Interchanging Idioms

My son and I were having an interesting discussion talking about art. We started by talking about a number of other things, but eventually wound up talking method acting and truth in art. The point being there is no such thing as a truly method actor, because at some point the actor has to be aware they are just an actor on stage; they are not actually the character they are portraying. If they really were that character they would be confused as to why they were on stage and completely break from where the performance needs to go. Sure, there is something to be said for getting “in” to a character, for understanding what their motivation is and how they are thinking in any given scene. If you’re playing a drunkard, then some understanding as to what it is to be drunk or an alcoholic might be important to making the role realistic. But that doesn’t mean you need to become an alcoholic to do the role well. What is really important is to find some element within yourself that re...

Mei-Ann Chen leads baritone Andre McRae, the Peabody Children’s Chorus and the BSO for a seasonal concert, including a Holiday Sing-along Baltimore, Md. (October 27, 2009)— Assistant Conductor and League of American Orchestras’ Conducting Fellow Mei-Ann Chen will lead baritone Andre McRae, the Peabody Children’s Chorus and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in a recreation of Chris Van Allsburg’s The Polar Express on Saturday, December 5 at 11 a.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Van Allsburg’s picture book, which won the Caldecott Medal in 1986, tells the tale of a young boy who believes steadfastly in Santa and travels to the North Pole on the Polar Express. The illustrations of this beloved children’s book will be projected on a screen above the Orchestra. The concert will feature several other seasonal favorites, including Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Children’s Prayer” from Hansel and Gretel , as well as a holiday sing-a-long. The BSO encourages patrons to arrival early to p...

Variety has an interesting article about the state of things for The Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL). They are considering joining with Teamsters Local 399 because right now they are considered "Independent Contractors" due to a ruling in the Regan era. According to the article composers are writing upwards of twice as much music as they were 30 years ago but being paid 14% of what they were making. So, studios are getting more and paying less. The American Composers Forum is another organization bent on getting fair pay for fair work for composers. Established in the 1973 as the Minnesota Composers Forum, the Forum tries to connect composers with the community - with the idea of creating a means for composers to earn a living. Screen writers wreaked havoc with Hollywood a few years back trying to get some portion of DVD sales. Music, which has become a huge marketing tool for television and film is given the same sort of slip claiming the rights to the mu...

Ms. Weilerstein to join violinist Joshua Bell, guitarist Sharon Isbin and pianist Awadagin Pratt Cellist Alisa Weilerstein will take part in the next White House Music Series event that will focus on classical music on Wednesday, November 4. Ms. Weilerstein is one of four performers invited to take part in the event that will include student workshops for 120 middle and high school students followed by an evening concert featuring Ms. Weilerstein, violinist Joshua Bell, guitarist Sharon Isbin and pianist Awadagin Pratt in the East Room. The White House Music Series was created by First Lady Michelle Obama to celebrate the arts, demonstrate the importance of arts education and to encourage young people who believe in their talent to create a future for themselves in the arts community be it as a hobby or as a profession. Previous White House events have featured jazz, country and Latin musicians. “It was definitely an extremely exciting and thrilling moment when I received the in...

Recorded at Severance Hall in Cleveland in September 2008 CLEVELAND, October 27, 2009 – The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst’s live recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 will be available on DVD from Tuesday, October 27 in the United States . Recorded by WVIZ/PBS ideastream® at the Orchestra’s home, Severance Hall in Cleveland, during subscription concerts on September 25 and 26, 2008, the recording is the Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst’s third Bruckner DVD. Clasart produced the recording, which will be distributed by Arthaus. The Cleveland Orchestra and Clasart have had a long-term partnership resulting in all three Bruckner DVDs. The Cleveland Orchestra acknowledges both Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich and Clasart for their generous support of the DVD release. The new DVD represents an ongoing collaboration with WVIZ/PBS ideastream. On June 11, 2008, PBS broadcast “The Cleveland Orchestra in Performance: Bruckner Symphony No. 5,” recorded in ...

