The gifted young singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane, who aims to occupy the middle ground between Gershwin and Berg, appears tonight at Tonic. He'll be singing his Craigslistlieder cycle, culminating in the pathos-ridden tale of "a guy who puts ice cubes down people's shirts in return for exceedingly cheap rent in the East Village." He also sings at Joe's Pub on Nov. 19. A remarkable lineup of contemporary and late twentieth-century works is on deck for the Keys to the Future piano festival at Greenwich House. I'm especially excited about the Wednesday program, which includes Takemitsu's Rain Tree Sketch II, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh's Music for Piano, Philippe Hersant's Éphémères (Hersant is one of many excellent non-doctrinaire French composers who long dwelled in the shadow of the Boulez regime and are beginning to emerge), Arvo Pärt's revolutionary For Alina (his first "tintinnabulist" work), a Phil Kline world premiere (Mambo No. 1), and Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film)" in the Chris O'Riley arrangement. Overlapping with the last night of the festival is a Lost Dog New Music Ensemble concert in Astoria, Queens: music of Stephen Hartke, Chinary Ung, and Marilyn Shrude. The concert is repeated on Sunday afternoon at Tenri. Speaking of Kline, the boombox-toting, Rumsfeld-dissing downtown master has a major premiere at Winter Garden on Friday night: John the Revelator, inspired by the Blind Willie Johnson classic. The same night, another Shostakovich series begins at Carnegie — this one worth your time because it brings all-too-rare performances of DDS's songs. On Saturday there's a Discovery Day, with talks by such experts as Laurel Fay, Caryl Emerson, and Gerald McBurney, together with a performance of the Blok cycle. Expect detailed discussion of Shostakovich's personality and music in place of the usual political jibber-jabber. That's on TV right now.
