Limelight: Yo-Yo Ma and The Art of Living, Youth Music Culture Guangdong

Limelight Magazine
Angus McPherson

We’re speaking midway through the 2020 Youth Music Culture Guangdong in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, an event presented by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and organized jointly by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Xinghai Concert Hall, bringing together young musicians from all around the world. Ma is the event’s Artistic Director and a major drawcard for the participants, who have come to the city on the Pearl River in southern China from across the country as well as from the USA, Japan, Italy and Hungary – and even one musician from Australia.

Read the full article here.

Gramophone: Marc-André Hamelin's Latest Album Selected as Editor's Choice for April

Gramophone
David Fanning

The best new classical albums: Editor's Choice, April 2020

Feinberg Piano Sonatas Nos 1-6
Marc-André Hamelin pf (Hyperion)

Samuil Feinberg was a great Russian pianist perhaps best known for his Bach, but his compositions are less familiar. Marc-André Hamelin’s overwhelming advocacy of these sonatas comes highly recommended.

Read the Gramophone review here… “Hamelin does far more than tame these pianistic leviathans. He gives them momentum, character and individuality.”

Blogcritics Exclusive Interview: Violinist Virgil Boutellis-Taft on New Album Incantation

Blogcritics
Jon Sobel

With his sophomore album Incantation just out, French violinist Virgil Boutellis-Taft was set to bring his “beautiful, front-loaded, and siren-like tone” and “impressive virtuosity” to Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall on April 28. The concert will be rescheduled because of the COVID-19 crisis, but in the meantime, here is our enlightening interview with this exciting musician.

Boutellis-Taft recorded the album with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The program for the concerts includes The Soloists of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and includes most of the music from the album: Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei”; Vitali’s Chaconne in G Minor; Saint-Saëns’ “Danse Macabre” (in a new arrangement by Paul Bateman); Tchaikovsky’s “Sérénade Mélancolique”; Bloch’s “Nigun” (from Baal Shem); Chausson’s Poème for Violin and Piano; and Piazzola’s “Oblivion.”

We had a chance to speak with Boutellis-Taft as he was gearing up for a season that was planned to feature concerts at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Salle Gaveau, the Musée d’Orsay, and Cadogan Hall in London as well as Carnegie in New York.

Read the interview here.

TimeOut New York: Time In Virtual Storytime: "Sleepover at the Museum"

TimeOut New York

We love afternoons at the Museum of Natural History, but there's something so alluring about after-hours expeditions, don't you think? See what's it's like to spend a night in the coolest place in NYC! On Thursday, Mar 26 at 7:30pm, head over to the Time Out New York Kids' Instagram account (@timeoutnykids) and check out our stories: Author Karen LeFrak will be reading her picture book Sleepover at the Museum, which follows young Mason and his pals, who are venturing throughout the museum during his sleepover birthday party. What better way to tuck in at night? We'll see you there! All ages.

Read more here.

The Azrieli Foundation Announces Calls for Proposals for New Performance Fund

UPDATE: The deadline for proposals has been extended to May 1, 2020.

The Azrieli Foundation is delighted to announce a new funding stream within its Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) program. The annual Azrieli Music Prizes Performance Fund (AMP-PF) supports professional music ensembles in preparing and presenting public performances of Azrieli Music Prize-winning works. The Foundation is currently accepting proposals from professional orchestras world-wide that plan to perform the AMP winning works in their 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 seasons. 

With a firm belief in the extraordinary quality of Azrieli Music Prize-winning works, the AMP-PF has been established to provide new opportunities for professional music ensembles to share these powerful works with their audiences. Until May 1, orchestras may submit a proposal requesting support ranging from $5,000 CAD to $25,000 CAD to help cover the costs of: score and parts rental; soloist fees; additional rehearsal time to prepare the AMP-winning works; augmented concert promotions; and attendance of AMP Laureates at the rehearsals and the concert of their winning work.

