Interchanging Idioms

Celebrated British ensemble reconstruct 400-year-old lost choral masterpiece for seven choirs and release world-premiere recording of Italian Vespers extravaganza Following their multi-award winning 2011 Decca debut recording of Striggio’s Mass in 40 Parts from 1566, Robert Hollingworth takes his maverick ensemble I Fagiolini on a new journey unearthing lost works from the High Renaissance and early Baroque. The group’s second Decca album 1612, set for release on June 5th, presents the world-premiere recordings of Viadana’s 4-choir Vesper Psalms, a reconstruction of Giovanni Gabrieli’s 28-voice Magnificat , a reconstitution of his In Ecclesiis and other lost treasures from this glorious period of multi-choir music. 1612 is a majestic and intricate feast of kaleidoscopic color for voices, brass, wind, strings, lutes and organs. The recording of Gabrieli’s lost Magnificat is the culmination of a musical detective story. Reconstruction of the piece had been considered impossible, wi...

Deutsche Grammophon presents conductor Myung-Whun Chung and his Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra with a new album of Debussy and Ravel. The orchestra, “a world-class ensemble” (Berliner Morgenpost), is setting a new standard for orchestral music in Korea and regularly performs for largely sold-out audiences. In anticipation of the orchestra’s first official North American tour, the Yellow Label releases this album of French masterpieces, available April 10. Myung-Whun Chung, who has held the position of Music Director and Chief Conductor since 2006, has reinvigorated the Seoul Philharmonic and brought worldwide attention to the ensemble. In 2010 the orchestra made a European tour which drew critical acclaim in cities such as Berlin, Bologna, St. Petersburg and Prague. Now maestro and orchestra come to North America with performances in Vancouver, Seattle, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. On the tour, as on the new album, the orchestra will perform Debussy’s La Mer and Ravel’s Ma Mère ...

Universal Classics continues its commitment to conductor Daniel Barenboim with this new release on Deutsche Grammophon of Bruckner’s Symphony no. 7 in E major featuring the Staatskapelle Berlin. Recorded live in the Berlin Philharmonie in June, 2010, this performance was rapturously received by the audience which erupted into 13 minutes of uninterrupted applause. The recording will be available on May 8, 2012. In June 2010 Barenboim conducted six of Bruckner’s symphonies at the Berlin Philharmonie within a single week, programming the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Symphonies alongside Beethoven’s five piano concertos, with Barenboim himself as the soloist. It was the most monumental project of the concert season, both for the musicians involved and for the audience. The result of this cycle (a favorite practice with Barenboim) was an extraordinarily flexible Bruckner with fluently shifting tempi and an exceptional range of orchestral tone colors. The Staatskapel...

From the first conversations in early March to the end of April, queries from musicians wanting to join the ranks of TwtrSymphony have poured in. The demand for opportunities to play in a symphony orchestra is obviously strong world wide. TwtrSymphony is a volunteer orchestra. At this early stage we are unable to pay musicians and composers anything for their talents or hard work. We don't have a concert hall to publish pretty pictures of our ensemble on stage. We don't have any of the trappings of a normal symphony orchestra. What we do have is the chance to play music with an orchestra. But even that is limited as all the musicians are recording their own parts in remote recording sessions. So, we don't even have the thrill of hearing the entire ensemble play together. And yet... Within the first week we had so many requests from musicians wanting to join TwtrSymphony, we had to hold auditions. By then end of the first month over 250 musicians had applied, whe...

On Sunday, April 29, the seventh annual Opera News Awards will be presented at a gala celebration in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza in New York City, paying tribute to five extraordinary artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: sopranos Karita Mattila and Anja Silja, baritones Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Peter Mattei, and director Peter Sellars. Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, who sings Fricka in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Wagner’s Ring , will host the awards. Among the special guests for this year’s festivities are conductor James Conlon (a 2005 Opera News Award-winner), who will present the award to Ms. Silja; legendary baritone (and 2008 Opera News Award-winner) Sherrill Milnes, who will present the award to Mr. Hvorostovsky; bass-baritone Eric Owens, another star of the Met’s Ring , who will present to Mr. Sellars; Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who will present to Ms. Mattila; and soprano Deborah Voigt, a 2007 Opera News Award-wi...

