In Saturday’s (3/17) Winnipeg Free Press (Canada), Alison Mayes writes, “Steve Reich, a contemporary music giant who has been called America’s greatest living composer, will headline the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival next winter. ‘He’s bigger than life,’ WSO music director and maestro Alexander Mickelthwate says about the Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning legend. ‘He and Philip Glass are the godfathers of minimalism.’ Reich, 75, will be here for festival concerts on Feb. 1 and 2, 2013 that will present his works Tehillim and The Desert Music. There will also be a chamber-music evening of his works. … The orchestra’s 65th season, unveiled on Friday, will be studded with glittering names in Canadian music. … The September-to-May calendar for the 67-member orchestra will have a few more offerings than the current season—63 concert dates compared with 57. The pops series has been expanded from seven programs to eight. The orchestra is teaming with Golden West Radio for a special concert on Dec. 2. Titled Mennonite Concertos, it includes the world première of a violin concerto by Manitoba’s Victor Davies, as well as Davies’ Mennonite Piano Concerto and a medley of hymns sung by the Mennonite Festival Chorus.”
Posted March 19, 2012
