Tertulia Marries Chamber Music with Dining in NYC

Julia Villagra wants you to enjoy your meal served with a side of chamber music. More specifically, she wants to bring classical chamber music and dining together, in an effort to make this genre of performance more accessible and appealing to all.

Founded in 2011, Tertulia is Villagra’s answer to the literal gap that exists between artist and audience in classical music performance. ‘Tertulia’ is a Spanish term that describes a social gathering with an artistic edge, and is the namesake for Villagra’s chamber music series, which takes classical concerts out of traditional concert halls and into modern New York City restaurants. She hopes to inspire a new appreciation for chamber music in audiences who might not have sought access to it outside of a dining environment.

Villagra explains on her website,

“We believe that anyone, young or old, can fall in love with classical music. Musicians’ passion for their art is contagious, which is why removing the distance between artist and audience is so critical. While beautiful concert halls will never be obsolete, there are limiting factors that make it challenging to engage new, younger listeners. It is Tertulia’s mission to bring classical music to broader audiences by diversifying the concert experience through creative presentations using non-traditional venues.”

The most recent Tertulia took place at Harding’s in the Flatiron District last Sunday evening, where the audience enjoyed classical compositions played by pianists, violinists, and cellists in between three courses of a prix fixe meal. Villagra played host that evening, a role she’s grown accustomed to, after past Tertulia performances at various Greenwich Village restaurants.


Villagra’s efforts have increased visibility for this genre of performance, challenging traditional ideas of how chamber music should be performed, while simultaneously attracting audiences that might otherwise have missed out.

Keep a lookout for more Tertulias around the city during the Spring 2013 Season.  

Neutral Milk Hotel to Tour Live Again After Fifteen Years

They’ve alluded to reunion tours in the past - hinted at solo projects, excited fans with the prospect of live performances, but alas, never fully delivered. Neutral Milk Hotel, fronted by Jeff Mangum, has remained aloof since their last live performance in 1999, releasing few new songs, and its members only occasionally performing individually at benefits and for very small audiences.

Finally, at long last, fans will be able to see indie rock group Neutral Milk Hotel perform live for the first time in fifteen years. The group, which has endured its hiatus by continuing to remain one of the most popular acts of its kind, has announced dates for a 2013 tour, a list that continues to grow, expanding across the globe, and suggesting an overflow into 2014. Fans of the band’s experimental sound and obscure, vivid, lyrics will be able to experience Neutral Milk Hotel in the United States, Japan, and Australia, many for the very first time.

Mangum, along with Jeremy Barnes, Scott Spillane, and Julian Koster, will perform as the complete group that formed after the release of On Avery Island in 1996. They’re set to tour with bands Elf Power, Half Japanese, and Daniel Johnson on select dates. In the U.S., tour dates are scheduled at locations along the East Coast, with some spilling into the Midwest, and with more to be announced soon. The band’s website explains that portions of the proceeds from concerts and record sales will go towards organizations such as Children of the Blue Sky and others in need. 

Visit Neutral Milk Hotel’s official website for a full list of tour dates in 2013, and be sure to keep posted for performance updates from the band. 

Bling Ring Soundtrack Releases June 11

Sofia Coppola’s newest film, The Bling Ring, isn’t set to release until June 14^th, but the soundtrack comes out on the 11^th. And considering it’s packed with notable artists like Kanye, Frank Ocean, Lil Wayne, deadmau5, Phoenix, and more, it should be worth a listen.

Daniel Lopatin, who is also known as the “synth experimentalist” Oneohtrix Point Never, scored the film. He also worked alongside Brian Reitzell, who has worked with Sofia Coppola before and served as the film’s executive soundtrack producer and music supervisor. The end result of Lopatin’s and Reitzell’s collaboration is a diverse soundtrack full-up with rap, krautrock, and alternative music. Lopatin, AKA Oneohtrix Point Never, also has a featured song on the album, called “Ouroboros.”

Lopatin also helped found the new music label, “Software,” which is the third member of the Kemado family. Andres Santo Domingo and Tom Clapp founded Kemado in 2002, and just six years following that, sister label “Mexican Summer” was born. While Kemado focuses mainly on different styles of rock music, Mexican Summer is geared toward independent artists and releases digital and vinyl albums. Software will be for electronic music like digi-psych, Contemplative Dance Music, and “popular noise,” as Lopatin calls it.

The Bling Ring soundtrack isn’t the first time that Lopatin and Reitzell have worked together. Together, they produced music for the TV show, “Boss,” which starred Kelsey Grammar. Reitzell’s other projects include Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, Lost in Translation, and The Virgin Suicides.

The film is both written and directed by Sofia Coppola. It is based on the true story of a group of teenagers in Los Angeles who robbed the homes of celebrities, such as Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, and Lindsay Lohan. The teens stole millions’ worth of clothing, bags, jewelry, heirlooms, and more.

Kathleen Hanna is The Punk Singer

Despite the breakup of her most well known band Bikini Kill in the late ‘90s, and keeping moderately underground in her music and activism ever since, Kathleen Hanna continues to exist as a powerful and captivating facet of the music industry today.

One of the pioneers of the Riot Grrrl movement originating in the early1990s, Hanna is a punk legend, zinester, and feminist who has spent much of her career fighting to achieve visibility for female artists and musicians in a traditionally sexist industry.

She’s also now the focal point of Sini Anderson’s first feature documentary, The Punk Singer, released this past March in Austin, Texas at the annual music festival South By Southwest (SXSW).

The film examines Hanna’s life, paying particular attention to her role as a feminist icon, a status that she’s achieved as a result of her groundbreaking music and activism. In an interview for the film’s SXSW debut, director Sini Anderson discusses how a documentary about an autonomous, outspoken female is relevant now more than ever, explaining,

“I felt really strongly that now was the time that Kathleen needed to tell her story...From before we started production, I thought, 'Oh no, it’s got to happen right now, it’s got to happen right now.' And that was before the Slut Walk and before Pussy Riot and before Occupy Wall Street. You could feel that there was a wave coming, that we’d been in a political dip...The timing of it was incredibly important.”

The Punk Singer features commentary from Joan Jett, Johanna Fateman, and others from the Riot Grrrl movement, as well as Kathleen Hanna herself. Viewers can expect the film to take them on an exploration of contemporary music, as well as into the life of courageous icon and Riot Grrrl, Hanna.

Mali: A World Without Music

Music is all around us—it’s on commercials, in our phones and iPods, being played by street performers, or sang out loud by that guy on the bus (you know the one I mean). But what if music wasn’t allowed? What may seem impossible for some of us to imagine is a reality for the people of northern Mali, where music has now been banned for nearly nine months.

Islamic militants in the area banned all music, sending death threats to musicians, shutting down venues, and burning equipment and instruments. Many artists went into exile, fearing for their lives. Many more are still trying to flee.

Why? No one seems to know, exactly. It could simply be a cruel act of hate, intending simply to put fear in the hearts of residents. It could be an attempt at crippling a primary Malian export. It could be the work of religious zealots who believe music distracts from devotion.

The country of Mali has in the past produced internationally renowned artists like Alie Farka, Rokia Traoré, and Salif Keita. 

Music is built into tradition and ritual there, too. Music here in the U.S. is often used simply for entertainment—but in Mali music is much more meaningful as a whole.

Births, deaths, and weddings are all accompanied by singing griots (musicians). Music has also, through the years, functioned as a vital part of oral history. Without music, many of those stories—traditions, family histories—could be lost forever. Not to mention that Mali has the lowest literacy rate in the world. With only 26.2% of people able to read and write, oral tradition becomes even more vital.