Interchanging Idioms

French Soprano Patricia Petibon Records Rosso: Italian Baroque Arias for Deutsche Grammophon Many notable vocalists have turned their attention to Italian Baroque music in the last few years resulting in a vast supply of recordings to choose from. Yet, in this abundance of riches soprano Patricia Petibon stands out as the rare artist who combines a uniquely beguiling and agile voice with the dramatic instincts of a true actress. Rosso, her second recital album for Deutsche Grammophon, is a dramatic tour of late 17th and early 18th century Italian vocal music. The period of music covered in the present recital produced some of the most remarkable and memorable arias ever written. Whether testing the limits of virtuoso technique or singing long melodies in one endless breath, these arias expose the very nature and limits of a singer’s voice. Patricia Petibon has easily mastered the technique required and has freed herself to focus on the dramatic elements of each aria. With sele...

Hailed by Gramophone magazine as “one of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists,” Johannes Moser been recognized as “young, gifted, and intense…a major talent” ( St. Louis Dispatch ). This week sees the release of the Tchaikovsky Competition-winner’s sixth album on the Hänssler Classics label. A recital disc with Moser’s regular duo partner Paul Rivinius, the new issue features cello sonatas by three great British composers of the 20th-century, Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten, and Arnold Bax; these three works aren’t collected together on any other recording. According to NDR Kultur (North German Broadcasting), “These British cello sonatas reveal Moser to be a versatile and very sensitive musician, who not only applies his gifts to the mainstream cello repertoire, but also introduces his listeners to lesser-known works. These are exemplary performances that will please both the heart and mind.” Two of Moser’s previous recordings with Rivinius – Brahms...

Gerstein Rejoins Dutoit with Philadelphia Orchestra (Aug 6); Gives Recital at Tannery Pond (July 31); Plays Chamber Music at Saratoga (Aug 9); Performs with Royal Philharmonic in Shanghai (Aug 18); and Concludes Summer at Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival (Aug 31 – Sep 4) Kirill Gerstein has had a momentous season. In January, he became the sixth recipient of the coveted Gilmore Artist Award, worth $300,000 and described by the New York Times as “music’s answer to the MacArthur Foundation ‘genius’ grants.” Only two months later, he followed this coup with a second major triumph when he was named the winner of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Not surprisingly, this Russian-born pianist is much in demand this summer. He makes his Boston Symphony debut at Tanglewood on July 30, performing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto under the direction of Charles Dutoit. The following night, as part of the Tannery Pond Concerts’ landmark 20th-anniversary season, he gives...

As Artist-in-Residence at NYC’s Mostly Mozart Festival, “Brilliant French Pianist” Pierre-Laurent Aimard Curates and Leads Six Programs Exploring “Bach and Polyphonies” (Aug 13-16), after Return to Tanglewood (Aug 10) Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s summer opened in Europe, where the “ferociously intelligent musician” ( Financial Times ) won esteem for his second tenure as Artistic Director of England’s fabled Aldeburgh Festival. After returning to the UK to play George Benjamin and Mozart at London’s BBC Proms, the “brilliant French pianist” (Anthony Tommasini, New York Times ) now turns his attention to festivals on this side of the Atlantic. At Tanglewood (Aug 10) he performs chamber music by Bach, Ligeti, and Elliott Carter, as he will also do in his first appearance at New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival. As Artist-in-Residence of this venerable four-week festival, Aimard curates and leads six concerts exploring “Bach and Polyphonies,” with musical partners including the Chamber Orches...

Anna Betrebko returns to the Salzburg Festival to sing the doomed heroine in Bartlett Sher's production of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette . Last season she worked with the Tony Award-winning director on his production of Les contes d'Hoffmann at the Met. The performances mark the first time the Russian soprano will sing Juliette, now one of her signature roles, at the Austrian summer festival.