Mariachi Cobre debuts with the Colorado Symphony plus 10th anniversary of free community concert. Music and cultural enthusiasts alike should prepare for a weekend of magnificent performances when Mariachi Cobre, all the way from Epcot Theme Park at Walt Disney World, joins the Colorado Symphony in celebration of Cinco de Mayo on Friday, May 5 at Boettcher Concert Hall. Then on Sunday, May 6 the Colorado Symphony will host a FREE concert with Mariachi Sol De Me Tierra at the Greek Theatre stage in Civic Center Park. Tickets for the May 5 performance at Boettcher Concert Hall are on sale now and start at $25. To learn more about these concerts and the Colorado Symphony, visit www.coloradosymphony.org . “We are thrilled that this season represents the 10th year of collaboration between the NEWSED Community Development Corp., the Mexican Consulate's Office, the Colorado Symphony, and many local members of the community,” said Anthony Pierce, VP of Artistic Administration with the C...

On Sunday, April 29, Germany’s Heidelberger Frühling festival presents its first live video stream, offering a program of opera highlights from two world-class singers: baritone Thomas Hampson and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni. Accompanied by the WDR Rundfunkorchester under Massimo Zanetti, they will perform to a sold-out audience; the concert marks the last night of the 16th Heidelberger Frühling, which has – since its opening on March 23 – been showcasing internationally renowned artists in the picturesque setting of the city known as “the cradle of German Romanticism.” The April 29 live stream, sponsored by the German consulting firm MLP, will be available free of charge on www.thomashampson.com , www.lucapisaroni.com , and www.mlp-heidelberger-fruehling.de at 12 noon EDT (6 pm CET). The stream will also be available on demand until May 6. Meanwhile, New Yorkers can watch Hampson in an interview with Paula Zahn when he is profiled on THIRTEEN’s NYC-ARTS show, to be broadcast tonight...

AS MOTHER PLAYS VIOLIN IN THE NEW ORCHESTRA, SICK CHILD STAYS RIGHT BY HER SIDE by Anna Rose Too often, the demands of a professional music career are at odds with the demands placed on us by our families. I am used to juggling my time between my music and my children. All four of my children were due to be born on holidays—Nathan (New Year’s) just returned from an international tour with his rock band and is now working on a third solo project of his own compositions. Jessica (Saint Patrick’s Day) joined the Musician’s Union as a harpist when she was age 16 making her the youngest member. James (Easter) studies voice with Norm Boaz and piano, and creates beautiful origami, and Mark (Valentines Day) is an artist working on his third book of artwork. Mark, age 7, is our miracle baby. He started life in the NICU, and has trips back to the hospital. Sometimes when other children are at play dates, birthday parties and at the park Mark is at home recuperating. Because of this, Mark...

The St. Louis Symphony announced today a change to its May 4-6, 2012 performances at Powell Hall. Guest conductor Rafael Frübeck de Burgos has had to cancel his appearances with the Symphony due to health reasons. Peter Oundjian , who is conducting the St. Louis Symphony’s April 20-22 concerts, will also conduct the final weekend of the Symphony’s RachFest, featuring pianist Stephen Hough performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerti No. 1 and No. 3. The St. Louis Symphony will also perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture during all three weekend concerts. Tickets are still available and can be purchased on line at www.stlsymphony.org , by phone at 314-534-1700 or in person at Powell Hall’s box office, 718 North Grand Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63103.

During a media event at Steinway Hall on April 24, the American Pianists Association (APA) revealed the names of the five pianists who are finalists for a prize valued at more than $100,000 – the 2013 ProLiance Energy Classical Fellowship Awards of the American Pianists Association. In the coming season, the finalists – selected from America’s foremost young pianists aged 18-30 – will perform in a variety of settings: from solo recital, song, new music, and chamber music to concerto appearances with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. At the conclusion of these and other activities on April 20, 2013, a distinguished panel of international judges will name the APA’s 2013 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellow, a musician with the potential to make significant contributions to American cultural life. “One of the great things about the American Pianists Association is our unique competition format,” stated Joel Harrison, President/CEO and Artistic Director...

