May 17, 19: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Soloist with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 – Conducted by Music Director Dirk Brossé
GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Soloist with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Soloist with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
in W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major
Conducted by Music Director Dirk Brossé
Friday, May 17, 2024 at 7:30pm
Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 2:30pm
Perelman Theater, The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
300 S Broad St. | Philadelphia, PA
“an intrepid artistic personality” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Philadelphia, PA – GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” will be the featured soloist in two concerts with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia on Friday, May 17, 2024 at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 2:30pm. Dinnerstein will perform W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major on a program led by Music Director Dirk Brossé that also includes George Walker‘s Lyric for Strings, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major. The concert will be held in Perelman Theater of The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (300 S Broad St.)
A familiar and cherished guest artist of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Dinnerstein returns to perform with the chamber ensemble following a 2021 concert, which featured the work of J.S. Bach and Philip Glass. Of that concert, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that Dinnerstein “found a great deal of joy and liberation,” throughout the performance.
The Washington Post has called Simone Dinnerstein “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”
As a musician who embraces collaboration and inclusiveness with her artistry and performances, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major holds particular significance for Dinnerstein. Not only is the piece included on her 2017 album, Mozart in Havana, but the concerto served as a point of artistic connection between Dinnerstein and the Havana Lyceum Orchestra, with which she performed the piece while visiting Cuba in 2015, at the invitation of her teacher and esteemed pianist, Solomon Mikowsky. Gramophone describes Dinnerstein’s approach to piece, which she also recorded with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra for her album, as having a “wide yet subtle palette of tonal shadings and articulations,” while also applauding her “crisp fingerwork and strategic left-hand accents” in the concerto’s finale.
Dinnerstein says of reuniting with Dirk Brossé and performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia:
“It is an honor to be performing with Maestro Dirk Brossé for his final two concerts as Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. His sensitivity as a conductor makes him a joy to work with, and I am anticipating our Mozart collaboration with great pleasure.”
More about Simone Dinnerstein: Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic, and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy.
In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative. For more information, please visit www.simonedinnerstein.com.
About The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia: The Berkshire Symphony is a 75-member symphonic orchestra comprising, in roughly equal proportions, Williams College music students, Williams music faculty members, and area professionals. The Symphony performs music by a range of composers, including Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and Wagner. The Berkshire Symphony was founded in 1946 and is directed by Ronald Feldman.
The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, a founding resident company of The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, is a 33-member professional ensemble led by Music Director, Sir Dirk Brossé. Established in 1964 by Marc Mostovoy, and originally named Concerto Soloists, the orchestra has a well-established reputation for distinguished performances of repertoire spanning the Baroque period through the 21st century.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “an intrepid artistic personality,” is presented as a guest soloist in two concerts with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, performing W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major –– a lively work featured on Dinnerstein’s 2017 Sony Classical album, Mozart in Havana. Conducted by Music Director Dirk Brossé, the concert program will also include George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “an intrepid artistic personality” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) will be a guest soloist with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in two performances of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major. Led by Music Director Dirk Brossé, the program will also include Walker’s Lyric and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Conducted by Music Director Dirk Brossé
Presented by The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
What: Music by W.A. Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and George Walker
When: Friday, May 17, 2024 at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 2:30pm
Where: Perelman Theater, The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 S Broad St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Tickets and information: www.chamberorchestra.org/project/mozart-dinnerstein-piano-2024
May 19: Telegraph Quartet Presented by Neskowin Chamber Music Performing the Music of Fanny Mendelssohn, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák
Telegraph Quartet Presented by Neskowin Chamber Music Performing the Music of Fanny Mendelssohn, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák
Available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/telegraph-quartet
Telegraph Quartet Presented by Neskowin Chamber Music
Performing the Music of
Fanny Mendelssohn, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák
Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 3pm
The Chapel at Camp Wi-Ne-Ma | 5195 Wi Ne Ma Road | Cloverdale, OR
Tickets and More information
New Album: Divergent Paths (Azica Records)
Available Now
“full of elegance and pinpoint control” – The New York Times
Cloverdale, OR – On Sunday, May 19, 2024, the San Francisco-based Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group described by The Strad as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” will be presented in concert by Neskowin Chamber Music at The Chapel at Camp Wi-Ne-Ma (5195 Wi Ne Ma Road) performing the music of Fanny Mendelssohn, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák.
The Telegraph Quartet formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as, “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. For this performance, the award-winning quartet will perform an array of works shaped by a mix of personal relationships, cultural experiences, and stylistic adventurousness.
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel wrote her String Quartet in the shadow of her highly praised brother Felix, taking a bold step and ultimately choosing to embrace her own musical voice rather than defer to a style or form that would have been more accepted by her sibling and long-time musical confidant. American composer Kenji Bunch’s third string quartet, Apocryphal Dances, is inspired by 17th century French dance music but the 12 minute work is not written with ardent fixation on the style. Bunch’s intent is for a light and lively experience between the performance of the quartet and the listening audience. Shifts in the melody, chord progressions, and rhythmic structure lead the work to reflect qualities of various musical styles. Dvořák crafted his String Quartet No. 14 in A flat-major –– his final chamber piece –– in two stages: starting around March 1895 when he was scheduled to depart the United States to return to his homeland and then revisiting the work in December 1895, after writing his Quartet in G Major. He finished the A flat-major in just under three weeks and the music largely reflects Dvořák’s spiritual temperament during this time, which was one of uplifting positivity and joy
The Telegraph Quartet’s latest album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths, was released on August 25 via Azica Records. The first in the Telegraph’s three-album series focused on string quartets of the first half of the 20th century, Divergent Paths explores the bewildering and unbridled creativity of the period through the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Maurice Ravel, whose music on this album weaves threads of great contrast and surprising similarity. The album has been met with critical acclaim, with The New York Times reporting, “[I]n the Schoenberg, they achieve something truly special, meticulously guiding its often wayward progress. At times Schoenberg makes the four strings sound almost orchestral, but the Telegraph players can also make his contrapuntal tangles radiantly clear. Every minute of their account sounds gripping and purposeful, which is one of the highest compliments you can pay the piece.”
More about Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet has performed in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. They have collaborated with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; composer-vocalist Theo Bleckmann; St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by John Harbison, Osvaldo Golijov, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger. In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label. The Telegraph Quartet released its new album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths––which features Ravel’s renowned quartet and Schoenberg’s first quartet––on August 25 via Azica Records.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Quartet is currently on the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as the Quartet-in-Residence and has given master classes at the SFCM Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan and in fall 2020, Telegraph launched an online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet.
For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, described by The New York Times as being “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” is presented in concert by Neskowin Chamber Music on Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 3pm. The Bay Area ensemble will perform a concert program featuring works that are greatly shaped by the composers’ personal experiences and relationships, written from the 19th to the 21st centuries: Fanny Mendelssohn’s String Quartet (1834), Kenji Bunch’s String Quartet No. 3 (2017), and Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895).
Short description: The Telegraph Quartet, which is described as “full of elegance and pinpoint control” (The New York Times), is presented in concert by Neskowin Chamber Music on Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 3pm. The ensemble will perform the music of Fanny Mendelssohn, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák.
Concert details:
Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by Neskowin Chamber Music
What: Music by Fanny Mendelssohn, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák
When: Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 3pm
Where: The Chapel at Camp Wi-Ne-Ma; 5195 Wi Ne Ma Road; Cloverdale, OR 97112
Tickets and information: www.neskowinchambermusic.com/2023-2024-season.html
The Birch Festival Returns for Spring: Featuring The Soldier’s Tale by Igor Stravinsky Conducted by Fernanda Lastra – Performed by Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra & More
Announcing The Birch Festival Spring Edition: May 18-20, 2024 Yevgeny Kutik, Artistic Director & Rachel Barker, Executive Director
Announcing The Birch Festival Spring Edition: May 18-20, 2024
Yevgeny Kutik, Artistic Director & Rachel Barker, Executive Director
Featuring The Soldier’s Tale by Igor Stravinsky
Conducted by Fernanda Lastra with Narrator to be Announced
Featuring Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra & More
Tickets and Registration Information: www.thebirchfestival.org
Lenox & Pittsfield, MA — Following a highly successful launch in fall 2023, The Birch Festival returns with a spring edition from May 18-20, 2024, bringing three days of music-making, yoga, and community engagement to the Berkshires. The Festival was founded last year by Lenox-based husband-and-wife team Yevgeny Kutik, an internationally renowned violinist who serves as Artistic Director, and writer/educator Rachel Barker, who is the non-profit organization’s Executive Director.
The Birch Festival’s mission is to bring world-leading musicians for artist residencies in Berkshire County schools, and work in tandem with local business and cultural partnerships. Kutik, a Belarusian-Jewish refugee resettled in Pittsfield by the Jewish Federation in the 1990s, named the festival for his grandmother Sima Berezkina, whose last name means “birch tree.” With significance in many global cultures, birch trees symbolize growth, resilience, and adaptability – qualities that Sima embodied.
The Birch Festival promotes and propels distinct voices in music, whether through new composition or creative interpretation of old favorites. The Festival offers leading musicians a chance to play and establish relationships in the Berkshires, while recognizing the importance of their work by offering compensation that sustains and values their efforts in this industry.
On Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 9:30am, The Birch Festival Co-Founder and Executive Director Rachel Barker will open the May edition of the Festival with a free community yoga class at The Church on the Hill Chapel (55 Main St. Lenox) in the beautiful labyrinth room. At 11:00am, also at The Church on the Hill Chapel, Barker will lead a workshop linking The Soldier's Tale to the archetypal elements of the Tarot.
The May edition of The Birch Festival features two performances of Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) on Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 4pm at Duffin Theater, Lenox Memorial High School (197 East St., Lenox) and Monday, May 20, 2024 at 6pm at Zion Lutheran Church (74 First St., Pittsfield). The performances will be led by rising-star maestra Fernanda Lastra, currently assistant conductor with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. The performing ensemble will comprise some of the many leading instrumentalists who make the Berkshires such a musically rich community, including several members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The featured performers will be bassist Edwin Barker, violinist Yevgeny Kutik, trombonist Toby Oft, clarinetist Rob Patterson, bassoonist Rick Ranti, trumpeter Tom Siders, and percussionist Mike Williams. Each concert will also include solo and ensemble pieces performed by members of the ensemble.
In addition, the musicians will participate in community outreach by performing for the band, orchestra, and theater students of Pittsfield High School, furthering the Birch Festival’s goal of engaging the Berkshire community. Through school and community visits, The Birch Festival also encourages new audiences and builds community rapport by offering free tickets to any school-aged child and an adult family member, and prioritizing event accessibility for young adults.
“I’m excited to present Stravinsky’s beloved tale with such a great ensemble of musicians and colleagues,” says Kutik. “This work was originally conceived as a community theatrical work, presented from town to town. This spirit of sharing music with the community is exactly what The Birch Festival strives for. We can’t wait to see and connect with members of our community throughout the weekend.”
The Birch Festival’s Spring Events
Yoga by Birch with Rachel Barker
Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 9:30am
Church on the Hill Chapel
55 Main St., Lenox, MA
Join Rachel Barker, yoga and meditation instructor (E-RYT® 200, YACEP®), for a community free yoga class in the Church on the Hill Chapel’s beautiful labyrinth room. Free, registration required, limited to 10 participants. Please bring your own mats.
The Soldier’s Tale and the Tarot Workshop with Rachel Barker
Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 11:00am
Church on the Hill Chapel
55 Main St., Lenox, MA
A workshop linking The Soldier's Tale to the archetypal elements of the Tarot. Free, registration required, donations welcome, limited to 35 participants.
The Birch Festival Lenox Performance – Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale)
Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 4pm
Duffin Theater, Lenox Memorial High School
197 East St., Lenox, MA
Join The Birch Festival for a thrilling performance of Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) and other performances by the ensemble. $20 per person; K-12 children and one guardian attend for free.
The Birch Festival Pittsfield Performance – Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale)
Monday, May 20, 2024 at 6pm
Zion Lutheran Church
74 First St., Pittsfield, MA
The Birch Festival ensemble will give a second performance of the program at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield, after visiting Pittsfield High School earlier in the day for performance and educational outreach. $20 per person; KK-12 children and one guardian attend for free.
For The Birch Festival’s Complete Spring Schedule, Event Registration, and Details visit: www.thebirchfestival.org/events
About Yevgeny Kutik: With a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique” (The New York Times), violinist Yevgeny Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old-world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is also lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of both standard works and newly composed repertoire.
A native of Minsk, Belarus, Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and immigrated to the US with his family at the age of five. An advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the organization that assisted his family in coming to the US, he regularly speaks and performs across the country to promote the assistance of refugees from around the world. Kutik’s discography, all on Marquis Classics, includes The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021), Meditations on Family (Marquis Classics 2019), Words Fail (2016), Music from the Suitcase (2014), and Sounds of Defiance (2012).
In August 2022, Kutik gave the world premiere of Cântico, a work for solo violin by Andreia Pinto Correia, at the Tanglewood Music Festival. The work was co-commissioned for Kutik by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Yevgeny Kutik was a featured soloist in Joseph Schwantner’s The Poet’s Hour – Soliloquy for Violin on episode six of Gerard Schwarz’s All-Star Orchestra, a made-for-television classical music concert series released on DVD by Naxos and broadcast nationally on PBS. In 2021, Kutik made his debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin, performing the world premiere of Schwantner’s Violin Concerto, an expansion of The Poet’s Hour written specifically for Kutik. In 2019, he made his debuts at the Kennedy Center, presented by Washington Performing Arts, and at the Ravinia Festival. Kutik made his major orchestral debut in 2003 with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops as the First Prize recipient of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition. In 2006, he was awarded the Salon de Virtuosi Grant as well as the Tanglewood Music Center Jules Reiner Violin Prize.
