Coming May 19, 2018 to Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York City

Ovidiu Marinescu, cello, and Anna Kislitsyna, piano

will perform my cello sonata

Imagined/Remembered

brought to you by Parma Recordings

This piece appears on my 2015 album

Time, Still

on the Navona label 

From American Record Guide

(July-August 2015)

Mark Lehman

Best, and most substantial, is Babcock’s three-movement, 18-minute cello sonata (subtitled Imagined/Remembered). The first movement pits long, singing cello lines against happily scampering piano figures, later reversing roles as the cello scampers and the piano sings. The second is a slow, measured elegy and shows Babcock at his darkest and most searching, the cello’s troubled ruminations punctuated by the piano’s slowly treading low notes and arch-like arpeggios. 

Some photos from our February 2017 concerts with the Space Coast Symphony in Florida in February . . .

from my pre-concert filmed introduction . . .

the downbeat . . .

en route . . .

continuing onward . . .

_____________________________________________________

EVENT HORIZON in Concert February 25 & 26!

Back by popular demand, the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra will present “The Planets in HD,” a celebration of space exploration. The concert opens up with the Southeast US Premiere of an atmospheric and engaging work by Bruce Babcock, Event Horizon, with video footage from the NASA-Hubble space telescope. Then, the SCSO present one of Collins’ favorite collaborators, award-winning composer Kenneth Fuchs. Guitarist and composer D.J. Sparr will perform Fuchs’ powerful Glacier (Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra). In 2014, the SCSO dazzled audiences with Gustav Holst’s epic work, The Planets. Experience a profound new approach to Holst’s symphonic powerhouse, The Planets, live with HD images from NASA projected on the big screen.

Event Horizon Performances February 25 & 26 2017 to be performed by the
Space Coast Symphony conducted by Aaron Collins

Notes on Event Horizon

My most influential mentors in terms of both composition and orchestration were American/Swiss composer Paul Glass, Hugo Friedhofer, and Earle Hagen. Paul studied with Witold Lutosławski, Earle studied with both Ernst Toch and serialist George Tremblay, and Hugo orchestrated dozens of scores for Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner, among many others. Event Horizon reflects some of those influences and serves as a tribute to that legacy.

Scored for conventional full orchestra, the score does require a wide range of percussion instruments while employing only four players.

Event Horizon is a term used in the field of general relativity. It is most commonly associated with black holes and refers to the point at which the gravitational pull of the black hole becomes so great as to make escape impossible. Both my father and grandfather were astrophysicists, which inspired the title.

Event Horizon was recorded by an orchestra consisting of some of London’s finest orchestral musicians, known for the day as The Wembley Players. 

YouTube video of Event Horizon

Navona Catalog Page for Sparks

Facebook Page

Two Upcoming Performances of EVENT HORIZON in Florida . . .

Event Horizon Florida Performances Information

Comments from colleagues and reviewers . . .

Comments from colleagues, mentors, and reviewers . . .

ERIC WHITACRE - "WOW! Just loved this (“irrational exuberance”), Bruce! And "Send Me Anywhere" is absolutely gorgeous - I'd love to hear this live."

DAVE KOZ - On "irrational exuberance," "First of all, great title! What a lovely piece of music—just beautiful, Bruce. So thematic, and it really has a great flow of ideas that all work together so well." 

DAN HIGGINS - "I love your piece ("irrational exuberance"). Nice to know that someone is out there still writing for the alto sax." 

AARON COPLAND - "An impression of musicality which is very pleasant, indeed...a convincing sense of an overall mood... knows what he wants ... sure of what he's doing."

JOHN CORIGLIANO - "EVENT HORIZON is wonderful...a terrific sense of the orchestra."

HUGO FRIEDHOFER - “I hear a bit of the Viennese in that boy, and I refer of course to both the First and Second Viennese Schools.”

EARLE HAGEN - “Bruce Babcock is knowledgeable, studied, and in command of his art. He is an exceptional composer, orchestrator and arranger.”

LALO SCHRIFIN - “It was an Argentinian poet that said, "Genius is the one who knows how to select his influences." You have very well selected your influences.”

ANGELA LANSBURY - “I am enormously grateful for your work on "Murder, She Wrote" and feel it made an enormous difference to so many of our shows.”

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - "Settings of three Rilke poems... evoked poetic colors rare for the philosophical changes of the life journey."

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES - "The lyrical "SOLILOQUY" by Bruce Babcock (composed for James Galway) received a relaxed rendition from Lisa Edelstein"

THE SANTA BARBARA NEWS PRESS - "Mr. Babcock's TRIO (for clarinet, viola and piano, 2003) featured a multitude of original ideas matched by a keen sensitivity to the color and character of his chosen instruments. Listeners rejoiced in the perky, quirky spirit of this superbly crafted piece."

Announcing Two Upcoming Performances of Be Still,

an a cappella setting of Psalm 46.10

to be performed

by

the brilliant

 Antioch Chamber Ensemble

Saturday, February 27, 2016 at 8 p.m. at The Episcopal Church of St. John on the Mountain  379 Mount Harmony Road, Bernardsville, NJ 07924 

Ticket Information: https://www.showclix.com/event/antiochcomposers


Sunday, February 28, 2016 at 5 p.m. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity, 3 West 65th Street, New York, NY 10023

No Tickets Needed.

To Listen to BE STILL