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Washington Post: Juilliard Quartet shows new faces, same strong voice

Decisive and uncompromising...Juilliard’s confidently thoughtful approach, rhythmic acuity and ensemble precision were on full display.

Washington Post
Patrick Rucker

"Decisive and uncompromising...Juilliard’s confidently thoughtful approach, rhythmic acuity and ensemble precision were on full display."

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KUSC: Pianist Olga Kern Lights Up Southern California Concert Halls

Renowned Russian-American pianist Olga Kern, 2001 winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, is coming to Southern California for a series of concerts starting with Friday at SOKA Performing Arts Centre, Broad Stage in Santa Monica this Saturday, and two performances on Saturday, February 16 with the Pasadena Symphony. Recently John Van Driel had a chance to talk to Ms. Kern about her busy performing and teaching schedule.

KUSC
John Van Driel

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Blogcritics: Pianist-Composer and Honens Winner Nicolas Namoradze on His Carnegie Hall Debut

Fresh off winning Canada’s 2018 Honens International Piano Competition, New York-based pianist and composer Nicolas Namoradze will be making his Carnegie Hall debut Feb 10. Concerts at London’s Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, and other international venues are also upcoming, along with recordings on the Honens and Hyperion labels.

Blogcritics
Jon Sobel

The Honens prize, a triennial award considered one of the classical music world’s most prestigious, includes a robust artist development program as well as prize money. Namoradze emerged victorious from a field of 50 quarterfinalists.

He was kind enough to speak with us about his background, musicianship, and composing.

You were born in Georgia (the country) but grew up in Budapest. You’ve said Hungarian composers have influenced you, and so has Georgian folk music. How so?

My interest in Georgian folk music was, interestingly enough, partly a result of my time at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, where ethnomusicology was a mandatory subject: studying the relationship between Bartók and Hungarian folk music made me look at Georgian folk music in a different light, and later on it began influencing my own compositional style. As for Hungarian composers, perhaps Ligeti has had the greatest impact — I’m fascinated by his oeuvre, so much so that my doctoral dissertation is about his late piano etudes!

Violin Channel: Youth Music Culture Guangdong Instagram Takeover

VC recently caught up with the Youth Music Culture Guangdong Festival for a behind-the-scenes Instagram takeover – direct from Guangzhou, China. Takeover featuring violinist Johnny Gandelsman from Brooklyn Rider, cello luminary Yo-Yo Maand conductor Michael Stern.

Violin Channel

VC recently caught up with the Youth Music Culture Guangdong Festival for a behind-the-scenes Instagram takeover – direct from Guangzhou, China.

Takeover featuring violinist Johnny Gandelsman from Brooklyn Rider, cello luminary Yo-Yo Ma and conductor Michael Stern.

View this post on Instagram

YOUTH MUSIC CULTURE GUANGDONG TAKEOVER | It’s morning in beautiful and sunny #Guangzhou #China. The 3rd annual Youth Music Culture Guangdong (YMCG) is in its final days leading up to our final closing concert. Follow our @theviolinchannel Instagram takeover as students prepare, work closely with distinguished faculty and staff, and experience friendship and musical collaboration! #YMCG2019 @ymcg2019

A post shared by The Violin Channel (@theviolinchannel) on Jan 22, 2019 at 4:00am PST

View this post on Instagram

YOUTH MUSIC CULTURE GUANGDONG TAKEOVER | Artistic Director of #YMCG2019 Yo-Yo Ma works with YMCG Symphony Orchestra members on pieces that will be played during the Closing Concert “A Musical Marathon – From Brahms and Sibelius to the Unexpected” #BrahmsDouble #Sibelius5 @ymcg2019 @yoyoma.official

A post shared by The Violin Channel (@theviolinchannel) on Jan 22, 2019 at 5:05am PST

Follow more posts from the takeover here.

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J. Jill Rhythm in Blues Campaign

More and more women are breaking barriers in all aspects of the music industry. J. Jill has brought together an eclectic group of artists including Anne Akiko Meyers, Olga Kern, and Patricia Price —the trailblazers, the firsts, the remarkable and revered to learn what they love about music and being on stage (or backstage or behind the lens), what inspires their day to day, and what they won’t go on tour without.

J.Jill

INSPIRED WOMEN

More and more women are breaking barriers in all aspects of the music industry. We’ve brought together an eclectic group of artists—the trailblazers, the firsts, the remarkable and revered to learn what they love about music and being on stage (or backstage or behind the lens), what inspires their day to day, and what they won’t go on tour without.

ANNE AKIKO MEYERS, CONCERT VIOLINIST

Anne’s 37th acclaimed album, Mirror in Mirror was recently released. She performs exclusively on the legendary Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesu, dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest violin in existence. Visit anneakikomeyers.com for upcoming performance dates and information.

