Category: Uncategorized

Bendicamus Domino
Sacred Songs from the 19th and 20th Century

Benedicamus Domino – Let us praise the Lord: For centuries, composers have sought to set their hopes and their doubts to the Christian promise of salvation. amarcord presents a string of impressive examples from the 19th and the 20th century, as much disturbing as comforting.

Benedicamus Domino features works by
Hugo Wolf
Richard Strauss
Max Reger,
Carl Orff
Darius Milhaud
Francis Poulenc
and Krysztof Penderecki.

Other programs available; please inquire to learn more.

Noted for their unique tone, breathtaking homogeneity, musical authenticity and a good dose of charm and humor, amarcord performs a vast and highly diverse repertoire, from medieval plainsong to madrigals and Renaissance masses, compositions and cycles of works of the European Romantic period and 20th century, and arrangements of a cappella folksongs collected from all over the world.

Enjoy a selection of recent performances below – beginning with a special amarcord holiday song and message!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from AMARCORD!

https://youtu.be/S9wT5fAPQGg

(Featuring Es ist ein Ros entsprungen)

https://youtu.be/ihYf1CbCSe8

amacord: The Book of Madrigals

Leipziger Disputation: A collaboration between amarcord and Calmus

JACK Quartet has been named Musical America’s 2019 Ensemble of the Year. In his tribute article, Allan Kozinn said of the quartet: “This group’s fresh, energetic, and stylistically omnivorous approach to the contemporary repertoire makes it a worthy heir to the tradition of new-music quartets that goes back to the Composers Quartet in the 1960s and rivals the Kronos and Arditti Quartets of today…If JACK thought a piece was worth programming, you wanted to be there to hear why.”

The announcement precedes the December publication of the 2019 Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts, which, in addition to its comprehensive industry listings, pays homage to each of these artists in its editorial pages. The annual Musical America Awards will be presented in a special ceremony at Carnegie Hall on December 11, 2018.

JACK’s 2018-19 concert season will take them to 27 cities in 9 countries across 2 continents, performing numerous world premieres from a diverse selection of composers. The ensemble will continue to grow their presence in the UK and Europe with their debut at the Berlin Philharmonie, a return to Wigmore Hall in the UK, and concerts in Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The rest of the season will be in North America with performances in Canada, Mexico, and across the United States, including 9 educational residencies.

With world premieres by Cristina García Islas, Michel Roth, John Zorn, Miya Masaoka, Richard Karpen, Juan Pampin, and dozens of student composers, the JACK Quartet is set to feature a diverse body of new work. Performances will include works by Zosha Di Castri, Sabrina Schroeder, Liza Lim, Marcos Balter, and Andreia Pinto Correia, along with a special focus on the works of John Zorn, Tyshawn Sorey, Chaya Czernowin, and the complete quartets of Elliott Carter performed at London’s Wigmore Hall on April 6, and New York City’s Morgan Library & Museum on April 13.

See Full 2018-19 Season Announcement

Pianist Adam Golka performs a recital on the Van Cliburn Virtuoso series next week, on October 18.  He will play works by Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Paderewski, Michael Brown, and Roman Rabinovich at the Kimbell Art Museum.  See the digital program book here.

Read more about Adam’s most recent travels and performances in his latest newsletter, where he writes about his concert in Poland performing Mozart’s C Minor Concerto, K. 491 with the Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra and Joseph Swensen; his time at the Krzyżowa-Music Festival, where he debuted as a poet narrating his original script in 3 different languages as he played Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals; and his presentation of the world premiere of his two piano arrangement of Debussy’s La Mer with French-Madagascarian pianist Yannick Rafalimanana, and more! –Including his debut last July with the San Francisco Symphony in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4.

This month cellist Mark Kosower opens ProMusica Chamber Orchestra‘s (Columbus, OH) 18/19 season alongside long-time friends and musical colleagues violinist Vadim Gluzman, and pianist Angela Yoffe with Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, led by ProMusica Music Director David Danzmayr.  (Kosower is a frequent guest artist at Gluzman and Yoffe’s summer North Shore Chamber Music Festival.)

The following week, Kosower returns “home” to the Cleveland Orchestra (where he is principal cellist) to perform Ginastera’s Second Cello Concerto led by Gustavo Gimeno (newly announced as the Toronto Symphony’s incoming Music Director). Kosower is long associated with Alberto Ginastera’s music; he was the first cellist to record Ginastera’s complete solo cello works, as well as both cello concertos (recorded with the Bamberger Symphoniker) and worked extensively with Ginastera’s wife, the cellist Aurora Nátola-Ginastera.

“Kosower’s virtuosity was on almost relentless display. Time and again, one’s jaw dropped as the cellist, suavely bolstered by his partner (pianist Jee-Won Oh), exploited his instrument in ways almost beyond belief, to stunning and haunting effect.”

