OperaWire: Grand Teton Music Festival to Livestream ‘La bohème’ with Jose Simerilla Romero & Nicole Cabell
The Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming is set to livestream its semi-staged production of “La bohème.”
The production will be streamed on August 27 and features an all-star cast led by Nicole Cabell as Mimì, Jose Simerilla Romero as Rodolfo, Meechot Marrero as Musetta, Ryan Speedo Green as Colline, Thomas Lehman as Marcello, and Carlton Ford as Schaunard.
Sir Donald Runnicles conducts the Festival Orchestra in the concert version directed by David Lefkowich.
OperaWire
By Francisco Salazar
The Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming is set to livestream its semi-staged production of “La bohème.”
The production will be streamed on August 27 and features an all-star cast led by Nicole Cabell as Mimì, Jose Simerilla Romero as Rodolfo, Meechot Marrero as Musetta, Ryan Speedo Green as Colline, Thomas Lehman as Marcello, and Carlton Ford as Schaunard.
Sir Donald Runnicles conducts the Festival Orchestra in the concert version directed by David Lefkowich.
Read more here.
The Strad: ‘Art has the ability to make one look at the world from a different perspective’ - cellist Trey Lee
The cellist and artistic director of Musicus, a Hong-Kong based organisation which promotes cross-cultural collaboration through performances, speaks about musical outreach, exploring new repertoire, and overcoming the challenges of travelling with a cello.
Musicus Society was founded to connect musicians from around the world with young talents from Hong Kong. The city has always had a huge proportion of young people who played a musical instrument (easily more than 50%), but not many had the chance to perform or interact with the visiting artists whom they saw performing on stage; rather, many just practised to pass an exam - a process that anyone would find musically uninspiring. Therefore, Musicus Society created three main programmes to address this situation: Musicus Fest, an annual festival; Musicus Inspires, an educational programme; and Musicus Heritage, a concert series in historic sites.
The Strad
The cellist and artistic director of Musicus, a Hong-Kong based organisation which promotes cross-cultural collaboration through performances, speaks about musical outreach, exploring new repertoire, and overcoming the challenges of travelling with a cello
Musicus Society was founded to connect musicians from around the world with young talents from Hong Kong. The city has always had a huge proportion of young people who played a musical instrument (easily more than 50%), but not many had the chance to perform or interact with the visiting artists whom they saw performing on stage; rather, many just practised to pass an exam - a process that anyone would find musically uninspiring. Therefore, Musicus Society created three main programmes to address this situation: Musicus Fest, an annual festival; Musicus Inspires, an educational programme; and Musicus Heritage, a concert series in historic sites.
Being artistic director sometimes feels like being a CEO. We have a great team at Musicus, but alas, the buck still stops with me. For example, when I suggested holding concerts in historic sites in Hong Kong, it was just wishful thinking because performance spaces in the city are so scarce. When it actually happened, many things needed to be done, including programming, research into historic sites, artist selection, etc. But I must admit that it has been truly gratifying whenever a young Hong Kong musician tells me that their first ’professional’ experience was with Musicus Society.
Read more here.
The New York Times: A Road Trip to Sample America’s Many, Many Music Festivals
My family and I — including children aged 6, 3 and not quite 1 — started with the up-and-coming Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, which is within easy reach of Rocky Mountain National Park. Then it made sense to a climb up to the ski resorts west of Denver — first to Bravo! Vail, then to the next valley for the Aspen Music Festival and School. Jackson Hole, Wyo., didn’t look all that far away, really. There, the Grand Teton Music Festival plays just outside the park of the same name, with Yellowstone National Park an hour to the north. Why not?
The New York Times
By David Allen
With a minivan and a three small children in tow, a critic spent 12 days discovering classical music offerings among the Rocky Mountains.
Four classical music festivals. Three children. Two exhausted parents, with a brave grandfather in tow. One bedraggled minivan.
It’ll be fun, my wife promised me. Surprisingly, it was.
…
My family and I — including children aged 6, 3 and not quite 1 — started with the up-and-coming Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, which is within easy reach of Rocky Mountain National Park. Then it made sense to a climb up to the ski resorts west of Denver — first to Bravo! Vail, then to the next valley for the Aspen Music Festival and School. Jackson Hole, Wyo., didn’t look all that far away, really. There, the Grand Teton Music Festival plays just outside the park of the same name, with Yellowstone National Park an hour to the north. Why not?
Read more here.
Photo Credit (right): Andrew Miller for The New York Times
Blogcritics: Exclusive Interview: Pianist Weiyin Chen on Music, Healing and Designing Her Own Performance Wear
To Taiwanese-American pianist Weiyin Chen, music is more than a creative endeavor. It’s part of a whole range of artistic and humanitarian engagement with the world.
For years she has worked with her father, renowned surgeon Hung-Chi Chen, to raise funds for charitable activities in the field of medicine. Their “Music & Medicine” humanitarian foundation arose from Dr. Chen’s development in the 1990s of a way to restore the gift of speech (and even song) to cancer patients who had lost the use of their vocal cords.
