The Denver Post: Your summer guide to the fine arts in Colorado
Colorado’s fine-arts calendar is rich in the coming months with an abundance of high-level live performances and gallery exhibitions. We looked across the state and assembled this list of offerings with serious potential.
The Denver Post
Ray Mark Rinaldi
The Philadelphia Orchestra with Hilary Hahn
(Bravo! Vail Music Festival, July 12)
Philadelphia Orchestra music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a true podium star, and his presence with the ensemble this summer in Vail is especially promising. The orchestra is set to perform Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3, a work that was the highlight of its 2022 Grammy Award-winning recording. Even better: The evening features popular soloist Hilary Hahn, who will take on the thrill ride that is Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
New York Philharmonic Orchestra with Marin Alsop and Yunchan Lim
(Bravo! Vail, July 26)
The classical world’s personality of the moment is no doubt Yunchan Lim, who in 2022 — at the age of 18 — became the youngest-ever winner of the legendary Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. On this night, he will perform Rachmaninoff’s difficult Piano Concerto No. 3, while local fave Marin Alsop conducts from the podium. It’s a swell combo and just the kind of program that makes Vail a special place.
Read more here.
Pianist Magazine: Getting to Know: Illia Ovcharenko
Back in October, Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko was named Prize Laureate of the prestigious 2022 Honens International Piano Competition. He walked home that day with 100,000 (CAD) and an Artist Development Program valued at a half-million dollars. Over half a year later, he is thriving and is enjoying his playing more than ever.
Pianist Magazine
By Ellie Palmer
Back in October, Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko was named Prize Laureate of the prestigious 2022 Honens International Piano Competition. He walked home that day with 100,000 (CAD) and an Artist Development Program valued at a half-million dollars. Over half a year later, he is thriving and is enjoying his playing more than ever. Below he opens up on his experiences in Canada, his Carnegie Hall debut, and how he balances his fast-paced lifestyle...
How has winning the Honens International Piano Competition changed your life?
I am often lost [for] words when trying to describe how my life has changed since winning the Honens International Piano Competition. It was changed drastically! It truly feels like a beginning of a new chapter in my life as a musician. Most of the time I am either on a plane or in front of the piano and I must say, I love it! The best part is performing and being on stage as well as always preparing for something.
Read more here.
New Sounds: A Deep Dive: Music For the Bottom of the Ocean
Hear an hour of music that dives deep into the ocean where sunlight doesn’t reach, with work by Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, composer and violinist Matt McBane with Sandbox Percussion, French harpist and composer Laura Peruddin, and Berlin-based composer and audio technologist Floating Spectrum.
New Sounds
By John Schaefer
Hear an hour of music that dives deep into the ocean where sunlight doesn’t reach, with work by Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, composer and violinist Matt McBane with Sandbox Percussion, French harpist and composer Laura Peruddin, and Berlin-based composer and audio technologist Floating Spectrum.
…Then, listen to some of composer, producer, and violinist Matt McBane’s collaboration with Sandbox Percussion, Bathymetry -inspired by the ocean floor and a “reference to how bass synthesizers affect percussive sounds, mimicking how the ocean floor shapes the waves above,” (National Sawdust.)
Read more here.
The New York Times: Review: Yunchan Lim, Teenage Piano Star, Arrives in New York
The 19-year-old musician made his New York Philharmonic debut with a powerful yet poetic performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto.
“He plays like a dream,” we say about musicians we like, meaning simply that they’re very good.
But when I say that Yunchan Lim, the 19-year-old pianist who made a galvanizing debut with the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall on Wednesday, played like a dream, I mean something more literal.
I mean that there was, in his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, the juxtaposition of precise clarity and expansive reverie; the vivid scenes and bursts of wit; the sense of contrasting yet organically developing moods; the endless and persuasive bendings of time — the qualities that tend to characterize nighttime wanderings of the mind.
The New York Times
By Zachary Woolfe
The 19-year-old musician made his New York Philharmonic debut with a powerful yet poetic performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto.
“He plays like a dream,” we say about musicians we like, meaning simply that they’re very good.
But when I say that Yunchan Lim, the 19-year-old pianist who made a galvanizing debut with the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall on Wednesday, played like a dream, I mean something more literal.
I mean that there was, in his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, the juxtaposition of precise clarity and expansive reverie; the vivid scenes and bursts of wit; the sense of contrasting yet organically developing moods; the endless and persuasive bendings of time — the qualities that tend to characterize nighttime wanderings of the mind.
This dreamy concert was among Lim’s first major professional performances outside his native South Korea, though he is already world-famous for this concerto. His blazing account of it secured his victory last June as the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition’s youngest-ever winner, and the video of that appearance has been viewed millions of times on YouTube.
