Brett Campbell

Brett Campbell is senior editor at Oregon ArtsWatch, a frequent contributor to SFCV and many other publications, and coauthor, with Bill Alves, of Lou Harrison: American Musical Maverick (Indiana University Press 2017).

Articles By This Author

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Feature

Uncanned Music

Brett Campbell - November 2, 2010

Bang on a Can has been the epicenter of boundary-less music for more than two decades. Two of the cofounders look back (and forward) at the ongoing revolution they helped inaugurate.

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Feature

West to East: The Migration of American New Music

Brett Campbell - November 24, 2009

New York, New York, a hell of a town: arts capital of the world and epicenter of American postclassical music since at least the days of George Gershwin. Think of the composers who lived and worked there from the 1940s on — Cage, Cowell, Thomson, Copland, Bernstein, Rorem, all the way down to younger generations like Bang on a Can, Nico Muhly, and the New Amsterdam composers. It’s almost easier to compile a list of major composers who aren’t from the Big Apple.

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Review

All Hail Henry Cowell

Brett Campbell - November 17, 2009
Lou Harrison called him “the central switchboard for two or three generations of American composers.” John Cage said he was the “open sesame” of American music. Yet Henry Cowell’s significance to American music remains unappreciated, even by most classical music fans.
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Review

Grace Notes, but Not by Accident

Brett Campbell - September 29, 2009
French music, the stereotype goes, prizes clarity, elegance, balance — in a word, gracefulness. Of course, exceptions are easy to find, but last weekend’s concerts titled “Les grâces françoises: Graceful Music From France,” by the aptly named ensemble Les grâces, made a persuasive case that a consciously graceful performance style immaculately suits the polite, early-Baroque gems.
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Feature

Memoir of Paradise:A House in Bali Comes to Berkeley

Brett Campbell - September 15, 2009

A few years ago, Evan Ziporyn’s mother called him to report a strange occurrence while she slept.

An Interview With Aaron Jay Kernis, Coming to Cabrillo

Brett Campbell - August 10, 2009
In the decade since he became the youngest composer to win a Pulitzer Prize, for his String Quartet No. 2 (“musica instrumentalis”) in 1998, Aaron Jay Kernis has become one of the leading composers of his generation. Not yet 50, he’s won most of classical music’s top honors and garnered commissions from America’s leading orchestras.
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Preview

Worldly Sounds From the Cabrillo Festival

Brett Campbell - July 21, 2009

Brett Dean is on a roll.

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Review

Heavenly Music in the California Hills

Brett Campbell - June 10, 2008
For a new music fan, Southern California’s Ojai Festival is about as close to nirvana as it gets. For 62 years now, this little artsy town in the hills near Santa Barbara has been bringing contemporary music to the outdoor Libbey Bowl, an acoustic shell in a sylvan park setting as idyllic as the music can be challenging.
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Review

Illuminating Inspirations

Brett Campbell - February 5, 2008

The next time I hear someone bewailing the moribund state of classical music, I'll point them to the Herbst Theatre, where last Saturday morning (a dreary day) a couple hundred music lovers paid to hear a couple of string quartets and an hour of explanation about them.

Feature

When Worlds Collide, and Boundaries Fall

Brett Campbell - January 29, 2008
Mason Bates has a secret life. The Bay Area composer has a Juilliard pedigree, a Rome Prize and a Berlin Prize, and is currently composer in residence for the California Symphony.