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

Were baaaaack

After a short hiatus, we are now back to our old antics; folks have been returning to our concerts year after year, out of sheer curiosity to know what on earth we will we program next...in July of 2009 we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11th Moon Landing at the Tenri Cultural Center (NYC) in which we premiered three new chamber vocal ensemble pieces by Marga Richter, William George, Scott Gendel and Richard Scarcella Perino. February of 2010 found us with a composer showcase, "Unheard Of" in which we performed the songs, chamber music by New York composer of Ed Windels. We were also guests of an academic symposium at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights in March of 2010, where we performed settings by Charles Naginski, Tom Cipullo, David del Tredici and Jerome Kitzke.

Our next project in the works is a concert of song and vocal chamber ensemble settings by Walt Whitman and the Beats. Walt has long be acknowledged "the grandfather" of the Beats, and we all admired Thomas Hampson's album dedicated to the Good Grey Poet. We knew of the many Whitman settings for voice and piano, but after some poking around, we found composers that were inspired by the Beats as well. Among the new works we will premiere Steve Ebel's setting of Ferlinghetti's "Cadillac Rain" which will feature an electric guitar, a setting of Diane DiPrima "Pieces of a song" for the whole ensemble by Alexa Babakhanian, Anthony Ocana's setting of Ferlinghetti's "Dog", William George's "Vigil Strange I kept on the Field On Night" for voice, piano and violin and Ben Schumann's cycle for baritone, tenor and piano based on Whitman's Calamus poems. Some of the composers will grace our stage, including Alexa and Jerome Kitzke, who will be performing his setting of Ginsberg's "Green Automobile" for amplified speaker pianist...it will be at treat. We are still rounding out the rest of the concert, so stay tuned