OLGA KERN, CONCERT PIANIST + CLIBURN GOLD MEDAL WINNER

See Olga Kern perform this month in Illinois, California and New Mexico. For more details on her tour and career, visit olgakern.com.

PATRICIA PRICE, MUSIC CONSULTANT
To learn more about Patricia’s work, clients and projects, visit 8vamusicconsultancy.com.

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Steinway Podcast: Soundboard – Marc-André Hamelin

In this episode of Soundboard, Marc-André Hamelin speaks with Steinway's Editor in Chief, Ben Finane, a day before his recital at Carnegie Hall, where he performed on Carnegie's Steinway Model D concert grand. Here, they discuss the music of Debussy, Feinberg, Haydn, Liszt, Ives and more.

Classical pianist Marc-André Hamelin is known for his consummate musicianship and brilliant technique in the great works of the established repertoire, as well as for his intrepid exploration of the rarities of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries — in concert and on disc. In this episode of Soundboard, Hamelin speaks with Steinway's Editor in Chief, Ben Finane, a day before his recital at Carnegie Hall, where he performed on Carnegie's Steinway Model D concert grand. Here, they discuss the music of Debussy, Feinberg, Haydn, Liszt, Ives and more.

Listen below:

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The Telegraph: The best opera and music holidays for 2019

The Telegraphs’s experts round up the most exciting holidays in 2019 for fans of opera and music including Grand Teton Music Festival.

The Telegraph

Our experts round up the most exciting holidays in 2019 for fans of opera and music.

Grand Teton Music Festival
Aspen’s great classical music rival in the Rocky Mountains is the Grand Teton, which has been held in Jackson Hole since 1962 and at its heart is a timber concert hall, the Walk Festival Hall, famous for its intimate atmosphere and excellent acoustics. Despite its relatively modest size, the hall attracts the greats – current music director is the Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles. The programme for 2019 is yet to be announced but subscriptions are on sale from Feb 1, single tickets from March 1.

July 2–Aug 17 (gtmf.org)

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Classical Source: Juilliard String Quartet at Wigmore Hall

Classical Source
Tully Potter

The spirit of Beethoven hung over this recital, the first evening engagement played in Britain by the new line-up of the Juilliard String Quartet – there had been given a BBC lunchtime concert the previous day, also Wigmore Hall. Of the players who were in the ensemble the last time I saw them ‘live’, only veteran Ronald Copes remains: he has been in place since 1997. Leader Areta Zhulla joined at the start of this season, vastly experienced British violist Roger Tapping in 2013 and cellist Astrid Schween in 2016. For the first time, an entity which for decades was solidly male is now split evenly between the sexes. Thus a group founded in 1946 continues to evolve…

The unusual third movement – neither a Minuet nor a Scherzo – was delightful and the Presto Finale zipped along, right up to a beautifully achieved humorous ending which brought some audible sighs of appreciation from the audience.

WQXR Presents "19 for 19": Artists to Watch in the Upcoming Year

WQXR

Contrary to the misguided and musty reputation often bestowed upon classical music, this art form is very much alive — and in the hands of many talented and creative musicians ushering it forward. That’s why WQXR is kicking off 2019 by introducing “19 for 19,” a group of artists we love that includes long-time heroes, established favorites and newcomers set for stardom. We’re planning all sorts of exciting collaborations across our platforms throughout the year, so stay tuned. Get to know them here, and if you haven’t yet heard what they can do, now’s the time.

Anne Akiko Meyers, violinist

Meyers has been busy on the international professional scene since she was 10 years old. She has a host of honors to her name, but is not one to rest on her laurels. Her 2019 is another year filled with premieres, outreach initiatives and new collaborations. Having given the world premiere in 2015 of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s final work, Fantasia, Meyers resurrects it for its Asian premiere in Japan. In the spring, she heads to London for the launch of The Strad’s new educational conference. On this side of the Atlantic she tours with classical guitarist Jason Vieaux, and joins the Pasadena Symphony for Adam Schoenberg’s Orchard in Fog, written especially for Meyers. Down the road, she’ll play commissions from Arturo Márquez, Michael Daugherty and Julia Adolphe. Catch her live at The Greene Space on January 31, performing music by Arvo Pärt, John Corigliano and John Williams.

Mahan Esfahani, harpsichordist

Throughout his career, Iranian-American Mahan Esfahani has been making a particularly strong case for ushering harpsichord performance practice into the modern era. If you’ve yet to experience his work, allow yourself to be challenged in the best possible way as he encourages you to consider the harpsichord unbound by the straightjacket of history: “Until (it) has the presence that any other mainstream instrument has,” he notes, “my work isn’t done.” Hot on the heels of his acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut last year (in which New Yorker critic Alex Ross singled out his “exuberant, anti-sentimental” playing), in 2019 he crosses the U.S. evangelizing for all that is good about the harpsichord. He has concert dates with the Seattle Symphony, an engagement at Indiana’s Purdue University and a collaboration with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at the 92nd Street Y.