I Care If You Listen: 5 Questions to Nick DiBerardino (composer)
Composer Nick DiBerardino writes music that draws upon programmatic themes, like his percussion quartet Gossamer, a musical reflection on a Walt Whitman poem, or his string quartet Beet Juice, which explores how the vegetable increases our body’s ability to produce energy from oxygen. At the Curtis Institute of Music, DiBerardino is the Chair of Composition and Director of Ensemble 20/21, which focuses on music of the 20th and 21st centuries. In this role, DiBerardino creatively highlights different composers and contemporary music styles by curating programs that span the giants of the past century to living composers from all parts of the globe.
For the 2023-24 season, Ensemble 20/21 will explore Curtis’ macro-theme of “Music of the Earth” through the lens of ecologically-conscious composers such as John Luther Adams, Raven Chacon, Allison Loggins-Hull, Gulli Bjornsson, Luciano Berio, and Curtis alumna Gabriella Smith. The program looks at our world through folklore, culture, and natural themes, and offers a rich addition to Ensemble 20/21’s exciting upcoming season at Curtis.
I Care If You LIsten
By Anne Goldberg-Baldwin
Composer Nick DiBerardino writes music that draws upon programmatic themes, like his percussion quartet Gossamer, a musical reflection on a Walt Whitman poem, or his string quartet Beet Juice, which explores how the vegetable increases our body’s ability to produce energy from oxygen. At the Curtis Institute of Music, DiBerardino is the Chair of Composition and Director of Ensemble 20/21, which focuses on music of the 20th and 21st centuries. In this role, DiBerardino creatively highlights different composers and contemporary music styles by curating programs that span the giants of the past century to living composers from all parts of the globe.
For the 2023-24 season, Ensemble 20/21 will explore Curtis’ macro-theme of “Music of the Earth” through the lens of ecologically-conscious composers such as John Luther Adams, Raven Chacon, Allison Loggins-Hull, Gulli Bjornsson, Luciano Berio, and Curtis alumna Gabriella Smith. The program looks at our world through folklore, culture, and natural themes, and offers a rich addition to Ensemble 20/21’s exciting upcoming season at Curtis.
What drew you to Curtis, and what do you enjoy most about leading Ensemble 20/21?
My first experience with Curtis was as an audience member. This was about a decade ago, when I drove down to Philadelphia to hear new music for orchestra by Curtis’ student composers. I expected the concert to be good, but I wasn’t prepared for what I actually experienced. I left with my jaw on the floor — I was stunned by the caliber of the orchestra, and I was also surprised to hear the wide-ranging aesthetic languages of Curtis’ composers. Each composer had something distinctly personal to say, and the orchestra brought all that music to life with a special energy and commitment.
Read more here.
Your Classical: Pianist Michelle Cann explores the music of Bonds and Price in 'Revival'
Pianist Michelle Cann has had a pretty incredible journey. Her path into the world of piano led her to the Cleveland Institute and the Curtis Institute of Music, which is where she teaches. In 2022, she was the recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence. Now, her journey goes down another life-changing path with the release of her debut recording, Revival: Music of Price and Bonds.
“Growing up, I didn't play any music by any Black composers other than church music. Nothing in the classical field was really ever assigned to me. I wasn't really aware of anyone except for Scott Joplin,” Cann says. “And it wasn't until 2016 that I was introduced to the Florence Price Piano Concerto and I was asked to play it. I'd never heard of her, never heard of the piece, and I read through it. You can only imagine that moment and put yourself in my shoes. I've never been aware of somebody like her in this field.
Your Classical
By Julie Amacher
Pianist Michelle Cann has had a pretty incredible journey. Her path into the world of piano led her to the Cleveland Institute and the Curtis Institute of Music, which is where she teaches. In 2022, she was the recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence. Now, her journey goes down another life-changing path with the release of her debut recording, Revival: Music of Price and Bonds.
“Growing up, I didn't play any music by any Black composers other than church music. Nothing in the classical field was really ever assigned to me. I wasn't really aware of anyone except for Scott Joplin,” Cann says. “And it wasn't until 2016 that I was introduced to the Florence Price Piano Concerto and I was asked to play it. I'd never heard of her, never heard of the piece, and I read through it. You can only imagine that moment and put yourself in my shoes. I've never been aware of somebody like her in this field.
Read more here.
Jackson Hole News & Guide: Music festival jumpstarts Friday
The Grand Teton Music Festival is entering its 62nd summer season and continues to provide unprecedented access to classical music for the Jackson community.
