American Kahani: Indian American Conductor Sameer Patel Has a Busy Year Ahead in the Western Classical Music Circuit
Indian American conductor Sameer Patel has a lot to look forward to this year. He makes his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton Symphony; as well as return appearances with the Florida Orchestra and La Jolla Symphony and Chorus.
The 40-year-old has been conducting western classical music orchestras for the past 20 years. As artistic director at the San Diego Youth Symphony, he works for an organization that serves “close to 600 students, beginning through pre-professional student musicians annually in 13 full orchestras and large ensembles.”
American Kahani
By Bhargavi Kulkarni
Indian American conductor Sameer Patel has a lot to look forward to this year. He makes his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton Symphony; as well as return appearances with the Florida Orchestra and La Jolla Symphony and Chorus.
The 40-year-old has been conducting western classical music orchestras for the past 20 years. As artistic director at the San Diego Youth Symphony, he works for an organization that serves “close to 600 students, beginning through pre-professional student musicians annually in 13 full orchestras and large ensembles.”
Patel previously worked as an associate conductor at the San Diego Symphony for four years. He left that position in 2019, and over the last couple of years, “especially when things picked back up over the pandemic, and performances started to resume,” he started traveling and working as a guest conductor. With his current job in San Diego, where he lives with his wife and two kids, Patel continues to have one foot in both worlds — “the performance world which is conducting orchestras like in Princeton and in Chicago and elsewhere” — as well as “sharing music with young musicians.”
Read more here.
The Spokesman-Review: Spokane Symphony review: Leonard Slatkin conducted a visual and auditory masterpiece
Unless they had attended other performances led by Leonard Slatkin, ticketholders at this weekend’s concerts by the Spokane Symphony received something more for the price of admission than they expected, something that they should, and probably will always remember.
The Spokesman-Review
By Larry Lapidus
Unless they had attended other performances led by Leonard Slatkin, ticketholders at this weekend’s concerts by the Spokane Symphony received something more for the price of admission than they expected, something that they should, and probably will always remember.
They expected, and certainly received, very fine performances of three works for orchestra: “Double Play”, by Cindy McTee, “Francesca da Rimini,” by Piotr Tchaikovsky and the Symphony No. 1 in C minor of Johannes Brahms. What they could not have expected was an emotional, and even visual journey of such variety, intensity and breadth.
Read more here.
NPR: Marc-André Hamelin: Tiny Desk Concert
Marc-André Hamelin has a marvelous, curious mind. While we chatted before his Tiny Desk concert, he snooped around the CD shelves near my desk, commenting on a few rarities and sharing his own eclectic tastes, including a crazy YouTube mashup of all 15 Shostakovich symphonies stacked on top of each other.
The Boston-based Montreal native is regarded as one of his generation's most technically astounding pianists, but he's no empty virtuoso. His interpretations are probing, precise and warm — keen to bring out humor when necessary. He routinely performs the world's most treacherous repertoire with his characteristic ease. I've witnessed him practically reduce a concert grand to matchsticks, and I've heard him tenderly caress a late Schubert sonata.
NPR
By Tom Huizenga
Marc-André Hamelin has a marvelous, curious mind. While we chatted before his Tiny Desk concert, he snooped around the CD shelves near my desk, commenting on a few rarities and sharing his own eclectic tastes, including a crazy YouTube mashup of all 15 Shostakovich symphonies stacked on top of each other.
The Boston-based Montreal native is regarded as one of his generation's most technically astounding pianists, but he's no empty virtuoso. His interpretations are probing, precise and warm — keen to bring out humor when necessary. He routinely performs the world's most treacherous repertoire with his characteristic ease. I've witnessed him practically reduce a concert grand to matchsticks, and I've heard him tenderly caress a late Schubert sonata.
Hamelin's colossal breadth of repertoire is on display in this smart set of pieces. He begins in the 18th century with the off-kilter antics of C.P.E. Bach — a rondo that stops, starts and swerves with the spirit of improvisation. His limpid rendition of William Bolcom's "Graceful Ghost Rag" (from 1970) emphasizes the bittersweet harmonies with unhurried elegance.
Read more and watch here.
Seen and Heard International: Hometown hero Jonathon Heyward returns to Charleston in triumph
Jonathon Heyward, newly anointed as music director of the Baltimore Symphony, was greeted with warmth and energy, cheers and whistles when he came out on the Gaillard Hall stage to conduct the Charleston Symphony for the first time, an authentic hometown hero. When he turned around to lead the audience in the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’, it seemed like everybody in the sold-out hall was singing with a full-throated musicality that made this one of the best performances of the anthem I had ever heard.