Kutik holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory and currently resides in Boston. Kutik’s violin was crafted in Italy in 1915 by Stefano Scarampella.
For more information, please visit www.yevgenykutik.com.
About Rachel Barker: Rachel Barker is an educator and writer with over a decade of experience working in public and international schools and currently writes about science and engineering for Harvard University.
Barker has been awarded spots in writers workshops for both nonfiction and fiction, including the Key West Literary Seminar, the Aspen Institute's Aspen Summer Words, and multiple residencies with Write On, Door County. She has consulted and presented for a number of organizations throughout the country, including the Yale Council for African Studies, Flint Institute of Music, Boston University's African Studies Center, Primary Source, and the Wayland/Weston Interfaith Council on Teaching Religion in Schools.
Rachel Barker’s MEd. is from Boston College, where she graduated with a focus on social justice and teaching English language learners. Her undergraduate degree in Anthropology is from Boston University, and she currently studies Religion at Harvard University.
Follow The Birch Festival on Social Media
Instagram: www.instagram.com/thebirchfestival
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-birch-festival/
April 26: Pianist Sarah Cahill Performs Music by Women Composers from Around the Globe in The Future is Female – Presented by Detroit Institute of Arts Friday Night Live! Series
Pianist Sarah Cahill in The Future is Female Presented by Detroit Institute of Arts Friday Night Live! Series
Photo of Sarah Cahill by Miranda Sanborn available in high-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/sarah-cahill
Pianist Sarah Cahill Performs Music by Women Composers
from Around the Globe in The Future is Female
Presented by Detroit Institute of Arts Friday Night Live! Series
Friday, April 26, 2024 from 7:00-8:30pm
Detroit Institute of the Arts | Rivera Court | 5200 Woodward Ave. | Detroit, MI
“a series distinctive for its finesse and conviction”
– Gramophone Magazine on The Future is Female
Watch Sarah Cahill’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert
Detroit, MI – On Friday, April 26, 2024 from 7:00-8:30pm, Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, will perform music from her ongoing project The Future is Female in a free concert presented by the Detroit Institute of the Arts as part of its Friday Night Live! series in DIA’s Rivera Court (5200 Woodward Ave.). The Future is Female is Cahill’s exploration of music for solo piano by women composers from the Baroque to the present day, which now includes more than 70 pieces from around the globe, some commissioned by Cahill as part of the project. This is her second time bringing music from The Future is Female to Detroit – she last performed a different selection of works at DIA in March 2019.
For this concert, Cahill will perform music for solo piano by women composers spanning from 1687 to 2020, encompassing the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern periods. Her program includes selections from Keyboard Suite in D minor (1687) by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Piano Poems (2020) by Regina Harris Baiocchi, “Le murmure des blés” from Au sein de la nature (1908) by Leokadiya Kashperova, Music for Piano (1989/1997) by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Two Etudes, Op. 26 (1839) by Louise Farrenc; A Mother’s Sacrifice (1908) by Viola Kinney, Sonata No. 9, Op. 5 No. 3 (1811) by Hélène de Montgeroult, Valse Choro No. 2 (1965) by Adelaide Pereira da Silva, Hermit Thrush at Eve, Op. 92 No. 1 (1921) by Amy Beach, Troubled Water (1967) by Margaret Bonds, Rang de Basant (2012) by Reena Esmail, and Nocturne in B-flat Major (1819) by Maria Szymanowska.
Since her last visit to Detroit, Sarah Cahill has been featured performing music from The Future is Female in an NPR Tiny Desk concert as well as in eight-hour marathon performances at the Barbican Centre in London and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, both celebrating International Women’s Day. She has also brought the project to venues across the U.S. including Carolina Performing Arts in Chapel Hill, NC; Carlsbad Music Festival in San Diego, CA; the University of Iowa; Bowling Green New Music Festival in Ohio; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; North Dakota Museum of Art; the EXTENSITY Concert Series’ Women Now Festival in New York; the Newport Classical Music Festival in Rhode Island, and more.
In addition, Cahill recorded 30 works from The Future is Female on a three-volume set of albums released in 2022 and 2023 on the First Hand Records label, which included many world premiere recordings and was widely acclaimed by publications including in the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, International Piano, The Wire, Gramophone Magazine, and more. BBC Music Magazine reported, “the American pianist [Sarah Cahill] takes us on a chronological journey that zips around the world, stitching together contrasting styles into an enjoyable musical patchwork,” while New Music Buff notes the “impressive command of baroque, classical, romantic, and modern idioms” that Cahill brings to these recordings.
Listen to The Future is Female, Vols. 1-3 (First Hand Records):
Vol. 1: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol1
Vol. 2: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol2
Vol. 3: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol3
Sarah Cahill began working on The Future is Female in 2018. She says:
“For decades I had been working with many living American composers, including Pauline Oliveros, Tania León, Eve Beglarian, Mary D. Watkins, Julia Wolfe, Ursula Mamlok, Meredith Monk, Annea Lockwood, and many more, but I felt an urgent need to explore neglected composers from the past, and from around the globe. Like most pianists, I grew up with the classical canon, which has always excluded women composers as well as composers of color. It is still standard practice to perform recitals consisting entirely of music written by men. The Future is Female, then, aims to be a corrective towards rebalancing the repertoire. It does not attempt to be exhaustive . . . The possibilities are, in fact, limitless.”
More about Sarah Cahill: Sarah Cahill, hailed as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, has commissioned and premiered over seventy compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to Cahill include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Julia Wolfe, Roscoe Mitchell, Annea Lockwood, and Ingram Marshall. She was named a 2018 Champion of New Music, awarded by the American Composers Forum (ACF).
Cahill’s latest project is The Future is Female, an investigation and reframing of the piano literature featuring more than seventy compositions by women around the globe, from the Baroque to the present day, including new commissioned works. Recent and upcoming performances of The Future is Female include concerts at The Barbican, Carolina Performing Arts, National Gallery of Art, Carlsbad Music Festival, Detroit Institute of Arts, University of Iowa, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, North Dakota Museum of Art, Mayville State University, the EXTENSITY Concert Series’ Women Now Festival in New York, and the Newport Classical Music Festival. Cahill also performed music from The Future is Female for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series.
Sarah Cahill’s discography includes more than twenty albums on the New Albion, CRI, New World, Tzadik, Albany, Innova, Cold Blue, Other Minds, Irritable Hedgehog, and Pinna labels. Her three-album series, The Future is Female, was released on First Hand Records between March 2022 and April 2023. These albums encompass 30 compositions by women from around the globe, from the 17th century to the present day, and include many world premiere recordings.
Cahill’s radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, can be heard every Sunday evening from 8 to 10 pm on KALW, 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory and is a regular pre-concert speaker with the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
For more information, visit www.sarahcahill.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, will perform music from her ongoing project The Future is Female in a free concert presented by the Detroit Institute of the Arts as part of its Friday Night Live! Series. The Future is Female is Cahill’s exploration of music for solo piano by women composers from the Baroque to the present day, which includes more than 70 pieces from around the globe, some commissioned by or for Cahill as part of the project. Cahill will perform works by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Regina Harris Baiocchi, Leokadiya Kashperova, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Louise Farrenc, Viola Kinney, Hélène de Montgeroult, Adelaide Pereira da Silva, Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Reena Esmail, and Maria Szymanowska.
Short description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” (The New York Times), will perform music from her ongoing project The Future is Female in a free concert presented by the Detroit Institute of the Arts as part of its Friday Night Live! Series. The Future is Female is Cahill’s exploration of music for solo piano by women composers from the Baroque to the present day, which includes more than 70 pieces from around the globe. This concert will include music by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre; Regina Harris Baiocchi, Leokadiya Kashperova, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Louise Farrenc, Viola Kinney, Hélène de Montgeroult, Adelaide Pereira da Silva, Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Reena Esmail, and Maria Szymanowska.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Sarah Cahill
Presented by Detroit Institute of Arts, Friday Night Live! Series
What: Music by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Regina Harris Baiocchi, Leokadiya Kashperova, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Louise Farrenc, Viola Kinney, Hélène de Montgeroult, Adelaide Pereira da Silva, Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Reena Esmail, and Maria Szymanowska.
When: Friday, April 26, 2024 from 7:00-8:30pm
Where: Rivera Court, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48202
Tickets and information: www.dia.org/events/saturday-night-live-sarah-cahill-future-female
Cellist Pablo Ferrández Releases Night Sessions Vol. 2 on Sony Classical
Cellist Pablo Ferrández Releases Night Sessions Vol. 2 on Sony Classical
Private Moments from Cellist Pablo Ferrández
Sony Classical Releases Night Sessions Vol. 2
Out Today – Listen Here
For his latest EP on Sony Classical, Pablo Ferrández invites listeners to eavesdrop on some of the most intimate and meaningful moments in his life.
Each track on Night Sessions Vol. 2 is connected to a memory dear to the Spanish cellist’s life. It opens with the serene melody of Elgar’s Salut d’Amour - music that came on the radio each evening when Ferrández was bathed by his mother as a baby. ‘I recorded this song for her,’ he says.
The cellist’s intimate recital continues with the first music he played outside Spain, a work Alexander Glazunov dedicated to the Tsar’s cellist in 1901, Chant du ménestrel. Playing this sensitive, poetic piece in the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow was, for the teenage Ferrández, ‘the biggest deal’.
Saint-Saëns’s ‘The Swan’ - the most popular movement of the composer’s Carnival of the Animals - holds special memories for the cellist. He heard it performed by a hotel band while on holiday with his family as a child, and recalls eventually being invited to join the musicians to perform it. The piece gets a soulful performance here from Ferrández and his partner on all four tracks, the pianist Julien Quentin.
More recent memories are evoked by the final track, Schumann’s ‘Du bist wie eine Blume’, an arrangement of the song in which the composer compared his wife Clara to a flower in bloom. This was the music played when Ferrández and his fiancé walked up the aisle to marry recently, and was recorded by the cellist ‘as a little present’ for his new wife.
In his new EP played from the heart, Ferrández sets out ‘to bring listeners with me into these pictures of my life.’
Pablo Ferrández was born in 1991 Madrid and named after the great Spanish cellist, Pablo Casals. He released his debut solo album on Sony in 2021 to critical acclaim and has since recorded as a concerto partner with Anne-Sophie Mutter and won an Opus Klassik Award.
Six Pieces For Solo Violin Composed by Sophia Jani & Performed by Teresa Allgaier Releasing May 17 via Squama Recordings
Six Pieces For Solo Violin Composed by Sophia Jani & Performed by Teresa Allgaier Releasing May 17 via Squama Recordings
Photo credit:Tonda Bardehle. Hi-resolution available here.
Six Pieces For Solo Violin
Composed by Sophia Jani & Performed by Teresa Allgaier
First Single “Arpeggio” Out Now
LISTEN
Release Date: May 17, 2024
Squama Recordings
Review CDs and downloads available upon request.
www.sophiajani.com | www.teresaallgaier.de | www.squamarecordings.com
German contemporary composer Sophia Jani and violinist Teresa Allgaier announce their new album, Six Pieces for Solo Violin, which will be released on May 17, 2024 on Munich-based label Squama Recordings. Jani composed Six Pieces for Solo Violin between 2020 and 2023, and with it challenges the notion of simplicity as a parameter, weaving a tapestry of gentle consonance that invites contemplation and honors the violin as an instrument. The first single, "Arpeggio," is out now. The enchanting second movement is a testament to Jani and Allgaier's musical approach, seamlessly blending tradition with contemporary ideas.
In his liner notes, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang writes of Six Pieces: “The music here, in all its movements, gives the illusion of simplicity. It employs a mostly consonant language, it unfolds gently and with great delicacy and leisure, and it searches for an honest and direct way of moving forward.”
The uniqueness of Sophia Jani’s composition is immediately apparent with the intriguing choice of recording seven tracks for an album titled Six Pieces For Solo Violin. Here, Jani uses the opening track “Prelude” as a deliberate and separate introduction into a world where rules are bent and expectations challenged. The “Prelude” serves as a guide to unveil the philosophy behind her music. With each unhurried phrase, the solo violin unfolds a new tone quality, introducing double stops, tremolos, and arpeggios that serve as precursors to the diverse movements within the album: “Scordatura,” “Arpeggio,” “Triads,” “Capriccio,” “Grandezza,” and “Ricochet.” What characterizes the music is its calmness and poise; where each individual piece focuses on a particular technical aspect.
Composer Sophia Jani is based in Munich, but from 2023-2025 is composer-in-residence with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Her music has recently been performed across the U.S. by the New Jersey Symphony, Bang on a Can, pianist Eunbi Kim, and the Goldmund Quartet, among others, at venues including Lincoln Center, Baryshnikov Arts Center, MASS MoCa, and New York Public Radio’s The Greene Space. A graduate of the University of Augsburg, the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, and the Yale University School of Music where she studied with Martin Bresnick and David Lang, Jani was also the 2023 musical Artist in Residence at the Arvo Pärt Centre.
The new album was recorded by violinist Teresa Allgaier, who embodies the restrained virtuosity essential to bring this subtle music to life. Her confident and elegant performance adds an extra layer of sophistication, complementing Jani’s vision. Jani and Allgaier are longtime collaborators. Together they are co-founders and artistic directors of Feet Become Ears, a platform that commissions, presents, and celebrates contemporary chamber music.
Of Six Pieces, Jani says, “What I find interesting about the violin is that it has remained the same for a few hundred years and has not really evolved. The great important violin cycles (Bieber, Bach, Paganini, Isaye, Lang) were not so much a reaction to the development of the instrument itself – unlike the piano for example – but about what kind of music could be written on it and what the players should be able to do. So the repertoire developed more based on the tastes of a certain period and who wrote for whom than motivated by technical advancement. Teresa and I asked ourselves what our contribution as two women of the 21st century could be in this context.”
“My work on the Six Pieces reminded me of working on the Bach Sonatas and Partitas,” says Allgaier. “It’s such delicate, noble music – every note, every phrase wants to be explored and understood in order to be able to let go and approach it with a fresh mind and fantasy. For the recording, I wanted to be in that specific state where I am not standing in the way of the music.”
About Sophia Jani: Sophia Jani is a German composer of contemporary classical music who takes a poetically minimalist approach to composition. Her music has recently been performed by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, the Munich Symphony, Bang on a Can, the Goldmund Quartet, vocal sextet Sjaella and pianist Eunbi Kim among others. Performance venues include the Elbphilharmonie, Lincoln Center, Meyerson Symphony Center, Baryshnikov Arts Center, MASS MoCa, as well as New York Public Radio’s The Greene Space. She has also contributed music to successful film, theatre, dance and album projects.
Jani is the 2023-2025 Composer-in-Residence with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and was the 2023 Musical Artist in Residence of the Arvo Pärt Centre, as well as the recipient of the APC Residency Fellowship. In addition to her work as a composer, Jani is passionate about building a diverse and international community of artists that open-mindedly addresses the challenges notated music faces in the 21st century. To that end, alongside Teresa Allgaier, she is one of the founders and artistic directors of Feet Become Ears, which is a platform that commissions, presents, and celebrates contemporary chamber music.
Jani holds degrees from the University of Augsburg, the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and the Yale University School of Music where she studied with Martin Bresnick and David Lang, made possible through the generous support of the Fulbright foundation.
About Teresa Allgaier: Violinist Teresa Allgaier shifts her focus between classical contemporary music and experimental pop music, whilst always looking for the spell of a comforting yet stirring tone in her sound and music-making. She works in collaboration with emerging composers and bands, performs with her string ensemble Kontai Ensemble and writes music for her Chamber Pop duo Fallwander.
As a soloist Teresa has performed with various orchestras in the past, interpreting violin concertos by Bach, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Khachaturian, Pärt and Riley. She most recently performed the solo part in a recomposition of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons in a concert addressing climate change with Tonwerkorchester and Fridays For Future at the Herkulessaal Munich. Other concert and theater productions have taken her to venues such as the Barbican Theatre London, Wigmore Hall London, Vienna Musikverein, Kammerspiele Munich, Philharmonie Munich or Volksbühne Berlin. Teresa plays in the live ensembles of Ralph Heidel and Carlos Cipa and in the Ensemble Reflektor. She took part in the International Ensemble Modern Academy at the Klangspuren Festival in Austria and has performed several times at the Fusion Festival, X-Jazz Festival, Reeperbahn Festival, Überjazz Festival and many others.
Teresa studied classical violin at the University of Music and Drama Munich with Prof. Ingolf Turban and Prof. Sonja Korkeala and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama London with Prof. Alexander Janiczek, followed by a year of studies on the ‚International Cooperation Master New Music’ programme in Bern/Dresden/Salzburg. She is currently based in Leipzig and Munich.
Track List:
Six Pieces For Solo Violin
Composed by Sophia Jani and Performed by Teresa Allgaier
1. Prelude [2:42]
2. I. Scordatura [5:57]
3. II. Arpeggio [8:05]
4. III. Triads [6:12]
5. IV. Capriccio [3:56]
6. V. Grandezza [6:33]
7. VI. Ricochet [7:52]
Total Time: [41:20]
Recorded by Noel Riedel at Maria Trost, Nesselwang
Mixed and Mastered by Martin Ruch
Produced by Martin Brugger
Designed by Maximilian Schachtner
Liner Notes by David Lang
May 17: Sony Classical Releases Two Orchestral Works by Danny Elfman Featuring Percussionist Colin Currie and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted by JoAnn Falletta
Sony Classical Releases Two Major Orchestral Works by Danny Elfman
Sony Classical Releases Two Major Orchestral Works by Danny Elfman
The Percussion Concerto with – Colin Currie – and Wunderkammer
featuring the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by JoAnn Falletta
New Single: Percussion Concerto I. Triangle – Out Today
Listen Here
Album Release Date: May 17, 2024
Danny Elfman, known the world over for his scores to over 115 movies, including numerous collaborations with directors Tim Burton, Gus van Sant and Sam Raimi, not to mention the classic theme for The Simpsons, adds two major orchestral works to his recorded catalog. The dynamic American conductor JoAnn Falletta directs the forces of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in this new studio recording.
The Percussion Concerto was written for the Scottish virtuoso Colin Currie and was co-commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who gave the world premiere at London’s Royal Festival Hall in May 2022, and Soka University of America. The concerto is Elfman’s third work in the form, following the Violin Concerto, Eleven Eleven, of 2017 (also recorded by Sony Classical) and the Cello Concerto of 2022. ‘The audience were captivated by Colin Currie’s every move as he performed the piece. Darting across the stage between instruments, Currie is a true showman,’ wrote Amy Melling (Abundant Art) of the US premiere.
Elfman says: “I met Colin by chance when I was in London working on a score, and he came into the studio. We started talking, and I started getting an idea in my head, just a kernel. And literally while I was talking to him I got excited about the idea of what I was calling the triangle. And he says, "What do you mean?" I go, "I'm imagining you in front of the orchestra with all these instruments and two small percussion ensembles to your right and to your left, always echoing and playing off of what you're doing and creating this kind of sonic percussion triangle." And he's like, "Well, that sounds interesting." And then once I get it in my head, I'm hopeless. It's like I'm stuck!”
Triangle forms the first section of this four-movement work for strings and percussion. The second is a tribute to a composer Elfman reveres, Dmitri Shostakovich, and uses the DSCH (D, E flat, C, B) signature motif that the composer wove into many of his works, and which Elfman sneaks into most of his concert pieces too. (He actually has DSCH tattooed on his shoulders!) The third is the work’s most harmonically adventurous. He says: “Inevitably it’s the third movement where I feel, ‘Oh, I've written a lot of really crazy stuff in the first and second movements, I really need to pull myself in here and find myself with my third movement before ending with a bang! Which it does!’
I knew Colin was a devotee of Steve Reich and many contemporary percussion composers that I knew from my youth. I was really thinking about keeping him moving, moving, moving all the time and interlocking sensibilities. You get kind of caught up in the soloist’s personality and the challenge is writing for that personality.”
Wunderkammer, a concerto for orchestra, was written for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, which toured the piece in the UK before playing it at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall in August 2022. ‘Wunderkammer lived up to its name, as one door after another opened to reveal a striking nugget of loosely-connected musical material,’ wrote Boyd Tonkin (The Arts Desk) of the Proms performance.
Elfman says: “It was written for the kids, just to have some fun with them, and give them something that's fun for them to play. It was very clear to me when I saw them play in London that they were very capable and that it made no sense to me to try to write down for them, try to write simply. It was actually quite the opposite. I was thinking, "Write something that's very difficult and very challenging that they could get their teeth into because they're quite capable." And I could see in some of the really difficult sections how it wouldn't intimidate them, it would just perk them up. I love seeing that with musicians.
‘I have the hardest time coming up with titles, but the idea came into my head of a Wunderkammer, a wonder room just filled with little, lovely, strange, odd treasures. I said, "Oh, I like that image." I even have an 18th-century book called Wunderkammer, an oddity, from a collection of an Austrian duke or aristocrat. A Wunderkammer can be fun, or scary, intriguing or instructive, but never normal or boring! And that’s just what I was hoping to bring to the players of the NYOGB’.”
Talking of his concert music, Elfman commented: “I have a friend who's a novelist, and I guess it's the same thing for him. It's starting those first words on the piece of paper that can be brutally difficult, but there is a point where the momentum of the piece starts to feel like it's carrying me along, and that is my joy in writing, those moments. It's because I've had those moments writing for film here and there that it attracted me to the idea of what if I got an idea and I didn't have to stop? I can keep developing it.”
The album is completed with a short choral piece in French, ‘Are you lost?’, from Elfman’s song-cycle Trio. Scored for women’s voices, piano, strings and various percussion
instruments, the work was actually premiered at the recording sessions in Liverpool, and give a glimpse at a sonic world that we don’t usually associate with the composer: gentle, reflective and delicate.
The Percussion Concerto and Wunderkammer are released by Sony Classical on May 17, 2024. New single: Percussion Concerto I. Triangle is out today: listen here
May 11: Violinist Kristin Lee is Featured Soloist with Symphony Tacoma
Violinist Kristin Lee is Featured Soloist with Symphony Tacoma
Performing Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
Photo by Lauren Desberg available in hi-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/kristin-lee
Violinist Kristin Lee is Featured Soloist with
Symphony Tacoma on May 11
Performing Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
Conducted by Music Director Sarah Ioannides
Saturday, May 11, 2024 at 7:30pm
Pantages Theater | 901 Broadway | Tacoma, WA
Tickets & Information
Kristin Lee: www.violinistkristinlee.com
Tacoma, WA – Violinist Kristin Lee – praised in The Strad for her “elegance” and “vivacity and electric energy” – joins Symphony Tacoma and Music Director Sarah Ioannides as the featured soloist in Johannes Brahms’ introspective and deeply emotive Violin Concerto in D major from 1878, on Saturday, May 11, 2024 at 7:30pm at Pantages Theater (901 Broadway). The concert, titled Portraits, also includes Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A minor and Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations.
A violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique, Kristin Lee enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.”
Of her upcoming performance with Symphony Tacoma, Lee says,
“I am beyond thrilled to make my return to perform with the Tacoma Symphony and Sarah Ioannides on one of my absolute favorite concertos, Brahms's monumental Violin concerto. Sarah and I've maintained a great friendship over the years and collaborated on the giants of the violin concerti, including Nielsen, Tchaikovsky, and Sibelius, so it seems appropriate at this point to add the Brahms Violin Concerto to our list! This concerto consists of very symphonic sounds from the orchestra yet it is filled with the exchange of dialogues between the orchestra and the violin- like true chamber music! I can't wait to be inspired by the glorious playing of the Tacoma Symphony and the charismatic leadership from Sarah and experience this exchange on stage!”
Kristin Lee last performed with Symphony Tacoma in 2017. She is a familiar face to audiences in the area not only for her many performances here, but for her role as the founding Artistic Director of Emerald City Music, the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. The wildly successful concert series was deemed "the beacon for the casual-classical movement" by City Arts Magazine and is known for combining a relaxed atmosphere with performances by award-winning musicians.
Performing on a violin crafted in Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano, in addition to her solo appearances, Kristin Lee tours throughout the world as a member of New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, including in Italy, Croatia, Germany, Taiwan, and across the U.S. Always up for adventure, at the Moab Music Festival in Utah, Lee has performed in such unexpected places as rafting down the Colorado River, in a natural rock grotto, and in the magical landscape of the red rock canyons of the area.
Kristin Lee will release her debut solo album, American Sketches, in summer 2024 on the First Hand Records label. The album has a personal resonance for Lee. A native of Seoul, Korea, she emigrated to the U.S. at the age of seven. During her childhood, playing the violin was a refuge from bullying and racism for Kristin – she moved to the U.S. not speaking any English, and felt the violin became her voice. As a foreign-born citizen of the U.S., Lee was compelled to select this repertoire to express her pride in the country she now calls her own, and has recorded works by American composers including Amy Beach, George Gershwin, Theolonius Monk, Scott Joplin, and more, that have a distinct and recognizable sound of American music and its rich history.
Kristin Lee has performed as soloist with leading orchestras around the world including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Nordic Chamber Orchestra of Sweden, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic, and many more.
She is the unprecedented First Prize winner of three concerto competitions at The Juilliard School, where she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Lee studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, and Itzhak Perlman. Her many honors include awards from the Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition, and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation. Lee’s violin is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley.
Kristin Lee is committed to the future of classical music as a devoted mentor and educator for the next generation, serving on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as an Assistant Professor of Violin, and teaching in residencies with the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, El Sistema Chamber Music Festival of Venezuela, and Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute, among others. For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Violinist Kristin Lee, praised in The Strad for her “elegance” and “vivacity and electric energy,” will be the featured soloist with Symphony Tacoma, led by Music Director Sarah Ioannides, in Johannes Brahms’ introspective and deeply emotive Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77. The concert, titled Portraits, also includes Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A minor and Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations.
Concert details:
Who: Violinist Kristin Lee
Soloist with Symphony Tacoma in Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
Conducted by Music Director Sarah Ioannides
What: Portraits featuring music by Johannes Brahms, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Edward Elgar
When: Saturday, May 11, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, WA 98402
Tickets and information: https://symphonytacoma.org/event/portraits/
May 17: Violinist Elizabeth Chang Announces New Album Sonatas and Myths
Violinist Elizabeth Chang Announces New Album Sonatas and Myths
Violinist Elizabeth Chang Announces New Album Sonatas and Myths
Featuring Music by Bartók, Szymanowski, and Dohnányi
with Pianist Steven Beck
Release Date: May 17, 2024
Bridge Records
“Elizabeth Chang and Steven Beck play intensely with the utmost commitment.” – Pizzicato
CDs or press downloads available upon request.
www.elizabethchang.net | www.stevenbeck.me | www.bridgerecords.com
Violinist Elizabeth Chang announces the May 17, 2024 release of her new album Sonatas and Myths on Bridge Records. Recorded with her longtime collaborator pianist Steven Beck, Sonatas and Myths features a collection of three seminal works from the early 20th century – Karol Szymanowski’s Mythes: Trois Poèmes, Op. 30 from 1915; Ernst von Dohnányi’s Violin Sonata in C# Minor, Op. 21 from 1912; and Béla Bartók’s Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano from 1921.
