Interchanging Idioms

Coming to Laguna Beach: dancers and dance companies from across the nation – New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco Professional dancers from companies spanning the U.S. will perform in the Laguna Dance Festival’s seventh season April 12-15. The festival will offer audiences three distinctly different shows with four performances at the Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach. Festival founder and artistic director Jodie Gates calls this season “a must-see if you love dance.” River Dance North Chicago’s festival debut will open the festival on Thursday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m., offering audiences a jazz-based, contemporary dance show. On Friday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. Philadelphia’s BalletX will premiere a newly choreographed piece by Jodie Gates that showcases the company’s modern, athletic style of ballet-based dance. New York City Ballet stars Tiler Peck and Joaquin DeLuz will headline the two Stars of Dance performances on Saturday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April...

Classical Summer Music Program on the campus of Curtis Institute of Music Julian Krinsky Camps & Programs (JKCP) offers an exciting three-week performing arts experience for high school students in Center City Philadelphia — right on Curtis’ Rittenhouse Square campus and new state-of-the-art living and learning facility, Lenfest Hall. From sectional coaching and private instruction to chamber music rehearsals, you will enhance your technical and musical abilities while learning at the music world's most prestigious conservatory. Young musicians grow with the best this summer as they sample college living and the life of a professional musician and symphony orchestra member. Each day is stimulating playing with other passionate young instrumentalists. With access to resources of the Curtis Institute of Music, they develop their potential and love of music as they prepare for college. JKCP recognizes the importance of instrumental music education programs and providing teens a...

Tribute , a collection of contemporary world premieres by three innovative female choreographers will run March 29, through April 1, 2012, at the Newman Center, Denver. The choreographers premiering their works in this production include Emery LeCrone, Archetypes ; Jodie Gates, Embellish ; and Amy Seiwert, Traveling Alone . Tribute honors Colorado Ballet’s founders, Lillian Covillo and Freidann Parker. “I am especially proud of this production as it pays homage to Colorado Ballet’s founders, Lillian Covillo and Freidann Parker,” said Colorado Ballet Artistic Director Gil Boggs. “These two women had the courage and dream to imagine world-class dance in Denver, and for that we owe them so much. This production is a testament to the vision of Lillian and Freidann and demonstrates the successes of female leaders and artists in ballet.” At 25, LeCrone has created several prominent works, competed in numerous choreography competitions, and received substantial grants and new commissions...

Screenings of all four operas in Wagner’s epic begin May 9 in the U.S. and Canada The Metropolitan Opera will present worldwide movie theater screenings of Robert Lepage’s new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen , as well as Wagner’s Dream , a new documentary chronicling the creation of this ambitious new staging. In the United States and Canada , the series will begin May 7 with a screening of the documentary, directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, and continue on May 9 with Das Rheingold , the first opera in the cycle. The entire four-part Ring cycle and documentary will be screened in many countries this spring and summer, including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. More details on the screenings are below. Please note that showtimes in some markets may vary. Tickets go...

Closing date: 31 March 2012 - The postmark will be deemed to be the date of submission COMPETITION RULES AND CONDITIONS Art. 1 TEM - Taukay Edizioni Musicali and Delta Produzioni Associazione Culturale, with the participation of the Presidente della Repubblica Italiana, with the awards of Senato della Repubblica Italiana, of Camera dei Deputati, of Ministro della Gioventù and Fidapa, the patronage of the Rappresentanza Italiana della Commissione Europea, the Italian National UNESCO Commission, the Ministero degli Affari Esteri, the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, the Università degli Studi di Udine, the Istituto Giapponese di Cultura in Roma and with the support of the Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Comune di Udine and the Fondazione CRUP, hereby open the Ninth International Composition Competition “Città di Udine”. Art. 2 The competition is divided in two sections: - instrumental compositions for chamber orchestra - electro-acoustic music. Art. 3 The...

Highlights include the “Wicked Divas,” Amy Grant, Kenny G, Gladys Knight, “The Midtown Men,” a night of Gershwin, and a live orchestral accompaniment to the film “Singin’ in the Rain” 27, 2012—Come over to the lighter side of Pacific Symphony, as it launches an exciting 2012-13 Pops season starring big-name guest artists, spectacular shows and some of the most treasured songs and genres of our time. From the “Empress of Soul,” Gladys Knight, to Broadway showstoppers, the “Wicked Divas,” next season’s Pops audiences are in for a special treat! Spend Valentine’s Day with Kenny G, Christmas with Amy Grant and end the season with a little “Singin’ in the Rain”–on the big screen, accompanied by the sumptuous sounds of the orchestra. The Symphony’s Pops season, led by Principal Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman, also includes Broadway hits sung by four stars from the original cast of “Jersey Boys,” and an evening devoted to the music of the legendary Gershwin brothers, featuring some of the mos...

