Composers Now Showcased Year-Round

In recent years, the American new-music scene has burgeoned to the point where it no longer operates seasonally, but year-round. Consider these upcoming gatherings of active composers and peripatetic audiences:

At the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, a fifth annual Fromm Week of new music brings three concerts to the altitudinous arts convocation, July 25 through Aug. 1.

The first concert--in a series sponsored by the 39-year-old Fromm Music Foundation of Harvard University--presents music by David Felder, James Mobberly, David Lang, Aaron Jay Kernis and Mel Powell, performed by trombonist Michael Powell, ensembles conducted by Stephen Mosko and soprano Lucy Shelton.

The July 30 concert offers an entire evening of music by the Canadian experimentalist Henry Brant, who will be 76 in September. Brant is one of the pioneers in the use of space as a compositional device; this program will focus on recent works, mostly featuring singers.

Computer-generated music by Neil Rolnick, Richard Teitelbaum, Morton Subotnick and David Lang occupies the final concert, Aug. 1.

The good news here is that, despite the Fromm Week, contemporary music is not ghettoized at Aspen. In addition to that three-concert series, premiere performances of music by Leif Segerstam, Theodore Morrison, Hugh Aitken, William Hawley and Libby Larsen will be given at the 1989 festival.

Meanwhile, at Tanglewood in western Massachusetts, the annual Festival of Contemporary Music is scheduled July 29-Aug. 5. In 1989, Lukas Foss serves as composer in residence, four of his works appearing on these eight programs.

In addition, the festival promises music by Copland, Webern, Anne LeBaron, Stefan Wolpe, Kaija Saariaho, Stephen Mosko, Alfred Schnittke, Jay Alan Yim, Elena Firsova, Oliver Knussen, Kirchner, Bright Sheng, John Watrous, Stravinsky, Dmitri Smirnov and Ralph Shapey. Among the ensembles performing are the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Boston Musica Viva and the Boston Symphony.

Of particular note is a revival of Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto, to be played by Peter Serkin, and the world premiere of a cello concerto by H. K. Gruber, written for and to be played by Yo-Yo Ma.

Opening the next Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Oct. 3 to Dec. 3 will be Laurie Anderson’s new “Laurie Anderson--Empty Places,” a new, solo music-theater piece said to synthesize “film, video, music, live action and remote-control sets.”

After that, four events in the 1989 Next Wave series comprise a minifest of “Ruhrworks,” contemporary art from the Ruhr Valley of West Germany. Dancewise, two companies return to BAM with U.S. premieres. Reinhild Hoffmann Tanztheater will present “Machandel,” based on Grimm fairy tales. And Susanne Linke will perform “Homage a Dore Hoyer.” A third dance artist, Christine Brunel, will mark her U.S. debut with two works. In music, another U.S. debut will bring the band Pohl Musik to our shores with its Klangmaschine (machine sound).

New Music America, a 69-event New York Citywide festival--and the 10th such festival to be given across these United States--will be hosted by BAM Nov. 10-18. Among the highlights will be commissioned works and/world premieres by, among others, Kip Hanrahan, John Zorn, John Carter, Fred Frith, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Geri Allen, Gary Lucas, Steve Coleman, Jerry Hunt, Karen Finley and Moondog.

REVIVED: Dance Kaleidoscope II, the revived summer festival of dance and performance art, will take place at Cal State Los Angeles July 21-30. The roster of artists now includes:

Malashock Dance Company; Big Flood Dance Co.; Sarah Elgart Co.; Karpatok Hungarian Folk Ensemble; Linda Vega’s Danzas de Espana, with Juan Talavera; Los Angeles Modern Dance & Ballet; Young Ae Park; Karen Johnson and Stephen Craig; Katja Beisanz Dance Co.; California Theatre Ballet, Stephanie Gilliland; Pacific Dance Ensemble; Betzi Roe; Rene Gubernick and Martha Kalman; Suzee Goldman; David Leahy and Co.; Gregg Bielemeier; Tina Gerstler Co.; Jessica Vallot; Antony Balcena and Co.; the Shrimps; Blue Palm; Patricia Sandback and Zoot.

This two-weekend festival will thus attempt to present promising emerging artists as well as established soloists and ensembles.

Possible highlights include three world premieres: Bielemeier’s solo, “A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place, Or Picture Me This”; a performance piece by Karen Johnson and Stephen Craig; and a still-untitled, outdoor, on-site piece by the performance artists the Shrimps.

Also, Malashock Dance Company will present the local premiere of John Malashock’s “Facing.” And the companies of Sarah Elgart and Antony Balcena will perform works dealing with the AIDS crisis, Elgart’s so-called deconstructivist piece called “Eleventhour”, and Balcena’s theatre/dance suite for male dancers, “Dudes.

Information: (213) 343-4118.

BRIEFLY: Gary Chryst will appear with two other dancers in the world premiere performances of a chamber music/dance/theater piece, “Sharehi,” at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, July 30 and 31. “Sharehi” is a fully staged work by choreographer Lila York to a new score by Bruce Adolphe; it will be accompanied by a seven-instrument ensemble to be conducted by the composer; John Conklin is designer. . . . Pianist Aleksei Sultanov, the winner of the eighth Van Cliburn International Competition in Fort Worth, who recently made his local debut at Ambassador Auditorium, will appear with the Inland Empire Symphony, in a concerto to be selected, Jan. 27 in San Bernardino. . . . William P. Wingate, who served for 18 years as an administrator at the Center Theatre Group at the Music Center of Los Angeles County, has been named Executive Director of New York City Ballet, effective immediately. . . . Composer Anthony Vazzana of the USC School of Music faculty will be honored by his alma mater, the State University of New York at Potsdam, as distinguished alumnus, in ceremonies on the Potsdam campus, July 15. . . . Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced the commissioning of a new opera from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom, for production in the 1992-93 season. Bolcom will write an opera based on Frank Norris’ 1899 novel, “McTeague.” AT&T; will be a major underwriter of the project. . . . Monday Evening Concerts’ 1989-90 season will offer 11 performances at the County Museum of Art. Three concerts will feature the MEC Ensemble conducted by Gerhard Samuel, Stephen Mosko and Joel Thome. Another will bring the Arditti Quartet to the stage of Leo S. Bing Theater. In addition, the ensemble Tashi--with Richard Stoltzman, Ida Kavafian, Theodore Arm, Steven Tenenbom and Fred Sherry--will make an appearance on the series.