Chang says, “I have always had an artistic affinity for the musical language of the early 20th century and for the composers who were negotiating the end of the Romantic period while seeking to integrate their highly evolved, Germanic-based schooling with the influence of newly uncovered ‘local’ influences and idioms. The Central European composers of the three works in this album persuasively presented new compositional voices by means of writing that was highly charged emotionally and that, in this regard, provided continuity with the aesthetic expressive preoccupations of their recent past.”
The album also portrays the profound teacher/student relationships from Chang’s artistic heritage, reflecting the influences and deep cross-generational connections between these composers. She explains, “I trace my connection to these composers through Carl Flesch, the great violin pedagogue who taught two of my teachers (Max Rostal and Roman Totenberg) and who was saved from deportation to a concentration camp by Dohnányi.”
Chang, who is currently Professor of Violin at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the violin faculty of the Pre-College Division of The Juilliard School, enjoys an international career as performer, teacher, and leader in the arts, founding and leading a number of festivals and chamber music series in the U.S. and overseas. Her performances have taken her to 25 countries and her chamber music appearances have included collaborations with many of today's leading artists. In 2022, a Healey Faculty Research Grant from UMass afforded her the opportunity to record this album, which had been a cherished project plan for some time.
There are abundant connections between the composers on the album. In addition to being musical contemporaries, Polish modernist Karol Szymanowski and Hungarian composer and scholar of folk music Béla Bartók also share a bond through Claude Debussy, whose music resonated with them both. French influence echoes from the title of Szymanowski’s Mythes: Trois Poèmes pour violon et piano, Op. 30 but connection with the culture and folklore of ancient Greece during visits to Siciliy became an even more meaningful and personal influence on the composer and his music. In Mythes: Trois Poèmes, Szymanowski incorporates an array of compositional techniques and violinistic effects to bring the stories, the fantastical characters, and their various emotional motivations to life.
Hungarian pianist, composer and conductor Ernst von Dohnányi, only a a few years older than Bartók and Szymanowski, wrote his Violin Sonata in C# Minor, Op. 21 in 1912, when he was already established as a leading composer and teaching at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik – at his appointment in 1905, he was the school’s youngest and highest paid faculty member. While he never made a decisive break from Romanticism, the second movement of his violin sonata contains notable influence from Hungarian folk idioms.
Béla Bartók began by following in Dohnányi’s footsteps but soon changed course. David E. Schneider writes in the album’s liner notes, “Bartók was also deeply influenced by Eastern-European folk music, which he collected, studied, and arranged, as well as by contemporary modernist composers such as Schoenberg and Stravinsky.” Ironically, Bartok’s first sonata does not convey as much influence from folk music as one might expect. Schneider writes, “The First Sonata marks a high point in the complexity of Bartók’s style. Although written at a time when Bartók was integrating elements of folk music into all his compositions, only the third movement conveys a mood that can be easily identified as folk-like. . . The dominant mood is that of an ecstatic folk fiddler leading a rustic peasant dance. Such folk-dance finales would become a signature for Bartók, who used them in the majority of his mature instrumental works.”
Sonatas and Myths conveys a blend of technical prowess, historical appreciation, imagination, and unique insights that together create a journey propelled by personal resonance and tangible bonds between past and present.
Track List:
Sonatas and Myths
Elizabeth Chang, Violin; Steven Beck, Piano
Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937): Mythes: Trois Poèmes, Op. 30 (1915) [17:47]
1. La Fontaine d’Arethuse [4:39]
2. Narcisse [6:20]
3. Dryades et Pan [6:48]
Ernst von Dohnányi (1877–1960): Violin Sonata in C# Minor, Op. 21 (1912) [16:03]
4. Allegro appassionato [5:48]
5. Allegro ma con tenerezza [4:05]
6. Vivace assai [6:10]
Béla Bartók (1881–1945): Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano (1921) [32:02]
7. Allegro appassionato [12:01]
8. Adagio [9:58]
9. Allegro [10:03]
Total Time: [66:00]
Produced and Engineered by Ryan Streber
Edited and Mastered by Ryan Streber
Assistant Engineer and Editor: Charles Mueller
Recorded May 30-June 1, 2023, at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY
Annotator: David E. Schneider
Graphic Design: Casey Siu
Executive Producers: Becky & David Starobin
Liner Notes: David E. Schneider
This recording was made possible by the generous support of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Faculty Research/Healey Endowment Grant.
About Elizabeth Chang: Violinist Elizabeth Chang enjoys an international career as performer, teacher, and leader in the arts. Her performing career has taken her to 25 countries and her chamber music appearances have included collaborations with many of today's leading artists. She is professor of violin at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a member of the violin faculty of the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School, and Artistic Director of Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival. Previously she served on the faculties of New York University and Rutgers University. She has embraced leadership roles in the arts and is founder and director of numerous festivals, including the Five College New Music Festival, UMass Bach Festival and Symposium, Lighthouse Chamber Players, and Long River Concerts. Ms. Chang has a long-standing commitment to the performance of the music of our time and has commissioned over 50 works for violin, violin and piano, and violin duo. She is a graduate of Harvard University and was the recipient of the Presidential Scholar in the Arts Award.
About Steven Beck: A recent New York concert by pianist Steven Beck was described as “exemplary” and “deeply satisfying” by The New York Times. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School. Mr. Beck made his concerto debut with the National Symphony Orchestra. His annual Christmas Eve performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Bargemusic has become a New York institution. As an orchestral musician he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic and Orpheus. Mr. Beck is an experienced performer of new music, having worked with Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, Charles Wuorinen, George Crumb, George Perle, and Fred Lerdahl. He is a member of The Knights, the Talea Ensemble, Quattro Mani, and the Da Capo Chamber Players. His discography includes George Walker’s piano sonatas for Bridge Records, and Elliott Carter’s Double Concerto on Albany Records. He is a Steinway Artist and is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
May 7: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by The Gilmore International Piano Festival Performing Music from her Album Undersong
GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by The Gilmore International Piano Festival
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented By The Gilmore International Piano Festival
Performing Music by Couperin, Schumann, Glass, and Satie
From her Album Undersong
Tuesday, May 7, 2023 at 7:30pm
Stetson Chapel | 1200 Academy St. | Kalamazoo, MI
“an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity”
– The Washington Post
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Kalamazoo, MI – GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as an “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented in concert Tuesday, May 7, 2024 by The Gilmore International Piano Festival (1200 Academy St).
Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, will perform several selections found on her 2022 Orange Mountain Music album Undersong –– the final installment in a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, which also includes A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020) and Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021). The latter surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The concert program will include: Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18 and Kreisleriana, Op. 16; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses, and Philip Glass’s Mad Rush; and Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3.
Dinnerstein explains of Undersong’s title: “Undersong is an archaic term for a song with a refrain, and to me it also suggests a hidden text. Glass, Schumann, Couperin and Satie all seem to be attempting to find what they want to say through repetition, as though their constant change and recycling will focus the ear and the mind. This time has been one of reflection and reconsidering for many of us, and this music speaks to the process of revisiting and searching for the meaning beneath the notes, of the undersong.”
Reflecting on Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18, Dinnerstein explains that it’s “a very beautiful, poetic piece of music but it ends with a separate type of epilogue that's something different from the piece and modern in a way. There's a rest before you play it and the rest serves as a bridge to Philip Glass’s Mad Rush. It's unclear to the listener whether it's Schumann or Glass. I really like that blurring of the composer's languages with each other."
Dinnerstein offers this connective observation between Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16 and Schumann’s, Arabesque “The Arabesque has some quick changes in mood and the most breathtaking coda at the end that completely takes it someplace else, written in Schumann’s music language but sounding absolutely contemporary. In comparison, Kreisleriana changes on a dime. Suddenly, you’ll be in a completely different headspace. I think that’s as much about Schumann himself, as about his love for Clara.” Sequenza21 describes Dinnerstein’s approach to Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses as “sonorous [and] eschewing ornamentation in favor of unadorned, shapely melodies.”
With its distinctly repetitious compositional structure, Philip Glass’s Mad Rush, a piece originally composed for organ at New York City’s St. John the Divine, underscores the collectively seamless nature of this program’s repertoire. The New Criterion describes Dinnerstein’s performance of the piece as “transcendent – the picture of introspection interrupted by unexpected vision.”
Of Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3, Dinnerstein says, “Erik Satie published three Gymnopédie and three Gnossienne together, though he eventually wrote more Gnossienne, a fantastical term that he came up with. The markings in the score for Gnossienne No. 3 are bizarre: “Plan carefully”; “Provide yourself with clear sightedness”; “Alone for a moment”; “So as to get a hollow”; “Quite lost”; “Carry this further”; “Open your mind”. These are written right over the notes. The commentary is dada-esque.”
About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone Dinnerstein first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”
Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic, and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy.
In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative. For more information, please visit www.simonedinnerstein.com.
About The Gilmore: The Gilmore was created in 1989 to honor the legacy of Kalamazoo businessman, pianist, and philanthropist Irving S. Gilmore, and is known for its biennial piano festival, first held in 1991. Since then, each of sixteen festivals has been enjoyed by tens of thousands of visitors to Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. The next Irving S. Gilmore International Piano Festival is planned for April 24-May 12, 2024. The organization names a career-making Gilmore Artist Award, presented every four years and determined through a non-competitive process. Nine Gilmore Artists have been named, the most recent being 2024 Gilmore Artist Alexandre Kantarow. In 2022, a major gift launched the creation of the Larry J. Bell Jazz Artist Awards, which will be announced for the 2026 Festival. The Gilmore has also commissioned 42 new works for piano since its inception, with three more premiering at the 2024 Festival. For more information, visit thegilmore.org.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented in concert by The Gilmore International Piano Festival. Dinnerstein will perform several selections found on her 2022 Orange Mountain Music release, Undersong, including Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18 and Kreisleriana, Op. 16; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses; Philip Glass’s Mad Rush; and Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described as an artist of “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity” (The Washington Post) is presented in concert by The Gilmore International Piano Festival, performing selections by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Erik Satie from her 2022 album Undersong.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by The Gilmore International Piano Festival
What: Music by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Erik Satie
When: Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Stetson Chapel, 1200 Academy St, Kalamazoo, MI 49006
Tickets and information: www.thegilmore.org/event/simone-dinnerstein/
May 4: The National Arts Centre Presents The Trojan Women by Lisa Bielawa – Featuring Members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra as part of WolfGANG Sessions
The National Arts Centre Presents The Trojan Women by Lisa Bielawa
Photo by Desmond White available in hi-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artist-profiles/lisa-bielawa
The National Arts Centre Presents The Trojan Women by Lisa Bielawa
Featuring Members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra as part of WolfGANG Sessions
Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 9pm
CLUB SAW | 67 Nicholas Street | Ottawa, ON
Tickets and More Information
“Bielawa’s music is thoughtful and approachable. She’s a voice in what you might call the new accessible avant-garde.” – Gramophone Magazine
Lisa Bielawa: www.lisabielawa.net
Ottawa, ON – Composer, producer, and vocalist Lisa Bielawa –– described as “a dynamic and innovative composer” by The Boston Globe –– will have her work for string quartet, The Trojan Women, performed by members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra at Ottawa’s Club SAW on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 9pm as part of NAC’s WolfGANG Sessions. The concert will also include Dinuk Wijeratne’s The Disappearance Of Lisa Gherardini and David Bruce’s Gumboots. The performance will be broadcast live, available free of charge and on-demand at www.nac-cna.ca/en/event/36177.
Lisa Bielawa is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow and a Rome Prize winner in Musical Composition, who takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. She is the recipient of the 2017 Music Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and a 2020 OPERA America Grant for Female Composers. She was named a William Randolph Hearst Visiting Artist Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society for 2018 and was Artist-in-Residence at Kaufman Music Center in New York for the 2020-2021 season. In 1997, Bielawa co-founded the MATA Festival. In 1997, Bielawa co-founded the MATA Festival.
In 1999, Bielawa composed a continuous score for Euripides' tragedy The Trojan Women for a production directed by JoAnn Akalaitis. The following year, a string quartet based on some of the musical material from that score, which was premiered in 2000 by the Miami String Quartet at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She also composed a version of the work for string orchestra, which was commissioned and premiered by the String Orchestra of New York City (SONYC). The string quartet version of The Trojan Women premiered nearly 21 years ago to date, on May 10, 2003 at the MATA Festival, in New York City.
Bielawa says of the work:
“The special musical challenge of this project was to identify and convey, in three movements, three variegated forms of grief, each one a consequence of one woman's particular sufferings: ‘Hecuba,’ ‘Cassandra,’ and ‘Andromache.’ These women lost husbands and sons in the notorious brutality of the Trojan War. Each time I revisited the piece as it evolved from music for the theatre, to string quartet, and finally to string orchestra, I was informed by a slightly different understanding of the nature of public and private grieving. Euripides’ eulogy to the fallen Troy takes its place alongside the picture of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, W.G. Sebald’s searching inquiries into the rubble of Dresden, or the jarring pictures we see daily in the media.”
More about Lisa Bielawa: During her 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship period, Lisa Bielawa is working primarily on two projects – a new opera, La Ballonniste, and a book of prose vignettes from her experiences and encounters with music in a variety of international settings. La Ballonniste is an opera in three acts inspired by the life of Elisabeth Thible, an opera singer who was the first woman to fly in a hot air balloon, with libretto by Claire Solomon, dramaturgy by Cori Ellison. Bielawa’s book will share remembrances and observations gathered from her decades of wandering, offering cultural moments in the global continuum frozen in time.
