Interchanging Idioms

Beth Buck as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Carol Bogash as Vice President of Education and Community Engagement The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) today announced two recent senior-level appointments. Beth Buck has joined the BSO as its new vice president and chief financial officer and Carol Bogash will fill a newly created position in September as the Orchestra’s vice president of education and community engagement. Ms. Bogash and Ms. Buck fill two leadership roles essential to the BSO’s strategic vision: to deepen audience engagement and cultivate new audiences through effective and transformative artistic and education initiatives, and to prosper artistically within a sustainably balanced budget. Speaking of the appointments, President and CEO Paul Meecham commented, “I am thrilled that the BSO has been able to attract two candidates so highly qualified in their respective fields. As the BSO builds towards its centenary season in 2016, we have a superb managem...

Greg Carpenter, General Director of Opera Colorado, will announce that Opera Colorado will produce the professional world premiere of the opera The Scarlet Letter created by composer Lori Laitman and librettist David Mason. The new production of the opera will debut in May of 2013 as part of Opera Colorado's thirtieth anniversary season. "The opera first came to our attention last year," Carpenter said. "I was struck by the lyrical beauty of this work and how it dramatically reflects the piece of classic American literature it is based upon." The full-length opera in two acts was inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 romantic novel set in 17th century Puritan Boston. "The opportunity to work with a composer of Lori Laitman's stature, as well as with Colorado's Poet Laureate, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Opera Colorado. We are excited to bring this new opera to life," Carpenter continued. "I am thrilled that Opera Colora...

Homestead Main Street wants to bring classical music to the city’s historic downtown area. The non-profit is one of 56 finalists, from an initial pool of 1,300, for a share of millions in grant money for the project. by Christina Veiga The non-profit Homestead Main Street is a finalist for a share of $20 million in the Knight Arts Challenge Miami, an annual contest through The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Main Street’s project vision: a New World in Homestead. Executive Director Yvonne Knowles wants to bring simulcasts of the New World Symphony concerts in Miami Beach to historic downtown Homestead. Main Street is one of 56 finalists from an initial pool of 1,300 applicants. The project, if selected would serve two purposes: providing more cultural experiences to deep South Miami-Dade, and bringing life to a long-struggling downtown area, Knowles said. With a population of about 50,000, Homestead is no longer a small town, Knowles said. The city has not only grown in...

Since the end of the epic six-month musicians strike in April, Detroit Symphony Orchestra officials have been sprinting -- rebooting spring concerts, dropping ticket prices for the future by up to 50%, rebuilding next season and hashing out ambitious programs designed to broaden the orchestra's reach. Much of the immediate future remains under construction, but one major edifice is being announced today: the 2011-12 classical and pops seasons at Orchestra Hall. This will be music director Leonard Slatkin's fourth season, and what's most interesting -- and rewarding -- is how consistently classical programming tracks with Slatkin's previous agenda: Roughly 20% of the works are contemporary, nearly all of them by living composers working in America, from elder statesmen like William Bolcom and David Del Tredici to up-and-comers like Mason Bates. Nearly a third of the season represents DSO premieres. The post-strike DSO is reinventing big chunks of its operation to bett...

That's Right, I'm going to Las Vegas to celebrate Lady Gaga's new CD. Join me on May 27th at the Boulevard Pool at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, the final stop on her Ultimate Haus Dance Party tour to launch her new CD Born This way . The CD release party will be making stops in Miami, LA, San Francisco, NYC and Vegas. Guests will find themselves at the Ultimate Haus Dance Party, a fully themed environment inspired by Born This Way where guests will sip specialty Belvedere cocktails such as “The Edge of Glory” and “Heavy Metal Lover,” courtesy of Interscope. "Like" the Belvedere Facebook page, then register for your chance to join me in Las Vegas. Boulevard Pool at the Cosmopolitan 3708 Las Vegas Boulevard Boulevard Pool Las Vegas, NV 9 PM

On May 27, eighth blackbird presents the Cleveland premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s new concerto On a Wire with the Cleveland Orchestra and its music director Franz Welser-Möst. This high-profile engagement at Severance Hall crowns a season in which the concerto for sextet and orchestra has figured prominently. After giving the piece its world premiere in Atlanta last June, eighth blackbird went on to tour On a Wire with orchestras across North America, and earlier this spring an album headlined by the Grammy Award-winning group’s premiere performance of the concerto launched the Atlanta Symphony’s new CD label, ASO Media. Two days after the Cleveland performance of On a Wire – this time without the orchestra – eighth blackbird makes a second appearance in Cleveland, playing its whimsical “Still Life” program, which includes music by Missy Mazzoli, Stephen Hartke, Pierre Boulez, and Philip Glass. eighth blackbird recently recorded this repertoire for a ne...

The ninth annual Bard SummerScape presents The Wild Duck (“Vildanden”), a masterpiece of poetic realism by the father of modern drama, Henrik Ibsen. Considered by many to be the Norwegian dramatist’s finest and most complex work, The Wild Duck (1884) was described by George Bernard Shaw as combining “profound tragedy” with “irresistible comedy.” The new production from returning young Irish director Caitriona McLaughlin, who staged last season’s acclaimed Judgment Day, will be presented in David Eldridge’s celebrated new translation, in ten performances between July 13 and 24. These will take place in Theater Two of the Frank Gehry-designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on Bard College’s bucolic Hudson River campus. The great Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is the second most widely produced dramatist in the world, eclipsed only by Shakespeare; thanks to works like Peer Gynt , A Doll’s House , Ghosts , Hedda Gabler , and The Wild Duck , he is wide...

Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductee Sandi Patty joins the Colorado Symphony and Colorado Symphony Chorus for an inspirational night of Americana on Friday, June 3 at Boettcher Concert Hall. This one-night-only event features the five-time Grammy® Award-winner as she celebrates American music with such classics as "America the Beautiful," "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Winner of 39 Dove Awards, Patty is the most-awarded female vocalist in contemporary Christian music history with album sales in excess of 11 million, garnering her three platinum and five gold recordings. In her evening with the Colorado Symphony led by Scott O'Neil, and the Colorado Symphony Chorus under the direction of Duain Wolfe, Patty shines the spotlight on the Great American Songbook: music that is part of our cultural fabric. The evening features Patty in performance of unforgettable songs such as "Can't Help Lovin' That Man of Min...

Six New Concerts at Three Great Venues
 Merkin Concert Hall, Galapagos Art Space, and The Cell The New York Art Ensemble celebrates its 10th annual Tribeca New Music Festival—a series of six cutting-edge new music concerts at three great music venues, Merkin Concert Hall near Lincoln Center (May 23 & 26), Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO Brooklyn (May 31 & June 5), and the The Cell in Chelsea (June 9 & 10). “We continue to grow!” said Festival curator Preston Stahly. “Last year, in order to accommodate a bigger audience, we moved from our original home at the Flea Theater in Tribeca up to Merkin Concert Hall where we presented four concerts. This year we’re expanding to six shows, and spreading them out over three wonderful new music venues in order to reach more people. Starting at Merkin Concert Hall, concerts #1 and #2 will present the string quartet ETHEL and their HomeBaked series of world premieres (May 23), followed by a double bill with the guitar quartet Dithe...

The freshly redesigned, ever-deepening medici.tv has reaped acclaim as one of the web's leading classical music experiences. In Gramophone’s June issue, editor-in-chief James Jolly details the medici.tv experience at length, marveling over the "treasures aplenty" on the site. The medici.tv app for iPads, iPhones and other digital devices – available for free at the Apple app store – was just named one of the top five apps for classical music by WQXR, the classical music station of New York City. WQXR points out that the medici.tv app "has classical music videos – lots of them. The library of 600 performances allows you to peek inside great European concert halls. Not all the videos are available on the free app, but you can access several hundred recent concerts, including the Louvre’s chamber music series featuring the Pacifica and Takács string quartets." Among this month's live offerings on medici.tv is star violinist Janine Jansen and pianist Itamar ...

Archival Recording Features Josef Krips Leading the Wiener Symphoniker in a Live Recording 2011 is a Mahler anniversary year celebrating the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death (May 18th). In honor, Deutsche Grammophon has uncovered a treasure from the archive: this live recording of a sold-out concert from the Vienna Festival given at the Musikverein on June 14, 1964. With incomparable soloists at the height of their individual powers, this was an unforgettable performance. Now released for the first time on CD, this faithfully restored recording presents a marvel of singing and orchestral playing and will be available in the US on May 24, 2011. Josef Krips was an exceptionally gifted conductor and was recognized early for his innate ability with opera and singers. At the age of 24 he became Germany’s youngest general music director in Karlsruhe and had already led performances of Tristan und Isolde and Siegfried . Of course, Krips conducted much more than opera and, e...

Deutsche Grammophon & Decca Honor the 100th Anniversary of Mahler’s Death Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler. Today, Mahler’s works are performed and recorded frequently and enjoy an esteemed place in any orchestra’s standard repertoire. In 2010 Deutsche Grammophon & Decca celebrated the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s birth with the Mahler150.com website, and the site continues to honor Mahler this year. In addition, DG will release a rare archival recording of the composer’s Das Lied von der Erde featuring Fritz Wunderlich and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in a performance led by Josef Krips. The Mahler 150 website, www.mahler150.com , is devoted to the composer and his music and offers full-track streaming of the complete Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Mahler catalogs featuring some 180 symphony recordings. Additionally, the comprehensive out-of-print section of over 60 albums includes important recordings that have become virtually unobtain...

Kristjan Järvi’s last album recorded as Music Director of the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich will be released by Chandos on June 28 in the US and May 31 in the UK. A recording of Steve Reich’s The Desert Music and Three Movements, the Super Audio disc also features Austria’s Chorus sine nomine. The Desert Music was recorded at ORF Radio Kulturhaus in Vienna in October 2006 and Three Movements was recorded at the Musikverein in Vienna in November 2007. The Desert Music is perhaps iconic American composer Steve Reich’s most ambitious orchestral score to date – a setting of texts by the American poet William Carlos Williams (1886 – 1963) for chorus and large orchestra. It is a highly symphonic piece which is inspired by Reich’s own travels in California’s Mojave Desert, the White Sands – and perhaps in particular the Alamagordo in New Mexico, which carries sinister associations with secret weapons of mass destruction and suggests a geographical link with the poet’s somber warn...