This summer, the goal for GTMF is clear: Bring as much music as possible to as many people as possible.
“Music is for everyone,” said Emma Kail, executive director of GTMF, “especially the music we offer at the music festival.”
This season will stretch eight weeks, from Friday to Aug. 19, with 220 classical musicians from 75 major orchestras and 55 educational institutions participating. It will start with Beethoven, Bruch and Mendelssohn by the festival orchestra with Grammy-award winning violinist James Ehnes. It will end with a semi-staged production of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. Music Director Donald Runnicles once again helms the orchestra.
Jackson Hole News & Guide
By Dillon Hanna
The Grand Teton Music Festival is entering its 62nd summer season and continues to provide unprecedented access to classical music for the Jackson community.
This summer, the goal for GTMF is clear: Bring as much music as possible to as many people as possible.
“Music is for everyone,” said Emma Kail, executive director of GTMF, “especially the music we offer at the music festival.”
This season will stretch eight weeks, from Friday to Aug. 19, with 220 classical musicians from 75 major orchestras and 55 educational institutions participating. It will start with Beethoven, Bruch and Mendelssohn by the festival orchestra with Grammy-award winning violinist James Ehnes. It will end with a semi-staged production of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. Music Director Donald Runnicles once again helms the orchestra.
Maestro Runnicles has also worked closely with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. His continued participation in the festival is but one indication of GTMF’s ever-spreading, international influence.
Read more here.
Vail Daily: Meet Your Musician Bravo! Vail Edition: Dover Quartet
Q: What is your name/your ensemble’s/orchestra’s name?
A: We are the Dover Quartet. We formed at the Curtis Institute of Music, and our name pays tribute to “Dover Beach” a song written by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber.
Q: What instrument(s) do you play?
A: Joel Link, violin; Bryan Lee, violin; Hezekiah Leung, viola; Camden Shaw, cello
Q: How long have you been performing? How long have you been with your current orchestra or ensemble?
A: We formed in 2008 with Joel, Bryan, and Camden as founding members. Hezekiah has been touring with the group this year and violist Julianne Lee will be joining the quartet in September 2023.
Vail Daily
By Tricia Swenson
Q: What is your name/your ensemble’s/orchestra’s name?
A: We are the Dover Quartet. We formed at the Curtis Institute of Music, and our name pays tribute to “Dover Beach” a song written by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber.
Q: What instrument(s) do you play?
A: Joel Link, violin; Bryan Lee, violin; Hezekiah Leung, viola; Camden Shaw, cello
Q: How long have you been performing? How long have you been with your current orchestra or ensemble?
A: We formed in 2008 with Joel, Bryan, and Camden as founding members. Hezekiah has been touring with the group this year and violist Julianne Lee will be joining the quartet in September 2023.
Q: How long have you been coming to the Bravo! Vail Music Festival?
A: Our first performance at Bravo! Vail was in 2014, and we look forward to visiting every time we get the opportunity! We’ve made some amazing memories here in the summertime.
Read more here.
BBC Music Magazine: Revival (Michelle Cann)
Acclaimed pianist Michelle Cann has long been a champion of African-American composer Florence Price, and this fine new recording brings together two substantial works by Price for solo piano alongside Margaret Bonds’s glorious Spiritual Suite.
BBC Music Magazine
By Kate Wakeling
Acclaimed pianist Michelle Cann has long been a champion of African-American composer Florence Price, and this fine new recording brings together two substantial works by Price for solo piano alongside Margaret Bonds’s glorious Spiritual Suite.
Born in Arkansas in 1887 in the midst of the Jim Crow segregation laws, Florence Price showed early talent at the piano and went on to forge a remarkable path as a composer. Her series of Fantasie nègre for solo piano (the first of which was premiered by a young Margaret Bonds), were composed across the 1930s and ’40s: they present a new musical genre which fused elements of European classical music with African-American spirituals. Each of the Fantasie nègre included here is intricately constructed, and Cann’s vivid performances bring out a terrific depth of emotion – among many such fine moments, the final rendition of the spiritual ‘Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass’ in No. 1 is breathtakingly powerful. Price’s Piano Sonata in E minor is every bit as accomplished and Cann’s reading is poised yet vital, drawing out the work’s vibrant polyrhythms and creating a wonderful sense of line in the luscious slow movement.
Read more here.
