Loved So Hard
Dear Friends,
Cover page
I am happy to announce an upcoming premiere of my new work “Loved So Hard My Ribs Were Bruised” tomorrow, April 5 at Spectrum (481 Van Brunt St.) in Brooklyn, NY at 7pm. The piece is composed for pre-recorded piano (with field recording) and one (or more, and in this case 5) melodicas. Teodora Stepančić — who played piano and who runs the piano+ concert series — will join Douglas Farrand, Grzegorz Marciniak, Tilen Lebar, Assaf Gidron, and I on melodica for the performance. Grzegorz and Tilen will also perform melodica duets and the whole ensemble will perform Nomi Epstein’s piece “Combine, Juxtapose, Delayed Overlap.”
Hope to see you there!
For now,
Jordan
We Won An OSCAR!
Mstyslav Chernov and I at a photoshoot in Beverly Hills, CA before attending the Oscar ceremony at the Dolby Theater.
Dear Friends,
I am still in awe… — last week at the 96th Academy Awards, 20 Days in Mariupol won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature!!!! In his headline-making acceptance speech, director and producer Mstyslav Chernov said:
“This is the first Oscar in Ukrainian history, and I’m honored but probably I will be the first director on this stage to say I wish I never made this film,” said Chernov. He went on to remind the public that “we can make sure that the history record is set straight, that the truth prevails, and that the people of Mariupol and those who’ve given their lives will never be forgotten — because cinema forms memory and memory forms history.”
Watch his full speech here. I am honored to be able to attend the event on March 10 in Los Angeles and humbled by the amount of people who honored the film, which can be viewed in the States for free on YouTube here.
Slava Ukraini!
Love,
Jordan
20 Days Oscar Nomination!
Full list of nominations here
Dear Friends,
It has been a wild ride with 20 Days in Mariupol — from working on it all throughout the fall and into Christmas in 2022, to the Sundance premiere in 2023 (and winning the Audience Award), to having it shown to world leaders at the United Nations — but having it shortlisted for TWO Oscars (Best Documentary Feature Film and Best International Film) and, today, securing the nomination for the Documentary category is something beyond expectation.
The film is also nominated for 2 BAFTA awards (as well as DGA, PGA, and many other awards) and I’m feeling overwhelmed and grateful for the team of so many talented filmmakers.
The Academy Awards will be held on March 20th and air on ABC.
For now,
Jordan
RISD performance
Dear Friends,
There are
On December 28 I will once again join the Providence Research Ensemble — Francesca Caruso (violin), Genevieve Cross (flute), Jordan Dykstra (viola), J. P. A. Falzone (piano/vibraphone), and Christopher Sadlers (double bass) — for a performance of new material at the RISD Museum in Providence, RI. The free concert will start at 5pm in the Grand Gallery at the museum and will feature new works composed for the ensemble, including Neo-Geo: Triptych by James Falzone, my new work There Are Whales Swimming Beneath You, and others.
Please join us for an evening of new music and great art.
For now,
Jordan
20 Days in Mariupol Broadcast Premiere
Dear Friends,
After nearly a year on the festival circuit, 20 Days in Mariupol had it’s broadcast premiere last night on PBS. The film will have a number of encore broadcasts and, like each of the past films made by Frontline, is also streaming — for free — on their Youtube channel.
Thank you for watching.
For now,
Jordan
SHAKEN DOC NYC Premiere
Filmmakers, with stars of the film Danya and Nigel (top center), at the DOC NYC premiere on Nov. 9
Dear Friends,
A new documentary film — co-composed by Brian McOmber and myself — had it’s world premiere at Village East Cinema as part of the 2023 DOC NYC Film Festival in New York, NY. The synopsis: “Following a seizure, a father is arrested after his daughter is hospitalized and stabilized, a doctor claims that her episode could only be the result of severe abuse, and prosecutors arrest the father.” If you’d like to hear bits of the score, posted below are some excerpts.
For now,
Jordan
One More Time With Feeling
Dear Friends,
It is with much pleasure that I can finally share the news that Morgan Green’s beautiful short film “One More Time With Feeling” will premiere in London this Thursday (October 26, 2023) at the Raindance Film Festival. The film has been programed on the “Gone Astray” block which begins, local time, at 6pm. Below you can find the trailer, as well as some excerpts from the score.