$100,000 grant will support the BSO’s 2011-2012 season programming and touring Yesterday the National Endowment for the Arts honored the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with a grant of $100,000 to support the Orchestra’s upcoming November East coast tour and Spring 2012 West coast tour. Tour repertoire and educational activities all showcase the Orchestra’s 2011-2012 season programming theme that celebrates women as leaders. The BSO is one of 1,145 not-for-profit national, regional, state and local arts organizations recommended for a grant as part of the federal agency’s second round of fiscal year 2011 grants. In total, the Arts Endowment will distribute more than $88 million to support projects nationwide, with $100,000 being the largest grant awarded in this funding cycle. In the 2011-2012 season, the fifth under BSO Music Director Marin Alsop’s direction, the BSO will bring its reinvigorated artistic vision and community outreach ethos to audiences on the East and West Coasts. Exc...

The Boston Pops and Keith Lockhart usher two enormous talents to the Symphony Hall stage for an exploration of the American Songbook and the American Icons who have transformed its tunes into cultural cornerstones. First up is Michael Feinstein, a performer whose vocal acrobatics are matched with an archivist’s instinct for a century of great American music. This two-part American Songbook program, first features a Boston Pops performance of light classical pieces, such as selections from Aaron Copland’s cowboy ballet Rodeo. The spotlight then shifts to Mr. Feinstein, as he croons tunes from the Frank Sinatra Songbook, with his irresistible Rat Pack charm, on Tuesday, May 31, and Wednesday, June 1. The June 1 concert also features performances by the up-and-coming musicians who topped the 2011 Young Artists Competition at the Boston Pops presented by Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund®. The Pops next welcome Ellis Hall, the former lead singer of Tower of Power, for an evening of Motown m...

Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops celebrate the 30th annual “Presidents at Pops” concert Wednesday, June 8, at 8 p.m., with special guest vocalist Katharine McPhee. Katharine McPhee, an American Idol finalist who appears with the Boston Pops on the 2009 Chris Botti in Boston CD and DVD, lends her supple voice and lush melodies to a program of classic Pops tunes as well as a set list of her own. Eight-voice a cappella sensation The Swingle Singers will join Ms. McPhee and the Boston Pops Orchestra for what has become one of the most anticipated fundraisers of its kind in Boston. The 2011 “Presidents at Pops” committee, chaired by Peter Palandjian, has already raised $940,000, surpassing last year’s fundraising effort which raised $900,000. Since its inception in 1982, “Presidents at Pops” and its sister event “A Company Christmas at Pops” have raised nearly $43 million dollars, making the events among the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s most important annual fundraisers, and widely accl...

Where is the line between creating something new and just making noise? There are probably multiple school of thought on the role education takes in training new classical music composers. To one side of the room are those educators who feel the safety and security of the educational environment is a great place for students to explore/experiment without fear of failure or rejection. Another side are those instructors attempting to teach the long established traditional methods of composition. Perhaps there are still other's who have a personal agenda, to create a series of clones of composers just like themselves. And then there is another corner where instructors haven't any idea what they're doing, and fumble along without really having any sort of plan. I'm sure there are other types as well - but this is enough to muddy the waters. I'm not sure I really need to discuss the crime of instructors who haven't a plan (or haven't a clue). They are do...

BOSTON POPS FIREWORKS SPECTACULAR, the annual event featuring the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra's annual Fourth of July concert, will be broadcast live from the Charles River Esplanade in Boston on Monday, July 4 (10:00-11:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT). This year's event is hosted by Emmy Award winner ("The Shield") and Boston native Michael Chiklis. Guest performers will be announced later.

Ninth Annual Bard SummerScape (July 7 – August 21) Presents Dance, Opera, Theater, Film, the Spiegeltent, and 22nd Season of Bard Music Festival, “Sibelius and His World” The ninth annual Bard SummerScape festival opens on Thursday, July 7, at 8 pm with the first of four performances by Tero Saarinen Company, comprising a triple bill of the Finnish choreographer’s finest dances: Westward Ho! (1996), Wavelengths (2000), and HUNT (2002). As the Globe and Mail (Toronto) put it, “The evening is more than three wonderfully provocative dance pieces. ... The build, from one dance to the next in terms of mood and impact, is architectural perfection.” The performances will take place in the Frank Gehry-designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on Bard College’s stunning Hudson River campus. Three additional performances are on July 8 and 9, also at 8 pm, and on Sunday, July 10 at 3 pm. This season’s SummerScape Gala Benefit precedes the July 9 performance. A significant d...

With James Levine stepping down as Boston Symphony Music Director as of September 2011 to focus on his continuing recovery from a series of back procedures, Maestro Levine will not conduct the BSO during its 2011-12 season, which, in addition to the orchestra’s 2011-12 season at Symphony Hall in Boston, also includes five West Coast performances in California, December 6-10, and three concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York, March 6, 7, and 9. Changes to the previously announced programming for the BSO’s West Coast tour and Carnegie Hall concert series are available on the BSO website . Following his two weeks of programs with the BSO, November 17-29, at Symphony Hall in Boston, French conductor Ludovic Morlot and the Boston Symphony Orchestra travel west December 6­-10, 2011, for a four-city tour of California—to include San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Palm Desert, and Los Angeles—that brings highlights of the BSO’s Symphony Hall subscription programs to the West Coast of the United Sta...