"Richard Tognetti and his badass classical band, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, don’t play New York nearly often enough. But, on the rare occasion that they do come in from Down Under, they leave an indelible mark on the city’s music scene." Time Out New York This April, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Artistic Director and Lead Violin Richard Tognetti, will travel to North America for a 10-stop tour. The ensemble will hit major cities in the US and Canada with the final date of the tour culminating at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Joining them will be world-renowned soprano (and recent Ojai collaborator) Dawn Upshaw and baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes. The program for the tour features the works of modern masters, contemporary composers, arrangements of chamber works for string orchestra and small orchestral pieces. Mahler’s "Adagietto" from Symphony No. 5, a veritable song without words, opens the tour with its haunting beauty and serenity. A...

The Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne , Germany today announced that U.S. conductor James Gaffigan will become its first Principal Guest Conductor at the start of the 2012/13 season. In addition to annual concerts, this newly created position will entail CD recording projects and conducting opera productions with the Opera of Cologne Oper Köln. This is the third European appointment for 33-year-old Mr. Gaffigan who assumed the positions of Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011. Throughout the current season, Mr. Gaffigan has made numerous prominent U.S. orchestral debuts and he makes his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic this week, on Friday, March 30 at 8:00PM at Walt Disney Concert Hall, leading a program of Respighi’s Trittico Botticelliano, Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite and Grieg’s Piano Concerto with André Watts. Mr. Gaffigan says he accepted the Gürzenich Orchestra inv...

An interview with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas by Terry Gross will air today on Fresh Air, produced by WHYY-FM and broadcast nationally on NPR stations. Please check here for your local broadcast schedule. This interview precedes the broadcast of two programs featuring Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) on PBS's Great Performances this week. The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater, a musical celebration of Yiddish theater pioneers Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky who were MTT's grandparents, will air nationally on Thursday, March 29 at 8PM (check local listings). Recorded in April 2011 at the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center in Miami Beach, this performance of The Thomashefskys is hosted and conducted by MTT and stars Judy Blazer as Bessie Thomashefsky and Shuler Hensley as Boris Thomashefsky. It also features Ronit Widmann-Levy and Eugene Brancoveanu and the New World Symphony. In the Fresh Air interview, MTT talks about this production and ...

21C Media Group is pleased to announce that it now represents the American Pianists Association (APA), recognized by the New York Times for offering “profound early-career assistance” to world-class young American classical and jazz pianists. Over the coming season, the APA will present the finalists for the 2013 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship Award. The Fellowship offers one of the piano world’s most substantial prizes, valued at over $100,000, awarded every four years to a classical pianist at the conclusion of a unique 13-month-long competition process. The names of the five finalists for the 2013 award, selected from America’s foremost young pianists ages 18-30, will be announced on April 24 at a media event in New York’s Steinway Hall – to be recorded for future broadcast on WQXR and other classical radio stations. The mission of the American Pianists Association is to discover, promote, and advance the careers of young, American, world-class jazz and classical pianists. ...

French pianist Alexandre Tharaud makes a rare New York appearance when he performs at Le Poisson Rouge, Manhattan’s popular downtown music club, on Monday, April 9. The program includes excerpts from Book 1 of Debussy’s Preludes, selections from Tharaud’s recent Virgin Classics release, Scarlatti: Sonatas (one of NPR’s 50 favorite recordings of 2011), and works from his upcoming jazz-inspired album, Le Boeuf Sur le Toit ( The Ox on the Roof ), which pays tribute to the swinging 1920s in France with a number of special guests and a captivating mix of repertoire. The new album, scheduled for release this fall, takes its name from a historic cabaret where Parisian classical musicians discovered jazz (it’s also the title of a surrealist ballet by Jean Cocteau based on a score by Darius Milhaud). Alexandre Tharaud is increasingly recognized as one of today’s most inventive pianists, traversing a wide variety of repertoire – from Baroque masterpieces to contemporary compositions – with ...