AMP-PF currently calls for performance proposals that feature winning works from the 2016 and 2018 editions, detailed below. Submissions are limited to one proposal per music ensemble per year. The 2020 AMP-winning works will be made available for Performance Fund support with the 2021 call for proposals.

The Seven Heavenly Halls for tenor solo, mixed choir and orchestra by Brian Current (2016 Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music)

Klezmer Clarinet Concerto for solo clarinet and orchestra by Wlad Marhulets (2016 Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music)

En el escuro es todo uno (In the Darkness, All is One) for solo cello, solo harp and orchestra by Kelly-Marie Murphy (2018 Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music) 

Nigunim (Violin Concerto No. 2) for solo violin and orchestra by Avner Dorman (2018 Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music)

Established in 2014, the biennial Azrieli Music Prizes express the Azrieli Foundation’s belief in music as a vital endeavour that enables people to express their creativity; to expand their worldview; and to foster positive cultural exchanges. Open to the international music community, scores and proposals for future AMP works are encouraged from individuals and institutions of all nationalities, faiths, backgrounds and affiliations. Two prizes recognize excellence in new Jewish music – the Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music and the Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music – and a third new prize commissions music from Canadian composers. Past prize winners include Avner Dorman (2018), Kelly-Marie Murphy (2018), Brian Current (2016), and Wlad Marhulets (2016). Announced in November 2019, the three winners of the 2020 Azrieli Music Prizes are Yitzhak Yedid (Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music), Yotam Haber (Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music), and Keiko Devaux (Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music).

AMP-PF Funds will be allocated on an annual basis to professional music ensembles though a competitive selection process overseen by the Azrieli Music Prizes Advisory Council. Those proposals that exhibit the highest levels of artistic merit, thematic fit with the Azrieli Music Prizes’ objectives and the capacity to execute the proposed concert will succeed in the competition. 

Proposals must be received by Friday, May 1, 2020 (previous deadline was Friday, April 10, 2020) and are accepted via email at music@azrielifoundation.org. Applicants should review eligibility criteria and proposal requirements at https://azrielifoundation.org/our-priorities/music-arts/amp/performance-fund. The AMP Advisory Council anticipates making decisions concerning which ensembles/proposals will receive AMP-PF support by approximately mid-June 2020. Successful applicants will be notified by the Foundation’s Manager, Music Initiatives.

About The Azrieli Foundation
One of the largest philanthropic foundations in Canada and in Israel, the Azrieli Foundation fulfills the philanthropic legacy of David J. Azrieli and has been funding institutions as well as operating programs since 1989. Driven by a strong belief in the powerful role and responsibility of philanthropy, the foundation empowers and supports a broad range of organizations in its eight priority funding areas: Music & the Arts, Education, Fellowships, Community, Holocaust Education & Legacy, Science, Research & Healthcare, Neurodevelopment, and Architecture, Design & Engineering. Its activities reach a diversity of people, places and needs.

Through the Azrieli Music Initiatives (AMI), the Foundation is committed to discovering, elevating and amplifying artistic voices, granting broad access to meaningful musical experiences that both exhibit artistic excellence and advance a shared pursuit of learning and wellness. AMI creates meaningful and practical realizations of the Foundation’s mission to improve the lives of present and future generations.

The Violin Channel: Violinist Virgil Boutellis-Taft’s New CD, "Incantation"

The Violin Channel

Aparté Records has announced the release of French violinist Virgil Boutellis-Taft’s new album: Incantation.

Recorded with conductor Jac van Steen and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the disc features Bruch’s ‘Kol Nidrei’ , Vitali’s Chaconne, Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, Tchaikovsky’s Sérénade Mélancolique, Bloch’s Nigun, Chausson’s Poème, and Umebayashi’s Yumeji’s Theme.

“These works have long inspired me and what’s interesting is to bring them together and make them speak to each other…” Virgil told The Violin Channel.

To read more about Incantation, click here.

