New York Classical Review: Clarion Choir soars in spiritual rarity to open Rachmaninoff 150 year
It seems likely that, when the Sergei Rachmaninoff sesquicentennial year of 2023 has run its course, we will find that (with apologies to Joni Mitchell), we looked at Rachmaninoff from both sides now, and we really didn’t know Rachmaninoff at all.
Clarion Choir, jumping the gun by a few hours on New Year’s Eve, introduced a Rachmaninoff relatively few people know with an uplifting performance of his work for unaccompanied chorus, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, in the visually splendid sanctuary of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral on East 74th Street. (A repeat performance New Year’s Day will usher in the celebratory year.)
Was the composer of these static, endlessly-circling choral harmonies really the same person who set the standard for rugged athleticism at the piano? Could the composer who inspired a thousand Hollywood love scenes also liberate one’s spirit from corporeal existence?
New York Classical Review
By David Wright
It seems likely that, when the Sergei Rachmaninoff sesquicentennial year of 2023 has run its course, we will find that (with apologies to Joni Mitchell), we looked at Rachmaninoff from both sides now, and we really didn’t know Rachmaninoff at all.
Clarion Choir, jumping the gun by a few hours on New Year’s Eve, introduced a Rachmaninoff relatively few people know with an uplifting performance of his work for unaccompanied chorus, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, in the visually splendid sanctuary of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral on East 74th Street. (A repeat performance New Year’s Day will usher in the celebratory year.)
Was the composer of these static, endlessly-circling choral harmonies really the same person who set the standard for rugged athleticism at the piano? Could the composer who inspired a thousand Hollywood love scenes also liberate one’s spirit from corporeal existence?
Read more here.
The New York Times: 5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to Right Now
In this program — of works by Tania León, Alvin Singleton, Julia Wolfe, David Sanford, Allison Loggins-Hull and Valerie Coleman — none of the music is on autopilot.
Singleton, born in 1940, is the oldest composer represented; his music should be heard in concert halls more frequently. Jennifer Grim’s take on “Argoru III,” for solo flute, digs in to his melodic gifts, as well as his feel for textural variation within five concise minutes. Similarly wide-ranging is León’s “Alma” — the lyrical opening of which follows a winding, entertaining path toward the bumptious rhythmic fillips of its central section. And in Coleman’s “Wish Sonatine,” a work inspired by a Fred D’Aguiar poem about the Middle Passage, the composer navigates between episodes of horror and moments of communal purpose with narrative drive.
The New York Times
‘Through Broken Time’
Jennifer Grim, flute; Michael Sheppard, piano (New Focus)
In this program — of works by Tania León, Alvin Singleton, Julia Wolfe, David Sanford, Allison Loggins-Hull and Valerie Coleman — none of the music is on autopilot.
Singleton, born in 1940, is the oldest composer represented; his music should be heard in concert halls more frequently. Jennifer Grim’s take on “Argoru III,” for solo flute, digs in to his melodic gifts, as well as his feel for textural variation within five concise minutes. Similarly wide-ranging is León’s “Alma” — the lyrical opening of which follows a winding, entertaining path toward the bumptious rhythmic fillips of its central section. And in Coleman’s “Wish Sonatine,” a work inspired by a Fred D’Aguiar poem about the Middle Passage, the composer navigates between episodes of horror and moments of communal purpose with narrative drive.
Read more here.
New Sounds: Keyboard and "Percussion"
Hear music with piano and percussion of ALL kinds - from the inside of a piano with preparations, flower pots, ping pong balls, bowed vibraphone, and even echolocation by an endangered species of bat in works by Matt McBane and Sandbox Percussion, American composer Ellen Reid and the L.A. Percussion Quartet, and Andrew McIntosh for Yarn/Wire.
Listen to some of composer, producer, and violinist Matt McBane’s collaboration with Sandbox Percussion, Bathymetry -a “reference to how bass synthesizers affect percussive sounds, mimicking how the ocean floor shapes the waves above,” (National Sawdust event page.) McBane and Sandbox use monophonic Moog analog synthesizer, found instrument percussion (mixing bowls, ping pong balls, glass bottles), orchestral percussion and drum sets, drawing on minimalism and achieving something close to ambient music to evoke the mysterious underwater depths.
New Sounds
By John Schaefer
Hear music with piano and percussion of ALL kinds - from the inside of a piano with preparations, flower pots, ping pong balls, bowed vibraphone, and even echolocation by an endangered species of bat in works by Matt McBane and Sandbox Percussion, American composer Ellen Reid and the L.A. Percussion Quartet, and Andrew McIntosh for Yarn/Wire.