The Berliner Philharmoniker is releasing today their live recording of the St Matthew Passion, in a semi-staged “ritualization” by director Peter Sellars, on DVD and Blu-ray. Conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, who called these performances “the single most important thing we ever did here,” the production was called “the most moving concert and music theatre event of the season” by the Berliner Zeitung. The St Matthew Passion was recorded live at the Philharmonie in Berlin on April 11, 2010; the last of five sold out performances. The DVD and Blu-ray will be released on The Berliner Philharmoniker’s own label available exclusively at the Berlin Philharmonie shop and the Berliner Philharmoniker online shop at www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/shop . Soloists for the performance were soprano Camilla Tilling, mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, tenor Topi Lehtipuu, tenor Mark Padmore, baritone Thomas Quasthoff, baritone Christian Gerhaher with the Rundfunkchor Berlin (Berlin Radio Cho...

Colorado Symphony welcomes conductor Andrew Litton and pianist Pascal Rogé in performance of Mozart's illustrious Piano Concerto No. 21; Tchaikovsky's Fourth and Brahms' Academic Festival Overture round-out idyllic Colorado Symphony Masterworks weekend he Colorado Symphony welcomes acclaimed conductor Andrew Litton and celebrated pianist Pascal Rogé for two beautiful concerts featuring masterworks by Brahms, Mozart and Tchaikovsky on Friday, April 13 and Saturday, April 14 at Boettcher Concert Hall. Concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. and promise to charm concertgoers with a program of music that is both joyful and resplendent, spotlighting one of the most venerated works in the repertoire: Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. Rogé, who makes his much-anticipated return to the Colorado Symphony stage in these concerts, promises to shine in the performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21, one of the most popular and well-known of Mozart's 27 piano concerti. In recent histo...

The great music of Jules Massenet's Manon is available for the first time in the form of a violin fantasy, Manon de fantasie . The arrangement by Chip Michael is available for a limited time free for the duration of Netrebko's performance at the met in the title role. For more information and a sample of the violin fantasy, click here .

In honor of this event, I am offering free downloads of my violin fantasy, Manon de fantasie based on the music of the opera. Following her star turn as the title character in the Metropolitan Opera’s season-opening production of Anna Bolena last fall, Anna Netrebko now returns to Lincoln Center to headline her second new production of the season, this time presenting her signature portrayal of the ill-fated Manon in Massenet’s eponymous opera for the first time in front of New York audiences. “Netrebko’s Manon has them in the palm of her hand, her control underlined by her formidable vocal delivery,” reported the London Evening Standard when the Russian soprano sang the role last season at Covent Garden in this new staging by director Laurent Pelly, which transfers to the Met for a nine-performance run beginning March 26. On April 7, the matinee will be transmitted live to more than 1,700 movie theaters around the world as part of the Met: Live in HD series, as well as broadcast ...

Musicians have been fast and furious getting their auditions to me - which also means I've been working overtime trying to get notes back to the musicians in regards to any problems in their tracks before the final process is complete. Playing to a click-track is challenging. We have upped that challenge by throwing in a mix of different hardware platforms, file types, transmitting those files over the internet and then attempting to sync them up on the other end. TwtrSymphony has taken the recording process through the rabbit hole into a technical wonderland. The process would be different if the various musicians were recording their remote sessions in dedicated recording studios around the world. At least then we could make some sort of standard: exact file types and bit-rate we want to the files to be in when they get to the mixing studio. However, since we're dealing with musicians around the world using materials they have on hand we have more of a hodge-podge approach....

Billy and Randall said “I do” to a crowd of surprised audience members and fellow singers as they became the first couple to get married during an actual concert at New York’s Lincoln Center. The concert was presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY). Billy, part of Distinguished Concerts Singers International, had just finished a sublime performance of Mozart’s Requiem . As intermission began, a brass quintet caught everyone’s attention in the lobby, and the audience, along with members of the chorus, became instant wedding witnesses and guests and joined in celebrating the happy couple. Billy Hurbaugh and Randall Day met on the steps of St Thomas Church Fifth Avenue 21 years ago. Randall, who worked for Canterbury Cathedral in DC, was visiting New York when he caught the eye of Billy, a born and raised New Yorker, walking down Fifth Avenue. Randall, who was on his way to services, thought he would have to abandon the chase when, to his surprise, the youn...

