We remember

May 2013.

One day each summer for about the last 50, JANOS STARKER would arrive at the Colbert office -- in the beginning (before our time)  over at 105 West 55th St. and, since 1973, at our current Steinway Building offices -- with several bottles of the very BEST champagne to celebrate with us with the life in music we all shared.  He opened the bottles with flair and poured each glass with a toast for each one of us -- from Ann Colbert who, with her husband Henry, signed Janos in June 1958 -- to Agnes Eisenberger, who worked for him until her death in 2002, to each and every assistant, bookkeeper and receptionist.  Much affection was shared along with the wine. We had the pleasure of hearing Starker in many live performances of works too numerous to mention (although one performance of the Kodaly Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello will stay with me always). He educated and thrilled us and set a standard of music making in our ears and hearts and minds that has informed much of our own work -- and probably spoiled us forever. Over the last decade Chris Putnam and I have been active with Janos Starker more as guardians of his late career teaching and legendary masterclasses.  We especially recall a day we spent with him at Temple University in 2009.  By that time he was walking more slowly and asked for support climbing the steps to the stage.  Any concerns about his stamina fell away when the first bow touched a string; Starker was fully engaged, animated, demandingly strict but full of good spirit and humor -- the master teacher he had always been.   We learned of Janos Starker's death a few hours after the fact on Sunday morning, April 28.  The staff of Colbert Artists Management sends heart-felt expressions of sympathy to his family and to all whose lives he touched; so many. -- Charlotte Schroeder

Read More about Janos Starker

MASQUES in the US, Europe and with a new album

May 2013.

The Montreal-based Baroque ensemble MASQUES is busy these days, celebrating the release of its newest album on ATMA Classique disc of works by German Baroque composer Johann Rosenmüller. (Preview a track here and click the image below to see Masques perform a Rosenmüller work live in concert.)  "Montreal baroque-specialist keyboard player Olivier Fortin and his Ensemble Masques make a very convincing case for Johann Rosenmüller...This album of music hardly ever heard on this side of the Atlantic is a treat from beginning to end."  John Terauds for THE TORONTO STAR, May 13, 2013 Masques' next US concert will be presented by Music Before 1800 in New York City next May, for which they'll perform Rameau's Pièces de clavecin en concerts.  Recent performances include its scintillating Les amours de Louis XV in Montreal and Minnesota, and an upcoming European tour includes programs celebrating Baroque innovators Biber and Schmelzer at the Concertgebouw Brugge and the Festival de Wallonie.  Masques next tours in the US October 22 - November 4, 2014, playing their program "The World Before Bach" with works by J.S. Bach, Schmelzer, Rosenmüller, Buxtehude, Weichlein and Biber. Contact us for a full program listing, and more information about this stellar young Baroque ensemble.

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The Art of MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN

May 2013.

 

As pianist MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN wraps yet another acclaimed season, he looks forward to a 2013/2014 notable for world-wide series celebrating his artistry and collaborations:  -- He is the 2013/2014 Artist-in-Residence at Wigmore Hall; the residency will feature Hamelin in a five-concert series including solo recitals; a trio performance with violinist Anthony Marwood and clarinetist Martin Fröst; and in concerts with the Takacs and Pacifica quartets.  -- He will curate and perform in a three-concert series "The Art of the Piano" for Boston Celebrity Series (including a duo recital with Emanuel Ax.)  -- He will be presented in three concerts by San Francisco Performances, including a solo recital, dates with Marwood and Fröst and with the Pacifica Quartet.  -- He will be presented in a full series by deSingel International Arts Campus in Antwerp that includes performances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, as a one-man orchestra in a solo recital and in chamber music with kindred spirits. These international series are of course complemented by a full season of recitals (for Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonic, and for WPAS in Washington, DC, among others) and subscription weeks with the New York Philharmonic, the Melbourne Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's new piano concerto with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic (with the run-out to deSingel.)  As you soak all of that up, we will leave you with a bit of trancendence: video of Hamelin playing Gaspard de la Nuit last month in Moscow.

Read More about Marc-André Hamelin

HEATH QUARTET wins Royal Philharmonic Society Award

May 2013.

Though they may be on tour in Mexico this week, the HEATH QUARTET is being championed in the UK, where it was just announced that it has been awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for best Young Artists (the first time since 1997 that the award has been given to an ensemble.)  The award recognizes a chamber ensemble or solo artist making their first significant impact in the UK during 2012 and celebrates the very best in live classical music-making. Click here to learn more about the honor.  Recent Heath highlights include European debuts at the Kissingen Winterzauber, Schwetzinger and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festivals (where they won the 2012 Ensemble Prize), the deSingel Arts Centre in Antwerp, Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels and Berlin Konzerthaus, and recitals at Wigmore Hall (most recently with soprano Anna Caterina Antonnaci), the Barbican, and elsewhere.  Future engagements include their debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall, complete Tippett and Bartók cycles at Wigmore Hall (and a June 4 program of Haydn, Berg and Beethoven), recitals at the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay in Paris and a return visit to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.  Highly unusual for a string quartet, the Heath will appear onstage in a new production of Fidelio directed by Calixto Bieto at the English National Opera at the London Collesium. The Quartet are members of faculty at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. The Heath's next North American tour period on offer is March 2-29, 2015, with repertoire of Haydn, Beethoven, Bartok, Janacek and Britten. Contact us for full program listings and more information.

Read More about Heath Quartet

2014/15 Programs from the Juilliard String Quartet

May 2013.

PROGRAM 1 Webern                Five Movements, Op. 5 Berg                    Quartet, Op. 3  ~~~~ Schubert             Quartet in D minor, D. 810 “Death and the Maiden”   PROGRAM 2 Haydn                 Quartet in G major, Op. 33, No. 5 Shulamit Ran      Quartet No. 2 “Vistas” (1989)  ~~~~ Beethoven           Quartet in E minor, Op. 59 No. 2 “Razumovsky”   The Quartet explains the programs:  One program includes Haydn Opus 33 No. 5 in G Major, Shulamit Ran Quartet No. 2, "Vistas," and Beethoven Opus 59 No. 2 in e minor. We always think of Haydn as "The Father of the String Quartet", and it seems from this particular pairing of Haydn and Beethoven quartets that Beethoven thought so also. The Haydn quartet (from 1781) is wonderfully obsessed with cadences throughout its first movement; so is the Beethoven (from 1806). The Haydn quartet has a Scherzo which is extremely inventive at obscuring its 3/4 time signature; so does the Beethoven. The only place, it seems, where one can find motivic and contrapuntal workings equal to that of Beethoven is in the music of his predecessor, Haydn. These two quartets make a remarkable pairing.  In between the Haydn and the Beethoven is the virtuoso string quartet (from 1989) of Shulamit Ran, an Israeli-American composer. Here, the individual voices featured in the contrapuntal quartet writing of Haydn and Beethoven join in a veritable concerto for four, filled with defiant passion and mystery. This is a program very much about the ingenious and profound conversations possible between four voices.  The other program features a short history of Vienna from two of its greatest musical eras, the early 20th and the early 19th centuries. With the jewel-like Webern Five Pieces, Opus 5 and the harmonically rich and searching Berg String Quartet, Opus 3, we share with our audience two extremely personal and creative examples of music that arose during the tumult of the early 20th century. We then turn to the monumental Schubert quartet, "Death and the Maiden," in which one hears the dramatic lyricism of a young man in the last years of his life, early in the 19th century. The passionate expressions of these three great Viennese works speak beautifully alongside each other.

 

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AMARCORD at the Cloisters, and with a new album

April 2013.

This month the five-voice a capella ensemble AMARCORD returned to The Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, singing a program of Marian devotional music (works dedicated to the Virgin Mary) from Medieval and Renaissance Europe. It's their third visit to the beautiful space, singing programs designed to resonate with the great art and architecture on display.  
Now the ensemble heads to Houston, to sing a program of a capella early music for the Bach Society Houston. 
amarcord also celebrates the release of its latest album, Folks & Tales. Click the album image below for a sample, and let us know if you would like a copy!

Read More about amarcord

MARINO FORMENTI: collaborations and recitals at Wigmore Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus

April 2013.

Pianist, conductor and musical visionary MARINO FORMENTI is internationally renowned for his intense performances of original programs that defy traditional categories, and illuminate both new and deeply familiar core repertoire with surprising contextual juxtapositions. 

On April 6 Formenti joined Wigmore Hall's expansive George Benjamin Day, a series of programs celebrating and exploring work by Wigmore's 13/14 Composer in Residence, in a concert solo and chamber works with violinist Carolin Widmann and Adam Walker, flute.  He returns to Wigmore in June for his extraordinary solo recital program, The Liszt Inspections, through which he explores the continuing influence of Liszt on contemporary composers. Click here to see the program on the Wigmore site, and here for a video of highlights from his performance of the work at KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen 2012. 

Recent programs (in February and March,) have included collaborations with Stile Antico at the Elb Philharmonie in Hamburg, and performances at the Salzburg Biennale as both a conductor and performer; first with the Ensemble für Neue Musik of the Mozarteum University of Salzburg in "Dialoge with Music,"  a program featuring homages, deconstructions, transcriptions, and reconstructions of works by Xenakis and Scelsi, and second with a solo piano recitalfeaturing Schubert's Sonata in F Minor, D571, Debussy's Feuilles Mortes, Webern's Kinderstück 2 and Jean Barraqué's Piano Sonata. (rev. version)

"There’s a lot of anxious debate these days about how we can 'reinvent the concert experience'. This recital by the Italian-born pianist Marino Formenti proved that to achieve that you don’t need giant screens, purple lighting or multi-media bolt-ons. You just need a genuinely musical idea, which can shape a whole programme down to the smallest details, and allow us to hear the music in a different way." -- Ivan Hewett for The Telegraph on Formenti's 2011 Wigmore performance of Kurtag's Ghosts

To learn something more about Formenti's distinctive creative programming, watch this video interview in which he speaks about his conceptual presentation THE PARTY. 

Read More about Marino Formenti

JEANNETTE SORRELL leads Bach Brandenburgs with Pittsburgh Symphony

April 2013.

Exceptional harpsichordist/conductor JEANNETTE SORRELL has long been renowned for her extraordinary grasp of "Affeckt," -- the doctrine of affections that shapes Baroque musical rhetoric and gesture -- through her work with her Cleveland-based Baroque orchestra, Apollo's Fire, and is now gaining acclaim for her ability to bring this expressivity to life with modern-day orchestras, notably with the Pittsburgh Symphony this month.  

Mark Kanny wrote for the April 6, 2013 edition of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

"The debut of Jeannette Sorrell with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was an especially joyous occasion on Friday night. The American conductor and harpsichordist brought an exciting combination of individuality with decisive yet graceful style to Johann Sebastian Bach's Six Brandenburg Concertos...From the start of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, it was apparent that Bach's music would reach the ear with virtually perfect balance and transparency, that the incredible richness of Bach's textures would provide many delights at any given moment for the listeners' ears...This is a concert not to be missed." 
Read the full review here. 

Learn more about Sorrell's approach to rehearsing and performing the Brandenburg's with a "traditional" symphony orchestra in this fascinating PSO Blog video interview and click on the image below to watch video of Sorrell and Apollo's Fire performing the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5.

Read More about Jeannette Sorrell

JAYCE OGREN appointed Music Director of New York City Opera

April 2013.

Last month conductor JAYCE OGREN was named Music Director of the New York City Opera. The appointment begins September 1, 2013, and will see Ogren planning future NYCO seasons in collaboration with Artistic Director George Steel.  
The appointment follows a number of critically acclaimed Ogren-led NYCO productions, including Bernstein's A Quiet Place in 2011 and this season's Turn of the Screw.  Next week, Ogren begins an NYCO run of Moses in Egypt and next season he leads Bela Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle  (a NYCO/St. Ann's Warehouse co-production) and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. 
At the announcement, Ogren said "Over the past four years, New York City Opera has been my closest collaborator, and our work together has provided many of the most rewarding artistic experiences of my career...No other company in the United States is more dedicated to mounting courageous and timely productions than New York City Opera, and the same goes for its commitment to young American singers. There is nowhere I would rather be Music Director.”
Read more about the appointment in The Wall Street Journal. 

Read More about Jayce Ogren

ANTHONY MARWOOD: leading from the violin

April 2013.

Violinist ANTHONY MARWOOD has won special renown for his work leading from the violin -- leading not just concerti as a soloist, but full orchestral programs from his instrument.  He brings this skill to North America this week, leading a northern-themed program with Les Violons Du Roy, including Sibelius' Canzonetta and Suite for Violin and Strings, Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings and the North American premiere of Peteris Vasks' concerto for violin and strings, Distant Light. (Read a note about the Vasks workhere.) 

 

After four performances of the program with Les Violons Du Roy, Marwood heads west to the Vancouver Symphony for a program featuring Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 2 in D Major, the Rameau Dardanus Suite, Schubert's Rondo in B minor for Violin and Strings, and Haydn's Symphony No. 44 in E minor.

Although Marwood frequently performs as a soloist without also leading, he has had recent soloist/director dates with Boston's A Far Cry, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, tours with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, dates with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and many collaborations with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (with whom his staged performances of Stranvinsky's A Soldier's Tale won extraordinary acclaim.)  

Next season he leads/performs an all-Mozart program with the St. Louis Symphony (a return invitation after his"elegant" 2011 performance of Steven Mackey's Beautiful Passing.)

Read More about Anthony Marwood

RAN DANK: a pianist of "technique and imagination"

March 2013.

RAN DANK: a pianist of "technique and imagination" Colbert Artists is pleased to announce that the pianist RAN DANK,  "a strong player with technique and imagination" whose "fascination with textural clarity is a consistent hallmark of his style" (The New York Times) has joined our roster for world-wide management. A singular artist, Ran Dank's collaborative skills and performances -- from solo recitals, to duo recitals with pianist Soyeon Kate Lee, to chamber music, to orchestral dates with the Sydney Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Pheonix Symphony, the Ann Arbor Symphony and others -- have marked him as a musician of tremendous skill and deep feeling.  Highlights of this season include his Boston recital debut at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, appearances at Portland Ovations, Missouri State University, the University at Buffalo, and dates throughout the US with YCA’s ensemble, miXt. Click on the image above to hear Dank perform Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No, 3, Mvt. 3, with the Sydney Symphony, and below to hear him perform Beethoven's Op. 27, No. 1 Quasi una Fantasia.    Ran Dank has won First Prize at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the Sander Buchman Memorial First Prize of the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and is a laureate of the Naumburg Piano Competition and the Sydney International Piano Competition.  He is also the recipient of grants from the Arthur Foundation and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and is currently pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts with Richard Goode and Ursula Oppens at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York as a chancellor’s fellow.

Read More about Ran Dank

DANIEL MEYER leads in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Alabama and more

March 2013.

Conductor DANIEL MEYER has a chock-full winter-to-spring stretch, including February dates with the Phoenix Symphony.  He spoke with The Arizona Republic about the program -- featuring works by Dvorak, Saint-Saëns and Christopher Theofanidis -- and about his personal process for score preparation and study: 

Q: When you talk about digging into a work, is that just from studying the score and listening to previous performances?
A: It’s probably a combination of accumulated knowledge. Like you said, part of it is reading the score. Part of it is learning about the lives of the composers. Part of it is investigating the historical context. Thinking of Beethoven without thinking of the revolution and Napoleon and all that was happening in Europe at the time, you’re not able to completely comprehend what that music is about. Similarly with Dvorak, the Sixth Symphony is so important to Dvorak because it launched him as a famous symphonist. This was him making a bit of a homage to Brahms and celebrating that famous friendship they had. But it also says, “I’m here. I should be writing these wonderful kinds of Viennese-style symphonies.” But Dvorak couldn’t help but to interject rhythms and dances from Bohemia into his music.

Read the full (and fascinating) interview here. 

This month Meyer leads the Asheville Symphony, in a spring/season program featuring Handel's Water Music Suite No. 2, Phillip Glass' Violin Concerto  “The American Four Seasons”, Copland's Three Latin American Sketches and Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2.  With the Erie Philharmonic next month, he leads Barber's Knoxville Summer of 1912, Respighi's The Pines of Rome, and Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony.   He also leads the Las Vegas Philharmonic in Gabrieli's Canzon Septimi Toni a 8, Brahms' Symphony No. 3, Barber's Overture to School for Scandal and the Bizet/Hunsberger Carmen Fantasia. 

In May Meyer leads the Alabama Symphony in a program featuring Aaron Jay Kernis' Musica Celestis, Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini and the great Elgar Enigma Variations.  

Read More about Daniel Meyer

AFIARA in Hawaii, Mexico, Austria and the UK

March 2013.

The AFIARA STRING QUARTET shook off the winter blues with a February/March Hawaiian tour (yes, we are jealous!) featuring concerts and educational activity at the University of Hawaii, the Hawaii Concert Society and the Kauai Concert Association.  

This month the Quartet stays in warmer climes, traveling to Mexico for three concerts at the ProMusica de San Miguel de Allende -- first, a concert of quartets by Beethoven, Shostakovich and Nielsen; second, Brahms and Dvorak piano quintets with pianist Stephen Prutsman; and third, a screening/performance of Mr. Prutsman's original scores to two masterworks of the silver screen, Buster Keaton's Sherlock, Jr. and the horror film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.  (Read the New York Times review of a recent Sherlock, Jr. performance here.)  

On Sunday the Afiara perform a concert at Cal Performances (UC-Berkeley), featuring Haydn's Op. 74, No. 2, Beethoven's Op. 59, No. 3 and Brett Abigana's String Quartet No. 2.  The date isn't their only California appearance this spring; they return to the West Coast in May for a Stanford Live concert with the Cecilia String Quartet. 

Looking forward, the Afiara perform summer dates in Europe, including a concert in Austria for the Esterhazy String Quartet Festival, and their Wigmore Hall debut.  When back in North America, the Quartet will be guest artists/faculty at the Tuckamore Festival; watch this video to learn more about the Afiara's dedication to educational work, specifically their ongoing residency as the Glenn Gould School Fellowship Quartet at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music.

Read More about Afiara String Quartet

amarcord Presents: from the libraries of Thomaskirche, Leipzig

March 2013.

The libraries of the Thomaskirche ~ the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig where Bach was Cantor and Wagner was baptized ~ house hundreds of musical compositions from throughout Western Music History. 

amarcord, an a capella ensemble whose five singers met and trained as members of the Thomaskirche Boys Choir (an organization celebrating its 800th anniversary in 2012), perform selections from this rich collection of pre- and post-Reformation music, including chant melodies from the 14th century Thomasgraduale, polyphonic works from early Lutheran hymns and motets, and selections from the Geistliche Chormusik (1648) by Heinrich Schütz. 

"The performance proceeded so tightly, so coherently, I easily forgot the challenges faced and surmounted. There is a seemingly effortless ensemble among the members of amarcord, no obvious leader of cues, yet each minutely attuned to the others, With their precise placement of consonants and articulation, there is clearly a single, shared musical impulse among the five singers."  - THE BOSTON MUSICAL INTELLIGENCER, April 4, 2011

 

Catch AMARCORD in action: 

~ returning to The Cloisters of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 7, 2013 at 1pm and 3pm
~ and for Bach Society Houston, April 14, 2013.

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CELENA SHAFER singing Bach, Rossini and more

March 2013.

Soprano CELENA SHAFER returns to the Atlanta Symphony this week, singing Bach's Mass in B Minor with Robert Spano.  

Later this spring she sings Rosina in Utah Opera's The Barber of Seville.  Other recent dates included a Phoenix Symphony Carmina Burana, and a recital at the Deer Valley Music Festival, for which she earned rave reviews.  

"Possessing a crystalline soprano voice that is swathed in warmth and rich luster, Shafer's vocal range seemingly knows no boundaries. She can sing coloratura roles with ease, while at the same time bring an inviting sensuality to dramatic roles. Wonderfully musical, Shafer sings with expression, feeling and lyricism, and it's no exaggeration to say she owns whatever she sings." -- THE DESERET NEWS

Shafer returns to the Deer Valley Music Festival this summer for an evening of opera arias, and next season sings Konstanze in the Utah Opera's The Abduction from the Seraglio.

