November 3, 2022 • 12:37 pm Comments Off on Tan Dun Comes to Seattle
My Seattle Times story on Tan Dun and his upcoming appearances next week with Seattle Symphony:
A transformative encounter in cave temples inspired Tan Dun, who will conduct his epic Buddha Passion as part of a Seattle Symphony mini-festival of his works Nov. 3-13.
Filed under: Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times, Tan Dun
October 11, 2022 • 7:54 am 2
My Seattle Times story on the Tristan und Isolde production by Argentine director Marcelo Lombardero and colleagues, which opens Saturday at Seattle Opera:
Christina Scheppelmann, Seattle Opera’s general director, fervently believes that cross-cultural exchange is vital for the health of the art form. So she invited the prominent Argentinian stage director Marcelo Lombardero and his creative team to bring their vision to Seattle in a production of Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” opening Oct. 15.
Filed under: directors, Seattle Opera, Seattle Times, Wagner
June 2, 2022 • 10:52 am Comments Off on Morlot and SSO Together Again for Epic Messiaen
Tonight Ludovic Morlot rejoins the Seattle Symphony for the first of two performances of one of Messiaen’s Des canyons aux étoiles… I spoke to the conductor about the program for The Seattle Times:
A new chapter in Ludovic Morlot’s relationship with the Seattle Symphony is underway.
Now holding the title of conductor emeritus, Morlot has chosen some unusual fare for his concerts on June 2 and 4: the orchestral epic “Des canyons aux étoiles …” (“From the Canyons to the Stars …”) by Olivier Messiaen, which will be presented in a multimedia presentation accompanied by video projections by Deborah O’Grady.
Filed under: Ludovic Morlot, Olivier Messiaen, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times
March 18, 2022 • 7:49 am Comments Off on Reena Esmail’s Violin Concerto for Indian Violinist Kala Ramnath
ALSO NOTE: Tonight Friday night at 8pm, Reena Esmail curates a program at Seattle Symphony”s Octave 9 space with Kala Ramnath and SSO musicians, titled “Ragamala: A Journey into Hindustani Music.”
I had the pleasure of writing about the marvelous Reena Esmail and her new violin concerto for Hindustani violinist Kala Ramnath, which Seattle Symphony will premiere at the Celebrate Asia concert on Sunday, 20 March.
For its opening night concert last September, when the Seattle Symphony returned for its first full season since the pandemic struck, it was music by Reena Esmail that launched the program. She continues in her role as composer-in-residence with the world premiere of a newly commissioned violin concerto …
Filed under: Reena Esmail, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times, violinists
January 25, 2022 • 2:03 pm Comments Off on SOUNDbox, the New Series at Nonsequitur
Here’s my Seattle Times story on a new Nonsequitur series that’s about to launch at the Chapel Performance Space:
Experimental music. Contemporary classical and post-classical. Free improvisation. Electroacoustic. Sound installation. Avant-garde … There’s a bewildering babel of labels used to try to classify artists who are defiantly unclassifiable….
Filed under: Nonsequitur, Seattle Times
December 27, 2021 • 9:55 am 1
Here’s my latest Seattle Times story, about John Adams as composer and conductor:
Seattle Symphony audiences have another reason to be proud of their band…
Filed under: John Adams, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times
November 30, 2021 • 6:49 am Comments Off on Andy Akiho’s Seven Pillars Premieres at Emerald City Music
Seven Pillars, an epic for percussion quartet by the marvelous composer Andy Akiho, receives its live performance world premiere this weekend in Seattle by the Sandbox Percussion ensemble. My story for The Seattle Times:
“The spirit of percussion opens everything,” musician John Cage once declared. He had in mind the way percussion music can open the door to unaccustomed ways of listening — and even of perceiving the environment around us…..
And this weekend brings another not-to-be-missed percussion classic: Michael Gordon’s hour-long Timber, for six players, which is being presented by Base: Experimental Arts + Space: 6520 5th Avenue South, #122nd, Seattle, WA 98108 on Dec 4 and 5 at 3 and 8pm. Features a six-player instrument built by local master carpenter Isaac Anderson & light design by Kevin Blanquies.
Filed under: new music, percussion, Seattle Times
April 15, 2021 • 11:52 am Comments Off on Seattle Opera Meets the Museum of Flight
My latest story for The Seattle Times:
We’ve all been there.
The familiar dread that accompanies air travel — Will my flight be delayed? Will I end up stranded? — has only become aggravated in the time of the coronavirus. But the reverse side to such anxieties is the promise of escape, which leads us ever onward. The resulting ambiguity gives airports their tremendous symbolic power.
The company premiere of Jonathan Dove and April De Angelis’s Flight will be streamed on the Seattle Opera website from April 23-25; tickets $35.
Filed under: Seattle Opera, Seattle Times
December 12, 2020 • 9:47 pm Comments Off on This Is Beethoven
My Seattle Times story on This Is Beethoven, Seattle’s citywide digital festival that will take place from 16 to 19 December.
Milestone anniversaries are supposed to be predictable events.
And since no figure in the classical music firmament looms as large as Ludwig van Beethoven, the classical music world was counting on the composer’s 250th birthday this year as a major selling point. But coronavirus started wreaking its havoc, and countless Beethoven-related events had to be scuttled — or adapted on the fly to constraints no one could have predicted….
Filed under: Beethoven, Seattle Times
January 7, 2019 • 1:07 pm Comments Off on The Adventurous Mahan Esfahani
Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani plays with the Seattle Symphony on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 11 and 12. (Kaja Smith)
Filed under: Bach family, Seattle Times
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