Global Times: Tan Dun and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra perform at The Orange

A part of the ongoing Beijing Music Festival (BMF), Chinese conductor Tan Dun presented a concert on Saturday at The Orange in Beijing with the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. 

The one-hour mini concert, which marked the 15th anniversary of Tan and the BMF's collaboration, included two pieces from Tan: Secret of Wind and Birds and Farewell My Concubine. 

According to the conductor, Secret of Wind and Birds was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. Before the concert, Tan uploaded recordings of bird sounds made using musical instruments that audiences could download to their smartphones. During the performance, Tan gave cues to the audience to play the recordings, so they could become part of the orchestra themselves.  

Farewell My Concubine combines Peking Opera with piano to tell the life story of Yu Ji, a concubine that lived during the 3rd century BC.

Beijing Music Festival Pays Tribute to William Shakespeare

The Beijing Music Festival (BMF), having opened to record crowds this season, will kick off a series of events honoring the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. The highlight of this homage will be a production of Benjamin Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, directed by Robert Carsen in collaboration with the Festival d’Aix en Provence. Not only has this 1991 production never been seen outside of Europe--this will be the first-ever performance of Britten’s 20th century masterpiece in China.

A “Cross-Over Celebration”
The BMF is will commemorate William Shakespeare with a selection of musical works related to and inspired by his plays. Highlights include Mendelssohn’s Overture from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream (October 10th) performed by the West Australian Symphony, as well as Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” Overture-Fantasy, Richard Strauss’ “Macbeth”, William Walton’s “As you Like It”, and Vaughn Williams’ “Serenade to Music”, performed by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Guangzhou Youth Orchestra. But BMF director Tu Song highlights Britten’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” as the main event: “We have invited world famous drama director Robert Carsen…to make something new under an old title”. Carsen is noted in China for his highly successful 2010 staging of Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” in Shanghai. The opera will be accompanied by the China Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Stuart Bedford.

The BMF has a tradition of celebrating anniversaries with musical tributes. In 2006 the festival paid homage to Mozart and Shostakovich for their 250th and 100th birthday’s respectively. Other anniversaries have included Wagner, Verdi, Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Chopin.  

About the Beijing Music Festival
Held over 4 weeks every October, BMF is the most important cultural event in China. The Festival and its Founder and Artistic Director, Maestro Long Yu, pioneer China’s unique musical voice. The festival has presented numerous historical performances such as the China premiere of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 (2002), the Asian premiere of Alban Berg's opera, “Lulu” (2002); Guo Wenjing's operas, “Ye Yan” (2003) and “Wolf Club Village” (2003); and the China premiere of Richard Wagner's complete Ring Cycle (2005). BMF’s co-commission with Opera Boston, “Madame White Snake,” was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize.

Newly Appointed NY Phil Conductor to Lead Closing Concert in Beijing

The Beijing Music Festival (BMF) will culminate this Saturday, October 29, in a closing concert by the Hong Kong Philharmonic under the baton of famed Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden. The soon-to-be Maestro of the New York Philharmonic, van Zweden comes to Beijing as the final of three city appearances in mainland China this week, returning to the country after a highly acclaimed tour in 2014 with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. The program will feature a solo performance by Chinese violinist Tianwa Yang, recent winner of the prestigious ECHO Klassik Instrumentalist of the Year Award. 

A New Commission and a Star Violinist
The eclectic program will open with “Quintessence”, a new worked by Hong Kong composer Fung Lam, commissioned by the Hong Kong Philharmonic with the generous support of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation.  Next will be Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in D, K218, featuring virtuoso Tianwa Yang. Closing the evening will be Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 (“Titan”).

The program makes its way around mainland China this week in Shanghai and Tianjin before coming to Beijing.

