Last week, the New York Philharmonic played Takemitsu's Requiem in honor of the victims of the Japanese earthquake. The performance is now available as a download; proceeds go to relief efforts.... Jim Jarmusch reads the text of Feldman's Neither, which appears in NYC Opera's Monodramas program, premiering tonight.... Jeremy Denk is a last-minute substitute for Maurizio Pollini at Carnegie Hall this Sunday; the program consists of Ives's Concord Sonata and Bach's Goldberg Variations.... A new group called Sound Icon makes its debut tomorrow in Boston, playing the first half of Gérard Grisey's Les Espaces Acoustiques and Joshua Fineberg's Recueil de Pierre et de Sable.... Two notable opera premieres on the horizon: Gerald Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest, at the LA Phil on April 7 (part of Aspects of Adès); and Bernard Rands's Vincent, at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music on April 8.... As a former resident of Brooklyn Heights, I'm amazed to see new music arriving in that sleepy burg. Mellissa Hughes, who gave a sensational performance as Glenn Beck at the recent Eighth Blackbird fest, sings tonight in the Music at First series. Michael Gordon's Timber comes on April 8.... Ace musical comedians Igudesman and Joo play the 92nd Street Y on March 30. ICE presents works of Mario Diaz de León and John Zorn leads an NYC Opera Masada marathon on the same congested night.... Marino Fromenti gives a lively program of Weill, Nancarrow, Birtwistle, Adams, Thelonious Monk, Nirvana, and Björk at Poisson Rouge on March 29.
