NPR: Anne Akiko Meyers: Tiny Desk Concert
When violinist Anne Akiko Meyers walked into NPR headquarters, I half expected her to be flanked by bodyguards. After all, she was carrying a very rare instrument. Her Guarneri del Gesù "Vieuxtemps" violin, built in 1741, is worth at least $16 million. Instead, Meyers arrived only with a pair of publicists and the perceptive pianist Max Levinson. She seemed nonchalant about the fact that her fiddle is worth a fortune.
What matters, naturally, is how the instrument sounds and few can make a violin sing as sweetly as Meyers. The San Diego native was already performing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at age 11. Three years later she enrolled in New York's Juilliard School and at 18 cut the first of her 40-some albums.
NPR
By Tom Huizenga
When violinist Anne Akiko Meyers walked into NPR headquarters, I half expected her to be flanked by bodyguards. After all, she was carrying a very rare instrument. Her Guarneri del Gesù "Vieuxtemps" violin, built in 1741, is worth at least $16 million. Instead, Meyers arrived only with a pair of publicists and the perceptive pianist Max Levinson. She seemed nonchalant about the fact that her fiddle is worth a fortune.
What matters, naturally, is how the instrument sounds and few can make a violin sing as sweetly as Meyers. The San Diego native was already performing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at age 11. Three years later she enrolled in New York's Juilliard School and at 18 cut the first of her 40-some albums.
Read more here or watch below.
Arts and Culture Texas: WindSync turns 15: How does the Garden Grow?
Back in 2009, the music entrepreneurship movement was gathering steam and start-up ensembles were popping up everywhere. WindSync was one of them, and it immediately stood out with its innovative style. The nascent wind quintet, formed at Rice University’s Shepherd School, sought to challenge convention and engage audiences in a radically different way. They played in a standing position, often from memory, eliminating the music stand that separated performer and audience, thereby fostering an intimate environment where direct communication and engagement is not only possible but inevitable.
Arts and Culture Texas
By Sherry Cheng
Back in 2009, the music entrepreneurship movement was gathering steam and start-up ensembles were popping up everywhere. WindSync was one of them, and it immediately stood out with its innovative style. The nascent wind quintet, formed at Rice University’s Shepherd School, sought to challenge convention and engage audiences in a radically different way. They played in a standing position, often from memory, eliminating the music stand that separated performer and audience, thereby fostering an intimate environment where direct communication and engagement is not only possible but inevitable.
On and off the stage, the ensemble was interested in bringing chamber music for winds to the audience through inventive and interactive concert experiences. “These days we call it education and outreach,” explains Kara LaMoure, WindSync’s Artistic Director and bassoonist. “But basically they [the founding members] wanted to learn to communicate musical concepts to young people, and they wanted to have theatrical elements in the performance.”
Read more here.
Classical Voice North America: In A Sunny Vale Where Hemingway Sheltered, Free Concerts Resound
SUN VALLEY, Idaho — A couple of golden eagles wheeling across the sky offered a dramatic welcome during my inaugural visit to the Sun Valley Music Festival. Viewed on the drive into town from nearby Friedman Memorial Airport, these fabled messengers of Zeus complemented the stark majesty of Bald Mountain with their agile flight. The area’s most-prominent Rocky Mountain peak towers 9,150 feet into the heavens and has been beckoning serious ski lovers since the area was first promoted as a winter sport destination — part of a pioneering campaign by Union Pacific Railroad in the late 1930s.
“Baldy” and its less-elevated, ski beginner-friendly sibling Dollar Mountain stand guard over Sun Valley, forming an iconic backdrop to the Pavilion and adjacent lawn where the Sun Valley Music Festival each summer presents nearly a month’s worth of events. The Pavilion is situated alongside another Sun Valley landmark with powerful cultural associations: the storied Sun Valley Lodge, a linchpin in the aforementioned campaign, which has long been an attraction for literary pilgrims.
Classical Voice North America
By Thomas May
SUN VALLEY, Idaho — A couple of golden eagles wheeling across the sky offered a dramatic welcome during my inaugural visit to the Sun Valley Music Festival. Viewed on the drive into town from nearby Friedman Memorial Airport, these fabled messengers of Zeus complemented the stark majesty of Bald Mountain with their agile flight. The area’s most-prominent Rocky Mountain peak towers 9,150 feet into the heavens and has been beckoning serious ski lovers since the area was first promoted as a winter sport destination — part of a pioneering campaign by Union Pacific Railroad in the late 1930s.