Read more here.
Photo Credit: Chris Lee
Playbill: National Children's Chorus Makes Carnegie Hall Solo Debut May 6
The concert previews music the Grammy-winning group is set to record at London's Abbey Road Studios this summer.
The Grammy-winning National Children's Chorus makes its solo concert debut at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage May 6 at 3 PM. The concert, titled Voices of Action, Creating a World of Belonging, previews music the group is set to record at London's famed Abbey Road Studios this summer, part of their forthcoming holiday music album.
Playbill
By Logan Culwell-Block
The concert previews music the Grammy-winning group is set to record at London's Abbey Road Studios this summer.
The Grammy-winning National Children's Chorus makes its solo concert debut at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage May 6 at 3 PM. The concert, titled Voices of Action, Creating a World of Belonging, previews music the group is set to record at London's famed Abbey Road Studios this summer, part of their forthcoming holiday music album.
The multi-cultural offerings include the world premieres of Gaayatri Kaundinya's"Diya Jalein," the Spanish lullaby "A La Nanita Nana" by Carlos Cordero, Andy Beck's arrangement of the Nigerian carol "Betelehemu," and André J. Thomas and Langston Hughes' "I Dream a World," along with works by Sharon Farber, Ola Gjeilo, and Eric Whitacre.
The ensemble, made up of young singers aged 10 to 18, is led by conductors Luke McEndarfer, Dr. Pamela Blackstone, Dr. Allan Laiño, and Dr. Nicholas Nicassio.
Read more here.
San Francisco Classical Voice: Anne Akiko Meyers Brings Fandango to Symphony San José
Symphony San José’s concert on May 6 at the California Theatre featured Anne Akiko Meyers as soloist in Mexican composer Arturo Márquez’s new violin concerto, Fandango. Meyers requested the work from Márquez and gave the first performance, with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in August 2021. Since then, she has been taking the piece around on her guest appearances.
So it’s fortunate that when San José’s intended guest conductor, Tatsuya Shimono, withdrew for personal reasons less than two weeks before the concert, the Symphony was able to secure José Luis Gómez, music director of the Tucson Symphony, as a replacement. He had conducted Meyers in this same concerto in a Tucson program last September.
San Francisco Classical Voice
By David Bratman
Symphony San José’s concert on May 6 at the California Theatre featured Anne Akiko Meyers as soloist in Mexican composer Arturo Márquez’s new violin concerto, Fandango. Meyers requested the work from Márquez and gave the first performance, with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in August 2021. Since then, she has been taking the piece around on her guest appearances.
So it’s fortunate that when San José’s intended guest conductor, Tatsuya Shimono, withdrew for personal reasons less than two weeks before the concert, the Symphony was able to secure José Luis Gómez, music director of the Tucson Symphony, as a replacement. He had conducted Meyers in this same concerto in a Tucson program last September.
Meyers had been inspired to approach Márquez after hearing the composer’s Danzón No. 2, a boundlessly joyful expression of the character of Veracruz’s dance music that’s become something of a signature piece for Dudamel. Meyers hoped that Márquez could import something of the same spirit into a violin concerto. It turned out that the composer, whose father was a mariachi violinist, had already been thinking along those lines.
Read more here.
Photo Credit: Allen Murabayashi
WRTI: Michelle Cann shines a light with 'Revival: Music of Price & Bonds'
Philadelphia’s own Michelle Cann is one of the world’s most prominent performers of Florence Price’s piano music, and by far the go-to pianist for performances of Price’s Concerto in One Movement. Last year she released two albums featuring Price’s music, one of which won a Grammy award. Revival: Music of Price & Bonds gathers some of Price’s solo piano music alongside the recently published completion of a work by Margaret Bonds, one of Price’s star students. It’s an all-Philly affair: Cann is the Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, and this is the second release on its new label, Curtis Studio.
WRTI
By John T.K. Scherch
Philadelphia’s own Michelle Cann is one of the world’s most prominent performers of Florence Price’s piano music, and by far the go-to pianist for performances of Price’s Concerto in One Movement. Last year she released two albums featuring Price’s music, one of which won a Grammy award. Revival: Music of Price & Bonds gathers some of Price’s solo piano music alongside the recently published completion of a work by Margaret Bonds, one of Price’s star students. It’s an all-Philly affair: Cann is the Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, and this is the second release on its new label, Curtis Studio.
Read more here.
