Interchanging Idioms

Part of the Nash Ensemble’s Dreamers of Dreams series, British music from the first half of the 20th century Saturday 27 October 2012, 7.30pm, The Wigmore Hall The Nash Ensemble is joined by tenor John Mark Ainsley at the Wigmore Hall on Saturday 27 October. They perform Benjamin Britten’s Three Divertmenti for string quartet, Frank Bridge’s Romanze, Cradle Song, and Sernade for violin and piano, Peter Warlock’s Songs for tenor and quartet, Edward Elgar’s La Capricieuse, Canto popolare, and Sospiri for violin and piano, and Ralph Vaughan-Williams’ On Wenlock Edge (Houseman) for tenor, string quartet, and piano. Marianne Thorsen is violin soloist with Ian Brown on piano. The Nash Ensemble will perform a number of Britten works throughout the Dreamers of Dreams series, in celebration of his upcoming centenary in 2013. Britten 100 is an unprecedented collaboration of leading organisations from the worlds of the performing arts, publishing, broadcasting, film, academia, and heritage, m...

A Primetime Special Featuring Virtuosos Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile, Stuart Duncan, and Edgar Meyer PBS invites viewers to experience a groundbreaking collaboration when it airs The Goat Rodeo Sessions ' first live performance on Friday, May 25, 2012 at 9:00PM (check local listings). The Goat Rodeo Sessions combines the talents of four different solo artists, cello virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma, mandolin master Chris Thile, bluegrass fiddler Stuart Duncan, bassist Edgar Meyer, each a Grammy Award winning star in their own right, to create a unique, genre-breaking sound that's part composed, part improvised and uniquely American. Released in October 2011, The Goat Rodeo Sessions album debuted #1 on the Classical, Classical Crossover, and Bluegrass Billboard charts. Additionally at #18, it was Yo-Yo Ma's highest position on the Billboard Top 200 chart to date. With the combination of intricate arrangements, intense improvisation, and superior skill by all players, The Goat Rodeo Sessions ...

"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...

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...

New Album dedicated to Schubert and Minimalism, featuring two Schubert symphonies paired with music by Erik Satie, Morton Feldman and Philip Glass to be released as an iTunes Exclusive on February 28, 2012, with SACD/CD Hybrid to Follow on April 3, 2012 "Talent For Punctuating Classics With Surprises...this ensemble has a formula, it is based on balancing new and unusual works with the most basic canonic classics." The New York Times “Few ensembles are as adept at mixing old music with new as this dynamic young Brooklyn orchestra.” New Yorker This spring, celebrated ensemble The Knights under the direction of Eric Jacobsen present “A Second of Silence,” a new album juxtaposing the works of Schubert with examples of minimalism from Satie, Feldman and Glass. The album will be released as an iTunes digital exclusive on February 28, 2012, with a wide release to all retailers on April 3, 2012. This release marks the ensemble’s second appearance on the Ancalagon label. Their fi...

Internationally Acclaimed Violinist and Pianist Visit Boston, NYC, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco to Perform Repertoire of Brahms, Stravinsky, Pärt, Franck, Schnittke and Shostakovich In February 2012, violinist Vladimir Spivakov and pianist Olga Kern will embark on a rare joint recital tour in the United States, visiting top concert halls in Boston, New York City, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco. This is the powerful duo’s first ever joint recital tour outside of Europe, and they have created a dynamic program of works by Brahms, Stravinsky, Pärt, Franck and Schnittke. At the Carnegie Hall concert only, Spivakov and Kern will be joined by celebrated cellist and 2012 Musical America Artist of the Year, David Finkel of the Emerson String Quartet for a special performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2. (complete repertoire list below). Throughout his career, spanning nearly four decades, violinist Vladimir Spivakov has been praised by critics for his deep insight into com...

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), noted for discovering and showcasing stellar young artists early their careers, presents the dynamic and uniquely talented 21-year-old violinist Nigel Armstrong in a Mozart (Mostly) program led by LACO Principal Cello Andrew Shulman, in his LA conducting debut, on Saturday, January 21, 8 pm, at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, and Sunday, January 22, 7 pm, at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Armstrong, a finalist in the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition, held every four years and considered “classical music's equivalent of the Olympics” ( Los Angeles Times ), has been hailed as “gifted” and “blazing” ( Chicago Tribune ). The California native and recent graduate of The Colburn School Conservatory of Music performs Mozart’s stunning Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216. This is the fist time Armstrong has performed publicly in California since being named a finalist in the prestigious competition and marks his LACO debut. In addition, Shulman c...