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 Releases November 17 on Deutsche Grammophon New York, NY (October 27, 2009) – World-renowned pianist Maurizio Pollini releases his first-ever recording of Bach on Deutsche Grammophon, available November 17, 2009. With a career that has already spanned almost 50 years (he was awarded first prize in the 1960 Chopin competition), Pollini continues to challenge himself both on stage and in the recording studio. Recording a composer for the first time is always a milestone, recording a composer for the first time after performing for almost 50 years is a unique milestone, and when that composer is Bach and the pianist is Pollini the recording becomes a major event. This project, a summit meeting of two masters, has been in the making for decades. Pollini has regularly performed Bach and specifically selections from The Well-Tempered Clavier for more than twenty years in concert but has only just now chosen to record this landmark work and composer. T...

Superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma plays to SRO Powell Hall for SLSO’s first gala in a decade “A Noteworthy Affair,” the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra ’s first gala event since 1999, has been "proclaimed a huge success, both artistically and in terms of fundraising," announced SLSO President and Executive Director Fred Bronstein . Guest artist Yo-Yo Ma performed Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, with Music Director David Robertson conducting the SLSO, to a standing-room-only audience at Powell Hall on October 24, 2009. Robertson and the SLSO also performed Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, “Unfinished,” at the start of the evening. After the concert, more than 500 guests were transported by shuttle from Powell Hall to the Coronado Ballroom for an evening of dining and dancing. The Steve Schankman Orchestra provided the entertainment. The Gala committee was chaired by Noémi Neidorff, with co-chairs Peggy Ritter and Marsha Rusnack. The sponsor for “A Noteworthy Affair” was Centene Corporation. Br...

Following on from his acclaimed series Brahms, his Friends, Rivals and Contemporaries at the Wigmore Hall, renowned accompanist Graham Johnson has devised a short series of song recitals centred around the songs of Johannes Brahms for the Guildhall School. Senior singers and pianists from the School perform with introductions by Graham Johnson. Graham Johnson, Senior Professor of Accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, studied in London where he went on to build up his reputation as a distinguished accompanist. During his career of over 30 years Graham has accompanied many high profile singers and has recently worked on a Brahms Lieder series with Dame Felicity Lott. He was named ‘Instrumentalist of the Year 1998’ by the Royal Philharmonic Society and elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 2000. In 1994 Graham was made an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. 24 November & 1 December 2009, 1.05pm 26 November & 2 December 2009, 7pm ...

World premiere of complete version of Harper’s Symphony No 2, replacing the scheduled performance of his Third Symphony which remained unfinished at the time of his death The Scottish Chamber Orchestra will perform the world premiere performance of the complete version of Edward Harper’s Second Symphony in a ‘Homecoming’-themed programme at Glasgow City Halls and Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 November. As well as paying tribute to the music of Harper, who died in April this year, the Orchestra celebrates the music of Kenneth Leighton in the 80th anniversary year of his birth with a performance of his Concerto for String Orchestra, and marks the 50th birthday of James MacMillan with his tour de force Tryst . Garry Walker, who conducted Harper’s Second Symphony at both the 2006 premiere and on the Delphian recording, directs the Orchestra in these concerts, and is joined by bass baritone Leigh Melrose. Harper’s Second Symphony replaces Symphony No 3 ‘Homage to...

Maazel Also Schedule to Lead Boston Symphony in Beethoven's Sixth and Seventh Symphonies at Carnegie Hall on November 2nd Lorin Maazel, one of the world’s most respected conductors, will lead the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the final two programs of the orchestra’s Beethoven’s cycle, including the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth symphonies, October 30-November 7, at Symphony Hall. Mr. Maazel will also lead the BSO in its upcoming Carnegie Hall program—Beethoven’s Sixth and Seventh symphonies, on November 2. Maestro Maazel steps in for BSO Music Director James Levine, whose doctors have advised him to postpone returning to his conducting schedule until he is more fully recovered from surgery that took place earlier this month for a herniated disc. In his first performances with the Boston Symphony since 1972, Mr. Maazel will lead the orchestra in Beethoven’s Sixth and Seventh symphonies on October 30 and 31, repeating that program at Carnegie Hall on November 2. Mr. Maazel ...

