Did it start with my interest in the music of Leonard Cohen in the 60s and 70s? Fast-forward to the wonderful Cohen bio-film, "I'm Your Man", of 2005, I think. One of the superb performers of Cohen music in that film was Antony, of Antony and the Johnsons. So while trolling the Web for more Antony music, I blunder upon a mesmerizing snippet of sound, sung by Antony and written by one Nico Muhly.
As it turns out, I can't get enough of Muhly's music at the moment. Perhaps the best place to hear Nico Muhly is on his MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/muhly. Here are some YouTube examples of some of his collaborations:
Then there is Muhly's blog, where I find not only that he listens to some of the same music that I do (e.g., Rachmaninoff vespers, Bach chorales, etc.), but he also works with Philip Glass and was influenced by Steve Reich and John Adams, all among my very favorite composers. We also find that that he is a budding chef, and readily dispenses far-ranging, brash opinions on just about anything.
A New Yorker piece has quite a good backgrounder on this young whippersnapper.
... And then I discover that Muhly's blog shows he was in Portland last Friday!
UPDATE: 8/19/08 - 2:40pm: Just found two recent pieces from The Oregonian, one before the Portland concert, one following. As usual, it looks like everybody else has known about this guy all along ...
UPDATE: 8/21/08 - 2:25PM: See Chika's unexpected but most welcome input
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