DC Metro Theater Arts: Anne Akiko Meyers with Annapolis Symphony Orchestra

DC Metro Theater Arts
Charles Green

The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra’s continuing Masterworks Series, as part of this season’s celebration of Beethoven’s two hundred fiftieth birthday, takes the theme, “Beethoven Discovers America,” in which the Orchestra looks at Beethoven’s influence on American music, and as Music Director and Conductor Jose-Luis Novo explains, composers from Europe brought the European musical traditions to America and adapted it.

The violin concerto, Orchard in Fog, is, as Dr. Franklin commented, adventurous, charming, and inventive. Commissioned by violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, and performed for the first time in 2018, Schoenberg was inspired by a photograph hanging in his bedroom of the orchard where he and his wife married. The concerto’s three movements tell of an old man looking back on his life, remembering the youthful joy with his wife, and preparing to leave everything behind. As Maestro Novo explained, it is different from most concertos, in that the first and third movements are slow, and the second is fast, while most are the opposite. Another unique quality is the use of scordatura throughout, with Meyer’s G string tuned instead to an F while the rest of the strings maintain their normal tuning.

Meyers is an absolute joy to watch, playing the first movement meditatively and thoughtfully, with moments of powerful emotion. The Symphony blends well with her violin, a few unusual musical sounds working well with it. The second movement is all energy, with almost a pop music, heroic feel to it, drums beating along with the violins. It is thrilling.

The scordatura is used because Schoenberg wanted the piece to sound “closer to the earth.” It is again reflective and calm, with moments of emotional power. The ending slowly fades out, and there are a few beats of thoughtful silence. It is a beautiful work, delightfully unusual and complements the two other pieces.

To read the complete concert review, click here.

Grand Teton Music Festival Announces 2020 Season: 20/20 Visionaries

2020 marks two momentous events: Beethoven’s 250th birthday and the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
 
Known as “The Equality State,” Wyoming granted women the right to vote in 1869, more than 50 years before suffrage and the first in the Union to do so. It was also – in 1825 – the first to elect a female governor. And in 1920, Jackson Hole became the first town in the country to be governed by an all-female Town Council.
 
2020 also gives us the opportunity to reflect on the extraordinary life and legacy of Ludwig van Beethoven. His music has enriched people’s lives for more than two centuries, and his works are as relevant to our lives in the 21st century as they were the day they were premiered.
 
20/20 Visionaries commemorates these historical occasions by paying homage to women in classical music – instrumentalists, singers, conductors, and composers; by thrilling performances of some of Beethoven’s most beloved works; and by masterpieces of composers on whom he had a lasting impact.
 
World-renowned conductor and GTMF Music Director Donald Runnicles comments, “For seven weeks in the summer of 2020, audiences in Jackson Hole will again experience one of the finest orchestras in the world. The uniquely seductive alchemy of music, musicians and mountains informs and inspires another season, bringing together the world's finest – we welcome back among others musical giants such as Renée Fleming and Garrick Ohlsson. We welcome for the first time the great violinist Midori and the conductor Eun Sun Kim. Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Sibelius – both literally and metaphorically, wherever you look, whatever you hear – veritable mountain peaks. That is the Grand Teton Music Festival.”
 
Grand Teton Music Festival’s 2020 Summer Season begins July 3 and runs through August 22 – a season of joy and celebration, with Maestro Donald Runnicles, renowned guest artists, and the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra.
 
GTMF Presents Bernadette Peters
Friday, July 3, 8 pm
The festivities begin with Tony Award-winning superstar Bernadette Peters. Regarded as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of Stephen Sondheim, her starring roles in Annie Get Your Gun, Into the Woods, Gypsy, and Hello, Dolly! are legendary. Peters makes her GTMF debut with an evening of Broadway favorites.
 
Patriotic Pops
Saturday, July 4, 6 pm
Donald Runnicles leads the GTMF Festival Orchestra through a spectacular concert of patriotic pops classics in this spirited holiday celebration. The evening culminates with a veteran tribute during the US Armed Forces Medley. 
 