Bielawa consistently executes work that incorporates community-making as part of her artistic vision. She has created music for public spaces in Lower Manhattan, a bridge over the Ohio River in Louisville, KY, the banks of the Tiber River in Rome, on the sites of former airfields in Berlin in San Francisco, and to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. During the coronavirus lockdown, Bielawa cultivated a virtual community using submitted testimonies and recorded voices from six continents, through her project, Broadcast from Home. In 2022, Bielawa was selected for a residency with the Louisville Orchestra’s Creators Corps, during which she wrote new orchestral and community-based works to engage the Louisville community.
Bielawa’s music has been premiered at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, SHIFT Festival, Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, National Cathedral, Rouen Opera, MAXXI Museum in Rome, and Helsinki Music Center, among others. Orchestras that have championed her music include The Knights, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, ROCO in Houston, and the Orlando Philharmonic. Premieres of her work have been commissioned and presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Rider, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Radio France, Yerevan Concert Hall in Armenia, the Venice Architectural Biennale, American Music Week in Salzburg, the INFANT Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia, and more.
She received a 2018 Los Angeles Area Emmy nomination for her unprecedented, made-for-TV-and-online opera Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser, created with librettist Erik Ehn and director Charles Otte. Vireo was filmed in twelve parts in locations across the country and features over 350 musicians. Vireo was released on CD/DVD in 2019 (Orange Mountain Music). Bielawa is also recorded on the Tzadik and BMOP/ sound labels, among others.
For more information about Lisa Bielawa visit www.lisabielawa.net.
For information about The National Arts Centre Orchestra visit: www.nac-cna.ca/orchestra
April 14-25: Baritone Matthias Goerne and Pianist Evgeny Kissin Give Three Recitals in Cleveland, Toronto, and New York
Baritone Matthias Goerne and Pianist Evgeny Kissin Give Three Recitals in North America
Matthias Goerne, Baritone & Evgeny Kissin, Piano
Three Recitals in North America in April
“Goerne’s instrument, with its velvety crevices, catches darkness and light . . .Few artists are so temperamentally suited to this repertoire – and fewer still possess such a plush, darkly inviting voice.”
– The New York Times on Matthias Goerne
“I'm not sure anyone else has the virtuosity to step this far outside the box with such honesty and dignity and power.”
– The Washington Post on Evgeny Kissin
Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 3pm: Presented by The Cleveland Orchestra
Severance Music Center | 11001 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH
Tickets & Information
Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 2pm: Presented Roy Thomson Hall
60 Simcoe St, Toronto, ON
Tickets & Information
Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 8pm: Presented by Carnegie Hall
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
57th St. and 7th Ave., New York, NY
Tickets & Information
matthiasgoerne.org | kissin.org
Celebrated and sought-after baritone Matthias Goerne, described as “today’s leading interpreter of German art songs,” by The Chicago Tribune, and legendary virtuoso pianist Evgeny Kissin will give three recitals in North America in April, following appearances across Europe in Brussels, Vienna, Madrid, Lisbon, and Paris. The superstar duo, who are performing together for the first time this year, will be presented by The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center in Cleveland, OH on Sunday, April 14 at 3pm; at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, ON on Sunday, April 21 at 2pm; and at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in New York, NY on Thursday, April 25 at 8pm.
Goerne and Kissin’s program features some of the most sublime art songs of the Romantic period by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, including musical depictions of love and betrayal in Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Brahms’s Lieder und Gesänge, alongside selections from his Songs after Poems by Heinrich Heine.
Celebrated around the globe for his opera and concert performances, German baritone Matthias Goerne is a frequent guest with leading orchestras and renowned festivals and concert halls. Among his musical partners are conductors such as Claudio Abbado(†), Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Daniele Gatti , Bernard Haitink, Manfred Honeck, Mariss Jansons(†), Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Kirill Petrenko, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Franz Welser-Möst. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with the most important pianists of our time. His carefully chosen roles range from Amfortas, Marke, Wolfram, Wotan, Orest, and Jochanaan to the title roles in Béla Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. Goerne’s artistry has been documented on numerous recordings, including five Grammy nominations, an ICMA award, a Gramophone Award, the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award 2017, Diapason d’or arte, and the ECHO Klassik 2017 in the category “singer of the year.” He has released three albums with Deutsche Grammophon: Beethoven Songs with Jan Lisiecki; a collection of Wagner, Strauss and Pfitzner Songs with Seong-Jin Cho and his new album of Schumann and Brahms Songs with Daniil Trifonov. His latest album Schubert revisited was released in January 2023 by Deutsche Grammophon. In the 2023-24 season, Matthias Goerne embarked on an extensive recital and orchestral tour of China, in addition to this series of recitals with Evgeny Kissin in Europe and the United States. He has premiered Jörg Widmann’s Schumannliebe at Porto’s Casa da Musica and Cologne Philharmonie. Furthermore, he will appear with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and return to the Salzburg Festival in the summer.
Evgeny Kissin’s musicality, the depth and poetic quality of his interpretations, and his extraordinary virtuosity have earned him the veneration and admiration deserved only by one of the most gifted classical pianists of his generation and, arguably, generations past. He is in demand all over the world and has appeared with many of the world’s great conductors, including Abbado, Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Dohnanyi, Giulini, Levine, Maazel, Muti, and Ozawa, as well as all the great orchestras of the world. This season, Kissin returns to tour the United States with a recital program that includes the works of his beloved Chopin, Beethoven, Brahms and Prokofiev. In addition to this collaboration with Matthias Goerne, he also appears in concert with major European orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, among others. Evgeny Kissin’s newest release is an album featuring Beethoven Sonatas on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Past awards have included the Edison Klassiek in The Netherlands, and the Diapason d’Or and the Grand Prix of La Nouvelle Academie du Disque in France. His recording of works by Scriabin, Medtner and Stravinsky (RCA Red Seal) won him a Grammy in 2006 for Best Instrumental Soloist. In 2002, Kissin was named Echo Klassik Soloist of the Year. His most recent Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with orchestra) was awarded in 2010 for his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy (EMI Classics). Evgeny Kissin’s extraordinary talent inspired Christopher Nupen’s documentary film, Evgeny Kissin: The Gift of Music, which was released in 2000 on video and DVD by RCA Red Seal.
Sony Classical Announces Alexis Ffrench's New Album Classical Soul; First Single Out Today
Sony Classical Announces Fourth Studio Album by Alexis Ffrench
Sony Classical Announces Fourth Studio Album
by Alexis Ffrench
Classical Soul Volume One
Album Release Date: September 27, 2024
Pre-Order Available Now
New Single The Way It Was Out Today – Listen Here
Watch the Music Video for Soar
Featuring Fally Ipupa and Kevin Olusola
A Homage To His Late Father's Record Collection With Original Compositions For Piano & Orchestra Infused With Nods From Soul Classics
Renowned classical-soul pianist and composer Alexis Ffrench is thrilled to announce the release of his latest album, Classical Soul Vol. 1, arriving next Friday, September 27, via Sony Classical - pre-order is available now. This much-anticipated project marks Ffrench's first brand new studio recording in two years and promises to be a nostalgic journey through the timeless sounds that have shaped his unique musical DNA - listen here (for press only; not for publication).
Drawing inspiration from his late father’s cherished record collection, Classical Soul Vol. 1 masterfully blends Ffrench’s signature classical sound with his early influences from soul icons, such as Roberta Flack and her unforgettable 'Killing Me Softly,' which won the Grammy for Record of the Year 50 years ago.
The album includes the recent single Soar, an uplifting multi-cultural anthem featuring Congolese singer-songwriter Fally Ipupa and Pentaonix' cellist and beatboxer Kevin Olusola, celebrating people coming together at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Watch the accompanying music video here.
Recorded at the legendary Miraval Studios in France, owned by Brad Pitt and Damien Quintard and known for hosting some of the most incredible names in music; the studio served as the perfect environment to create Alexis’ deeply personal, nostalgic and reflective album.
Classical Soul Vol. 1 is a continuation of the poignant and avant-garde music that has defined Alexis Ffrench’s career, solidifying his status as one of the UK’s most distinctive and groundbreaking artists. As the pioneer of the 'Classical Soul' genre, Ffrench has captured the hearts of millions worldwide, with over one billion streams across his catalogue. His previous chart-topping albums, Dreamland and Evolution, have established him as the fastest-growing classical artist worldwide, resonating with a diverse audience that spans generations.
Speaking about the album, Ffrench said; "This album is a reflection of my musical heritage and the soundtrack of my life. It’s an ode to the music that has shaped me—not just as an artist, but as a person. I wanted to capture the soul of these influences while infusing them with the classical elements that are so intrinsic to my identity."
Fans and newcomers alike can expect Classical Soul Vol. 1 to be an exploration of the rich tapestry of sounds that have influenced Ffrench throughout his life. With its heartfelt nods to the past and a modern twist, this album is poised to become a landmark in his already illustrious career.
A pioneering superstar of Classical Soul, Alexis’s sound refuses to be limited by genre, time period, or by expectations of the kind of musician he should be. Rather than leaning into the narrow, traditional understandings of ‘classical’, Alexis instead leans outward, expansive in his perspective, drawing on a mosaic of influences that takes the listener by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
About Alexis Ffrench: Alexis brings piano to the mainstream. Whether it's performing at the King's Coronation Concert in 2023 to an audience of over 18 million viewers, hosting his Apple Music show after Elton John's Rocket Hour, performing at major music festivals & sold out venues worldwide, hosting nationwide music education masterclasses, or posting covers of today’s hits by Central Cee, Billie Eilish and more to an enthusiastic social media audience, Alexis is passionate about music being accessible to all.
Listen to Classical Soul Volume 1
TRACKLIST
1. The Way It Was
2. Reverie
3. Interlude #1 (Killing Me Softly With His Song)
4. Chasing Yesterdays
5. Together Without You
6. Interlude #2 (A Change Is Gonna Come)
7. Soar
8. Fireflies
9. Fate
10. Sö
11. Interlude #3 (At Last)
12. Suddenly
13. Everything Changes
14. Interlude #4 (I Say A Little Prayer)
15. Sanctuary
16. Interlude #5 (Ain't No Sunshine)
17. Broken Wings On Crimson Skies
18. Once
19. Returning To You
20. I Say A Little Prayer (Reprise)
21. The Time Of Your Life
Follow Alexis Ffrench on:
Website | Instagram | YouTube | X
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Composer David Crowell Announces New Album Point / Cloud Out May 3 on Better Company Records – Featuring Sandbox Percussion, Dan Lippel, Mak Grgić, & eco|tonal
Composer David Crowell Announces New Album Point / Cloud Out
David Crowell Announces New Album Point / Cloud
Out May 3 on Better Company Records
Featuring Sandbox Percussion, Dan Lippel, Mak Grgić,
and eco|tonal (Iva Casián-Lakoš and David Crowell)
“[David] Crowell focuses his integrity most upon what he can shape most effectively, where his ear goes, where the sound goes, [and] on how he develops a sonic community.” – Arteidolia
“The clangor of the vibraphones especially, allowed to ring with the pedal, created organ-like sonorities that vibrated through the brain long after the piece ended.” – Washington Classical Review on the World Premiere of Verses for a Liminal Space
CDs or press downloads available upon request.
davidcrowellmusic.com | www.bettercompanyrecords.com
New York, NY – Composer, saxophonist, and guitarist David Crowell announces his new album, Point / Cloud, to be released by Better Company Records on Friday, May 3, 2024. The album features Crowell’s music performed by the GRAMMY®-nominated Sandbox Percussion, the versatile and gifted guitarists Dan Lippel and GRAMMY®-nominated Mak Grgić, and the musically meditative duo eco|tonal – David Crowell and cellist/singer/improviser Iva Casián-Lakoš.
Crowell brings a “singular vision that transcends genre” (Exclaim) to diverse forms of composed and improvisational music, and has been praised for compositional work that is "notable for its crystalline sonic beauty" (The Boston Globe) and which “pulses with small, ecstatic fibrillations” (The New York Times). His music has previously been released on the New Amsterdam, Innova, National Sawdust Tracks, Coviello Classics, and Skirl labels.
Point / Cloud’s four sonically intricate and imagery-laden works written for percussion, guitar, and the hybrid artistry of singing cellist Iva Casián-Lakoš, prompt the idea of embracing respite while on journeys of travel and change – from the familiarity of highway drives, to enigmatic excursions, to pipe organs played by the ocean’s tides, to reprieve from musical progressions.
In her liner notes, writer Jennifer Gersten describes the album as featuring compositions that are “transmissions from in between.” She writes, “Crowell’s intricate notions take flight, then build us a home in midair.”
Crowell looks to the unique musical expressions of Sandbox Percussion, Dan Lippel, Mak Grgić, and cellist/vocalist Iva Casián-Lakoš to not only navigate his highly nuanced writing of vastly different ideas –– all which have evolved gradually over time and/or several iterations of musical form –– but to artfully unveil the real world object or experience with which each work cleverly resonates.
Crowell has known and worked with the quartet Sandbox Percussion for more than a decade, and the complexities and degree of rhythmic grace sewn into Verses for a Liminal Space show the high level of sophistication and deep refinement that this longtime relationship has allowed. Commissioned by a university consortium and finished at Dumbarton Oaks where Crowell was doing a fellowship, the piece occurs in what Gersten describes as, “three ‘verses’: short, spaced circumnavigations, flowing into one another.” The vibraphone is featured prominently first, winding up and down. From there, the sounds of vibraphone and marimbas appear to bring the music to a sudden halt in place. Then the third “verse” reveals what feels at once like a cascading deluge and an orbiting carousel of sound. Recurring, low percussive tones serve as a sonic beacon, tethering together the audible spaces within and outside the music.