New Release Available on iTunes Music Store on August 3rd on Ancalagon Records SACD/CD Hybrid Available Nationwide on October 12th On August 3rd, violinists Lara and Scott St. John present a new Mozart recording to be released exclusively on iTunes two months prior to the Hybrid SACD/CD release on October 12th. The siblings St. John share the spotlight in three of the composer’s violin concerti recorded on Lara’s Ancalagon label. The focal point of the album is Mozart’s monumental Sinfonia Concertante (K. 364), the last and greatest of his string concerti. This piece is rarely recorded in its original form, with the viola part in scordatura (with open strings tuned a semi-tone higher than standard tuning). Scott St. John takes up the viola to join his sister on the recording, making this the first time the Sinfonia Concertante has ever been recorded by siblings. The remainder of the album lets each St. John take center stage. The Violin Concerto No. 1 (K. 207) is led by Scott, and L...

SummerScape 2010 Includes 21st Season of World-Renowned Bard Music Festival, “Berg and His World”, and New Production of Oscar Straus’s Operetta The Chocolate Soldier (Aug 5–15) The eighth annual Bard SummerScape’s opera presentation, Franz Schreker’s The Distant Sound (“ Der ferne Klang ,” 1910), though familiar in Europe, has never yet – in the century since its composition – been fully staged in North America. Schreker, whose music synthesized elements from Romanticism to expressionism, was hailed early in his career as the most significant musical dramatist since Wagner, and The Distant Sound is a key work of Viennese modernism. Thaddeus Strassberger, visionary director of last season’s lavishly praised Huguenots presentation and winner of the 2005 European Opera Directing Prize, returns to direct the landmark production, with set designs by Narelle Sissons, whose credits include Babes in Toyland at Lincoln Center (2008), and costume design by Mattie Ullrich, who created the...

Available on iTunes, CD Will Be Widely Released on October 12 “Ives wants to recreate the raw experience of music-making, something unfiltered, and beyond all your piano lessons … While driving me crazy, he reminds me why I play the piano at all.” — Jeremy Denk If there is one composer in whose works Jeremy Denk has inspired nothing but frank and heartfelt praise, it is thorny American experimentalist Charles Ives. Denk’s recital programs have long featured not only Ives’s famous and monumental “Concord” Sonata but also the far less familiar Sonata No. 1, impressing critics with “thrilling performances” (Anthony Tommasini, New York Times ) that offer “an entire world” (Anne Midgette, Washington Post ). Now the pianist’s celebrated Ives interpretations have finally been committed to disc; due for CD release on October 12, Jeremy Denk plays Ives will be launched in advance in its entirety on iTunes, where it will be available for download from July 27. In accompanying booklet...

Gerald Klickstein started a discussion on Linked In, "Are music schools preparing students for 21st-century careers? I have my doubts." This is in conjunction with his own blog post " Music Education and Entrepreneurship ." The discussion questions whether or not our educational institutions are really preparing young musicians for a career in music. Several comments on the Linked In discussion are from educators and either speak about what their establishments are doing to try and face the issue, with others in agreement with Klickstein in doubting what they're doing is really career preparation. Some of the problems are technology and the cost of keeping up with it; others are the institutionalized curriculum which hasn't changed in years. What ever the issue at the establishment the general consensus is we are not focused enough on how to have a career in music in the educational community. Speaking to the topic of composition education there seems...

WHO: Saint Louis Symphony Chorus Amy Kaiser , director WHAT: The Saint Louis Symphony Chorus is holding auditions for altos, tenors and basses for its exciting 35th season. Repertoire for the 2010-2011 season includes Schubert: Mass in E flat, Stravinsky: Credo , Pater Noster , Ave Maria (a cappella), Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky , Brahms: Ein deutsches Requie m, Shore: 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring', Barber: Prayers of Kierkegaard , Mahler: Symphony No. 2, Orff: Carmina Burana WHEN : August 17, 18 & 19, 2010 REQUIREMENTS : To receive detailed information regarding the auditions send an email to RichardA@slso.org , or call Richard Ashburner, chorus manager, at 314-286-4130