The Heroic Life
Friday, July 10, 8 pm and Saturday, July 11, 6 pm
Beethoven kicks off this season’s weekend concerts with Donald Runnicles conducting the Festival Orchestra in the Symphony No. 3, “Eroica.” The Orchestra also performs two haunting Strauss masterpieces — Four Last Songs with soprano Erin Wall and Death and Transfiguration.
 
GTMF Presents Time for Three
Wednesday, July 15, 8 pm
Known for their rock concert energy and dynamic arrangements, celebrated classical crossover group Time for Three returns to GTMF with a vibrant program bridging classical composers and popular tunes. Their repertoire spans the Bach Double Concerto to Eleanor Rigby to Coldplay.  
 
GTMF Presents Renée Fleming
Thursday, July 16, 8 pm
Opera star Renée Fleming “is the go-to soprano for royals, world leaders, and Broadway musicals” [The Guardian], and she makes her much-anticipated return to the GTMF stage with a program of beloved opera repertoire and musical theater favorites. Among her many accomplishments, Fleming is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, a Tony nominee, and a 16-time Grammy nominee with four wins.

GTMF Musicians Take Center Stage
Friday, July 17, 8 pm and Saturday, July 18, 6 pm
Runnicles conducts GTMF flutist Angela Jones-Reus and harpist Elisabeth Remy Johnson in a performance of Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp with the Festival Orchestra. Also on the program is the world premiere of a GTMF commission by Melody Eötvös and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1.
 
GTMF Presents Gil Shaham & Adele Anthony
Wednesday, July 22, 8 pm
Enjoy a night of violin virtuosity with “one of today’s preeminent violinists” [The New York Times] Gil Shaham and his wife, violinist Adele Anthony. Shaham is a Grammy Award-winner, Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year, and a winner of the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.
 
The Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos
Friday, July 24, 8 pm and Saturday, July 25, 6 pm
Beethoven’s piano concertos are some of his greatest works, and hearing them over the course of two evenings offers incredible perspective on Beethoven’s compositional breadth. In a grand celebration of Beethoven, pianist Garrick Ohlsson reunites with conductor Donald Runnicles for a pair of magical evenings paying tribute to the composer with Beethoven’s five immortal Piano Concertos.
 
GTMF Presents Clarice Assad
Wednesday, July 29, 8 pm
Composer, pianist, and vocalist Clarice Assad makes her GTMF debut in a special evening of her wildly-adventurous compositions marrying piano and voice, with influences stemming from classical, Brazilian, contemporary, jazz and world music repertoire.
 
Tchaikovsky's Fourth         
Friday, July 31, 8 pm and Saturday, August 1, 6 pm
Check out Eun Sun Kim before your city friends!  Hot on the heels of her appointment as San Francisco Opera’s Music Director, Eun Sun Kim conducts cellist Johannes Moser in his return to GTMF, performing Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Festival Orchestra. Completing the evening are Clarice Assad’s Bonecos de Olinda and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
 
GTMF Presents St. Lawrence String Quartet
Wednesday, August 5, 8 pm
The acclaimed ensemble takes the stage to perform Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 20, No. 4, John Adams’ String Quartet No. 2 and Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 131.
 
Jests and Conquests
Friday, August 7, 8 pm and Saturday, August 8, 6 pm
With the Festival Orchestra, the St. Lawrence String Quartet takes on John Adams’ Absolute Jest, Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra. Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 round out this stellar concert, conducted by Karina Canellakis, winner of the 2016 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award.
 
GTMF Presents Dover Quartet
Wednesday, August 12, 8 pm
The Dover Quartet returns to GTMF to lend its distinctive sound to a program of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18, No. 2, Bartok’s String Quartet No. 2, and Ravel’s glorious String Quartet.
 
Mahler in the Mountains
Friday, August 14, 8 pm and Saturday, August 15, 6 pm
As one of the world’s leading Mahler interpreters, Donald Runnicles’ “Mahler in the Mountains” concerts have become a pilgrimage for GTMF patrons. The Maestro conducts the Utah Symphony Chorus, soprano Jacquelyn Stucker, and mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford in Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection”.
 