Read More about Celena Shafer

DASHON BURTON sings Messiah, Elijah, Beethoven 9

March 2013.

After an exceedingly busy December for bass-baritone DASHON BURTON -- he let the trumpet sound in two Messiahs at Carnegie Hall (Oratorio Society on December 17 and Masterwork Chorus December 23) and yet another on the West Coast, in San Francisco with Masaaki Suzuki and the Philharmonia Baroque. (Watch a rehearsal video of the work here!) --  he sings the role of Elijah in the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's presentation of the Mendelssohn masterpiece, tours the St. John Passion to Copenhagen and Budapest with Le Concert Lorrain and Christoph Prégardien, and sings Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Charlotte Symphony this spring.    

In another recent highlight, Burton sang a January presentation of the complete Bach Christmas Oratorio with Julian Wachner and Trinity Wall Street, winning special acclaim: "But most imposing was the bass Dashon Burton. He was especially impressive in that first cantata, where he added power to power in the aria “Great lord, O mighty king,” supplying vivid ornamentation and giving full weight to the rhetorical grandeur." -- James R. Oestreich, THE NEW YORK TIMES, January 6, 2013 

In fact, Burton has been on something of a winning streak -- he won a 2nd prize (no 1st prizes awarded) from the 2012 ARD International Music Competition in Munich, the first prize in Oratorio from the 49th International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch the Netherlands and First Place wins in both the 2012 Oratorio Society of New York Competition and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's Competition for Young American Singers.

Learn a bit more about this fascinating artist in this video interview, filmed in Germany this fall, shortly after the ARD competition.

Read More about Dashon Burton

ELIZABETH FUTRAL sings Musetta, Marion the Librarian and Lucia

March 2013.

2013 has opened with soprano ELIZABETH FUTRAL singing Musetta in Chicago, with the Lyric Opera.  

 

"Soprano Elizabeth Futral was a delight as [Musetta], bringing a bright, vibrant sound and vivacious calculation to her waltz, 'Quando me'n vo.' " - THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Jan. 23, 2013

The production continues with dates throughout March; click here for more information. 

Futral began the season reprising her acclaimed Marian the Librarian in the Glimmerglass' The Music Man, on an international tour to Oman.  (Read this Glimmerglass Blog entry to learn more about the tour.) She also joined Jayce Ogren and the New York Philharmonic for CONTACT! concerts in December, singing Jacob Druckman's Counterpoise: 
"The soprano Elizabeth Futral sang beautifully throughout but reserved her most expressive work for a setting of Apollinaire’s 'Salomé.'  In effect, to borrow Mae West’s old twist on Longfellow, when Ms. Futral was good, she was very good — but when she was bad, she was better." -- THE NEW YORK TIMES, Dec. 26, 2012

Highlights of the coming season include Lucia di Lammermoor with the Portland Opera, the world premiere of Tobias Picker's Dolores Claiborne with San Francisco Opera and Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music with the Houston Grand Opera.

Read More about Elizabeth Futral

Baroque orchestra TAFELMUSIK returns to Galileo

February 2013.

Baroque orchestra TAFELMUSIK takes its celebrated program, The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres, back to the US in 2014, offer a touring period Nov. 5-16, 2014.  

A fusion of art, science and culture in the 17th and 18th centuries, The Galileo Project has Tafelmusik's musicians performing works by Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Bach and Handel, all from memory, amid a backdrop of high-definition images from the Hubble telescope and Canadian astronomers, with poetic narration and choreography. Click on the image above to watch video of the live production.  

"A superb evening" -- THE NEW YORK TIMES
"These are concerts not to be missed.” -- THE AUSTRALIAN
"The program was one of the best I’ve seen in years — a celebration of reason and imagination, whether in art, science or the world of ideas." -- THE KANSAS CITY STAR

The Galileo Project is very much an international success for Tafelmusik; since its premiere in 2009, the orchestra has taken the production to Australia (a tour for which Musica Viva was awarded a 2012 Helpmann Award for Best Chamber and/or Instrumental Ensemble Concert)  and New Zealand, China (narrated in Mandarin), Malaysia, Mexico (narrated in Spanish), and throughout Canada .  In the coming season, Tafelmusik tours Japan and South Korea with a new Japanese-language version of The Galileo Project.

The Galileo Project is available on DVD; email us to request your copy.

Tafelmusik's upcoming highlights include a US tour of its House of Dreams program with dates at the University of Washington, Miller Theatre, La Jolla Music Society, Walt Disney Hall (presented by the LA Phil) and elsewhere.  And, in a fun, just-announced tidbit: Tafelmusik returns to Carnegie Hall in 2014!

Read More about Tafelmusik

JACQUES LACOMBE leads the NJSO Winter Festival, Toledo Symphony and more

February 2013.

Conductor JACQUES LACOMBE got the New Year off to a great start with the New Jersey Symphony's annual "Man and Nature" Winter Festival:
"Jacques Lacombe, the adventurous music director of the ambitious New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, took the stage of Prudential Hall at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center here on Friday night with a mission and a microphone. Both proved assets in a bold undertaking: a performance of the British composer Michael Tippett’s Symphony No. 4, a work probably unfamiliar to most of those assembled, onstage and off."  - THE NEW YORK TIMES, Jan. 6, 2013:

The NJSO just announced its 13/14 season (Lacombe's fourth with the orchestra, which recently extended his contact through 2016) featuring world premieres as part of their New Jersey Roots project, the culmination of the "Man and Nature" festival, and special focus on the music of Richard Strauss, in honor of the composer's 150th anniversary. Taken together, the season reflects  Lacombe's continued drive to lead the organization in dynamic programming (an interest which led to the orchestra's participation in last season's Spring For Music Festival, watch this video detailing their SfM program, which won widespread acclaim as one of the highlights of the festival.) 

In the current season thus far, Lacombe has led the Montreal Symphony's season opener, works with Branford Marsalis at the Cincinnati Symphony, and Carmen with the Deutsche Oper Berlin.  Next month, Lacombe joins the Toledo Symphony for Ravel's Tombeau du Couperin, Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. 

Click here to read a recent CBC profile of Lacombe.

Read More about Jacques Lacombe

ZUILL BAILEY records Elgar, plays Britten

February 2013.

Cellist ZUILL BAILEY adds to his distinguished discography this month, with a new release with the Indianapolis Symphony and its new music director, Krzysztof Urbanski: the Elgar Cello Concerto.  

"Cellist Zuill Bailey has few rivals in terms of sheer sound. His performance of the Elgar Concerto on this live disc with the Indianapolis Symphony represents the ne plus ultra of musical suavity." --  THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, Jan. 13, 2013

"Zuill Bailey’s taut and trim rendering of Elgar’s Cello Concerto is a refreshing break...Bailey impresses with his impeccable musicianship as well as his emotional communication." --  CLASSICS TODAY

Email Charlotte Schroeder for your copy of the album!

The release comes on the heels of a series of fascinating orchestral dates; last week he played a "flawless and emotionally intense" Britten Cello Concerto with Grant Llewellyn and the North Carolina Symphony; last month he performed Bloch's Schelomo and a "a typically assertive, insightful account" of the US premiere of a new concerto by Nico Muhly with Jun Märkl and the Indianapolis Symphony; and last December he performed Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Buffalo Philharmonic.

"Bailey’s approach was reckless and alive...I cannot imagine this music being as exciting in anyone else’s hands." -- THE BUFFALO NEWS, Dec. 1, 2012

Upcoming dates include Haydn with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Elgar with the Victoria Symphony and the Santa Rosa Symphony at the new Green Music Center, and Strauss' Don Quixote with the San Luis Obispo Symphony.

Read More about Zuill Bailey

Conductor Ken-David Masur Joins Colbert Artists

February 2013.

It is our great pleasure to welcome KEN-DAVID MASUR to the Colbert Artists Roster.

Born in Leipzig and raised there and in New York, Ken-David Masur is an international conductor and multi-talented artist who brings the strengths of a central-European pedigree and tradition vibrantly into the 21st Century.

He currently holds the position of Principal Guest Conductor with the Munich Symphony, and is a frequent guest with the Dresden Philharmonic and the National Philharmonic of Russia. With the NPR he's led all-Beethoven programs, Mendelssohn's "Elijah," and returns this month for performances of Bruckner 7 and Barber's First Essay for Orchestra.  Click to watch video of Masur leading the orchestra at the Festival International de Colmar.

Further afield, he’s led concerts with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, and debuts in Japan with the Hiroshima Philharmonic this spring. Stateside, Ken-David resides in California where he is Associate Conductor of the San Diego Symphony, and he is past Resident Conductor of the San Antonio Symphony.  He recently held a conducting fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he led a performance of Schoenberg’s Piano Cto.  with Emmanuel Ax.

 
Masur made his debut with the Boston Symphony proper in 2012 at Tanglewood in a concert shared with his father Kurt Masur, leading Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" and piano concerto K. 491 with Gerhard Oppitz.

"Here in his debut with the Boston Symphony Ken-David Masur led 20 or so string players in a plush account of  'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik' which held no surprises but sounded fresh, thanks partly to careful shaping of dynamics… He gave a fine dramatic cast to the opening, which Mr. Oppitz carried through handsomely, and the two continued to exchange phrases and colorings seamlessly." -James R. Oestreich, THE NEW YORK TIMES July 23, 2012. 

 ***

 

 

Read More about Ken-David Masur

Violinist ANNE AKIKO MEYERS plays Barber, Bach and Bates on the 'Vieuxtemps' Guarneri Del Gesu

January 2013.

This season, violinist ANNE AKIKO MEYERS plays both new and "signature" repertoire in a series of great orchestral dates: the Barber Violin Concerto, which she has played to great acclaim throughout her career; the Bach Double Violin Concerto, which featured on her chart-topping 2012 release with the English Chamber Orchestra,  AIR: The Bach Album; and a new concerto, written specifically for her by the much-in-demand composer Mason Bates: 

~ Dec. 1, 2012, ORPHEUS Chamber Orchestra
at Carnegie Hall, Barber Cto.
~ Dec. 7 & 9, 2012, PITTSBURGH Symphony
 Mason Bates Concerto (world premiere)
~ Feb, 7, 9 & 10, 2013, PHOENIX Symphony
Bach Double Cto. and Barber Cto.
~ Feb. 28, March 1 & 2, 2013, NASHVILLE Symphony
Mason Bates Concerto
 

The Mason Bates project, which Meyers premiered with Leonard Slatkin and the Pittsburgh Symphony and revisits in February with Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony, was developed over several years with Meyers' strong input and advocacy.  As Bates wrote on his blog:  "This is one of the finest, fieriest fiddlers I’ve ever seen, and every note of the piece is written with her blazing musical personality in mind.  And she’s been the perfect collaborator, being painful[ly] respectful of my intentions — while thankfully pointing out the problematic passages."  
Learn a bit about the collaboration on Meyers' blog here.

Other highlights of the season include an acclaimed performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto in E Minor at Chautauqua with Andrew Litton; "a dazzling" chamber concert in Dallas; Mozart Cto. No. 3, K.216 (featuring the Wynton Marsalis cadenzas written for Meyers) with the Reno Philharmonic; performances with the New West Symphony, the Pasadena Symphony and elsewhere.

And, as you may have heard in delightful recent news, Meyers has been given the life-time use of the legendary 'Vieuxtemps' Guarneri Del Gesu.  Click on the image above to watch a video discussing the Ex-Vieuxtemps and to hear Meyers perform on the instrument.

~ ~ ~

Read More about Anne Akiko Meyers

JAYCE OGREN with ICE, the NY Phil and NYCO

January 2013.

The current season is something of a New York moment for conductor JAYCE OGREN -- he kicked off the season at Mostly Mozart, led Stravinsky/Balanchine programs with the New York City Ballet in the fall,  and last month led the International Contemporary Ensemble at Miller Theatre in the American premiere of Olga Neuwirth's “... ce qui arrive ...” He also made his New York Philharmonic debut leading CONTACT! concerts at both Symphony Space and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with new works by Andy Akiho and Jude Vaclavik, and a recent work by Andrew Norman.  Also on the New York Phil program was Elizabeth Futral singing Jacob Druckman's Counterpoise.  (That's the kind of concert we at Colbert heartily approve of!)

"The conductor Jayce Ogren, in his Philharmonic debut, cued ['Oscillate'] with precision...Clearly treacherous to play, 'Try' received a brilliant account here. The Philharmonic should consider using it to open a subscription concert." -- Steve Smith, THE NEW YORK TIMES, Dec. 26, 2012

In the New Year Ogren returns to New York City Opera (where he has led several productions to great acclaim, most notably Bernstein's A Quiet Place) for two new productions.   First, in February and March he leads Britten's The Turn of the Screw at BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House (part of NYCO's celebration of the Britten centenary) , and in April he leads Rossini’s Moses in Egypt at the New York City Center.

The February edition of Opera News (subscribers should have already gotten it in the mail!) features an interview with Ogren in which he discusses these works.  Look just to your right for an excerpt!

Read More about Jayce Ogren

PAUL JACOBS: American Mavericks and more

January 2013.

The end of 2012 saw organist PAUL JACOBS moving forward at full steam -- in November he played recitals in Milwaukee and San Antonio, and he joined Houston's River Oaks Chamber Orchestra for a performance of Alexandre Guilmant's Symphony No. 1 for Organ and Orchestra.  (Check out this CultureMap Houston interview -- which aptly refers to Jacobs as "the Michael Phelps of organ" -- to learn more about the Guilmant.) 

In December Jacobs joined the New World Symphony for the Lou Harrison Concerto for Organ and Percussion Orchestra.  It was fitting that he play the work in the year's final month, as it "played" a major part in his 2012 -- he performed the Harrison in San Francisco, Ann Arbor and at Carnegie Hall with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony for American Mavericks.  The performances won praise throughout the season, including a nod from Zachary Woolfe in The New York Times as one of the best performances of 2012, and have recently been released as a live album by SFS Media (rated a 10/10 by AmericanClassics.com and named one of the best recordings of the year by the San Jose Mercury News)  

Upcoming concerts include recitals for the Seattle Symphony; the Edmonton Recital Society; both the Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 and a world premiere from Stephen Paulus with Phoenix Symphony; a return to the Pacific Symphony for performances of the Saint-Saens and a solo recital of Parisian music; plus performances of J.S. Bach's Clavier-Übung Book III with choir hosted by the San Francisco Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony.  Be sure to visit Paul's excellent website to learn more about his schedule: www.pauljacobsorgan.com

Read More about Paul Jacobs

DASHON BURTON: sounding the trumpet

January 2013.

Although Christmas may be past, Trinity Wall Street celebrated the 12 liturgical days of Christmas with a January presentation of the complete Bach Christmas Oratorio, featuring bass-baritone DASHON BURTON as a soloist.  Burton won special acclaim for his contribution:  "But most imposing was the bass Dashon Burton. He was especially impressive in that first cantata, where he added power to power in the aria “Great lord, O mighty king,” supplying vivid ornamentation and giving full weight to the rhetorical grandeur." -- James R. Oestreich, THE NEW YORK TIMES, January 6, 2013. 

These concerts followed an exceedingly busy December for Burton; he "sounded the trumpet" in two Messiahs at Carnegie Hall (Oratorio Society on December 17 and Masterwork Chorus December 23) and yet another on the West Coast, in San Francisco with Masaaki Suzuki and the Philharmonia Baroque. (Watch a rehearsal video of the work here!) He also sang a second holiday program with the Philharmonia; two of Bach's sacred works - Cantata No. 63, "Christen, ätzet diesen Tag" and the "Magnificat."

As Joshua Kosman wrote for the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, "the evening's greatest rewards came from the vocal soloists, who brought the performances of two of Bach's sacred works - Cantata No. 63, 'Christen, ätzet diesen Tag' and the 'Magnificat' - to a high level of tonal splendor and reflective depth...Burton's agile, full-bodied singing lent a rhythmic spring to "Quia fecit mihi magna..."

In fact, 2012 was something of a banner year for Burton -- he won a 2nd prize (no 1st prizes awarded) from the 2012 ARD International Music Competition in Munich, the first prize in Oratorio from the 49th International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch the Netherlands and First Place wins in both the 2012 Oratorio Society of New York Competition and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's Competition for Young American Singers.

Burton's pace does not slack in 2013; he sings the role of Elijah in the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's presentation of the Mendelssohn masterpiece; tours the St. John Passion to Copenhagen and Budapest with Le Concert Lorrain and Christoph Prégardien; and sings Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Charlotte Symphony later this spring.    

Learn a bit more about this fascinating artist in this video interview, filmed in Germany this fall, shortly after the ARD competition.

Read More about Dashon Burton

Pianist RAN DANK Joins Colbert Artists

December 2012.

Colbert Artists is pleased to announce that the pianist RAN DANK,  "a strong player with technique and imagination" whose "fascination with textural clarity is a consistent hallmark of his style" has joined our roster for world-wide management.  (The New York Times) 

A singular artist, Ran Dank's collaborative skills and performances -- from solo recitals, to duo recitals with pianist Soyeon Kate Lee, to chamber music, to orchestral dates with the Sydney Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Pheonix Symphony, the Ann Arbor Symphony and others -- have marked him as a musician of tremendous skill and deep feeling. 

Click on the image above to hear Dank perform Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No, 3, Mvt. 3, with the Sydney Symphony, and below to hear him perform Beethoven's Op. 27, No. 1 Quasi una Fantasia.

Read More about Ran Dank

TRIO JEAN PAUL and the gold standard

November 2012.

In reviews of the TRIO JEAN PAUL -- made up of Eckart Heiligers, piano, Ulf Schneider, violin, and Berlin Philharmonic principal cellist Martin Löhr,  -- the phrase "gold-standard" keeps popping up (as well as comparisons to that standard-bearer of chamber trios, the Beaux Arts Trio):

“At their best, these Germans might represent the new gold standard in piano-trio performance.”  - THE MONTREAL GAZETTE 

"Speaking of trios, there's one from Germany that may well be setting a new gold standard for technical fluency and expressive impact. Trio Jean  Paul gave an electrifying performance Sunday night  for the Shriver Hall Concert  Series, a performance so rich in character, so full of ideas that I hated for it to end." - THE BALTIMORE SUN

Coincidence? We think not. 

On February 13, 2013, Trio Jean Paul takes their gold standard performance to Wigmore Hall playing one of the programs they offer in North America January 21-February 2, 2014: 
BEETHOVEN:  Piano Trio in E-Flat Major, Op. 1, No. 1
Wolfgang RIHM: Fremde Szene 3 (listen here)
~~~
SCHUBERT:  Piano Trio No. 1 in B-Flat Major, D. 898, Op. 99 (listen here)
                                                                   
OR
 
BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 1, No. 3
GRIEG: Andante con moto in C Minor
~~~
DVORAK: Piano Trio No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 65

Read More about Trio Jean Paul

HEATH QUARTET at Aldeburgh, Wigmore, BOZAR

November 2012.

The dynamic young HEATH QUARTET, praised by Gramophone last month for its "really engaging sense of interplay," made its debut at the Palais de Beaux-Arts in Brussels (BOZAR) this week, and now looks forward to a return to Wigmore Hall on December 23, 2012 for a program (or should we say programme) of works in E-flat: Mozart's String Quartet K.428 in E-flat Major and Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 3 in E-flat Minor.

The new year finds the Quartet touring the United Kingdom, and in residence at Aldeburgh.  