April 29th at 4 p.m. at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater, Los Angeles "The range of colors and voices that Sō Percussion coaxes from its menagerie is astonishing and enticing." - New York Times Don't miss the upcoming Los Angeles appearance of the Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra , with special guests Guitar/Songwriting Legend Richard Thompson and the inimitable Sō Percussion. The program also features the World Premiere of a new commissioned work from Chen Yi and Peter Askim. In a program that celebrates the premiere compositional and performance talent of today, The Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra joins an impressive lineup of the most prevalent contemporary musicians for a must-see spring concert. As part of the IAAO annual New Music Concerts, the event is set for April 28th and 29th and boasts renowned talent and highly-anticipated music premieres for audience members. Pulling an eclectic showcasing of original work from some of the most acclaimed contemporary mus...

Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will release a hybrid SACD recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and Overture No. 3 from Leonore on the Orchestra’s SFS Media label June 12. A pre-release of the album is now available exclusively on the iTunes Store. The San Francisco Symphony’s e-store is currently accepting pre-sale orders for a hybrid SACD version at sfsymphony.org/store , and on May 16 the SACD will become available at the Symphony Store in Davies Symphony Hall. The national retail release for the recording, both on CD and digitally, will be June 12. The release at the Symphony Store coincides with MTT and the Orchestra’s concerts of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, Pastoral, taking place May 16-19 at Davies Symphony Hall. All of the music on the new recording was captured live in concerts held at Davies Symphony Hall. Symphony No. 7 was recorded in concerts held October 7-9, 2010 and Overture No. 3 from Leonore was recorded September 14...

Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša makes his SCO debut with a programme of music by Dvořák, Mozart and Beethoven at Inverness (Eden Court Theatre, Wednesday 2 May), Edinburgh (Queen’s Hall, Thursday 3 May) and Glasgow (City Halls, Friday 4 May). He opens the programme with music from his homeland: Antonín Dvořák draws on his national folk heritage of dances and romances in his Czech Suite. It is followed by Mozart’s dramatic Piano Concerto in D minor K466 with soloist Jonathan Biss, a work which was often performed by Beethoven, whose own Symphony No 2 closes the concerts. Hailed as one of ten young conductors "on the verge of greatness" (Gramophone, 2011), Jakub Hrůša was recently appointed Music Director of Royal Danish Opera from 2013/14, is Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Prague Philharmonia, Music Director of Glyndebourne on Tour, and Principal Guest Conductor of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. Popular SCO guest conductor John Storgårds brings the Season ...

“One of today’s pre-eminent violinists.” – New York Times From new commissions and neglected rarities to repertory staples, Avery Fisher Prize-winner Gil Shaham demonstrates his singular versatility over the coming months. Late April sees the master violinist – Musical America ’s Instrumentalist of the Year – undertake the world premiere of Kaddish (2011), a new violin concerto by Richard Danielpour, for three dates with the New Jersey Symphony. With his enviable flair for multi-tasking, Shaham couples the new commission with Berg’s Violin Concerto (1935), one of the many “Violin Concertos of the 1930s” foregrounded by his celebrated programming project of that name. Others include Stravinsky’s (1931), which he performs with Zurich’s Tonhalle-Orchester in May, and Hartmann’s less familiar Concerto funèbre (1939), for which the violinist joins the Bavarian State Orchestra and Kent Nagano in June. A second world premiere, of Julian Milone’s In the country of lost things …, forms the c...

