Lenox — If you are a rock musician, it would now be a good time to pinch yourself, because Tanglewood’s annual Festival of Contemporary Music (FCM) is directed this year by a rock guitarist, a real shredder with actual blues in his DNA, a man who has performed Jimmy Page guitar solos with his favorite Led Zeppelin cover band. Steven Mackey shares the FCM directorship with Pulitzer-winning composer Tania León, and the two of them would be much obliged if you would forget everything you know about the Festival of Contemporary Music. Because they are champing at the bit to introduce you to voices they have loved for decades, voices you probably haven’t heard of: “This is the gig I’ve wanted for a long time,” Steven told me this week. “I’ve appeared at Tanglewood, but this opportunity? Oh, man! I’d love to be able to do that!”
Steven likes to tell the story of how the FCM directorship came together, starting with an invitation from newly-appointed Tanglewood Music Center Director Ed Gazouleas: “Ed called me and said, ‘Would you like to co-curate with Tania?’ He asked Tania the same question about me. Tania and I have been friends for 35 years. And she’s, you know, a little bit older than me. But you know, she’s always been a big support for me, a cheerleader in the older generation, which is great.”
I met this week on the Tanglewood campus with FCM co-Director Steven Mackey. I wanted to hear which FCM composers and programs he is most excited about. I got an earful:
When I review the lineup for FCM, I kind of marvel at how easy it was. Ed picked Tania and me, which was easy, since we are old friends. He knew we would do something different, and no further negotiation was required. The list of works I submitted overlapped greatly with Tania’s list, and when I reviewed the composers who were only Tania’s selection, I thought ‘of course’ in every case.
The co-directors have selected programs with relatively young composers, but there is one exception:
One exception is Ellen Taffe Swillich, who was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music. For two decades after that award in 1983, she was very sought after. But in the past decade or two, she has faded, and we are thrilled to present her work this year.
Another well-established and mature voice that we wanted to remind people of is TJ Anderson. Both TJ and Ellen are featured in the final program of the festival.
On the ’emerging’ side of the continuum, I am excited to present Leila Adu-Gilmore, Dai Wei, Salina Fisher, Lembit Beecher, Nathalie Joachim, Nick Diberardino, and Ty Braxton, all of whom I know very well. Adu-Gilmore and Dai Wei are both “pop” (in the broadest sense of the term) vocalists. Joachim is certainly a vocalist and not an opera singer … hard to put a label on what she does vocally. She is also a virtuoso flute player. Ty Braxton had emerged in another genre as the guitarist in his math rock band, Battles. DiBerardino, Beecher, and Fisher have had more traditional backgrounds and have developed very distinctive voices.
The programs include several mid-career composers such as Miya Masaoka, whom I originally knew as an amazing improvisor. Arthur Kampela is, like me, a composer/guitarist. Du Yun, Marcos Balter, Vijay Ayer, and Angélica Negrón have fully emerged and are at the top of their game right about now but have been conspicuously absent from previous Tanglewood programs.
I am thankful to Tania for suggesting and introducing me to the music of Ileana Perez Velazquez and Niloufar Nourbakhsh.
Some of the strangest music I have ever heard was at Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music. So why do I recommend putting it at the top of your bucket list? Because the FCM is also where I discovered some of the most intensely enjoyable music I have heard anywhere in the world.
The festival runs from Thursday, July 25, through Monday, July 29. Tickets are available here.
