I Care If You Listen: 5 Questions to Alistair Coleman (composer)
Alistair Coleman is taking the classical music world by storm with his vibrant and compelling compositions. Whether writing for string quartet, orchestra and voice, or soloists of all kinds, Coleman channels a capricious and organic musical energy.
Coleman was recently named the 2023 Young Concert Artists Composer in Residence, a highly competitive three-year position that provides $18,000 for three new commissions for YCA artists past and present. Coleman often composes music in dialogue with other media, such as poetry and visual art. Moonshot, for string quartet (2019), is a dramatic and poignant response to three “date paintings” by visual artist On Kawara, which mark the launch, landing, and celebration of Apollo 11’s voyage. Coleman turned to the abandoned designs of illustrious architect Frank Lloyd Wright to create Broadacre City, for flute and string quartet (2022), which opens with an explosion of activity that slowly grinds down until mere vestiges remain. For Gold Girl/Dark Doves (2023), premiered by soprano Ashley Marie Robillard and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Coleman set text by Federico García Lorca, replete with haunting symbolism.
I Care If You Listen
By Tristan McKay
Alistair Coleman is taking the classical music world by storm with his vibrant and compelling compositions. Whether writing for string quartet, orchestra and voice, or soloists of all kinds, Coleman channels a capricious and organic musical energy.
Coleman was recently named the 2023 Young Concert Artists Composer in Residence, a highly competitive three-year position that provides $18,000 for three new commissions for YCA artists past and present. Coleman often composes music in dialogue with other media, such as poetry and visual art. Moonshot, for string quartet (2019), is a dramatic and poignant response to three “date paintings” by visual artist On Kawara, which mark the launch, landing, and celebration of Apollo 11’s voyage. Coleman turned to the abandoned designs of illustrious architect Frank Lloyd Wright to create Broadacre City, for flute and string quartet (2022), which opens with an explosion of activity that slowly grinds down until mere vestiges remain. For Gold Girl/Dark Doves (2023), premiered by soprano Ashley Marie Robillard and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Coleman set text by Federico García Lorca, replete with haunting symbolism.
Read more here.
Pianist Magazine: Getting to Know: Karen LeFrak
A native New Yorker, composer and author Karen LeFrak has created vibrant, moving musical scores that have been presented in prestigious concert halls across the globe. She chats to Pianist about how and why she composes, her latest Christmas album, plus she shares some advice for budding composers and pianists...
1. Congratulations on more than 28 million streams on Spotify and Apple Music! What does this milestone mean to you? How does it feel to resonate with such a breadth of listeners?
This is so exciting! I am honoured that so many people want to hear my music! When I started composing very late in life, I never thought in a million years that I’d find myself in this position. I am grateful.
Pianist Magazine
By Ellie Palmer
A native New Yorker, composer and author Karen LeFrak has created vibrant, moving musical scores that have been presented in prestigious concert halls across the globe. She chats to Pianist about how and why she composes, her latest Christmas album, plus she shares some advice for budding composers and pianists...
1. Congratulations on more than 28 million streams on Spotify and Apple Music! What does this milestone mean to you? How does it feel to resonate with such a breadth of listeners?
This is so exciting! I am honoured that so many people want to hear my music! When I started composing very late in life, I never thought in a million years that I’d find myself in this position. I am grateful.
Read more here.
The New York Times: An Oratorio About Shanghai’s Jews Opens in China at a Difficult Time
“Émigré,” a new oratorio about Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany for Shanghai in the late 1930s, begins with a song by two brothers, Josef and Otto, as their steamship approaches a Chinese harbor.
“Shanghai, beacon of light on a silent shore,” they sing. “Shanghai, answer these desperate cries.”
The emigration of thousands of Central European and Eastern European Jews to China in the late 1930s and early 1940s — and their survival of the Holocaust — is one of World War II’s most dramatic but little-known chapters.
In “Émigré,” a 90-minute oratorio that premiered this month in Shanghai and will come to the New York Philharmonic in February 2024, the stories of these refugees and their attempts to build new lives in war-torn China are front and center.
The New York Times
By Keith Bradsher and Javier C. Hernández
“Émigré,” a new oratorio about Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany for Shanghai in the late 1930s, begins with a song by two brothers, Josef and Otto, as their steamship approaches a Chinese harbor.
“Shanghai, beacon of light on a silent shore,” they sing. “Shanghai, answer these desperate cries.”