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts 2, 9, 16 & 23 February - All broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Nash Ensemble presents the Brahms Plus series at LSO St Luke’s on each Thursday in February at 1pm and each concert will be recorded for later broadcast on BBC Radio 3. The series presents some of Brahms’ great chamber works coupled with music by four composers who were an influence on, or were influenced by, Brahms – Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Richard Strauss. Brahms Plus sits within Echoes of Romanticism, the Nash’s over-arching focus for its 2011/12 season at Wigmore Hall. The Nash Ensemble is Britain’s leading chamber ensemble, acclaimed for adventurous programming and virtuoso performances. It has been Chamber Ensemble in Residence at the Wigmore Hall since the 2009/10 season. This will be its first week-long residency at LSO St Luke’s. 2011/12 is the most ambitious BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert season at LSO St Luke’s to date. During September, October and November, over...

East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) Self-conducted Group of America’s Top String Players Brings Vibrancy and Virtuosity to Debut Album of Works by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Geminiani on eOne Music. “ These youthful players are helping form classical music’s future. Long may they ECCO .” Washington Post On January 7th, 2012 the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) a group made up of today’s most vibrant and gifted young string players, will release a new recording of fresh takes on some of the most popular and compelling music from three different centuries. The virtuosity and spirit of the music-making on their self-titled debut album of beloved works by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Geminiani on the eOne label shows why some of the top young solo, chamber and orchestral musicians in the country take time from their 'day jobs' to come together a few times a year to make music.

On November 22, Trinity Wall Street presents “Odes”, a concert celebrating St. Cecilia’s Day to be given by Tenet, one of New York’s preeminent vocal ensembles (Trinity Church: Broadway at Wall Street). Led by artistic director Jolle Greenleaf, Tenet welcomes violinist and conductor Scott Metcalfe as guest music director for the program. Metcalfe will conduct a stellar ensemble that includes sopranos Jolle Greenleaf and Molly Quinn, countertenors Geoffrey Williams and Ryland Angel, tenors Sumner Thompson and Scott Mello, and basses Jesse Blumberg and Mischa Bouvier. Their program features music by celebrated English composer Henry Purcell, alongside music for Baroque trumpet performed by Kris Kwapis. A preview performance of “Odes” will be given the preceding day, on Monday, November 21, in Trinity Wall Street’s St. Paul’s Chapel (Broadway at Fulton Street). The program, an invigorating mix of odes, arias, and trumpet-based instrumental works, showcases the range of Henry Purcell’s ...

The trio talks to Chris McGovern backstage at Le Poisson Rouge before their concert Chicago-based ensemble The Lincoln Trio have invited me to come hear them at Le Poisson Rouge in NY--And I sadly had to leave early to get a train back to CT (long story; it's always trains, cabs, directions and timeline issues with me). What I did manage to hear was such a great program of works (some brand new) by Lera Auerbach, Stacy Garrop and Joan Tower among others, and there was absolutely nothing regrettable about having a chance to hear any of that, particularly the jarring modernism of the Stacy Garrop piece Seven (I have to stress that when I hear new music, I'm usually watching it played by people dressed in street clothes or the color black; these people had gowns and a nice suit on, and it has to be the first time I've seen a lady in a gown so gorgeous as Marta Aznavoorian's while she was playing inside the piano). Sitting down with them before the show backstage, the...

ACME in Concert, Joe's Pub, NYC, October 25, 2011 Other than my highly-expensive coke and chocolate brownie (Thanks, Joe's Pub food policy), the evening for the chamber group American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) left me feeling much more assured and happy I was there to capture it. It was quite a crisp, vital program in the intimate setting of Joe's Pub, a place that one associates more with indie rock, but these days there's hardly a chasm between the two anyway. The ensemble, featuring the compelling violist Nadia Sirota and, on a few works pianist Timo Andres (Christian Carey's work and a great solo-piano piece by David Smooke called Requests ), blazed through 11 relatively short pieces for varied instruments by 11 composers--9 of which that were chosen from over 200 that applied for the event--Carey and Hayes Biggs were judges and also had pieces on the program. The highlights of this program for me were: a) The world premiere of Christian Carey...

“The blackbirds are examples of a new breed of super-musicians.” – Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times eighth blackbird ’s world premiere performance of Slide was the centerpiece of the 2009 Ojai Music Festival, where it made an indelible impact. The genre-defying new music-theater piece wowed the Daily Sound as “part opera, part performance art,…and purely amazing,” while for the Los Angeles Times it “epitomized the kind of new musical world that eighth blackbird is ushering us into. …Powerful and impressive.” An eighth blackbird commission*, Slide exploits the unique blend of virtuosity, new-music chops, and youthful exuberance that marks the Chicago-based, Grammy Award-winning sextet as “the straight-A students of the contemporary scene” ( Washington Post ). Now, after extensively touring the work, the group makes it available to audiences at home, with Cedille Records’ September 27 release of Lonely Motel: music from “Slide.” eighth bl...