Their debut North American tour period is MARCH 31 - APRIL 14, 2014:

Beethoven: Quartet in B-flat Major,  Op. 18, No. 6
Bartók: Quartet No. 2
~~~~~~~~ 
Mendelssohn: Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13
     or 
Schubert: Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, “Death and the Maiden”

Enjoy this video with excerpts from the Heath Quartet's full Beethoven String Quartet Cycle at the 2011 FÀCYL Festival (Spain).

Read More about Heath Quartet

ALINA & CÉDRIC Return To the US

November 2012.

CÉDRIC TIBERGHIEN and

ALINA IBRAGIMOVA play all-Schubert at Wigmore, return to the US

Violin/piano duo ALINA IBRAGIMOVA and CÉDRIC TIBERGHIEN, who have won accolades for their recordings and live performances alike, kick off the new year with a tour of Schubert-focused programs.  They begin with a sold-out recital at Wigmore Hall on January 7, and and then hit Netherlands, Denmark, the Theatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and elsewhere.

These Schubert programs stem from a recent trip to the recording studio; connoisseurs of the duo's Live At Wigmore Beethoven Sonatas discs, and the albums of complete violin/piano music of Ravel and Szymanowski from Hyperion can look forward to a 2013 all-Schubert album from Hyperion.

(Listen here to Wigmore podcast offering a conversation between Ibragimova and Tiberghien about the Beethoven sonatas.) 

And for those of us here in North America, hungry to hear the duo's Schubert, rest easy -- we can hear Ibragimova/Tiberghien playing Schubert, Beethoven and more, March 16, 2013 at Baltimore's Shriver Hall, and March 17, at Lincoln Center. 

Looking further forward, the pair returns to North America next season, playing an intriguing mix of Mozart, Beethoven and John Cage, February 14- 23, 2014.

Read More about Cédric Tiberghien

ALINA & CÉDRIC Return To the US

November 2012.

CÉDRIC TIBERGHIEN and

ALINA IBRAGIMOVA play all-Schubert at Wigmore, return to the US

Violin/piano duo ALINA IBRAGIMOVA and CÉDRIC TIBERGHIEN, who have won accolades for their recordings and live performances alike, kick off the new year with a tour of Schubert-focused programs.  They begin with a sold-out recital at Wigmore Hall on January 7, and and then hit Netherlands, Denmark, the Theatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and elsewhere.

These Schubert programs stem from a recent trip to the recording studio; connoisseurs of the duo's Live At Wigmore Beethoven Sonatas discs, and the albums of complete violin/piano music of Ravel and Szymanowski from Hyperion can look forward to a 2013 all-Schubert album from Hyperion.

(Listen here to Wigmore podcast offering a conversation between Ibragimova and Tiberghien about the Beethoven sonatas.) 

And for those of us here in North America, hungry to hear the duo's Schubert, rest easy -- we can hear Ibragimova/Tiberghien playing Schubert, Beethoven and more, March 16, 2013 at Baltimore's Shriver Hall, and March 17, at Lincoln Center. 

Looking further forward, the pair returns to North America next season, playing an intriguing mix of Mozart, Beethoven and John Cage, February 14- 23, 2014.

Read More about Alina Ibragimova

AMARCORD: 20th Anniversary CD

November 2012.

The exquisite a capella ensemble AMARCORD celebrates both its 20th anniversary and the 800th year of the St. Thomas Boys' Choir -- the choir of the famed Leipzig church where Bach served as Cantor and Wagner baptized, and where the five members of amarcord first met as choristers. 

This disc, their 23rd recording, features selections from the rich music library of St. Thomas Church, with both pre- and post-Reformation music, and chant melodies from the 14th century Thomasgraduale.  Listen to excerpts, and learn more about the program -- which amarcord offers on tour November 7-17, 2013 -- here.

Read More about amarcord

Till Fellner tours in 2014

November 2012.

TILL FELLNER returns to North America

 

March 8 – April 4, 2014

playing:

 

MOZART Rondo in A minor, K. 511

BACH from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II:

Prelude and Fugue No. 5 in D major, BWV 874

Prelude and Fugue No. 6 in D minor, BWV 875

Prelude and Fugue No. 7 in E-flat major, BWV 876

Prelude and Fugue No. 8 in D-sharp minor, BWV 877

HAYDN Sonata No. 50 in D major, Hob XVI: 37

-----

SCHUMANN  Davidsbündlertänze, Op.6      

 

***

 

This season Fellner will perform recitals in the US and Canada including Carnegie Hall on April 26, 2013, and for San Francisco Performances on April 29, 2013.  He also returns to the Montreal Symphony for Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3  led by Kent Nagano.

(Check out the ECM Fellner-OSM-Nagano Beethoven Nos. 4 & 5 here.)

 

***

 

Listen here to the Prelude and Fugue in F-Sharp Major, from Fellner's critically acclaimed ECM recording, Bach: Das Wohltemperierte Klavier I.

 

***

 

Please contact Chris Putnam , Lee Prinz and Amy Carson-Dwyer with booking inquiries, and visit us online to learn more: 

 

www.TillFellner.com

 

www.ColbertArtists.com 

 

“It would be hard to imagine a better pianistic exposition of this music.  Colours were subtly mixed.  Rhythmic control was impeccable.”
– Arthur Kaptainis, THE MONTREAL GAZETTE

"Mr. Fellner played with magisterial restraint and myriad colorings. And when the prestissimo coda of the finale arrived, for once it truly seemed a wild and crazy final outburst." - Anthony Tommasini, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Fellner has the technique to produce sonic thunder...but he is a musician who most often speaks in an articulate, nuanced voice, mindful both of detail and the big architectural picture." - Donald Rosenberg, THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

"His unerring musicality is almost monumental in itself." - Alex Ross, THE NEW YORKER

Read More about Till Fellner

Paul Jacobs, Michael Tilson Thomas, and the San Francisco Symphony: American Mavericks

November 2012.

Today the San Francisco Symphony's in-house label, SFS Media, releases American Mavericks, a hybrid SACD recording featuring rarely recorded works by three American composers, Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison and Edgard Varèse. 

Grammy-award winning organist PAUL JACOBS is featured as a soloist on the album, performing Harrison's Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra.  This recording is drawn from last season's acclaimed American Mavericks tour, which saw Jacobs, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony perform in San Francisco, Ann Arbor, and in New York at Carnegie Hall.  American Mavericks is Jacobs' second recording with Tilson Thomas and the SFS; his first was Copland's Organ Symphony, released in 2011. 

This week American Mavericks is WQXR/Q2's Album of the Week; you can stream the full album here. 

Jacobs plays the Harrison Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra next month in Miami with the New World Symphony, and performs in Texas this week, playing a Tuesday Musical Club recital in San Antonio tonight, and Felix-Alexandre Guilmant’s Symphony No. 1 for Organ and Orchestra with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra this weekend in Houston.

Listen here to a recent Texas Public Radio interview with Jacobs about his San Antonio recital program.

Read More about Paul Jacobs

JACK Quartet with Pollini, Arditti and at the Met Museum

October 2012.

The intrepid JACK Quartet wholly embraces the gifts of the new, focusing their dynamic energy on the performance and recording of new and contemporary works. 

The 2012 recipient of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming (Ensemble), JACK Quartet was just awarded the 2012 Trailblazer Award by New Music USA.  The award is intended to "recognize those whose contribution is of significant promise now and for the future; persons of great expectations deserving of support and recognition today." Previous recipients include George Steel/Miller Theatre, International Contemporary Ensemble, and So Percussion.  

We can see the "significant promise" of JACK in action over the coming months:  when they inaugurate the University of Iowa's String Quartet Residency program; when they collaborate with the Arditti Quartet at Wigmore Hall; in Tokyo at Suntory Hall, where they join pianist Maurizio Pollini for a "Perspectives" program; at Duke Performances, in collaboration with composer/guitarist Steve Mackey, and performing Georg Frederich Haas' String Quartet No. 3, In iij. Noct, a JACK calling card, played in total darkness. 

Then, in December, JACK is presented in a special concert called "Modern Medieval" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in front of the Museum's Christmas Tree and Neopolitan Baroque Crèche.  The program pairs three world premieres with arrangements of Gregorian chant and motets, exploring emotional and musical parallels between works written centuries apart. 

For those of you intriguied by this program, take note: JACK offers "Modern Medieval" in 2013/14 . 

Read More about JACK Quartet

ANNE AKIKO MEYERS premieres Mason Bates concerto in Pittsburgh, joins Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

October 2012.

After winning widespread critical and popular acclaim for her 2012 Bach album, Air, violinist ANNE AKIKO MEYERS is bringing a new work to audiences this season, playing the world premiere of composer/DJ Mason Bates' Violin Concerto in December 2012 with Leonard Slatkin and the Pittsburgh Symphony. 

We asked Meyers to share her thoughts about working on the Bates piece, and she explained:

"I am thrilled to premiere Mason Bates' first violin concerto-actually his first concerto for any instrument. I have been very interested in his work for some time and asked him to write some cadenzas for the Beethoven Violin Concerto, several years ago.

 

I love the overall process of collaborating with living composers, as we can discuss technical aspects to help achieve the storyline the composer has so deeply in mind. Understanding the soul of the piece is what's important and we have done a lot of work via Skype! 

The premiere feels much like giving birth to a child. I look forward to sharing this beautiful work with audiences soon."

She repeats the Bates' in the winter of 2013 with Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony. Other upcoming dates include the Barber Concerto (a special favorite of Meyers', which she performed last month with the New West Symphony for their season opener) with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and with the Phoenix Symphony (where she also performs the Bach Double Violin Concerto with concertmaster Steven Moeckel.) Later, in the Spring of 2013, she joins the Reno Philharmonic to play the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3, with cadenzas written for her by Wynton Marsalis.

Read More about Anne Akiko Meyers

Colbert Dispatches: Ursula Oppens

October 2012.

Pianist URSULA OPPENS and JEROME LOWENTHAL perform the world premiere of Frederic Rzewski's Piano Four Hands on December 1 at New York City's floating concert hall, Bargemusic. Oppens also recently appeared with The Orchestra of the S.E.M Ensemble at Carnegie Hall as part of their Beyond Cage celebrations.

Read More about Ursula Oppens

Colbert Dispatches: Paul Jacobs

October 2012.

On October 23, Juilliard School organists -- under the leadership of Organ Department Chair, PAUL JACOBS --  played works by Juilliard composers, including five world premieres and two New York premieres.  

Speaking of PAUL JACOBS, click here to learn about his new recording of Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra, with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, part of last year's wildly popular American Mavericks festival.

Read More about Paul Jacobs

Contrasts and harmonies: Hamelin, Marwood & Fröst

October 2012.

New relationships prove fruitful in chamber music -- and it is our distinct pleasure to offer you a glimpse of a tantalizing chamber music trio: pianist MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN, violinist ANTHONY MARWOOD and clarinetist MARTIN FRÖST. 

How did this trio come about? It grew into a reality from a series of delightful summer festival collaborations; in recent years Marc-André Hamelin and Martin Fröst played together at the Risør Music Festival in Norway and at Ojai Music Festival in California, and Martin Fröst performed with Anthony Marwood at his festivals in Sweden and Norway, and at Marwood's Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival in the UK.  
Once the idea of a collaborative program took hold, Bartok's Contrasts offered a great foundation for a touring program, which evolved into the following: 

Schubert: Rondo in B minor for violin & piano

Debussy: Première Rapsodie for clarinet & piano

Stravinsky: Suite from L'histoire du Soldat for violin, clarinet & piano

-----

Poulenc: Sonata for clarinet & piano

Debussy: Sonata for violin & piano

Bartók: Contrasts for violin, clarinet & piano

We can't wait to hear this in person!  Contact us for more information, and to inquire about touring times.

Read More about Anthony Marwood

YOLANDA KONDONASSIS and Jason Vieaux "Knock on Wood"

October 2012.

This week harpist YOLANDA KONDONASSIS reunites with duo partner guitarist Jason Vieaux, for a concert at the State University of New York, Buffalo.  The program features the artists in solo and collaborative works, and includes the world premiere of a work written especially for them, Knock on Wood, by composer Keith Fitch. 

Máximo Diego Pujol: Suite Magica
Isaac Albéniz: Sevilla for solo guitar
Alan Hovhaness: Sonata for harp & guitar, Op. 374, “Spirit of Trees”
Keith Fitch: Knock on Wood for harp & guitar - world premiere
Carlos Salzedo: Chanson Dans la Nuit for solo harp
Xavier Montsalvatge: Fantasia for harp & guitar

Kondonassis explains, "Jason, Keith and I know one another because we all teach at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and this collaboration has been in the works for some time. Both Jason and I are excited to bring a new piece to the harp/guitar repertoire and look forward to the premiere. The piece explores the unique sonorities of both instruments and functions like an animated conversation between the two."

Kondonassis, long an advocate for her instrument, actively works to expand the harp's repertoire, working with composers and presenters alike to commission and fund new works. Some of her projects in development include Morpheus for Harp and Orchestra by Lauren Keiser, a new concerto from Jennifer Higdon, and a concerto by acclaimed young composer (and harpist) Hannah Lash, A Thousand Ophelias.  In 2008, she performed the world premiere of Bright Sheng's Never Far Away, co-commissioned by the San Diego Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and recorded by Kondonassis with the San Diego Symphony, on Telarc Records.  

Ms. Lash's concerto builds on a long-term relationship with Yolanda Kondonassis; she studied harp performance with Kondonassis at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and last year Kondonassis and the JACK Quartet performed the world premiere of Ms. Lash's Filigree in Textile at Miller Theatre in New York City, as part of the American Composers Orchestra's SONiC FESTIVAL. 

Yolanda Kondonassis' 2012/13 season also includes performances of the Ginastera Harp Concerto with the York, El Paso and Austin symphony orchestras, and a solo recital program, "Conversations from the Harp" at El Paso Pro Musica and at the Museum of Music Making in Carlsbad, California.

Read More about Yolanda Kondonassis

The Afiara String Quartet: recording, touring, and more

October 2012.

The brilliant young Afiara String Quartet have begun an exciting season, opening with dates at Calgary Pro Musica (see review on the right), the University of Maine Collins Center for the Arts, and returning to  the Royal Conservatory of Music where they are The Glenn Gould School's Quartet-in-Residence (watch this video to learn more about the residency.)

In the winter, the Afiara tours Denmark and Hawaii, and returns to Mexico's ProMusica San Miguel de Allende for a series of concerts including a reunion with composer/pianist Stephen Prutsman.  They also appear in California at UC-Berkeley's Cal Performances, in collaboration with the Caecilia Quartet at Stanford Live, and in June 2013 return to Europe for dates at the Esterhazy Foundation in Austria and their London debut at Wigmore Hall.

With all this in motion, the Afiara String Quartet also looks forward to programs in 2013/14, including impeccable works from the core repertoire alongside a recent masterwork.

The AFIARA STRING QUARTET in 2013/2014:

PROGRAM  1
Beethoven: String Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2
Peteris Vasks: String Quartet No. 4
--------
Dvorak: String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96 "American"
 
 
PROGRAM  2
Mozart: String Quartet No. 4 in C major, K. 157
Nielsen: String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13
--------
Debussy: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10
Or Beethoven: String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131
 
As you will see in the video below, Beethoven plays an important role in the Afiara's current and future programming.  In fact, they are in the midst of a Beethoven recording project sponsored by The Banff Centre, a result of their Szekely Prize for Best Beethoven Performance at the 2010 Banff International String Quartet Competition and they will be featured on November 18, 2012 in WQXR's Beethoven String Quartet Marathon, part of the station's back-by-popular-demand Beethoven Awareness Month.

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Roger Tapping joins the Juilliard Quartet, Sept 2013

October 2012.

Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi announced yesterday that violist Roger Tapping will join the JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET beginning in September 2013. He also becomes a member of Juilliard’s viola faculty beginning with the fall 2013 semester. Mr. Tapping currently is a faculty member at New England Conservatory, and for a decade was a member of the Takács Quartet. Violist Samuel Rhodes, who has been a member of the Juilliard String Quartet since 1969, and a teacher at Juilliard, remains on the faculty at Juilliard as Chair of the Viola Department. He celebrates his 44^th and farewell season with the Quartet – whose other members are violinists Joseph Lin and Ronald Copes, and cellist Joel Krosnick – performing with them throughout this season and into July, for their annual Ravinia Festival appearance.

 

In announcing Mr. Tapping's appointment, President Polisi stated, "It is with great enthusiasm that the Juilliard community welcomes Roger Tapping as violist of the Juilliard String Quartet and to the faculty of the School, beginning next season. The JSQ has been one of the most important ensembles before the public since its creation in 1946, and has existed as the foundation for string chamber music studies at Juilliard for decades. Roger Tapping’s appointment continues this long tradition of excellence as our distinguished colleague Sam Rhodes steps down from his position with the ensemble. I wish to express my personal gratitude to Sam for his artistry and his leadership as a member of the Quartet and the Juilliard faculty, and look forward to his continuing presence as a viola teacher and chamber music coach at the School.”

 

The Juilliard String Quartet was founded 66 years ago as the School's resident quartet by Juilliard President William Schuman. During that time, thirteen string players have had the honor of calling themselves members. (See the chronological roster on the right.) The Quartet's international career has encompassed performances throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and South America. In this, Mr. Rhodes’ final season, the Quartet performs throughout the US, and internationally tours to Taiwan, China, Japan, Switzerland and Germany, where they will play the five late quartets of Beethoven (repertoire that is a particular focus throughout the season.)

 

The continuing members of the Quartet expressed their enthusiasm for their new colleague by saying, "We are pleased and excited to welcome Roger Tapping to the proudly shared tradition of the Juilliard Quartet. Roger is a passionate chamber musician and an inspiring teacher. It is a privilege to join with him in rehearsing and performing the great string quartet repertoire, and we look forward to many years of musical adventures."

 

Born in England in 1960, Mr. Tapping moved to the U.S. in 1995 to join the Takács Quartet, known for their virtuosity and innovative programming. His decade as their violist included performances in major cities throughout the world as well as award-winning recordings. Before coming to the U.S., Mr. Tapping played in,  and recorded with a number of London’s leading chamber ensembles before joining Britain’s longest established Allegri Quartet. He taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London, was principal viola of the London Mozart Players, a member of the English Chamber Orchestra, and a founding member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Mr. Tapping joined the faculty of New England Conservatory in 2005.

 

Mr. Tapping spoke about his new position with the Juilliard String Quartet, saying, “I can't believe how fortunate I am to have the chance to play string quartets again, and, incredibly, in this quartet with its great curiosity and soul and its rich and distinguished history. I'm still pinching myself. Sam Rhodes is the most inspiring role model in every way - a beautiful player and a great example of warmth, intelligence and humility. I wish him a wonderful farewell season, and I will always have him in mind as I look forward to many happy years ahead with my new colleagues.”

 

Samuel Rhodes is celebrating his 44th year as a member of both the Juilliard String Quartet and the faculty of The Juilliard School, where he is chair of the viola department. He has served on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center, and has been a participant in the Marlboro Festival since 1960. He has appeared as a guest artist with many ensembles including the Beaux Arts and Mannes trios, and Trio Cavatina; and with the Afiara, American, Arianna, Brentano, Chiara, Cleveland, Galimir, Guarneri, Mendelssohn, Pro Arte, Sequoia, and Shanghai string quartets. To commemorate his 40^th year both in the Juilliard String Quartet and as a faculty member of The Juilliard School, he performed a recital featuring works composed especially for him – Babbitt’s Play It Again, Sam, Carter’s Figment IV, and Martino’s Three Sad Songs, as well as works by Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Hall Overton.  

 

Mr. Rhodes received his instrumental training from Sydney Beck and Walter Trampler. He has a B.A. from Queens College, New York and an M.F.A. from Princeton University where he studied composition with Roger Sessions and Earl Kim. As a composer, his String Quintet has been performed by the Blair, Composer’s, Galimir, Pro Arte and Sequoia Quartets. The Pro Arte recently recorded the quintet with the composer as guest artist.

(A full biography of Mr. Rhodes can be found on the Juilliard website at: juilliard.edu/newsroom/releases.)

 