For now,
Jordan
ONE MORE TIME WITH FEELING
Cast: Madeline Wise, Gabriel Marin, Mohammad Shehata
Writers: Morgan Green & Laura Sampson Hemingway
Producer: Rose Frullani-Bacon
Director of Photography: Kusi-Quyllur Del Castillo
Editor: Andrew Mazzei
Composer: Jordan Dykstra
The score was performed by:
Zachary Paul, violin
Matt Lau, violin
Alec Santamaria, viola
Jordan Dykstra, viola, piano, percussion, programming, synthesizers
Joshua Wise, cello
Tristan Kasten-Krause, double bass
Recorded by Jordan Dykstra and Noah Chevan
String ensemble produced by Zachary Paul
Soundtracking with Edith Bowman
Dear friends,
Cute, no?
I recently had a nice conversation with the enduring podcast Soundtracking host Edith Bowman about scoring the documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” — which airs on TV on November 21, 2023 on PBS Frontline (and thereafter on their YouTube channel). You can listen to my interview with Edith (as well as many other excellent interviews) on her website in addition to all podcast distributors. In other exciting news, last month “20 Days” was submitted to the 2024 Oscars as Ukraine’s pick for the category of International Feature! The final five nominees will be announced on January 23, 2024 and the 95th Oscars will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 10.
For now,
Jordan
Interview with Film Score Monthly
Dear friends,
A recent interview I had with reporter Chris Hadley for Film Score Monthly has been published in their August 2023 issue. Chris wrote many generous words about my work on the 20 Days in Mariupol score including this:
The score’s combination of eerie sound design and twisted instrumentation conjures up the darkness and desperation of the Russo-Ukrainian war itself, while also boosting the dramatic urgency of Chernov’s second-by-second struggle to share his coverage of the onslaught, and quietly emphasizing the unbreakable resolve of the citizens of Mariupol as their fight becomes a worldwide cause.
If you would like to read the full interview, here is the PDF.
For now,
Jordan
Now an online magazine, the print edition of FSM ran from 1990 to 2013.
Early print cover (early 90s I would guess) featuring Ennio Morricone.
20 Days Soundtrack Released!
Dear friends,
The soundtrack to 20 Days in Mariupol is now available worldwide in digital/streaming format! I am overjoyed to be a part of this “relentless and truly important documentary” (NYTimes, Critic Pick) which screens in theaters across America for the next few weeks.
Here are links to purchasing the soundtrack
And here are links to streaming
Visit www.20daysinmariupol.com for more information about the film’s theatrical run and film festival dates. It will air in August on PBS FRONTLINE.
For now,
Jordan
Yarn/Wire Premiere at Roulette
Dear Friends,
Eyes hope to see you there!
Next Wednesday (May 3) Yarn/Wire will premiere new works by Heather Stebbins, Jessie Cox, and myself at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY at 8pm. My piece, titled Pitiless as the Sun, recalls and abstracts my experience of seeing the total solar eclipse in August of 2017. I travelled across the country to view this profoundly wild gift from nature and based my composition on three particularly memorable aspects from that morning: the psychedelic crescent shadows, the temperature dropping, and the total eclipse itself.
Tickets are available on the Roulette website and — for those outside of New York City — the performance will be streamed (and archived) on that same webpage.
The Yarn/Wire performing ensemble:
Laura Barger, piano
Julia Den Boer, piano
Russell Greenberg, percussion
Sae Hashimoto, percussion
Heather Stebbins, electronics
for now,
Jordan
Sundance Interviews
Dear Friends,
While in Park City last month for the Sundance Film Festival I spoke to Chandler Poling on his Dublab radio show “Studio Soundtracks” about my score — and specifically the opening cue — for 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL. Listen and download the episode here. I also spoke to Dempsey Pillot at FilmSpeak about the film addressing, and disproving, Russia’s claims about a number of Ukrainian atrocities as fake news. That interview is available here. And last, but certainly not least, an in-depth interview with The New Current is available here.
Thank you for listening!
for now,
Jordan
Click the above image for link!
