In Sunday’s (4/14) Los Angeles Times, Kevin Berger writes, “Composer and French horn player Matt Marks, 33, has just completed writing a vocal and orchestral work for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the biggest commission of his life, but this Sunday afternoon in March he’s playing the ukulele at the New Music Bake Sale. The New Music Bake Sale is the fourth annual gathering of young classical musicians in Brooklyn … Marks and members of Brooklyn’s new generation of classical and pop composers are showcased in the Brooklyn Festival, a series of concerts from Tuesday to April 22, presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall and other venues. ‘There are magical moments in artistic history where lightning strikes,’ says Chad Smith, the L.A. Phil’s vice president of artistic planning, who conceived the festival with his colleague, Johanna Rees, senior programming manager. ‘There is something really interesting happening in Brooklyn right now.’ There really is. Marks and Ted Hearne, 30, the composers tapped for new works by the L.A. Phil, draw on influences so eclectic—Bing Crosby and Shostakovich, Gyorgy Ligeti and Kesha—that their expertly crafted works could sound perverse. All of the composers in the festival write music without borders, and though most of them did not grow up in New York, they have nestled in pockets of the legendary borough, and have electrified its musical culture.”
Posted April 15, 2013