During this Mahler anniversary year Deutsche Grammophon and Decca lead the way by honoring the revolutionary composer with Mahler 150. Certainly one of the most influential composers of symphonies and song-cycles, Mahler will be feted with a website that encourages exploration of his works, a “People’s Edition” selected and programmed by listeners, and an impressive line-up of new releases and rare re-issues. With the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s birth and the composer will be celebrated with numerous live concerts (including a recital with Thomas Hampson in Mahler’s birth-house in Kaliste, Czech Republic which will be web-cast live on medici.tv). Deutsche Grammophon and Decca join the celebration by launching a new website devoted to the richest catalog of Mahler recordings in existence as well as beginning a number of long reaching initiatives. The Mahler 150 website is devoted to the composer and his music and will offer full-track streaming of the complete Deutsche Gramm...

Fall Sees the Black Diamond Bass Starring in New Met Production of Boris Godunov, and on a New Parsifal CD “A glorious role debut that will change the perception of this Wagner character for the next decades” – Die Welt (Germany) Weeks after René Pape delivered his much praised role debut as Wagner’s King of the Gods, he traveled to the White Nights Festival where he reprised the role of Wotan in concert and recorded the opera with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra for later release on the Mariinsky label. Pape fans don’t have to wait long, however, to hear a new Wagner recording from the German bass: his famous Gurnemanz can be heard on a fall release of Parsifal , also from Mariinsky, which represents Gergiev’s first Wagner recording. Festival appearances in Europe keep Pape busy during the summer, before he heads over the Atlantic to assume the mighty role of Russian Tsar Boris Godunov in the Met’s new fall production. On July 20, Pape will meet up again with...

Concert concludes with grand fireworks display The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will conclude its summer season with Broadway Melodies led by guest conductor Randall Craig Fleischer and featuring vocalists Doug LaBrecque and Patricia Phillips at Oregon Ridge Park in Cockeysville, Md. on Saturday, July 24 at 8 p.m. The evening includes music from George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Richard Rodgers and Andrew Lloyd Webber and favorites like “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady ,“ Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera and "Bring Him Home" from Les Misérables . A grand fireworks display will end the evening. Vocalists Doug LaBrecque and Patricia Phillips will join forces to bring these Broadway melodies to life. LaBrecque has starred on Broadway as Ravenal in Harold Prince’s revival of Show Boat , featured in Oscar Hammerstein's 100th Birthday Celebration on Broadway at The Gershwin Theatre and toured nationally with Les Misérables. The San Diego...

Get 15 orchestral downloads free! The London Philharmonic Orchestra and other great orchestras from across the UK have joined forces with iTunes for a free orchestral music download offer: 15 fantastic orchestral tracks from 15 great British orchestras, available for download for free until midnight, Saturday 17th July. In this smorgasbord of musical delights, Mahler and Brahms rub shoulders with Bach and Handel in a celebration of British orchestral talent. Share the love - forward this offer to your friends and family!

The Doctor And The Diva is a lush historical novel filled with vivid imagery and meticulously detailed settings. The story centers around Erika von Kessler, an opera singer in turn of the 20th century Boston. Based on a member of the author's family tree, The Doctor and the Diva rises above formulaic historic romance to give us a glimpse into another world - one filled with conflicting desires, expectations and overwhelming ambitions. Unusually for a story in this setting, one of the primary characters is an obstetrician who is a specialist in conception. This subject matter, combined with a reverence for opera and the power of the music set up a conflict between a woman's desire for motherhood and career. I do not know if Adrienne McDonnell sings, but she has very effectively captured the 'voice' of opera and the otherworldly aspects of singing this glorious music. Erika von Kessler is torn between the pull of her art and the responsibilities of motherhood, and thr...