The album’s titular work, Point / Cloud, is described by Crowell as a response to Steve Reich’s 1987 work, Electric Counterpoint – a monumental three-movement work for guitar in which the soloist plays with pre-recorded tracks. The title Point / Cloud leans into the contrast cultivated by the instruments over time: individual notes played with pointillistic quality, which lead to an eventual accumulation of densely packed but nebulous sonic “clouds.”
In a fanciful twist of fate, the evolution of Pacific Coast Highway reflects an embrace of the unexpected, not unlike what arises while traveling on the highway. The work was originally conceived for electric guitar and electric bass but would go on to assume various other arrangements or, what Crowell describes as, “multiple personalities.” This album captures a classical guitar duo version, performed by astute guitarists Dan Lippel and Mak Grgic. Crowell, having spent some of his life growing up in California, titled the work Pacific Coast Highway as a nod to a particular route on the work’s namesake road. Lippel and Grgić’s guitars each burst with notes that dance with a graceful connection, traversing the piece with weaves and turns evocative of the California thoroughfare.
Crowell says the finale work, 2 Hours in Zadar — performed by eco|tonal (Iva Casián-Lakoš and David Crowell), with text by Casián-Lakoš’s mother Nela Lakoš — stands at the intersection of his own compositional sensibilities and Casián-Lakoš’s musical strengths, as well as her Croatian ancestry. Subtle utterances of Casián-Lakoš speaking Croatian are blended with organ-like electronics, which are derived from manipulations of Casián-Lakoš’s voice. From there, the work unfolds with Gregorian-style chanting alongside Casián-Lakoš’ cello. Eventually, samples of a sound unique to the city of Zadar makes its presence known: The Sea Organ. A symbiosis of human architecture and the unpredictability of nature, this “organ” is a marble stair in the Croatian coastal city of Zadar that contains an assortment of pipes in its steps, which are “played” by the ebb and flow of waves. Casián-Lakoš reemerges, singing more of her mother’s text. She describes a speaker who contemplates the vastness of the ocean and as Gersten describes it: “surrendering to and yet—with plainspoken sweetness—refusing the water’s power.”
Point / Cloud is a focused and eloquent expression of Crowell’s musical ideas, displaying the fruits of steady craft, lived experiences, and evolving artistic perspectives over the course of many years. The recording conveys a defined concept that is cleverly presented through styles of performance and composition of notably contrasting character. As mixer and producer of the album, Crowell’s first hand attention to detail in this regard allowed him to reflect upon and shape the sound of the music with even more artistic specificity.
About David Crowell: David Crowell is a composer and instrumentalist (saxophones, guitar) based in New York City. His work crosses stylistic boundaries, encompassing contemporary classical composition, improvisation, jazz, and experimental rock and pop. Artistic processes vary piece by piece, from composing purely for acoustic instruments to the use of electronics and manipulations of originally sampled sound. Improvisation plays an important role in generating material, either to exist on its own terms or for later development in a more deliberate compositional manner.
Commissioning ensembles have included JACK Quartet, A Far Cry, Argus Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, New Morse Code, NOW Ensemble, Sandbox Percussion, and icarus Quartet. Recent new works for the Argus Quartet (2021) and Unheard-of//Ensemble (2023) have both been supported by Individual Artist Grants from the New York State Council on the Arts. A new work for string orchestra was commissioned by Dumbarton Oaks for A Far Cry, which premiered the piece in April 2022. Crowell was also the Musician In Residence at Dumbarton Oaks in spring 2021. He performed internationally as a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble from 2007-16, including a three-year international tour of Einstein on the Beach and ten complete performances of Music in Twelve Parts. Crowell has also played with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Steve Reich, Signal Ensemble, and Asphalt Orchestra.
Track List:
Point / Cloud
Music by David Crowell
1. Verses for a Liminal Space [14:33]
2. Point / Cloud I [4:01]
3. Point / Cloud II [3:47]
4. Point / Cloud III [4:22]
5. Pacific Coast Highway [4:55]
6. 2 Hours in Zadar [9:48]
Total Time: [41:26]
David Crowell, electronics; Iva Casián-Lakoš, cello, spoken word, vocals; Sandbox Percussion: Jonny Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, Terry Sweeney, percussion; Dan Lippel, guitar; Mak Grgić, guitar.
Verses for a Liminal Space
Performed by Sandbox Percussion
Engineered by Mike Tierney at Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, NY
Point / Cloud
Performed by Dan Lippel
Engineered by Ryan Streber at Oktaven and David Crowell in Ditmas Park, NY
Pacific Coast Highway
Performed by Dan Lippel and Mak Grgić
Engineered by John Schneider at Earthstar Creation Center
2 Hours in Zadar
Performed by eco|tonal (Iva Casián-Lakoš and David Crowell)
Croatian Text by Nela Lakoš
Engineered by Aaron Nevezie at Bunker Studio and David Crowell in Long Island City, NY
Produced and Mixed by David Crowell
Mastered by Charles Van Kirk
Artwork by Rebecca Crowell
Cover Design by Kate Gentile
Notes by Jennifer Gersten
May 4 & 5: California Symphony's BRAHMS OBSESSIONS Explores the Relationship between Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann + World Premiere of Saad Haddad's Mishwar
California Symphony's BRAHMS OBSESSIONS Explores the Relationship between Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann + World Premiere of Saad Haddad's Mishwar
Robert Thies, Donato Cabrera, California Symphony, and Saad Haddad. Hi res photos available here.
California Symphony's BRAHMS OBSESSIONS
Explores the Relationship between Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann
and Presents the World Premiere of Saad Haddad's Mishwar
Led by Donato Cabrera, Artistic & Music Director
Featuring Piano Soloist Robert Thies in Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto
In Concert May 4 and 5, 2024
At Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts
Continuing a season of performances honoring trailblazing composers and unique artists
Tickets & Information: www.californiasymphony.org
WALNUT CREEK, CA – California Symphony and Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera conclude the 2023-24 season, featuring concerts that honor trailblazing composers and unique artists, with Brahms Obsessions on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 5, 2024 at 4pm, at the Lesher Center for the Arts (1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek). The concerts reunite the music of two composers who shared an intense friendship – Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann – pairing his brilliant Symphony No. 1 with her only surviving Piano Concerto performed by featured soloist Robert Thies. The concerts also feature the world premiere performances of the first of three works to be commissioned by California Symphony from its 2023-2026 Young American Composer-in-Residence Saad Haddad. Haddad’s new work is Mishwar (in Arabic: مشوار), which translates as A Trip.
“We close our season with the performance of two works that allow us to ponder one of the most profound friendships of the 19th century. Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms shared a deep love and understanding of music and in her Piano Concerto and his Symphony No. 1, we can clearly hear their respective sensibilities and personalities,” says Donato Cabrera. “For Clara Schumann’s concerto, I am very excited to be introducing the extraordinary pianist, Robert Thies, to our audience. He brings an unparalleled musicianship and an intellectual understanding to his performances that I greatly admire. One of the defining characteristics of the California Symphony is its nationally recognized composer-in-residence program, and we will be introducing our new composer-in-residence, Saad Haddad, with the world premiere of his overture, Mishwar. Saad’s music is full of unique sounds and energy and Mishwar will surely intrigue and excite those that will hear these premiere performances.”
California Symphony’s concerts begin with Saad Haddad’s music, which explores the relationship between the West and the East by translating traditional Arab instruments to a Western symphonic context. Haddad has drawn Mishwar from his memories of family trips during his childhood, driving up the coast of California and playing what he calls “the Arabic game” during the car ride with his siblings. He says, “My dad liked to see who retained the most out of the Arabic language among the three of us, who were all born in the U.S.: ‘What color is that car?’; ‘Who can count to 20?’; ‘How do you say ‘sky’?’; and so on. None of us were quite good at this game, though the moments when one of us would remember a word or phrase would always bring joy for my dad.” Haddad describes the piece as, “a conversation, albeit quite a loud one, between both my identities: a coastal American trained in Western classical music, and the son of Jordanian and Lebanese immigrants attempting to retain the culture they themselves grew up in.”
The concerts continue with Clara Schumann’s only surviving Piano Concerto, completed by the virtuosic pianist/prodigy two weeks before her sixteenth birthday and premiered with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by famed composer Felix Mendessohn in 1835. Described by The New York Times as “music’s unsung renaissance woman,” Schumann was an acclaimed composer and pianist in the 1800s. A passionate champion of new music, she was a child prodigy who became one of the 19th century’s foremost piano virtuosos, remaining active for over six decades. At age 21, she married composer Robert Schumann (then virtually unknown, while she commanded an international reputation), and went on to have eight children while maintaining a career as a performer and teacher, and encouraging her husband’s career. Her revolutionary Piano Concerto, which showcases Schumann’s trademark improvisatory style, will be performed by guest soloist Robert Thies, known for his “unerring, warm-toned refinement, revealing judicious glimmers of power” (Los Angeles Times), who captured international attention in 1995 when he became the first American since Van Cliburn to win the Gold Medal at a Russian piano competition.
Composers Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms shared an intense friendship, documented by personal diaries and letters between the two over decades. Brahms wrote in a letter to a friend, “I believe that I do not have more concern for and admiration for her than I love her and find love in her. I often have to restrain myself forcibly from just quietly putting my arms around her and even—: I don’t know, it seems to me so natural that she could not misunderstand.” Clara wrote in her diary, “There is the most complete accord between us… It is not his youth that attracts me: not, perhaps, my flattered vanity. No, it is the fresh mind, the gloriously gifted nature, the noble heart, that I love in him.”
The program concludes with Brahms’s powerful Symphony No. 1. Tortured by comparisons to Beethoven, it took Brahms 21 years to finish writing his first symphony. Some critics hailed the piece as “Beethoven’s tenth” in recognition of Brahms’s ultimate triumph. “Seldom, if ever, has the entire musical world awaited a composer’s first symphony with such tense anticipation,” said 19th century music critic Eduard Hanslick. “The new symphony is so earnest and complex, so utterly unconcerned with common effects, that it hardly lends itself to quick understanding… [but] even the layman will immediately recognize it as one of the most distinctive and magnificent works of the symphonic literature.”
Up next, California Symphony hosts its annual gala, Symphony Supper Club, on April 13, 2024 at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. The honorary gala chair is Sharon Simpson, and the event co-chairs are Julie Basque and Abby Dye. The evening will transport guests back to the golden era of supper clubs, renowned for their elegance and timeless music. The event features a three-course dinner and auction; a performance by international jazz sensation, multi-instrumentalist, and star of Postmodern Jukebox Gunhild Carling; and dancing to the seductive, swinging stylings of the Gunhild Carling Band. More information.
Founded in 1986, California Symphony has been led by Donato Cabrera since 2013. It is distinguished by its vibrant concert programs that span the breadth of orchestral repertoire, including works by American composers and by living composers. Its concert season at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California serves a growing number of music lovers from across the Bay Area. California Symphony believes that the concert experience should be fun and inviting, and its mission is to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive environment for the entire community. Through this commitment to community, imaginative programming, and its support of emerging composers, California Symphony is a leader among orchestras in California and a model for regional orchestras everywhere.
California Symphony’s 2023-24 season is sponsored by the Lesher Foundation. Single tickets are $45-90, and $20 for students 25 and under. A 30-minute pre-concert talk and Q&A led by lecturer Scott Fogelsong will begin one hour before each performance. More information is available at CaliforniaSymphony.org.
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:
WHAT: California Symphony presents Brahms Obsessions
In the California Symphony’s season finale, Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera reunites the music of Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann. Described by The New York Times as “music’s unsung renaissance woman,” Clara Schumann was an acclaimed composer and pianist in the 1800s. In this concert, her only surviving piano concerto is performed by featured soloist Robert Thies, alongside Brahms’ brilliant first symphony. Both the object of Brahms’ affections, Clara Schumann, and his mountainous task of succeeding Beethoven’s symphonic legacy is explored in the California Symphony’s program titled Brahms Obsessions. The music of Brahms and Clara Schumann are paired with the world premiere of California Symphony Resident Composer Saad Haddad’s newest work, Mishwar. Haddad’s music explores the relationship between the West and the East by translating traditional Arab instruments to a Western symphonic context.
California Symphony takes the stuffiness out of the concert experience: Take selfies at the photo booth, order a signature cocktail, and sip at your seat. Tickets include a free 30-minute pre-concert talk by award-winning instructor Scott Foglesong, starting one hour before the show.
WHEN: Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 7:30pm
Sunday, May 5, 2024 at 4:00pm
WHERE: Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek
CONCERT:
BRAHMS OBSESSIONS
7:30pm, Saturday, May 4
4:00pm, Sunday, May 5
Donato Cabrera, conductor
California Symphony
Robert Thies, piano
PROGRAM:
Saad Haddad: Mishwar (مشوار) (World Premiere)
Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1
TICKETS: Single tickets are $45-90 and $20 (for students 25 and under with valid Student ID).
INFO: For more information or to purchase tickets, the public may visit CaliforniaSymphony.org or call the Lesher Center Ticket Office at (925) 943-7469 (open Wed – Sun, noon to 6pm).
PHOTOS: Available here.
April 25-May 9: Guitarist MILOŠ tours North America with Les Violons du Roy in Music from Sony Classical Album Baroque - Quebec, Montreal, DC, Kansas City, Stanford, Denver
Guitarist MILOŠ tours North America with Les Violons du Roy in Music from Sony Classical Album Baroque
CLASSICAL GUITARIST MILOŠ TOURS NORTH AMERICA
WITH LES VIOLONS DU ROY
INCLUDING MUSIC FROM LATEST SONY CLASSICAL ALBUM BAROQUE
“one of the most exciting and communicative classical guitarists today” – The New York Times
Upcoming North American Tour with Les Violons Du Roy and Jonathan Cohen:
Quebec City, QC: Palais Montcalm on April 25, 2024
Montreal, QC: Salle Bourgie on April 26, 2024
Washington, DC: Library of Congress on April 30, 2024
Overland Park, KS: Johnson County Community College on May 2, 2024
Stanford, CA: Stanford Live at Bing Concert Hall on May 5, 2024
Denver, CO: Newman Center for the Performing Arts on May 9, 2024
Read the Financial Times feature on MILOŠ
MILOŠ, the superstar musician who has led today’s classical guitar revival, began a new era in his exceptional career with his October 2023 debut album for Sony Classical. Titled simply Baroque, the album presents MILOŠ’ carefully curated selection of baroque works especially transcribed and arranged for the guitar, both solo and in collaboration with Jonathan Cohen and his ensemble Arcangelo.