I Care If You Listen: Dai Wei Finds Freedom in Expression in Unconventional Career, with New Orchestral Commission
Dai Wei was a timid child with a giant tape recorder in her room. At age 11, she started recording herself singing and strumming guitar onto a blank cassette, the tape recorder as her personal diary. When her mother discovered the secret tape, Dai Wei felt that she had done something wrong. Fortunately, her mother was supportive and encouraged her to keep pursuing music.
I Care If You Listen
By Chrysanthe Tane
Dai Wei was a timid child with a giant tape recorder in her room. At age 11, she started recording herself singing and strumming guitar onto a blank cassette, the tape recorder as her personal diary. When her mother discovered the secret tape, Dai Wei felt that she had done something wrong. Fortunately, her mother was supportive and encouraged her to keep pursuing music.
…
With support from Allen R. and Judy Brick Freedman, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra recently commissioned a new orchestral work from Dai Wei for their first-ever West Coast tour (coming up May 12-22). Dai Wei’s idea for Awakening Lion began with the simple realization that she had never represented her Cantonese identity in music before. With that as her starting point, she approached the composition “like a chef,” grabbing different ingredients — short sounds, ideas, and motives — to support the concept of a Cantonese Lion Dance. One of the ingredients in the piece is having two cellists evoke a guqin by plucking their strings with a guitar pick. Another is having the orchestra imitate martial arts calls by shouting “oooooooo a-HA!” “I aimed to provoke the spirit of the awakening lion,” Dai Wei said, “the inner strength which presents in everyone, regardless of where we come from, who we love, or our gender.”
Read more here.
Photo Credit: Sha Tao
Oregon Arts Watch: All Classical On the Move
The term “classical music radio” suggests revered, decades-old recordings of music by familiar, long-dead composers. You wouldn’t expect to associate it with 21st century music, Oregon performers and composers, young audiences, or, really, innovation. But while Portland’s All Classical radio’s airwaves and internet streams still abound with recordings of Old Masters, and likely always will, the station has lately been going way beyond its increasingly inaccurate name.
Oregon Arts Watch
By Brett Campbell
Portland’s ambitious, forward-looking classical music radio station is expanding its scope, creating space for live performances, and relocating to downtown Portland.
The term “classical music radio” suggests revered, decades-old recordings of music by familiar, long-dead composers. You wouldn’t expect to associate it with 21st century music, Oregon performers and composers, young audiences, or, really, innovation. But while Portland’s All Classical radio’s airwaves and internet streams still abound with recordings of Old Masters, and likely always will, the station has lately been going way beyond its increasingly inaccurate name.
And now, as its 40th anniversary approaches, the “independent, community-funded radio station and multimedia platform” (to use its own description) is moving even farther afield — literally. It’s crossing the Rubicon, or at least the Willamette, relocating its operations from the Portland Opera building on the east bank to an office tower in the heart of downtown Portland, and creating new, state-of-the-art production studios for broadcast, video, recordings, and live performances of music and theater by Oregon artists. Construction is underway, with the move-in expected in early 2024.
Read more here.
The New York Times: Illuminating Rachmaninoff’s Vespers, a Pinnacle of Russian Sacred Rep
In a classical music world obsessed with anniversaries, be they grand or modest, the 150th birthday of the Russian émigré composer Sergei Rachmaninoff has inevitably drawn notice. Just as inevitably, commemorations have tended to focus on his war horses: the symphonies, piano concertos and solo piano works.
It seems to have fallen to Steven Fox and his excellent choirs to tend to Rachmaninoff’s motley but treasurable body of choral works. The sacred ones, particularly — with their flowing yet restrained lyricism and none of the bombast or sentimentality often associated with the composer — represent the very best of Rachmaninoff.
The New York Times
By James R. Oestreich
Steven Fox and the Clarion Choir are tending to a less well-known part of the composer’s canon for his 150th birthday: His choral works.
In a classical music world obsessed with anniversaries, be they grand or modest, the 150th birthday of the Russian émigré composer Sergei Rachmaninoff has inevitably drawn notice. Just as inevitably, commemorations have tended to focus on his war horses: the symphonies, piano concertos and solo piano works.
It seems to have fallen to Steven Fox and his excellent choirs to tend to Rachmaninoff’s motley but treasurable body of choral works. The sacred ones, particularly — with their flowing yet restrained lyricism and none of the bombast or sentimentality often associated with the composer — represent the very best of Rachmaninoff.
On Wednesday, Fox, the artistic director of the New York-based Clarion Music Society, will return to his alma mater — Dartmouth College, in Hanover, N.H. — to lead the Clarion Choir in Rachmaninoff’s exquisite All-Night Vigil, a pinnacle of the rich Russian Orthodox repertory. They will repeat the performance on Friday at Carnegie Hall.
Read more here.