Growing up in a family of doctors linked music and medicine in Weiyin Chen’s mind from an early age. “As a concert pianist,” she has said, “my goal is to also become a healer, a healer of people’s soul or spirit through music.”
Blogcritics
By Jon Sobel
To Taiwanese-American pianist Weiyin Chen, music is more than a creative endeavor. It’s part of a whole range of artistic and humanitarian engagement with the world.
For years she has worked with her father, renowned surgeon Hung-Chi Chen, to raise funds for charitable activities in the field of medicine. Their “Music & Medicine” humanitarian foundation arose from Dr. Chen’s development in the 1990s of a way to restore the gift of speech (and even song) to cancer patients who had lost the use of their vocal cords.
Growing up in a family of doctors linked music and medicine in Weiyin Chen’s mind from an early age. “As a concert pianist,” she has said, “my goal is to also become a healer, a healer of people’s soul or spirit through music.”
Read more here.
Bachtrack: The New York Phil pays heartfelt tribute to Stephen Sondheim at Bravo! Vail
One of four orchestras appearing at Bravo! Vail this summer, the New York Philharmonic brought along six different programmes, the first four of which were led by music director Jaap van Zweden – including a cathartic Mahler Sixth. Leonard Slatkin took over the reins for the remaining two programmes in the open-air main venue: an all-Tchaikovsky evening and this concluding concert, “A Sondheim Celebration”. Originally, these last two concerts were to have been conducted by Bramwell Tovey, a much-loved regular at Bravo! Vail who died on 12th July, only 69 years old. Slatkin dedicated the performances to his memory.
Bachtrack
By Thomas May
One of four orchestras appearing at Bravo! Vail this summer, the New York Philharmonic brought along six different programmes, the first four of which were led by music director Jaap van Zweden – including a cathartic Mahler Sixth. Leonard Slatkin took over the reins for the remaining two programmes in the open-air main venue: an all-Tchaikovsky evening and this concluding concert, “A Sondheim Celebration”. Originally, these last two concerts were to have been conducted by Bramwell Tovey, a much-loved regular at Bravo! Vail who died on 12th July, only 69 years old. Slatkin dedicated the performances to his memory.
The NY Phil has made several deep dives into the work of the Broadway trailblazer, who died at the age of 91 last November. Along with orchestral arrangements of suites from several of his musicals and a film score, they’ve given semi-staged concert presentations of Company and Sweeney Todd over the years. But the guiding idea of this programme was simply to sample and savour the astonishing variety of worlds that Stephen Sondheim conjured with his innovative – indeed, paradigm-shifting – contributions to music theatre.
Read more here.
Photo: Carly Finke
Blogcritics: Concert Review (NYC): The Knights and Lara St. John with Music of Avner Dorman and Felix Mendelssohn at the Central Park Bandshell
The meat of the program commenced when Lara St. John stepped in front of the white-clad orchestra. Nigunim is a violin concerto rooted in melodies inspired by Jewish songs from around the world. The piece won the Azrieli Prize in 2018. In a recent interview with Blogcritics the composer told us that in writing it he created new melodies inspired by “listening to music from Jewish communities around the world, recalling music I had heard from different diasporas, and internalizing the styles and gestures. I also analyzed these melodies and found some surprising commonalities.”
Blogcritics
By Jon Sobel
The organizers of the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts could hardly have asked for a nicer evening for The Knights and violinist Lara St. John to present the New York Premiere of Avner Dorman’s Nigunim. The darkening sky turned rose-red and aqua blue as the audience heard a spectacular performance of the virtuosic concerto and an invigorating reading of Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”).
Around the World in Four Movements
The meat of the program commenced when Lara St. John stepped in front of the white-clad orchestra. Nigunim is a violin concerto rooted in melodies inspired by Jewish songs from around the world. The piece won the Azrieli Prize in 2018. In a recent interview with Blogcritics the composer told us that in writing it he created new melodies inspired by “listening to music from Jewish communities around the world, recalling music I had heard from different diasporas, and internalizing the styles and gestures. I also analyzed these melodies and found some surprising commonalities.”
Read more here.
Photo: Oren Hope Media
The Economist: The wonder of Lim Yun-chan’s performance of “Rach 3”
Still standing at her podium, the distinguished conductor Marin Alsop wiped away a tear. She says she cannot remember the last time she cried onstage, but she was far from alone in feeling moved by the artistry of Lim Yun-chan. Ms Alsop had just conducted the 18-year-old South Korean pianist in Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 3” in Fort Worth, Texas—a performance that last month helped make him the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. A video of his mesmerising interpretation of “Rach 3”, as the piece is known by pianophiles, has been viewed more than 5m times on YouTube.