The emigration of thousands of Central European and Eastern European Jews to China in the late 1930s and early 1940s — and their survival of the Holocaust — is one of World War II’s most dramatic but little-known chapters.
In “Émigré,” a 90-minute oratorio that premiered this month in Shanghai and will come to the New York Philharmonic in February 2024, the stories of these refugees and their attempts to build new lives in war-torn China are front and center.
Read more here.
BBC Music Matters: with Anthony McGill
Tom Service talks to Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinettist with the New York Philharmonic, as he commences his tenure as Artist-in-Residence at Milton Court in London. They discuss his recent performances of Anthony Davis’ powerful and operatic work for clarinet and orchestra, You Have the Right to Remain Silent, and his Grammy nominated album, American Stories, on which he collaborated with the Pacifica Quartet.
BBC Music Matters
Tom Service talks to Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinettist with the New York Philharmonic, as he commences his tenure as Artist-in-Residence at Milton Court in London. They discuss his recent performances of Anthony Davis’ powerful and operatic work for clarinet and orchestra, You Have the Right to Remain Silent, and his Grammy nominated album, American Stories, on which he collaborated with the Pacifica Quartet.
Listen here.
South China Morning Post: Review | Young violin soloist captivates in Arvo Pärt work with Hong Kong string ensemble, veteran piano soloist doesn’t spare the horses in Grieg concerto
Variety is the spice of life. When a new ensemble emerges and offers something beyond the customary “meat-and-two-veg” billing (a symphony preceded by an overture and concerto) of the flagship orchestras, it adds richness to the music scene.
The Musicus Soloists of Hong Kong, an ensemble launched in 2022 by the Musicus Society and its founder, acclaimed cellist Trey Lee, should be commended both for their selection of repertoire and their performance at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall on November 21.
The young players chose an unusual programme, including rarely aired gems by Grieg and Sibelius, and offered a glimpse into Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s world of “holy minimalism”, before performing Grieg’s revered Piano Concerto with a strings-only accompaniment directed from the keyboard by award-winning French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie.
South China Morning Post
By Christopher Halls
Variety is the spice of life. When a new ensemble emerges and offers something beyond the customary “meat-and-two-veg” billing (a symphony preceded by an overture and concerto) of the flagship orchestras, it adds richness to the music scene.
The Musicus Soloists of Hong Kong, an ensemble launched in 2022 by the Musicus Society and its founder, acclaimed cellist Trey Lee, should be commended both for their selection of repertoire and their performance at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall on November 21.
The young players chose an unusual programme, including rarely aired gems by Grieg and Sibelius, and offered a glimpse into Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s world of “holy minimalism”, before performing Grieg’s revered Piano Concerto with a strings-only accompaniment directed from the keyboard by award-winning French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie.
Read more here.
Gramophone: Video of the Day: VOCES8 and the National Children's Chorus perform 'Homeward Bound'
A truly ethereal sound from a combined choir of over 300 singers
Three minutes of solace is on offer in today's Video of the Day from the National Children's Chorus of the United States. The three hundred strong choir is joined by the internationally-acclaimed VOCES8 in a performance of Homeward Bound from a concert this July at the St John's Smith Square in London.
Gramophone
By Jonathan Whiting
A truly ethereal sound from a combined choir of over 300 singers
Three minutes of solace is on offer in today's Video of the Day from the National Children's Chorus of the United States. The three hundred strong choir is joined by the internationally-acclaimed VOCES8 in a performance of Homeward Bound from a concert this July at the St John's Smith Square in London.
Watch here.
The New York Times: Making Sweet, and Bittersweet, Music Together
A bite of bruschetta helped lay the foundation for the relationship between the conductor Michael Repper and Vanessa Moody. That honesty served them well when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Michael Eric Repper’s history of unflagging devotion to a narrow set of passions dates back to the early 1990s when, as a 3-year-old, he snapped to attention the moment the orchestra kicked in at a classical music concert. By the time he had reached his early 20s, another of his select few passions was consuming him: his relationship with his girlfriend, Vanessa Rodrigues Moody.
Dr. Repper, now 33, became the youngest American to win a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance this year, and Ms. Moody, 31, a lawyer with the global law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, met and began dating in April 2013 as students at Stanford.
Six months later, when she was a senior and he had graduated and moved to Baltimore to start a doctoral degree in music, neither was sure what would become of their budding romance. But on April 14, 2014, she called to tell him she had been diagnosed with a rare brain tumor the size of a tangerine and asked whether he wanted out of the relationship. Both knew then it was built to last.
“I was terrified,” Dr. Repper said. “But I was also all in.”