Concert To Also Feature Pianist Olli Mustonen Performing Ravel’s Piano Concerto, Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue and Riffs , And Gershwin’s An American in Paris Music Director Robert Spano will lead the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in the World Premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer-musician Wynton Marsalis’s new symphonic work, Blues Symphony . The new work celebrates the blues through the prism of different moments in American history, and will be the first work by Marsalis composed exclusively for symphony orchestra. Mr. Marsalis will not be playing on this piece. The evening’s performance will also include Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with guest pianist Olli Mustonen, Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue and Riffs featuring the ASO’s Principal Clarinetist Laura Ardan, and Gershwin’s An American in Paris , on November 19 and 20, 2009, at 8:00 p.m. and November 22, 2009, at 3:00 p.m. at Atlanta Symphony Hall at the Woodruff Arts Center. Ticket Prices: $25 - $80 Thu, Nov 19, 2009 | 8:00 PM F...

This really isn't new, but Adrienne Carlson posted a bit on her IT blog about the 10 best places to get Free Radio . I found it interesting.

I was requested to write something for the Lamont Symphony Orchestra and limited to two minutes - something they could sight read and yet still be an effective 2 minute piece. I submitted two proposals, Breathing and Materia Prima . They opted for Breathing as it has more regular rhythms. Materia Prima has a 13/8 time signature and is probably a bit much to expect a University orchestra, even a good one, to sound good on their first reading. Breathing was the one selected. I am still writing on the Materia Prima , because I really like the idea and the intense rhythms - but I'll probably lengthen it to 7 or 8 minutes. After a couple weeks work here is a realization of Breathing (not yet seen by the orchestra). This should give you a rough idea as to what I hope they might sound like - if I've put all the dots in the right places. The concept for the music is the four stages of Buddhist meditation,      Shamatha – mental clarity    ...

Renée Fleming’s new CD Verismo has already received rave reviews. It opened at the top of the charts when first released. So, this review of her newest release may be a bit late (and even superfluous). However, it is a beautiful album and not commenting on the quality seems a shame. Listening to Verismo is like falling in love with Puccini’s music all over again (and again and again). There other composers from the givane scuola (young school), but it is Puccini who really dominated this period of opera and justifiably dominates the tracks on Fleming’s new album. Verismo refers to the post-Romantic Italian operatic tradition of composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggiero Leoncavallo, and Giacomo Puccini, who advocated bringing the naturalism of writers such as Emile Zola and Henrik Ibsen into opera. These are operas whose emotional impact is as much in your face as layered with complexity. True to tradition, the arias on Verismo are just that, complex layers of emotion with...

November 15 Recital at New York’s Alice Tully Hall features works by George Benjamin, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mozart and Beethoven Pierre-Laurent Aimard ’s 2009-10 season is, as has become the norm for the French pianist, conductor, and impresario, replete with engagements all over the world. He performs in major cities and at festivals in Japan, Europe, and the U.S., often conducting from the keyboard. This season he plays recitals in New York, Vienna, Madrid, Berlin, Paris, and elsewhere; performs concertos with Pierre Boulez and James Levine in Chicago and Boston; and leads such ensembles as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Aimard began the season with two tours – one leading the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in Frankfurt, Bonn, Baden-Baden, and Paris; the other as piano partner of German baritone Matthias Goerne. The two performed in Japan, where Aimard also gave concerts with the Bamberg Symphony, with which he often tours in the U.S. and Europe as well. On November 15, Aimard...

