News & Events
June 6-9 European Tour
We will perform a brand-new production of John Cage's Song Books in Ireland and the Netherlands. Conceived, directed and designed by Nigel Maister, the multimedia event captures the musical wit and artistic insight of one of the most influential composers and thinkers of our time.
The Holland Festival (co-commissioner of the multimedia performance) presents the World Premiere on June 9 as part of its celebration of Cage's centennial. Cork Opera House hosts the preview performance on June 6.
Immediately after the Holland Festival Song Books, join us for more music and a drink at the nearby Skylounge where we will give an informal post-premiere concert featuring members of Alarm Will Sound performing music by John Adams, Caleb Burhans, Payton MacDonald, Kate Soper, and Anna Clyne, plus jazz improvisation.
Donate to our new production of Cage's Song Books
We've launched a crowdfunding effort on USA Projects to help us create and produce our next multimedia event: John Cage's Song Books. Every tax-deductible donation gets us closer to our $5,000 goal. And you can get exclusive perks.
The production will capture Alarm Will Sound's signature energy and remarkable versatility. Song Books asks musicians to make a kind of musical circus, pushing their limits as performers, and upending the audience's conventional experiences of a concert. It's a project tailor-made for Alarm Will Sound!
Our production will travel to the Cork Opera House (June 6) and the Holland Festival (June 9) before a performance on New York City's River to River Festival (July 15).
Help us celebrate John Cage's 100th birthday by sharing the wonderful gift of his music.
Features
John Cage's Song Books
We're excited to have started work on a new version of John Cage's Song Books, for premiere in Europe and New York this summer. Song Books is not only his magnum opus, it's a touchstone for us because it's a piece we did in 2000 while we were still students at the Eastman School of Music before we became Alarm Will Sound. That experience is what convinced us that new-music performance could and should involve elements of staging and theater as a way to more fully engage ourselves and our audiences in what it means to make music. That was John Cage's conviction too, and coming back to Song Books, after 12 years of being Alarm Will Sound, is a wonderful way to celebrate his 100th birthday.
Nigel Maister (our Staging Director and director/designer of the new production) and Rob Haskins (Cage scholar and musical director of the production) give insights in a WQXR interview after our recent performance of a portion of Song Books at the Abron Arts Center, where Cage taught for a while.
Also, see bits of our first rehearsals on the piece, and hear from Alan Pierson, our Artistic Director, and Nigel Maister in this video.
Who We Are
Alarm Will Sound is a twenty-member group dedicated to the creation, performance, and recording of today's most innovative music.
Featured Recording
Steve Snowden’s For So Long It's Not True
Listen through to the end if you're feeling dazed and confused about why this brand new piece sounds familiar. Premiered at the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival in 2011.
Visit our Soundcloud for more recordings.
Member Spotlight
Caleb Burhans
Caleb almost went to Indiana University for college but he decided on Eastman partly because he didn’t like that IU had the highest-paid basketball coach in the country. His life could have turned out pretty differently if Bobby Knight made a little less money back in the late 90s. But Eastman it was.
As a 17-year old, Caleb had a thing for Ligeti’s music so he emailed Alan before he got to Eastman to ask for an audition with Ossia to play on their Ligeti concert. He was late to the first rehearsal because he was getting his nose pierced, but he soon became a regular. Just before graduating, he terrified his conservative grandmother by telling her he wanted to move to NYC to live paycheck to paycheck as a freelance musician. Now he’s doing exactly that (although maybe not living quite paycheck to paycheck) as a freelance violinist, violist, countertenor, composer, and improviser.
Caleb started singing in a boys’ choir at age 9 then quickly picked up several instruments. At 10, he wrote his first piano piece in C major. The only early composition he’ll live up to now is a piece for 2 violins that he wrote on his first day back to school as a high school sophomore called What a Shame. It was quite a shame that summer was over.
Be alarmist
Read articles by our members, get behind-the-scenes reports about our projects, and share your thoughts at Alarmists, our blog.