Listen to some of composer, producer, and violinist Matt McBane’s collaboration with Sandbox Percussion, Bathymetry -a “reference to how bass synthesizers affect percussive sounds, mimicking how the ocean floor shapes the waves above,” (National Sawdust event page.) McBane and Sandbox use monophonic Moog analog synthesizer, found instrument percussion (mixing bowls, ping pong balls, glass bottles), orchestral percussion and drum sets, drawing on minimalism and achieving something close to ambient music to evoke the mysterious underwater depths.
Read more here.
Broadway World: Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA to Present Inaugural Vancouver USA Music And Arts Festival in 2023
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA will present its inaugural Vancouver USA Music and Arts Festival celebrating music and art inspired by America, spanning three days from Friday, August 4 through Sunday, August 6.
The multidisciplinary art festival features performances from the VSO conducted by VSO Music Director, internationally renowned composer and conductor Maestro Salvador Brotons and Maestro Gerard Schwarz. Known as a champion of American composers, Gerard Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades in his five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor including 9 Emmy Awards, 14 GRAMMY nominations, 8 ASCAP Awards, and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation Awards, in addition to being the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America. Renowned guest soloists include violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, pianist Orli Shaham, and the genre-defying trio Time for Three. Presented in close collaboration with the city of Vancouver and Vancouver Downtown Association, the Festival is made possible by the $600,000 grant awarded to the VSO by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust for program expansion to engage performing and visual arts patrons.
Broadway World
By Chloe Rabinowitz
The three-day multidisciplinary celebration of American and American-adjacent music and art will take place August 4-6, 2023.
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA will present its inaugural Vancouver USA Music and Arts Festival celebrating music and art inspired by America, spanning three days from Friday, August 4 through Sunday, August 6.
The multidisciplinary art festival features performances from the VSO conducted by VSO Music Director, internationally renowned composer and conductor Maestro Salvador Brotons and Maestro Gerard Schwarz. Known as a champion of American composers, Gerard Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades in his five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor including 9 Emmy Awards, 14 GRAMMY nominations, 8 ASCAP Awards, and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation Awards, in addition to being the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America. Renowned guest soloists include violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, pianist Orli Shaham, and the genre-defying trio Time for Three. Presented in close collaboration with the city of Vancouver and Vancouver Downtown Association, the Festival is made possible by the $600,000 grant awarded to the VSO by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust for program expansion to engage performing and visual arts patrons.
Read more here.
The Strad: Andy Akiho: Oculus
Strings and percussion unite in a striking tree-inspired project
Now based between Portland, Oregon, and New York, composer and percussionist Andy Akiho had an unusual first-study instrument at college: the steel pan. It shows: there’s a sense of rhythmic and melodic drive that gives his music an immediately identifiable character, assured and accessible, but uncompromisingly complex, too, certainly in its restless metric modulations, shifting emphases and almost cartoonish exuberance, like a mix of PhD-level maths and grinning frat-boy humour.
They’re all qualities deeply embedded in this inspiring and brilliantly entertaining new disc of Akiho’s music, with a theme of wood and natural growth running through it. His LigNEouS Suite gets its arboreal name from the material predominantly employed in its unusual instrumentation of marimba and string quartet, with Akiho expanding his rich sound palette even further with scratchy string tones, snap pizzicatos and clattering, headless marimba mallets. It’s a joyfully extrovert piece, full of pulsing rhythms and big build-ups, but also subtle and cannily judged in its organic development of ideas. Though Ian Rosenbaum’s marimba is quite forwardly placed, the Dover Quartet gives a blisteringly intense performance, so crisp and precise that it sounds almost machine-made, with wheezing, bandoneón-like chords in the slower second movement and gradually unfolding quasi-Expressionist melodies in the fourth. It’s a startlingly accomplished, fiercely committed account.
The Strad
By David Kettle
Strings and percussion unite in a striking tree-inspired project
Now based between Portland, Oregon, and New York, composer and percussionist Andy Akiho had an unusual first-study instrument at college: the steel pan. It shows: there’s a sense of rhythmic and melodic drive that gives his music an immediately identifiable character, assured and accessible, but uncompromisingly complex, too, certainly in its restless metric modulations, shifting emphases and almost cartoonish exuberance, like a mix of PhD-level maths and grinning frat-boy humour.