Featuring Pops Principal Oboist Keisuke Wakao Legendary film composer John Williams makes a welcome return to Symphony Hall to reunite with the Boston Pops for the world premiere of his Concerto for Oboe, featured in the Hollywood-themed concerts on May 25, 26, and 28. Written expressly for principal Pops oboist Keisuke Wakao, Concerto for Oboe is the latest John Williams work to showcase the talented musicians of the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops. The Hooray for Hollywood concerts, a perennial favorite with Boston fans, are highlighted this year by a tribute to the heroes of film, including the Suite from Casablanca, and music inspired by the villains of the silver screen including selections from Dracula, and the “Imperial March” from The Empire Strikes Back. Maestro Williams will conduct his cherished movie scores in sync with film footage to play above the stage throughout the Pops performance. The celebrated conductor will lead a tribute to Audrey Hepburn, featuring Boston Pop...

Trinity Wall Street launches its new-music ensemble NOVUS NY on May 19. The newly formed group joins the Trinity Choir in an evening concert showcasing the complete works for chorus and orchestra of Boston-based composer Elena Ruehr, conducted by Julian Wachner, Trinity Wall Street’s director of music and the arts. The program includes Ruehr's cantata based on American poet Louise Glück’s Averno , which Wachner premiered with the Washington Chorus in early April. Ruehr, born in 1963 and raised in rural Michigan, has been declared "a composer to watch" by Opera News ; her music is written "with heart and a forceful sense of character and expression," according to the Washington Post . Gramophone magazine called her music "unspeakably gorgeous." Earlier in the day, at 1 pm, there will be a free preview concert. Wachner, a longtime friend and colleague of Ruehr's, will also lead Trinity performances of Ruehr's Cricket, Spider, Bee (on texts by...

Conductor laureate Marin Alsop will lead the Colorado Symphony in performance of Mahler's great masterpiece, the Symphony No. 9 in D major, for two nights only on Friday, May 27 and Saturday, May 28 at Boettcher Concert Hall. A testament to the ebbing of a great man's life, the art he cherished, and even the society in which he lived, Mahler's Ninth Symphony is among the most poignant works ever composed. The Ninth Symphony also proved to be an enormous influence on Mahler's younger Viennese colleagues, who followed its lead in creating a new musical style for the new century. It received its premiere in Vienna on June 26, 1912, thirteen months after the composer's death. Known in the symphony orchestra world to "bring out the best in conductors and orchestras," Mahler's Ninth remains a milestone in each concertgoer's lifetime experience. On Friday, May 27, Colorado Symphony fans across the state will also have the opportunity to listen to a real-...

“Pisaroni exudes complete authority and magnetism.” – Houston Chronicle The fast-rising Luca Pisaroni was a hit at Houston Grand Opera in his house and role debut last month as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro . After opening night, the Houston Chronicle reported: “With his dashing looks and proud manner, Pisaroni exudes complete authority and magnetism. His potent bass-baritone unfurls with such grandeur and resoluteness that one can easily believe this is a fellow who has spent his entire life getting his way.” The singer has another engagement in the Lone Star State this month, singing in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (May 19-22). His next operatic engagement is another key role debut, when he returns to the U.K.’s Glyndebourne Festival to sing Argante in Handel’s Rinaldo (July 2 – Aug 22). Pisaroni also appears in a newly released EMI Classics DVD of Don Giovanni , starring as Leporello alongside the Don of Gerald Finley, Donna Elvira of...

Bruce Coppock will become the next Managing Director of The Cleveland Orchestra Miami Residency. The announcement was made today by the Orchestra’s Executive Director, Gary Hanson. Mr. Coppock will begin his role with The Cleveland Orchestra on June 27, 2011. He was formerly President and Managing Director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and previously Executive Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. As Managing Director of the Miami Residency, Bruce Coppock will be the executive leader of The Cleveland Orchestra Miami Residency, responsible for all of the Orchestra’s activities in South Florida . The Residency’s Managing Director is a member of the Orchestra’s senior management team and works closely with the Board of the Musical Arts Association of Miami (MAAM), the not-for-profit institution that governs and funds the Miami Residency. In making the appointment, Gary Hanson said, “Bruce Coppock is the ideal person to lead the Residency. As an admired leader in...

Magical glowing birds and ancient Chinese warriors make for a fanciful program led by guest conductor Scott Yoo. Tan Dun's Concerto is drawn from colorful themes found in his score to the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon . The concerto is a perfect match for Stravinsky's ballet score to The Firebird , a work so popular that its themes are found in Star Trek movies and songs by the Beastie Boys. MASTERWORKS SERIES The Firebird & Crouching Tiger 5/14 - 7:30 p.m. 5/15 - 2:30 p.m. Boettcher Concert Hall Scott Yoo, conductor Betti Xiang, ehru TAN DUN / Crouching Tiger Concerto BORODIN / In the Steppes of Central Asia STRAVINSKY / Suite from The Firebird Tickets are available online at coloradosymphony.org or call the box office at 303.623.7876.