“We wanted a distinguished musician who is amenable to performing chamber music and teaching; a scholar and music advocate beloved by New York audiences. Tom fits that bill.” – Alan Gilbert Enjoying a season already rich in far-reaching endeavors, including his celebrated “Song of America” project, the singular American baritone Thomas Hampson embarks on another great adventure in November when he begins his year-long appointment as the first Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence of the New York Philharmonic. Throughout the season (Alan Gilbert’s first as the orchestra’s new Music Director), Hampson will take part in a wide range of activities – 16 events in all – that showcase his wide-ranging talents as performer, music enthusiast, and scholar. In concerts and a solo recital he will explore a broad range of repertoire, from Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony (Nov 5, 6, 7 and 10) to John Adams’s The Wound-Dresser , which Hampson will perform both in New York (Jan 14-16) and ...

Fresh from Japan with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado launched September with the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, conducted his debut with Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra and returned to the Collegium Novum Zurich. Earlier this month he led the orchestra at London's Royal Academy of Music, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo in Monaco, and Klangforum Vienna in Parma, Italy. The versatile 31-year-old has a number of significant debuts in the coming months, culminating at the Hollywood Bowl: his re-engagement with the Los Angeles Philharmonic next summer. Oct. 24: BBC Philharmonic debut; Manchester, UK (Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Beethoven) Dec. 15: Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (Schubert: Sym. No. 7 - DVD for Naïve) Jan. 9: Orquesta Nacional de Espana debut; Spain Feb-Mar.: English National Opera debut (L'Elisir d'Amore; Jonathan Miller, dir.) Apr. 8 & 9: Danish National Symphony Orchestra; (Nielsen, Chopin, Holst) June-Jul...

John Adams has contributed his first-ever film score, to Io sono l'amore (I Am Love), the new film by Italian director Luca Guadagnino, starring Tilda Swinton. The film drew considerable attention at the Toronto Film Festival last month and has now been nominated for the Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards’ Hollywood World Award for best international film. The award's jury chair Mike Goodridge said that the nominated films "are not just among the best international films, but the best films made this year." The winning film will be announced at a gala event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles this Monday, October 26. Following the Toronto Film Festival screenings in September, the Hollywood Reporter said of the film that "best of all is the score, the first-ever by acclaimed minimalist musician John Adams ( Nixon in China ), whose orchestral compositions run counter to the scenes. Dramatic moments are accompanied by light, almost frivolous mus...

New York, NY – Composer, filmmaker, director and solo performer Mikel Rouse celebrates the release of his latest album, Gravity Radio (Exit Music 1012) with a special performance at Galapagos Art Space (16 Main Street, Brooklyn) on Friday, October 23 at 8pm. Mr. Rouse will be joined onstage by his band and special guests ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble) and TONY nominated/OBIE Award winner Veanne Cox. New work by acclaimed video artist Cliff Baldwin will be projected throughout the performance. The release date for Gravity Radio is November 3 (on iTunes and at all major retailers) but the disc will be available for purchase at Galapagos. Mikel Rouse has spent his successful and varied career creating music and multimedia projects that marry simplicity and intricacy. Gramophone reports, “We have Rouse’s works as living proof that complexity need not keep listeners at a distance, and that pop music can sustain serious interest with the right person at the helm.” Mr. Rou...

the ensemble plans to curate a new music series in partnership with the Dallas Arts District eighth blackbird , the Grammy Award-winning new music sextet, has been awarded the new Meadows Prize by Southern Methodist University, one of Texas's most prestigious academic institutions. Named for philanthropists Algur H. and Virginia Meadows, the prize, which was established in August 2009, is given to "professionals with an emerging international profile" and may be given to as many as four recipients each year. An SMU press release states: "The [Meadows] prize includes housing for a one-to-three-month residency in Dallas, transportation expenses, studio/office space and project costs, in addition to a substantial prize/stipend. In return, recipients will be expected to interact in a substantive way with Meadows students and to leave a lasting legacy in Dallas." eighth blackbird is committed to nurturing a new generation of artists, and as part of the priz...

