Great piece! I felt like I was sitting at Libbey Bowl listening to 8th blackbird performing this piece — it is a winner! Can definitely hear the Steve Reich influence .. congrats!
Chris Drucker posted this comment on July 9, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Thanks Chris! Who knows maybe I’ll have some of my music at the Ojai Music Festival some day.
albertbehar posted this comment on July 13, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Article very interesting, I will necessarily add it in the selected works and I will visit this site
Duet for violin and laptop. Fundamental harmonies give rise to polyrhythms that form the foundation of the work. Finalist at the ASCAP/SEAMUS 2007 Electro-Acoustic Conference.
SERIES FOR JOSEPH FOURIER
Violin and Laptop
New York Premier by Kate Dreyfuss
January 10, 2009
6:20 minutes
your brother posted this comment on June 4, 2009 at 1:38 am
Thanks! If you want to get a fancy icon like mine go to http://www.gravatar.com and upload a pic.
albertbehar posted this comment on June 4, 2009 at 1:42 am
I love this piece… it was so much fun to learn and perform!
kate posted this comment on June 4, 2009 at 6:03 am
hi albert,
cousin arlene here. dad asked if cj received the score….do you have it posted on the website or did someone mail it? Also, I can’t seem to get your plug-in to work on my computers….is there another way to hear kate’s performance of this piece. thanks, arlene p.s. congratulations on France and all the good work you are doing!
arlene behar montefiore posted this comment on August 18, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Single movement string quartet where melodic lines emerge from progressions of tightly voiced suspensions. Composed and recorded at the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program in Putney, Vermont.
HOLD TIGHT
String Quartet
Premiered by Kelsey Blumenthal, Adina Tsai,
Emily Owsinski, and Thomas Mesa
June 27, 2008
8:20 minutes
Sextet for piano, marimba, flute, clarinet, violin and cello. A lopsided tango motive develops in a series of variations. Premiered at Boston University Tanglewood Institute’s Young Artist Composition Program in the summer of 2007.
SIX TO TANGO
Piano, Marimba, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello
Tanglewood Institute
August 10, 2007
7:40 minutes
My first big piece with thanks to Bach. Written for a space-themed choral competition, ‘Dinnertime on the Way to Jupiter’ calls upon two formative elements of my childhood: turtles and Bach.
DINNERTIME ON THE WAY TO JUPITER
SATB Choir and Piano
Ojai Camerata
April 10, 2001
5:28 minutes
A metal spiral staircase struck with a coo-coo clock weight, a suspended lamp hit with a zucchini, a beaded necklace drawn slowly across a towel rack, 12 toy pianos, aluminum rods and a T.V. tube are but a few of the possible sounds in Trimpin’s Seattle studio.
An electroacoustic homage to the late guitarist Django Reinhardt. Created with samples from Reinhardt’s original Djangology and Nuages. ‘Djangology’ Features a rhythmic bed of abrasive record hiss and loops of guitar arpeggios. ‘Vieni, Vieni’ is a rehash of the original version.
your brother posted this comment on June 23, 2009 at 4:30 pm
VERY COOL
jiezhen posted this comment on September 14, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Hey, I’m a friend of Emily Rubin’s, she told me to listen to this and I like it a lot. I’m currently waiting to here back from NYU about admission to their jazz studies program. Great music
Mark Goldstein posted this comment on February 5, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Synth whale calls + tacky kick drum = magic. The japanese female voice was taken from an obscure website with audio files of common animals in Japanese. There’s also some Kraftwerk samples thrown in for good measure.
This is actually one of the most interesting things I have ever heard. I listened to this about 7 times and I’m still trying to figure out what is natural… And the music is really good too.
Ashley posted this comment on June 4, 2009 at 9:06 am
haha thanks! Are you coming to the Ojai Music Festival?
albertbehar posted this comment on June 4, 2009 at 7:49 pm
I’ve finally got Trimpin’s ‘Giuter Toy’ up and running. The sculpture itself is made up of 24 computer-controlled toy guitars. There’s a wide assortment of guitars including two Sesame Street toys, a mini Kawasaki keytar, a tiger-striped double neck guitar and my personal favorite, a plastic guitar from the children’s television series, “The Wiggles” that actually wiggles the neck when you hit a note on the keyboard. I’m going to have a lot of fun with that one… If you want to hear the sculpture in action as well as a bunch of other Trimpin works, come to the Ojai Music Festival.
Whatup Albert??
That guitar thing looks sweet, I hope you shreda led led at the ojai music festival. I would be down to go but I’m gonna be in africa for the whole summer traveling with ernie. Hope you had a blast in france, and good luck with whatever’s next college or whatnot.
Take care,
-Richard
Richard Smith posted this comment on June 5, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Oh I’ll be shreddin alright. I had a great time in France drinking fine wines. Too bad you’re not going to make it… I’ll be going to NYU next year. Whenever you’re in NY just give me a call!
albertbehar posted this comment on June 6, 2009 at 12:11 am
I went up to Montecito to hear eighth blackbird play through Rinde Eckert and Steve Mackey’s new genre-bending piece ‘Slide.’ ‘Slide’ falls somewhere in between contemporary classical music and avant-garde theatre. The concept behind the work comes from a psychological experiment in which a subject was shown a blurry slide and guessed what blurry image represented. Upon formulating an idea, the subject was show the slide in focus and asked to identify the image. The psychologists then measured the disconnect between the subjects guess of the blurred picture and the reality. This experiment speaks to our own inherent biases and unwillingness to construct a true picture of reality.