Reflecting on the change and the start of his farewell season with the Quartet, Sam Rhodes said, “It is with mixed feelings of great regret and joyous anticipation of the future that I enter my last season with the JSQ. I am grateful for the privilege I have had to rehearse, debate, recreate and perform the most profound, intimate and sometimes heaven-storming music. The violist who has accepted my colleagues’ invitation to join them, Roger Tapping, has the artistry, experience and expertise to take part in carrying the quartet forward with the same spirit and ideals as it has had in the past. In recognition of my farewell and Roger’s welcome, we will be performing a few special programs that include my own string quintet and one of Mozart’s.”  

 

One of those ‘special’ performances takes place in New York at Alice Tully Hall on February 26, 2013, when the Juilliard String Quartet performs Beethoven, and Mr. Tapping joins them as guest violist for performances of Mozart’s Viola Quintet in D, K. 593 and Mr. Rhodes’s own Viola Quintet. The concert is the second of two free New York appearances that are a regular part of Juilliard’s Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recital Series. (The first, on November 26, features two Beethoven String Quartets – Op. 131 in C-sharp minor and Op. 132 in A minor.) Further information is available at events.juilliard.edu. Other ‘quintet’ performances take place in Philadelphia, on February 24; and at Ravinia, marking Mr. Rhodes last official concert as a JSQ member on July 10.

 

Roger Tapping’s career with the Takács Quartet included many Beethoven and Bartók cycles in major cities throughout the world. Their recordings for Decca/London, including the complete quartets of Bartók and Beethoven, placed them in Gramophone Magazine’s Hall of Fame, garnered them three Gramophone Awards, a Grammy and three more Grammy nominations, three Japan Record Academy Chamber Music Awards, the BBC Music Disc of the Year Award, and the Classical Brits Award for Ensemble Album of the Year. As a member of the Takács Quartet, Mr. Tapping taught regularly at the Aspen Festival, the Taos Quartet School, and London’s Guildhall School of Music. In addition to studio teaching at the New England Conservatory, Mr. Tapping directed their Chamber Music program. He also taught at the Longy School in Cambridge and Boston Conservatory, and has continued to play as a recitalist and chamber musician, performing frequently as a guest with quartets from the U.S. and Europe, and as a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society.  During summers, Mr. Tapping serves on the faculties of Itzhak Perlman’s Chamber Music Workshop, the Tanglewood String Quartet Seminar, and the Yellow Barn Festival. He also gives viola and chamber music master classes at festivals and conservatories in the U.S. and Canada.

 

Mr. Tapping is a member of the Order of the Knight Cross of the Hungarian Republic, has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Nottingham, and is a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music in London. He holds degrees from the University of Cambridge. His teachers were Margaret Major, of Britain’s famed Aeolian Quartet, and Bruno Giuranna in Berlin, and he has participated in master classes with William Primrose.

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Conductor Jayce Ogren joins Colbert Artists

October 2012.

Ogren joins us in the midst of a highly charged New York City season, including his Mostly Mozart debut conducting the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) this August; in September leading STRAVINSKY/BALANCHINE: The Collaboration with the New York City Ballet; and conducting two new upcoming productions at New York City Opera: Britten's The Turn of the Screw and Rossini's rarely heard Moses in Egypt.  
PLUS he makes his New York Philharmonic debut in December leading CONTACT! concerts, in a program that includes world premieres of two New York Philharmonic commissions.

An American of Swedish ancestry, JAYCE OGREN is a triathlete, a Fulbright Scholar, the leader/founder of the genre-bending band Young Kreisler, and a published and performed composer -- all this in addition to being a conductor who served 3 years as Assistant Conductor at The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (watch this video about his COYO tenure,) and an apprenticeship with Alan Gilbert at the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.  
Ogren's guest appearances in recent seasons have included engagements with the Boston Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin.  

A man who loves singers, Ogren has an established track record of success in the pit, having led Le Rossignol for the Canadian Opera Company, and The Magic Flute and Bernstein’s A Quiet Place (to great acclaim) at New York City Opera -- the latter leading to his being tapped by the Bernstein family to lead the European premiere of "Bernstein's West Side Story with Orchestra."  This exacting and exhilarating project landed him in sold-out concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London this past summer; he repeats the work with the Detroit Symphony and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa this season.  “In many ways the star of this particular show is the conductor Jayce Ogren who got a thoroughly well-deserved standing ovation.” (The Daily Mail)

Read More about Jayce Ogren

The Colbert Conversation: JEANNETTE SORRELL

September 2012.

In July, the Cleveland Plain Dealer published a profile (written by long-time Plain Dealer journalist Donald Rosenberg) of conductor and harpsichordist JEANNETTE SORRELL, focusing on her leadership of the Cleveland-based, internationally renowned baroque orchestra, Apollo's Fire.

We thought our Colbert contacts might enjoy learning a bit about Sorrell's work with the ensemble she founded in 1992, and so have included some excerpts from the article below.  
We of course also encourage you to explore Sorrell's excellent work outside of Cleveland -- this season she leads the Pittsburgh Symphony in concerts of Bach's Six Brandenburg Concertos, and the Akron Symphony in a program of Bach and Handel. Her other guest engagements in America have included the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston (conductor and soloist), the Opera Theatre of St. Louis with the St. Louis Symphony (conductor), the Grand Rapids Symphony (conductor and soloist), and the Elgin Symphony (conductor.)

 

Jeannette Sorrell provides the sparks that light Apollo's Fire

Published: Sunday, July 29, 2012
By Donald Rosenberg, The Plain Dealer 

 (you can read the full version here.) 

In the 20 years since she founded Apollo's Fire, Sorrell has shown a remarkable ability to keep musical motors humming while shrewdly nurturing an organization that has become a central player in the artistic life of Cleveland and well beyond.

***

Sorrell knows that the crossover programs she devises featuring traditional (folk) music have raised the eyebrows of early-music purists, but she doesn't care. She applies the same research and performance standards to popular music of ancient times that she does to "serious" concert fare.

"I try to find out about the context of the music, how it was performed, the social-political context and, in some cases, a lot of research has to be done of the instrumental options," she says.

"I feel that's merely the starting point. I don't think that's what music is about. When that work is done, we go back to the purpose of music, which is the role of the musicians to move the emotions of the listener. To me, that's what musical performance has to be about. It's not about where you start the trill."

**
Paul Jarrett, executive director of Apollo's Fire, describes her input this way: "Jeannette's amazing attention to detail permeates every aspect of the organization and encourages everyone to work to the very best of their abilities."

Jarrett's view is seconded by recording producer Erica Brenner, who has worked with Sorrrell on most of the orchestra's discs. Brenner says that while the Apollo's Fire boss has the final word on artistic issues, she cultivates a collaborative environment. "I really like working with her because she's a creative ball of fire," says Brenner. "She's also fearless with regard to trying things and getting what she wants. I have found it an incredibly rewarding experience."

***
This season, Sorrell leads Apollo's Fire on tour to the Schubert Club for A Night at Bach's Coffeehouse, and to the Pittsburgh Renaissance and Baroque Society for Sacrum Mysterium: A Celtic Christmas Vespers.

Read More about Jeannette Sorrell

ANNE AKIKO MEYERS: This September

September 2012.

Violinist ANNE AKIKO MEYERS took some time to speak with Japan Cinema this month. Enjoy the candid interview here. This week she opens the New West Symphony's season with a signature work -- the Barber Violin Concerto -- and later this fall she revisits the Barber at Carnegie Hall with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. (Watch archival video of Meyers playing the Barber here.)

Read More about Anne Akiko Meyers

JACQUES LACOMBE with the Montreal Symphony

September 2012.

This month conductor JACQUES LACOMBE led the Montreal Symphony in concerts of an OSM classic -- Debussy's La Mer.  
"Just like old times? Well, yes, if brilliant colours and vital rhythms can be said to exemplify the OSM approach. The ending of the Jeux de vagues was as calm and exquisite as the opening of the Dialogue du vent et de la mer was menacing and turbulent. Execution was superb, the principals making chamber music on a panoramic scale." -- THE MONTREAL GAZETTE, Sept. 14, 2012
Lacombe opens the New Jersey Symphony season this weekend in a program of Harbison, Gershwin, Grofé and Ellington with guest artist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Learn more here.

Read More about Jacques Lacombe

MARINO FORMENTI with the Berliner Festspiele

September 2012.

On September 29, pianist/conductor MARINO FORMENTI begins a three-week piano performance at the Berliner Festspiele: NOWHERE, a remarkable installation he describes as “A kind of pagan chapel where life and music can become one.”  The entire performance will be streamed live through his website, www.marinoformenti.com -- tune in any time, day or night, to commune with this wildly original artist.

Read More about Marino Formenti

ZUILL BAILEY with the Anchorage Press

September 2012.

Cellist ZUILL BAILEY recently sat down and spoke with the Anchorage Press about his work as Music Director of the Sitka Summer Music Festival, a position he officially assumed this season.  Read the interview here. 
Active as both an impresario and a soloist, Bailey celebrates his tenth year as Artistic Director of El Paso Pro Musica this season, and was recently named Artistic Director Designate of the Northwest Bach Festival.

Read More about Zuill Bailey

ADAM GOLKA plays with the Omaha Symphony

September 2012.

After a summer that included a delightful step-in recital for Mostly Mozart, pianist ADAM GOLKA opened the Omaha Symphony season this past weekend, playing Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2.  See the concert details here. 
Although we can't take you directly to the performance, we can share some wonderful Golka Beethoven with you here -- he plays the Hammerklavier in this live video.  Enjoy!

Read More about Adam Golka

Prokofiev and more: ALINA IBRAGIMOVA in the US

September 2012.

Next month, Hyperion Records releases violinist ALINA IBRAGIMOVA's newest recording: the Mendelssohn Violin Concertos with Vladimir Jurowski and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.  You can preview the album on the Hyperion website, and click here to watch video of Alina performing the work last December at the Concertgebouw, with Philippe Herreweghe and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic. 

She made her first 12/13 appearances in the US this past weekend, playing Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1 with Thierry Fischer and the Utah Symphony.  

"[She] projected even the softest pianissimo passages of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with power and a beautifully smooth tone...Ibragimova spun out the long melodies of the outer movements with grace, patience and eloquence." -- Catherine Reese Newton, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, Sept. 21, 2012

Ibragimova's other North American dates this season include a return to the Seattle Symphony for the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Jakob Hrusa and recitals with regular duo partner, pianist CÉDRIC TIBERGHIEN in Baltimore at Shriver Hall and in New York City at Lincoln Center. 

She tours this fall with pianist Stephen Kovacevich, playing a program of Brahms and Takemitsu in Mumbai and Pune, India, and in the UK at Wigmore Hall.  She also participates in a special 20th Birthday Concert for the Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican in London, and plays the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in East Asia, with Yip Wing-sie and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and with Lang Shui and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. 

Read More about Alina Ibragimova

A Wigmore Hall debut for MASQUES

September 2012.

Montreal-based baroque chamber ensemble MASQUES toured France and made its UK debut this month at Wigmore Hall, playing a program of works rooted in stylus fantasticus, described by the 17th-century polymath Athanasius Kircher as "the most free and unrestrained method of composing."

The ensemble also recently wrapped recording of a new album, due out on Fugera Libera next year, which will feature the music of Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. Click here for a concert video of Masques performing Schmelzer's Sonata in A.  

In addition to their annual concert series in Montreal at the Church of Saint John the Evangelist, where the ensemble is in residence, Masques performs works by J.S. Bach, Buxtehude and Schenk at the Festival Bach de Montréal in December 2012. They also appear at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, and perform various chaconnes by Lully, Marais and Purcell at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in collaboration with the dance ensemble Les Jardins Chorégraphiques.

In February, Masques performs The Entertainment of Louis XV, with music drawn from concerts sponsored by Louis XV's lover, the Marquise de Pompadour, for Early Music Now in Milwaukee.

Read More about Masques

Burton wins prize at ARD International Munich

September 2012.

Congratulations are due to bass-baritone DASHON BURTON: this month he won 2nd Prize in the ARD International Music Competition Munich. This award follows his recent first-prize win in the 2012 Oratorio Sociey of New York solo compeition-- watch a video covering his win in that competition here.

Read More about Dashon Burton

AMARCORD and the music of Thomaskirche, Leipzig

September 2012.

The libraries of the Thomaskirche ~ the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig where Bach was Cantor and Wagner was baptized ~ house hundreds of musical compositions from throughout Western Music History. 

amarcord, an a capella ensemble whose five singers met and trained as members of the Thomaskirche Boys Choir(an organization celebrating its 800th anniversary in 2012), perform selections from this rich collection of pre- and post-Reformation music, including chant melodies from the 14th century Thomasgraduale, polyphonic works from early Lutheran hymns and motets, and selections from the Geistliche Chormusik (1648) by Heinrich Schütz. 

"The performance proceeded so tightly, so coherently, I easily forgot the challenges faced and surmounted. There is a seemingly effortless ensemble among the members of amarcord, no obvious leader of cues, yet each minutely attuned to the others, With their precise placement of consonants and articulation, there is clearly a single, shared musical impulse among the five singers."  - THE BOSTON MUSICAL INTELLIGENCER, April 4, 2011

Read More about amarcord

JACK Announcement

September 2012.

It is our very great pleasure to announce that JACK Quartet has joined Colbert Artists for world-wide management.  As you likely know, JACK has won rapturous critical and popular praise in recent seasons for their technically superb, utterly ardent performances of new and recent works.  

“It would be hard to imagine an ensemble playing it with greater virtuosity than the JACK Quartet, which seemed not merely earnest but also completely comfortable with, and passionate about, the strange sound worlds at hand.” -- Allan Kozinn, The New York Times

As we begin our work for them, here are JACK programs on offer for 13/14:

Program I
Georg Friedrich Haas: String Quartet No. 5 (2007)
John Zorn: The Alchemist (2012)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Helmut Lachenmann: String Quartet No. 3 "Grido” (2001)

Program 2: Modern Medieval
Gregorian Chant: Rorate Caeli arr. by JACK Quartet
Michael Harrison: Chant (2012)
Guillaume Dufay: Moribus et genere (1442) arr. John Pickford Richards
Sasha Zamler-Carhart: The St. Francis String Quartets (2010)
Rodericus: Angelorum Psalat ca. 1400 arr. by Christopher Otto
Toby Twining: New work (2012)

JACK QUARTET: Christopher Otto violin • Ari Streisfeld, violin • John Pickford Richards viola • Kevin McFarland cello
(Photo order above, John, Ari, Christopher, Kevin, credit to Henrik Olund.)

Read More about JACK Quartet

JSQ Commission Announcement

September 2012.

The members of the Juilliard String Quartet have commissioned American composer Jesse Jones, winner of the Elliott Carter Rome Prize for 2012/13, to write a work for premiere performances in the 2013/14 season.  Jones has kindly offered the following remarks as he prepares for his year at the American Academy in Rome:

I am thrilled and honored to compose a piece for the Juilliard String Quartet.  The depth of their knowledge and devotion to music, old and new, as well as the intent, urgency, and authority with which they play it, has inspired me since my youth.  Much of what I love in music I first discovered in JSQ recordings, and so I take this commission very seriously.   I am especially excited to work again with Joseph Lin, who, through repeat performances of my violin concerto (For a Faded Mind), has championed my music for several years now.  

Joseph has inspired me again and again with his masterful playing (especially of Bach), and the care and thought he gives to each note has caused me to rethink my approach to composition.  I am certain my friendship with Joseph will play an important role in the piece I write for the JSQ.

Formally, my piece will have five movements, each referencing a certain poetic text.  The music will explore the spiritual and literal dimensions of religious mysticism and symbolism, as embodied in certain poetry: Yeats, Aquinas, Lamartine, etc.  To achieve this, I intend to wed musical aspects of certain texts with luminous microtonal harmonies, in hopes to create a sonic embodiment of their unspoken, spiritual ³meaning.²  In other words, I intend to create a sounding board from which the sentiments of the texts,without actually being spoken, can freely resonate in the listener.  For this I plan to transcribe and orchestrate samples of the human voice‹inflected speech,sighs, and song‹so that the music flows directly from the sinew of genuine human expression.


For more information about Jesse Jones, and to listen to excerpts of his violin concerto, For a Faded Mind, performed by Joseph Lin, visit www.jessejonescomposer.com

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The Cleveland Plain Dealer profiles Jeannette Sorrell

August 2012.

Jeannette Sorrell provides the sparks that light Apollo's Fire

In this July 2012 Plain Dealer profile, journalist Donald Rosenberg explores Jeannette Sorrell's leadership of Apollo's Fire, the acclaimed Cleveland-based Baroque orchestra she founded in 1992. 

 

 

Read More about Jeannette Sorrell

Elizabeth Futral: Summer Wrap-up

August 2012.

This summer soprano ELIZABETH FUTRAL has won resounding acclaim for her portrayals of two very different women: Émilie du Châtelet and Marian Paroo. 

Yes, that's right -- this week she finishes a 13-show run of The Music Man at Glimmerglass, a show she did while also singing the sole role in Kaija Saariaho's operatic monodrama "Émilie" as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. 

What might have been a feat of endurance for some artists was carried off with grace and musicality by Ms. Futral, as described in a July 18 profile in The New York Times:

"Ms. Futral bridges it easily, perhaps because she embodies a bit of both women: the forthright Marian Paroo and the brilliant Émilie, a pioneering 18th-century physicist, mathematician and thinker whose brief, turbulent life included extended affairs with Voltaire. Ms. Futral is the most gracious of magnolias, with just enough steel in mind, will and spirit to have propelled her to the top of her profession and kept her there for some two decades. Her luscious, pliant voice has allowed her — at 48, an age at which many lyric coloratura sopranos begin winding down — to take cannily calculated steps outside her comfort zone."

Read the full profile here. 

In the 12/13 season Elizabeth Futral will continue on her distinctive path, reprising Marian in The Music Man when the Glimmerglass Festival tours the production to the Royal Opera House Muscat in Oman in October; singing Jacob Druckman's  Counterpoise with Jayce Ogren and the New York Philharmonic CONTACT! series in December; singing Musetta in Lyric Opera of Chicago's La Bohème; joining the Grand Rapids Symphony for Stephen Paulus' To Be Certain of the Dawn; and singing Hester Prynne in the world premiere of Lori Laitmann's The Scarlet Letter for Opera Colorado.

And next week she joins pianist Ran Dank and clarinetist Todd Palmer for a chamber music program presented by Concerts at Tannery Pond. 

Read More about Elizabeth Futral

Paul Jacobs at Westminster Cathedral

August 2012.

After a successful season filled with American recital dates, a tour with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, and world premieres of works by Michael Daugherty and Mason Bates, organist Paul Jacobs performed in London for the first time on July 25, at Westminster Cathedral as part of the Grand Organ Festival 2012. For the concert, Jacobs was delighted to play works by Elgar, Bach, Boulanger, Demessieux, and Wayne Oquin.

The evening began with Edward Elgar's Sonata in G Major, Op. 28. Written in a frenzy of inspiration in 1895, this substantial but little-known large-scale work requires the organist to function almost as the conductor of a large orchestra, commanding a vast tonal palette and wide range of expression from the instrument's thousands of pipes. Jacobs continued with Reverie by composer Wayne Oquin (b. 1977). Reverie was commissioned by Jacobs in 2008 and had received several performances across the United States. He also played Nadia Boulanger's Trois Pieces (1911). The work of an extremely self-critical composer (whose work as a teacher shaped generations of composers in the 20th century)Trois Pieces provided a rare glimpse into Boulanger's creative output. The night concluded with several of the legendary organ virtuoso Jeanne Demessieux's Transcendental Etudes, Op. 5 (1944). Demessieux herself performed in Westminster Cathedral.

* * *

The Grand Organ of Westminster Cathedral is considered by many to be the greatest achievement and crowning glory of Henry Willis III, one of England's finest organ builders. The first state of the organ was dedicated by Marcel Dupré in 1922. In 1932, the organ was completed with specification now 11 stops larger than had originally been intended. Since its inauguration, the instrument has been heard in concerts played by many celebrated organists from around the world including Louis Vierne, Fernando Germani, Jeanne Demessieux, Pierre Cochereau, Jean Langlais, George Thalben-Ball, Ralph Downes, Jean Guillou and others.