Conductor Jeffrey Kahane returns to the Colorado Symphony for three groundbreaking all American concerts on May 20, 21 and 22 as concertgoers experience the thrills of a world premiere piano concerto by Kenji Bunch, as well as the artistry of banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, tabla legend Zakir Hussain and double bass master Edgar Meyer in performance of their triple concerto, The Melody of Rhythm. Tickets are on sale now for this must-experience concert that also features Copland's Suite from Appalachian Spring and Gershwin's An American in Paris . These exciting performances kick off a series of concerts celebrating American composers and artists that continues in June with Celebrate America featuring Sandy Patti, a glamorous evening with Pink Martini, and night with R&B stars Boyz II Men. Once again under the baton of former music director Jeffrey Kahane, the Colorado Symphony presents the world premiere of Bunch's first piano concerto featuring pianist Monica Ohuchi. Her...

Alan Gilbert leads the New York Philharmonic on its EUROPE / SPRING 2011 tour, May 12 - 24, 2011. This tour — the fourth with Gilbert as Music Director — will take the Philharmonic to the music capitals of Central Europe, with eleven concerts in nine cities: Basel, Switzerland; Baden-Baden and Munich, Germany; Vienna, Austria; Budapest, Hungary; Berlin, Dresden, and Leipzig, Germany; and Prague, Czech Republic. Although Gilbert has a long history of conducting concerts across Europe – his most recent performances there were with the Berlin Philharmonic in early April – and has taken the New York Philharmonic on two previous European tours, this excursion marks his first appearances in all nine cities as Music Director of the orchestra. Continuing the New York Philharmonic’s multi-year focus on the rich legacy of former Music Director Gustav Mahler, Gilbert will conduct an all-Mahler program at Vienna’s Musikverein on May 15, three days before the 100th anniversary of the great co...

This month, Thomas Hampson – recently named the recipient of the 2011 Concertgebouw Prize – returns to Europe for an extensive series of concerts and recitals, bringing his season-long “Mahler Odyssey” to a grand conclusion. Following performances of an all-Richard Strauss program with Renée Fleming and the Berlin Philharmonic under Christian Thielemann (May 5-7), Hampson joins the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert on tour for the second consecutive season, this time taking an all-Mahler program to six major Central European music capitals (May 12-23). The program, featuring Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 and Kindertotenlieder, will be given in Basel, (May 12), Baden-Baden (May 13), Vienna (May 15), Berlin (May 19), Dresden (May 21), and Leipzig (May 23); the Vienna and Berlin dates bookend the centenary, on May 18, of Mahler’s death. The tour will be followed by a string of Mahler recitals with pianist Wolfram Rieger, including appearances in Zurich (May 29), Amsterdam (May 31), Brus...

EMI Classics is pleased to announce that Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth has signed an exclusive recording contract with the label. Forthcoming recordings will capture Helseth both as a classical soloist and as leader of her all-female Norwegian brass ensemble, tenThing. Her first recording, a collection of songs arranged for trumpet in orchestral and chamber settings, will be released in October 2011. Just 23 years old, the dynamic Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth is one of the leading trumpet soloists of her generation. She is already a sensation in her homeland, winning the 2007 Norwegian Grammy Award for Best Newcomer (she was the first classical artist even to be nominated); her 2009 Christmas disc, My Heart Is Ever Present, went “gold” within three weeks of release. Helseth is a unique and innovative artist dedicated to expanding the reach of core classical trumpet repertoire and exploring alternative soundscapes, both as leader of the all-female tenThing and i...

Bernard Haitink will conduct the London Symphony Orchestra in three concerts at London’s Barbican on 14, 16 and 23 June. Pianist Murray Perahia joins the Orchestra as soloist in Schumann’s Piano Concerto on 14 & 16 June; Bruckner’s Symphony No.4 is also performed. On 23 June, Haitink conducts the LSO in Ravel’s Mother Goose and Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The London Symphony Orchestra will tour Bruckner’s Symphony No.4 and Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Haitink and Perahia to Paris’ Salle Pleyel, on 18 June. The London Symphony Orchestra is the International Resident Orchestra of La Salle Pleyel. Haitink last conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No 9 in July 2009 at the BBC Proms to outstanding critical and popular acclaim. Tuesday 14 & Thursday 16 June, Barbican Hall, London, 7.30pm Saturday 18 June, Salle Pleyel, Paris, 8.00pm SCHUMANN Piano Concerto Op 54 BRUCKNER Symphony No.4 Bernard Haitink conductor Murra...

Italian conductor Riccardo Muti has been named winner of Spain's Prince of Asturias arts award for 2011. The Prince of Asturias Foundation said Wednesday that Muti was "one of the best classical music directors in the world" and highlighted "the passion and virtuosity with which he has conducted the most prestigious orchestras." Muti also won the $1 million Birgit Nilsson Prize earlier this year. Eight Asturias prizes are awarded each year covering the arts, human rights, sciences and sports. They include a €50,000 ($74,000) cash award and a sculpture by Joan Miró. They are presented by Spain's crown prince each autumn in Oviedo.