From the first bars of Florence Price’s 10-minute ‘Dances in the Canebrakes’ in William Grant Still’s colorful orchestration, Heyward elicited detail while maintaining momentum and showed great tempo choices, always organic and natural. The clarity and precision of his conducting was reflected in the exuberant playing by the combined forces of the Symphony and the Youth Symphony, in which Heyward had once played cello. He was keen on articulation and integrated small bits into the whole without ever seeming rushed. With his back to the audience, he monitored the proceedings with marionette-like moves on the podium.
Seen and Heard International
By Laurence Vittes
Jonathon Heyward, newly anointed as music director of the Baltimore Symphony, was greeted with warmth and energy, cheers and whistles when he came out on the Gaillard Hall stage to conduct the Charleston Symphony for the first time, an authentic hometown hero. When he turned around to lead the audience in the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’, it seemed like everybody in the sold-out hall was singing with a full-throated musicality that made this one of the best performances of the anthem I had ever heard.
From the first bars of Florence Price’s 10-minute ‘Dances in the Canebrakes’ in William Grant Still’s colorful orchestration, Heyward elicited detail while maintaining momentum and showed great tempo choices, always organic and natural. The clarity and precision of his conducting was reflected in the exuberant playing by the combined forces of the Symphony and the Youth Symphony, in which Heyward had once played cello. He was keen on articulation and integrated small bits into the whole without ever seeming rushed. With his back to the audience, he monitored the proceedings with marionette-like moves on the podium.
Read more here.
Photo Credit: Alyona Photography
New York Classical Review: Clarion Choir soars in spiritual rarity to open Rachmaninoff 150 year
It seems likely that, when the Sergei Rachmaninoff sesquicentennial year of 2023 has run its course, we will find that (with apologies to Joni Mitchell), we looked at Rachmaninoff from both sides now, and we really didn’t know Rachmaninoff at all.
Clarion Choir, jumping the gun by a few hours on New Year’s Eve, introduced a Rachmaninoff relatively few people know with an uplifting performance of his work for unaccompanied chorus, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, in the visually splendid sanctuary of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral on East 74th Street. (A repeat performance New Year’s Day will usher in the celebratory year.)
Was the composer of these static, endlessly-circling choral harmonies really the same person who set the standard for rugged athleticism at the piano? Could the composer who inspired a thousand Hollywood love scenes also liberate one’s spirit from corporeal existence?
New York Classical Review
By David Wright
It seems likely that, when the Sergei Rachmaninoff sesquicentennial year of 2023 has run its course, we will find that (with apologies to Joni Mitchell), we looked at Rachmaninoff from both sides now, and we really didn’t know Rachmaninoff at all.
Clarion Choir, jumping the gun by a few hours on New Year’s Eve, introduced a Rachmaninoff relatively few people know with an uplifting performance of his work for unaccompanied chorus, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, in the visually splendid sanctuary of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral on East 74th Street. (A repeat performance New Year’s Day will usher in the celebratory year.)
Was the composer of these static, endlessly-circling choral harmonies really the same person who set the standard for rugged athleticism at the piano? Could the composer who inspired a thousand Hollywood love scenes also liberate one’s spirit from corporeal existence?
Read more here.
The New York Times: 5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to Right Now
In this program — of works by Tania León, Alvin Singleton, Julia Wolfe, David Sanford, Allison Loggins-Hull and Valerie Coleman — none of the music is on autopilot.
Singleton, born in 1940, is the oldest composer represented; his music should be heard in concert halls more frequently. Jennifer Grim’s take on “Argoru III,” for solo flute, digs in to his melodic gifts, as well as his feel for textural variation within five concise minutes. Similarly wide-ranging is León’s “Alma” — the lyrical opening of which follows a winding, entertaining path toward the bumptious rhythmic fillips of its central section. And in Coleman’s “Wish Sonatine,” a work inspired by a Fred D’Aguiar poem about the Middle Passage, the composer navigates between episodes of horror and moments of communal purpose with narrative drive.
The New York Times
‘Through Broken Time’
Jennifer Grim, flute; Michael Sheppard, piano (New Focus)
In this program — of works by Tania León, Alvin Singleton, Julia Wolfe, David Sanford, Allison Loggins-Hull and Valerie Coleman — none of the music is on autopilot.