The New York Times
By Tammy LaGorce
A bite of bruschetta helped lay the foundation for the relationship between the conductor Michael Repper and Vanessa Moody. That honesty served them well when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Michael Eric Repper’s history of unflagging devotion to a narrow set of passions dates back to the early 1990s when, as a 3-year-old, he snapped to attention the moment the orchestra kicked in at a classical music concert. By the time he had reached his early 20s, another of his select few passions was consuming him: his relationship with his girlfriend, Vanessa Rodrigues Moody.
Dr. Repper, now 33, became the youngest American to win a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance this year, and Ms. Moody, 31, a lawyer with the global law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, met and began dating in April 2013 as students at Stanford.
Six months later, when she was a senior and he had graduated and moved to Baltimore to start a doctoral degree in music, neither was sure what would become of their budding romance. But on April 14, 2014, she called to tell him she had been diagnosed with a rare brain tumor the size of a tangerine and asked whether he wanted out of the relationship. Both knew then it was built to last.
“I was terrified,” Dr. Repper said. “But I was also all in.”
Read more here.
San Francisco Classical Voice: Anthony McGill Graces Oakland Symphony With Anthony Davis Concerto
The Oakland Symphony has never let its under-$3-million budget cramp its thinking. It’s still an orchestra on a social equity mission, which you could see from the highly diverse audience at Friday night’s concert at the Paramount Theatre and from the title of the concert itself: “Truth to Power.”
Since the orchestra is still in search mode for a new music director, critical eyes were cast upon the evening’s conductor, Jeri Lynne Johnson. She has an impressive resume, giving well-received guest appearances, founding the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, and winning the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship in 2005. She’s a direct presence on the podium, all business and no extra movements. She had the orchestra’s attention, leading a crisp reading of Beethoven’s Fidelio Overture to start. And she was more impressive leading Anthony Davis’s clarinet concerto You Have the Right to Remain Silent. I’d give her high marks for her conducting work.
You might not expect a high-powered soloist like Anthony McGill — 2024 Grammy nominee, a performer at former President Barack Obama’s first inaugural, principal of the New York Philharmonic — to sit in with the Oakland Symphony. That is, you wouldn’t expect it if you don’t follow the orchestra or McGill. Since learning this piece for a performance with the Cincinnati Symphony (available on YouTube), he’s made it his own cause and played it in Boston, Detroit, New York, Miami, and finally here. He’s also done a couple of interviews about it.
San Francisco Classical Voice
By Michael Zwiebach
The Oakland Symphony has never let its under-$3-million budget cramp its thinking. It’s still an orchestra on a social equity mission, which you could see from the highly diverse audience at Friday night’s concert at the Paramount Theatre and from the title of the concert itself: “Truth to Power.”
Since the orchestra is still in search mode for a new music director, critical eyes were cast upon the evening’s conductor, Jeri Lynne Johnson. She has an impressive resume, giving well-received guest appearances, founding the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, and winning the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship in 2005. She’s a direct presence on the podium, all business and no extra movements. She had the orchestra’s attention, leading a crisp reading of Beethoven’s Fidelio Overture to start. And she was more impressive leading Anthony Davis’s clarinet concerto You Have the Right to Remain Silent. I’d give her high marks for her conducting work.
You might not expect a high-powered soloist like Anthony McGill — 2024 Grammy nominee, a performer at former President Barack Obama’s first inaugural, principal of the New York Philharmonic — to sit in with the Oakland Symphony. That is, you wouldn’t expect it if you don’t follow the orchestra or McGill. Since learning this piece for a performance with the Cincinnati Symphony (available on YouTube), he’s made it his own cause and played it in Boston, Detroit, New York, Miami, and finally here. He’s also done a couple of interviews about it.
Read more here.
The Daily Beast: How Anthony Davis Put Malcolm X, and Black Power, Center Stage
Pulitzer-winning composer Anthony Davis on Malcolm X at the Met, challenging racism in opera, championing Black power in his work—and why artists must “step up” against bigotry.
In the opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, to Dec. 2), the iconic title character sings, “As long as I’ve been living, you’ve had your foot on me, always pressing,” and “You’ve had your foot on me a very long time.” The words may have been written in 1986, but, as its composer Anthony Davis told The Daily Beast, they are piercingly prescient for baritone Will Liverman to sing in 2023.
