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Category Archives: news
Miscellany
Lynxville, WI
(News and views from around the internet.)
- Legendary baseball announcer Vin Scully narrates Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait” at the Hollywood Bowl….
- Here’s why orchestras tune to a pitch of A 440 Hz….
- Singing in a choir is good for your health, a new report asserts, and the activity should receive more government support….
- Violinist Joshua Bell has extended his contract with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields….
- A new streaming service, Primephonic, designed for classical music, has launched….
- Organist Paul Jacobs has some profound things to say about the state of classical music in this country….
- The reviews are coming in on Mason Bates’ “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” at Santa Fe Opera. Here are some of them: The New York Times; The Washington Post; Broadway World; Bachtrack; Los Angeles Times; Financial Times; Opera Warhorses; Santa Fe Reporter; Classical Voice North America; LA Opus.
Miscellany
(Curated news and views from around the web. Click on the highlighted links to read the full articles.)
In The New Yorker, David Denby writes a fine summing up of the career of conductor Arturo Toscanini, on the occasion of the maestro’s 150th anniversary and the publication of a mammoth new biography by Harvey Sachs…. The Canadian guide to classical music slang intersects with our own only intermittently, but it’s still amusing…. Beethoven’s Ninth means different things to different people, including, probably, the leaders attending the G-20 summit…. Tom Service has written a guide to contemporary classical music, taking 50 composers and their music one at a time…. Italian conductors still make headlines: Riccardo Muti has led a joint concert in Tehran with the the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and the Tehran Symphony Orchestra …. Mason Bates’s new opera “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” will have its premiere at Santa Fe Opera this month…. A new recording (well, a reissue and remastering) features the music of — gasp — music critics. Some can.
Symphony in the Cities program
The musical agenda for this summer’s Symphony in the Cities concerts has been announced, a nice mixture of light classics and patriotic fare. Carl St.Clair, who, as always, will conduct, has selected two works each by several composers.
Leonard Bernstein is represented with the Overture to “Candide” and the “Mambo” from “West Side Story”; John Williams with the “Superman” March and “The Flying Theme” from “E.T.”; Johann Strauss, Jr., with the “Thunder and Lightning” Polka and “The Blue Danube” Waltz; Bach with “Air on a G String” and the first movement of the Concerto for Two Violins (with the young violinists Danielle and Sarah Liu as soloists); and Sousa with “Hands Across the Sea” and “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”
The program is rounded out with the Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Brahms, the Intermezzo from “Cavalleria Rusticana” by Mascagni, a salute to the Armed Forces and patriotic songs by Key, Ward and Berlin.
The concerts are free and will be held on July 16 in Newport Beach, July 22 in Mission Viejo and July 23 in Irvine. Click here for further details.
Pacific Symphony clarinetist wins Houston competition
Pacific Symphony principal clarinetist Joseph Morris has won the Houston Symphony’s 42nd annual Ima Hogg Competition, the orchestra announced over the weekend.
The competition, open to instrumentalist ages 16-26, is designed to support young musicians in the pursuit of their careers. It is named for one of the founders of the Houston Symphony.
Morris, 26, took home the Grace Woodson Memorial Award, the top prize, a gold medal and $25,000. His win also includes a solo performance with the Houston Symphony at its the Donor and Subscriber Appreciation Concert on July 12th.
During the competition he played selections from Mozart’s and Nielsen’s clarinet concertos. On Saturday he performed live with the Houston Symphony and guest conductor Daniel Hege. The judges included Phoenix Symphony music director Tito Muñóz, concert pianist Andrew von Oeyen; and Matthew Oberstein, vice president and manager of artists and attractions for Opus 3 Artists.
Morris joined Pacific Symphony as principal this season. He graduated from the USC Thornton School of Music (in 2012) and received a professional studies certificate from the Colburn Conservatory of Music (2014), where he studied with Yehuda Gilad.
Pacific Symphony assistant conductor wins Solti award
Pacific Symphony assistant conductor Roger Kalia was named today as a recipient of a 2017 Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award, the Solti Foundation U.S. announced. Kalia, who also serves as music director of the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, also won the award in 2013.
“To be recognized by an organization that is affiliated with the legacy of the great Sir Georg Solti, a conductor whom I admire greatly, is very special and meaningful to me,” Kalia said in a prepared statement. “This funding from the Solti Foundation U.S. will help me to open new doors in the field and further build my career as a conductor. I am most grateful to my dear colleagues at Pacific Symphony and Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra for their continued support.”
Kalia, 32, is one of nine conductors to receive a 2017 award. They hold positions in the United States, Canada and Brazil. He is also co-founder and music director of the Lake George Music Festival in upstate New York and has served as assistant conductor of the Charlotte Symphony and music director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra in Los Angeles. He was recently signed to a second two-year engagement with the Pacific Symphony.
The Solti Foundation U.S. is now in its 13th year assisting young conductors. Established in 2000 to honor the memory of Solti, the internationally acclaimed conductor and music director of the Chicago Symphony, the Foundation concentrated its award program in 2004 to exclusively assist young American conductors. Since then it has awarded more than half a million dollars to them. The amount of the Career Assistant Awards varies and was not announced.
For more information, visit The Solti Foundation.