Singleton, born in 1940, is the oldest composer represented; his music should be heard in concert halls more frequently. Jennifer Grim’s take on “Argoru III,” for solo flute, digs in to his melodic gifts, as well as his feel for textural variation within five concise minutes. Similarly wide-ranging is León’s “Alma” — the lyrical opening of which follows a winding, entertaining path toward the bumptious rhythmic fillips of its central section. And in Coleman’s “Wish Sonatine,” a work inspired by a Fred D’Aguiar poem about the Middle Passage, the composer navigates between episodes of horror and moments of communal purpose with narrative drive.
Read more here.
New Sounds: Keyboard and "Percussion"
Hear music with piano and percussion of ALL kinds - from the inside of a piano with preparations, flower pots, ping pong balls, bowed vibraphone, and even echolocation by an endangered species of bat in works by Matt McBane and Sandbox Percussion, American composer Ellen Reid and the L.A. Percussion Quartet, and Andrew McIntosh for Yarn/Wire.
Listen to some of composer, producer, and violinist Matt McBane’s collaboration with Sandbox Percussion, Bathymetry -a “reference to how bass synthesizers affect percussive sounds, mimicking how the ocean floor shapes the waves above,” (National Sawdust event page.) McBane and Sandbox use monophonic Moog analog synthesizer, found instrument percussion (mixing bowls, ping pong balls, glass bottles), orchestral percussion and drum sets, drawing on minimalism and achieving something close to ambient music to evoke the mysterious underwater depths.
New Sounds
By John Schaefer
Hear music with piano and percussion of ALL kinds - from the inside of a piano with preparations, flower pots, ping pong balls, bowed vibraphone, and even echolocation by an endangered species of bat in works by Matt McBane and Sandbox Percussion, American composer Ellen Reid and the L.A. Percussion Quartet, and Andrew McIntosh for Yarn/Wire.
Listen to some of composer, producer, and violinist Matt McBane’s collaboration with Sandbox Percussion, Bathymetry -a “reference to how bass synthesizers affect percussive sounds, mimicking how the ocean floor shapes the waves above,” (National Sawdust event page.) McBane and Sandbox use monophonic Moog analog synthesizer, found instrument percussion (mixing bowls, ping pong balls, glass bottles), orchestral percussion and drum sets, drawing on minimalism and achieving something close to ambient music to evoke the mysterious underwater depths.
Read more here.
Broadway World: Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA to Present Inaugural Vancouver USA Music And Arts Festival in 2023
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA will present its inaugural Vancouver USA Music and Arts Festival celebrating music and art inspired by America, spanning three days from Friday, August 4 through Sunday, August 6.
The multidisciplinary art festival features performances from the VSO conducted by VSO Music Director, internationally renowned composer and conductor Maestro Salvador Brotons and Maestro Gerard Schwarz. Known as a champion of American composers, Gerard Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades in his five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor including 9 Emmy Awards, 14 GRAMMY nominations, 8 ASCAP Awards, and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation Awards, in addition to being the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America. Renowned guest soloists include violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, pianist Orli Shaham, and the genre-defying trio Time for Three. Presented in close collaboration with the city of Vancouver and Vancouver Downtown Association, the Festival is made possible by the $600,000 grant awarded to the VSO by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust for program expansion to engage performing and visual arts patrons.
Broadway World
By Chloe Rabinowitz
The three-day multidisciplinary celebration of American and American-adjacent music and art will take place August 4-6, 2023.
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA will present its inaugural Vancouver USA Music and Arts Festival celebrating music and art inspired by America, spanning three days from Friday, August 4 through Sunday, August 6.
The multidisciplinary art festival features performances from the VSO conducted by VSO Music Director, internationally renowned composer and conductor Maestro Salvador Brotons and Maestro Gerard Schwarz. Known as a champion of American composers, Gerard Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades in his five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor including 9 Emmy Awards, 14 GRAMMY nominations, 8 ASCAP Awards, and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation Awards, in addition to being the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America. Renowned guest soloists include violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, pianist Orli Shaham, and the genre-defying trio Time for Three. Presented in close collaboration with the city of Vancouver and Vancouver Downtown Association, the Festival is made possible by the $600,000 grant awarded to the VSO by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust for program expansion to engage performing and visual arts patrons.
Read more here.