They’re all qualities deeply embedded in this inspiring and brilliantly entertaining new disc of Akiho’s music, with a theme of wood and natural growth running through it. His LigNEouS Suite gets its arboreal name from the material predominantly employed in its unusual instrumentation of marimba and string quartet, with Akiho expanding his rich sound palette even further with scratchy string tones, snap pizzicatos and clattering, headless marimba mallets. It’s a joyfully extrovert piece, full of pulsing rhythms and big build-ups, but also subtle and cannily judged in its organic development of ideas. Though Ian Rosenbaum’s marimba is quite forwardly placed, the Dover Quartet gives a blisteringly intense performance, so crisp and precise that it sounds almost machine-made, with wheezing, bandoneón-like chords in the slower second movement and gradually unfolding quasi-Expressionist melodies in the fourth. It’s a startlingly accomplished, fiercely committed account.
Read more here.
South Florida Classical Review: Schwarz leads the Frost Symphony in a fiery and relentless “Rite of Spring”
Since Gerard Schwarz joined the faculty of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in 2019, he has led the Frost Symphony Orchestra in some fine performances. But the American conductor exceeded all previous efforts with a thrilling rendition of Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps Saturday night at UM Gusman Concert Hall.
When Stravinsky’s ballet score premiered in Paris in 1913, a riot broke out in an audience shocked by the music’s dissonance and harmonic audacity. Almost one hundred and ten years later, The Rite of Spring can still can give listeners a jolt in the best possible way. Stravinsky’s score changed the course of music and Schwarz’s reading brought out the work’s daring originality and sweeping dynamism.
South Florida Classical Review
By Lawrence Budmen
Since Gerard Schwarz joined the faculty of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in 2019, he has led the Frost Symphony Orchestra in some fine performances. But the American conductor exceeded all previous efforts with a thrilling rendition of Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps Saturday night at UM Gusman Concert Hall.
When Stravinsky’s ballet score premiered in Paris in 1913, a riot broke out in an audience shocked by the music’s dissonance and harmonic audacity. Almost one hundred and ten years later, The Rite of Spring can still can give listeners a jolt in the best possible way. Stravinsky’s score changed the course of music and Schwarz’s reading brought out the work’s daring originality and sweeping dynamism.
Set to a scenario of a pagan rite with a sacrifice of a young woman, the music churns with primitive rhythms. Schwarz’s crisp pacing made every change of meter meticulously clear and precise. From the opening bassoon solo, wind details were lucidly projected and the brass roared in fierce tones without overpowering the full ensemble. Schwarz drew huge sonorities and astutely calibrated dynamics from the players, elucidating the shifting moods of Stravinsky’s creation.
Read more here.
Fifteen Questions: Sandbox Percussion about Interpretation
When did you first start getting interested in musical interpretation?
Jonny Allen: The concept of interpretation first really came across my radar in college. Up until that point, I was mostly concerned with playing the music as faithfully as possible. This often meant playing as similarly as I could to recordings I found.
Many of my musical experiences were in the drumline of a marching band, where interpretation is all about precision and consistency. Dynamics are measured in the number of inches your sticks come off the drum, rhythms are meticulously subdivided and played with the utmost exactitude.
Fifteen Questions
When did you first start getting interested in musical interpretation?
Jonny Allen: The concept of interpretation first really came across my radar in college. Up until that point, I was mostly concerned with playing the music as faithfully as possible. This often meant playing as similarly as I could to recordings I found.
Many of my musical experiences were in the drumline of a marching band, where interpretation is all about precision and consistency. Dynamics are measured in the number of inches your sticks come off the drum, rhythms are meticulously subdivided and played with the utmost exactitude.
I actually think this was a healthy first step, but in college I realized how much further the subject of interpretation goes. Can you have a unique interpretation? Should you do that and if so why?
Read more here.
South China Morning Post: ‘Elite’ string ensemble a showcase for Hong Kong’s musical talent, says founder Trey Lee
On November 26, a Hong Kong string ensemble will make its debut at Musicus Fest’s 10th anniversary concert, a celebration of classical music launched in the city in 2013 by the cellist Trey Lee.
The ensemble, Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, intends to help its young members stand out as individual performers and nurture their careers, according to Lee.
For the past 10 years, as well as staging the Musicus Fest, Lee’s Musicus Society charity has tirelessly championed home-grown talent and taken classical music to Hong Kong schools through education programmes, the commissioning of new works and concerts around the world.
South China Morning Post
By Enid Tsui
On November 26, a Hong Kong string ensemble will make its debut at Musicus Fest’s 10th anniversary concert, a celebration of classical music launched in the city in 2013 by the cellist Trey Lee.
The ensemble, Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, intends to help its young members stand out as individual performers and nurture their careers, according to Lee.
For the past 10 years, as well as staging the Musicus Fest, Lee’s Musicus Society charity has tirelessly championed home-grown talent and taken classical music to Hong Kong schools through education programmes, the commissioning of new works and concerts around the world.
Read more here.