What amazed me was the staging of this idea. I don’t want to spoil the piece before the world premier on Friday June 12 at the Ojai Music Festival, but I will say that members of eighth blackbird put on mysterious scarves, rock out with Mackey shredding his guitar, stand up on chairs and talk about stick figures in one-sided phone conversations. I also loved Mackey’s sort of musical pun where he plays a slide guitar lick when they say the word slide. (get it?) Check out a recording (please don’t sue!) of Michael J Maccaferri sliding around on his clarinet in this amazing solo. I hope you all can make it to the premier.
When in Ojai, do as the Ojaians (Ojaiers?) do. I went with my brother Elijah and his girlfriend Erin Yee to Meditation Mountain in the East end of the Ojai Valley. The skies were silvery as we sipped our free tea, courtesy of Zhena’s Gypsy Tea. After a meditation in the International Garden of Peace we made our way to Ruben’s Burritos.
It is an indisputable fact that this hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant makes the best burritos on the planet. Even my French Culture and Society teacher who lives in Brittany knew about the wonders of Rubens as he had taught at the local boarding school. If you ever have a chance to go to Rubens, get the Mexican Veggie and a horchata.
Hi all-
I’ve decided to bring my site into the blogging era. All of my entries including new music, blog updates, concert information and press are now being handled through WordPress. This allows you to follow my site updates through a RSS or Atom feed. I’ve also added Twitter functionality so you can get the latest tidbit of info.
I hope that you enjoy my music and check my blog for updates. My contact information is under the about section.
A collaboration between choreographer Claire Westby and composer Albert Behar. (A) Dozen was conceived as part of the Composer/Choreographer initiative between the Tisch Department of Dance and the Steinhardt Department of Music.
Dancers: Brighid Greene, Michael Laskaris, Samuel Swanton, Zach Thomas Violinist: Kate Dreyfuss Lighting: Amanda Clegg-Lyon
During my month long stay with Trimpin as his assistant, I rewired the 24 toy guitars featured in his new sound-sculpture “Giuter Toy.” Upon opening a certain Chinese-manufactured plastic guitar, we came across the phrase “Giuter Toy” inscribed on the interior. I was asked to write a series of short pieces that will be played by the instrument. The sculpture will be exhibited in the gazebo near the Ojai Music Festival Concerts at Libby Bowl. I hope that all of you can come hear it!
He’s a sculptor who doesn’t work in stone, clay, or wood. He molds things out of sound. KCLU’s Lance Orozco talks with Trimpin…an internationally known artist who’s latest works are on display on the South Coast.
Albert Behar (b. 1991, Los Angeles, CA) is a composer who writes acoustic and electronic music. His works have been performed at the Ojai Music Festival, the Tanglewood Institute, and the Yellow Barn Music Festival. Albert studies with composer Julia Wolfe, one of the founders of Bang on a Can. He is a freshman pursuing a double major in music composition and French literature at New York University.
Behar has apprenticed extensively with sound sculptor and MacArthur 'Genius' Trimpin.
At the Ojai Music Festival in 2006 Albert assisted with the installation of "Conloninpurple" and was among 3 student composers who received a commission from Trimpin to write a piece for the room-sized instrument. Albert was Trimpin's technical assistant in his Seattle studio for a month in the summer of 2008 and helped in the construction and programming of the sculpture "Guiter-Toy," a vortex of 24 computer-controlled plastic toy guitars.
A finalist in the 2007 ASCAP / SEAMUS Student Commission, Albert's electro-acoustic music was performed at Ohio State University. Named a California Arts Scholar in 2005, he attended a month long program at CalArts where he received intensive Gamelan and African drumming instruction. Albert was a young composer at Interlochen in Michigan in 2004 and attended the inaugural UC Davis Summer Arts Program in 2003. Past teachers include David Lang, Martin Amlin and Stephen Coxe.
Albert spent his senior year of high school with School Year Abroad in Rennes, France eating oozy cheese and discussing French poetry. He is a passionate folder of modular origami, designer of latte art, appreciator of French and Japanese cinema and a hardcore Scrabble junkie. His dogs, Oscar and Zorro, live with his parents in San Francisco.
Great piece! I felt like I was sitting at Libbey Bowl listening to 8th blackbird performing this piece — it is a winner! Can definitely hear the Steve Reich influence .. congrats!
Chris Drucker posted this comment on July 9, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Thanks Chris! Who knows maybe I’ll have some of my music at the Ojai Music Festival some day.
albertbehar posted this comment on July 13, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Article very interesting, I will necessarily add it in the selected works and I will visit this site
gigantplsa posted this comment on November 20, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Даже и не докопаешься.
Web Мастер posted this comment on December 3, 2009 at 5:27 pm