February 19, 2023 • 12:13 am Comments Off on Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up at Juilliard
At 2pm ET, Juilliard Opera is presenting the amazing opera Proving Up, with music by Missy Mazzoli and a libretto by Royce Vavrek based on the short story by Karen Russell. Mary Birnbaum is the director, and Steven Osgood conducts.
More background in my program essay here.
You can watch a livestream here — note that this performance won’t be available to stream afterward on demand.
Filed under: American opera, Juilliard, Missy Mazzoli
February 16, 2023 • 10:05 am Comments Off on Benefit Concert for Earthquake Victims
Students and alumni of the Barenboim-Said Akademie, among whom are a number of musicians from Türkiye and Syria, initiated a benefit concert to be held on Monday, February 20, 7.30pm in collaboration with the Pierre Boulez Saal. Focusing on the theme “2Home,” the concert will contribute to efforts aiding those affected by the massive earthquake in these two countries.
The program includes works of Western classical music as well as compositions from the Middle East, especially from Türkiye and Syria.perform at the Pierre Boulez Saal on February 20.
In addition to the concert at the Pierre Boulez Saal on Monday, February 20, there will be three smaller concerts in the foyer of the Barenboim-Said Akademie on February 16, 17, and 18, each at 4pm. Admission to the foyer concerts is free; donations are welcome. Proceeds from all four concerts will go to the Earthquake Relief Fund of the German Red Cross. Call +49 30 4799 7411 for tickets.
Filed under: music news, Pierre Boulez Saal
February 11, 2023 • 9:43 am Comments Off on Saunder Choi and Seattle Pro Musica
Seattle Pro Musica presents New Colossus, the latest in its New American Composer Series, a five-concert series celebrating the organization’s 50th anniversary with commissions and Seattle residencies by BIPOC composers from across the country. This edition features composer Saunder Choi‘s new work, Never Again, which addresses the issue of gun violence in America. Choi writes: “In the wake of the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman wrote: ‘May we not just grieve, but give: May we not just ache, but act’ in her poem Hymn for the Hurting. This call to action is the inspiration behind Never Again, a commentary about the true cost of freedom in a country where the intersection of politics, capitalism, and gun lobbies stands in the way of sensible legislation.”
The program is on Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 7:30 pm at Seattle First Baptist Church, Seattle, WA; pre-concert conversation at 7pm. Tickets here. You can also see it online but need to register before the performance begins here.
Complete Program:
Spark by Eric William Barnum (b. 1979)
New Colossus by Saunder Choi (b. 1988)
My spirit sang all day by Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)
Never again by Saunder Choi (world premiere)
Earth teach me by Rupert Lang (b. 1948)
Welcome Table by Saunder Choi
Leron, Leron Sinta: traditional Filipino song, arr. by Saunder Choi
A Journey of Your Own by Saunder Choi
Filed under: choral music, commissions, Seattle Pro Musica
February 10, 2023 • 5:53 pm Comments Off on Purcell’s King Arthur
Juilliard415 is teaming up with students from the Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts and Juilliard Drama to give a rare performance of a new version of Henry Purcell’s “semi-opera” King Arthur at Alice Tully Hall on Saturday 11 February at 7.30pm NYC time. Lionel Meunier directs this interdisciplinary collaboration.
More background in my program essay here. .
You can watch a livestream here — note that this performance won’t be available to stream afterward on demand.
Filed under: early music, Henry Purcell, Juilliard
February 9, 2023 • 2:49 am Comments Off on Lee Mills Returns to Seattle Symphony: Beethoven, Corey, and Ripper
UPDATE: This is a fantastic program and well worth seeking out this weekend. I was completely enchanted by João Guilherme Ripper’s touching, witty, sophisticated, and deliciously melodic song cycle based on the poetry of the legendary Vinicius de Moraes. Mills does a great service introducing this prolific Brazilian composer to U.S. audiences — and this is just one peek into the wealth of creativity south of the border that is routinely ignored here. Filling in at the last minute, lyric soprano Tess Altiveros brings passion and humor to her interpretations.
And Mills inspires the SSO to a refreshingly buoyant account of Beethoven’s Sixth. He closely follows the composer’s metronome markings but without sounding rushed or hectic., The result really is akin to breathing in the invigorating freshness of the countryside — and above all elicits the joyful elation of this score.
Two more chances to hear the program: Saturday at 8:00pm and Sunday at 2:00pm.
Lee Mills, who finished his tenure as Seattle Symphony Associate Conductor last season, returns this week to lead the band in what promises to be an interesting program of Beethoven and contemporary composers. We’ll hear the world premiere of Charles Corey’s Together, This Journey, commissioned and composed in collaboration with members of Northwest Center and Best Buddies (originally as part of the 2020 Beethoven Festival) and Brazilian composer João Guilherme Ripper’s Cinco poemas de Vinicius de Moraes. Written for soprano (Tess Altiveros) and orchestra, Ripper’s piece sets five poems by Moraes to sketch out the story of the poet’s life. And Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony will complete the program.
I wrote a profile of Mills just about a year ago for Musical America.
Performance times:
Thursday 9 February at 7.30 pm
Saturday 11 February at 8.00 om
Sunday 12 February at 2.00 pm
Tickets here.
