Composer Interview with Steve Ebel and his upcoming premiere of "Cadillac Rain" with New Music New York on June 12 in NYC

American Tenor and composer STEVE EBEL has been with New Music New York since 

our concert "21st Century Shakespeare" in 2007, in which he both sang and premiered a piece 

of his own composition. Like many of the New Music New York members, 

Steve is a multi-faceted artist, combining his career as an international operatic tenor with 

composing.  Among his many accolades, he was a resident artist at Tangelwood for three 

seasons, and has recently finished up a two year stint in the young artist program at Covent 

Garden in London.  Steve spoke to us recently from Karlsuhe (Germany):

AT What are you trying to get across with Cadillac rain?
 
SE Beneath the sarcasm and "cool" attitude there is real fear. 
  
AT What is this poem about? why did you choose it?  

SE I chose it because I liked it and its internal music, its very percussive and punchy text.

       It is extremely witty, but also comes from a place of true sincerity.  I really enjoy that

      discord.   
 
AT Do the Beats hit any kind of nerve emotionally for you? 
  
SE I was a big Kerouac and Gary Snyder fan in my 20s.  Huge, like visited Lowell, 

MA and the California coast.  I enjoyed the freedom of discovery.  Now a little older, 

the adventure was amazing and the joy of doing it, capturing the present the way they

 did in the literature is very much like composing.
 
AT How did it spark the way you composed this piece?
 
SE I composed it rather quickly in two parts about a year apart.  I did not know how

 to write the explosion, but once I turned it over to guitar distortion and free improv, I feel 

like that was really the correct decision for the piece and, hopefully the players, instead 

of writing some ridiculously complicated thing. The piece was quickly finished.

AT What other stuff are you up to these days?

SE Writing for many pieces for strings, and I just started writing a new opera that I am 

shopping  around.  Oh, and I am singing currently in a new opera entitled Robin Hood 

(I'm Robin) at the Badisches Staattheater in Karlsruhe, Germany.  Plus I have a job in 

Toulouse this summer, then come back to Karlsruhe to start a Festvertrag.

Read more about Steve here: 

 http://www.jamesblackmanagement.com/artists/category/tenors/steven-ebel 

Join New Music New York on June 12, 2012 at 8 PM for their upcoming 

concert, "I sing the body electric: Walt Whitman and the Beat Generation

Poets in Chamber Music and Song"

Saint Peter's CitiCorp, located at 53rd and Lexington (Manhattan)

Suggested donation:  $20

http://nmnybodyelectric.eventbrite.com/  

                                               1969 Cadillac

 Jack Kerouac