10 December 2009, 7.30pm, Barbican Hall Iconic South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela returns to the London Symphony Orchestra on Thursday 10 December in the Barbican Hall to celebrate his 70th birthday. The programme includes urban folk songs and works by leading young jazz musician and composer Jason Yarde, Rude Awakening and All Souls Seek Joy, as well as music that reflects Masekela’s love for his own country. Young composer Andrew McCormack’s Incentive is also performed and, along with All Souls Seek Joy, was commissioned through the LSO Discovery Panufnik Young Composers Scheme. François-Xavier Roth conducts the LSO and LSO St Luke’s Community Choir. “At the end of the evening, the audience stood and sang the world's loveliest national anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika, rearranged as a rousing choral suite. This was no longer just another concert. It was a moment in time and place that could not be replicated, only remembered.” Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, after Maseke...

To Be Released October 27, 2009 on Deutsche Grammophon Ok - You may be thinking I'm off my rocker. Interchanging Idioms is a Classical Music blog, right? Yes, and while I sometimes venture into other areas that are related, seldom do I outright plug the pop industry - they have enough exposure on their own. However, Sting's latest CD "If On a Winter's Night..." is NOT venturing from the classical music focus. In collaboration with esteemed producer and arranger, Robert Sadin, "If On a Winter’s Night…" features traditional music of the British Isles as its starting point. Sting and guest musicians interpret a stirring collection of songs, carols, and lullabies including The Snow it Melts the Soonest (traditional Newcastle ballad), A Soalin’ (traditional English "begging" song) Gabriel's Message (14th century carol), Balulalow (lullaby by Peter Warlock) and Now Winter Comes Slowly (Henry Purcell). These are beautiful pieces and de...

Scriabin’s Piano Concerto , a one-off concerto masterpiece written in 1896, uses words and phrases from the Romantic vocabulary of Rachmaninoff and Chopin. A technically demanding piece, the audience is treated to colourful and imaginative passages filled with agitated figures that allow the pianist to showcase his talent. The concerto will be performed by pianist Yevgeny Sudbin, who, having rapidly risen to the forefront of the classical music scene, has performed in prestigious venues all over the world. The concert will also feature an hour long symphonic summary of Wagner’s Ring Cycle arranged by Henk de Vlieger, capturing all the tension, anger, romance and ecstasy of Wagner’s epic music drama. Concert Details October 28th, 7:30pm Royal Festival Hall Neeme Järvi conductor Yevgeny Sudbin piano Scriabin Rêverie Scriabin Piano Concerto Wagner (arr. De Vlieger) The Ring, an Orchestral Adventure TICKETS £9 - £55 Book tickets online at lpo.org.uk

Last night Colorado Symphony Orchestra began their Rachmaninoff Festival to a nearly full house at Boettcher Concert Hall. With two weekends of the superb piano performances by award winning Olga Kern and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jeffery Kahane, Denver classical music lovers will be treated to the full range of Rachmaninoff music. The first night certainly set the stage for a great festival of music. The opening night of the Rachmaninoff Festival began with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony Chorus (under the direction of the Chorus Founder Duain Wolfe) and Three Russian Songs for Chorus and Orchestra . The gentle beginning immediately established a Russian feel to the evening, with soft but dark music from the orchestra. The Colorado Symphony Chorus did an excellent job of providing emotional depth with excellent diction. Even when they were brought down to a mezzo-piano in the third song there was an astonishing sense of ...

Libby Larsen is one of America’s most performed living composers. She has created a catalog of over 400 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral works and over twelve operas. Grammy Award winning and widely recorded, including over fifty CD’s of her work, she is constantly sought after for commissions and premieres by major artists, ensembles, and orchestras around the world, and has established a permanent place for her works in the concert repertory. As a vigorous, articulate advocate for the music and musicians of our time, in 1973 Larsen co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composer’s Forum, which has become an invaluable aid for composers in a transitional time for American arts. A former holder of the Papamarkou Chair at John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress, Larsen has also held residencies with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony and the Colorado Symphony. On Sunday, October ...