“That’s George Floyd, that’s the image,” Davis said. “Unfortunately, that cycle of violence still exists, and it existed prior to Malcolm too. On stage you see the names of all the victims of that history of racist violence. That violence has always been with us; it is part of the legacy to slavery too. The opera puts it in a larger historical context, and then has a cathartic release too.”
Davis won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his 2019 opera The Central Park Five, based on the high-profile 1989 case of five Black and Hispanic teenagers convicted and later exonerated of attacking a female jogger in Central Park. He is only the second Black composer to have their work presented by the Met. X—with a libretto by Thulani Davis, Anthony’s Grammy Award-winning cousin and longtime collaborator, and a story by his brother Christopher—premiered at New York City Opera in 1986, and it was “very exciting” to finally see it staged at the Met, said Davis.
The Daily Beast
By Tim Teeman
Pulitzer-winning composer Anthony Davis on Malcolm X at the Met, challenging racism in opera, championing Black power in his work—and why artists must “step up” against bigotry.
In the opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, to Dec. 2), the iconic title character sings, “As long as I’ve been living, you’ve had your foot on me, always pressing,” and “You’ve had your foot on me a very long time.” The words may have been written in 1986, but, as its composer Anthony Davis told The Daily Beast, they are piercingly prescient for baritone Will Liverman to sing in 2023.
“That’s George Floyd, that’s the image,” Davis said. “Unfortunately, that cycle of violence still exists, and it existed prior to Malcolm too. On stage you see the names of all the victims of that history of racist violence. That violence has always been with us; it is part of the legacy to slavery too. The opera puts it in a larger historical context, and then has a cathartic release too.”
Davis won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his 2019 opera The Central Park Five, based on the high-profile 1989 case of five Black and Hispanic teenagers convicted and later exonerated of attacking a female jogger in Central Park. He is only the second Black composer to have their work presented by the Met. X—with a libretto by Thulani Davis, Anthony’s Grammy Award-winning cousin and longtime collaborator, and a story by his brother Christopher—premiered at New York City Opera in 1986, and it was “very exciting” to finally see it staged at the Met, said Davis.
Read more here.
The Daily Northwestern: A feast of pianistic fantasy: Yulianna Avdeeva enchants with Chopin and Rachmaninoff
Against the lustrous backdrop of Lake Michigan, pianist Yulianna Avdeeva took the Galvin Recital Hall audience on a journey of imagination and rumination through the music of Frédéric Chopin and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The winner of the prestigious 2010 International Chopin Competition, Avdeeva performed as part of Bienen School of Music’s Skyline Piano Artist Series.
Avdeeva opened with Chopin’s “Polonaise-Fantasie.” Rather than emphasizing the “Polonaise” — a traditional Polish dance — Avdeeva let dance rhythms accompany the wandering melodies and frequent tempo changes of the “Fantasie.” Sometimes Avdeeva’s right and left hands were subtly offset, an imaginative touch that created a sense of exploration.
The following piece, Chopin’s “Barcarolle,” a reimagination of Venetian boat songs, exemplified Avdeeva’s characteristic restraint and subdued grandeur.
After a nuanced, poignant performance of Chopin’s “Prelude in C-sharp minor,” Avdeeva launched without pause to his “Scherzo No. 3.” The interplay between serene spontaneity and tumultuous outbursts in the Scherzo mirrored the imaginative and fiery performance of Rachmaninoff that would come later.
The Daily Northwestern
By Ben Kim
Against the lustrous backdrop of Lake Michigan, pianist Yulianna Avdeeva took the Galvin Recital Hall audience on a journey of imagination and rumination through the music of Frédéric Chopin and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The winner of the prestigious 2010 International Chopin Competition, Avdeeva performed as part of Bienen School of Music’s Skyline Piano Artist Series.
Avdeeva opened with Chopin’s “Polonaise-Fantasie.” Rather than emphasizing the “Polonaise” — a traditional Polish dance — Avdeeva let dance rhythms accompany the wandering melodies and frequent tempo changes of the “Fantasie.” Sometimes Avdeeva’s right and left hands were subtly offset, an imaginative touch that created a sense of exploration.
The following piece, Chopin’s “Barcarolle,” a reimagination of Venetian boat songs, exemplified Avdeeva’s characteristic restraint and subdued grandeur.
After a nuanced, poignant performance of Chopin’s “Prelude in C-sharp minor,” Avdeeva launched without pause to his “Scherzo No. 3.” The interplay between serene spontaneity and tumultuous outbursts in the Scherzo mirrored the imaginative and fiery performance of Rachmaninoff that would come later.
Read more here.