On its dedicated website the Elias String Quartet continues to share its intrepid journey of discovery of the Beethoven quartets as it reaches one of the most challenging milestones, the Grosse Fuge . Following on from Sara Bitlloch’s much admired insight film about the work, a complete Wigmore Hall performance is available from today as a webstream for a limited 10 day period only. The Quartet begins UK performances of the complete Beethoven Quartets cycle in the forthcoming season and, in the meantime, has recently captured the hearts of American audiences (and sold out at Carnegie Hall) on it’s US debut tour: “Few quartets at any stage of their evolution have this much personality - as manifested by an unusually warm blend [and] emotional individuality” ( Philadelphia Inquirer )

Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes has long been recognized not only as one of today’s great soloists but as a first-choice partner for the finest vocalists. Acknowledging his catalytic role in a recent song recital, the New York Times observed that the pianist “provided the...intense atmosphere in which the vocal line thrives, and from which it draws much of its power.” Now, hot off a nationwide solo recital tour and high-profile concerto appearances for his multi-season “Beethoven: A Journey” project, Andsnes embarks on a U.S. recital tour with German baritone Matthias Goerne, “the most intellectually and vocally gifted male art-song interpreter of his generation” ( Philadelphia Inquirer ). With a striking program of songs about love and death by Shostakovich and Mahler, their five-city tour launches at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre (April 23) and concludes at New York’s Carnegie Hall (May 1). Later in May, Andsnes reprises “Beethoven: A Journey,” performing the composer’s First and Third P...

New York City Opera remains true to its roots with today’s 2012-13 season announcement, presenting New York City audiences with new artists and productions, ranging from rarely heard opéra bouffe and bel canto opera to edgier contemporary fare. Through three-year alliances with two theaters – BAM in Brooklyn and New York City Center in midtown Manhattan – the company offers four brand new productions from leading directors Jay Scheib, Sam Buntrock, Michael Counts, and Christopher Alden, plus a fall showcase of the celebrated VOX program in conjunction with OPERA America’s New Works Forum. Speaking on behalf of NYC Opera’s entire Board, Chairman Chuck Wall remarked: “We are thrilled with George Steel's artistic vision and leadership. Our commitment to that vision is supported by the fact that next season’s productions will take place at two of the most ideal opera venues in this great city, and all four productions will be brand new to the stage. This season’s sold-out perf...

Described by the New York Times as “part boot camp for the brain, part spa for the spirit,” the world-renowned Bard Music Festival in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, returns for its 23rd annual season, filling the last two weekends of Bard SummerScape 2012 with a compelling and enlightening investigation of “Saint-Saëns and His World.” Twelve concert programs over the two mid-August weekends, complemented by pre-concert lectures, panel discussions, and expert commentary, make up Bard’s examination of Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), whose long and remarkable career spanned and helped shape the course of French music from Gounod to Ravel. The twelve concerts offer an immersion in the music of Belle Époque France, with its trademark opulence and emotional richness, presenting masterpieces from all genres of Saint-Saëns’s prodigious oeuvre, including a rare concert performance of his grand opera Henry VIII , alongside a wealth of music from contemporaries and compatriots. Weekend 1 – “Pa...

Festival Runs from Monday, May 7- Saturday, May 12 at 7:30pm WQXR 105.9 FM and WQXR.org are proud to once again live broadcast the annual SPRING FOR MUSIC festival from Carnegie Hall. The festival’s full concert series will air on 105.9 FM in New York and audio webstream on www.wqxr.org . SPRING FOR MUSIC is an innovative festival of North American symphony and chamber orchestras, representing the best in distinctive musical programming and creativity. The 2012 season will include unique performances that demonstrate the vitality of classical music today, from rarely heard works by Varèse and Busoni to New York premieres by Paul Lansky and Avner Dorman, paired with Beethoven. The live broadcasts will be hosted by WQXR’s Elliott Forrest and will include intermission features and interviews. Each night of the festival, Forrest will be joined by a different co-host from WQXR; Q2 Music, WQXR’s online contemporary classical station; or WQXR’s sister station, WNYC. “ Spring For ...

"Perhaps most remarkable was Aimard's consistent, deeply-felt musicality, delivered sans affectation or pretension." — Denver Post After wrapping-up his recent four-city U.S. recital tour, French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard returns to Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on April 21 and 22 for back-to-back recitals that represent the only US performance of his acclaimed 2011 Deutsche Grammophon recording, The Liszt Project , in its entirety. Known specially for his innovative musical explorations, Aimard released the double album to mark the Liszt bicentenary, presenting performances of music by the legendary composer/pianist alongside works by those who influenced him and by those he inspired: Bartók, Berg, Messiaen, Ravel, Scriabin, Stroppa, and Wagner. This musical study offers new insight into Liszt’s compositional process, as well as revealing fascinating links between him and his near contemporaries. The Liszt Project was named one of 2011’s best recordings by n...