“Formidable technique and a fine combination of intellectual rigor and emotional depth.” — The Chicago Tribune As part of the final leg of the San Francisco Symphony’s American Mavericks U.S. tour , pianist Jeremy Denk returns to his home turf as part of this innovative festival celebrating our nation’s musical pioneers. Denk’s first New York performance takes place live and online, as part of An Evening of Music and Conversation with Michael Tilson Thomas on March 26, Q2 Music’s live video webcast exploring some of the groundbreaking American composers that have inspired American Mavericks. At the end of the week, on March 30, Denk will join members of the symphony during the tour’s final concert at Zankel Hall, performing Lukas Foss’s Echoi as part of an extraordinary evening of revolutionary chamber music. Additionally, Denk will fill out the week at WQXR’s Q2 Music, where he’ll offer his unique take on cutting-edge piano repertoire on the piano-centric show Hammered! (March 26–3...

When Ailyn Pérez and Stephen Costello came together to sing Puccini’s ill-fated lovers in Cincinnati Opera’s La bohème , it was a match made in opera heaven. The Enquirer called Pérez’s Mimì “radiant” and Costello’s Rodolfo “wonderfully sung,” and praised the “warmth of tone and effortless high notes” of their duet; likewise, Music in Cincinnati reported: “The two singers made an attractive and emotionally appealing couple, with fresh young voices that soared. … The chemistry between Costello and Pérez was potent.” Now – in the first of three collaborations together this spring – the lyric soprano and tenor dubbed “America’s fastest-rising husband-and-wife opera stars” ( Associated Press ) reprise the same roles at Los Angeles Opera, where they headline the company’s signature production of Puccini’s masterpiece. Marking Costello’s house debut, the revival opens for six performances on May 12. “I feel very comfortable with Ailyn on stage and that allows me to be more intimate in l...

Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein performs works by contemporary composer and pianist Ronn Yedidia in a recording to be released by Naxos Records on Tuesday, March 27 as part of Naxos’s American Classics Series. The recording features works for clarinet and piano including Impromptu , Nocturne and World Dance , Farewell, Nathaniel , and Poème performed by Mr. Fiterstein and Mr. Yedidia; and Concertino, a work for clarinet, piano and string trio, performed by Mr. Fiterstein, Ronn Yedidia, violinist Arnaud Sussmann, violist Melissa Reardon, and cellist Nicholas Canellakis. The album will be available on Amazon.com, Arkivmusic.com, and iTunes. Alexander Fiterstein was introduced to Ronn Yedidia’s music in 2006 through friend and pianist Alon Goldstein who was then performing one of Mr. Yedidia’s piano works in recital, and the following year Concertino was commissioned for Mr. Fiterstein. Concertino began as a clarinet and piano piece but quickly became a larger and more ambitious work...

Performers sometimes glance over my music, find it really straight forward and fairly simple. That is until they start to get into actual rehearsal when they find the irregular beats quite challenging. Here are a few tips on why the music "feels" and "looks" straight forward yet is challenging to count. Here is how to approach it in rehearsal. When we studied music we learned the basics of counting duple and complex meter. We might have even had advanced courses on how to approach divisions of five or seven. All of the basic subdivisions, two and three, were pretty easy. Our brains could grasp the concept of one beat being divided into two parts --one and two and. Three was a bit trickier --one ee ah, two ee ah. Still, these divisions don't cause much problem. It was more of a struggle when we were asked to beat on the desk in three while we spoke in two (or the double division of four, two divided by two). Yet, by the end of the semester we were able to ...

Highlights include: - Principal Conductor Robin Ticciati opens his fourth Season with the SCO with concert performances of Mozart’s Così fan tutte - Celebration of Benjamin Britten centenary - Three of the world’s finest pianists play Mozart: Maria João Pires, Piotr Anderszewski and Robert Levin - Ticciati pays homage to the musical city of Vienna over two weeks in March - A salute to the Age of Romanticism throughout the Season, with a particular focus on Schumann, Schubert, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Weber and Mendelssohn - Premieres of works by Lyell Cresswell, Einojuhani Rautavaara and James MacMillan - European Tour with Robin Ticciati and Maria João Pires - SCO Season debuts by soloists Veronika Eberle, Rachel Frenkel, Nelson Goerner, Matthias Goerne, Adam Plachetka, Swiss Piano Trio, Laura Tatulescu and Markus Werba, and conductors David Afkham, Adam Fischer and Thomas Rösner - SCO and RSNO continue collaborative Aberdeen Concert Series for second year The Scottish C...