“A Brilliant Singer Hits the Heights with Rossini” (Time Out NY) – Joyce DiDonato’s Rossini Arias CD Is on EMI Virgin Classics “The lustrous, vivacious mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato sings Rosina, and her fans will be eager to see her,” enthuses a New York Times listing for her recent return to the Metropolitan Opera as the spirited Rosina – her signature role. “Added to her lovely voice and precise coloratura were her superb dramatic skills: she spoke volumes with a sly smile or an arched eyebrow,” continues last week’s Times review, while Time Out New York’s review – the first – of her brand-new recording – Colbran, the Muse: Opera Arias by Rossini – opens: “Here’s another bull’s-eye from the wondrous Joyce DiDonato, who’ll be thrilling Met audiences with Rossinian fireworks and lustrous tone in Il barbiere di Siviglia through November 7. On her new CD..., the brilliant Kansas mezzo has fashioned an eloquent tribute to Rossini’s wife and frequent inspiration, Isabella Colb...

Baltimore, Md. (October 16, 2009)—World-class pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who has amazed audiences at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center and whom O Magazine describes as “timeless, meditative, utterly audacious” for her interpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations , will perform selections by Bach and Schubert at a most unlikely venue on Friday, October 23 at 11:00 a.m.: the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (MCI-W). Ms. Dinnerstein will answer questions from the inmates following the performance. Since 1996, Ms. Dinnerstein has played concerts throughout the United States for the Piatigorsky Foundation, an organization dedicated to bringing classical music to non-traditional venues. Amongst the places she has played are nursing homes, schools and community centers. Most notably, Ms. Dinnerstein gave the first classical music performance in the Louisiana state prison system. Because Ms. Dinnerstein shares the BSO’s vision to make classical music accessible by performing i...

After evenings of indescribable electricity with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in recent seasons, here Colin Currie takes flight once more with a world first: the première performance of Rautavaara’s Incantations , a piece that promises to marry aura and animation, finesse and fireworks. The concert begins with the world première of Rautavaara’s Incantations – a percussion concerto that promises to marry aura and animation, finesse and fireworks. Fifty years ago Rautavaara was awarded a scholarship from Jean Sibelius as the most promising Finnish composer of the following generation. Since then he has composed a broad range of works and this première will enable you to hear his intriguing style fusing modernism with mystical romanticism. When Jean Sibelius was asked to award a scholarship to the most promising Finnish composer of the generation to follow him, he chose Einojuhani Rautavaara. In the fifty years since that endorsement, Rautavaara’s orchestral kaleidoscope has rotat...

‘Sacrificium’ releases October 27th, 2009 on Decca New York, NY - Celebrated vocalist Cecilia Bartoli has found artistic inspiration in one of music history’s most fascinating—and cruel—subjects: the castrati of the Baroque era. Constantly challenging herself and her fans by recording virtually unknown repertoire, Bartoli continues to carry the art form to new aesthetic and intellectual heights. Her new album, Sacrificium , is no exception: featuring 11 world-premiere recordings, the disc will be available on the Decca label on October 27th, 2009. To celebrate the release, (le) poisson rouge in New York City will host a special film screening of Bartoli's recent performance of the music of Sacrificium at the Castera Palace in Naples, Italy. This free event will take place on November 16, 2009 at 7:30 pm. "The age of the castratos was one of the most dazzling and remarkable in European music history," writes Bartoli. "Seldom has there ever been such a complete fu...

Ms. Hicks to lead Orchestra’s U.S. Bank Pops Season through August 2013 October 12, 2009 -- Sarah Hicks has been appointed the Minnesota Orchestra’s Principal Conductor of Pops and Presentations, Orchestra President and CEO Michael Henson announced today. Ms. Hicks, who will assume the new role immediately, will lead the Orchestra’s signature U.S. Bank Pops Season for a term of four years, through 2012-13. Ms. Hicks joined the Orchestra as assistant conductor in 2006, making history as the first woman to hold a titled conducting post with the Minnesota Orchestra. “Pops concerts play an important role in the Minnesota Orchestra’s artistic offerings, and we have taken our time in identifying a new pops leader in order to find the right fit with audiences, the Orchestra—and the music itself,” says Michael Henson. “We’ve discovered that Sarah Hicks is made for this role. She sparks great connections with audiences; she has earned the respect of the musicians; she is a creative prog...