I was reading "Can't Get You Out of My Head: Melody and the Brain" by Jayson Greene on The New MusicBox this morning and it struck me that musicians spend a great deal of time learning to play. Unlike other physical activities, music activates all areas of the brain. There is the physical nature of playing, whether it is with the fingers on the keys of a piano or the entire body as with a drum kit. The brain has to memorize how to maneuver the body in a precise way create the music. The eyes and cognitive area of the brain is active in reading the music. Even if the musician gets to the point of memorizing a piece, brain scans show the mental areas of cognitive thought still fire when playing a piece of music. Then there is the aural and/or artistic area of the brain which attempts to create something beautiful out of the physical and mental processes at work. When a musician is actively listening to music, the same areas of the brain are active. So, a musician ...

R.I.P Charles Mackerras .

Part of the FREE Summer Concert Series by Colorado Symphony Colorado Symphony Associate Conductor Scott O’Neil leads the orchestra in a program of Classical Masterpieces at Stapleton Central Park including Glinka’s Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla , Berlioz’ Roman Carnival Overture, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Bartόk’s Rumanian Folk Dances , Brahms’ Hungarian Dances , Smetana’s “ The Moldau ” and the final movement of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8. This concert is sponsored by PCL Construction, presented by Target as a part of the Target Free Family Concerts, and presented by cultural partner Denver Office of Cultural Affairs. The Colorado Symphony performs a full line-up of summer outdoor concerts in July, as well as a special concert at Boettcher Concert Hall in celebration of the Biennial of the Americas on July 24. Visit the Colorado Symphony’s website at www.coloradosymphony.org for more information or call the Colorado Symphony Box Office at 303.623.7876.

Program also features Baltimore beatboxer, Shodekeh, in excerpts from new concerto for beatboxer and strings, Fujiko’s Fairy Tale Music Director Marin Alsop will conduct the BSO in The Music of Frank Zappa and Philip Glass on Friday, July 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The concert pays tribute to the musical triumphs of the Baltimore-born composers who pushed the music envelope. To connect the avant-garde movement of Zappa and Glass to the next generation of artists, Baltimore beatboxer Shodekeh makes his BSO debut in the U.S. premiere of Fujiko’s Fairy Tale by Finnish composer Jan Mikael Vainio. From his early work with the band Mothers of Invention to his classical, rock, jazz and electronic compositions, Frank Zappa is revered for the complexity and versatility of his music. “Frank Zappa dabbled in virtually all kinds of music,” says Rolling Stone . “Whether guised as a satirical rocker, jazz-rock fusionist, guitar virtuoso, electronics wizard or orchest...

Composers will travel to Minneapolis for Orchestra’s acclaimed professional training program; Institute runs from October 24 to 30, highlighted by October 29 Future Classics concert Seven emerging composers have been selected as participants in the Minnesota Orchestra’s tenth annual Composer Institute, Institute Director Aaron Jay Kernis announced today. Chosen from a pool of 168 candidates through a competitive process, the composers represent four nationalities and reside throughout the U.S. , and their works encompass a variety of musical styles. They will be in Minneapolis from October 24 to 30, 2010, for rehearsals, seminars and tutoring sessions, as well as a public concert of their works on Friday, October 29, led by Music Director Osmo Vänskä. The participants are Taylor Brizendine of Los Angeles , California ; Chinese-born Wang Jie of Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ; Russian-born Polina Nazaykinskaya of Austin , Texas ; Clint Needham of Bloomington , Indiana ; Ben Phelps of ...

Don't miss the London Philharmonic Orchestra's two appearances at this summer's BBC Proms. Sunday 15 August Julia Fischer joins the Orchestra for an all-Russian affair, conducted by Principal Conductor, Vladimir Jurowski Mussorgsky, arr. Rimsky-Korsakov A Night on the Bare Mountain Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor Scriabin Rêverie Prokofiev Symphony No. 3 in C Minor Vladimir Jurowski and the LPO perform a dynamic, all-Russian programme. Julia Fischer returns to play Shostakovich's long-suppressed Violin Concerto, following her triumphant debut here two years ago – and she returns again even more swiftly, to appear in tomorrow's Proms Chamber Music recital. Prokofiev's impassioned, sometimes spine-chilling Third Symphony originated in music from his opera The Fiery Angel . Musorgsky's feast of ghosts and ghouls appears in Rimsky-Korsakov's spectacular rearrangement, and we continue our Scriabin focus with the composer's fleeti...