GTMF Presents Daniela Liebman
Wednesday, August 19, 8 pm
Seventeen-year-old Mexican pianist and rising star Daniela Liebman graces the GTMF stage with a colorful program of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110, Debussy’s Images, Book I, Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28, and Chopin’s Ballades.

Fiery Violin
Friday, August 21, 8 pm and Saturday, August 22, 6 pm
To conclude a spectacular season, conductor James Conlon and violin legend Midori team up for Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, in the virtuoso violinist’s GTMF debut. Completing the program are Beethoven’s Coriolon Overture and Egmont Overture and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

Chamber Music Nights
Tuesdays: July 7, 14, 21, 28, August 4, 11 and 18 at 7 pm; Thursdays: July 9, 23, 30, August 6, 13 and 20 at 8 pm 
The Haberfeld Chamber Series on Tuesdays at St. John’s Episcopal Church and Thursday Chamber Series at Walk Festival Hall feature the artistry of GTMF’s world-class Festival Musicians. Enjoy core classical repertoire mixed with rarely heard gems. 

Purchase tickets online at gtmf.org or by calling 307.733.1128. The Fritz Box Office at Walk Festival Hall opens June 19.

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About the Grand Teton Music Festival (GTMF)
Over seven weeks each summer, the Grand Teton Music Festival unites 228 celebrated orchestral musicians led by Music Director Donald Runnicles. These musicians represent 64 orchestras and 47 institutions of higher learning throughout Europe and North America. In addition to orchestral concerts on Friday and Saturday nights, the summer season also features visiting guest artists and chamber music on weekdays.

GTMF is the single largest performing arts presenter in Jackson Hole, Wyoming with nearly 100 annual events. GTMF presents yearlong programming that includes monthly community concerts, a Winter Festival in February, the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series, and education programs for Teton County Students.

GTMF is a 4-star charity as rated by Charity Navigator and has a Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar.

Artsfile: Nicolas Namoradze - Sound Explorer

Artsfile
Peter Robb

Nicolas Namoradze thinks deeply about his chosen career as a piano soloist and a composer.

Before he entered the 2018 Honens competition, he had spent some four years giving himself time to prepare for the spotlight. When he won, he says he was ready to step onto wider stages including in Ottawa. Namoradze will perform here on March 5 at Southminster Church, part of Roland Graham’s Master Piano Recital Series.

He told ARTSFILE from Berlin, Germany, that he had done competitions as a teenager in Europe and had enjoyed the experience, “but I felt that I wanted to give myself more time before putting myself out in the limelight. I felt I needed more time to expand my repertoire and to find out who I am as an artist. This meant finding what I wanted to play and how to play it before stepping out into the fray.”

This hiatus, for sake of a better word, meant he stepped away from active concertizing and from competing. It afforded an important space. “That’s when I started composing seriously again.”

To read more about Namoradze’s journey, click here.

The Toronto Star: Jewish music is honoured — but what is it?

The Toronto Star
William Littler

Many years ago the American composer Virgil Thomson was asked how to write American music. “First you be an American,” Thomson replied. “Then you write any kind of music you like.” 

It was a good answer, although it avoided the questioner’s implication that certain qualities should be involved to make one kind of music different from another.

During much of the 19th century, an age of nationalism, those qualities were often rooted in folk traditions. The visiting Czech composer Dvorak advised his American colleagues to look to their country’s Black heritage for inspiration. 

Musical styles became more internationalized during the 20th century and yet the question of stylistic identity persists. Witness a press conference I attended not long ago in Montreal, during which $200,000 prizes were awarded for the composition of Jewish music.

Every two years, beginning in 2014, the Azrieli Foundation has awarded the Azrieli Prize for Jewish music to a composer deemed by a jury (including Montreal conductor Boris Brott) to have written the best new major work of Jewish music.

To read more about the Azrieli prizes, click here.