Lilypad it was one high-intensity & velocity set (BLINK) and one super mellow, introspective & spacious set (Kit Demos quartet). Loved them both - and loved the contrast. Both stayed literally cool due to the excellent AC in the room and the cold beer.
I made a day trip to the Northampton area on Sunday for this truly outstanding concert, including premieres by @julwerntz.bsky.social & Kate Soper & my first live experience of Grisey’s Talea.
… and another work by Milton Avery, plus a Marsden Hartley and a portrait of Hartley by Helen Stein.
Some highlights from the Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko show at the Cape Ann Museum…
Here’s the setup for a performance I attended a couple of nights ago… Can you tell what band is about to take the stage just from seeing the stage set-up?
I was absent from the concert scene for much of the past month for various reasons, but had a chance to catch some of this program earlier this weekend w/ great playing by Jalen Seapker on flute and Hubert Ho on piano.
we had lunch yesterday at a Clover for the very last time - the sad news of the local chain’s demise has made me more than a little upset, not just for this specific loss, but for what it represents…
2 phenomenal (and extremely contrasting) sets presented by point01percent at the Lilypad last night! (You can’t see Pandelis Karyorgis at the piano here in the 2nd set but he was most definitely there leading this all-star band spanning generations of great improvisers.)
.....yes that's very soon! Originals & covers from the 60s to the 2000s, played by people who are still pretty new to this but have been practicing a lot! We've kept it a bit on the DL, but we're ready for anybody who braves the weather..
Seen on Summer St. in Somerville yesterday: a special preview of this weekend’s town-wide open studios. (Even the rats are getting into the spirit of it!)
In other local news… It’s Beethoven’s world. We’re just living (and dying) in it.
Sunday adventures in music (and food): Collage New Music at Longy, Johnson’s Restaurant in Groton (about the same as it was in my childhood!), and then KRONOS QUARTET at Groton Hill!! What a weekend! (Not pictured: some people who are really fun to go to concerts with and to see at concerts!)
Paid a visit this AM to Krakow Witkin Gallery for an incredibly inspiring talk/show by Abelardo Morell whose work dazzles me, with an added bonus of Ryoanji drawings by John Cage in a small show with works by Kay Rosen.
Freshly out of quarantine, caught an awesome concert by New Pornographers in Boston last night. LOVE this band. No pictures of the band as cell phone use was banned inside the show (kinda refreshing) so here’s the setlist and just happy fans exiting the Wilbur Theater afterwards…
Rounding out the weekend with Rhizaria in central square Cambridge! Pure catharsis!
Album release concert with Amelia Hollander Ames sounding great on Glass and much more…
Sometimes as a composer you go through your old sketches and you find abandoned ideas that have real merit & could definitely be taken up again.
Valerie Coleman portrait concert!!! (Presented by Castle of Our Skins at Longy)
Machine Girl tonight at Royale! (also opening acts Sextile & Kumo 99) I enjoyed the show a lot, but left just a bit early on the verge of sensory overload…
APRIL is underway. Always a busy month for new music in Boston. Visit the calendar at: newmusiccalendar.com/boston.html What's missing? Send listings to bostonnewmusic@gmail.com, or questions (if they aren't already answered by this post here: www.curtiskhughes.com/blog/new-mus... )