For one night only, Powell Hall will be filled with the sounds and excitement of the legendary Copacabana nightclub. Come experience Latin music and dance with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Victor Vanacore . Hot! Hot! Hot! also includes the champion competitive dance team of Andrzej and Jennifer Przybyl . Bernadette Peters, originally scheduled for this date, will now perform on May 13, 2011.

Soprano Measha Brueggergosman Joins in for a Ravishing Account of the Wesendonck Lieder , Available July 27th, 2010 Deutsche Grammophon continues its successful relationship with the acclaimed Cleveland Orchestra and its chief conductor Franz Welser-Möst with this thrilling all-Wagner album. Recorded live in Cleveland, this recording showcases one of America’s premier orchestras in Wagner’s romantic and virtuosic music, available July 27, 2010. The orchestra delivers powerful performances of the Lohengrin Preludes (Act I and Act III), The Ride of the Valkyries , the Rienzi and Die Meistersinger von Nürmburg Overtures, and the orchestral version of opera’s non plus ultra of love’s power to transfigure, the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde . The centerpiece of the concert features soprano Measha Brueggergosman performing Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder . According to The Plain Dealer , “Measha Brueggergosman again proved a master interpreter of this score, melding t...

I hate pop music. No, correction. I hate pop musicians. I hate rock musicians. I hate urban musicians... basically I hate everyone who writes music in a form that I find endlessly fascinating and yet continuously beyond my reach. As a classical composer I have studied numerous other composers, styles and forms of music. Many of these "classical" forms I understand and can emulate, from high-classical to the avant-gard pan-tonal forms of the 20th century. However, the current styles of music heard on the pop radio stations continues to elude me! People tell me "Pop music is c&#p!" but if it's so bad how come it's 1) so popular and 2) impossible for me to capture the nuances of it within my own music??? I love listening pop music --all styles and artists; I just can't write it. People say pop music won't last, but we still remember "Blue Swede Shoes", "Tuxedo Junction" and "The Entertainer" which are now ove...

The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra announced today that it has received commitment of a $2 million endowment gift from the Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation. In recognition of this contribution, the SLSO will establish The Mabel Dorn Reeder Honorary Chair. The Chair will be awarded based on merit for a period of five years to a musician of the SLSO who demonstrates both excellence in artistry and leadership within the Orchestra and may be granted to any tenured orchestra member including those who already occupy a named chair. There will be a one-time $10,000 stipend awarded to the recipient at the start of their five-year term as the honoree, to be utilized for professional development. The award will be celebrated every five years. Mabel Purkerson, Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation Trustee, said: “Mabel Reeder, my godmother, loved the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and was extremely generous to it. We at the Foundation felt that we could both further her legacy and support the wonderf...

Our bond with music is deeper than the simple response 'I like/don't like what I hear'. Dr. Oliver Sacks in his book Musicophilia spends a great deal of time exploring the music/brain connection. Philosophers through the ages have examined the role of music in human life. There is something primal in the way we can be attracted or repulsed by the music we hear. This week a scholar has announced the discovery of a hidden musical message in the scrolls of Plato. According to Jay Kennedy, it is possible that Plato was using musical code to show his solidarity with Pythagorean theory: "The Pythagoreans realized that when we hear beauty and music, when we hear notes harmonizing, that's because the notes have simple ratios, like 1:2 or 3:4," Kennedy explains. "So the beauty of music is direct perception of the mathematical order underlying the world. They worshipped that mathematics." Of course, many composers through the ages have spoken of the my...