The closing concert will mark the end of a highly successful three-week music festival with a record turnout and many spectacular firsts, including a 3D mini-opera production and a brand new Don Giovanni featuring state-of-the-art theatrical effects. President and Artistic Director Long Yu said of this bitter-sweet close: “We’ve come a long way and there’s still a long way to go. So I’d like to say thanks to all the people who have supported us for so many years.”

Currently Jaap van Zweden is Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and has been Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra since 2012. In that year he was named Musical America's Conductor of the Year.

The HK Philharmonic is recognized as Asia’s premiere classical orchestra, performing over 150 concerts per year. Recent guest artists have included Vladimir Ashkenazy, Ning Feng, Matthias Goerne, Lang Lang, Yu Long, Yundi Li, the late Lorin Maazel, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yuja Wang.

About the Beijing Music Festival
Held over 4 weeks every October, BMF is the most important cultural event in China. The Festival and its Founder and Artistic Director, Maestro Long Yu, pioneer China’s unique musical voice. The festival has presented numerous historical performances such as the China premiere of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 (2002), the Asian premiere of Alban Berg's opera, “Lulu” (2002); Guo Wenjing's operas, “Ye Yan” (2003) and “Wolf Club Village” (2003); and the China premiere of Richard Wagner's complete Ring Cycle (2005). BMF’s co-commission with Opera Boston, “Madame White Snake,” was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize.

19th Beijing Music Festival Opens to Record Crowds

Long Yu, President and Artistic Director of the Beijing Music Festival (BMF) Announces 19th Season. Photo: Beijing Music Festival

The Beijing Music Festival (BMF) opened its annual classical music festival last Sunday with a concert by the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) Orchestra and Chorus under the baton of Maestro Lü Jia. This marked the first collaboration between BMF and NCPA. The concert, which featured symphonies and choral works by Brahms and Shostakovich, elicited several standing ovations from the sold-out crowd.

Festival to Celebrate “Musical Legacy and Innovation”

After nearly two decades as China’s leading cultural event, the 19th BMF will present 30 shows covering a wide range of music genres such as opera, symphony, ethnic music, crossover, and more. As in previous years, there will be public activities that include children's musical, urban musical, Chinese music concert, as well as music-themed seminars, lectures and dialogues. The festival runs from October 9th to 29th.

Music of Old Masters Performed by New Artists

Highlights of the 19th BMF include the China premiere of Britten’s opera “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on October 15th and 16th (the first production in a 5-year partnership with Festival d’Aix-en-Provence), a 3D-chamber opera “Blank Out” by Dutch composer Michel van der Aa (October 20th and 21st), Mozart’s operatic masterpiece “Don Giovanni” featuring site-specific immersive theatrics and technology (Oct. 12 to 14th), and multimedia performances of Schubert’s song cycle “Die Winterreise” (October 26th to 28th).

Other highlights include the complete Tchaikovsky symphonies conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev (October 26th to 28th), concerts with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (October 10th) featuring French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (October 23rd and 24th), Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Youth Orchestra (October 22nd), virtuoso organist Cameron Carpenter (October 25th), and a closing concert with the Hong Kong Philharmonic led by Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden (October 29th).

About the Beijing Music Festival

Held over 4 weeks every October, BMF is the most important cultural event in China. The Festival and its Founder and Artistic Director, Maestro Long Yu, pioneer China’s unique musical voice. The festival has presented numerous historical performances such as the China premiere of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 (2002), the Asian premiere of Alban Berg's opera, “Lulu” (2002); Guo Wenjing's operas, “Ye Yan” (2003) and “Wolf Club Village” (2003); and the China premiere of Richard Wagner's complete Ring Cycle (2005). BMF’s co-commission with Opera Boston, “Madame White Snake,” was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize.