Paul Jacobs, among today’s foremost organists, will reach a geographic milestone on Sunday, November 8. When he plays the final notes of Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue on "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam” in a 4 p.m. concert at St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran Church in Anchorage, Alaska, Mr. Jacobs will have played before audiences in every one of America’s 50 states. He will have accomplished this feat in a span of just nine years, dating from his historic performance of the complete organ works of J.S. Bach in an 18-hour marathon on July 28, 2000, the 250th anniversary of the death of the great German composer. "A unique joy of being a concert organist,” says Mr. Jacobs, “is that the work not only carries me to well-known venues in major cities, but also to artistically rich small towns and communities. Many of the most sensitive, sophisticated audiences for whom I've had the pleasure of performing have been from these more secluded parts of the country. For instance, I'll...

Performance by Jamie Hersch, Horn, & Daniel Gaisford, Cello, is on Oct 17 in Philadelphia’s St. Mark’s Church, Philadelphia Composer Michael Hersch’s new work, Last Autumn , for horn and cello, will receive its world premiere on Saturday, October 17 at 8:00 pm in Philadelphia’s St. Mark’s Church. Another version of the composition, for saxophone and piano, will be heard in its world premiere in New York next February. Hersch, who lives in the Philadelphia area, performed the world premiere of his two-hour work The Vanishing Pavilions entirely from memory there. David Patrick Stearns, music critic of the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote of the premiere that Hersch “conjured volcanic gestures from the piano with astonishing virtuosity.” Hersch’s boxed-set recording of The Vanishing Pavilions on the Vanguard Classics label has garnered a great deal of attention. Vanguard Classics is releasing another CD of Hersch’s works this month: his Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2 for Unaccompanied Cel...

Tchaikovsky Piano Trio No. 50 & Rachmaninov Trio élégiaque performed by Lang Lang , Vadim Repin and Mischa Maisky NEW YORK, NY – On October 20th, Deutsche Grammophon will release a recording which reveals a side of pianist Lang Lang’s prodigious talent rarely heard before—his finesse as a collegial interpreter of chamber music. In this, his first chamber music recording, Lang Lang revisits two stellar exponents of Russia’s Romantic musical soul, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. Making the news of Lang Lang‘s first ever chamber music recording bigger is the fact that he is joined by two giants of the violin and cello: Vadim Repin and Mischa Maisky. Lang Lang could not be in better company to reveal the inexhaustible inventiveness of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio No. 50 in A minor or the tender consolations of Rachmaninov’s Trio élégiaque in G-minor, a short early masterpiece composed before Rachmaninov was twenty. People have often bracketed Tchaikovsky’s great A minor Trio together wit...

The fifth annual Opera News Awards are the cover story of the November 2009 issue of Opera News. Other feature articles in the new issue include an introduction to Janacek’s From the House of the Dead, just in time for the Met’s production on November 12; a profile of New York City Opera’s George Steel; and a tribute to the incomparable Hildegard Behrens. This month’s offerings from the Metropolitan Opera Guild include lectures on From the House of the Dead; “Puccini the Popular”; French, German and English opera style; and “French Connections”. Honored for their distinguished achievement in and contribution to opera, this year’s Opera News Award recipients are Martina Arroyo, Joyce DiDonato, Gerald Finley, Philip Glass and Shirley Verrett. Each of these singular artists receives a tribute in the new issue of Opera News, written by one of its editors: Brian Kellow (Arroyo), Oussama Zahr (DiDonato), Louise T. Guinther (Finley), Adam Wasserman (Glass), and F. Paul Driscoll (Verrett). ...