Amy X Neuburg: Chops and charm for Present Music
Amy X Neuburg had been up for 48 hours straight, frantically finishing the scoring of the music she will perform with Present Music Saturday, when I caught up with her at rehearsal Tuesday evening. That was shortly after she landed in Milwaukee from San Francisco, after her first flight had been canceled. She hadn’t even checked into her hotel; her battered, floral-patterned suitcase was in a corner of the band room at Cardinal Stritch University.
Neuburg, 49, had every reason to be grumpy. But she wasn’t. An irresistible sweetness of character emanates from this composer-performer, and she charmed the half-dozen musicians utterly. They didn’t even show pique at the copying errors in their parts.
Her unique music and extraordinary skill helped to win them over, too. Neuburg occupies a musical space unique to her. It’s somewhere between rock, pop, Minimalism, Romantic opera, techno and musical comedy, and might touch on all these genres in the space of 32 bars. Neuburg is also a genius with live electronics.She creates wonderlands of looped, overdubbed sound. She writes her own lyrics, mostly on mundane subjects that turn out to have outsized comic, tragic and intellectual implications.
“Let’s do it again, to get the parts interlocked,” she said, more than once during the two-and-a-half-hour rehearsal. The moving orchestral parts turn like gears. The drive shaft is her voice.
And what a voice. She can push it like a Verdi diva or slip into glossy pop mode. She can change from husky jazz chanteuse to operetta ingenue in a flash, and she has an array of colors to match Mel Blanc ‘s. I’ve never heard a more versatile vocal instrument, and Neuburg controls it with extraordinary precision. She just doesn’t miss pitches, and her rhythmic sense is acute.
Despite her fatigue and with no warm-up, Neuburg sang flat-out and brilliantly through most of the rehearsal, quieting down only to focus on the musicians and help sort out their parts. And do note that as she sings, Neuburg controls electronics and bangs out rhythms via drum pad.
“I have four octaves, and I don’t want any of it to go to waste,” she joked, over a post-rehearsal glass of wine and antipasto late Wednesday.
She really does have a four-octave range, and a lot of power. She could have been an opera diva. Instead, she’s… what, exactly?
“I never thought of myself as a composer until a few years ago,” Neuburg said. “I thought of myself as a songwriter. I wrote things for me to sing. I was a singer-songwriter, but doing this other kind of music.
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She hadn't even checked into her hotel; her battered, floral-patterned suitcase was in a corner of the band room at Cardinal Stritch University. Neuburg, 49, had every reason to be grumpy. But she wasn't. An irresistible sweetness of character emanates
Mount Marty had hoped to name its new leader in December, but St. Ambrose University vice president James Loftus of Davenport, Iowa, turned down the MMC position to take the presidency of Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee. In March, the college
Kenzie Phelps signed to play at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, while Gabby Bobinski will play at Cardinal Stritch University (Wis.). The boys basketball team has two players going on to compete in college. James Walters signed to play at Central
Wheeler, who went to Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, said the Army will help pay off her $65000 student loan. “I'm just five classes shy getting my master's degree in science,” she said. “It's a great opportunity but a lot of hard work,
Milwaukee Art Museum, Marquette University, Lawrence University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Mount Mary College, Cardinal Stritch University and Alverno College. MIAD awarded him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1987.
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