Brexit Lends New Requiem Ex Post Facto Prescience
By James Bash
EUGENE, Ore. – Though still grounded in the music of J.S. Bach, the Oregon Bach Festival also embraces the present. Matthew Halls led the world premiere of James MacMillan’s timely — as it turned out — A European Requiem.
Marsalis Muses On His First Concerto (For, Yes, Violin)
By Kyle MacMillan
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. – Jazz trumpet star Wynton Marsalis, whose freshly minted Violin Concerto in D will be played July 12 at the Ravinia Festival, says his friendship with soloist Nicola Benedetti led him back to the classical realm.
In Newfoundland, An Opera Honors Regiment of WWI
By Richard Todd
ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland – The ambitious little company Opera on the Avalon presented the world premiere of Ours by composer John Estacio and librettist Robert Chafe, about the force of 800 men that was decimated at the Somme.
At Round Top Fest, Youth And A Guru Forever Young
By Mike Greenberg
ROUND TOP, Tex. – Over a span of 45 years, pianist James Dick has transformed a dot on the map into a perennially vital summer institute that spotlights young musicians who regularly perform with their distinguished elders.
Bold Chicago Fest Revives Martinů’s ‘Epic Of Gilgamesh’
By Marta Tonegutti
CHICAGO - Conductor Carlos Kalmar, whose imaginative programming has been a strength of the annual Grant Park Music Festival, led orchestra, chorus and soloists in an authoritative account of Martinů’s 1955 oratorio.
Forget ‘Chopsticks’; Amateur Pianists Show Real Chops
By Susan Geffen
FORT WORTH – The stakes weren't all that high at the Seventh Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition, but the artistic standard was. Thomas Yu, a 38-year-old periodontist from Calgary, Alberta, bested a strong field.
With New Shell, Brevard Festival Revivified At 80
By Paul Hyde
BREVARD, N.C. – The star of this year’s music festival, opening June 24, may be a new $2.5 million acoustical shell. Director Keith Lockhart plans the Beethoven Ninth, a slate of celebrated soloists, and a new "opera noir" – Falling Angel.
Evil, Body Parts, Blood Mashed Into Creepy Lang Opera
By Richard S. Ginell
LOS ANGELES – David Lang's anatomy theater begins with an 18th-century public execution – free beer and sausages for the audience – before getting down to gory dissection and organ analysis to determine what made the dead dame tick.
Women Composers Reign At Subdued 70th Ojai Festival
By Rodney Punt
OJAI, Calif. - All but two works at this year's festival were by women, about which Peter Sellars said, “I’d rather not have to mention that, but there’s something wildly exciting about hearing from the other half of the planet.”
Trio Of Unusual Concertos In NY Biennial Wrap-Up
By Leslie Kandell
NEW YORK – The second New York Philharmonic Biennial took over its hometown the way Wagner’s Ring cycle takes over Seattle. The festival concluded with virtuosic showpieces either brand new or new to New York.
The Tragic Visage Of Lachenmann’s ‘Little Match Girl’
By Johanna Keller
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Spoleto Festival USA presented the American premiere of Helmut Lachenmann's stark, abstract opera, with John Kennedy conducting large forces in a complex score heightened by Dickensian shadow puppets.
On Porgy’s’ Turf, Gershwin’s Opera Is Right At Home
By John W. Lambert
CHARLESTON, S.C. – At the Spoleto USA Festival's 40th anniversary season, and in the Gershwin opera's actual locale, Porgy and Bess received a historic and triumphant first staging at Charleston's newly renovated Gaillard Center.
San Francisco ‘Carmen’ Fails To Deliver The Heat
By Lisa Hirsch
SAN FRANCISCO – What a surprise to find that Calixto Bieito's controversial production is a remarkably tame updating of the opera with very little in it that's more provocative than any other Carmen you might see.
Coming Events: American Masters Key Festival Fare
DATE BOOK – As if taking their cue from conductor Leonard Slatkin's advocacy, summer festivals at Aspen and elsewhere will spotlight the mid-century American composers who invented the sound world we now live in.
World Premieres Spark Spoleto Fest’s 40th season
By Paul Hyde
CHARLESTON, S.C. - From now through June 12, Spoleto Festival USA is offering plenty to dazzle the ear and eye. The programming, including a new production of Porgy and Bess, is attracting considerable media attention.
Legrand, 84, Adds To Creative Realm In New Concerto
By C. J. Gianakaris
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The prolific and much-honored Michel Legrand not only composed a new piano concerto for the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, but he also sat in as soloist at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival.
There’s Always Room For (More And More) Cellos
By Richard S. Ginell
LOS ANGELES — At midpoint of the second Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, 106 cellos crammed onto the Walt Disney Concert Hall stage. Sure, it was a stunt, but the marvelous music-making elevated it beyond that.
Coming Events: East Coast Glories In Summer Fests
DATE BOOK – From Maine to the Carolinas, from the Baroque to world premieres, from André (Previn) to (John) Zorn, the Atlantic Coast offers ample diversity in summer chamber music festivals. Herewith, a small sampling.
World Premieres Spice Centennial Of Baltimore SO
By Charles T. Downey
NORTH BETHESDA, Md. – Celebrating with new commissions, music director Marin Alsop and the BSO offered Joan Tower's Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman and Anna Clyne's orchestral suite Abstractions.
