Interchanging Idioms

Featuring Music by Icelandic Composers Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Hildur Gudnadóttir, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, Hafdís Bjarnadóttir, and Thurídur Jónsdóttir New York, NY – Sono Luminus announces the July 31, 2015 worldwide release of Icelandic ensemble Nordic Affect’s debut album on the label, Clockworking , featuring the music of five Icelandic women composers – Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Hildur Gudnadóttir, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, Hafdís Bjarnadóttir, and Thurídur Jónsdóttir. The album was recorded by Georg Magnússon at The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, with mastering and post-production by Valgeir Sigurdsson. This week, Headphone Commute is featuring the exclusive premiere of the video for the title track, Clockworking by María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, well known for her work with Icelandic band amiina. Watch now at http://bit.ly/HCVideoPremiere . Clockworking represents collaboration, connection, and passionately fierce creativity. As put by Nordic Affec...

Horn players required for world premiere of a new work from Pulitzer Prize/Grammy Award-Winning ‘eco-composer’ John Luther Adams At East Neuk Festival on 5 July 2015 The East Neuk Festival (ENF) is sounding the bugle far and wide for a herd (?) of horn players looking for outdoor musical adventures and challenges in rural Fife this summer. Following its hugely successful 2013 UK premiere of John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit for 30 percussionists, ENF has commissioned Across the Distance for massed horns for the finale of this year’s Festival. Led by SCO’s highly acclaimed young principal horn, Alec Frank-Gemill, and seven other top professional horn players from around the UK, the performance line-up is 32. Across The Distance will be performed for a promenade audience in and around the parkland and gardens of the glorious Cambo House and estate situated just south of St Andrews in the East Neuk of Fife. ENF director Svend Brown enthuses about the prospect of this unique p...

“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...

Joseph Calleja is the latest world-class artist to be chosen as the featured soloist at the Nobel Prize Concert, held annually in Stockholm on December 8 in honor of the year’s Nobel Laureates. For the 2011 concert, Calleja – “one of the finest lyric tenors before the public today” (Associated Press) – will perform a selection of favorite Italian and French opera arias with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under Marcello Mottadelli. It was with a similar program that the singer’s most recent solo album, The Maltese Tenor, debuted last month in the number one spot on the Billboard Classical Traditional Chart in the US, having already topped similar lists in the UK and Germany. The disc includes an aria from Gounod’s Faust, and it is in the title role of a new production of this grand opera that Calleja returns to New York’s Metropolitan Opera in January 2012. Held annually before an audience that includes the Nobel Laureates and the Swedish Royal family, the Nobel Prize Concert plays...

After an extraordinarily busy start to his new season with the New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert hits the road in October for a series of guest conducting engagements with major orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. His debut with the Munich Philharmonic (Oct 16, 18, 19) will include his first performance of Janácek’s thrilling Sinfonietta. A program of Haydn and Beethoven with the San Francisco Symphony (Oct 27–29) will also include Dutilleux’s L’arbre des songes, a violin concerto to be performed by Renaud Capuçon. Concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra (Nov 11–13) will feature Schoenberg’s hauntingly beautiful Pelleas und Melisande, which Gilbert conducted to great acclaim in his first season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, and last season with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. With Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra (Dec 1–3), Gilbert will conduct – among other works – Brahms’s grandly scaled Piano Concerto No. 2, with guest soloist Yefim Bronfman. In two Pa...

Thomas Søndergård, principal conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, will succeed Thierry Fischer as principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW) starting in September 2012. Søndergård's first outing with the orchestra, in December 2009, was apparently a mutually satisfactory experience. "It was an amazing moment for me," said the conductor, "and I retain a vivid memory of the players' involvement and sheer enthusiasm from the very first note." BBC NOW Executive Director David Murray concurred: "Thomas has won over the Orchestra with his natural musicianship, dynamic drive and deep commitment.''

Reviving an important but rarely performed opera is one of the ways the Bard SummerScape festival paints a nuanced portrait of the past, and this year’s exploration of “Sibelius and His World” continues that tradition. This year, Bard presents the first fully-staged New York production of Die Liebe der Danae (The Love of Danae, 1940), by Sibelius’s contemporary Richard Strauss. The production, starring soprano Meagan Miller, a grand finals winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, will be directed by dynamic young opera and theater director Kevin Newbury, and both are making their SummerScape debuts; world-renowned architect Rafael Viñoly has designed the sets, returning to Bard for the first time since his acclaimed creations for SummerScape’s 2004 production of Shostakovich’s The Nose . The opera’s five performances (July 29 & 31; August 3, 5, & 7) feature the festival’s resident American Symphony Orchestra and music director Leon Botstein, whose 2001 Tel...

