Michael Gordon’s percussion sextet Timber, “six players, six two-by-fours, one hour of aural hypnosis” (TimeOut NY) is toured from Canada to Ireland to Germany and beyond by co-commissioners Slagwerk Den Haag and Mantra Percussion.

• 8 March Muziekgebouw — Amsterdam (SDH)
• 9 March Vancouver New Music — Canada (MP)
• 15 March Maerzmuzik — Berlin (SDH)
• 21 March den Toonzal — Den Bosch, Holland (SDH)
• 7 April Music Biennale Zagreb — Croatia (SDH)
• 30 April TimberRemixed — Brooklyn, NY (MP)
• 4 May Drogheda Arts Festival 2013 — Louth, Ireland (MP)
• 26 May Landgoedconcerten Oranjewoud — Langezwaag, Holland (SDH)

Recognized by The New Yorker Magazine as one of the ten most memorable performances of 2012, Timber is a mesmerizing and unique evening-length work…

Commissioning Rushes
by Dana Jessen

http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/commissioning-rushes/

As musicians, we frequently talk about the process of composing music. Most often we discuss the various methods a composer goes through to realize his or her work. Yet there is another facet of such an undertaking that often isn’t discussed—the performer’s side of commissioning a large-scale work. On September 15th, six colleagues and I gave the world premiere of Rushes, a new 60-minute composition for seven bassoons by Michael Gordon…

From May 11-19, Long Beach Opera stages Michael Gordon’s opera Van Gogh.

Based on Vincent Van Gogh’s letters to his beloved younger brother Tlusteheo, an art dealer and often Vincent’s sole means of personal and financial support, Gordon’s powerful opera has been praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as “puls[ing] with a distinctive brand of emotional energy that is hard to resist.”

Gordon writes:

I started composing Van Gogh because of my obsession with the letters Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo…