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Rob Kapilow wrapped up his 2015/2016 season on June 21 with his sixth appearance on the PBS News Hour, this time discussing Cole Porter’s musical legacy in honor of Porter’s 125th birthday.

“In a great song, once words and music combine, they become a new, completely interdependent element. Words cease to have a purely literary meaning, and music ceases to have a purely musical meaning. Though it’s true, these are enormously sophisticated lyrics, without the music, they would never work…”                                                                             – Rob Kapilow on Cole Porter

Segments on Brahms, Mozart, Gershwin and more were shown earlier this season with new features to air beginning this Fall.

This week Rob returns to Ottawa Chamberfest with What Makes it Great programs of the theater songs of Leonard Bernstein on July 23 and Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major on July 27.

Fall 2016 highlights include What Makes it Great programs of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein’s American in Paris with theCerritos Center for the Performing Arts, the Songs of Harold Arlen at Washington Performing Arts, and his series at Merkin Concert Hall with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 on November 7 and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8on December 12.

The May 2016 Edition of the International Festival of Vocal Music, “A CAPPELLA”, established in Leipzig in 1997 by the Ensemble amarcord, opened with amarcord’s popular “European Romantic” program May 20 at St. Michael’s Church followed by a May 27 concert of Monteverdi’s Marienvespers with the Lautten Compagney Berlin at the St. Thomas Church, and ended at the final gala concert at the Gewandhaus May 29.

Other ensembles of the 2016 Festival were the Gothic Voices from the UK, Hungary’s Fool Moon and Jazzation, a supergroup called Leveleleven combining Rajaton from Finland and The Real Group from Sweden, Shavnabada from Georgia, La Colombia from Spain, and the popular group from Cologne, Basta!

Following the Festival, amarcord’s next appearance was the closing concert of the Stockholm Early Music Festival with the Thuringia Bach Festival Ensemble when amarcord was joined by a boys choir, brass quartet, and organist, to form the Thuringia Bach Festival Ensemble.

Among their 2017/18 season offerings will be a program celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Protestant Reformation, which occurs October 31, 2017, immediately followed by a tour of North America from November 3 – 19, 2017.

In a series of spring concerts, pianist Marc-André Hamelin played recitals in Amsterdam, Berlin, Lucerne, Chicago, and the Klavier-Festival Ruhr.  The Canadian master played and recorded Rachmaninoff 3 and Medtner 2 with Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and returned to Los Angeles (LACO) and Ottawa (NACO) for performances of Mozart K. 453.

“The three Book 2 “Images” of Debussy found Hamelin the subtle colorist, operating in his impressionist element. “Cloches a travers les feuilles” (“Bells Sounding Across the Leaves”) delighted in delicate sprays of arpeggios over finely controlled washes of piano pastels. Both the second piece and “Poissons d’or” (“Goldfish”) were object lessons in applying soft dynamic gradations without any loss of tonal presence.” – John von Rhein, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, May 23, 2016

“…his playing in the (Mozart) Piano Concerto No. 17 was offered like a flute of fine prosecco: witty, scintillating, joyful, lit with a warm golden glow” – Natasha Gauthier, OTTAWA CITIZEN, May 25, 2016

Last month saw the release of his recording of César Franck’s Piano Quintet in F Minor with the Takács Quartet on Hyperion.

Now available on Hyperion and iTunes.

This month, Marc is in Bilbao, Salzburg, Munich and Wigmore Hall before returning to Boston at the end of June to celebrate his marriage to Cathy Fuller!  We wish the happy couple all the best!

His summer festivals include stops in Verbier, Lofoton, Germany, Domaine Forget, Aspen, and La Jolla, where he will perform the world premiere of his new work for cello and piano with cellist Hai-Ye Ni.

Austrian pianist Till Fellner returned to the States last month for “crisp and stylish” performances of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in E-flat Major, K. 482, in a Chicago Symphony subscription week with Bernard Haitink.

“Fellner is one of today’s very finest Mozart interpreters, for reasons that relate not only to his Austrian birth and Viennese training (Alfred Brendel was one of his teachers). His musicality is such that everything sounded as it should: sparkling runs, purling tone, diamond-edged articulation, clarity of voicing. Above all, he brought to this marvel of a concerto an expressive understanding that ran deep below the music’s pristine surfaces, most notably in the introspective slow movement.” – John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune, April 29, 2016

In advance of the Chicago concerts, Till was featured on WFMT’s Impromptu, performing works by Beethoven and Schumann. The hour-long program can be heard here.

Earlier in April Till played the same Mozart Concerto in London with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, led by Sir Neville Marriner in a concert celebrating his 92nd birthday.