Etude is the first musical chapter of her new project Tempelhof Broadcast Tempelhof Etude will have its world premiere in a free concert performed by The Knights conducted by Eric Jacobsen, presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts outdoors at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. The concert will also include Morton Feldman's Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. Tempelhof Etude for orchestra is the first musical chapter of a project that will culminate in Tempelhof Broadcast, a 60-minute piece for more than 600 musicians on the tarmac of the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin. This site, famous for its role in the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49, is currently open to the public, unaltered, but in 2013 it will begin to evolve into a new role in the life of Berlin. On several days in September 2012, Lisa will turn the abandoned runways into a vast musical canvas, as professional, amateur and student musicians execute a spatialized symphony....

After his final concert this season as Pianist-in-Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic, where he will perform Mozart and Dvořák chamber works on June 8, the celebrated Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes prepares for a tour of summer festivals in Norway, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, plus song recitals in Germany, England, and Switzerland. Andsnes and German baritone Matthias Goerne will perform songs by Mahler and Shostakovich at the Risør Festival, Verbier Festival, and Salzburg Festival; Andsnes will also give solo recitals at the Ruhr Festival, Cheltenham Festival, and Verbier Festival, plus a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra at the Kissinger Sommer Festival. Andsnes’s solo program this summer is the one he performed in the U.S. and Europe this spring, featuring two piano sonatas by Beethoven (No. 21 in C major, Op. 53, “Waldstein,” and No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111) and works by Brahms (Four Ballades, Op. 10) and Schoenberg (Sech...

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...

Kirill Gerstein, winner of the 2010 Gilmore Artist Award and of lavish praise for his most recent solo recording, launches the New Year with high-profile concerto performances across Europe and the US. The last two weeks of January see the pianist performing Shostakovich’s Second with Esa-Pekka Salonen in Wales, Beethoven’s “Emperor” in Germany, Rachmaninoff’s First with the Baltimore Symphony, and the Shostakovich again with the St. Louis Symphony. Then in February Gerstein plays Brahms’s Second in Iceland and Venezuela, the latter performance under Gustavo Dudamel. Gerstein’s new solo recital album, released in early November by Myrios Classics, features Schumann’s Humoreske , Liszt’s B-minor Sonata, and the debut recording of contemporary British composer Oliver Knussen’s Ophelia’s Last Dance , which Gerstein premiered at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in May 2010. The New York Times lauded the disc as being “played with exquisite technique, refined musicianship, a...

In 2011 five International Music Competitions will be organized: - "Val Tidone" Young Talents Competition     Sections: Piano, Accordion, Strings, Chamber Music - "Silvio Bengalli" Piano Prize - "Contessa Tina Orsi Anguissola Scotti"     Chamber Music Prize - "Carlo Civardi" Accordion Prize - "Egidio Carella" Composition Competition Besides that, a Special Prize for Folk Music will be assigned. We will offer money prizes and concerts in Europe and Asia (2011 edition total prizes amount: euro 26.000,00 + 10 concerts), publication and performance of the selected scores. The Val Tidone International Music Competitions require high professional standard. Therefore a prize obtained in those contests represents a valuable passport toward an international career. For more information visit www.valtidone-competitions.com

Assumes Music Director and Chief Conductor Post in 2011–2012 Season Iceland Symphony Orchestra announced today the appointment of Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov as Music Director and Chief Conductor. He will assume the role at the beginning of the 2011–2012 season with an initial three-year contract. The 2011-2012 season will also be the orchestra’s first in the brand new Harpa concert hall, a landmark building in Reykjavík’s waterfront area. During Volkov’s first season as Music Director and Chief Conductor in 2011–2012, he will conduct a minimum of six weeks during the regular concert season. He will conduct a minimum of nine weeks each season through to the end of his initial contract in 2014. In addition, the orchestra is planning international touring with Volkov during the contract period. Volkov will also curate an annual festival of contemporary music in Harpa concert hall, the first taking place in March 2012. “I am delighted to be taking up the post of Music Director an...

September 11-16 tour includes concerts in Milan and Turin and coincides with release of Orchestra’s final Mahler cycle recording, Songs with Orchestra Soloists are mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, and organist Paul Jacobs Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) perform five concerts on a tour of Europe September 11-16, including three appearances at the Lucerne Festival and concerts in Milan and Turin , Italy . As acclaimed interpreters of the music of Gustav Mahler, and as part of the 2010-11 global commemoration of Mahler’s life, the Orchestra has been invited to perform the composer’s Symphony No. 5 at both the Lucerne Festival and in Turin . On this tour, their ninth of Europe together, MTT and the Orchestra will also perform Aaron Copland’s Organ Symphony, featuring organist Paul Jacobs, and Berg’s Violin Concerto with frequent collaborator Christian Tetzlaff, both in Lucerne . Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, ...