Strings: Conductor Long Yu, Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and Sheng Virtuoso Wu Tong Tour the Gobi Desert

Strings Magazine

This September, conductor Long Yu, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and sheng virtuoso Wu Tong embarked on a four-city tour of China. The tour kicked off with the Hong Kong Philharmonic’s season opening concerts on September 9 and 10. The three then traveled to Xi’an for an open-air concert at the old city wall on September 12 and reprised the work on September 15 at Lanzhou’s Jincheng Theatre and on September 17 at Ürümqi’s People’s Grand Hall.

Maestro Long Yu provided Strings magazine with an exclusive look and commentary on the tour, which marked the first time many of these cities had ever seen Yo-Yo Ma perform in person.

September 9/Hong Kong: The first concert of the tour with the Hong Kong Philharmonic (opening concert of the 2016/17 season). Yo-Yo Ma joined the HK Phil and myself for Dvorak’s Silent Woods, and then took the stage with sheng virtuoso Wu Tong for Zhao Lin’s Duo.

Inspired by the Chinese epic Journey to the West, Duo was composed for sheng player Wu Tong and Ma. It is a partnership of two lyrical instruments with liquid, expressive sounds.

September 11 / Xi’an: Rehearsal at the historic “South Gate” at the Old City Wall in Xi’an in Central China. Xi’an marks the Silk Road’s eastern end and was home to the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang dynasties’ ruling houses.

September 12 / Xi’an: Everyone is preparing their own Yangrou Paomo (flatbread soaked in lamb soup).

September 12: / Xi’an: Oh no! It’s raining! We hold an emergency meeting to decide whether to cancel the outdoor concert.

September 12: / Xi’an: 40 minutes later, the rain stopped and things are just perfect!

September 13 / Dunhang (Gansu Province): We’ve traveled to the edge of the Gobi Desert to the city of Dunhang. Once a frontier town on the Silk Road, the area is known for its caves, cliffs, and Buddhist statues.

September 13 / Mingsha Shan (Singing Sands Mountain) in Dunhuang:  Mingsha Shan is about 5 miles from Dunhuang. Seen from afar, the mountain is just like a golden dragon winding its way over the horizon. At first, the sand under your feet just whispers; but the further you slide, the louder the sound until it reaches a crescendo like thunder or a drum beat. Some say that the sand is singing, while to others it is like an echo and this is how the mountain gets its name. We wore these bright orange “boots” to keep the sand out from our shoes!

September 14 & 15 / Lanzhou: A wonderful concert with the Lanzhou Symphony Orchestra. The audience was so appreciative of the playing and we were so appreciative to be here! Wu Tong performed an encore afterward and Yo-Yo and I sat and watched. As you can see, Yo-Yo didn’t want to stop listening!

September 16 / Ürümqi: We traveled more than 2,000 miles today from Lanzhou to the Northwest city of Ürümqi—another former major hub on the Silk Road. Upon arrival, we rehearsed with the Xinjiang Philharmonic Orchestra. The XPO was founded in 1996 and is made up of many ethnic groups, including Han Chinese, Uyghurs, Hui, Kazaks, Tajiks and Xibe. So many different languages and cultures but they come together through music in complete harmony!

September 17 / Ürümqi: Final concert of the tour. It’s hard to say goodbye to dear friends like Yo-Yo and Wu Tong but we ended on a high note and look forward to making music again soon.

Inaugural Olga Kern International Piano Competition

The inaugural Olga Kern International Piano Competition launches in Albuquerque, New Mexico November 13-30, 2016. Chosen from more than 100 applications, 24 contestants will compete in front of eight international jury members for a total of $30,000 in cash prizes in addition to international concert engagements and a professional recording.