“Baldy” and its less-elevated, ski beginner-friendly sibling Dollar Mountain stand guard over Sun Valley, forming an iconic backdrop to the Pavilion and adjacent lawn where the Sun Valley Music Festival each summer presents nearly a month’s worth of events. The Pavilion is situated alongside another Sun Valley landmark with powerful cultural associations: the storied Sun Valley Lodge, a linchpin in the aforementioned campaign, which has long been an attraction for literary pilgrims.
Read more here.
Northwest Reverb: Inaugural Vancouver Arts and Music Festival a smash hit!
The inaugural Vancouver Arts and Music Festival turned Esther Short Park into a magical, canopied landscape (August 4 -6). Kids jumped, climbed, slid, ran, and had a blast at the playground. People strolled into avenues of artisanal food vendors and galleries promoting the visual arts. The weather was downright perfect, and that contributed to the big turnout. The large lawn in front of the main stage was chock a block with blankets, low-profile chairs, and lots of people eager to hear the Vancouver Symphony and a lineup of international artists.
The orchestral portion of the festival featured Time for Three on Friday night (August 4), violinist Anne Akiko Meyers on Saturday evening (August 5), and pianist Orli Shaham on Sunday afternoon (August 6). VSO Music Director Salvador Brotons led the first concert, and Gerard Schwarz helmed the second and third concerts.
Northwest Reverb
By James Bash
The inaugural Vancouver Arts and Music Festival turned Esther Short Park into a magical, canopied landscape (August 4 -6). Kids jumped, climbed, slid, ran, and had a blast at the playground. People strolled into avenues of artisanal food vendors and galleries promoting the visual arts. The weather was downright perfect, and that contributed to the big turnout. The large lawn in front of the main stage was chock a block with blankets, low-profile chairs, and lots of people eager to hear the Vancouver Symphony and a lineup of international artists.
The orchestral portion of the festival featured Time for Three on Friday night (August 4), violinist Anne Akiko Meyers on Saturday evening (August 5), and pianist Orli Shaham on Sunday afternoon (August 6). VSO Music Director Salvador Brotons led the first concert, and Gerard Schwarz helmed the second and third concerts.
Introductory comments by prominent sponsors, including Lorin Dunlop of the Murdock Charitable Trust, which provided most of the funding for the extravaganza, welcomed festival goers to Vancouver’s living room. An historic airplane loudly buzzed overhead during before Brotons took the stage.
An ebullient Brotons led the hometown band in the “Candide Suite,” an arrangement by Charlie Harmon of music from Berstein’s opera. It aptly concluded with the expansive message of “Let Your Garden Grow,” a perfect tune to kick off the festival.
Warren Black from All Classical Radio introduced Time for Three, the energetic, genre-defying string trio that won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.
Read more here.
International Piano: Front Cover Feature: Bringing Imagery and Character to Liszt
Having gone from precocious prodigy to mature musician, Haochen Zhang has recorded Liszt’s formidable Études d’exécution transcendante. He talks to Tim Parry about his journey from China to America and his growing appreciation of Liszt’s musical imagination.
International Piano
Having gone from precocious prodigy to mature musician, Haochen Zhang has recorded Liszt’s formidable Études d’exécution transcendante. He talks to Tim Parry about his journey from China to America and his growing appreciation of Liszt’s musical imagination.
The Westerly Sun: Parlando founder Ian Niederhoffer to conduct Shostakovich’s 'The New Babylon'
Ian Niederhoffer, a young conductor widely praised for "his elegance and dynamism on the podium," was on the telephone Tuesday morning explaining how a 1929 silent film, a famous Russian composer and a contemporary chamber orchestra will all merge Saturday for an unusual program called "Silent Film with Live Orchestra: Parlando" at the United Theatre.
The event, which will include a screening of the 1929 Soviet film, "The New Babylon," will be accompanied by a live performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s "The New Babylon," by Parlando, a New York City-based chamber orchestra founded by Niederhoffer.
The Westerly Sun
By Nancy Burns-Fusaro
WESTERLY — Ian Niederhoffer, a young conductor widely praised for "his elegance and dynamism on the podium," was on the telephone Tuesday morning explaining how a 1929 silent film, a famous Russian composer and a contemporary chamber orchestra will all merge Saturday for an unusual program called "Silent Film with Live Orchestra: Parlando" at the United Theatre.