Osmo Vänskä leads Orchestra in two performances at London’s BBC Proms, as well as festival concerts in Edinburgh and Amsterdam Music Director Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra will perform at three major European music festivals this summer, including two performances at what is generally considered the world’s most famous classical music festival: the BBC Proms in London. Featuring violinist Lisa Batiashvili and cellist Alisa Weilerstein, the tour also includes performances at the Edinburgh International Festival and in the Great Hall of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Running from August 24 through 31, the one-week Festival Tour is entirely underwritten by an anonymous donor. Tour repertoire spans the symphonic gamut from string concertos by Berg, Elgar, Mozart and Shostakovich to Bruckner’s Fourth and Beethoven’s Seventh symphonies. In the Orchestra’s final performance at the Proms, it will perform Beethoven’s Ninth, along with the BBC Symphony Chorus and vocal s...

The world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s Woven Dreams , the fifth in a series of Roche Commissions, will take place at the Lucerne Festival Music Director Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra will embark on their ninth international tour together, including the Orchestra’s ninth appearance at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. The Orchestra will perform three programs at the Lucerne Festival, and five concerts in Scotland, Germany, and Italy. Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra begin the summer 2010 European tour in Edinburgh , Scotland , at the Edinburgh International Festival with two performances at Usher Hall. Founded in 1947, the three-week annual event takes place in six major concert halls and theaters, plus additional smaller venues. On Tuesday, August 17, the program includes three short works by Ives, including two organ solos, Variations on “ America ,” and Postlude in F, to be played by Joela Jones, the Principal Keyboardist of The Cleveland Orches...

Features Guest Soloists Yefim Bronfman and Thomas Hampson After a string of highly-acclaimed performances in their home hall, the New York Philharmonic and its Music Director, Alan Gilbert, head out this week for their first European tour. EUROPE/WINTER 2010 comprises 13 performances in nine European cities: Barcelona, Zaragoza, and Madrid, all in Spain; Zurich, Switzerland; Frankfurt, Cologne, and Dortmund (the Orchestra’s debut there) in Germany; Paris, France; and London, England. Joining Gilbert and the orchestra on tour are soloists whose recent performances with them in New York were lavishly praised: pianist Yefim Bronfman, who will reprise Prokofiev’s devilishly difficult Piano Concerto No. 2, and baritone Thomas Hampson, the Philharmonic’s Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, who will once again sing John Adams’s heart-wrenching Whitman setting, The Wound-Dresser . Also on the tour programs are the European premieres of Magnus Lindberg’s EXPO, commissioned by...

Two of the UK’s leading pianists, Paul Lewis and Steven Osborne, embark on a tour of the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands performing works by Schubert for four hands, marking the composer’s birthday on 31 January. The two will share a keyboard to perform four works for piano duet from the last year of Schubert’s life, crowned by the great F minor Fantasie, alongside two earlier works. Following the live performances, Lewis and Osborne will record Schubert’s last works for piano duet for Hyperion Records, due for release in Autumn 2010. Friday 29 January – John Innes Centre, Norwich, 7.30pm Tickets: Members £13; Public £16; Students under 25, £5 Available from Prelude Records, 25b St Giles’ Street, Norwich NR2 1JN Tel: 01603 628319 Saturday 30 January – Wigmore Hall, London, 7.30pm Tickets: £15-£30 Tel: 020 7935 2141 – http://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/ Sunday 31 January – Britten Studio, Snape, 4pm Tickets: £16, £13 (under 27s half price) Tel. 01728 687110 – boxoffice@alde...

Grammy Award-Winning Bronfman Scores New Grammy Nomination for Salonen Concerto CD “It’s safe to say there is no pianist around remotely like Yefim Bronfman.”– Philadelphia Inquirer Grammy Award-winning pianist Yefim “Fima” Bronfman has a full winter ahead, featuring high-profile engagements with some of the nation’s leading conductors and orchestras, in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. Having been selected as soloist for “Europe / Winter 2010”, the New York Philharmonic’s first European tour since Alan Gilbert took the reins as music director, the powerhouse pianist will perform Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto in nine European cities, including London, Paris, Zurich, Cologne, Madrid, and Barcelona (Jan 21 – Feb 4), and as part of an all-Russian program at the orchestra’s home in New York, early in the New Year (Lincoln Center, Jan 7, 8, & 12). Fima also performs Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic thi...

Voigt Also Hosts Met’s “Live in HD” Broadcast of New Tales of Hoffman Production to Theaters Worldwide on December 19 On Thursday, December 10, internationally-renowned soprano Deborah Voigt returns to her home company, the Metropolitan Opera, for the first time this season, and in a signature role, as Chrysothemis in Richard Strauss’s spine-chilling Elektra (six performances through Dec 29). An engaging entertainer and conversationalist, Deborah Voigt has also developed a following as host of “The Met: Live in HD” (besides portraying Isolde in Tristan und Isolde during the transmissions’ first season). On Saturday, December 19 she is to serve as host of the international transmission of Offenbach’s Contes d’Hoffmann (Tales of Hoffman) conducted by James Levine and featuring Anna Netrebko, Joseph Calleja, and Alan Held. Chrysothemis was Ms. Voigt’s first Strauss role at the Met, which helped advance her rapidly growing reputation as one of the world’s most important rising-st...