The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst’s live DVD recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 is being released in the United States on May 31. The Cleveland Orchestra in Performance: Bruckner Symphony No. 8 will be telecast in Northeast Ohio on WVIZ/PBS ideastream® on June 16 at 9 p.m., and in Europe on ORF TV on June 23. The DVD includes a bonus concert preview discussion by Franz Welser-Möst and video director William Cosel hosted by ideastream® producer Dee Perry. Recorded during concerts on August 11 and 12, 2010 by WVIZ/PBS ideastream® at the Orchestra’s home, Severance Hall in Cleveland, this performance of the 1887 revised version of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8, edited by Leopold Nowak, is the fourth DVD in a series featuring the Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst performing Bruckner’s music in historic venues. Previous releases feature Bruckner Symphony No. 5 recorded at St. Florian Cathedral in Linz , Austria and Bruckner Symphony No. 9 recorded at the Mu...

Four new Multi-Disc Sets on CD for the First Time Sony Classical, in partnership with the Metropolitan Opera, continues its hit series of releases drawn from the storied Met archives with four multi-disc sets that represent the first official release on CD of these historic Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts, which date from 1960 to 1972. On May 3, 2011, Sony Classical issues complete live performances – freshly remastered from the original sources – of Beethoven's Fidelio (1960), Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (1961) and Wagner's Die Walküre (1968) and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1972). The four sets feature such vintage vocal greats as Jon Vickers, Birgit Nilsson, Cesare Siepi, Roberta Peters, Leonie Rysanek, Christa Ludwig, Theo Adam and James King – all at the height of their careers. On the podium for these historic broadcasts were such top conductors as Karl Böhm, Erich Leinsdorf and Thomas Schippers.

The New York Art Ensemble celebrates its 10th annual Tribeca New Music Festival—a series of six cutting-edge new music concerts at three great music venues, Merkin Concert Hall near Lincoln Center (May 23 & 26), Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO Brooklyn (May 31 & June 5), and the The Cell in Chelsea (June 9 & 10). “We continue to grow!” said Festival curator Preston Stahly. “Last year, in order to accommodate a bigger audience, we moved from our original home at the Flea Theater in Tribeca up to Merkin Concert Hall where we presented four concerts. This year we’re expanding to six shows, and spreading them out over three wonderful new music venues in order to reach more people. Starting at Merkin Concert Hall, concerts #1 and #2 will present the string quartet ETHEL and their HomeBaked series of world premieres (May 23), followed by a double bill with the guitar quartet Dither and Stephen Griesgraber’s new-music band Redhooker (May 26). Then we swoop down to Brooklyn for...

The Cleveland Orchestra will have three new commercial recordings available worldwide in May: a new DVD recordings of Franz Welser-Möst leading Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 recorded at Severance Hall; Pierre Boulez leading the Adagio from Mahler’s Symphony No. 10 and Des Knaben Wunderhorn with vocal soloists Magdalena Kožená, mezzo-soprano, and Christian Gerhaher, baritone; and a CD of Mitsuko Uchida leading and performing Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 27. With these new releases, The Cleveland Orchestra continues its distinguished history of nearly 600 recordings, broadcasting the Cleveland sound around the world.

Releases Come as Barenboim and the Orchestra for Gaza Perform in Gaza Daniel Barenboim, known around the world for his work as both a pianist and a conductor, has entered into a far reaching affiliation with Deutsche Grammophon and Decca and will record and release a number of albums over time. The first two releases, both on Deutsche Grammophon and both showcasing Barenboim as pianist, focus on Chopin. Early in April Barenboim captivated London with a surprise concert and talk at the Tate Modern. “The standing ovation began before Daniel Barenboim had played a note,” reported The Guardian. A crowd of 1,100 who had only learned of the impromptu event three days earlier gathered to hear the great artist and humanitarian as he celebrated 60 years of performing with an all-Chopin recital in Tate Modern’s cavernous Turbine Hall. 8,000 people had applied for the 400 seats while 700 more watched a live relay in the hall below, where an installation by the detained Chinese artist Ai We...

A DVD of Jonathan Kent’s Fellini-esque Glyndebourne Festival production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni – with Gerald Finley in the title role, soprano Kate Royal as Donna Elvira, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello and Vladimir Jurowski on the podium – headlines EMI Classics’ releases this month. Other May highlights from EMI Classics include a “terrific” (Los Angeles Times) set of Schumann’s complete (and unjustly neglected) works for Piano Trio, featuring pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff, and three special releases – including a legendary recording of Wagner’s complete “Ring” cycle – celebrating the 125th anniversary of the birth of Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954), one of the truly legendary conductors of the 20th century. From Virgin Classics this month, a transcendent recording of Brahms’s German Requiem, performed by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, led by Paavo Järvi and featuring soprano Natalie Dessay, to mark the ensemble’s 80th birt...

“…the Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire offers a gentle reminder that decorous piano playing and interpretive depth have an irresistible power all their own.” – New York Times 2011 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of pianist-composer Franz Liszt, and Nelson Freire now offers his own recording in tribute. This very personal selection of works spans Liszt’s highly varied musical styles and also highlights a few of his lesser-known compositions. Grammy®-nominated pianist Nelson Freire continues his exclusive association with Decca with Liszt: Harmonies du Soir , available May 17, 2011. Liszt’s reputation has fluctuated wildly (unlike that of his contemporaries such as Chopin and Schumann), and it is only in relatively recent times that his true stature has been fully realized. Though he was possibly the greatest and certainly the most charismatic of pianists, his compositions embraced many areas of music. But if his symphonic poems, Masses, oratorios and songs are often musica...