Includes Found Sound Contest, Launched Today and Culminating in The Knights’ Performance of John Adams’s Christian Zeal and Activity After successfully presenting The Knights as its inaugural ensemble-in-residence last fall, WQXR – the nation’s most-listened-to classical music station – is inviting them back for a second residency on April 3 and 4. This time, the heart of the residency is an exciting interactive experience with listeners. On Wednesday, April 4, The Knights will perform a concert that will include John Adams’s Christian Zeal and Activity, using sounds submitted by listeners. Christian Zeal and Activity, the hymn-like central movement of Adams’s longer work American Standard (1973), instructs its conductor to incorporate within it “sonic found objects.” Fittingly, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer’s own recording of the work featured a segment of a call-in radio show. Beginning today, WQXR and The Knights invite listeners – whether educated composers, young ga...

AVAILABLE NOW ON iTunes! This past Sunday fans across the country enjoyed the movie theater broadcast of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's 2011-12 Season Opening Night Concert which included some of Gershwin's best-loved works. FREE for one week in the U.S., download the video for An American in Paris with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, available only on iTunes! Click here to download the video right now!

Commissioned as part of Lyric’s Renée Fleming Initiative; Music by Composer Jimmy López, Libretto by Playwright Nilo Cruz, Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, Directed by Stephen Wadsworth; Based on Ann Patchett’s Best-Selling Novel; Soprano Danielle de Niese Stars in Central Role Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, today announced details of its new world premiere. Bel Canto , by the gifted young Peruvian composer Jimmy López, with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz, is based on the best-selling novel by Ann Patchett. To premiere in Lyric’s 2015-16 season, the new opera, commissioned as part of Lyric’s Renée Fleming Initiative, will be conducted by Lyric music director Sir Andrew Davis and directed by Stephen Wadsworth. Both the 2001 book and the new opera are inspired by the Lima Crisis of 1996-97, when members of a revolutionary movement in Peru held hostages at the Japanese ambassador’s house for 126 days (Dec. 17, 1996-April 22, 1997). C...

Electrifying New Arrangements of Three Bach Cello Suites With Naren Budhakar on Tabla and Anthony Burr on Organ On March 27, 2012, eOne will release Bach: An Imaginary Dance , an electrifying recording of three of Bach’s cello suites. Cellist Charles Curtis along with producer Robert Sadin have crossed space and time to bring into the studio one of the most ancient sources of rhythm – the tabla drum – along with additional organ colors in their re-interpretations of Bach’s C Major Suite, E Flat Suite and G Major Suite. Together, Curtis and Sadin bring a respectful yet fresh look at some of music’s most beloved works. The inspiration behind these new arrangements resides in the essential wellspring of dance. Bach took Baroque dance forms as the template for his sublime abstractions, spinning webs of music that have entranced, mystified and exalted the spirits of musicians and audiences for hundreds of years. It is safe to say that there has never been an interpretation of the suit...

As a number of audition pieces have arrived and others have written struggling with one issue or another, I felt it worthwhile to let the musicians gain from each other's experience. The poor flutists were first out of the block. They were given a piece that is playable, but challenging, melodic and yet rhythmically different, (as were all the musicians auditioning for TwtrSymphony). Here are some of the problems they needed to think about when preparing for the auditions: It is important to play WITH the click track. While a number of musicians find this off-putting, your metronome may not exactly match the click track. Therefore, don't leave it to chance. Even slight variations in the tempo can lead to drastic difference in the placement of notes later on in the music. Tuning! Even if you think you are in tune, try recording it several times and playing back all tracks at the same time. You may find you waver here and there in terms of notes being in tune. When the t...

The Metropolitan Opera Guild and Opera News, the award-winning magazine published by the Guild since 1936, will present two notable events this spring. On Tuesday, March 22, the Guild honors Thomas Hampson, one of today’s foremost singers, in its “Met Mastersingers” series at New York City’s Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. The great American baritone – who is making his company role debut as Verdi’s Macbeth at the Met this month – will engage in an informal conversation with Paul Gruber, the Guild’s Executive Director of Program Development. The evening program will also showcase video excerpts of Hampson’s most celebrated performances; a new video biography created for the occasion; and the honoree performing songs by Liszt, Barber, and Porter (program subject to change). On Sunday, April 29, the seventh annual Opera News Awards will be presented in a gala celebration in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza in New York City, paying tribute to five extraordinary artists who have made an i...