The orchestra also Tackles Schubert's Last Symphony --His Ninth, "the Great." Young genius takes the spotlight for “Schubert’s Ninth,” as Pacific Symphony’s Music Director Carl St.Clair leads this concert featuring great accomplishments in music both written and performed by prodigies. Franz Schubert wrote nine symphonies by the time of his death at the age of 31. His final Symphony No. 9, “The Great C Major,” is claimed by experts to be the first towering masterpiece to follow Beethoven’s Ninth, proving that great symphonies could still be written. Straddling both the Classical and Romantic eras, Schubert’s Ninth has the driving power and profundity of Beethoven with the poetic imagination and emotional ardor of the new age, providing a memorable finale to the concert. Also on the program, the lyrical melodies and rapid passagework of Mendelssohn’s scintillating Piano Concerto No. 1, which he wrote at age 20, are performed by California native, virtuoso Andrew von Oeyen....

Bernard Haitink conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in two concerts with Portugese pianist Maria João Pires on 10 and 14 June. On 10 June the programme includes Schubert’s Ninth and final symphony, widely considered to be Schubert’s finest piece for orchestra. On 14 June Haitink conducts the LSO in Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, one of the composer’s most popular works. Both concerts open with music by Purcell; the Chacony in G minor edited for string orchestra by Benjamin Britten (10 June) and the Funeral March for Queen Mary (14 June). Maria João Pires is the soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 20 in D minor (10 June) and No 23 in A major (14 June). The LSO with Bernard Haitink and Maria João Pires perform the same programmes at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on 17 and 18 June, part of the LSO’s annual residency at the Salle Pleyel. On Sunday 10 June there is an LSO Discovery Day exploring the music of Schubert ahead of the evening performance of his Ninth Symphony. Sunday 10 Jun...

One key element to getting a good recording from a collection of remote sessions is making sure all the parts are in time with each other A click track for each of the musicians is crucial! Musicians are in the habit of "smoothing" out the lines. Unless they have extensive experience working with a click track, there are going to be variances in the tempo, particularly with rapid passages. Getting the notes to line up so the initial attack is the same can be a real chore, but incredibly important to getting the music to sound clean. The first part of the process is creating an individual click track for each musician. Because the music I write is highly rhythmic and bears frequent time changes, creating a click track that really relates the feeling of the music as well as the timing is important. I attempted to use a woodblock for the tempo, with a high accented pitch for the first beat of a measure, and then lower pitches for the non-accented/non-beat pulses of the measu...

The remarkable Monks of the Desert, who spend their daily hours praying for peace, working and studying in silence, have entered the realm of major label music production with their Sony MASTERWORKS debut album Blessings, Peace and Harmony available April 24, 2012. The Monks of The Desert observe a strict daily prayer schedule called Divine Office, or Opus Dei, which takes place 7 times during the day and once at night, starting at 4:00am and ending at 7:30pm. When not praying or studying, the monks run a multitude of self-sustaining businesses including light manufacturing, brewing beer (Monk's Ale & Monk’s Wit), an on-site “hotel” and community thrift store in Santa Fe and a separate retail store specializing in hand-crafted religious items, books, music, and folk art. The Monastery of Christ in the Desert is located completely “off-the-grid” in the stunning Chama Canyon wilderness in northwestern New Mexico, about 75 miles north of Santa Fe and 53 miles south of Chama. ...

Three-time Grammy award-winning rock group Train is being added to the 2012 Tanglewood season line up, performing on Friday, August 31, at 7 p.m. Up-and-coming pop star Andy Grammer and Nashville-based singer/songwriter Mat Kearney will open for Train. Additional details of the Labor Day Weekend festivities will be announced at a later date. Train made its Tanglewood debut with a concert on August 8, 2011. Tickets for Train range from $22-$88 and go on sale Saturday, April 28. Beginning at 10 a.m., tickets may be purchased online through the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s website at www.tanglewood.org , by calling SymphonyCharge at 617-266-1200 or 888-266-1200, or by visiting the Symphony Hall Box Office. There is a service charge for each ticket purchased on line or by phone.