A 90-minute high-definition DVD of Pierre Boulez conducting The Cleveland Orchestra in works of Mahler, produced by WVIZ/PBS ideastream® with international production partners CLASART Classic, ARTE, Accentus Music, and Deutsche Grammophon, has just been released. The world premiere telecast took place on Sunday, May 1, at 4:30 p.m. on WVIZ/PBS ideastream®, with a prime-time rebroadcast on Saturday, May 7, at 9:30 p.m. The program will be aired in Europe on ARTE TV on May 15. The program, produced and directed by William Cosel, was taped during live performances presented in February 2010 at Severance Hall. It includes Mahler’s Adagio from Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp major, and his Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The Youth’s Magic Horn”), Songs for Voice and Orchestra, with vocal soloists Magdalena Kožená, mezzo-soprano, and Christian Gerhaher, baritone. An audio recording of this program was released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2010. It was cited as “Disc of the Month” by BBC Music Magazi...

On June 14th the ACO perform at Ojai North, the newly launched collaboration with Cal Performances UC Berkeley This June, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Artistic Director and Lead Violin Richard Tognetti, will make their debut at the 65th Ojai Music Festival. They appear at the invitation of the festival’s 2011 Music Director Dawn Upshaw with whom the ACO has toured extensively in recent years throughout the US, Europe and Australia. One of the highlights of this year’s festival will be the premiere of a new work written for Upshaw, Tognetti and the ACO by jazz composer and big band leader Maria Schneider. The ACO will perform in two concerts at Ojai on June 11th and 12th and one on June 14th at Ojai North, a new multi-year residency project in partnership with Cal Performances in Berkeley launching following this year’s Ojai Music Festival. On, Saturday morning, June 11th, Richard Tognetti performs in recital with pianist Gilbert Kalish, in works by...

The Brazilian Symphony Orchestra fired nearly half of its musicians after they refused to take part in assessment auditions as required by conductor Roberto Minczuk, the organization said Wednesday. The dismissals of 36 of the orchestras 82 musicians were confirmed in a statement from the OSB Foundation, after negotiations failed to resolve a three-month dispute. "(The management) always believed in a positive outcome and made the utmost effort to comply with the requests of the group of musicians, but unfortunately no consensus was reached," the Foundation said in a statement. The sacked musicians had demanded Minczuk's dismissal, which the OSB management refused.

Pianist Joyce Yang had only finished her freshman year at Juilliard when she snared the silver medal at the 12th Van Cliburn International Competition, becoming the youngest prizewinner in the competition's history. Between classes, she toured the world, performing on multiple occasions with the New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago, San Francisco and Houston symphonies, among many others. In 2010 she received an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Now, Juilliard has given its celebrated alum the William Petschek Piano Recital Award: a recital at Alice Tully Hall. Previous Petschek recipients have included Jeremy Denk, Jon Kimura Parker and Orion Weiss. Yang will perform works by Scarlatti, Debussy, Chopin-Liszt and Schumann, along with related contemporary pieces: Sebastian Currier's Scarlatti Cadences and Brainstorm and Lowell Liebermann's Gargoyles. The program is designed "to have each piece illuminate the one that follows," says Yang. The 25-year-old Korean A...

Flute Toys : A challenging new work for flautist Rachel Perez Tetreault The music is just in the opening stages, but it's looking very promising. The opening movement provides lots of opportunity to showcase the talents of Ms Tetreault, including flourishes, flutter and double tonguing and leaps like only a flute can do. The theme is tender, almost childlike, but anything but simple. The 2nd movement (not yet ready for public viewing) will be soft and cuddly, like a stuffed animal. The 3rd movement will be on the extreme side (and probably very short) indicative of a spinning top. I hope there will be 2-3 more "toys" included in this collection with a final "toy box" to round out the piece - a collection of all the themes melded together. While I'm working on the piece as a flute and piano work, ultimately the music will be scored for orchestra. However, having both versions gives the performer options as it isn't always possible to have an ...

Sarah McLachlan, Idina Menzel and Chicago concerts at Red Rocks Amphitheatre; Independence Eve at Civic Center Park; Beethoven; John Williams and Russian masterpieces at Boettcher Concert Hall; plus two nights at Arvada Center This July, the Colorado Symphony presents a remarkable array of classical masterpieces and new orchestral collaborations, including three riveting concerts under the stars at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Highlights at Red Rocks include the symphonic debut of multiple Grammy® Awardwinning singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan, the return of Broadway powerhouse Idina Menzel of Wicked fame, and an unforgettable night with pop/rock legends Chicago. “The Colorado Symphony is thrilled to partner with Sarah McLachlan in her first-ever symphony concert and we can’t imagine a better place for this momentous debut than under the stars at Red Rocks,” said James W. Palermo, President & CEO, Colorado Symphony. “In programming the Colorado Symphony’s summer series, w...

May 6 – May 14 at www.wqxr.org Innovative audio technology allows webstream listeners to experience the performances as if they were present inside Carnegie Hall For its live audio streams of Carnegie Hall’s “Spring for Music” concerts running Friday, May 6 through Thursday, May 14, WQXR – New York City ’s sole all-classical station – is working in collaboration with the consulting, design and engineering firm Arup to bring innovative 3D sound live to the WQXR.org audience. Working closely with the WQXR broadcast engineers, the Arup acoustics team – which has worked with artists including Nick Cave and Lou Reed – will add a special 3D microphone to the usual array of microphones WQXR uses for its live broadcasts and audio webcasts. Using a range of proprietary software, Arup will combine the sounds from all of the microphones in real time, creating an auditory environment that recreates the acoustics inside Carnegie Hall. The result will be a mix that gives the listen...