At the end of week two and audition recordings have started coming in. There are some fine musicians on Twitter! The audition process for TwtrSymphony sounds pretty simple on paper (or over a Tweet), but musicians are finding it's a lot easier to tweet than to attempt. I wrote a 30-45 second audition piece for each instrument of the orchestra --you can see some examples here . With each piece I included a click track sub-dividing the beats into two. So, a 4/4 measure would have 8 clicks, with the first beat getting an accented click. Since the time signatures change frequently, even though the timing does not, the musicians have to maintain a sense of the music while keeping a rigid sense of time. Add to this, computers and metronomes are not really accurate. Several musicians have commented their metronomes didn't match with the metronome marking on the music in relation to the click track. However, because all the musicians of a given instrument were given the same cl...

“If City Opera gives us an Alden production a year, it'll be an extraordinary gift to our cultural life." — New York Observer New York City Opera presents the second installment in director Christopher Alden's Mozart/Da Ponte cycle for the company with Così fan tutte , March 18-24 in the intimate space of the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at Manhattan's John Jay College. After his visionary staging of Don Giovanni for NYC Opera in 2009, Alden brings similar daring to his production of Così , Mozart's bittersweet meditation on the ever-thorny issues of loyalty and commitment, attraction and desire. Covering his Don Giovanni , the New York Observer declared that Alden creates “the most consistently vibrant operatic theater in the city. . . If City Opera gives us an Alden production a year in perpetuity, it'll be an extraordinary gift to our cultural life." Così fan tutte will be enlivened by a vibrant, talented cast, including Jennifer Holloway (Dorabella), A...

On March 21th, 2012 eOne Music relaunches the storied Bach Guild label with Big Bach Set – 120 tracks of Bach’s works, equaling NINE hours of music. In celebration of Bach’s birthday, March 21st, Big Bach Set will be sold for 99 cents at Amazon.com’s MP3 store. On March 22nd, the price will be $9.99 for the collection, available for download at all digital retailers. Big Bach Set will include a cross section of J.S. Bach’s most beloved works including the entirety of the Mass in B Minor, the Harpsichord Concerti, Orchestral Suites and all six Brandenburg Concerti. Artists include Joseph Szigeti, Anton Heiller, Paula Robison, Kenneth Cooper and András Schiff. Conductors include Johannes Somary, Antonio Janigro and Felix Prohaska. The Big Bach Set is the cornerstone of the return of The Bach Guild, a label devoted to Bach and the music of the baroque era. With the revival of the imprint, the classic recordings of the Bach Guild catalog will be made available, many of them for ...

“The playing of the British violinist Daniel Hope…is not just distinguished by its tonal beauty, but by its compelling rhetorical quality.” — The Wall Street Journal For his ninth season as a performer and his eighth as Associate Artistic Director at the Savannah Music Festival (March 22-April 7), Daniel Hope has curated an extraordinary array of concerts that make up the classical portion of Georgia’s largest cross-genre musical arts festival. As a violinist, Hope will make nine appearances during the 2012 Savannah Music Festival (SMF), primarily as part of the Daniel Hope & Friends series, presented in the dramatic Rotunda of Savannah’s Telfair Academy. Highlights include Hope’s recital of the complete Brahms violin sonatas with Sebastian Knauer; an evening with old friend and Beaux Arts Trio colleague Menahem Pressler; three performances with keyboard star Kristian Bezuidenhout and the period chamber orchestra l'arte del mondo (which makes its U.S. premiere at SMF 2012); an...

“Aimard has an ingenious knack for juxtaposing old and new works to tease out fascinating resonances.” – Anthony Tomassini, New York Times After making “riveting” (New York Times) appearances with the Chicago Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra, French pianist and musical luminary Pierre-Laurent Aimard returns to the U.S. for a four-city recital tour in late March. This sees the pianist’s debuts in Denver, Co (March 22) and Santa Barbara, CA (March 26), as well as performances in Detroit, MI (March 24) and San Francisco, CA (March 27). One of the most celebrated interpreters of contemporary music, Aimard has been called “the composers’ favorite pianist” (Economist); his tour program features works by one of his frequent collaborators, György Kurtág, alongside Debussy’s complete Préludes, Book II, and music by Schumann and Liszt. Following the tour, Aimard presents a pair of recitals at New York’s Lincoln Center (April 21 & 22), with repertoire from his recent Deutsche Grammophon doub...