“In the finale, Fellner again showed what a discerning Mozartian he is, the classical proportions never under strain, his right hand dancing brightly over the keys, and in the final short cadenza a twinkle-in-the-eye approach, almost Chopinesque in its brilliance” – Von Alexander Hall, Bachtrack, April 16, 2016

At the Gilmore Festival on May 6 he performed Schumann, Berio, and Beethoven which he repeated the next day in Baltimore in the season’s closing concert of the Shriver Hall Concert Series, stepping in at the last minute in place of Nelson Freire.

Conductor Michael Stern starts the summer with a 7 concert tour of Israel, leading the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Joshua Bell in a program of Copland, Lalo, and Sibelius and ends the summer at Tanglewood leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Yo-Yo Ma in works of Bernstein, Haydn, John Williams, and Respighi.

In between, Stern leads Beethoven 9 performances (featuring Colbert Artists Dashon Burton and Celena Shafer) in the season closing concerts of his Kansas City Symphony, then heads west for concerts at the Crested Butte Festival, and a performance of Mahler’s 6th Symphony with the National Repertory Orchestra.

Last month, Michael returned to his alma mater to lead the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in their final concert of the season in a program of Debussy, Varése, and Brahms at the Kimmel Center, and finished up the season with his IRIS orchestra in a program of Prokofiev, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn. Last week he conducted the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Alice Tully Hall for the Young Concert Artists Gala Concert – Mozart’sViolin Concerto No. 5, Barber’s “Knoxville”, and Prokofiev’sPiano Concerto No. 3.

Pianist Soyeon Kate Lee began her spring season with the release of an all-Scriabin solo album from Naxos, and performances of solo and duo concerts in New York.

Earlier this month, Lee and her husband, pianist Ran Dank, offered four-hand performances of works by Schubert, Debussy, Liszt, and Barber at Bargemusic, Brooklyn’s distinctive floating concert venue.  (Watch video of Lee and Dank performing Brahms Waltzes Op. 39.)

Lee celebrated her new album last week with a solo recital presented by Concert Artists Guild (of which Lee is an alumna, having won the Competition in 2004) at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, performing Scriabin selections from the disc, contemporary works by Lera Auerbach, and the world premiere of Six Preludes after Chopin by Miguel Roit-Francoli.

This week Lee performs a solo recital at the College of Charleston International Piano Series and next month, she travels to Hawaii where she will perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 488 with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. She will then be joined with Dank to perform their duet programs again with the Hawaii Concert Society on May 10, and at theKahilu Theatre on May 11.

Lee performs Scriabin, Impromptu, Op. 12, No 2, below:

We are delighted to announce that tenor Anthony Dean Griffey has joined the Colbert Artists Management family.

A four-time Grammy winner, he has also been praised on the concert stage with The New York Times commenting “He brings uninhibited dramatic intensity and a distinctive voice, at once lyrical and powerful…”

On the opera stage, Griffey’s portrayals of Lennie in Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men at the Glimmerglass Festival, and Jimmy Mahoney in Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagony with the Los Angeles Opera, have been met with widespread critical acclaim.

Mr. Griffey is also noted for his interpretation of the title role in Peter Grimes, with which he had remarkable success at the Metropolitan Opera, and also on concert stages including Carnegie Hall with David Robertson and the Saint Louis Symphony.

Throughout his career, Griffey has devoted himself to performing new music. In 2004 he made his Zankel Hall recital debut, premiering a cycle by André Previn, with the composer at the piano.

A frequent performer of oratorio, and concert works, Griffey recently appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra singing Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Griffey is a featured soloist for Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the Cincinnati May Festival conducted by music director James Conlon.

During the summer, Griffey sings a recital at The Colburn School’s annual SongFest and performs Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival.

Highlights of next season include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Grant Llewellyn and the North Carolina Symphony and Britten’s War Requiem with Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony (also featuring Christine Brewer). He also creates the role of Uncle Billy in the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life at the Houston Grand Opera.

Welcome, Anthony Dean Griffey!

The brilliant, questing JACK Quartet is in the midst of a busy stretch, with a recent performance of the “in-the-dark” Haas Quartet No. 3, launching the San Francisco Performances new music series “Pivot.”   

“It’s the best kind of gimmick — one that recasts the entire listening experience and transforms a concert into something fresh and revelatory…You could almost hear the telepathic messages flying from one to the other in the darkness.” – Joshua Kosman, THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, March 5, 2016

Other recent highlights include performances of works by John Adams, John Zorn, Xenakis, Caroline Shaw, and others in Cleveland, Ann Arbor, and Chicago.

They also collaborated with the Spektral Quartet for a special program of graduate student-composed octets at Stanford University, and with harpist/composer Hannah Lash in a Composer Portrait of Lash at New York’s Miller Theatre.

And this past week, JACK offered programs of Boulez and Beethoven for Tokyo’s Spring Festival.

Looking forward, JACK performs New York and World premieres at the 92nd Street Y as part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL.

Watch the JACK in action below, performing Xenakis’s Tetras.