From April to December 2012, Westminster Cathedral presents a series of eight concerts under the name Grand Organ Festival. The unique and inspiring atmosphere of this sacred space creates a magnificent setting for organ music, and the position of the great four manual instrument high above the West Door provides the listener without he most direct and comprehensive range of sound and color of any cathedral organ in the country.

An extraordinarily expressive performer and an intensely intelligent musician, Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs is helping the King of Instruments retake its rightful place in classical music. He is known for his marathon performances, which sometimes last up to 18 hours, of the complete works of Bach, Messiaen, and other composers, as well as his presentations of new works and core repertoire. Jacobs was invited to join the faculty of the Juilliard School in 2003, and was named chairman of the organ department in 2004, one of the youngest faculty appointees in the school’s history. He received Juilliard’s prestigious William Schuman Scholar’s Chair in 2007. More information on Paul Jacobs can be found on his website, www.pauljacobsorgan.com. 

Read More about Paul Jacobs

Jacques Lacombe with the New Jersey Symphony

July 2012.

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Music Director Jacques Lacombe has extended his contract through the 2015–16 season, the Orchestra has announced. The acclaimed conductor, who began his tenure with the NJSO in 2010, will continue in that capacity for three years beyond his current contract, which expires at the end of August 2013.

“My experiences as Music Director of the NJSO over the past two seasons have been both enjoyable and creatively stimulating,” Lacombe says. “I have relished the opportunity to bring this great Orchestra to venues throughout and beyond New Jersey, and I have appreciated the chance to become familiar with wonderful, diverse communities across the state. I am thrilled to extend my relationship with the NJSO, and I look forward to continuing to present captivating programs and to interacting with the audiences and communities of New Jersey.”

Since becoming the NJSO’s Music Director in October 2010, Lacombe has won praise from critics and audiences for his creative programming and his talents on the podium. Under Lacombe’s leadership, the NJSO has presented daring new programs and engaged in inspired collaborations with other institutions in New Jersey and beyond. Highlights of the NJSO’s “Man & Nature” Winter Festivals have included performances of Tan Dun’s Water Concerto, Scriabin’s Prometheus: The Poem of Fire—with a realization of the composer’s “color organ”—and the commissioning of the Francesca Harper Project to create original choreography for Beethoven’s ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. Through the New Jersey Roots Project, Lacombe has led the orchestra in performances of new and recent works by composers deeply influenced by their time in the Garden State, including Tobias Picker, Robert Aldridge, George Antheil and others.

NJSO Board Co-Chair Ruth Lipper says: “Jacques has invigorated the Orchestra both on and off stage, with fresh takes on beloved orchestral music, an investment in new and deserving works and a desire to be a part of the New Jersey communities in which the NJSO makes its home. We are thrilled that he will continue to lead the Orchestra beyond next season.”

The National Order of Québec recently knighted Lacombe, bestowing Québec’s highest honor on the conductor as an “outstanding [individual] who [has] helped increase Québec’s renown and left a strong, lasting mark on all or part of Québec itself.”

Lacombe made his Carnegie Hall debut with the NJSO on May 9 to widespread critical acclaim. The Orchestra was selected to perform as part of the Spring for Music Festival on the strength of the music director’s bold programming proposal. “It was an honor to be in the hall for the astonishing performance of the Busoni [Piano Concerto] by [pianist Marc-André Hamelin], the orchestra and the chorus,” writes Anthony Tommasini for The New York Times of the NJSO’s performance of the rarely performed concerto Lacombe chose as the program’s centerpiece.
(You can listen to the performance here, through the WQXR archives, and read a Wall Street Journal interview with Lacombe and Marc-André Hamelin about the program here.)

Says NJSO Board Co-Chair Stephen Sichak Jr.: “Jacques has captivated audiences, musicians and critics with his compelling programs and engaging personality. He has led our Orchestra to new artistic heights, and his Carnegie Hall debut with the NJSO at Spring for Music has been an acclaimed highlight of the Orchestra’s recent history. He is a true asset to the NJSO, and we are very pleased to extend our relationship with him.”

Visit Jacques Lacombe's website here.

Read More about Jacques Lacombe

Colbert Artist DASHON BURTON's first place win

June 2012.

Congratulations to bass-baritone Dashon Burton – who joined the Colbert roster in June 2012 – on his first place win at the prestigious 2012 Oratorio Society of New York Vocal Competition on April 14th, 2012.

 

The Lyndon Woodside Solo Competition was founded in 1975 by the Oratorio Society of New York, and is the only major competition to focus exclusively on oratorio singing. As the recipient of the Ruth Lopin Nash Award for First Place, Burton took home a $7,000 prize.

 

On August 3rd, Dashon performs Françaix's Le diable boiteux  at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

 

To learn more about Burton's musical perspective and education, and to hear him in performance, click here.

Read More about Dashon Burton

Lincoln Center Festival news

May 2012. Something to look forward to in the summer -- soprano ELIZABETH FUTRAL reprises her searing portrayal of Kaija Saariaho's one-woman opera Émilie for the Lincoln Center Festival.  Learn more about the performance here.

Read More about Elizabeth Futral

The Colbert Conversation: JACQUES LACOMBE

May 2012.

Photo: Saed Hindash, The Star-Ledger

There's been a lot of buzz (in places like here, here and here) about tonight's Carnegie Hall Spring for Music concert by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, programmed and led by Music Director JACQUES LACOMBE, and featuring pianist MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN playing the epic Busoni Piano Concerto.

Since we at Colbert have something of an inside angle on this event, we thought we'd offer you some insight directly from Maestro Lacombe.

Can you tell us what was your inspiration for the Spring for Music program, which will juxtapose works by Varèse, Weill and Busoni?
I first intended to plan it around the Busoni. I was hoping to be able to be at Carnegie, especially with Marc-André, because we’ve done it before together and he’s one of the best pianists who play this music right now. So it’s good because he has a significant relationship with the orchestra and with me, and that all made sense.

So I started with the Busoni in mind, and then I explored different aspects of it. Actually, I realized Busoni was a composition teacher in Vienna and two of his students were Weill and Varese, and that’s how I came up with the idea of putting these two different composers next to Busoni. It’s fascinating to see three different aesthetics, three different styles, and yet they all came from the same school so to speak.

You will be conducting Mahler’s 9th Symphony in June. Other than perhaps praying no cell phones go off, how will you prepare for this undertaking?
(Laughs) For Mahler’s symphonies you are never finished discovering. It’s true of all the great composers. I know that Bernstein at the end of his life was saying he was still studying Beethoven’s 7th and still discovering things. In the case of Mahler of course, especially in this symphony No. 9, the message beyond the notes is so deep that you have to put yourself in a very special mood where you reflect on life. It’s a farewell to life, a farewell to a lot of things.  I always read a bit about either his life or what was the genesis of the works, or that specific period in time. So it’s something that is very close to me right now.

In February you conducted the Montreal Symphony, and received critical acclaim for rekindling the ‘classic OSM sound.’ As Principal Guest conductor from 2002 to 2006, you have a long history with the orchestra. Can you tell us something about your rapport with this orchestra?
I feel I pretty much grew up with this orchestra. One of my first positions was Assistant Conductor with the Montreal Symphony and even before that I studied conducting in Montreal, so I have had their ‘sound’ in my ears since…well almost since the beginning of my training as a conductor. I grew up with their style and approach to playing, especially with certain repertoire -- obviously the French repertoire, 20th century repertoire and Russian repertoire, including the Prokofiev I did with them. So it’s an orchestra that I think I know very well, and they know me very well. When I was Principal Guest Conductor with them for four seasons, I did 25 to 28 concerts per year so it was a significant part of their season. The relationship has always been very constructive, I think, on both sides.

In May you will conduct the Deutsche Oper in a program involving two rarely performed operas -- Die Dorfschule by Felix von Weingartner and Carl Orff’s Gisei – Das, Opfer which was not performed until two years ago, nearly a century after it was composed by a 17-year-old Carl Orff.
These two works are based on the same Japanese tragedy. It’s interesting because Orff wrote this opera when he was 17 years old and I think if I’m not mistaken at that time he was assistant to Weingartner so that was in Germany, in an opera house. They are two different styles. The Weingartner piece has a lot to do with the late German romantic, so it’s somewhat close to Richard Strauss and Zemlinsky. The Orff piece is interesting…it’s a lot harder to describe what style it is, because I guess he was still searching, (as usually happens when you are 17 years old).

Stylistically the two pieces are musically quite different, but it’s part of the Deutsche Oper’s project of rediscovering the repertoire from the beginning of the last century. I did Der Traumgörge by Zemlinsky a couple years ago, and more recently Oberst Chabert by the relatively unknown composer von Waltershausen, which we recorded and which was broadcast on German radio and made as a CD also.

This concert will also be recorded and broadcast on German radio.

What draws you to these works?
I’ve always been interested in many different styles of music. I’ve never been labeled and typecast, and I was very happy about that. I conduct operas, I conduct symphonic repertoire, I used to conduct ballet also. And from time to time I conduct works that don’t necessarily already have a tradition of performance. There is a certain freedom to recreate something, even if it was composed 100 years ago, that puts you in the shoes of the people who actually premiered it.

That is why I sometimes like to do world premieres. I did one this weekend with the New Jersey Symphony and one last month also with New Jersey – George Walker’s Sinfonia No. 4. As a programmer, I also like to sometimes put in my program repertoire that could be potential discoveries for the audience. When I first started with NJSO, Carmina Burana was the main piece, but in the first half I put two pieces that are more rarely performed: this dance by Debussy and also the Cunning Vixen Suite by Janácek. It’s part of my philosophy as a programmer to try to include also lesser-known repertoire from the past and to bring it to life again.

We know this question is rather a cliché, but the answer is always interesting. If you were stuck on a deserted island, and could only have one score and one disc with you, what would it be?
The good thing is that because I conduct from memory I have a lot of scores already in my head. So I guess as conductors we are very fortunate that even if we didn’t have a CD player or an iPod or whatever it is to use, we are still able to hear music in our head.

My, God. How many am I allowed?

Only one CD.

If it was only one … that’s hard.  If I had to take one it would probably be Bach’s St. Matthew Passion or something like that, or the B-minor Mass. It purifies your soul. This music is really out of this world. These are incredible masterpieces and I just find that it’s full, and has everything in terms of expression. You could look at it from a purely emotional point of view. You could look at it from a musical point of view. You could look at it from a mathematical point of view. You would find satisfaction on all levels. There are very few works that actually have all those qualities at such a high level. And I just find that Bach is healthy to have near your heart.

Read More about Jacques Lacombe

Opera News honors Anja Silja

May 2012.

 On Sunday, April 29, soprano ANJA SILJA was honored at the Opera News Awards.  As Brian Kellow wrote in the April 2012 edition of Opera News:

 

"Those of us who have been lucky enough to experience her in the theater know instinctively that this is no 'mere' singer but a bona fide genius -- a woman who works miracles onstage." 

 

Read the full tribute here.

 

(Photo: Colbert manager Lee Prinz with Silja at the April 29 gala. Credit Charlotte Schroeder)

 

Read More about Anja Silja

Praise for the Dvorak Cello Concerto

May 2012.

Cellist ZUILL BAILEY just received exceptional praise from Gramophone Magazine for his recent Telarc recording of the great Dvorak Cello Concerto (with Jun Märkl and the Indianapolis Symphony.) 

"Until now, the recording to recommend was the celebrated DG version featuring the partnership of Rostropovich and Karajan, ideally coupled with Tchaikovsky‘s Rococo Variations. But this wonderfully spontaneous new version by Zuill Bailey and Jun Märkl tends to sweep the board.... All in all, this is an unforgettable performance."

This weekend, Bailey performs the Dvorak with Maximiano Valdes and the Hawaii Symphony.

Read More about Zuill Bailey

Expanding the Concert Experience:MARINO FORMENTI

May 2012.

Pianist/Conductor MARINO FORMENTI is a true musical explorer, seeking the edges of the contemporary concert experience, and pushing past "business as usual" barriers. From his recital presentations of Kurtag's Ghosts to his conducted, curated programs like The Party, he challenges typical concert structures while illuminating the heart of music with delicate, sensual light.

April and May see two of these projects in full force. 

NOWHERE: In the Cage
NOWHERE is a Formenti invention in which he uses a duration of time -- anywhere from 24 hours to two weeks -- to live (eat, sleep, perform) in a public space, while playing music in a near continuous fashion, to allow the listeners to be a visceral part of the experience.  It is a form of meditation, and a journey deep into the essential nature of music.
From April 24 through May 5, Formenti presented NOWHERE: In the Cage, in Bologna's Piazza de'Celestini, as part of the Angelica Festival Internazionale di Musica. 

This particular iteration of NOWHERE focused on the music of John Cage, alongside works by Brian Eno, Erik Satie, Morton Feldman, Louis Couperin and others.  The performance was live-streamed through Formenti's website for the duration of the event. Although that video is no longer available, you can get a taste of the NOWHERE experience through this video from the first presentation of the project, at the Steireisher Herbst Festival in 2010.

THE PARTY
This weekend, on Saturday, May 12, Formenti and the inventive Ensemble Dal Niente present The Party.
Featuring a menu of excellent food and drink directly inspired by the works on the program, The Party invites the audience to a communal event where each individual can move through the space, sit, stand, eat, listen, watch and ultimately shape their own experience.

In this environment, Formenti will both conduct Dal Niente and play the piano in a program featuring works by Stockhausen, Xenakis, Alex Mincek, Bernard Lang, Marcos Balter, Scelsi, Feldman, Ustwolskaja and others.

Learn more about the event here and click here  for a WFMT program with host Andrew Patner that describes Formenti's work and reasoning behind this unusual concert program.  (Please note, Mr. Patner's discussion of Formenti and The Party is on the second half of the program.)

Read More about Marino Formenti

Collaborations, recordings & a book from YOLANDA KONDONASSIS

May 2012.

As anyone who has met YOLANDA KONDONASSIS can attest, the Grammy-nominated harpist is a veritable fount of energetic creativity. Her spring season is brimming with varied events, and provides a great snapshot of her exceptional artistry.  

Recent highlights include:

-- Masterclasses, outreach, and a performance of the Ginastera Harp Concerto in Brazil, with the Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais and Music Director Fabio Mechetti. (We have heard nothing but rapturous feedback from the orchestra!) See details of the performance here.

-- The release of her 16th recording Solo Harp:  The Best of Yolanda Kondonassis on Azica records. Celebrating 20 years of recording, The Best of Yolanda Kondonassis features some of her favorite works and interpretations including pieces by Bach, Gershwin, Hasselmans, Pierné, Saint-Saëns, Salzedo, and Satie. 

Click here for a video preview of the album, with a candid interview with Kondonassis.

-- On April 22 -- Earth Day -- the widespread release of Kondonassis' first children’s book, Our House is Round:  A Kid’s Book About Why Protecting Our Earth Matters, by Skyhorse Publishing.   According to Fred Krupp, President of the Environmental Defense Fund, “it is the perfect children’s introduction to environmental issues.  It’s a must for every school and family library.”

-- The first of a series of collaborations with guitarist Jason Vieaux, with an April concert in Cleveland, featuring solo and duo works by Hovhaness, Montsalvatge, Mozart, Salzedo, Gershwin and others:
"Is it possible for harp and guitar, together or alone, to have a potent impact? Kondonassis and Vieaux proved without doubt Sunday at Pilgrim Congregational Church in Tremont that penetrating artistry has little to do with volume or overt virtuosity...Kondonassis and Vieaux deserve to be termed magicians for the way they shaped phrases with natural fluidity, grace and, when required, fiery drama. Their program of duo and solo pieces, presented by Arts Renaissance Tremont, was a joy from top to bottom." 
- Donald Rosenberg, THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, April 23, 2012

Read More about Yolanda Kondonassis

The Colbert Conversation: Maestro Daniel Meyer

April 2012.

As Music Director of the Asheville Symphony and Erie Philharmonic, you have made some bold program choices, like mixing John Adams' Lollapalooza with Sibelius' Fifth Symphony. What do you think makes for an interesting program?
 
For me, a program always has to have a sense of adventure – some degree of risk-taking and some element of the unknown.  At the end, you should sense that only that combination of pieces could have worked together with those musicians on that particular night.  Some of it's alchemy, some of it's good planning, and some of it is just mixing the right ingredients at the right time.
 
Part of my philosophy on programming comes from having worked often with living composers. I was fortunate enough as Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony to work with composers like Christopher Rouse, Christopher Theofanidis, and Richard Danielpour. It fascinated me to learn that they love Beethoven, Dvorák, and Tchaikovsky just as much as I do, and that they really think of themselves as part of an artistic continuum from earlier works to today.
 
I really believe that composers today want to write music that is listenable and accessible – accessible meaning that even if they are writing on a difficult theme, they are interested in making an immediate impact on the audience.  Of course, when I choose any music for a particular program, I need to feel strongly about the piece and that I have something to say about it.  The next step is to give it a context – maybe the composer was inspired by a life-changing event or another great work of art. It makes all the sense in the world to me to program today's music alongside those masterpieces. 
 
You studied conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, and you returned to Europe last May to rave reviews in a performance with the State Theater Orchestra of Stuttgart with violinist Thomas Zehetmair. What was this like?
 
It was a thrill for me to make my German debut under such great circumstances. They're a superb orchestra who can play anything with a high degree of finesse, and it was a special opportunity to collaborate with Zehetmair to play Szymanowski as only he can.  I think perhaps my facility in German went a long way in making an immediate connection with the musicians.  They were pleasantly surprised that an American conductor could speak with them and rehearse with them entirely in German.  From the first rehearsal there was a wonderful spirit and collaboration – we relished working together. The opportunity to have five or six rehearsals to craft a distinct impression on the music is a joy, and it's the way I like to make music.  I really like to dig out the details of the music, create just the right colors, and help the musicians feel like what they've accomplished is really getting behind the notes and exploring the essence of why the music was written in the first place.  And I think those things really helped us understand each other and led to a vivid and colorful performance where we trusted each other to a high degree, even though it was my first engagement with the orchestra.
 
As a student, I wanted to be steeped in Vienna's incredible musical culture.  Living there, studying at the Hochschule, enrolling in the conducting class where I studied under a pupil of Hans Swarowsky, I absorbed everything I could.  It was also critical for me to observe rehearsals, concerts and opera.  I was at the state opera at least three or four nights a week. And if I wasn't there, I was attending different performances at the Musikverein, especially Vienna Philharmonic rehearsals and concerts. To watch and listen to this great orchestral culture and absorb how these conductors were making music had a profound influence on me – and in particular brought me to a special understanding of the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler and Bruckner. I remember attending Nikolaus Harnoncourt's Concentus Musicus concerts and feeling excited about how he brought his "modern" ideas about performance practice to the music. The music-making was always fresh, the phrases and gestures always seemed to dance.
 
How do you go about learning a new work?
 
Each new piece has its own set of rules.  A completely new work demands something quite different from, say, a Beethoven score, where I already have a grasp of its language, style, and context.  Part of it has to do with just sitting down and wrestling with the notes and phrasing and how the music is constructed. I feel that as a composer I have kind of a head start in figuring out how a piece is put together. With that said, I always try to investigate other music by the same composer, composers of the same period, and what might have been happening in political history and art history. Was there a specific reason or occasion for that piece to be written? What was the original audience expecting from that piece?  And once I feel like I have absorbed those elements, I feel like I can start to formulate an opinion and an interpretation.
 
I've been fortunate to observe Mariss Jansons conduct Shostakovich, Manfred Honeck conduct Mozart. There's a wonderful lineage of great interpreters and performances that inform the choices I make, and I come to each work with a deep intensity and total commitment to bringing out the music's essence.  It's a balance between staying true to what's been written on the page, and finding the inner fire and sweep of the music that brings it to life.
 
What inspired you to become a conductor?
 
I came to conducting as a composer.  As a young composer, I was offered an opportunity to conduct my Stabat Mater for chorus and orchestra. When I first stood in front of my colleagues and started to move my arms and elicit music that I had written, it was the most phenomenal lightning bolt moment for me as an artist. And I thought, I have to figure out what it takes to make this my life – because I hadn't conceived of making it my life up until that point.  The emotional rush, the intellectual challenge, the idea of making seemingly esoteric ideas physical and then bringing them to life was thrilling to me.  I've always been attracted to figuring out how things work, and how things are put together. For me, cracking open a full score was so satisfying, whether it was a Bach Passion or Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis." I was so interested in the intricacies of how all those musical ideas were put together to create an inspiring whole.
 
If you were stuck on an island and could only have one piece of music, what would it be, and why?
 
I've always had a special affection for Mozart's C Minor Mass. I love how it's everything you'd expect from Mozart – majestic, glorious, complex – yet it also has moments of such tenderness and intimacy. I also like the fact that it's incomplete – somehow that mystery continues to fascinate me for what might have been.

Next up, DANIEL MEYER leads the Erie Philharmonic in Schoenberg's "A Survivor from Warsaw" and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. 

Read More about Daniel Meyer

CSO, Washington DC and more with MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN

April 2012.

It's been quite a spring for the incomparable MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN.  He opened the season -- the official Spring season, that is -- with the Chicago Symphony, playing the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 with Kirill Petrenko, and winning praise across the board:

"The concerto's cut-glass brilliance and mordant wit were made to order for a virtuoso such as Marc-Andre Hamelin. Making his subscription series debut, the pianist brought incisive attack, fastidious fingers and cool objectivity to the outer movements, where he and CSO principal trumpet Christopher Martin mirrored each other's dexterity." - March 23, 2012, John von Rhein for THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"Hamelin’s ingenious idea to offer as an encore — one demanded by repeated curtain calls from the cheering, standing audience — the first movement of Mozart’s deceptively challenging 'simple' C Major Sonata, K. 545, makes one eager to hear him in his own pieces in May in the CSO’s 'Keys to the City Piano Festival.' He should be a frequent guest on future CSO programs." - March 24, 2012 Andrew Patner for THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.

As Mr. Patner mentions, Hamelin returns to Chicago on May 27 for the Keys to the City Piano Festival (at the invitation of curator Emanuel Ax) where he will perform selections from his own works on the official "Chicago Piano Day."

His Chicago Symphony concerts were preceded by a Far East tour, including performances with the Singapore Symphony and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and were followed by a recital tour, taking him to Montreal, Toronto, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. 

"Virtuoso pianists tend to be divided into two groups: those of supreme technical ability and those with a profound aptitude for expression. These two groups are often treated as if they were mutually exclusive, and critics are fond of exclaiming when a member of one group shows himself able to travel into the terrain of the other.
The Canadian pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin is a prime example of this kind of crossover artist. His technical facility is breathtaking: The piano quivers and trembles under his thunderous assault. But his sensitivity is also superb. In a recital of the music of Chopin and Charles-Valentin Alkan that was never less than engaging, he linked two composers — one familiar, one not — by underlining their similarities, not to say their operatic sides." -- April 3, 2012 Anne Midgette for THE WASHINGTON POST

Next up is a recital tour in Germany -- Dusseldorf, Munich and Schwetzingen -- and then a return to Carnegie Hall in May for Spring for Music.  Hamelin joins Jacques Lacombe and the New Jersey Symphony for a much buzzed about program, featuring the extraordinary Busoni Piano Concerto.

And this month opened with the announcement from the Canadian Recording Arts Society that Hamelin's Liszt Piano Sonata disc was awarded the Juno for Best Classical Album (Solo or Chamber.)  Congratulations to Mr. Hamelin!

Read More about Marc-André Hamelin

JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET: the season wrap-up

April 2012.

From the first concerts in the fall and throughout the season, it has been clear that this is a wonderfully vivid and fruitful time for the JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET. 

We take this opportunity to share with you a few highlights out of many:

-- Right after a WFMT "Impromptu" performance and interview, the JSQ headed to the Martin Theatre to perform their season-opening concert at the Ravinia Festival,

-- The Year of the Grosse Fuge: Throughout the season, the Quartet has performed Beethoven's Opus 130 with the Grosse Fuge.  This magnificent work is truly something that must be lived with -- and this particular JSQ process was captured in a documentary video which will be released early next season. Click here to see a preview!

-- The JSQ had a special round of performances this season in its hometown, New York City.  This included dates with thePeoples' Symphony, downtown at the groundbreaking nightclub (le) Poisson Rouge for a special mid-January performance, and at Lincoln Center, in two Alice Tully Hall dates for the Juilliard School. As Allan Kozinn wrote in THE NEW YORK TIMES :
"A beautifully balanced, transparent account of the Haydn, with spirited interplay in the Menuet and a tightly controlled finale, quickly created the sense that the quartet was feeling energized and renewed. The vital, warm-hued performance of the Martino made the point that new music would continue to be close to the heart of this quartet’s mission and that its latest configuration was suited to its challenges."

-- In the fall, the JSQ toured the Far East, with dates at the Macau Festival in China, and throughout Japan, in Osaka, Niigata and in Tokyo.

-- In 2012, the Quartet headed to Europe, playing dates in Germany, France and London, where they joined pianist Stephen Hough for a program of American chamber music at Wigmore Hall and for a BBC Radio 3 "In Tune" program.

-- The Quartet made welcome returns to several venues this season, including Stanford Lively Arts and Cornell Concert Series.

-- This month, after the second of their two annual dates with Philadelphia Chamber Music Series, the JSQ heads back to Europe, playing in Istanbul, Munich, Copenhagen, and Birmingham.

Finally, the season ends at the Juilliard School, which will host the weeklong Juilliard String Quartet Seminar 2012, through which the JSQ will offer coaching, mentoring and inspiration to the apsiring quartets of the future. 

Read More about Juilliard String Quartet

Ursula at LPR

April 2012.

Pianist URSULA OPPENSand the JACK Quartet joined forces early this month at NYC's (le) Poisson Rouge, for a program of Nancarrow (including his Two Canons for Ursula) and Charles Wuorinen, including the New  his Piano Quintet and the New York premiere ofOros.

"Ursula Oppens has spent decades performing new music and has forged working connections with some of the most important composers around. Her playing reflects this sense of investment in the music, and her experience and expertise ring out of the piano." - blog review, I Care If You Listen

Read More about Ursula Oppens

Ursula at LPR

April 2012.

Pianist URSULA OPPENS and the JACK Quartet joined forces early this month at NYC's (le) Poisson Rouge, for a program of Nancarrow (including his Two Canons for Ursula) and Charles Wuorinen, including the his new Piano Quintet and the New York premiere of Oros.

Read More about Ursula Oppens

ANTHONY MARWOOD plays Britten, Hugh Wood and more

April 2012.

This month the exceptional violinist ANTHONY MARWOOD played the Thomas Adès Violin concerto "Concentric Paths" with Musikcollegium Wintherthur in Switzerland, and next week he performs the London premiere of Hugh Wood's Violin Concerto No. 2 with Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican. (It's a fast return to the Barbican, where he play/directed a program with the Guildhall Chamber Orchestra in January.)

Marwood, who has won great acclaim for his recording and performances of the Adès "Concentric Paths" (which was written for Marwood), last month saw the release of an new Hyperion disc for Marwood: Britten's Violin Concerto and Double Concerto.

The critical acclaim has poured in:

"Anthony Marwood makes the best possible case for it in this new recording … Has the opening Moderato's edgy lyricism ever sounded so tantalisingly seductive? Marwood goes on to capture the sinewy vitality of the middle movement and, no less brilliantly, the quixotic moods fo the closing Passacaglia, where Volkov's tensile accompaniments are spot-on"  - THE FINANCIAL TIMES

"Marwood is a vivacious soloist in the Violin Concerto and particularly compelling in its magnificent Passacaglia, which is expertly paced … We are left in no doubt about the levels of searing commitment behind Marwood's performance." - BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

"A brilliantly planned, played and orchestrated release" THE SUNDAY TIMES

"A lithe, spiky, rhythmical performance, bristling with satire in the Shostakovich style … Every phrase is highly charged" - GRAMOPHONE

You can listen to excerpts on the Hyperion website.  

Marwood travels the US next month, for recitals with his regular partner, Aleksandar Madzar at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, and for his New York City recital debut at The Frick Collection.

Read More about Anthony Marwood

PAUL JACOBS a true American Maverick

April 2012.

Organist PAUL JACOBS recently opened the much-anticipated American Mavericks festival with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, playing the raucous Lou Harrison Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra:
“In between, there was Harrison’s glorious and witty Organ Concerto, with the great Paul Jacobs as soloist...Jacobs, often acting like a percussionist (among other techniques, he employed a padded bar to depress all the keys of an octave at once), is an outstanding soloist in any repertoire, and he outdid himself in this performance, as did the Symphony’s percussionists, pianist Robin Sutherland, and Marc Shapiro at the celesta."
- Georgia Rowe, SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE, March 9, 2012

This weekend Jacobs joins in for another American Mavericks program, playing composer/DJ Mason Bates' new work, Mass Transmission.  After these concerts, American Mavericks hit the road, heading to Ann Arbor for performances presented by the University Musical Society, and then on to Carnegie Hall, where Jacobs plays both the Harrison and the Bates on March 29.

The Harrison is a bit of an unconventional piece, calling for the organist to employ all sorts of techniques never imagined by Bach.  Watch a video of Paul and MTT discussing the challenges and pleasures of the work here.

Jacobs also shares his thoughts on the Carnegie Hall Blog about what it takes to be an organist -- from the art of getting to know the unique consoles and stops of each instrument, to his passion for sharing the great unknown repertoire of orchestral organ music.
"Taking Lou Harrison's Organ Concerto plus a newly commissioned work by Mason Bates on tour with MTT and the San Francisco Symphony might seem to be a bit of an anomaly. Can you recall the last time a major orchestra carried an organist on tour with them? While this is certainly unusual, the fact that it's occurring at all makes me optimistic for the future of such collaborations. I'm very excited about bringing this music before the public."
Read the full post here.

Other dates on the horizon include a recital presented by the Pittsburgh Symphony as part of their Paris Festival, where he'll play works by Vierne, Duruflé, Boulanger, and Messiaen, and the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony with Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony. 

And, while you're at it, be sure to check out his brand new website, www.pauljacobsorgan.com.

Read More about Paul Jacobs

DOHNÁNYI wraps up US tour

April 2012.

Maestro CHRISTOPH von DOHNÁNYI wrapped his US tour -- in which he led concerts with the Kansas City Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic -- with the Boston Symphony, leading the Brahms German Requiem. "He commands authority without grand gestures. Last night he led an eloquent, wisely shaped performance that seemed true to the gentle spirit of this requiem." - April, 6, 2012 Jeremy Eichler for THE BOSTON GLOBE 

Dohnányi returns to the BSO this summer, leading the Symphony in an all-Beethoven program for opening night at Tanglewood.

Read More about Christoph von Dohnányi

Sample the third release in Hamelin’s much-praised series of Haydn’s piano sonatas

April 2012.

And, just to follow up the lovely news about the Juno Award for Hamelin's Liszt Sonata disc, we look forward to the next Hamelin/Hyperion recording: the third installment of the (soon to be complete) Haydn Piano Sonatas from Hamelin, out in June 2012.

Click here to preview tracks from the album, and to learn more about the disc.

Read More about Marc-André Hamelin

Jeannette Sorrell joins Colbert Artist Management

March 2012.

Throughout her career, JEANNETTE SORRELL, best known for her performances and recordings with Apollo's Fire, the Cleveland-based baroque orchestra she founded in 1992, has set the gold standard for vivid, exciting and impeccable period performances.

Working from the 17th-century concept of Affekt, in which the goal of the artist is to move the emotions of their listeners, Ms. Sorrell conducts and leads concerts from the harpsichord, as well as performing solo on the instrument.  She has created new orchestral arrangements of several baroque works, including the Monteverdi "Vespers" and Vivaldi's "La Follia."

Next season she leads the Pittsburgh Symphony for a subscription series featuring the complete Brandenburg Concertos.  Click here to learn more about this date.

Although baroque music is Ms. Sorrell's specialty, she is acclaimed for her performances of Mozart -- and in fact, next week she leads Apollo's Fire in a semi-staged production of Mozart's The Magic Flute in performances at Oberlin, Kent State University and Cleveland's Severance Hall.  Click here to learn more about the production.  

Click here for an excerpt from a 2010 DVD about Handel's "Messiah," which pairs performance excerpts with an interview with Ms. Sorrell, and here for a selection of videos showing her leading from the harpsichord. 

Read More about Jeannette Sorrell

Colbert Artists Management welcomes Elizabeth Futral

March 2012.

The internationally acclaimed soprano ELIZABETH FUTRAL arrives at Colbert in the midst of a busy season: she is currently singing Fiordiligi in Jonathan Miller's production of Così fan tutte at the Washington National Opera.

"The taut ensemble features Elizabeth Futral in particularly impressive form as Fiordiligi...she gives the phrases an affecting tenderness that gets to the the humanity behind Mozart's comedy."
- Tim Smith, THE BALTIMORE SUN, Feb. 27, 2012

Later this month, Ms. Futral sings Handel's L’Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato in Chicago with Jane Glover and Music of the Baroque. 

Other upcoming dates include Marion in Glimmerglass Opera's 2012 production of The Music Man and a reprisal of Kaija Sariaho's monodrama Émilie for a major New York summer festival (look for more information on this date soon.)
 
Next season Ms. Futral returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for Musetta in La Bohème, and will sing Jacob Druckman's song cycle Counterpoise for the opening of the New York Philharmonic's CONTACT! series.

More 12/13 performances will announced soon! 

Read More about Elizabeth Futral

The Colbert Conversation: Adam Golka

March 2012.

Pianist ADAM GOLKA recently sat down to talk about music and more with Colbert Artists associate Rochana Rapkins.  Here are some of the things this fascinating young artist had to say:

 

ON HIS STUDIES WITH LEON FLEISHER:

“A lot of what drew me to Fleisher was his uncompromising integrity and striving for certain artistic ideals. For starters, the music comes first. We have a lot we want to express…but it’s not about just expressing our personal feelings.  It’s about communicating these eternal feelings and ideas that are inherently in the music .”

 

ON CHOPIN:

 “The music is very noble and it’s not sentimental and it works the best that way. It’s music that is in structure so classical and so perfectly proportioned that too much indulgence in perversities of a romantic kind of playing breaks the music. A little of that is necessary, but it has to be done with a sense of the whole structure.”

 

ON THE HAMMERKLAVIER SONATA:

 “I’ve been working on it since I was 15, so it’s been almost 10 years now… And I’m very fortunate that I worked on it with some amazing, amazing people. Besides Fleisher, I studied it with Claude Frank, another Schnabel disciple, and Richard Goode.  John O’Conor and Gil Kalish -- a lot of really revered Beethoven and other interpreters who have helped me a lot and guided what directions to pursue or not pursue with it.

 

And then of course I have my own ideas about it. And I’m delighted to say that I’ve spent enough time with the piece that when I hear other people play it well I have a great admiration for their playing, but I also know what ideas I have and that’s also a nice feeling.  Actually a good example of that is Richard Goode. He thinks I play the slow movement of that piece, which is the biggest challenge, much too slowly, while Fleisher agrees with my choice of a spacious tempo. (Laughing) I think they are both right.”

 

ON MUSIC:

 “I don’t think whether a work is appealing immediately or not is any kind of measure of its greatness. In my own experience the pieces I came to love the most, or revere the most, were the ones that I heard many, many times and sometimes disliked at first. And I think that’s just the nature of great art.”

 

“I think what is so marvelous about music is that it expresses things that we all feel, and yet there is no way of explaining why.  That way when we hear tragedy or joy in music or any number of complex emotions, I think it is more specific than even words can be. It’s the clearest form of human emotion for me.”

 

NEXT UP:

On March 24, Adam Golka joins the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra for Mozart's Piano Concerto K. 271.

Read More about Adam Golka

DOHNÁNYI returns to Cleveland

March 2012.

This month CHRISTOPH von DOHNÁNYI made a welcome return to the Cleveland Orchestra, winning high praise for a program of Ligeti, Wagner and Beethoven: 

"At times, well before the music ended, the sold-out crowd seemed poised to leap to its feet. It would have been a valid response, especially in the Beethoven, where Dohnanyi drew forth, over and over, everything that is vital and invigorating." -THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, March 9, 2012

Read More about Christoph von Dohnányi

Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers’ newest eOne recording, "AIR" - THE BACH ALBUM, debuted this week at #1 on the Billboard Classical Charts.

February 2012.

Violinist ANNE AKIKO MEYERS appeared on All Things Considered this week, in a story about her newest recording: AIR: The Bach Album.  The album, which will be released on Valentine's Day, has already shot up to No. 1 on Amazon's Classical list.  Click here for a preview!

 

If you saw the Nashville Symphony's 12/13 season announcement earlier this week, you may have caught another piece of wonderful news fromANNE AKIKO MEYERS: she joins the Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony on a program called "Tchaikovsky meets Techno" for a new violin concerto Meyers comissioned from DJ/composer Mason Bates. Learn more about the program here.

Read More about Anne Akiko Meyers

Jacques Lacombe rekindles the "classic OSM sound"

February 2012.

Maestro JACQUES LACOMBE returned to the Montreal Symphony last week, winning acclaim for his connection with the orchestra's classic sound:"On Sunday he showed how well he remembers the extrovert style the orchestra once was famous for, and how capable he is of rekindling it on demand." - Arthur Kaptainis, THE MONTREAL GAZETTE, Feb. 6, 2012

Read More about Jacques Lacombe

Joseph Lin's speaks with the Cornell Daily Sun

February 2012.

Joseph Lin, first violinist of the of the JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET took some time to speak with THE CORNELL DAILY SUN about his new colleagues, and the exploration of the repertoire they embark on together: "I’m not simply slipping into a sound and not noticed as a new voice, but a new voice that has something to contribute to the sound and identity of the quartet."

Read the full interview here. 

Read More about Juilliard String Quartet

Celena Shafer at Carnegie Hall

February 2012.

Following her January triumph as Gilda in the Utah Opera's Rigoletto, the "radiant soprano "CELENA SHAFER joined David Robertson and the Orchestra of St. Luke's at Carnegie Hall last week for Carmina Burana.

Read THE NEW YORK TIMES review.

Read More about Celena Shafer

PAUL JACOBS with the San Francisco Symphony and American Mavericks

February 2012.

After a fall rich with recitals (in New York City, Nashville, Birmingham, Denver and Minneapolis,) organist PAUL JACOBS started off 2012 with recitals for UCLA Live, and presented by the San Francisco Symphony. 

 

“Jacobs is a virtuoso who knows how to balance interpretive insight with bravura showmanship. Each piece he played was full of intriguing ideas, be he bringing a fresh take to a tricky and transparent Trio Sonata by J.S. Bach or splicing an Edward Elgar sonata with the composer‘s familiar Pomp and Circumstance."   - THE PIONEER PRESS, Nov. 13, 2011

 

“The organist offered a probing, reflective and moving take on this work, which offered abundant opportunities for nuanced tonal shadings that revealed both Jacobs‘ artistry and the beauty of this symphonic organ."   - THE DENVER POST, Nov. 6, 2011

 

This month Jacobs returns to the Pacific Symphony and the Segerstrom Concert Hall, for a the world premiere of a new work by Michael Daugherty: The Gospel According to Sister Aimee.Learn more about the program here.

 