SummerScape 2010 Includes 21st Season of World-Renowned Bard Music Festival, “Berg and His World,” and First Staged Production in North America of Franz Schreker’s Haunting 1910 Opera, The Distant Soun d (Der ferne Klang). “Seven weeks of cultural delight.” – International Herald Tribune The Trisha Brown Dance Company kicks off the eighth annual Bard SummerScape festival this week on Thursday, July 8 at 8 pm, with the trailblazing choreographer’s most recent piece – L’Amour au théâtre (2009), two of her legendary Rauschenberg collaborations – Foray Forêt (1990) and You can see us (1995), and a duet from her 1996 piece, Twelve Ton Rose , which is set to music by Anton Webern. This performance and the company’s three subsequent SummerScape appearances (on Friday, July 9 and Saturday, July 10, both also at 8 pm, and on Sunday, July 11 at 3 pm) form a highlight of the company’s 40th anniversary season. As in previous years, SummerScape 2010 is keyed to the theme of the Bard Music ...

Q2 Presents Live Varèse Webcast and Highlights of 2010’s Bang on a Can Marathon This summer, Classical 105.9 WQXR – New York’s sole dedicated classical station – will honor an important anniversary: Gustav Mahler’s 150th birthday on July 7. Q2, the station’s 24-hour contemporary music stream, will present a live webcast of an all-Varèse program (July 7); highlights from the 2010 Bang on a Can Marathon (Aug 15); and more installments of Cued Up on Q2, featuring an eclectic mix of new-music events recorded live in New York City.

The Metropolitan Opera Guild is pleased to announce that Stewart Pearce has been named its new Managing Director. Mr. Pearce assumes the position today after a long and distinguished association with both the Metropolitan Opera and the Metropolitan Opera Guild. His predecessor was David A. Dik, who has taken a new position as the National Executive Director of Young Audiences Arts for Learning. Mr. Pearce will continue in his role as Assistant Manager for Operations at the Metropolitan Opera, a position he has held since 2006. Richard J. Miller, Jr., the President of the Guild, observed: “As the Guild begins its 75th anniversary season, Stewart’s long history at both the Guild and the Metropolitan Opera makes him uniquely qualified to carry out the Guild’s initiatives in education, creating new audiences for opera and supporting the Metropolitan Opera Association.” Mr. Pearce commented: “I am honored to be appointed the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s new Managing Director. The Guild...

Colorado Symphony Principal Guest Conductor Douglas Boyd leads the orchestra in an all-Mozart program featuring soprano Elizabeth Keusch. The program includes Mozart’s Serenade No. 12 in C minor, arias “Voi che sapete” from Marriage of Figaro and “Come scoglio” from Cosi fan tutte, Exsultate, jubilate and concludes with Mozart’s beloved Symphony No. 38 “ Prague .” Tickets are available for purchase at the Arvada Center Box Office, 720.898.7200 or online at www.arvadacenter.org. Tickets are $45 – premium covered, $35 – covered, $25 – lawn section general admission and $15 – covered stage edge. The Colorado Symphony performs a full line-up of summer outdoor concerts in July, as well as a special concert at Boettcher Concert Hall in celebration of the Biennial of the Americas on July 24. Visit the Colorado Symphony’s website at www.coloradosymphony.org for more information or call the Colorado Symphony Box Office at 303.623.7876.

from Composer’s Birth-House in Kaliste, Czech Republic, on Wednesday, July 7 at 9am EDT on www.medici.tv Long regarded as the premier interpreter of the songs of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), Thomas Hampson will dedicate much of his summer and the upcoming 2010-11 season to performances of the Austrian composer’s works. The celebration begins on July 7 – the date of Mahler’s birth 150 years ago – with Hampson’s recital from Mahler’s birth-house in Kaliste, Czech Republic, that will be webcast live on www.medici.tv, and an evening concert from Kaliste with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck, which the European Broadcasting Union will transmit live across Europe. The webcast will also be available for streaming through www.medici.tv for 60 days following the performance. Additional Mahler performances will follow throughout the summer – making more than 50 concerts over the course of the 2010-11 season – including Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen at the Zurich Op...