May 6 – May 14 at www.wqxr.org Innovative audio technology allows webstream listeners to experience the performances as if they were present inside Carnegie Hall For its live audio streams of Carnegie Hall’s “Spring for Music” concerts running Friday, May 6 through Thursday, May 14, WQXR – New York City ’s sole all-classical station – is working in collaboration with the consulting, design and engineering firm Arup to bring innovative 3D sound live to the WQXR.org audience. Working closely with the WQXR broadcast engineers, the Arup acoustics team – which has worked with artists including Nick Cave and Lou Reed – will add a special 3D microphone to the usual array of microphones WQXR uses for its live broadcasts and audio webcasts. Using a range of proprietary software, Arup will combine the sounds from all of the microphones in real time, creating an auditory environment that recreates the acoustics inside Carnegie Hall. The result will be a mix that gives the listen...

“Gerstein shows that virtuosity and soulfulness can go hand in hand.”– Chicago Sun-Times Kirill Gerstein – winner of the 2010 Gilmore Artist Award – has played milestone event after milestone event this season; his ever-upward trajectory continues this spring and summer, from intense solo recitals to high-profile concerto engagements. Reviewing a concert last spring, the New York Times described Gerstein’s interpretation of the B-minor Sonata as “spellbinding,” as it balanced “a big, torrential sound in the work’s thunderous sections with crystalline – but still assertive – phrasing in the more introspective passages.” On May 7, Gerstein reprises Beethoven’s Opp. 111 and 119 at New York’s 92nd Street Y, on a program shared with the august Tokyo String Quartet. Following recital and concerto dates, and a tour with the Hagen Quartet across Europe to the Middle East, the pianist returns to Manhattan to play Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the New York Philharmonic ...

Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski is joined by soprano Christine Brewer for Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs alongside a programme of Wagner's Overture to Die Meistersinger and Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. By the late 1880s, Tchaikovsky had at last found some solace and relief from the catastrophes which carved a tragic path through his earlier career. This peace can be heard throughout the Fifth Symphony with bright shafts of melodic optimism bursting through the troubled orchestral shadows. Like Tchaikovsky, in periods of darkness Richard Strauss turned to music. By 1949, after witnessing the destruction of his beloved Germany from within, he wrote his final goodbye in a set of four touching songs, sung this evening by soprano Christine Brewer.

St Louis Symphony to Perform World Premere of Christopher Rouse's Symphony No. 3 May 5-8, 2001 Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 3 will receive its world premiere with the St. Louis Symphony, led by Music Director David Robertson, at Powell Hall on Thursday, May 5 at 8:00 p.m. The premiere will be followed by repeat performances on May 6-8, all paired with Orff’s Carmina Burana . The concert on Saturday, May 7 will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio (90.7 KWMU) at 8:00 p.m. CT, and will be available via live internet stream . David Robertson and Christopher Rouse will be interviewed at intermission during the live broadcast. In his Symphony No. 3, Christopher Rouse uses Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 2 as a compositional stepping-off point, taking central aspects of the work and considering them anew. In the words of the composer, “Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 2 furnishes the old bottle into which I have tried to pour new wine.” From the two-movement form—an allegro ...

Mitsuko Uchida, who recently won a Grammy® Award this year for her previous Mozart concerto recording with The Cleveland Orchestra, is soloist and conductor in Mozart Concertos Nos. 20 in D minor and 27 in B-flat major in Cleveland Orchestra performances that were recorded live in Severance Hall. The album was exclusively released through the Cleveland Orchestra Store on April 19 and receives full distribution in the United States on May 3, 2011. Of Mitsuko Uchida’s performances of Mozart, The Independent writes: “No pianist conveys the rapture of Mozart quite like Mitsuko Uchida does.” Though Ms. Uchida has previously recorded all the Mozart piano concertos, she has chosen to re-visit them with The Cleveland Orchestra in performances, recorded live, during which she acts as both soloist and conductor with a new and fresh conception of these masterpieces. Of the performances in April 2010 recorded for this release, the Plain Dealer wrote: “Back at Severance Hall this week revisit...

OperaColorado provided an endless source of laughter with their latest production, Rossini’s Cinderella ( La Cenerentola ). This is a farce of the first magnitude, yet this performance under the direction of Grischa Asagaroff was off the Richter scale in terms of comedic timing. I can’t remember when I've heard an opera audience laugh so much. The opening began with a long, but luscious overture under the baton of Timothy Long and the musicians of the Colorado Symphony. The audience grew a bit restless with the length of the overture, but it was beautifully played. The curtain rose to show the dilapidated house of the Baron Don Magnifico in trompe o’lieo design, black etchings depicting three dimensional architecture on a white (or cream) canvas. Immediately we are transported into a fairytale story (or book). La Cenerentola requires amazing flexibility and control for all the vocalists. The music is filled with vocal fireworks, from the opening “Cenerento...