Miscellany

The NY Phil Biennial takes flight on Monday, with a JACK Quartet program of Cenk Ergün, Derek Bermel, and Marc Sabat. Some highlights from the remaining fortnight: Jennifer Koh's program of new-music miniatures; Gerald Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest, with Ilan Volkov conducting; the Ligeti Forward series, with Alan Gilbert; an Interlochen Academy concert, with premières by Gabriel Kahane, Hannah Lash, and Ashley Fure; and the final Phil concerts, with Bolcom's new Trombone Concerto, Stucky's Second Concerto, and the Nørgård Eighth.... Volkov's Tectonics Festival, from which the Biennial could learn a few lessons in boldness, took place earlier this month; BBC 3's Hear and Now series is broadcasting some highlights. I'm listening now to music of Alwynne Pritchard, Jessika Kenney, Eyvind Kang, and Michael Pisaro (his extraordinarily beautiful Lucretius Melody), and am looking forward to a Pisaro première that comes online on May 28.... On May 24 and 31, Jacaranda presents guitar music of Nørgård, Henze, Ginastera, Berio, and others at the Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades.... For VAN, Heather O'Donnell has an enlightening article on musicians with disabilities.... Maria Schneider has a blistering piece on the musical-ethical black hole that is YouTube.... On June 17, the Cincinnati Opera introduces Gregory Spears's Fellow Travelers, about the gay witch-hunts of the nineteen-fifties.