Over the past summer, the selection panel listened to very talented pianists from all over the world and selected the following 24 participants representing 15 countries for the week-long competition:

Nino Bakradze, Georgia
Sung Chang, Korea
Guang Chen, China
Junhui Chen, China
Willem de Beer, South Africa
Anna Dmytrenko, Ukraine (US)
Mehdi Ghazi, Canada
Shino Hidaka, Japan
Kyohei Imaizumi, Japan
Elizaveta Ivanova, Russia
Richard Octaviano Kogima, Brasil
Seong-Hyeon Leem, South Korea
Steven Massicotte, Canada
Francisco Montero, Spain
Liana Paniyeva, Ukraine
Joshua Rupley, US (NM)
Wenting Shi, China
Marie Sumnikova, Czech Republic
Stefan Weiler, Germany
Yumin Wu, China
Rui Xu, China
Yundi Xu, China
Fahrettin Eren Yahsi, Turkey
Yevgeny Yontov, Israel
Our 2 Alternates are: 
Solomon Eichner, US (MD)
Anastasiya Naplekova, Ukrane (US)

The competition will take place every 3 years in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is open to pianists 18 to 32 years old.

Klara Min on WWFM Radio, The Classical Network

This past May, Klara Min was featured in a Radio Showcase/Interview on WWFM.org - Between the Keys with Jed Distler.

 Listen to the podcast below.

New Zealand Herald: Brief encounter - violinist Anne Akiko Meyers

Photo: Molina Visuals

You describe yourself as a modern classical musician - why is this an important definition for you?

I think it is important for performers to embrace technology to connect with today's audience. In addition to traditional concerto, recitals, chamber music and recordings, I reach a wider fan base by collaborating with a diverse group of musicians (including Wynton Marsalis, Il Divo, Michael Bolton, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Isao Tomita), embracing technology and social media. I also love supporting and commissioning composers to expand the violin literature. All these diverse musical ideas make me a much better musician.

Mason Bates Violin Concerto was composed for you - how does it feel to have a concerto composed especially for you?

Working closely with living composers always gives me a greater understanding of music from prior periods and makes me ask questions. Was it a muse or situation that inspired the composer to create a work that lives on for generations? I don't really think of the concerto as written for me, it's more a piece for the world. Over time, any great music needs to attract lots of performers who add the piece to their repertoire.

It's about a pre-historic dinosaur taking flight - were you a big dinosaur fan as a kid as so many young ones are?

There are many descriptive sound effects in the concerto; one where I am supposed to be the actual dinosaur trudging through swampy lakebeds with a sensual quality - that takes an active imagination! My children and their cousins love dinosaurs - it makes you always aware that humankind came from a very prehistoric place. Mason Bates, the composer, also has young children, and I think they are huge dinosaur fans.

If you could travel back in time to any concert, meet any composer - who would it be and why?

I think this would have to be Beethoven conducting his Symphony No.9. It's impossible to imagine that he composed that stone cold deaf.

What's the greatest threat to the future of classical music?

I think classical music has a wider audience than ever before due to technology. I am shocked to see videos I have put on YouTube have been played millions of times. My family and I "attend" performances of the Berlin Philharmonic and Detroit Symphony Orchestra streamed into your home. This is amazing and incredible and will build the audience in younger generations. I wish I had that kind of access to recordings when I was in my 20s!

What makes you want to work with the NZ Symphony Orchestra?

I am super excited to see and experience New Zealand for the first time. My dad actually motorcycled around the country and sent photos of places I thought only existed in heaven. It will also be the first time I work with Fawzi Haimor [conductor] and the orchestra and it will be so much fun to bring Mason Bates' violin concerto to life together.

Why is this work important - and why should people want to come and see/hear it?

Mason Bates is a dynamic and extremely popular young American composer who is composer-in-residence with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center and was also composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony. A leading composer of his generation, his music is inventive, colourful and highly expressive, not to mention incredibly challenging. Audiences always clamour for more and I am thrilled to bring his first violin concerto to New Zealand!

• Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers joins the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for its Bold Worlds concert at the Great Hall, Auckland Town Hall on Friday, October 7.

