Recording With Anna Kislitsyna April 19, 2021

 

Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, MA.

The piece was composed specifically for she solo album from Navona, to be followed by a Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall solo recital.

Click the photo to go to Anna's web site

"Be Still" News - December 9, 2020

  Casey Cook, Founder and Artistic Director at Artifice, Operations Coordinator at Chorus America and Musician in Residence at American University, and one of the American Prize judges, had some very complimentary words to say about "Be Still," recorded by The Crossing on the Navona label. "Be Still" earned 2nd place in The American Prize in the 2020 Composition competition, Choral Music Division.

Classical Discoveries on WPRB 103.3 December 02, 2020

Happy to be a part of Classical Discoveries Wednesday morning, December 02, 2020 from 7:00 till 10:00 am.

Watcher of the Sky for string quartet (2018) by American composer, Bruce Babcock

On WPRB 103.3 FM Princeton NJ, or on the Internet at: www.wprb.com.

If you need more information, please go to my website at www.classicaldiscoveries.org

 

Dear Friends, Family, and Colleagues,
 

Watcher of the Sky,
a string quartet commissioned
by the Mount Wilson Institute 
in celebration of the
2018 sesquicentennial
of the birth of astronomer
George Ellery Hale has been released
on an album recorded by
the Sirius Quartet. 

Playing on the Edge 2 was released
on the Navona label on October 23
(nv6315)

We have created a YouTube video 

commemorating the life of
George Ellery Hale 

to accompany the recording.

The YouTube video may be found here:

The album can be purchased here:

 The concert audience inside the 100-inch dome

People have been asking me (well, one person has), why were you chosen to compose a piece in celebration of the sesquicentennial of the birth of astronomer George Ellery Hale? And who was Hale? George Hale, born in 1868, founded Kenwood, Yerkes, Mount Wilson and Mount Palomar Observatories. He also built the largest telescope in the world four times – the 40-inch refractor at Yerkes, the 60-inch and 100-inch at Mount Wilson, and the 200-inch at Mount Palomar, among many other achievements.

(To learn more, check out the documentary film The Journey to Palomar by Todd and Robin Mason.)
 
My family has been connected to George Hale and his legacy since 1893. In 1893, at age eleven, my grandfather Harold Delos Babcock attended the Columbian Exposition of 1893, also known as the Chicago World's Fair. There he saw the then world's largest telescope, the 40-inch refractor, built by Hale, then 25. In 1909, Harold was hired by Hale to join the staff at Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, which was founded in 1904. Harold remained on the staff for 40 years. He then continued his observations of the sun at the Hale Solar Lab, Hale's private solar observatory in San Marino, for another 15 years. During World War One, Harold performed defense work for the National Research Council, for which Hale served as chairman of the organizing committee and first chairman of the council itself.
 
My father, Horace Welcome Babcock, graduated from Caltech (founded by Hale) and earned his doctorate at UC Berkley. My parents met while Horace was working at Yerkes Observatory, the home of the 40-inch refractor Harold had first seen in 1893. Horace joined the staff of Mount Wilson in 1946. He became Director of the Carnegie Observatories in 1964 and remained so until his retirement in 1978. As early as 1903 Hale had begun to anticipate the creation of a major observatory in the Southern hemisphere. Under my father's direction, the Carnegie Observatories established the Las Campanas Observatory in the southern Atacama Desert of Chile in 1969.

GRAMMY VOTING - September 30 - October 12

For Your Grammy Consideration

"Alternative Facts," from the Navona album 

"Through Glass"

for solo piano

performed by Gloria Cheng

This composition is submitted in the following categories:

BEST CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL COMPOSITION

BEST MUSIC VIDEO

To view/hear Alternative Facts:

"Could not be timelier and more brilliantly performed.

Unremittingly edgy, American composer Bruce Babcock's

"Alternative Facts" captures, through pianistic devices of 

virtuosic clarity and torturous rhythmic schizophrenia, American angst since Donald Trump's surprising ascension to the 

presidency in 2016. Performed by Gloria Cheng, Babcock captures the nerve-shredding yin and yang of a democracy on the edge."

Daniel Kepl / Performing Arts Review

_______________________________

"I loved the piece when I first heard it, and I love the piece with the fabulous video. Just perfect, all around." Alex Shapiro, composer, Symphonic & Concert writer member on the Board of Directors of ASCAP

 

"Great Piece! Great Performance! Riveting video! Congratulations! Really special!" Mike Lang, jazz pianist and composer and legendary Hollywood session musician

 

"Very nice combo or off-kilter rhythms and imaginative polytonality." Todd Mason, Juilliard grad, Los Angeles-based composer

 

"Stunning performance of a gripping piece." Paul Gibson, Los Angeles-based composer

 

"Seriously, inventive, inspiring composition, 

and Gloria played the hell out of it." 

Bruce Miller, veteran Hollywood 

composer & arranger                       

September 24, 2020 

Playing on the Edge 2, from The Sirius Quartet, will be released on the Navona label (NV6315) on October 23, 2020. It includes my quartet WATCHER OF THE SKY, commissioned for the sesquicentennial of the birth of astronomer George Ellery Hale in 2018.

To Pre-Order

 Wow! Great news from the Altius Quartet. They will be performing my piece "The Present Moment" on Sept 20 at 6 p.m. MDT. 

Thanks, Altius!

Join us on Sunday, September 20 at 6pm MDT for our premier concert with the new AQ! We’re excited to be debuting new members Allyson Stibbards and Hannah Kennedy with an eclectic program of tunes new and old. Music by Bruce Babcock, Shostakovich, and Libby Larsen 🎶