BBC Music Magazine: 'We must educate young musicians' ears and hearts' – violist Hsin-Yun Huang
Every time I take the train between New York and Philadelphia, I am reminded of my earliest days of train travel. First I was at the Menuhin School in the UK, travelling from Cobham to Wimbledon to play for my teacher, David Takeno. Later I travelled from Philadelphia to New York to play for Michael Tree when he didn’t have time in his schedule to visit the Curtis Institute, where I was a student.
My train time became sacred thinking time as I played a game with myself — am I going to face forward or backwards? I never knew and was delighted in the mystery revealing itself as the train departed.
BBC Music Magazine
Hsin-Yun Huang
The Juilliard School and Curtis Institute viola professor Hsin-Yun Huang reflects on music's cult of perfection
Every time I take the train between New York and Philadelphia, I am reminded of my earliest days of train travel. First I was at the Menuhin School in the UK, travelling from Cobham to Wimbledon to play for my teacher, David Takeno. Later I travelled from Philadelphia to New York to play for Michael Tree when he didn’t have time in his schedule to visit the Curtis Institute, where I was a student.
My train time became sacred thinking time as I played a game with myself — am I going to face forward or backwards? I never knew and was delighted in the mystery revealing itself as the train departed.
Forward and backward is exactly what we do in life and in music. Young people have the privilege of extraordinary excitement, keeping their dreams alive as they embrace an unknown journey ahead of them.
Older people have the privilege of experience: the wisdom not to repeat mistakes and live a life that is more intentional and conscious. Each day, we are our youngest selves as well as our oldest selves. This is such a good reminder for all of us, gifted as we are with this one life.
Read more here.
Vail Daily: Bravo! Vail Music Festival Welcomes Mexico’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in 2024
The Bravo! Vail Music Festival (Bravo! Vail) announces the debut of Mexico’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (the Orchestra) for a three-concert residency on June 20, 22 and 23, 2024, opening its 2024 Festival season. Led by Artistic Director and renowned Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, the acclaimed ensemble will be Bravo! Vail’s 2024 international chamber orchestra and the first Latin American orchestra featured at Bravo! Vail.
Vail Daily
The Bravo! Vail Music Festival (Bravo! Vail) announces the debut of Mexico’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (the Orchestra) for a three-concert residency on June 20, 22 and 23, 2024, opening its 2024 Festival season. Led by Artistic Director and renowned Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, the acclaimed ensemble will be Bravo! Vail’s 2024 international chamber orchestra and the first Latin American orchestra featured at Bravo! Vail.
“Since we started the international chamber orchestra residency at Bravo! Vail, I have dreamed of inviting my friend, the incredible Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, to bring the musicians from the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería to Vail,” said Anne-Marie McDermott, Artistic Director of Bravo! Vail. “Musically speaking, having performed with them many times, I can attest to the magical chemistry Carlos has with the players and the level of artistic commitment they bring to the incredibly wide range of music they perform. I simply can’t wait to welcome them.”
As part of its residency, the Orchestra will perform an expansive breadth of repertoire — from Beethoven and Haydn to leading Mexican and Latin American composers such as Pacho Flores, Gabriela Ortiz and Alberto Ginastera, and including Spaniards Joaquín Rodrigo and Manuel de Falla. Members of the Orchestra will also participate in education and engagement programs throughout Colorado’s Vail and Eagle River Valley communities.
Read more here.
The Washington Post: Classical music festivals feature Mother Nature as accompaniment
For nearly 40 years, this admission-free festival has been attracting persnickety listeners and unpicky picnickers to Sun Valley, Idaho. Music Director Alasdair Neale has lined up strong guest artists, including pianist Orli Shaham (July 30 and Aug. 3); mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Aug. 9 and 10); Stéphane Denève, the new director of the New World Symphony, conducting a concert of John Williams’s music (Aug. 12); pianist Yefim Bronfman (Aug. 14); and violinist Augustin Hadelich (Aug. 20 and 21).
The Washington Post
By Michael Andor Brodeur
Sun Valley Music Festival
For nearly 40 years, this admission-free festival has been attracting persnickety listeners and unpicky picnickers to Sun Valley, Idaho. Music Director Alasdair Neale has lined up strong guest artists, including pianist Orli Shaham (July 30 and Aug. 3); mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Aug. 9 and 10); Stéphane Denève, the new director of the New World Symphony, conducting a concert of John Williams’s music (Aug. 12); pianist Yefim Bronfman (Aug. 14); and violinist Augustin Hadelich (Aug. 20 and 21).
Read more here.
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.