New York Concert Artists (NYCA) Accepting Applications for 2017 Worldwide Debut Auditions for Pianists and Violinists

Learn more about applying to the New York Concert Artists 2017 Worldwide Debut Audition, with prizes including Berliner Philharmonie + Carnegie Hall Debut Recitals, performance with Fairbanks Symphony, CD recording with Steinway & Sons Label, and more by clicking here. Application deadline is December 1, 2016.

Violinist: Anne Akiko Meyers releases 'Fantasia,' a last violin work by Einojuhani Rautavaara

Violinist
By Laurie Niles

Anne Akiko Meyers and Einojuhani Rautavaara

Back in the 1990s Anne Akiko Meyers discovered a recording that stopped her in her tracks: Cantus Arcticus, by the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara.

"I was always flipping through CDs and sheet music at stores, trying to discover new works that were under the radar," Meyers told me last week over the phone. "That's how I came across the 'Concerto for Birds and Orchestra.' I was blown away by the sheer beauty of the music, and the way Rautavaara incorporated nature into a symphony. He actually went into a preserve and recorded birds chirping and singing, and that became an organic part of music. I listened to the recording many, many times on repeat."

The more she explored Rautavaara's works, the more she loved the music.

"I'm a lifelong fan," she said. "I've always been very enamored with these mystical, mythical composers like Arvo Pärt and Rautavaara."

In fact, last year she worked with Arvo Pärt to record his Passacaglia -- it made her think once again about Rautavaara. Might he like to compose a piece for her?

"It was always a dream of mine," she said. "I wondered, what is he up to, these days? I sent an e-mail to (his publisher) Boosey and Hawkes. You can risk getting a 'No' from a composer; it's always worth asking. I've commissioned many composers recently, and found that timing is crucial." The list of composers that Meyers has worked with and commissioned works from is long, and includes Mason Bates, Jakub Ciupinski, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Samuel Jones, Wynton Marsalis Somei Satoh, and Joseph Schwantner.

"I've become more tenacious about it," she said. Her tenacity paid off: "Immediately I got the response: 'He would love to write something for you. How long of a piece would you like?'"

Rautavaara had already written a violin concerto, "so I thought, what would pique his curiosity and be stylistically up his alley? That's when I came up with the idea of a 15-minute fantasy," Meyers said. "He sent me the music at the end of the summer, handwritten on manuscript paper. I was just smitten. Immediately I could sense overtones of Cantus Arcticus, and also his Symphony No. 7, the Angel of Light."

That was in 2015. If she'd waited any longer, their collaboration may never have happened; Rautavaara died in July 2016, at the age of 87. The work Meyers commissioned, called "Fantasia," was among the last pieces he wrote. She recorded it in May with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Kristjan Järvi. Due to his recent death, she has made it available as a single on Amazon. It will be the title track on her upcoming album Fantasia: The Fantasy Album, to be released in spring 2017.

Though Rautavaara did not live to hear the work in concert, he heard Meyers play it in person. After sending her the work, "he invited me to come to Helsinki," Meyers said. "I was so excited to go. I flew out in December 2015 and played the piece for him.

The second I finished, he turned to me, smiled so brightly and said, 'Wow, did I write some beautiful, beautiful music!' (She laughs) I thought that was the sweetest thing ever! Because it really is so deeply spiritual, poetic and beautiful."

"We played it again, and I expected him to say, 'Oh, this note, I'm not so sure...' I was also nervous about the bowings that I had changed, because his bowings were very specifically marked," she said. "The bowings really change the direction and meaning of the phrases."

Rautavaara liked it, though. "He said immediately, 'I love what you did, I don't have much confidence in myself with markings, especially bowings. I think you really brought out the phrasing to make it sing as much as possible, so let's use all your bowings.' That was that! No dynamic changes, no note changes, nothing," Meyers said. He knew what he wanted.

Though his health may have been in decline, Rautavaara was at the height of his composing powers, she said. "There's just so much experience and a rich, vast wisdom that he had, right in his fingertips. I think it's one of the most beautiful pieces ever composed."