The Economist
The 18-year-old pianist’s version of a famously difficult piece has wowed music fans
Still standing at her podium, the distinguished conductor Marin Alsop wiped away a tear. She says she cannot remember the last time she cried onstage, but she was far from alone in feeling moved by the artistry of Lim Yun-chan. Ms Alsop had just conducted the 18-year-old South Korean pianist in Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 3” in Fort Worth, Texas—a performance that last month helped make him the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. A video of his mesmerising interpretation of “Rach 3”, as the piece is known by pianophiles, has been viewed more than 5m times on YouTube.
Read more here.
The Strad: Andie, Andy and Andy present a work for violin, trumpet and steel pan
n an instrumentation not seen every day, violinist Andie Tanning, trumpeter Andy Kozar and percussionist Andy Akiho perform ‘the rAy’s end’.
Akiho composed the work in 2008 for the trio, dubbed ‘The Andes’ because of the first name shared by its members - indeed, the title of this work, ’the rAy’s end,’ can be rearranged to spell out ’three Andys’.
’Although we did not start playing music together until well after we met, we soon realised the potential for the unique combination of timbres between our instruments,’ said Akiho. ’It was an inspiring challenge to combine these sounds together, because all three instruments encompass a similar range of pitches.While each instrument is extremely unique as a solo sound, the combined timbres create an amazing homogenous texture.
The Strad
Members of the Andes Trio, who all share the same first name, perform Akiho’s work ’the rAy’s end’
In an instrumentation not seen every day, violinist Andie Tanning, trumpeter Andy Kozar and percussionist Andy Akiho perform ‘the rAy’s end’.
Akiho composed the work in 2008 for the trio, dubbed ‘The Andes’ because of the first name shared by its members - indeed, the title of this work, ’the rAy’s end,’ can be rearranged to spell out ’three Andys’.
’Although we did not start playing music together until well after we met, we soon realised the potential for the unique combination of timbres between our instruments,’ said Akiho. ’It was an inspiring challenge to combine these sounds together, because all three instruments encompass a similar range of pitches.While each instrument is extremely unique as a solo sound, the combined timbres create an amazing homogenous texture.
Read more here.
The Oregonian: Portland composer Andy Akiho’s ‘Seven Pillars’ blends sound and light into a percussion extravaganza
Created by Portlanders past and present, Chamber Music Northwest’s “Seven Pillars” is more than a concert. Composer Andy Akiho’s 11-movement extravaganza for Sandbox Percussion quartet also integrates stage director Michael McQuilken’s colorful lighting effects and stage design that add up to a multicolored dance of light and sound.
The Oregonian
By Brett Campbell
Created by Portlanders past and present, Chamber Music Northwest’s “Seven Pillars” is more than a concert. Composer Andy Akiho’s 11-movement extravaganza for Sandbox Percussion quartet also integrates stage director Michael McQuilken’s colorful lighting effects and stage design that add up to a multicolored dance of light and sound.
It’s also a showcase for some of today’s most inventive artists. Akiho created “Seven Pillars” explicitly for and with Sandbox and McQuilken. The quartet has quickly risen to be one of the world’s most prominent and accomplished new music percussion groups. Another opera designed by McQuilken, “Angel’s Bone,” won the 2016 Pulitzer. Sandbox’s recording of “Seven Pillars” earned a pair of Grammy nominations.
Read more here.
Your Classical: Marc-André Hamelin explores William Bolcom's piano rags in his new album
“In 1985, I won the Carnegie Hall competition for American Music. One of the prizes was an invitation to the Cabrillo Festival in California, which is still going on, I think. And the two composers in residence that year happened to be Arvo Pärt and William Bolcom. So, I got to meet him.”
Pianist Marc-André Hamelin not only got to meet Bolcom, the American composer whom he’d been admiring since he was 16, but he also got to make music with him. For his latest release, Hamelin has recorded a two-disc set of The Complete Rags of William Bolcom.
Your Classical
By Julie Amacher
“In 1985, I won the Carnegie Hall competition for American Music. One of the prizes was an invitation to the Cabrillo Festival in California, which is still going on, I think. And the two composers in residence that year happened to be Arvo Pärt and William Bolcom. So, I got to meet him.”
Pianist Marc-André Hamelin not only got to meet Bolcom, the American composer whom he’d been admiring since he was 16, but he also got to make music with him. For his latest release, Hamelin has recorded a two-disc set of The Complete Rags of William Bolcom.
There's a lot of diversity in Bolcom’s rags. Can you talk about the many moods that we experience throughout this two-disc set?
“I think his first rags were a little more Joplin influenced, even though he was adding some touches of his own.
“There is one of them, which is a kind of a joke, actually, it's called Brass Knuckles. And it was written in collaboration with the late William Albright. They decided to write that together one day as sort of an antidote to the overdelicate rags that they'd each been writing. It's just a joke, of course, but it's full of clusters and very violent piano writing. And that's why I put it at the very end of the two-disc set.
Read more here.