The Today Show: How one music program became instrumental in the lives of kids
The Harmony Program in New York City is helping level the playing field of musical education for kids by providing training in underserved communities. TODAY’s Craig Melvin sits down with the program’s founder, Anthony McGill, whose mission goes beyond music.
The Today Show
The Harmony Program in New York City is helping level the playing field of musical education for kids by providing training in underserved communities. TODAY’s Craig Melvin sits down with the program’s founder, Anthony McGill, whose mission goes beyond music.
Watch here.
Strings: New Dover Quartet Violist Julianne Lee Describes ‘Natural Synergy’ with Founding Members
Beginning in September 2023, Julianne Lee, currently assistant principal second violin of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal second violin with the Boston Pops, will take up her new role as violist of the Dover Quartet. She will join the founding members—violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee and cellist Camden Shaw—and replace Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, who left last August.
Lee began playing viola during her third year at Curtis, when she learned about Curtis’ Viola for Violinists program. The program led her to continue viola studies while she pursued her master’s degree at New England Conservatory, studying with violist Kim Kashkashian. Lee has since forged a career as both a violinist and violist, frequently appearing as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player.
Strings
By Laurence Vittes
Beginning in September 2023, Julianne Lee, currently assistant principal second violin of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal second violin with the Boston Pops, will take up her new role as violist of the Dover Quartet. She will join the founding members—violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee and cellist Camden Shaw—and replace Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, who left last August.
Lee began playing viola during her third year at Curtis, when she learned about Curtis’ Viola for Violinists program. The program led her to continue viola studies while she pursued her master’s degree at New England Conservatory, studying with violist Kim Kashkashian. Lee has since forged a career as both a violinist and violist, frequently appearing as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player.
Read more here.
Blogcritics: Exclusive Interview: Illia Ovcharenko, Winner, 2022 Honens International Piano Competition
Awards are nothing new for Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko. As the winner most recently of the 2022 Honens International Piano Competition, he is in the midst of a 2022–2023 season that includes two Carnegie Hall performances and an international tour.
The Honens competition Laureate must be a “complete artist” who is “a consummate communicator and collaborator, a risk-taking explorer, a dreamer” and who “inspires the heart and engages the intellect.” Though only 21, Ovcharenko has proven his worth by these standards already. (The Honens runners-up were 26 and 27.)
International Piano called Ovcharenko “technically flawless and impeccably musical” and hailed his “stupendous performance of Liszt’s Sonata in B minor.”
Blogcritics
By Jon Sobel
Awards are nothing new for Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko. As the winner most recently of the 2022 Honens International Piano Competition, he is in the midst of a 2022–2023 season that includes two Carnegie Hall performances and an international tour.
The Honens competition Laureate must be a “complete artist” who is “a consummate communicator and collaborator, a risk-taking explorer, a dreamer” and who “inspires the heart and engages the intellect.” Though only 21, Ovcharenko has proven his worth by these standards already. (The Honens runners-up were 26 and 27.)
International Piano called Ovcharenko “technically flawless and impeccably musical” and hailed his “stupendous performance of Liszt’s Sonata in B minor.”
Read more here.
Chicago Sun-Times: Conductor Sameer Patel championing diversity in classical music, inspiring young musicians across the globe
When Sameer Patel began thinking about making conducting his career, the Indian American didn’t have many role models who looked like him other than one very important one — famed maestro Zubin Mehta, former music director of the New York Philharmonic.
“In my community,” Patel said, “it’s very common for a young South Asian person to choose a path in medicine, engineering or law. One of the things that helped me explain my interest was this ability to say my friends and my parents’ friends, ‘Oh, I want to be a conductor.’ And they would be, ‘Oh, like Zubin Mehta.’ That was a very inspiring thing for someone like me.”
Patel, 40, has gone on to a successful career, serving as artistic director of the San Diego Youth Symphony and guest-conducting professional orchestras including the Toronto Symphony and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
He will make his debut Monday with MusicNOW, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary music series. It features members of the ensemble in configurations typically ranging from duos to small ensembles.
Chicago Sun-Times
By Kyle MacMillan
He will make his debut Feb. 20 with MusicNOW, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary music series.
When Sameer Patel began thinking about making conducting his career, the Indian American didn’t have many role models who looked like him other than one very important one — famed maestro Zubin Mehta, former music director of the New York Philharmonic.
“In my community,” Patel said, “it’s very common for a young South Asian person to choose a path in medicine, engineering or law. One of the things that helped me explain my interest was this ability to say my friends and my parents’ friends, ‘Oh, I want to be a conductor.’ And they would be, ‘Oh, like Zubin Mehta.’ That was a very inspiring thing for someone like me.”
Patel, 40, has gone on to a successful career, serving as artistic director of the San Diego Youth Symphony and guest-conducting professional orchestras including the Toronto Symphony and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
He will make his debut Monday with MusicNOW, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary music series. It features members of the ensemble in configurations typically ranging from duos to small ensembles.
Read more here.
Classical Voice North America: Blazing New Pathways In Washington, Oregon
PERSPECTIVE — A lot of attention has been directed to the out-migration from cities like San Francisco in recent years. This phenomenon is turning out to be more complex than the cliché of “urban exodus” offered by pandemic-related stories. All of that redistributed energy has to flow somewhere — and with it the impetus to improve the cultural institutions of the destination cities.
Like Boise, Vancouver in southwest Washington State presents another striking example of a smaller city that has become a magnet by offering increased affordability along with a less-stressful lifestyle. Vancouver’s leaders want to establish the city’s identity as not just a bedroom community to Portland but a desirable alternative on its own merits.
Vancouver and the surrounding region rank among the fastest-growing areas in the state. This newfound attractiveness is stimulating a fresh sense of promise and ambition for the arts. As the city’s largest performing arts organization, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA has been a presence for decades.
Classical Voice North America
Thomas May
Editor’s Note: This is the second report in a two-part series about regional orchestras in America’s Northwest.
PERSPECTIVE — A lot of attention has been directed to the out-migration from cities like San Francisco in recent years. This phenomenon is turning out to be more complex than the cliché of “urban exodus” offered by pandemic-related stories. All of that redistributed energy has to flow somewhere — and with it the impetus to improve the cultural institutions of the destination cities.
Like Boise, Vancouver in southwest Washington State presents another striking example of a smaller city that has become a magnet by offering increased affordability along with a less-stressful lifestyle. Vancouver’s leaders want to establish the city’s identity as not just a bedroom community to Portland but a desirable alternative on its own merits.
Vancouver and the surrounding region rank among the fastest-growing areas in the state. This newfound attractiveness is stimulating a fresh sense of promise and ambition for the arts. As the city’s largest performing arts organization, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA has been a presence for decades.
Read more here.
Classical Voice North America: After Covid, A Renewed Commitment To Music
PERSPECTIVE — The performing arts sector has been in crisis mode for nearly three years. Predictions of doom for classical music’s infrastructure, never in short supply to begin with, spiked to unprecedented levels with the arrival of the pandemic.
There’s even been speculation about how Covid’s long-term disruptions have taken a toll on our personalities, with negative effects hitting the younger generation particularly hard. If these concerns have any validity, how much more difficult will the goal of courting new audiences become?
Yet encouraging signs of revitalization can be found across the spectrum of classical music institutions. The situation with regard to regional orchestras is especially noteworthy, since during the pandemic’s early stages smaller ensembles seemed even more vulnerable than bigger orchestras with sizable endowments.
But the drastic need to rethink priorities has also yielded renewed purpose. “In the midst of these seemingly endless obstacles that come our way, you have a group of musicians who play together with such a sense of community and empathy,” said Eric Garcia about his experience as music director of the Boise Philharmonic.
Classical Voice North America
By Thomas May
Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a two-part report on the post-pandemic outlook of regional orchestras in America’s Northwest.
PERSPECTIVE — The performing arts sector has been in crisis mode for nearly three years. Predictions of doom for classical music’s infrastructure, never in short supply to begin with, spiked to unprecedented levels with the arrival of the pandemic.
There’s even been speculation about how Covid’s long-term disruptions have taken a toll on our personalities, with negative effects hitting the younger generation particularly hard. If these concerns have any validity, how much more difficult will the goal of courting new audiences become?
Yet encouraging signs of revitalization can be found across the spectrum of classical music institutions. The situation with regard to regional orchestras is especially noteworthy, since during the pandemic’s early stages smaller ensembles seemed even more vulnerable than bigger orchestras with sizable endowments.
But the drastic need to rethink priorities has also yielded renewed purpose. “In the midst of these seemingly endless obstacles that come our way, you have a group of musicians who play together with such a sense of community and empathy,” said Eric Garcia about his experience as music director of the Boise Philharmonic.
Read more here.
Washington Classical Review: Pine, Fairfax Symphony give worthy advocacy to revived Price concerto
Florence Price composed her Violin Concerto No. 2 in 1952. As violinist Rachel Barton Pine remarked before performing it with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra led by Christopher Zimmerman Saturday night, its creation seems to have been driven by a pure personal need to write a concerto. Price had not received a commission, and no one performed it before she died a year later. Price never had a publisher, a circumstance likely explained by the prejudices she had to contend with as a black woman.
This concerto was lost to history until its manuscript was found in a trunk in an abandoned house in 2009, along with many other Price compositions. It was a fortuitous discovery, as Saturday’s performance at the George Mason University’s Center for the Arts showed.