Zachary Lewis, THE PLAIN DEALER on a 2016 Ginastera Recital

This month Kosower also joins the Canton Symphony for Dvořák’s Rondo for Cello and Orchestra, and Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2 which he recently recorded for Naxos with JoAnn Falletta and the Ulster Orchestra. This engagement has an additional bit of resonance, as he will be performing alongside two of his Cleveland Institute of Music cello students who recently won positions in the orchestra!

“After studying it I realized how charming, lively, fresh, and youthful the concerto is as it utilizes the cello’s best registers and demonstrates its virtuosic capabilities.”

Mark Kosower on Victor Herbert’s Cello Concertos, STRINGS MAGAZINE

https://www.facebook.com/ClevelandInstituteofMusic/videos/1360960787369758/

After going on tour with the Cleveland Orchestra’s Prometheus Project to sing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Franz Welser-Möst at Severance Hall, Vienna, and Japan, Dashon Burton returned to the U.S. in time to open the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago as soloist in William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast at the Jay Pritzker Pavillion in Millennium Park. Dashon spent his summer 2018 making his debut at the Salzburg Festival under Franz Welser-Möst in Salomé.

Dashon Burton is joining Craig Hella Johnson and his choir Conspirare to perform the powerful musical homage Considering Matthew Shepard at Ravinia tonight, then performs a recital program at Ashmont Hill Chamber Music in Boston that includes spirituals and Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Op. 48 this weekend.

Dashon’s orchestral engagements this fall include Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Alexander Shelley later this month, and again in November with the Cincinnati Symphony and Louis Langrée; and Dvořák’s Stabat Mater with Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the Houston Symphony. Dashon returns to Philharmonia Baroque with Nicholas McGegan to sing Mozart’s Litaniae Lauretanae K. 195 and Coronation Mass, and sings Mozart C Minor Mass with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra where he will return in the spring for the annual Bach Festival.

This December, Dashon takes a different route from his usual Christmas programs of Handel and Bach, to be in Paris for Peter Sellers’ production of Kopernikus featuring the vocal ensemble, Roomful of Teeth, of which he is an original member.

This Sunday September 9, pianist Cédric Tiberghien debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir George Benjamin in Ravel’s Left Hand Concerto.  His performance will be streamed live at 2PM EST via Digital Concert Hall.

Cédric returns to North America later this month to perform Bartók Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Vancouver Symphony and their newly appointed music director, Otto Tausk, followed by Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Quebec Symphony and Enrique Mazzola.

In commemoration of the centennial of the World War I Armistice, Cédric once again appears on the Chicago Symphony‘s Symphony Center Presents Piano Series, this time in a program of works composed between 1914 and 1918 by Scriabin, Frank Bridge, Debussy, Szymanowski, and Hindemith. He will premiere the program on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, November 10, at Wigmore Hall in London, and repeat it after Chicago on December 5 at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Cédric Tiberghien makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with François-Xavier Roth in Liszt’s First Piano Concerto beginning of March 2019.

TAFELMUSIK will bring SAFE HAVEN to the United States, March 4-15, 2020.  In addition to sets, narration and projected images, the performance includes works by Lully, Bach, Purcell, Telemann, and Vivaldi’s “Winter” from The Four Seasons, led by new Music Director, Elissa Citerro.  SAFE HAVEN explores the influence of refugee populations on the culture of their adopted countries, and taps into Mackay’s uncanny ability to examine the parallels between 18th-century Europe and the issues currently facing our world.

Mackay and her creative team employ scripted text narrated by Maryem Tollar, lighting designed by Glenn Davidson, and stunning projections designed by Raha Javanfar to create the kind of immersive concert experience for which Tafelmusik is world renowned.

“Throughout history, the effects of war, religious persecution, climate change, and poverty have caused people to abandon their homes and seek asylum beyond their borders,” says Mackay.  “In the time of Tafelmusik’s baroque repertoire, waves of refugees had a huge influence on the music and culture of Europe. Today, when many refugees are finding their place in Canadian communities, the past can teach us about the cultural riches our newcomers have to offer.”

Safe Haven  features music by European baroque composers including Corelli, Lully, Bach, Telemann, and Vivaldi — composers whose interactions with migrant musicians, impresarios, and artisans had a major influence on their work. In the final section of Safe Haven, Mackay brings the program full circle to Canada’s music scene, where cross-pollination has flourished thanks to the arrival of musicians and musical traditions from around the world. With guest artists Diely Mori Toukara, kora, Maryem Tollar, voice, and Naghmeh Farahmand, percussion, the second half explores some of the rich global cultural traditions passed along to a new generation of Canadian musicians.

Safe Haven also explores how the movement of refugees across baroque Europe changed and enriched the economy and culture of major cities. French Huguenots could be found in Amsterdam, Scottish Catholics in Warsaw, and Sephardic Jews in the cities of Northern Italy. Audiences will hear how the term refugee(or refugiés) first came into common usage during the forced exodus of Protestants from France, following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685.