In April and May, MILOŠ comes to North America for a six-concert tour with Cohen’s ensemble Les Violons du Roy, performing concerts that include music from the new album. Tour performances include Quebec on April 25 at Palais Montcalm; Montreal on April 26 at Salle Bourgie; Washington, DC at the Library of Congress on April 30; Overland Park, KS on May 2 at the Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College; in Stanford, CA on May 5 presented by Stanford Live at Bing Concert Hall; and on May 9 in Denver, CO at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts.
The spring tour follows MILOŠ’s highly praised tour in fall 2023 which included performances in St. Paul, MN presented by the Schubert Club, in Quebec, QC at Palais Montcalm, and at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Watch MILOŠ's stunning video of his performance of Handel's Menuet from Suite in B-Flat Major, from Blenheim Palace.
Since his incredible breakthrough in 2011, when his debut album held the no. 1 position in the UK Classical charts for a breathtaking 28 weeks, MILOŠ has built an impressive international career by performing solo recitals and concertos at most of the world’s leading concert venues. His six studio albums have sold the equivalent of over half a million copies and conquered the classical album charts in multiple territories, earning him a Classical BRIT, Echo Klassik and two Gramophone Awards.
BBC Music Magazine included him in “Six of the Best Classical Guitarists of the Past Century” and The New York Times cited him as “one of the most exciting and communicative classical guitarists today.” His wide variety of musical influences and repertoire, ranging from baroque to contemporary music, via the Beatles and beyond, has helped MILOŠ build a loyal international fanbase and introduce his instrument to a whole new generation of listeners. His long list of musical collaborators ranges from Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Lisa Batiashvili, Alison Balsom, and Jess Gillam, to Tori Amos, Gregory Porter and Anoushka Shankar. He was the first-ever classical guitarist to perform a sold-out solo show at the Royal Albert Hall, where he returned last summer playing to a capacity audience. He has presented on both BBC and Sky TV and has his own series of educational books Play Guitar with Miloš published by Schott Music.
He recently launched the Miloš Karadaglić Foundation. Based in Porto Montenegro, this philanthropic organisation aims to act as a regional hub of influence by empowering artistic excellence though various educational opportunities, partnership and close mentorship.
Baroque heralds a new milestone in MILOŠ’ career.
He says, “Since the very beginning of my life as a musician, I have been deeply inspired by the incredible variety and electrifying energy of the baroque repertoire. This golden era of music is mysterious and extraordinary, flamboyant, often endlessly lyrical, ultimately timeless. And yet within the classical guitar context, apart from J.S. Bach, I believe we have only ever managed to touch the surface. This very thought inspired me to, over the years, try and dig deeper, go beyond the obvious, experiment, collaborate and transcribe, to open a new door of possibilities for my instrument and its own baroque voice.”
MILOŠ’ own transcription of Bach’s monumental Chaconne sits at the heart of this recording, anchoring the richly varied constellation of baroque composers’ masterpieces. MILOŠ particularly wanted to present the guitar across a wide range of European influences, and not merely within the more familiar Spanish context. He has selected luminescent works by nine composers here, the majority of which have never been played on solo guitar before.
There is plenty of light and shade within the music, reflecting baroque’s unique chiaroscuro character. Works such as Alessandro Marcello’s Adagio from Oboe Concerto in D Minor; Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in D minor; the Menuet from George Frideric Handel’s Suite in B-Flat Major; Jean-Philippe Rameau’s The Arts and the Hours or François Couperin’s Les Barricades mystérieuses offer more introspective moments, while Antonio Vivaldi’s movements from La Notte and L’estro Armonico, originally written as a concerto for four violins, or indeed Boccherini’s Fandango from ‘Quintet No. 4 in D Major’ provide fireworks of thrilling virtuosity.
MILOŠ worked very closely with Jonathan Cohen on all the orchestral transcriptions, as well as with Michael Lewin, the eminent British guitarist and lutenist with whom he studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and with whom he now shares a wonderful creative collaboration.
“Everything I have learned and experienced in my musical life so far, all the influences and various musical traditions, converge in this album,” says MILOŠ. “I wanted to convey a new vision of baroque here, with all the variety of style and texture, while preserving the innate intimacy and typical beauty of the guitar sound.”
While for MILOŠ one creative circle closes with the release of this album, Baroque ultimately serves as the foundation of a brand-new era in this artist’s already extraordinary career.
Website: milosguitar.com
Instagram: instagram.com/milosguitar
Facebook: facebook.com/milosguitar
TikTok: tiktok.com/@milosguitarist
April 24: Jupiter String Quartet Presented by New Millennium Concert Series Performing Music by Su Lian Tan, Antonin Dvořák, and W.A. Mozart
The Jupiter String Quartet Presented by New Millennium Concert Series
Photo of the Jupiter Quartet by Todd Rosenberg available in high resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/jupiter-string
The Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by New Millennium Concert Series
Performing Music by Su Lian Tan, Antonin Dvořák, and W.A. Mozart
Wednesday, April 24, 2024 7pm
California State University, Sacramento
Capistrano Hall | 6000 J Street | Sacramento, CA
Tickets and Information
“an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.” – The New Yorker
Sacramento, CA – The Jupiter String Quartet –– the internationally acclaimed winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition who are known for their “compelling” performances (BBC Music Magazine) –– will be presented in concert by New Millennium Concert Series at CSUS Capistrano Hall (6000 J Street) on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 7pm.
Based in Urbana and giving concerts all over the country, the Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Brought together by ties both familial and musical, the Jupiter Quartet has been performing together for 23 years. Exuding an energy that is at once friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous, the Quartet celebrates every opportunity to bring their close-knit and lively style to audiences.Their connections to each other and the length of time they’ve shared the stage always shine through in their intuitive performances.
The Jupiter Quartet brings its well-honed musical chemistry to three works that span more than 225 years, highlighting a range of musical styles and unique personal experiences –– each of which directly influenced how the composers approached their respective musical ideas. The program includes: W.A. Mozart’s String Quartet No. 21 in D Major, K. 575 (1789); Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895); and Su Lian Tan’s Life in Wayang (2002).
Mozart wrote several of his later string quartets for the King of Prussia, Frederick Wilhelm II, who was an accomplished cellist. This explains the particular prominence of the cello line, and the elevation of all four voices to greater equality in general. The joyful interplay of the K. 575 quartet is a perfect example of this more democratic structure. Next on the program will be Su Lian Tan’s vivid Life in Wayang, which evokes sounds of traditional South Asian shadow puppet theater. The music is filled with percussive effects that imitate the sounds of the traditional gamelan ensemble. Dvořák’s exuberant and expansive A-flat Major Quartet will finish the program, and its folksy style showcases his joy in returning, after a long visit to America, to his beloved homeland of Czechoslovakia.
The Jupiter Quartet says of bringing this musically diverse program to the community of California State University, Sacramento:
“We are pleased to bring these vivid and engaging works to the audience in Sacramento, and happy that we will get to share both more familiar works and fresher ones. These three works showcase a great variety of sounds and timbres that the string quartet can create, from the refined, operatic beauty of Mozart to the bright, percussive brilliance of the gamelan-like sounds in Life in Wayang.
More About Jupiter String Quartet: This tight-knit ensemble is firmly established as an important voice in the world of chamber music. Artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana since 2012, the Jupiter Quartet maintain private studios and direct the University’s chamber music program.
The Jupiter Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Music at Menlo, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program.
Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The Jupiter Quartet, described by The New Yorker as having “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity,” is presented by New Millennium Concert Series for a performance at CSUS Capistrano Hall. The ensemble will perform a program that is diverse in its musical styles and in the creative sources of the composers’ respective works. The music reflects a colorful collage of inspirational elements, unified by a thread of compositional sophistication. Performed works will include, W.A. Mozart’s String Quartet No. 21 in D Major, K. 575 (1789), Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895), and Su Lian Tan’s Life in Wayang (2002).
Short description: The Jupiter Quartet, described as an ensemble of “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity” (The New Yorker), is presented by New Millennium Concert Series for a performance featuring the music of W.A. Mozart, Antonin Dvořák, and Su Lian Tan.
Concert details:
Who: Jupiter String Quartet Presented by New Millennium Concert Series
What: Music by W.A. Mozart, Antonin Dvořák, and Su Lian Tan.
When: Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at 7pm
Where: California State University, Sacramento, Capistrano Hall, 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95819
Tickets and information: www.csus.edu/college/arts-letters/music/spotlight/new-millennium.html
GatherNYC Sunday Morning Concerts at MAD in Columbus Circle continue with Juilliard Quartet, Orpheus + Boyd Meets Girl, Maeve Gilchrist, and more
GatherNYC continues in April and May
GatherNYC Continues 2023-2024 Season at Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in Columbus Circle
Every Other Sunday Morning at 11AM
Coming Up Next in March, April, and May:
MAR 31 • Juilliard Quartet
APR 7: Orpheus + Boyd Meets Girl (rescheduled from November)
APR 14 • Maeve Gilchrist (harp)
APR 28 • Majel Connery + Felix Fan: Rivers are our Brothers
MAY 12 • Ocean Music Action: Megan Conley (harp) + friends
MAY 26 • Kristin Lee (violin) + friends
Read about GatherNYC in The Strad!
“thoughtful, intimate events curated with refreshing eclecticism by its founders, the cellist Laura Metcalf and the guitarist Rupert Boyd, complete with pastries and coffee”
– The New Yorker
“A sweet chamber music series”
– The New York Times
“Impressive Aussie/American led concert series proves music can be a religion.”
– Limelight Magazine
Museum of Arts and Design | The Theater at MAD | 2 Columbus Circle | NYC
Tickets & Information: www.gathernyc.org
New York, NY – GatherNYC, a revolutionary concert experience founded in 2018 by cellist Laura Metcalf and guitarist Rupert Boyd, continues its 2023-24 season at the series’ home venue, Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) (2 Columbus Circle) with six remaining concerts this spring. The season runs through May 2024, with concerts held every other Sunday at 11am in The Theater at MAD. Coffee and pastries are served before each performance at 10:30am.
Guests at GatherNYC are served exquisite live classical music performed by New York’s immensely talented artists, artisanal coffee and pastries, a taste of the spoken word, and a brief celebration of silence. The entire experience lasts one hour and evokes the community and spiritual nourishment of a religious service – but the religion is music, and all are welcome.
Spoken word artists perform briefly at the midpoint of each concert, many of whom are winners of The Moth StorySLAM events. “It’s an interesting moment of something completely different from the music, and it often connects with the audience,” Metcalf told Strings magazine in a feature about the series last year. “Then we have a two-minute celebration of silence when we turn the lights down, centering ourselves in the center of the city. Then the lights come back on, and the music starts again out of the silence. We find that the listening and the feeling in the room changes after that.”
Metcalf and Boyd say, “We are thrilled to be returning to the beautiful Museum of Arts and Design, offering 16 concerts throughout our 2023-24 season, our most exciting lineup yet. We look forward to providing our audiences with world-class musical experiences in an intimate, unique setting, complete with spoken word, silence, coffee and a communal, welcoming environment.”
Up next, Sundays at 11AM:
Mar 31: Juilliard String Quartet
Founded in 1946 and hailed by The Boston Globe as “the most important American quartet in history,” the ensemble draws on a deep and vital engagement to the classics, while embracing the mission of championing new works, a vibrant combination of the familiar and the daring. Each performance of the Juilliard String Quartet is a unique experience, bringing together the four members’ profound understanding, total commitment, and unceasing curiosity in sharing the wonders of the string quartet literature. Based out of the Juilliard School in New York City, where the four members of the quartet serve on the faculty, the reach of this venerable quartet is worldwide.
April 7: Orpheus + Boyd Meets Girl (rescheduled from November)
GatherNYC Artistic Directors Rupert Boyd and Laura Metcalf team up with violinist Abi Fayette and trumpeter Louis Hanzlik, two of the Artistic Directors of the legendary, Grammy-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, for a joyous collaborative program that spans many genres including Baroque, tango, jazz and more.
April 14: Maeve Gilchrist (harp)
The Edinburgh-born, New York-based harpist and composer Maeve Gilchrist has taken the Celtic harp to new levels of visibility. Sought after as both a soloist and collaborator, she has released 5 albums and enjoyed high-profile collaborations with the Silkroad Ensemble, Arooj Aftab and many others. Her most recent album was hailed by the Irish Times in its five-star review as “Buoyant, sprightly and utterly beguiling...a snapshot of a musician at the top of her game.”
April 28: Majel Connery + Felix Fan: Rivers are our Brothers
The Rivers are our Brothers is an electronic song cycle on ecological responsibility, told from the point of view of the land. Based on a letter from Chief Seattle that urges us to think of the earth as kin, the songs take a first-person view of nature: rocks sing about their mothers, and snowflakes tell about their hearts of sand. Connery’s vocals and Felix Fan’s electric cello combine to tell the story using a “supernatural” sound. "The goal of this music is to give nature a voice" says Connery, “and this isn’t a cute nature documentary. I want to stop people in their tracks and show them the world like they’ve never seen it: as vibrant, and thrilling, and alive.”