Release dates: Sept. 6 (UK and worldwide) and Sept. 14 (US) “a kinetic force on the podium” – The New York Times on Kristjan Järvi Sony Classical is pleased to announce a new, exclusive multi-album recording agreement with the dynamic the Estonian-born and American-raised conductor Kristjan Järvi. The new relationship launches with the September 6 (UK and worldwide) and September 14 (US) release of Cantique , featuring the music of iconic Estonian composer Arvo Pärt in celebration of his 75th birthday. Järvi leads the Rundfunk Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor. Cantique includes Pärt’s 1971 masterpiece, Symphony No. 3, plus the world premiere recordings of the orchestral and choral version of his Stabat mater (1985/2008) and Cantique des degrès (1999/2002) for choir and orchestra. The album was produced by Florian Schmidt and recorded at Haus des Rundfunks in Berlin in February 2010. Cantique represents the culmination of a lifelong friendship between Kristjan...

The ability to create sound is crucial for the creation of music, but is simply creating a series of sounds enough to qualify something as music? I found this report of a Lou Reed concert very interesting. It seems the debate of what constitutes music is raging in more than the classical sphere. In the end run, I think that determination is made by the composer - he or she must write what is music to them - ignoring the pressure of audience, tutors, academia and hangers on. Of course I also think the determination of what is music is made by the listener. So in the above situation both the musicians and the audience are right. It was music - and it was not. Composers need to have thick skins if they are going to ignore all of the opinions that will be thrown at their music. They also need to accept the fact that there is no magical audience fairy that will ensure their music gets heard. All you can do is write the music that sings in your soul and hope that there are others who h...

Here is a look at the Colorado Symphony Fireworks

“With a supreme command of the piano allowing endlessly varied color, touch, and chord voicing, all possibilities are seemingly open to him. And all possibilities are imaginable, thanks to a fine intellect. – David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer Jeremy Denk’s summer reaches its acme in mid-August, when he appears at three of the season’s most prestigious U.S. festivals – Bard (Aug 13-15), Mostly Mozart (Aug 17-19), and Tanglewood (Aug 21) – to give six prominent performances in little over a week. In repertoire ranging from solo and chamber to orchestral, and from composers of the First Viennese School to those of the Second, the versatile pianist collaborates with leading artists including Joshua Bell and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The first of these appearances is at Annandale-on-Hudson’s Bard Music Festival, which has won international acclaim for its unrivaled, in-depth exploration of the life and works of a single composer and his contemporaries, offering, in ...

Kyle Gann wrote on his blog Post Classic about his Summer Projects, three new pieces. It seems he's finished with two and nearly with the third. The amazing thing to him is he was writing all three at the same time. You Go Gann!!! Mozart wrote his final three symphonies while working on an opera. We don't know why he wrote these symphonies, but we do know he finished all of them within approximately a month of initially putting pen to paper. Bach wrote so much music it is impossible to image he wasn't writing multiple pieces pretty much constantly. So, writing multiple pieces of music simultaneously is not new. What is new -for Gann and composers like me - is the ability to think clearly about multiple pieces and keeping them straight. I have successfully composed multiple pieces at the same time in the past, but not with any regularity or consistent success. It is something I continually strive to do, work on consciously, because I feel the process itself does s...

Denver's City and County Building was ablaze with color and the sky alight with Fireworks while the Colorado Symphony brought the audience to their feet with the ever popular Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture Photo by Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post The Colorado Symphony, under the baton of consummate showman Scott O'Neil, Associate Conductor, performed for a huge crowd at Civic Center Park last night. Using Denver's City and County Building as a backdrop, the symphony played an American themed patriotic concert for an Independence Eve Celebration. The Colorado Symphony performed popular pieces by American composers such as Souza and Copland to create a festive evening primed for the fireworks. Scott O'Neil encouraged the crowd to clap during particularly popular numbers or helped them find the words during "America the Beautiful" to create the celebratory atmosphere of the evening. The symphony was well mic'd so the speakers at the side of the stage co...