John Aylward

Thanks to all who helped out on such an amazing premiere of Angelus Novus last week at Le Laboratoire. It was an incredible experience to work with many friends and collaborators on a piece that’s become very personal and important, both through the writing and through the collaborations and relationships it sparked. I hope if you find your way here, you’ll give the piece a listen / look.

The project was made very special by Roberta Michel, flutes; Hassan Anderson, oboe; Jennifer Choi, violin; Carlos Cordiero, clarinets; John Popham, cello; and Sam Budish, percussion. Also four special friends: Jean-Philippe Wurtz, conductor; Colin Gee, choreography and dance; Alex Posen, costumes; and Steven Taylor and Sam Okerstrom-Lang, visual / animation designers.

I’m speechless after receiving a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. This is once-in-a-lifetime support and I hope to use the time wisely for upcoming projects — the first being an ongoing commission from the Fromm Foundation, which I hope to premiere in the spring of 2018 (more on that soon!) and the second being a new ballet, Angelus Novus.

I’ll workshop part of Angelus Novus this May 19th at Le Laboratoire, Cambridge. For more on that, you can check out the event page.

I’m grateful to receive this honor and am thankful to all who have been supportive.

Honored to be one of this year’s Fromm Music Foundation commissioned composers. In with some great company of very talented individuals and happy to considered among them. I’ll be using the grant to write a piece that culminates my recent body of work based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

From The Etchings Festival.

“… as a breath of wind or some echo rebounds from smooth surfaces and returns to the source from which it issued, so the stream of beauty passes back into its possessor through his eyes, its natural route to the soul; arriving there and setting him aflutter, it waters the passages of the feathers and causes the wings to grow, and fills the soul of the loved one in his turn with love.”

— Plato. Phaedrus.

Thanks to all who made Switch such an amazing success! Some reviews here and here, and for all the details, check out switchopera.com. More soon! But in the meantime, if you’re up for some new music, come to the Boston Conservatory on March 4th, 8PM to hear Eric Hewitt perform Compulsive Loves. And more updates for March and April soon!

It’s here! Hard to believe the new opera is upon us! Come one, come all!

Details:

• Switch An Opera-Theater piece by yours truly.
• The amazing Amanda DeBoer Bartlett and Mikhail Smigelski star!
• Directed by the equally amazing Laine Rettmer!
•  Where? At the fascinating Kendall Square Gallery Le Laboratoire!
• Check here for showtimes and tickets.

See you there!

A quick dispatch from MacDowell where I’m deep in autumn, nested in the woods and finishing Switch.

Some very cool music happening this winter.

February 13th. 8PM. Spectrum, New York
Daedalus
Just in time for Valentines Day, check out City of Tomorrow performing the New York premiere of Daedalus! Always an awesome program with this excellent group—and super fun people! All inadvance of our recording project in June!!

February 6th, 2016. 8PM. Pickman Hall. Cambridge, MA
Ephemera
The legendary Dinosaur Annex will tackle Ephemera. I’m really thrilled to be working with them after a long time of knowing their work and admiring so many of their performers!

And don’t forget….. Feb 12-14 and 19-21. Switch, my very first work for stage, will premiere at Le Laboratoire, Cambridge. The absolutely amazing Laine Rettmer will direct! It’s been a while in the works, but this opera is picking up steam now. Can’t wait, and very much hope you’ll be there!

A few spring events are in the works! Details soon…….