20 Days in Mariupol
Dear Friends,
These past few months I have been working on a new Frontline film called “20 Days in Mariupol” and I am more than excited to share the news that it will be premiering at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT on January 20th. It will also be available to stream online from January 24-30. “20 Days in Mariupol,” which is the first Frontline film to ever show at Sundance, is described as:
Told through the perspective of Ukrainian-born director and AP video journalist Mstyslav Chernov, 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL is a visceral, first-person view of the early days of Russia’s invasion of the city of Mariupol, Ukraine.
I will update this page when the trailer is unveiled but, for now, I am embedding some excerpts from the score — please enjoy.
for now,
Jordan
UPDATE (January 27): 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL has won the Sundance 2023 Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary! For a full list of winners see the official press release at Sundance.org. Congratulations to the whole team at Frontline and AP News — with a special thanks to Mstyslav Chernov and Michelle Mizner for bringing me on as the composer.
Prague Quiet Music Collective
Dear Friends,
The Prague Quiet Music Collective has commissioned a new piece from me and four other composers for their concert “Five Uncertain Situations” on December 9 at the concert hall of the House U Kamenné zvonu in Prague. Each piece was inspired by a sculpture in the Prague Capital Gallery collection, mine of which was Stanislav Kolíbal’s work Vratká poloha (1968).
A little bit about the piece:
Unstable Position is a ten-section modular piece with open instrumentation inspired by Stanislav Kolíbal’s metal sculpture Vratká poloha. Any three — and up to ten — sections may be programmed for each performance with the option of playing them back-to-back or with other pieces in-between. This form is inspired not only by the delicately balanced three-dimensionality of the sculpture but also by the viewing process one so often experiences in a museum: glancing at many artworks in passing, paying more attention to some aspects of certain objects than others, and then perhaps (hopefully) returning to memorable artworks for additional time and contemplation.
for now,
Jordan
Vratká poloha by Stanislav Kolíbal
Musicworks Magazine Feature
Dear Friends,
The Canadian music magazine Musicworks has just sent me a copy of their Fall 2022 issue which includes a feature on my work as a composer of both concert music and music for media. The magazine has excellent design, comes with a CD — which includes 2 music cues from soon-to-be-released films, and has a number of nice photos that I haven’t shared with the world yet. Kurt Gottschalk penned this very thoughtful article which mostly stems from a 3 hour conversation he and I had back in April. It also includes an interview Kurt did with S.E.M. Ensemble leader Petr Kotik (who recently programmed my work Fathom Peaks Unseen alongside Alvin Lucier’s Navigation for Strings). Order the issue from their website or at a local Canadian bookstore.
for now,
Jordan
Bodega portrait by Gabe Long
Apartment House premieres “Globus”
Stocky, all ears.
Dear Friends,
Apartment House will premiere my new piece Globus (for violin, viola, clarinet, and piano) next Tuesday, September 6 at 8pm as part of their residency at Cafe Oto in London. The program is as follows:
Adrian Demoč ‘Ma fin est mon commencement’
Karlheinz Stockhausen ‘Bird of Passage’
Jordan Dykstra ‘Globus’
John Lely ‘Nocturne’
Karlheinz Stockhausen ‘Japan’
Ryoko Akama ‘melody’
for now,
Jordan
The Alvin Lucier Festival
Dear Friends (especially those in Baltimore and Washington D. C.),
Alvin Augustus Lucier Jr. (1931 – 2021)
The Alvin Lucier Festival is continuing with a few more concerts this coming Thursday and Friday and I will be performing once each day.
Thursday’s program — at 21 W Mt Royal Ave, Baltimore, MD 21230 at 7:30pm — includes Music for Snare Drum, Vespers, 13 Degrees of Darkness, Criss-Cross, Panorama, and Septet. Friday’s program — at 500 17th St NW, Washington, DC 20006 at 6pm and 8pm — includes Music for Piano with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators, Heavier Than Air, Music for Baritone with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators, Broken Line, and Trio for Cello, Clarinet, and Tuba (at 6pm) and then at 8pm: Theme, Key West, Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas, and the piece Alvin wrote for Ordinary Affects Corner Church & High.
Photos and more info are on Instagram here and the program booklet is available online here.
For now,
Jordan
“Fathom Peaks Unseen” Performance in Brooklyn
Dear Friends,
The S.E.M. Ensemble (with conductor Petr Kotik) performing at the Willow Place Auditorium.