Stir: Focused on authenticity, Juilliard String Quartet comes to Vancouver
Quirkiness and emotion characterize the venerated ensemble’s concert program, with epic works by Beethoven and Widmann
YOU COULD SAY that violist Molly Carr is under just a little bit of pressure as the newest member of Juilliard String Quartet. After all, the ensemble celebrating its 75th anniversary this year is, according to The Boston Globe, “the most important American quartet in history”.
Mind you, the recitalist, chamber musician, and educator has been described as “one of the most interesting interpreters of the viola today” (Codalario Spain), praised for performances that are “intoxicating” (The New York Times) and “ravishing” (The Strad). Carr has been recognized at the United Nations for her work with refugees and honoured for her work in prisons as the founding director of Project: Music Heals Us, a non-profit that brings free chamber music performances to marginalized populations with limited access to the arts.
Stir
By Gail Johnson
Quirkiness and emotion characterize the venerated ensemble’s concert program, with epic works by Beethoven and Widmann
YOU COULD SAY that violist Molly Carr is under just a little bit of pressure as the newest member of Juilliard String Quartet. After all, the ensemble celebrating its 75th anniversary this year is, according to The Boston Globe, “the most important American quartet in history”.
Mind you, the recitalist, chamber musician, and educator has been described as “one of the most interesting interpreters of the viola today” (Codalario Spain), praised for performances that are “intoxicating” (The New York Times) and “ravishing” (The Strad). Carr has been recognized at the United Nations for her work with refugees and honoured for her work in prisons as the founding director of Project: Music Heals Us, a non-profit that brings free chamber music performances to marginalized populations with limited access to the arts.
Carr’s fellow JSQ musicians—violinist Areta Zhulla, violinist Ronald Copes, and cellist Astrid Schween—have a stunning list of accolades each their own. In stepping into her new role, Carr tries not to focus on the sky-high level of expectations associated with it.
Read more here.
Photo Credit: Erin Baiano
BBC Music Magazine: Musical Destination: Sun Valley, Idaho
This summer Charlotte Smith attended Sun Valley’s acclaimed Music Festival, where she discovered a region of unrivalled, rugged beauty.
Flying into Friedman Memorial Airport, the gateway to Sun Valley, is a truly dazzling experience. The Bald and Dollar Rockies slowly rise up to dominate the skyline – and if you’re lucky enough to be touching down during a summer sunset, the pink- and orange-hued sky above the sparsely populated pine-covered landscape is a wonder to behold.
…
For classical music lovers, however, the biggest draw is the Sun Valley Music Festival – the largest privately funded admission-free classical music festival in the US, boasting Summer and Winter seasons, online broadcasts and a Music Institute catering for local school children and budding professionals with tuition-free initiatives and masterclasses.
BBC Music Magazine
By Charlotte Smith
This summer Charlotte Smith attended Sun Valley’s acclaimed Music Festival, where she discovered a region of unrivalled, rugged beauty.
Flying into Friedman Memorial Airport, the gateway to Sun Valley, is a truly dazzling experience. The Bald and Dollar Rockies slowly rise up to dominate the skyline – and if you’re lucky enough to be touching down during a summer sunset, the pink- and orange-hued sky above the sparsely populated pine-covered landscape is a wonder to behold.
Sun Valley is a resort city in Blaine County, Idaho – and the name used colloquially for the larger surrounding region, including the neighbouring town of Ketchum and the Wood River Valley area, encompassing Hailey and Bellevue. It is largely famous as a skiing destination during the winter months: the slopes of ‘Baldy’ and Dollar provide the perfect combination of uninterrupted verticals for expert sportsmen and gentler inclines for beginners, all bathed in brilliant, cloud-free sunshine for much of the year. The summer months, too, offer ample activities for outdoor enthusiasts, including hiking, biking, fly-fishing, golf, horse riding, sport shooting – and ice skating on an open-air rink kept permanently chilled, even on days of over 40C.
But it’s not just sport that thrives here – literature and the arts have long been associated with the region. Hollywood royalty has frequently visited, including the likes of Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Lucille Ball and Marilyn Monroe – while Richard Dreyfuss, Clint Eastwood, Janet Leigh and Batman’s Adam West can be counted among its famous residents past and present. And, of course, there’s writer Ernest Hemingway, who bought a house in Ketchum, in which he lived for the final two years of his life.
For classical music lovers, however, the biggest draw is the Sun Valley Music Festival – the largest privately funded admission-free classical music festival in the US, boasting Summer and Winter seasons, online broadcasts and a Music Institute catering for local school children and budding professionals with tuition-free initiatives and masterclasses.
Read more here.
Photo credits: Caroline Woodham