And in March Jacobs returns to the San Francisco Symphony (where he last joined MTT and the SFSO for performances of the Copland Organ Symphony, recorded and released by the SFSO's in-house label, SFS Media, which you can preview here) for the acclaimed American Mavericks series.

 

American Mavericks opens on March 8 with Jacobs playing the Lou Harrison Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra atDavies Hall.  The following week, he, MTT and SFSO offer the world premiere of Mason Bates's "Mass Transmission."

 

The festival then travels to Ann Arbor, for the University Musical Society, where Jacobs plays both the Harrison and the Bates, and then on to New York City, where he repeats both works at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall.

Learn more here. 

Read More about Paul Jacobs

ALINA IBRAGIMOVA leading the Academy of Ancient Music, recitals with Tiberghien

February 2012.

ALINA IBRAGIMOVA leading the Academy of Ancient Music, recitals with Tiberghien

In a review of the young violinist ALINA IBRAGIMOVA, THE TIMES has written, “The rise of this impassioned, intelligent and inquisitive young Russian is a joyous breath of fresh air blowing through our concert halls.”

 

This month, those halls will include a fabled medieval manor, a Georgian-era ballroom, London’s Wigmore Hall and other venues, where Ibragimova leads the Academy of Ancient Music from the violin on a whirlwind U.K. tour.

 

The program, her AAM debut, explores the groundbreaking innovations in the role of the solo violin, from Biber’sPassacaglia (thought to be the first solo work for the instrument) to the summit of the baroque concerto, with concerti by Vivaldi and J.S. Bach. Click here to see a full program listing.

 

In the fall, Ibragimova and her regular duo partner, pianist Cédric Tiberghien, played recitals at  Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Palais Beaux Arts in Brussels.

This partnership has produced a slate of acclaimed recordings: their complete Beethoven Sonata cycle on the "Live at Wigmore Hall" label has been praised by GRAMOPHONE as  "brimful of life." and as "achieving rare freshness and vitality in the most familiar repertoire." by THE OBSERVER.

And, for their most recent Hyperion recording, Ravel: Complete works for Piano and Violin, THE GUARDIAN hailed the pair as “today’s partnership of choice for the violin and piano repertory.”

Ibragimova and Tiberghien will return to the U.S. for a recital tour next season March 8-17, 2013, playing a program of Schubert, Schumann, Webern and Beethoven.

 

A bit closer on the calendar,  Ibragimova comes to the U.S. this April, when she plays the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 3 with Jün Markl and the Indianapolis Symphony. Click to watch video of Ibragimova playing the Saint-Saens with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

 

Although she will tour extensively throughout the world this season, Ibragimova has reported that she enjoys every minute of it, as quoted in a film about her musical education produced by the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office: “For me classical music, it’s life. It’s not work.” Watch the videohere.

Read More about Alina Ibragimova

TILL FELLNER in Paris, Chicago, Boston

February 2012.

TILL FELLNER began 2012 with Beethoven, playing his Piano Concerto No. 4 with Herbert Blomstedt and the Orchestre de Paris in early January,  and Piano Concerto No. 1 with Manfred Honeck and the Chicago Symphony the following week.

"Fellner's beautifully weighted tone, capable of infinite dynamic nuance, was all his own, as was the immaculate finish of his pianism in the outer movements and the expressive gravity he brought to the central largo. With Fellner, every interpretive gesture took on a convincing motivation that stemmed directly from the score." - John von Rhein, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Jan. 19, 2012

Although you may have missed those dates, you can get a taste by watching this video of a rehearsal of the Concerto No. 5, with Fellner, Paavo Järvi and the Orchestre de Paris in the summer of 2011, or by visiting the ECM player page for his recent recording of Beethoven Cti. 4 and 5, with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony.

His next U.S. appearance takes him to the Boston Symphony for Mozart K. 482 with Bernard Haitink. Click to learn more.

And on the recital front, Fellner played an acclaimed tour in the US in the fall; he was heard in Washington, D.C, Boston, Seattle, and Cleveland: 

“It was exactly the sort of concert one has come to expect from this intelligent musician: reflective, understated, and meticulously shaped—with just the right hint of extremely dry wit... Once again, Fellner pointed the way to new ways of thinking about music one thought one knew."   - Charles T. Downey, THE WASHINGTONIAN, Oct. 3, 2011

"He applied individual touches to Haydn's Sonata in C major, Hob. XVI:50, that lifted the delicious material from the page. Fellner played with flair and discretion, relishing the writing for the newly developed piano, rather than fortepiano, as well as every unexpected turn of phrase and harmony." - Donald Rosenberg, THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, Nov. 2, 2011

You can hear his Haydn (Hob. XVI: 32) and more next season, when he offers a recital program with Haydn, Mozart, Bach and Schumann on his U.S. tour in April 2013 (including a just-announced Zankel Hall recital for Carnegie Hall. Learn more here.) 

Read More about Till Fellner

Critical praise for Mark Kosower playing Boccherini

January 2012. Cellist MARK KOSOWER played the Boccherini Cello Concerto in D Major last week with Ton Koopman and the Cleveland Orchestra (where he is principal cello.)

"Kosower met the challenges with supreme ease. His performance was all the more impressive for its discreet understatement, and he caught the spirit of Boccherini's hybrid Italian-Spanish style perfectly." - THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, May 4, 2012

Read More about Mark Kosower

Critical praise for "Firebird"

January 2012.

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Music Director JACQUES LACOMBE leads a 12/13 season highlighting "Jazz Age American music and a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth." Read the NYTimes Arts Beat post, and browse through the digital brochure.

 

And, speaking of the NJSO and Maestro Lacombe, Steve Smith for The New York Times praised their Winter Festival opening concert, saying “Mr. Lacombe’s agile, transparent and winningly energized conception made this one of the most exhilarating accounts of “Firebird” I’ve ever heard.“Read the full review here. 

Read More about Jacques Lacombe

MASQUES in the US, Vienna and at Wigmore Hall

January 2012.

After a highly successful fall 2011 -- which included a tour with dates for San Diego Early Music Society, the Da Camera Society of Los Angeles, Early Music Voices in Vancouver and the University of Alberta and a new recording of works by Rosenmuller for ATMA Classique (a followup to their acclaimed Rameau disc), baroque ensemble MASQUES looks forward to an exciting 2012.  

 

For Montreal Baroque, on January 27, Masques joined  the baroque dance ensemble Les Jardins Chorégraphiques for a program called "Chaconnes", which presented various danced chaconnes from the works of  Lully (Armide, Acis and Galatea as well as Phaeton) and Purcell (excerpts of King Arthur and the Fairy Queen). 

Upcoming highlights include performances at Vienna's Liechtenstein Palace on May 13, 2012 and a September 2012 London debut at Wigmore Hall.

 

The ensemble's next North American tour will run February 11-24, 2013 in an enticing program of music from the court of King Louis XV.  Works by Rameau, Dauvergne and Mondonville highlight his interaction with his mistress Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, the famous Marquise de Pompadour.  Dates are still available for this tour so please contact us for further details!

Read More about Masques

TAFELMUSIK and the House of Dreams

January 2012.

Baroque orchestra TAFELMUSIK presents the first peformances of its newest program, House of Dreams, in Toronto next week, February 8-12. 

House of Dreams, which Tafelmusik takes on US tour March 1-15, 2013, is a memorized program of works by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Marais, with stage direction, narration and stunning projected images of paintings by Vermeer, Canaletto and Watteau.  With these elements, Tafelmusik's House of Dreams takes the audience on a journey to the meeting places of baroque art and music -- five European homes where these paintings and this music were first seen and heard.

In other recent Tafelmusik news, the orchestra has announced the launch of its new in-house media label, Tafelmusik Media.  Beginning March 27, 2012 Tafelmusik Media will release a total of nine recordings over its initial three-month period.

The first of these include CD and DVD recordings of Tafelmusik‘s globe-trotting multi-media phenomenon The Galileo Project, which has been seen in Asia, Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, and which will be experienced by audiences in Australia and New Zealand this spring when Tafelmusik makes its debut Down Under.

Click here to preview audio of The Galileo Project, which James R. Oestreich for the New York Times called "a superb evening."

 

Read More about Tafelmusik

AMARCORD returns to the US, touring for its 20th anniversary

January 2012.

In February, the Thomanerchor-trained vocal quintet AMARCORD returns to the US for a tour that takes them coast to coast.

Offering programs exploring different aspects of its repertoire -- chant, Lutheran hymns and motets, German Romantic music, folksongs, and more -- amarcord starts the tour in San Diegoand ends in New York City, returning to The Cloisters of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they debuted last season with two sold-out holiday concerts. 

 

The program for both San Diego Early Music and The Cloisters explores music from the libraries of the St. Thomas Church and School in Leipzig, Germany, where Johann Sebastian Bach was cantor from 1723-1750, and where Wagner was baptized in 1813. 

 

The members of amarcord met there, as children in the famed St. Thomas Boys Choir, or Thomanerchor, before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Together, they founded amarcord in 1992.  The St. Thomas Boys Choir was begun in 1212, and so this tour and this program mark  both 20th anniversary of amarcord and the 800th anniversary of the Thomanerchor.

amarcord's next US tour is April 5-14, 2013, and will feature the program performed at The Cloisters this February, Music From the Cabinet of St. Thomas Church, Leipzig.  Contact us for more details and availability.

 

And, to learn more about amarcord, click here for a 2011 interview and live performance at WGBH-Boston, and here to read an interview with founding member, bass Daniel Knauft.

 

Read More about amarcord

JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET at Stanford Lively Arts, NYC's (le) Poisson Rouge

December 2011. The JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET has had a string of great fall dates, including a concert tour to China and Japan, part one of their annual concerts with Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (the season's second concert is April 4, 2012,) a concert for Stanford Lively Arts and a concert at Alice Tully Hall you may have read about in the New York Times...

"The ensemble was at its most muscular and sumptuous in the Beethoven. The players gave an enveloping, fluid account of the mammoth fugue, and though the rest of the work often pales beside that outsize finale, the quartet’s careful accenting and dynamic freedom brought the emotional depths of the first five movements fully into focus." -- Allan Kozinn, THE NEW YORK TIMES, Nov. 29, 2011

They play again in New York in January, just in time for those of you at the CMA, ISPA and APAP conferences. Be sure to plan your trip to join us at the bar and hear them on Thursday, January 12 at (le) Poisson Rouge, where they'll play Elliott Carter's String Quartet No. 5 (a belated birthday tribute, if you will,) and Haydn Op. 54, No. 1. That concert is followed by a two-week European tour, with dates in Germany, France and at London's Wigmore Hall with pianist Stephen Hough.

Read More about Juilliard String Quartet

ZUILL BAILEY with the Los Angeles Phil, new recordings

December 2011. Cellist ZUILL BAILEY wraps up 2011 with a flourish, playing the Korngold Cello Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic last week -- Mark Swed for the LA Times said he was a "glowing" soloist -- and releasing a new album through Zenph Records.

If you're familiar with Zenph, you know this is a special sort of recording: it's a collaboration with a sonically re-created Manuel de Falla at the piano, performing the Seven Popular Spanish Songs. Learn more about the album here -- and catch some of the recent press, including a beautiful interview with Zuill and his co-album collaborator Isabel Bayrakdarian on NPR's Weekend Edition, and a piece by Jeremy Eichler for The Boston Globe, and an interesting video about the project from Zenph.

In the New Year, Zuill returns to the National Philharmonic at Strathmore for a special presentation of the Bach Cello Suites, and Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 1. And on the horizon, Zuill's new Telarc Dvorak Cello Concerto album, with Jun Märkl and the Indianapolis Symphony, will be released January 17, 2012.

Read More about Zuill Bailey

MARINO FORMENTI plays the Diabelli Variations

December 2011. Pianist/conductor MARINO FORMENTI may be known for his mesmerizing performances of modern repertoire -- Kurtag, Lachenmann, Cage, Ligeti, etc. -- but it cannot be denied that his insight reveals surprising and beautiful truths in performances of core repertoire. (For example, watch this video of him playing Haydn at The Greene Space in New York City.)

Formenti brings his insight to one of the cornerstones of piano repertoire next month, on January 7, for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County: Beethoven's Diabelli Variations.

In the program note, Philharmonic Society President and Artistic Director Dean Corey explains:
"Who should play the Diabelli Variations? Alfred Brendel is retired from concertizing and Maurizio Pollini hates flying to California. The performer needs to be special, unique. This is the piece of music that started me on this unattainable journey. The right choice became clear. Marino Formenti is, I feel, the most amazing pianist for new and avant-garde music. His insight into music is uncanny. We have presented him at our Eclectic Orange Festival. He has appeared numerous times in L.A. On one of those occasions, he played a little D minor sarabande of Bach with such tenderness and understanding that I was moved to tears. I asked him a short time later, 'Do you know the Diabelli Variations?' He replied, 'No,' to which I responded, 'Please learn it.' '

Click to see the full program.

Formenti returns to the US later in the spring for a presentation of his visionary program, "The Party," with the Chicago-based new music ensemble Dal Niente. With solo and ensemble works, food, visual art, drink and more, "The Party" lasts approximately six hours, and is designed to allow audiences to experience the music outside any constraints; they can stand, lie down, move around the space, talk, eat, listen or not.

Read More about Marino Formenti

ALINA IBRAGIMOVA plays Vaughan-Williams, Ravel, Mendelssohn

December 2011. Violinist ALINA IBRAGIMOVA began the month playing Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending for a gala concert with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Bournemouth Symphony, benefitting the Dorset Wildlife Trust.

She then played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the with Philippe Herreweghe and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, at the Concert Hall Utrecht, and at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam (her next Hyperion Records disc will include this concerto, with Vladimir Jurowski and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.)

This weekend, she and regular duo and recording partner, pianist Cédric Tiberghien, play a recital in Italy, including repertoire from their recent acclaimed Ravel album. Ibragimova opens the new year playing Szymanowski's Concerto No. 2 with the Sinfonieorchester St Gallen in Switzerland, followed up with a German recital in Schoss Elmau with pianist Alessio Bax.

Read More about Alina Ibragimova

URSULA OPPENS receives a Grammy nomination (her fourth!) for "Best Classical Instrumental Solo" album

December 2011. We offer congratulations to pianist URSULA OPPENS, who has received a Grammy nomination (her fourth!) for "Best Classical Instrumental Solo" album, for her acclaimed disc, "Winging it: Piano Music of John Corgliano." The disc, which has received wide-spread critical praise, is the only non-orchestra album nominated in the new category. Learn more about the honor here.

Read More about Ursula Oppens

JACQUES LACOMBE leads Vancouver Opera's Roméo et Juliette

December 2011. JACQUES LACOMBE led the Vancouver Opera's Roméo et Juliette to great audience acclaim -- you can watch a reel of audience reactions here (lots of first-time opera goers there too, very nice to see!)

Next up the Maestro leads his home orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, in a Winter Festival of Fire.

Read More about Jacques Lacombe

AMARCORD is Coming Home for Christmas

December 2011. Vocal ensemble AMARCORD is Coming Home for Christmas this month -- that is, their new holiday album is out on iTunes. Get in the Christmas spirit, and check it out here.

Read More about amarcord

TAFELMUSIK celebrates the season with their annual (sold-out) performances of Handel's Messiah.

December 2011. This weekend TAFELMUSIK celebrates the season with their annual (sold-out) performances of Handel's Messiah.
"To sing some of those choruses at Taurin's speeds, with every note clear and in place, is an almost superhuman achievement ... The orchestra ... effortlessly provided the ideal accompaniment ... one of the best Messiah's I have ever heard." —THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Read More about Tafelmusik

A Warm-Hued Beginning For Quartet's New Violinist

November 2011. "A beautifully balanced, transparent account of the Haydn, with spirited interplay in the Menuet and a tightly controlled finale, quickly created the sense that the quartet was feeling energized and renewed. The vital, warm-hued performance of the Martino made the point that new music would continue to be close to the heart of this quartet's mission and that its latest configuration was suited to its challenges. The Fifth Quartet, completed a year before Martino's death in 2005, sounds almost mellow in comparison with his earlier work, but the hallmarks of his style are all in place, most notably his shapely, often lyrical use of 12-tone themes and an alternation of melancholy introspection and lyrical vigor. The ensemble was at its most muscular and sumptuous in the Beethoven. The players gave an enveloping, fluid account of the mammoth fugue, and though the rest of the work often pales beside that outsize finale, the quartet’s careful accenting and dynamic freedom brought the emotional depths of the first five movements fully into focus." Read the full review here.

Read More about Juilliard String Quartet

Africa or Bust for AMARCORD

November 2011. The intrepid vocal quintet AMARCORD completed their debut African tour last month. They sang and led masterclasses in Ghana, Senegal and elsewhere.

Read More about amarcord

JACQUES LACOMBE leads Romeo et Juliette

November 2011. Maestro JACQUES LACOMBE is currently leading the Vancouver Opera's production of Romeo et Juliette.  It may just be that the Maestro has some special insights into the romance of Gounod's score -- he has been known to make some very romantic gestures of his own.  A perfect example:  he led his own mashup of Ravel's Bolero and Happy Birthday as an encore to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's season opener -- just in time for his wife's birthday.  Not bad!

Read More about Jacques Lacombe

TILL FELLNER and ALFRED BRENDEL in Vancouver and Montreal at the same time this fall

November 2011. If you were watching closely, you may have noticed that TILL FELLNER and ALFRED BRENDEL were in Vancouver and Montreal at the same time this fall  -- a nice coincidence for a pair of kindred musicians.  Fellner reunited with his recent ECM disc partners, Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony for more Beethoven, Concerto No. 2, with Brendel listening in the audience: "There’s a lightness to his touch that belies its intensity and precision." The Globe and Mail, Oct. 14, 2011

Read More about Till Fellner

ZUILL BAILEY joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic

November 2011. Next month ZUILL BAILEY joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic for performances of Erich Korngold's Cello Concerto in C, Op. 37, from the Hollywood movie,  Deception. (Bailey's recording of the work is out on the ASV label.)  The performances on Dec. 8, 9, and 11 are part of the Getty Center-led Pacific Standard Time initiative, a multi-media, cross-cultural series telling the story the birth of the L.A. art scene.  Learn more about the project here.

Read More about Zuill Bailey

CHRISTOPH von DOHNÁNYI opens the Boston Symphony's 75th Tanglewood summer residency

November 2011. CHRISTOPH von DOHNÁNYI opens the Boston Symphony's 75th Tanglewood summer residency on July 6, leading an all-Beethoven program that invokes the very first  BSO/Tanglewood program from 1937. Read more about the Tanglewood season in the Boston Globe here.

Read More about Christoph von Dohnányi

NYPL presented Rolex Arts Weekend, featuring JOSÉ VAN DAM

November 2011. On Saturday, November 12, Live from the NYPL presented Rolex Arts Weekend, featuring JOSÉ VAN DAM and Osvaldo Golijov in conversation with Paul Holdengräber.  Click here to learn more about this fascinating event.

Read More about José van Dam

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN with Berlin Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony

November 2011. This fall pianist MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN has performed Liszt's Totentanz and Wanderer Fantasy with Dennis Russell Davies and the Sinfonieorchester Basel; Szymanowski Symphony No. 4 with Pablo Heras-Casado and the Berlin Philharmonic (a concert you can check out via the Berlin Phil's excellent Digital Concert Hall archives); and Fauré's Ballade and the Franck Variations Symphoniques with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony, among other orchestral dates.

Hamelin began the month offering the world premiere of his "Cathy's Variations" and the US premiere of his Paganini Variations in recital for San Francisco Performances, alongside the Berg Op. 1 and Liszt's Sonata in B Minor:
"Hamelin luxuriated in a sonata that is often treated as a speed competition...In the most intimate parts of the work, he let the soft, resonant whispers speak fully. It was an exquisite example of how important silence is in music." - San Francisco Classical Voice, Nov. 3, 2011

This week he plays a program of Haydn, Wolpe, Schumann, Fauré and Liszt at the Lucerne Festival.

Other upcoming dates include the Seattle Symphony (Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 with Ludovic Morlot,) the Danish Radio Symphony, (Schubert Wanderer Fantasy, Liszt Totentanz,) a Wigmore Hall recital, and an Asian tour, with the Hong Kong Philharmonic (the Franck Variations Symphoniques and Strauss Burlesque, and also a solo recital,) and a Korean recital for the Seongnam Arts Center.

