United Hemispheres: Take in Classical Music and Mountain Scenery at These Summer Festivals
While artists and venues have tried to make due with virtual performances over the past year, nothing can replace the shared thrill of an in-person concert. That goes not only for pop stars but for orchestras. With music festivals set to make a comeback this summer, here are three orchestral concert series that send world-class musicians onto stages with spectacular Rocky Mountain backdrops.
BBC Music Magazine: Bartók • Beethoven • Dvorák: String Quartets (Juilliard String Quartet)
Bartók • Beethoven • Dvořák (5-star rating)
The Juilliard String Quartet celebrates its 75th anniversary this year– and here is the first recording with its most recent recruit, first violin Areta Zhulla. While its membership has changed over the decades, the quartet is still associated with the institution it is named after (all its members teach there), and its trademark tonal beauty, sensitively attuned ensemble and technical splendour is amply on show in this recording.
The New Criterion: Symphony by the sea
The coalescence of art, capital, and wise public health policies that is rapidly transforming South Florida into an international cultural hub has received a great boost this spring from the Palm Beach Symphony. The orchestra’s dynamic maestro, Gerard Schwarz, has led it to new heights and placed it among the ranks of the very best American regional ensembles (an ascendancy that was sorely needed following the closing of the Florida Philharmonic in 2003). The longtime director of the Seattle Symphony and New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Schwarz moved to Florida in 2019 to become Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and the director of the Frost Symphony, before assuming his post as the Palm Beach Symphony’s musical and artistic director last season.
Violin Channel: Dr. Sharon Azrieli on the Azrieli Music Prizes Competition
The Violin Channel recently sat down with Dr Azrieli, the visionary behind the Azrieli Music Prizes, the Azrieli Foundation Board Director, and the Board Liaison on the Azrieli Music Prizes Advisory Council.
Can you tell us about the Azrieli Foundation? When was it founded and what is its core mission?
Founded over 30 years ago by my father, David Azrieli, the Azrieli Foundation takes a thoughtful and creative approach to philanthropy.
Ludwig van: Nicolas Namoradze: ‘Life Is Full Of Surprises’
“Life is full of surprises,” Nicolas Namoradze a.k.a. “Nico” says of his impressive win of the top prize at the 2018 Honens International Piano Competition. The triennial Calgary-based competition has helped launch international performance and recording careers for a galaxy of classical music stars.
After taking the bold move of stepping out of the limelight for four years before entering the competition, the then 26-year-old pianist dazzled with virtuosic technique, matched by unconventional repertoire. His program included a lengthier choice of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in B♭ major, Op. 83 for the finals, and his own Etudes he described as “fearsomely challenging”.
Gramophone: Figaro in the City: Mozart as a television series
When I had the initial idea to salvage a concert version of the Marriage of Figaro, Paris was just coming out of its first confinement period. Springtime was bursting out, we no longer needed to fill out forms to leave our homes and while all performing venues were closed, the prevalent feeling in the streets was that the time had come to find imaginative ways to keep music alive. I had just spent a month re-reading Magic Mountain, and coming down from the heights of the sanatorium, I felt an urge to find a way to refit our project to adapt to the challenges of the day.
OperaWire: Q & A: David Stern on Opera Fuoco’s New Opera Mini-Series ‘Figaro in the City’
David Stern’s opera company, Opera Fuoco, recently released a 14-part online series of “The Marriage of Figaro” which is set in 2020.
The series was created in response to the new technological developments and the new streaming era of opera which has grown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stern is a firm believer that in the Netflix-era, people want/need to be able to consume the arts in smaller bites. As a result, the new series was created and stars members of Opera Fuoco’s Young Artist Program and world-renowned singer Laurent Naouri.
OperaWire had a chance to speak with Stern about the new series, the filming process, and the challenges of making an opera show.
France 24: Arena rock? Palm Beach says try arena opera
With the pandemic forcing most stages to go virtual, the Palm Beach Opera is embracing its tropical weather and holding an outdoor festival.
The company is expecting to host some 1,000 people per show at their series kicking off this weekend starting with the classic "La Boheme" -- the largest-scale opera with an audience in the United States since the pandemic essentially shut down live performance nearly a year ago.
The Strad: Why we should all be violists
What is a viola?
Walking down the street, meeting strangers the conversation often goes ‘So you play the violin?’
‘No, actually it is a viola.’
‘A WHAT??’
‘Well, it’s an instrument bigger than the violin, smaller than a cello.’
‘Oh, I see …. never heard of it! Good luck with THAT!’
As I write this, spell check is not allowing me to write the word ‘violist’, suggesting the word ‘violinist’ as a possible fix. Funnily enough, I too never heard of it when growing up in Taiwan 30 years ago. We young musicians were given the option to pick a second instrument as we entered the 4th grade. Knowing only that I didn’t want to play the violin like everyone else, I opted to play something that the orchestra needed. They offered me either the oboe or the viola. We had no idea what a viola was, but my father thought playing the oboe did not look too appealing, so the viola was what we settled on.
“Listening to the Future” Documentary Highlights the Success of Chinese Contemporary Music
The Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing (CCOM)—founder of the Chinese Music Composition Center and a driving force in the global success of Chinese contemporary music— releases a documentary about the Chinese music of today: “Listening to the Future.” The 30-minute film chronicles the Central Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra of Beijing’s Carnegie Hall debut and celebrates initiatives propelling Chinese Contemporary Music forward.