May 12: Ocean Music Action: Honoring Mother Earth
On Mother’s Day, harpist Megan Conley brings her Ocean Music Action project to GatherNYC with a concert paired with a volunteer day of climate action. OMA uses the transformative power of music to inspire greater stewardship of oceans and waterways, and the musical selections are inspired by the natural world. Megan, formerly the principal harpist of the Houston Symphony now living in Honolulu, will be joined by several of her esteemed colleagues from The Knights for a special program honoring mother earth.
May 26: Kristin Lee & Friends
GatherNYC’s 2023-24 season concludes with a celebratory program curated and performed by one of New York City’s most accomplished violinists, Kristin Lee. Kristin enjoys a vibrant and multi-faceted career as a soloist with major orchestras like the Philadelphia Orchestra and St. Louis Symphony, a chamber musician on the roster of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, an Assistant Professor of Violin at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and Founder and Artistic Director of Emerald City Music, a chamber music series in Washington State. Kristin and her colleagues will share a virtuosic and exciting program to finish the season.
For tickets and information, visit www.gathernyc.org.
GatherNYC's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
April 13: Pianist Sarah Cahill in The Future is Female Presented by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore – Performing as Part of WoCo Fest 2024: Evolve
Pianist Sarah Cahill in The Future is Female Presented by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore
Photo of Sarah Cahill by Kristen Wrzesniewski available in high-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/sarah-cahill
Pianist Sarah Cahill in The Future is Female
Presented by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore
Performing as Part of WoCo Fest 2024: Evolve
Saturday April 13, 2024 at 6pm
Strathmore Mansion | 10701 Rockville Pike | Rockville, MD
More information
“Sarah Cahill plays a wide-ranging selection of music composed by women on the final volume of a series distinctive for its finesse and conviction.”
– Gramophone Magazine on The Future is Female
Sarah Cahill: www.sarahcahill.com
Watch Sarah Cahill’s NPR TIny Desk Concert
Rockville, MD – On Saturday, April 13, 2024 at 6pm, Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, is co-presented in concert by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore as part of WoCo Fest 2024: Evolve –– an annual multi-day Women Composers (WoCo) Festival, featuring works by women and gender-marginalized composers performed by local and nationally acclaimed performers. Cahill’s concert will be held at Strathmore Mansion (10701 Rockville Pike).
Nearly a year since the release of The Future is Female Vol. 3, At Play –– the final volume in the album trilogy counterpart to Cahill’s project The Future is Female –– the esteemed Bay Area pianist will perform a diverse program of works by an array of women composers who are featured as part of The Future is Female. The Future is Female is Cahill’s research and performance project, which celebrates and highlights women composers from the 17th century to the present day. Cahill’s three recordings of the same title encompass 30 compositions by women from around the globe and include several newly commissioned works and world premiere recordings. Each of the albums was released on UK label First Hand Records.
The music Cahill has selected to perform during WoCo Fest 2024 spans almost 250 years and includes Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre’s Keyboard Suite in D minor (movements I, III, V, and VI) (1687); Hélène de Montgeroult’s Sonata No. 9, Op. 5 No. 3 (1811); Louise Farrenc’s Two Etudes, Op. 26 (1839); Leokadiya Kashperova’s Au sein de la nature (1910), movement III; Adelaide Pereira da Silva’s Valsa Choro No. 2 (1965); Troubled Water by Margaret Bonds (1967); and She Dances Naked Under Palm Trees by Theresa Wong (2019).
Cahill was recently featured in an NPR Tiny Desk concert performing music from The Future is Female - watch here.
Listen to The Future is Female, Vols. 1-3 (First Hand Records):
Vol. 1: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol1
Vol. 2: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol2
Vol. 3: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol3
Sarah Cahill began working on The Future is Female, which now encompasses more than 70 compositions, in 2018. “For decades I had been working with many living American composers, including Pauline Oliveros, Tania León, Eve Beglarian, Mary D. Watkins, Julia Wolfe, Ursula Mamlok, Meredith Monk, Annea Lockwood, and many more, but felt an urgent need to explore neglected composers from the past, and from around the globe,” she explains. “Like most pianists, I grew up with the classical canon, which has always excluded women composers as well as composers of color. It is still standard practice to perform recitals consisting entirely of music written by men. The Future is Female, then, aims to be a corrective towards rebalancing the repertoire. It does not attempt to be exhaustive, in any way, and the three albums in this series represent only a small fraction of the music by women which is waiting to be performed and heard. Since recording these three albums in August 2021, I’ve performed extraordinary music by Louise Farrenc, Maria Szymanowska, Helen Hopekirk, Dora Pejačević and Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Reena Esmail, Arlene Sierra, Viola Kinney, Marion Bauer, and many other composers who should rightfully be included in this series. The possibilities are, in fact, limitless.”
Recent and upcoming performances of The Future is Female include concerts at The Barbican, Carolina Performing Arts, National Gallery of Art, Carlsbad Music Festival, Detroit Institute of Arts, University of Iowa, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, North Dakota Museum of Art, Mayville State University, the EXTENSITY Concert Series’ Women Now Festival in New York, and the Newport Classical Music Festival.
Of the mission and vision of the Boulanger Initiative and taking part in WoCo Fest by performing music from The Future is Female, Cahill says:
“It’s such a great honor to be part of WoCo Fest 2024. The Boulanger Initiative is engaged in such groundbreaking and important work, including their very valuable database of music by women and gender-marginalized composers – a resource that is being used widely in conservatories and music studios, for future generations. As these amazing composers are acknowledged, recognized, and performed, we can start achieving some equity and inclusion in concert programs, and the Boulanger Initiative has a vital role in that process.”
More about Sarah Cahill: Sarah Cahill, hailed as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, has commissioned and premiered over seventy compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to Cahill include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Julia Wolfe, Roscoe Mitchell, Annea Lockwood, and Ingram Marshall. She was named a 2018 Champion of New Music, awarded by the American Composers Forum (ACF).
Sarah Cahill’s discography includes more than twenty albums on the New Albion, CRI, New World, Tzadik, Albany, Innova, Cold Blue, Other Minds, Irritable Hedgehog, and Pinna labels. Her three-album series, The Future is Female, was released on First Hand Records between March 2022 and April 2023. These albums encompass 30 compositions by women from around the globe, from the 17th century to the present day, and include many world premiere recordings.
Cahill’s radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, can be heard every Sunday evening from 8 to 10pm on KALW, 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory and is a regular pre-concert speaker with the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
For more information, visit www.sarahcahill.com.
About the Boulanger Initiative: Boulanger Initiative advocates for women and all gender marginalized composers. We foster inclusivity and representation to expand and enrich the collective understanding of what music is, has been, and can be. We promote music composed by women through performance, education, research, consulting, and commissions.
About Strathmore: Strathmore is a multidimensional creative anchor in the community, where everyone can connect with the arts and artists can explore their full potential. It is a 501(c) nonprofit serving the entire Washington, DC, region and the state of Maryland, with hundreds of performances, visual arts exhibitions, and education programs for diverse audiences on its Montgomery County campus and in the community each year.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, described by The New York Times as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde,” is co-presented in concert by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore, as part of WoCo Fest –– an annual, multi-day, Women Composers (WoCo) Festival, which features works by women and gender-marginalized composers performed by local and nationally-acclaimed performers. Cahill will perform a program featuring music from her project, The Future is Female, including works by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Hélène de Montgeroult, Louise Farrenc, Leokadiya Kashperova, Adelaide Pereira da Silva, Margaret Bonds, and Theresa Wong.
Short description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” (The New York Times), is co-presented by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore in The Future is Female, as part of WoCo Fest. Cahill’s performance will feature works by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Hélène de Montgeroult, Louise Farrenc, Leokadiya Kashperova, Adelaide Pereira da Silva, Margaret Bonds, and Theresa Wong.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Sarah Cahill
Presented by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore
What: Music by several women composers, historical and living, from Cahill’s ongoing project, The Future is Female, as part of WoCo Fest 2024: Evolve
When: Saturday April 13, 2024 at 6pm
Where: Strathmore Mansion, 10701 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852
Tickets and information: www.boulangerinitiative.org/woco-fest-2024-evolve/saturday-mansion
April 25 & 27: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik is Guest Soloist with Minnesota Sinfonia
Violinist Yevgeny Kutik is Guest Soloist with Minnesota Sinfonia
Photo by Corey Hayes available in high resolution at: https://www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/yevgeny-kutik
Violinist Yevgeny Kutik is Guest Soloist with Minnesota Sinfonia
Conducted by Artistic and Executive Director Jay Fishman
Featuring Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor
Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 7pm
Metropolitan State University | 700 East 7th Street | St. Paul, MN
Tickets and Information
Saturday 27, 2024 at 2pm
Basilica of St. Mary | 1600 Hennepin Avenue | Minneapolis, MN
Tickets and Information
“polished dexterity and genteel, old-world charm” – WQXR
St. Paul and Minneapolis, MN — Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, known for his “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” (The New York Times) will be presented with the Minnesota Sinfonia on Thursday, April 25 in St. Paul, MN and Saturday, April 27 in Minneapolis, MN. For both concerts, Kutik will be the featured soloist in Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, conducted by Artistic and Executive Director Jay Fishman. Each performance will also include W.A. Mozart’s Symphony No. 36, “Linz” and Antonín Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance No. 8.
A native of Minsk, Belarus, Yevgeny Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and immigrated to the US with his family at the age of five. Kutik regularly speaks and performs across the country to promote the assistance of refugees from around the world. His discography, all on Marquis Records, reflects an appreciation for culture and history –both his own and as well as the stories of others: The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021), Meditations on Family (Marquis Classics 2019), Words Fail (2016), Music from the Suitcase (2014), and Sounds of Defiance (2012). Music from the Suitcase is being developed into an immersive stage and performance production for the 2024-2025 season.
Kutik is also the Artistic Director of The Birch Festival – a 501(c)(3) organization that aims to connect and integrate leading musicians with the Berkshire community, while highlighting the unique and original stories of those who make up the Berkshires. The festival promotes and propels distinct voices in music through new composition and creative interpretations of old favorites.
Kutik will reunite with Jay Fishman and the Minnesota Sinfonia following a 2021 guest performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in D minor. For this program, Kutik and the Minnesota Sinfonia will perform Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26. In this performance, audiences can enjoy Kutik’s meticulous but elegant musicality, interspersed with the vibrant energy of the Minnesota Sinfonia. Bruch’s first violin concerto continues to endure as an extremely popular orchestral work to the present day. Still, even in the face of countless renditions, the sheer technical poise and expressive expectations of the piece elicit heightened thrill over the anticipation of a newly performed interpretation and the interconnected dynamic between soloist and the orchestra.
Of collaborating with Fishman and Minnesota Sinfonia to perform one of Bruch’s most popular works, Kutik says:
“It's always a great joy to revisit Bruch's 1st Violin Concerto, a work beloved by audiences across the world. The work is astounding in how effortlessly it blends virtuosity and breathtaking beauty. I loved working with Jay and the Sinfonia in 2021 and am particularly honored to be with them again now in their final concert season.”
More about Yevgeny Kutik: With a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique” (The New York Times), violinist Yevgeny Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old-world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is also lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of both standard works and newly composed repertoire. Kutik is also Artistic Director and co-founder of The Birch Festival.
Yevgeny Kutik was a featured soloist in Joseph Schwantner’s The Poet’s Hour – Soliloquy for Violin on episode six of Gerard Schwarz’s All-Star Orchestra, a made-for-television classical music concert series released on DVD by Naxos and broadcast nationally on PBS. In 2021, Kutik made his debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin, performing the world premiere of Schwantner’s Violin Concerto, an expansion of The Poet’s Hour, written specifically for Kutik. Kutik gave the world premiere of Cântico, a work for solo violin by Andreia Pinto Correia, at the Tanglewood Music Festival in August 2022. The work was co-commissioned for Kutik by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, he made his debuts at the Kennedy Center, presented by Washington Performing Arts, and at the Ravinia Festival. Kutik made his major orchestral debut in 2003 with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops as the First Prize recipient of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition. In 2006, he was awarded the Salon de Virtuosi Grant as well as the Tanglewood Music Center Jules Reiner Violin Prize.
Kutik holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory and currently resides in Boston. Kutik’s violin was crafted in Italy in 1915 by Stefano Scarampella.
For more information, please visit www.yevgenykutik.com.
About the Minnesota Sinfonia: The Minnesota Sinfonia is a community-supported 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission to serve the musical and educational needs of Minnesotans with a special emphasis on serving families with young children, inner-city youth, seniors, and those with limited financial means.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, described by The New York Times as having a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” is presented as the featured soloist with the Minnesota Sinfonia in two performances on April 25, 2024 at 7pm and April 27, 2024 at 2pm. Together with the Sinfonia, under the direction of Artistic and Executive Director Jay Fishman, Kutik will perform Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor Op. 26. The performance will also include Mozart’s Symphony No. 36, “Linz” and Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance No. 8.
Short description: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, known for his “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” (The New York Times), is presented by the Minnesota Sinfonia on April 25 in St. Paul and April 27 in Minneapolis, as the featured soloist in a performance of Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor led by Artistic and Executive Director Jay Fishman.
Concert details:
Who: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik
Presented by Minnesota Symphony
Conducted by Artistic and Executive Director Jay Fishman
What: Music by Max Bruch, Antonín Dvořák, and W.A. Mozart
When: Thursday, April 25 at 7pm and Saturday 27, 2024 at 2pm
Where:
(April 25) Metropolitan State University 700 East 7th Street, St. Paul, MN 55106
(April 27) Basilica of St. Mary, 1600 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403
Tickets and information: www.mnsinfonia.org/2023-2024-wcs-4