Read More about Marc-André Hamelin

AFIARA STRING QUARTET at Lincoln Center, BAC and elsewhere

November 2011. November finds the AFIARA STRING QUARTET in the midst of a busy fall. 

They performed at the Baryshnikov Arts Center with Stephen Prutsman (playing his original, completely charming live score to Buster Keaton's Sherlock, Jr.) returned to the Montreal Chamber Music Festival and The Banff Centre, played Haydn at Lincoln Center for Bruce Adolph's "Inside Music" program, and did more educational work through their visiting residency at the University of Alberta. 

(Speaking of residencies, have you seen this video about their residency work at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto?)

They are now back in New York City, preparing repertoire for the spring (including Bruno Mantovani’s string quartet, Les Fées, for an upcoming concert for Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in April) and looking towards their Chamber Music Cincinnati -- playing Beethoven, Sibelius and Nielsen -- date next month.

Read More about Afiara String Quartet

PAUL JACOBS in solo recitals throughout US

November 2011. This fall, "the leading American organist of his generation,"  PAUL JACOBS has toured the US, playing a series of solo recitals in Nashville, Birmingham (AL), Denver, Minneapolis, and last week in New York City at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola.

Jacobs is a virtuoso who knows how to balance interpretive insight with bravura showmanship. Each piece he played was full of intriguing ideas, be he bringing a fresh take to a tricky and transparent Trio Sonata by J.S. Bach or splicing an Edward Elgar sonata with the composer's familiar 'Pomp and Circumstance.' -- The Pioneer Press, November 13, 2011

“The organist offered a probing, reflective and moving take on this work, which offered abundant opportunities for nuanced tonal shadings that revealed both Jacobs‘ artistry and the beauty of this symphonic organ."   - The Denver Post, November 6, 2011

"Jacobs is an enthusiastic musician, totally immersed in his art, eager to explore all sides of every piece -- and every instrument -- he plays."  - Birmingham News, October 23, 2011

"On Sunday in downtown Nashville, Jacobs proved that his fingers and feet were equal to his intellect...he played every note with feeling and technical perfection."   - John Pitcher, Art Now Nashville, September 26, 2011

If you missed these dates, but would be interested in hearing the program, be sure to ask us about the soon-to-be-released DVD version, from a recording taken during the NYC concert.  As we here at Colbert can tell you (see the photos on Facebook,) the recital was a spectacular experience!

On the horizon, Jacobs joins Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony for the American Mavericks project (featuring Lou Harrison's Organ Concerto and a new work by Mason Bates,) with national dates in San Francisco, Ann Arbor, and in New York City at Carnegie Hall.

Read More about Paul Jacobs

TAFLEMUSIK returns to Carnegie Hall

November 2011. This month the Canadian baroque orchestra TAFELMUSIK toured the US, with dates at the University of Virginia Tuesday Evening Concert Series, Shenandoah University and a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall.

As Steve Smith wrote in The New York Times (November 22, 2011): "Familiar melodies aside, the music had a frisson of added intensity, even melancholy; Ms. Lamon was an exciting soloist, conjuring a whirlwind in the final Badinerie. Elsewhere Tafelmusik mixed insight, assurance and visceral engagement in works to show stylistic cross-pollination among Baroque composers."
Read the full review here.

The tour featured a mixed program, with works by J.S. Bach, Fasch, Vivaldi and Lully.  Watch video of Tafelmusik performing a movement from Lully's Phaeton suite here.

Their next US tour, March 1-15, 2013, is an extraordinary multi-media program, HOUSE OF DREAMS.  Including works by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Marais, HOUSE OF DREAMS takes the audience on a splendid journey through the meeting places of baroque art and music, with memorized musical performances, dramatic narration, and stunning projected images of paintings by Vermeer, Canaletto and Watteau.

Read More about Tafelmusik

Marc-André Hamelin live with the Berlin Philharmonic, and on Performance Today

October 2011. Join Marc-André Hamelin live this Saturday, October 22

This Saturday, October 22, you have TWO opportunities to hear Marc-André Hamelin in live performance.

Watch him in instant transmission from the Berlin Philharmonic's Digital Concert Hall, playing Szymanowski's Symphony No. 4, and hear him  through American Public Media's broadcast of an all-Liszt recital program, live from the Fraser Studio, on the master's 200th Birthday.

Celebrating LISZT's 200th Birthday with APM

As most of you know, this Saturday, October 22, is the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt's birth.

In celebration of the birth-bicentennial, American Public Media welcomed Hamelin into the Fraser Studio at WGBH-Boston last month for all-Liszt program, which concludes with the composer’s crowning masterwork for piano, the Sonata in B Minor. (Check out Hamelin's acclaimed 2011 Liszt album for Hyperion here.)

Hosted by APM’s Fred Child, the hourlong special will air throughout the United States tomorrow, Saturday, October 22, 2011, at 6pm Eastern. 

Listen online  at American Public Media, on WGBH-Boston, on Minnesota Public Radio or on APM affiliates throughout the US.

And, if you simply cannot wait to hear the B Minor Sonata, listen now to the second hour of today's Performance Today broadcast.

LIVE with the Berlin Philharmonic

Even if you are not in Berlin this weekend (like those of us at Colbert,) you can hear Marc-André Hamelin live tomorrow, October 22, playing Szymanowski's Symphony No. 4 for Piano and Orchestra, with Pablo Heras-Casado and the Berlin Philharmonic, via the Berlin Phil's Digital Concert Hall.

For 9.90 € (approx. $13 USD,) you can purchase a 48-hour ticket, which will allow you to watch the concert on Saturday October 22 (8pm in Berlin, 2pm Eastern time).  The program also includes Mendelssohn's The Hebrides Overture and Symphony No. 3, and Luciano Berio's Quatre dédicaces for orchestra.

Learn more about the Digital Concert Hall and purchase your ticket here.

Read More about Marc-André Hamelin

Jacques Lacombe opens the New Jersey Symphony season

October 2011. Many reasons to celebrate at the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's season opening concert
By Ronni Reich/The Star-Ledger Published Sunday, October 16, 2011

"Everything that one might expect in a season opening was planned for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s festive first night—rousing renditions of light, lively fare, showtunes sung by an icon of the stage as well as music that could elicit sighs of contentment with its simple, lush beauty.

At the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Friday, under music director Jacques Lacombe with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, the NJSO executed these pieces with consummate skill and plenty of flair.

But it was the outlier of the program that became the highlight. George Antheil’s Symphony No. 6 “After Delacroix,” an obscure, high-octane work and a more challenging listen showed Lacombe and the orchestra at their best.

As they did throughout, they confidently conquered its complexities, embraced varied styles with abandon, and poured forth a satisfyingly full, multi-faceted sound without sacrificing clarity."

Read the full review here.

Read More about Jacques Lacombe

ANTHONY MARWOOD plays Adès Mozart and more

October 2011. Violinist ANTHONY MARWOOD has a characteristic range of dates this fall and beyond -- we thought you'd enjoy hearing about some of them!
In September, he performed with and led the Academy of St Martin in the Fields at London's King's Place "Mozart Unwrapped" Festival.  The performance, which was praised by the audience and collaborating musicians alike, included Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 2 in D, K. 211 and Symphony No. 41 in C, K. 551 ‘Jupiter’.

Other upcoming dates include performances of the Thomas Adès violin concerto, "Concentric Paths" (written for and premiered by Marwood) with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, the Musikkollegium Winterthur and, in the summer of 2012, with the Sydney Symphony and David Robertson. 

Marwood  plays the London premiere Hugh Wood's Violin Concerto No. 2 with Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra next spring, and his recording of the Britten Violin Concerto and Double Concerto for Violin and Viola (Lawrence Power, viola) with Kanako Ito and the BBC Scottish Symphony Or will be released on February 1, 2012, by Hyperion Records.

In North America this season, Marwood and pianist Aleksandar Madzar tour a recital program featuring works by Beethoven, Schumann and Bartok, with dates at the Nasher Sculpture Garden in Dallas, and a New York debut at the Frick Collection.

Listen to Marwood's Hyperion recording of Schumann works with pianist Susan Tomes here.

Read More about Anthony Marwood

MASQUES on North American tour

October 2011. In October and November, the excellent young baroque ensemble MASQUES tours North America with a program which takes audiences on a journey from Biber to Bach (including works which you can hear on their  “clear, beautifully tuned and balanced” disc Mensa Sonora: Biber and His Contemporaries.)

First, Masques joins San Diego Early Music Society at The Neurosciences Institute, then heads north to Los Angeles for a concert at the Doheny Mansion for the Da Camera Society of Mount St. Mary’s College.
They also take the program toCalgary for Early Music Voices, and then Edmonton, to the University of Alberta.

If you’re not in any of these locales, you can hear Masques’ 2009 concert at The Frick Collection in New York City.  Listen to the archival WQXR broadcast here.

Read More about Masques

JACQUES LACOMBE opens the New Jersey Symphony season

October 2011. This month, conductor JACQUES LACOMBE leads concerts in Spain, Canada and New Jersey. 

Last Friday was the opening gala of Lacombe's home orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony.  For the event, Lacombe conducts the NJSO with guest artist Frederica von Stade in a program of songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, and selections from the "Chants d'Auvergne." The evening also features Gershwin's "An American in Paris", Ravel's Boléro, and George Antheil Symphony No. 6, "After Delacroix".

"Authoritatively led by Lacombe, as was the case throughout the concert, the NJSO unleashed a fierce, explosive depiction of violence and built to anthemic fervor." - THE NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER, Oct. 16, 2011

Other upcoming highlights include returns to the Vancouver Opera for Roméo et Juliette, the Deutsche Oper Berlin for Un Ballo in Maschera, and a program of Sibelius and Prokofiev with the Montreal Symphony.

Lacombe also leads the New Jersey Symphony at Carnegie Hall for the Spring for Music festival in May 2012; the performance was singled out by James R. Oestreich in The New York Times's season preview for its especially enticing program.

Read More about Jacques Lacombe

Ursula Oppens plays Elliott Carter, interviews Tobias Picker

October 2011. This fall, URSULA OPPENS heads to Slovenia for the Festival Slowind 2011. Hosted by the the Slowind Quintet each year in Ljubljana, this year's festival focuses on Elliott Carter. Long hailed for her interpretation of Carter's work, Oppens plays solo and chamber performances of the master's works throughout the weeklong festival, including "Night Fantasies," "Triple Duo," "Let's be Gay,"  and many others.

"Ms. Oppens played [Night Fantasies] with an unfailing sense of drama and almost cinematic color."
-- Allan Kozinn for THE NEW YORK TIMES

After these peformances, she travels east to Russia, where she joins the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic for the world premiere of Laura Kaminsky's Piano Concerto. Learn more about that date here.

This past summer, Oppens performed an acclaimed recital at Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival (where she played works by Jason Exkardt, Bernard Rands, Jo Kondo, and Tobias Picker's " Four Études for Ursula".)  Speaking of Mr. Picker, Ursula hosted the composer on stage at his recent Composer Portrait concert at Miller Theatre.  Their rapport and friendship were readily apparent as he told her that "when writing for myself, I can only write what I can play. When I write for you, I can write work much more difficult than I can play!"

Read More about Ursula Oppens

MARK KOSOWER opens the Erie Philharmonic's season with Dvorak

October 2011. Cellist MARK KOSOWER opened the season playing the Dvorak Cello Concerto with DANIEL MEYER leading the Erie Philharmonic. 
Acclaimed by audience members and musicians alike, the performance was a happy reunion for Kosower and Meyer, who worked together for the first time several seasons back. In the midst of concert preparations, Kosower took some time before the date to speak with the Erie Times-News about the importance of keeping great works of music fresh. Read the full interview here.

Kosower's upcoming dates include a program of Russian music at Fontana Chamber Arts in Kalamazoo, MI, (with Kosower's duo partner and wife, pianist Jee-Won Oh,) and the Boccherini Concerto in D with Ton Koopman and the Cleveland Orchestra (where Kosower is principal cellist.)

Kosower's recent Naxos release of the Ginastera Cello Concerti Nos. 1 and 2, with Lothar Zagrosek and the Bamberg Symphony, has received wide critical acclaim:
“Kosower has earned his merit badge, and then some, with this exciting and technically solid performance, and the musicians of the Bamberg orchestra add to the music’s spidery thrills...Even in the composer’s most demanding passages, there’s no sense that the cellist is being pushed beyond his limits, and his sound remains rich and full throughout the cello’s range." - Fanfare, Sept. 1, 2011

Together with Kosower's earlier album of Ginastera's cello/piano works, these recordings mean that Kosower is the first to record the composer's complete works for solo cello. 
He spoke with Naxos' Dominy Clements about his strong affinity for Ginastera's compositional language:
"‘Like Ginastera I function as a living and evolving link from the past to the future. I am a cellist whose playing is clearly rooted in the classical playing traditions of the 20th century. At the same time, I am a modern player belonging to my generation and am working, along with many others, for the advancement of music and cello playing in the 21st century."
Read the full interview here.

Read More about Mark Kosower

Yolanda Kondonassis and Jason Vieaux tour with new and traditional music for harp and guitar.

September 2011. Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis and guitarist Jason Vieaux*, two truly groundbreaking musicians of our time, join forces for a sublime concert experience of traditional and new music.

"…sheer luminescence at the harp."  AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
“…among the elite of today’s classical guitarists.”  GRAMOPHONE

Maximo Diego Pujol: Suite Magica
Keith Fitch: New Work for Harp and Guitar
Granados, Albeniz et al: Spanish Miniatures for Guitar and Harp
                      (arranged by the artists)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alan Hovhaness: Sonata for Harp and Guitar: “Spirit of Trees”
J.S. Bach: Guitar Solo
Carlos Salzedo: Chanson dans la nuit for Solo Harp
Xavier Montsalvatge: Fantasia
(program subject to change)

Watch video of each artist at the acclaimed NPR Tiny Desk Concert series:
Yolanda's Tiny Desk Concert (in which she plays the Salzedo Chanson dans la nuit!)
Jason's Tiny Desk Concert (which he starts off with a solo Bach prelude!)

Read More about Yolanda Kondonassis

ADAM GOLKA opens the season with Beethoven Piano Cti Cycle

September 2011. Pianist ADAM GOLKA begins the season playing all five Beethoven Piano Concerti with the Lubbock Symphony -- a characteristically focused feat for this serious young artist. This follows an excellent summer, which included a number of recitals (the Garth Newel Music Center, Dakota Sky International Piano Festival, the Piano Texas International Academy and Festival, et al) and chamber music dates.

His recital for the Washington International Piano Festival was praised: "Summer music festivals should start with a bang, and the fine young pianist Adam Golka was suitably explosive on Sunday night, launching the third annual Washington International Piano Festival with a combination of brilliant technique and real emotional depth...These were absolutely stunning performances - luminous, probing, deeply personal and drawn with unerring emotional accuracy." -- THE WASHINGTON POST, August 1, 2011

Later this fall, Adam returns to the Phoenix Symphony for Liszt's Totentanz and Piano Concerto No. 1.

Read More about Adam Golka

CHRISTOPH von DOHNANYI leads Summer Festival Concerts

September 2011. This summer, eminent Maestro CHRISTOPH von DOHNÁNYI led concerts with the Chicago and Boston symphony orchestras, first at Ravinia, where he lead all-Brahms concerts featuring the Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3 and both Piano Concerti, with Emanuel Ax at the keyboard.  "Seldom has standard Teutonic repertory felt less standard, in terms of both execution and interpretation...One must hope, on the evidence of the two Brahms programs, that the summer management invites Dohnanyi back at the earliest opportunity." -- John von Rhein, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, July 17, 2011.  Then at Tanglewood, Dohnányi led two concerts; first a pair of first symphonies (Brahms and Prokofiev) with Yo-Yo Ma playing the Schumann Cello Concerto, and then the Schoenberg Symphony No. 1, Schumann Piano Concerto with Martin Helmchen and Beethoven Symphony No. 3.
"Dohnanyi and the orchestra closed up the night with a focused and forceful account of Beethoven’s “Eroica’’ Symphony. Dohnanyi’s grasp of this score is masterful, and the details, pacing, and dynamics all fell into place. The second movement’s funeral march was particularly arresting, played with a freshness of conception as if nothing could be taken for granted." -- Jeremy Eichler, THE BOSTON GLOBE, August 20, 2011

Read More about Christoph von Dohnányi

ALINA IBRAGIMOVA with The Brothers Quay, OAE and Vladimir Jurowski

September 2011.

Violinst ALINA IBRAGIMOVA spent the month of July in an acclaimed partnership with American-born, UK-based filmmakers, The Brothers Quay. 
The project was premiered at the Manchester International Festival, and was staged in the atmospheric spaces of Chetham’s School of Music.  In an 18-concert run, Ibragimova performed a programme of musically connected solo works by Berio, Bach, Biber and Bártok, given a beguiling new visual context by legendary filmmakers and stage designers the Quay brothers.

"Though Ibragimova possesses a range of technique to cover all styles from the baroque to the present day, her unique asset is the priceless ability to make time stand still."
-- Alfred Hickling, THE GUARDIAN, July 6, 2011

The project then traveled to London for the Barbican Blaze Festival, where it received praise from audiences and critics alike.  "Her technical finesse enables her to make a beautiful sound in Bach with no vibrato, while her sense of fantasy shapes the Chaconne’s desperate poetry into a marvel as psychologically probing as the Bartók and as vivid as a film in its own right. Ever wondered why great musicians are called ‘artists’? Here’s the proof." -- Jessica Duchen, THE INDEPENDENT, July 26, 2011.

In August, Ibragimova toured with Vladimir Jurowski and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto at the Edinburgh International Festival and the San Sebastian Festival in Spain.   Watch a video discussing the program (with the Liszt Faust Symphony) here.  This month, Ibragimova, Jurowski and the OAE record the Mendelssohn for Hyperion -- where Ms. Ibragimova's other albums are available, including a new disc with pianist Cédric Tiberghien of the complete Ravel music for violin and piano!

Read More about Alina Ibragimova

JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET kicks off the season at Ravinia & Juilliard

September 2011.

The Juilliard String Quartet has returned from the summer break with a bang -- leading off last week with an opening concert for The Juilliard School's freshman class.  The completely silent and rapt crowd of student actors, singers, dancers and musicians stood, stomped and cheered at the close of the Quartet's performance of Beethoven's Op. 130 with the Grosse Fuge.   As Dean Ara Guzelimian so aptly briefed the audience, "You are starting at the Mountaintop, the absolute pinnacle of Beethoven's achievement," which the Juilliard Quartet inhabited and sustained through the depths and heights of everything Beethoven put on offer.

You may have heard them Tuesday afternoon, live at the WFMT studios (Chicago) where they joined George Preston for a preview of their concert last night at Ravinia, where they played the Beethoven alongside quartets by Haydn and Donald Martino.

They recently taped a performance for Sirius Radio, which will be featured in the September 11 memorial day of broadcasting -- check their Facebook page for more details about that broadcast soon -- and they will participate in Musicians For Harmony's September 11 Memorial Concert, playing the Janacek Quartet No. 1 "Kreuzer Sonata".

Fall highlights include returns to Chamber Music Cincinnati, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and a Far East tour with dates in China and throughout Japan.

Read More about Juilliard String Quartet

Colbert Artists tours Tafelmusik's new program HOUSE OF DREAMS in 12/13

September 2011.

HOUSE OF DREAMS US TOUR DATES: March 1-15, 2013

A magical journey to the meeting places of baroque art and music -- five European homes where works by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Marais were played against a backdrop of exquisite paintings by Vermeer, Canaletto and Watteau.  Includes a memorized musical concert with stage direction, narration, and stunning projected images on a 12'x16' screen with a baroque frame.

"A superb evening...an event steeped in intellect and imagination...That the musical performance, through it all, was of the highest order hardly needs saying. As usual Jeanne Lamon, Tafelmusik’s music director, led from the violin. Charlotte Nediger, on harpsichord, and Ms. Mackay, on bass, were also solid presences, and the bursts of virtuosity were too widespread and numerous to list. But what was truly remarkable, for a band of 17 playing a kaleidoscopic variety of repertory, was that it was all done from memory: necessarily, given the almost constant movement and the occasional semidarkness. It said much for the professionalism of the enterprise that an understudy, replacing an ailing violinist, could step seamlessly into the mix. This production, which has traveled to China and Malaysia, to Mexico and California, and is bound for Australia, the Netherlands and Spain, has yet to find its way to New York. That can’t happen soon enough."  -- James R. Oestreich for THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 4, 2011 on Tafelmusik's Galileo: Music of the Spheres program.  (Watch video of the Galileo program.)

Read More about Tafelmusik