The event, which will include a screening of the 1929 Soviet film, "The New Babylon," will be accompanied by a live performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s "The New Babylon," by Parlando, a New York City-based chamber orchestra founded by Niederhoffer.
Read more here.
Portland Tribune: All Classical Portland becomes All Classical Radio
At 40, station embarks on rebranding program, gets ready to move to KOIN TowerAll Classical Portland has reached middle age. The Portland radio station will observe 40 years of community-focused programming by reintroducing itself as All Classical Radio, unveiling a new logo as part of a comprehensive brand alignment effort.
Portland Tribune
By Nancy Townsley
At 40, station embarks on rebranding program, gets ready to move to KOIN Tower
All Classical Portland has reached middle age. The Portland radio station will observe 40 years of community-focused programming by reintroducing itself as All Classical Radio, unveiling a new logo as part of a comprehensive brand alignment effort.
“We are honored to be recognized as a leader in public media, for high rankings in listenership as well as our innovative programming on the air and in the community,” All Classical Radio President and CEO Suzanne Nance said. “We remain committed to enhancing lives and breaking down barriers to classical music; welcoming all people and all communities to experience the power of the arts on All Classical.”
Read more here.
Vail Daily: Kids nationwide attend opera camp, perform comedy in Avon with ‘The Tinker of Tivoli’
About 50 kids, ages 10-18, have been attending Vail Opera Camp since Aug. 1, learning musical training, stage direction and acting from artists who work in top opera houses around the world. Thursday, they showcase their skills with “The Tinker of Tivoli” at Nottingham Park in Avon.
Vail Daily
By Kimberly Nicoletti
About 50 kids, ages 10-18, have been attending Vail Opera Camp since Aug. 1, learning musical training, stage direction and acting from artists who work in top opera houses around the world. Thursday, they showcase their skills with “The Tinker of Tivoli” at Nottingham Park in Avon.
Vail Opera Camp began in 2021 as part of the Grammy-award-winning National Children’s Chorus, which trains more than a thousand students, ages 5-17, throughout 30 choirs based in chapter cities of Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Austin, Dallas, Boston and Chicago. All choir members practice the same repertoire and breath marks, so they can participate in any of the concerts nationwide, which have included performing on the 2022 Grammy-winning album “Mahler: Symphony No. 8,” a sold-out debut at Carnegie Hall and a concert tour in the United Kingdom.
Read more here.
Violinist: Rachel Barton Pine Performs Billy Childs' Violin Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl
What a pleasure to see Chicago-based violinist Rachel Barton Pine on Thursday night in her debut performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which was also her first performance at the Hollywood Bowl.
It's about time!
Violinist
By Laurie Niles
What a pleasure to see Chicago-based violinist Rachel Barton Pine on Thursday night in her debut performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which was also her first performance at the Hollywood Bowl.
It's about time!
And it's no surprise - to someone who has been following her for many years - that she brought something fresh to the stage - a new violin concerto by Los Angeles jazz pianist and composer, Billy Childs. This was just the fifth performance of the concerto, which was composed in 2020 and premiered in 2022. It was commissioned by Rachel and performed previously by her with co-commissioning orchestras: the Grant Park Orchestra, the Boulder Philharmonic, the Anchorage Symphony, and the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra.
On Thursday Rachel - playing her 1742 "ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat" Joseph Guarnerius “del Gesù” violin - brought the concerto to life with her virtuoso chops, musical sensitivity and intense commitment, with French conductor Stéphane Denève at the podium. (Denève, who is Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, starts as as Music Director of New World Symphony in September.)
Read more here.
Person Place Thing: Episode 454: Luke McEndarfer
Early in his career, the conductor of the National Children’s Chorus interviewed for a job with Sister Stella Maria Enright. “She said, ‘Where did you park?’ And I said, ‘Right in front.’ And she said, ‘There is never parking in front. That is a sign from the holy spirit.’” She was kidding. Kind of. He got the job.
Person Place Thing
By Randy Cohen
Early in his career, the conductor of the National Children’s Chorus interviewed for a job with Sister Stella Maria Enright. “She said, ‘Where did you park?’ And I said, ‘Right in front.’ And she said, ‘There is never parking in front. That is a sign from the holy spirit.’” She was kidding. Kind of. He got the job.
Listen to the episode here.