The current season at Royal Festival Hall ends with a programme that's creative and fascinating - exactly what you've come to expect from Vladimir Jurowski. The concert opens with Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen Suite . This comes just a few weeks before Vladimir Jurowski conducts a new production of Janáček's most popular work at the opening of this summer's Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Following a performance of Suk's Asrael Symphony that electrified the atmosphere of Royal Festival Hall in 2010, Jurowski turns to Ripening - Suk's symphonic poem that grapples with demons before finding a radiating transcendence. Pianist Martin Helmchen plays Dvořák's astounding Piano Concerto. It is, without doubt, one of the best-kept secrets of the Romantic repertoire. Wednesday 2 May, 7.30pm | Royal Festival Hall

As the musicians record the music in preparation for the launch of TwtrSymphony's first piece, here is a bit of what to expect The symphony , Birds of a Feather will be the first official release of TwtrSymphony. While it's the first piece for TwtrSymphony, it bears the title Symphony No. 2 Birds of a Feather as it is composer Chip Michael's second symphony. The musicians are currently recording their parts for the first movement, The Hawk Goes Hunting as Chip Michael prepares parts for them to start work on the second movement, Birds of Paradise. The process is being fast-tracked to get this first effort out to an eager audience. It helps that many of the musicians are excited about the process, too. The first movement , The Hawk Goes Hunting is a bold statement as if to say "Here we are!" TwtrSymphony is making a statement, albeit short (only 2'11"), that rather is the point of Twitter: to be concise. The movement is in Sonata-Allegro form, c...

Tickets for this very special weekend engagement are on sale now and start at $19! See below for details... Olga Kern Plays Grieg Friday, May 18 at 7:30 pm Saturday, May 19 at 7:30 pm Sunday, May 20 at 2:30 pm Boettcher Concert Hall Peter Oundjian, conductor Olga Kern, piano GLINKA / Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla GRIEG / Piano Concerto SHOSTAKOVICH / Symphony No. 11, "The Year 1905" Olga Kern returns, this time in Grieg’s timeless concerto, whose first phrase is among the most dramatic ever penned. The Symphony then performs her countryman Shostakovich’s 11th symphony, a work so descriptive it is sometimes dubbed “a film score without the film.” Visit ColoradoSymphony.org for tickets.

Last fall, Thomas Hampson was invited by CNN International to travel to a foreign locale of his choice to participate in the inaugural installment of a new series titled “Fusion Journeys”. This voyage of cultural discovery led Hampson to Durban, South Africa, where he met Joseph Shabalala and his male vocal ensemble Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The result of their remarkable encounter will air on the daily CNN news program Connect the World , beginning the week of April 16. The show airs on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8:00pm GMT (check local listings for local airtimes). Hampson’s interaction with the group, set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Valley of a Thousand Hills outside Durban, features the singers and their founder teaching Hampson a popular Zulu song, “Homeless” – perhaps the group’s biggest hit – while Hampson shares with them Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times,” one of the many American folks songs that Hampson has championed throughout his ongoing “Song of America”...

“The hits keep coming at medici.tv.” — Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise April offers a grand tour of great European orchestras as medici.tv presents concerts by top ensembles from Amsterdam, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Barcelona, and Lyon. Available now is a concert with the Vienna Symphony from the famed Musikverein, in a colorful springtime program of music by Bizet, Saint-Saëns, Gershwin and more, led by Bertrand de Billy. April 14 showcases the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya led by prize-winning young conductor Vasily Petrenko, in a program of Montsalvatge, Elgar, and the Brahms Violin Concerto with world-class soloist Midori. From April 15 to 25, viewers can enjoy four concerts with the ever-exciting Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev performing signature repertoire: the complete Prokofiev symphonies and four of his five piano concertos. In the concerto performances the Mariinsky is joined by pianists Daniil Trifonov, winner of the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competi...