Washington Classical Review
By Andrew Lindemann Malone
Florence Price composed her Violin Concerto No. 2 in 1952. As violinist Rachel Barton Pine remarked before performing it with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra led by Christopher Zimmerman Saturday night, its creation seems to have been driven by a pure personal need to write a concerto. Price had not received a commission, and no one performed it before she died a year later. Price never had a publisher, a circumstance likely explained by the prejudices she had to contend with as a black woman.
This concerto was lost to history until its manuscript was found in a trunk in an abandoned house in 2009, along with many other Price compositions. It was a fortuitous discovery, as Saturday’s performance at the George Mason University’s Center for the Arts showed.
Cast in one movement, the concerto features two recurring themes: a stern fanfare, broken up by delicate celeste, and a soulful melody tinged with gospel harmonies. The music in between doesn’t develop the themes so much as ruminate on them; thoughts wander in intriguing ways before returning to the main themes, which themselves undergo subtle transformations. Price demands a lot of the violinist, but the virtuoso techniques serve the contemplative mood. It’s a work that makes you want to hear it again, to see what glimmering texture or striking phrase catches your ear next, and to find out more about how they connect.
Read more here.
Blogcritics: Exclusive Interview: Luke McEndarfer, National Children’s Chorus Artistic Director, on Ukraine Concert at Disney Hall
“When you live from the truth of your purpose, you need not worry, and can know with certainty that you are always headed in the right direction.” Those words of wisdom come to us from Luke McEndarfer, Artistic Director of the the National Children’s Chorus (NCC).
Maestro McEndarfer will lead the NCC in a concert with the American Youth Symphony at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on Feb. 25. Dedicated to the people of Ukraine, the concert, co-led by Maestro Carlos Izcaray, is dubbed “Voices of Peace.” It will feature a performance of Benjamin Britten’s challenging War Requiem.
Blogcritics
By Jon Sobel
“When you live from the truth of your purpose, you need not worry, and can know with certainty that you are always headed in the right direction.” Those words of wisdom come to us from Luke McEndarfer, Artistic Director of the the National Children’s Chorus (NCC).
Maestro McEndarfer will lead the NCC in a concert with the American Youth Symphony at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on Feb. 25. Dedicated to the people of Ukraine, the concert, co-led by Maestro Carlos Izcaray, is dubbed “Voices of Peace.” It will feature a performance of Benjamin Britten’s challenging War Requiem.
Read more here.
Violin Channel: 2024 Azrieli Music Prizes Now Accepting Applications
For its fifth competition, AMP is seeking scores and proposals for a cappella choral works
Established in 2014, the Canada-based Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) is comprised of four categories: The Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music, The Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music, The Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music, and the inaugural Azrieli Commission for International Music.
The latter category is new to the competition and invites composers worldwide "to creatively engage with the richness of humanity’s diverse cultural heritage," according to AMP.
The 2024 competition is seeking submissions for a cappella choral works that will match the force of its Performance Partner, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Chorus (OSM Chorus), including up to four additional instruments and/or soloists.
Violin Channel
For its fifth competition, AMP is seeking scores and proposals for a cappella choral works
Established in 2014, the Canada-based Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) is comprised of four categories: The Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music, The Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music, The Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music, and the inaugural Azrieli Commission for International Music.
The latter category is new to the competition and invites composers worldwide "to creatively engage with the richness of humanity’s diverse cultural heritage," according to AMP.
The 2024 competition is seeking submissions for a cappella choral works that will match the force of its Performance Partner, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Chorus (OSM Chorus), including up to four additional instruments and/or soloists.
Open to the international music community, AMP accepts nominations for works from individuals and institutions of all ages, genders, nationalities, faiths, and backgrounds.
Read more here.
WETA: The Music of Florence Price with Rachel Barton Pine and the Fairfax Symphony
Violinist Rachel Barton Pine will be featured with the Fairfax Symphony performing Florence Price's Violin Concerto No. 2 in a concert on February 11 at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University. I reached out to her to ask about this performance and its place in the context of her career.
WETA
By Evan Keely
Violinist Rachel Barton Pine will be featured with the Fairfax Symphony performing Florence Price's Violin Concerto No. 2 in a concert on February 11 at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University. I reached out to her to ask about this performance and its place in the context of her career.
Evan Keely: You’ve had a long relationship with Cedille Records. Tell us about that, and the genesis of the 1997 album Violin Concertos by Black Composers of the 18th and 19th Centuries (and its 25th-anniversary counterpart, Violin Concertos by Black Composers Through the Centuries).
Rachel Barton Pine: When I was new on the scene back in 1996, Jim Ginsburg – the founder of Cedille Records and my longtime producer, who is Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s son – approached me after one of my performances and said that it would be great to start working together. My career was still in such an early stage that I didn't yet feel quite ready to record the major concertos. Of course, since then, I've recorded all the most popular ones including Brahms, Beethoven, Bruch, and Mendelssohn. But to start with, we wanted to do something that was more repertoire-oriented – where people might buy the album, even if they hadn’t yet heard of the soloist.
Read more here.