Filed under: Beethoven, conductors, Seattle Symphony
February 8, 2023 • 9:38 am Comments Off on West-Eastern Divan Ensemble Tonight in Berlin
On the agenda at the Boulez-Saal in Berlin tonight is this program by the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble. It’s an interesting mix of Jörg Widmann, Dvořák, Hindemith, and Enescu. My program notes here.
Filed under: chamber music, Pierre Boulez Saal
February 6, 2023 • 8:37 am Comments Off on Abdullah, Hadelich, and the Seattle Symphony Offer a Winter-Conquering Musical Feast
Kazem Abdullah’s Seattle Symphony debut included Sibelius, Britten, and a brand-new work by Dai Fujikura. Here’s my review for Bachtrack:
Framed by early and late Sibelius, this luminous program pushed the pause button on dank winter anxieties. A warm bond developed between debuting guest conductor Kazem Abdullah and the Seattle Symphony musicians during the course of the concert, reaching incandescence in their cloud-busting account of the Finnish composer’s Seventh Symphony.
Filed under: Britten, commissions, conductors, Seattle Symphony, Sibelius
January 31, 2023 • 10:34 am Comments Off on A Thousand Splendid Suns at Seattle Opera
In just a few weeks, Seattle Opera will unveil a new opera that has been many years in the making: an adaptation of Afghan American writer Khaled Hosseini‘s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by the American composer Sheila Silver and librettist Stephen Kitsakos. Hossein’s fiction has inspired adaptations for the screen and the spoken stage — and even a graphic novel. But this marks the first time an opera has been made from his work. Seattle Opera’s production also presents the pioneering Afghan filmmaker Roya Sadat’s debut as an opera director.
I wrote a preview feature for Opera Now, which appears in the January 2023 issue:
The fate of Afghanistan and oppression of women are two phenomena that have acquired a topical urgency in today’s world. Sheila Silver has been immersed in these subjects since 2009, when she first encountered Khaled Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. She was struck by the overwhelming power of Hosseini’s narrative, which unfolds in Afghanistan between the 1960s and 2002. Above all, she sensed an operatic intensity in the bond that develops between the two protagonists, Mariam and Laila, as they struggle to cope in a milieu of abuse and domestic violence. The strength of that bond is what makes the shattering sacrifice at the opera’s climax possible.
continue (with subscription)
Filed under: commissions, new opera, Seattle Opera
January 28, 2023 • 6:41 am Comments Off on SCMS Winter Festival 2023
Seattle Chamber Music Society’s 2023 edition of the Winter Festival has started, presenting two weekends of chamber music by Beethoven, Fanny Mendelssohn, Ravel, William Grant Still, Julia Perry, et al. plus a new work by contemporary American composer Jeremy Turner, who is especially known for his TV and stage scores.
The second weekend of concerts includes the local premiere (Feb. 3) of Turner’s Six Mile House for clarinet, violin, piano, and cello. which was inspired by the Charleston, SC-based urban legend about Sweeney Todd-ish murders said to have been committed by an evil innkeeper couple.
SCMS Artistic Director James Ehnes will be onstage for the three concerts of the second weekend, playing works by Brahms, Shostakovich, and César Franck. And a free prelude recital is open to the public before each concert — no ticket required. Here’s the free prelude lineup:
January 27 – 6:30PM
Richard Strauss: Violin Sonata, Op.18
Arnaud Sussmann, violin
Jeewon Park, piano
January 28 – 6:30PM
Franz Schubert: Fantasie in F minor, D. 940
Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
SCMS Academy Musicians
January 29 – 2:00PM
Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 82
Adam Neiman, piano
February 3 – 6:30PM
Julia Perry: Prelude
William Grant Still: Three Visions
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, solo version 1924
Andrew Armstrong, piano
February 4 – 6:30PM
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 1 No. 3
SCMS Academy Musicians
February 5 – 2:00PM
Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in F minor, Op. 20, No. 5
James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti, violins;
Che-Yen Chen, viola; Edward Arron, cello
Filed under: chamber music, James Ehnes, Seattle Chamber Music Society
January 27, 2023 • 9:51 am Comments Off on Holocaust Remembrance Day: Lori Laitman’s Wertheim Park
This year, with so much hate being spewed around the world, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust is especially important. Seattle’s invaluable Music of Remembrance, now in its 25th year, is offering a free streaming of composer Lori Laitman’s Wertheim Park. The program will begin streaming on Friday, 27 January, and remain available online.
The streamed program is an enhanced video of the world premiere of Wertheim Park by Music of Remembrance on 30 October 2022 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. It features soprano Alisa Jordheim, with an instrumental ensemble of Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Jonathan Green, double bass; and Mina Miller, piano.
Laitman’s sixth commission for Music of Remembrance, Wertheim Park sets a poem by the late Susan de Sola and is a haunting elegy about the power of bearing witness. It pictures the annual gathering at Amsterdam’s Wertheim Park, where people come together each year for Holocaust remembrance.
“When Music of Remembrance asked me to compose a piece for their 25th season,” said Laitman, “I decided to explore the impact of the Holocaust on the next generation. Poet Susan de Sola lost many of her relatives in the Shoah, and Wertheim Park is an intimate depiction of the memorial march and its emotional impact on her.”
Filed under: American music, Holocaust, Music of Remembrance
Arts & Culture Stories from NPR
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 