Tickets for the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival’s 25th anniversary season will be available for purchase from next Monday, April 23. Set in the heart of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, the Vail Music Festival runs for seven weeks from June 25 to August 4. Celebrated pianist Anne-Marie McDermott returns for a second term as artistic director, and once again the Festival boasts not one but three world-class resident orchestras: the New York Philharmonic, returning under music director Alan Gilbert for its tenth summer; The Philadelphia Orchestra, whose new music director designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin makes his Vail Music Festival debut; and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and its music director, Jaap van Zweden, Musical America ’s Conductor of the Year 2012. Programming highlights for this landmark season include numerous Festival premieres; multi-event immersions in the art of Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Gershwin; a series juxtaposing time-honored classics with trailblazing new music; p...

Musicians are taught in university to ask for money when playing a gig, but no one talks about how composers get paid Universities all over the US pay a fee to ASCAP and BMI once a year for the pieces their ensembles perform. They also send a list of programs verifying what music has been performed. ASCAP and BMI then go about funneling that money into the hands of composers, or at least into the hands of the people who own the rights to the music. This is done without the participation or awareness of the musicians in the program. Composers at these universities are taught to find musicians to play pieces. It is rare for instrumentalists to have a requirement to include new music in their recitals, so composers must negotiate for players without formal support. Most times, the instrumentalists are paid for their time out of the composer's pocket. Because there is no requirement to play new pieces, but there is a requirement to have your pieces played, an uneven dichotomy is est...

BORLETTI - BUITONI TRUST AWARD WINNER JÖRGEN VAN RIJEN PREMIERES NEW TROMBONE CONCERTO BY KALEVI AHO BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Vedernikov Barbican,London Shostakovich The Bolt– Suite Kalevi Aho Trombone Concerto (UK Premiere) Sibelius Symphony No 1 The commissioning of this new trombone concerto from prolific Finnish composer Kalevi Aho represents the last of van Rijen’s several projects funded by his 2006 BBT award. Having performed the work earlier this year in Holland and Finland, he is now well acquainted with the intricacies of this virtuosic piece with its double-­‐tone playing and complex manoeuvres: “Kalevi has produced a spectacular showcase for the trombone in all its different guises. As well as demonstrating the lyrical and singing capabilities of the instrument in the two slow movements, there is a lot of virtuosic work – such as flutter-­‐tonguing, double and triple tonguing, fast vibrato and glissando – in the fast movements, with the help ...

Eric Whitacre Singers, London Symphony Orchestra, Hila Plitmann & Julian Lloyd Webber Join Whitacre On The Composer/Conductor’s Second Decca Album Out Now Water Night follows GRAMMY-winning, chart topping Light & Gold Straight out of the gate, Eric Whitacre’s newest Decca recording, Water Night, has debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Classical Traditional chart. Water Night is the composer and conductor’s second album on the label, which was released on April 3, 2012. With no fewer than seven world premiere recordings, Water Night features the Eric Whitacre Singers, London Symphony Orchestra, Hila Plitmann and cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. Water Night follows Light & Gold, Whitacre’s GRAMMY-winning Decca debut which was one of the highest performing new classical releases for 2011, spending 70 weeks on the Billboard Classical Chart. Whitacre was recently profiled on both ABC World Newsand NBC Nightly News. In 2011 Whitacre was also featured on Good Morning America, CNN, NPR...

Application deadline: April 23, 2012 (postmark) The Minnesota Orchestra and the American Composers Forum have announced details of the 2013 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, which will run from January 7-13, 2013, at the University of Minnesota's School of Music in Minneapolis. Under the guidance of composer Aaron Jay Kernis, up to nine composers will have orchestral works rehearsed and performed by the Minnesota Orchestra and will participate in a series of seminars on musical, career, business and professional development issues. Composers receive consultations with Kernis and Music Director Osmo Vänskä before and after the rehearsals. They also meet with Orchestra members and attend small-group sessions with leading music industry professionals. Composers’ travel and hotel will be provided. All works selected for the Institute will be performed in a public concert, conducted by Music Director Osmo Vänskä on Friday, January 11, 2013, 8 pm. Complete program de...