On Wednesday, April 6th at 7pm, the S.E.M. Ensemble will perform works for string quartet, double bass, percussion, and marimba. The program will combine music of the 1950s by Morton Feldman; the 1990s, by Frederic Rzewski and Alvin Lucier; recent works by Petr Kotik, Ana Sokolovic, and Jordan Dykstra, and a premiere by Daniel O'Connor. The concert explores musical relationships spanning seventy years, and puts forth pieces that depart from the concept of narrative drama popularized with early classicism. My piece “Fathom Peaks Unseen” (2016) — which was first released on my album The Arrow of Time by New World Records in 2020 — will be paired with Alvin Lucier’s “Navigations for Strings” (1991). The performance will take place at the Willow Place Auditorium (26 Willow Place, Brooklyn, NY) and tickets are free, but please RSVP here.
For now,
Jordan
Plot to Overturn the Election
Dear Friends,
I did not make the music for the trailer :)
I am pleased to announce I have made the score for the first episode of the 2022 season of FRONTLINE called “Plot to Overturn the Election.” The episode will air on Tuesday, March 29 on your local PBS station and will be streaming on their website, as well (their YouTube page will also archive the full documentary). The episode was written and directed by Sam Black and the correspondent A. C. Thompson — who I the opportunity to work with on the Documenting Hate episodes — is the journalist and interviewer. I think it will have wide appeal, as it carefully examines the myth of “the big lie” (that Trump actually won the 2020 election). From the FRONTLINE website:
A year after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, around two-thirds of Republican voters believe his election was illegitimate, and the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump is now a defining issue of the Republican Party. Yet the story of how lies about election fraud made their way to the center of American politics has not been fully told.
In a new investigative collaboration, FRONTLINE and ProPublica trace the hidden sources of misinformation about the 2020 election, demonstrating how a handful of people have had an outsized impact on the current U.S. crisis of democratic legitimacy.
For now,
Jordan
P. S. I’m sharing some snippets from the score below!
March 29 update: But I did make the music for the opening :)
“Out of Our Hands” LP with Alvin Lucier
Dear Friends,
The time has finally come to announce the release of Out of Our Hands on LP/digital by Alvin Lucier and myself. Important Records pressed special red vinyl which you can pre-order now before the official release on Friday, March 18. This project began back in 2018 when I asked Alvin if I could commission a piece by him for the ensemble Ordinary Affects, a group I play viola in, to go alongside my new piece “32 Middle Tones.” He agreed and wrote “Corner Church and High” for string trio and 2 vibraphones (the title is in reference to the location of the house where he recorded his famous work “I am sitting in a room”). The debut recordings of both compositions were made in 2019 at the World Music Hall at Wesleyan University, my alma mater and where Alvin taught for many decades, by Luke Damrosch (who also played percussion on the two pieces). The photograph used for the cover was taken by Shelli Weiler in August of 2019 in his backyard in Middletown and on the back cover you can see the Alvin’s cherished aspen tree — a tree which somehow survived with the help of Alvin whispering his blessings to it each day. And, of course, it was performed by Morgan Evans-Weiler (violin), Jordan Dykstra (viola), Laura Cetilia (cello), J. P. A. Falzone (percussion), and Luke Damrosch (percussion).
Alvin lived until he was 90 (!) but passed away last December and is already missed by so many. I could say a lot about my time with Alvin — eating lobster, stories about Bob and Morton, recording airplanes, listening to bats, driving all over the place — but, for now, I will pass on this statement I wrote late last year.
“With Alvin’s recent passing I was overwhelmed with messages and calls from friends, collaborators, and his former students. Everyone had a heavy heart, no doubt, but were grateful for the memories and their gift to be around Alvin during his lifetime of prolific dedication to the arts, his fascination with poetic storytelling through scientifically-inspired minimalism, and his calm and warmhearted spirit. In his last few years on earth, Alvin was busier than ever — brainstorming new ideas, creating new pieces, and planning big things. While he was here, he was alive, and may his music — and spirit — live on forever, spreading from his corner of Church and High (where he recorded his seminal piece I am sitting in a room) to every corner, concert hall, and loudspeaker in the world.”
For now,
Jordan