FEATURING WORKS BY DVOŘÁK, JANÁČEK, and MARTINŮ The Boston Symphony Chamber Players begin their 2011-12 season Sunday, October 16, 2011, at 3 p.m. in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, with an all-Czech program featuring the E-major Serenade for strings, Op. 22, by the greatest Czech composer, Antonín Dvořák, as well as Leoš Janáček’s Mládi and Bohuslav Martinů’s Sextet for piano and winds. This all-Czech program is part of the Chamber Players’ region-oriented programming this season: they follow this concert with an all-Viennese concert (Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms) in January, an all-Russian program in March, and an all-English program in April. For further information about the Boston Symphony Chamber Players 2011-12 season, click here. One of the world’s most distinguished chamber music ensembles sponsored by a major symphony orchestra and made up of that orchestra’s principal players, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players feature first-desk string, woodwind, and brass play...

The London Symphony Orchestra celebrates Steve Reich’s 75th Birthday, performing two concerts in October. A chamber group made up of LSO players performs a selection of Reich’s works at LSO St Luke’s on 12 October. The UBS Soundscapes: Eclectica concert includes Reich’s seminal Different Trains which won a Grammy Award for best Contemporary Classical Composition in 1990, Music for Pieces of Wood , Nagoya Marimbas , Violin Phase and Sextet . UBS's support for the rich and diverse UBS Soundscapes: Eclectica series at LSO St Luke’s offers audiences the chance to experience world-class artists working at the cutting edge of contemporary style, crossing classical, jazz, folk, pop and world music. On 15 October there will be a Performance Demonstration on Steve Reich’s Different Trains and Violin Phase by LSO violinists Roman Simovic and David Alberman. They will perform and discuss the inner workings of Reich’s Different Trains and Violin Phase with students from the Guildha...

Kristjan Järvi’s Absolute Ensemble announces the release of its latest album, Arabian Nights: Live at Town Hall NYC , on Enja Records. The album will be released on August 10 in the US. A sonic journey through Middle Eastern sounds and spirits, Arabian Nights includes music written specifically for Absolute Ensemble by Marcel Khalifé, Dhafer Youssef, and Daniel Schnyder. The program was conceived by Järvi and Schnyder, and recorded live at Town Hall in New York on April 7, 2007, presented by Town Hall as part of its 2007 Not Just Jazz Series. The album was produced by Järvi and engineered by Holger Schwark. Absolute Arabian Nights was conceived as a post-September 11 memorial concert, and the first performance took place in an airport hangar in Bremen, Germany, presented by Musikfest Bremen. The Absolute Ensemble sought to crash musical genres with the Middle East during one of the most contentious periods in recent political history. The ensemble joined forces with UNESCO Artist ...

Grammy Award-winning sextet eighth blackbird – the ultimate ambassador for new music – announces an important change to its line-up, bidding a reluctant farewell to founding member, violinist, violist, and arranger Matt Albert, and a warm welcome to new member Yvonne Lam. Lam, who currently serves as Assistant Concertmaster of the Washington National Opera Orchestra, is an exceptionally talented musician who studied both piano and violin at the Colburn School before going on to earn her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Curtis and Juilliard respectively. Her first performance with eighth blackbird as its new violinist will be in the ensemble’s home town, playing at Chicago Counterpoint, a festival of Steve Reich works in Millennium Park on August 22. This concert, presented with Chicago's Third Coast Percussion, will include an all-live performance of Reich's Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet with both Lam and Albert on the violin. One of eighth blackbird’s founding mem...

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...

On May 5, Curtis 20/21, the contemporary music ensemble of the world-renowned Curtis Institute of Music, devotes an evening to the music of Grammy Award-winning American composer Joan Tower. The concert caps Tower’s composer residency at Curtis and takes place in New York at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre as part of the venue’s “Composer Portraits” series. The wide-ranging program features works for a variety of soloists and ensembles, including string quartet, piano trio, percussion ensemble, brass quintet, and solo violin, viola, and piano. At intermission, Curtis 20/21’s artistic director, David Ludwig, will conduct an onstage interview with the composer. A video preview of the concert is available at vimeo.com . Joan Tower (b.1938) is widely regarded as one of the most important American composers living today; the New York Times has judged her works “expertly wrought, full of character, and instantly communicative.” Over a career spanning more than 50 years, she has mad...

It was eighth blackbird that commissioned, premiered, and recorded Steve Reich’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet (2007), and the coming week offers the chance to hear the group’s rendition of the work both live at Carnegie Hall, as the centerpiece of the “Music of Steve Reich” festival on Saturday, April 30, and on Q2, Classical 105.9 WQXR’s contemporary music stream.