Students, Faculty Staying Together While Kept Apart
COPING WITH CRISIS – The coronavirus pandemic has forced music schools across the nation to move instruction online. They’re making the best of a bad situation, and taking a few innovative strides forward at the same time.
Winding Pathway Led Orchestra To N. Carolina Heart
BOOK REVIEW – The North Carolina Symphony, based in Raleigh but roaming statewide, was known as the "Suitcase Symphony" for its touring ways. The nation's first state-supported symphony is finally getting its colorful story told.
Filmmaker Filters A Life Devoted To Classical Spirits
BOOK REVIEW – Christopher Nupen's book is frequently insightful and illuminating, but it is more about Nupen the man and his life than about the breakthrough technology that made music films feasible and artistically meaningful.
With Strike Ended, CSO Has Breathing Room Under Muti
CHICAGO – In the aftermath of a bruising labor dispute, Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti sounded themes of tradition, continuity, and community. The first program featured Joyce DiDonato in Berlioz.
Mary Ann Feldman Left Her Mark As Musical Whirlwind
MINNEAPOLIS – A gifted writer, Mary Ann turned out erudite and witty program notes for the Minnesota Orchestra for 33 years. She died Feb. 18 at age 85, perhaps the Twin Cities' most prolific advocate for classical music.
Ensemble Project Sparks Surge Of Creative Energy
CHICAGO – The recently debuted Grossman Ensemble, a contemporary sinfonietta set up with funding for 15 years, includes thirteen award-winning instrumentalists committed to work with a dozen composers each season.
‘Amahl’ Production Connects Artists With Community
NEW YORK - For On Site Opera’s version at Church of the Holy Apostles, host to Manhattan's largest soup kitchen, audience members were asked to donate food in lieu of cash. Tickets released online went in 20 minutes.
A Musical Mystery: Beethoven’s ‘Lost’ Tenth Symphony
BOOK REVIEW – This brilliantly researched novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Kluger will have scholars rechecking what they thought they knew about Beethoven, and mystery lovers delighting in the deft plotting.
Season Of Verdi Reflects Lifelong Passion Of Conlon
INTERVIEW – American conductor James Conlon will lead 39 performances of the Italian composer’s works in 2018-19, reaching his 500th Verdi performance overall. He's not yet saying where that landmark performance will be.
Pulitzer Compass Key To Mapping American Music
TOKYO – At the recent institute on Music From Japan, I was asked to sum up musical trends in North America today. A brief survey of the last eight Pulitzer winners reveals a rich landscape: chaotic, diverse, experimental, many-faceted.
Archive Retrieves Golden Interviews With Studs Terkel
CHICAGO – When Louis "Studs" Terkel left WFMT in 1997 after 45 years on the air, he took more than 5,600 of his reel-to-reel tape chats with the A-list of culture at large. That treasury of incredible stories is getting new digital life.
Carnegie’s Season Of Glass Retraces Path Of A Master
NEW YORK - How times have changed for 81-year-old Philip Glass. An outsider spurned by the establishment in the early 1970s, the composer’s vast output and its impact were on display all season long at the epicenter of American music.
Orchestra Festival Lit Up Uniqueness Of U.S. Ensembles
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The 2018 SHIFT Festival threw its spotlight on four diverse U.S. orchestras whose musical reach extended from the Kennedy Center to the corners of the nation’s capital – even to a concert at Union Station.
Mauceri, Slatkin Mull And Churn Conductor’s Craft
BOOK REVIEW – New books by two American senior statesman conductors – John Mauceri is 72 and Leonard Slatkin, 73 – take contrasting approaches, drawing insights from highly successful careers at home and abroad.
Seattle’s Maestro Designate Intends To Stir Repertoire
INTERVIEW – Thomas Dausgaard says his first love "was and is Beethoven," but that he's also keen to find new voices in American music for Seattle audiences. "It’s very important for me to keep the sensibilities fresh."
Toscanini Redux: From New Sources A Fresh Biography
BOOK REVIEW – A staggering number of recently discovered letters and recordings, studied by expert Toscanini biographer Harvey Sachs, allow important new facets of the conductor's private and public life to emerge from the shadows.
Weill Fest Explores Music’s Advocate For Social Progress
BREVARD, N.C. – Perhaps only in the current age of stylistic pluralism may it be possible to reconcile Kurt Weill’s German and American phases. In a mix of scholarly talks and performances, the Brevard Festival takes a stab.
New Opera Award Goes To Mazzoli, Vavrek For ‘Waves’
Breaking the Waves, with music by Missy Mazzoli (right) and libretto by Royce Vavrek, is the first winner of the Music Critics Association of North America's Best New Opera Award. The presentation will be made July 19 in Santa Fe.
Fine Book Details Cliburn’s Victory At Tchaikovsky
BOOK REVIEW – In When the World Stopped to Listen: Van Cliburn’s Cold War Triumph and Its Aftermath, Stuart Isacoff brings a pianist's insights and historian's rigor to an event that shook the world nearly six decades ago.
Think Like A Pro To Get Big Sound At Your Desktop
DIGITAL – You may be surprised that you can enjoy great musical sound from your computer. To get there, you need to address some basic questions, ranging from what you expect to hear to the space available on your desk.