The Strad: Andy Akiho: Oculus
Strings and percussion unite in a striking tree-inspired project
Now based between Portland, Oregon, and New York, composer and percussionist Andy Akiho had an unusual first-study instrument at college: the steel pan. It shows: there’s a sense of rhythmic and melodic drive that gives his music an immediately identifiable character, assured and accessible, but uncompromisingly complex, too, certainly in its restless metric modulations, shifting emphases and almost cartoonish exuberance, like a mix of PhD-level maths and grinning frat-boy humour.
They’re all qualities deeply embedded in this inspiring and brilliantly entertaining new disc of Akiho’s music, with a theme of wood and natural growth running through it. His LigNEouS Suite gets its arboreal name from the material predominantly employed in its unusual instrumentation of marimba and string quartet, with Akiho expanding his rich sound palette even further with scratchy string tones, snap pizzicatos and clattering, headless marimba mallets. It’s a joyfully extrovert piece, full of pulsing rhythms and big build-ups, but also subtle and cannily judged in its organic development of ideas. Though Ian Rosenbaum’s marimba is quite forwardly placed, the Dover Quartet gives a blisteringly intense performance, so crisp and precise that it sounds almost machine-made, with wheezing, bandoneón-like chords in the slower second movement and gradually unfolding quasi-Expressionist melodies in the fourth. It’s a startlingly accomplished, fiercely committed account.
The Strad
By David Kettle
Strings and percussion unite in a striking tree-inspired project
Now based between Portland, Oregon, and New York, composer and percussionist Andy Akiho had an unusual first-study instrument at college: the steel pan. It shows: there’s a sense of rhythmic and melodic drive that gives his music an immediately identifiable character, assured and accessible, but uncompromisingly complex, too, certainly in its restless metric modulations, shifting emphases and almost cartoonish exuberance, like a mix of PhD-level maths and grinning frat-boy humour.
They’re all qualities deeply embedded in this inspiring and brilliantly entertaining new disc of Akiho’s music, with a theme of wood and natural growth running through it. His LigNEouS Suite gets its arboreal name from the material predominantly employed in its unusual instrumentation of marimba and string quartet, with Akiho expanding his rich sound palette even further with scratchy string tones, snap pizzicatos and clattering, headless marimba mallets. It’s a joyfully extrovert piece, full of pulsing rhythms and big build-ups, but also subtle and cannily judged in its organic development of ideas. Though Ian Rosenbaum’s marimba is quite forwardly placed, the Dover Quartet gives a blisteringly intense performance, so crisp and precise that it sounds almost machine-made, with wheezing, bandoneón-like chords in the slower second movement and gradually unfolding quasi-Expressionist melodies in the fourth. It’s a startlingly accomplished, fiercely committed account.
Read more here.
South Florida Classical Review: Schwarz leads the Frost Symphony in a fiery and relentless “Rite of Spring”
Since Gerard Schwarz joined the faculty of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in 2019, he has led the Frost Symphony Orchestra in some fine performances. But the American conductor exceeded all previous efforts with a thrilling rendition of Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps Saturday night at UM Gusman Concert Hall.
When Stravinsky’s ballet score premiered in Paris in 1913, a riot broke out in an audience shocked by the music’s dissonance and harmonic audacity. Almost one hundred and ten years later, The Rite of Spring can still can give listeners a jolt in the best possible way. Stravinsky’s score changed the course of music and Schwarz’s reading brought out the work’s daring originality and sweeping dynamism.
South Florida Classical Review
By Lawrence Budmen
Since Gerard Schwarz joined the faculty of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in 2019, he has led the Frost Symphony Orchestra in some fine performances. But the American conductor exceeded all previous efforts with a thrilling rendition of Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps Saturday night at UM Gusman Concert Hall.
When Stravinsky’s ballet score premiered in Paris in 1913, a riot broke out in an audience shocked by the music’s dissonance and harmonic audacity. Almost one hundred and ten years later, The Rite of Spring can still can give listeners a jolt in the best possible way. Stravinsky’s score changed the course of music and Schwarz’s reading brought out the work’s daring originality and sweeping dynamism.
Set to a scenario of a pagan rite with a sacrifice of a young woman, the music churns with primitive rhythms. Schwarz’s crisp pacing made every change of meter meticulously clear and precise. From the opening bassoon solo, wind details were lucidly projected and the brass roared in fierce tones without overpowering the full ensemble. Schwarz drew huge sonorities and astutely calibrated dynamics from the players, elucidating the shifting moods of Stravinsky’s creation.
Read more here.