Author: bfc-admin

“The Asheville Symphony Orchestra announced on Monday the six finalists for its music director position,” reports an unsigned story in Wednesday’s (1/18) Citizen Times (Asheville, N.C.). “The finalists are Jacomo Bairos, Darko Butorac, Nicholas Hersh, Rei Hotoda, Jayce Ogren and Garry Walker.… Each finalist will visit Asheville and will conduct a Masterworks concert in the 2017-18 season. Concert dates and programs will be announced this spring. Current Asheville Symphony Music Director Daniel Meyer will conduct the remaining concerts in the 2016-17 season, as well as the 2017-18 season-opening concert and a New Year’s Eve concert, which will be his final concert as music director.” Jacomo Bairos is music director of the Amarillo (Tex.) Symphony; Darko Butorac is music director of the Tallahassee (Fla.) and Missoula (Mont.) symphony orchestras; Nicholas Hersh is associate conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras; Rei Hotoda is associate conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra; Jayce Ogren is artistic director of Orchestra 2001 in Philadelphia; and Garry Walker is artistic director of conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and scheduled to begin in September 2017 as chief conductor of Germany’s Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz.

Posted January 19, 2017

“When ‘Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA,’ the Getty-funded exhibition series devoted to Latino and Latin American art, kicks off this fall, it will be with a bang,” writes Carolina Miranda in Wednesday’s (1/18) Los Angeles Times. Performing on September 17 at the Hollywood Bowl will be “Mexican rock band Café Tacvba, L.A. roots rockers La Santa Cecilia and Chilean singer-songwriter Mon Laferte. This concert … will be followed by other Latino and Latin American musical performances—including a 10-day festival, CDMX, dedicated to the Mexico City music scene organized by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as three other orchestral performances that will feature the L.A. Phil with Café Tacvba (pronounced Tacuba) and Mexican vocalist Natalia Lafourcade…. The CDMX festival … will feature specially commissioned works by up-and-coming composers. ‘It’s been a focus of ours to feature Latin American artists—especially with Gustavo Dudamel as our director,’ says Meghan Martineau, associate director of artistic planning at the L.A. Phil. ‘And Mexico City has really stood out as a really incredible place right now.’ ” Also part of the festival, from September 2017 to January 2018, will be jazz composer Arturo O’Farrill, Cuba’s Malpaso Dance Company, drummer Antonio Sánchez, and music historian Josh Kun.

Posted January 19, 2017

“Staffers for the Trump transition team have been meeting with career staff at the White House ahead of Friday’s presidential inauguration to outline their plans for shrinking the federal bureaucracy,” reports Alexander Bolton in The Hill (Washington, D.C.) on Thursday (1/19). “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be privatized, while the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities would be eliminated entirely.… The proposed cuts hew closely to a blueprint published last year by the conservative Heritage Foundation, a think tank that has helped staff the Trump transition.… The administration’s full budget, including appropriations language, supplementary materials and long-term analysis, is expected to be released toward the end of Trump’s first 100 days in office, or by mid- to late April. The budget offices of the various departments will have the chance to review the proposals, offer feedback and appeal for changes before the president’s budget goes to Congress.… The presidential budget is important in setting policy and laying out the administration’s agenda, though Congress would be responsible for approving a federal budget and appropriating funds.”

Posted January 19, 2017

The New Haven Symphony Orchestra is partnering with the University of New Haven and radio station WNHU to produce a new podcast series called Listen Up! Hosted by NHSO Education Director Caitlin Daly, each 10- to 20-minute episode covers a single aspect of music. The podcasts— “where we show you how to get more out of the music you love,” says an NHSO press release—are presented by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and produced with support from WNHU Radio and the University of New Haven. The first of seven podcasts launched three months ago, with topics including melody, rhythm/meter, harmony, texture, tempo/dynamics, texture/form, and variation. The podcasts are offered free at SoundCloud and iTunes.

Posted January 18, 2017

“You wouldn’t expect video games, short attention spans and crazy, Rube Goldberg machines to inspire a symphony orchestra composition,” writes Janelle Gelfand in Monday’s (1/16) Cincinnati Enquirer. “But those were some of the things that inspired Andrew Norman’s ‘Play,’ a vast and exciting canvas for large, colorful orchestra, performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on Friday at the Taft Theatre, Downtown. ‘Play,’ which just won the $100,000 Grawemeyer Award, is the centerpiece of this year’s MusicNOW Festival, curated by Bryce Dessner. In the past four years, the festival has become an incubator for new orchestral music written by a rising generation of composers. It’s too early to know whether the music of now will be the music of tomorrow. But one thing we do know: Friday’s program, which included guest conductor Matthias Pintscher’s own ‘idyll for orchestra’ and songs by Irish singer Lisa Hannigan, was adventurous, probing, challenging and enthralling.… Los Angeles-based Norman, 37 … introduced his monumental work as ‘a wild ride.’… Pintscher’s 23-minute ‘Idyll’ contrasted as a work of poetry and introspection.… The composer displayed a gift for lyricism in themes for orchestral soloists, including alto flute.”

Posted January 18, 2017

“When French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann appeared for the first time with [Ireland’s] RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra last February, she scored a hit,” writes Michael Dervan in Wednesday’s (1/18) Irish Times (Dublin). “The orchestra liked her—I’ve even heard the phrase ‘love at first sight’ used—and the audience for her programme of Wagner and Mahler had a special time, too. She returned on Friday [to conduct a concert of Beethoven and Brahms]…. Her appointment as the orchestra’s new principal guest conductor for a two-year term from next September was announced during the week, and the appointment was also brought to the audience’s attention before the start of the concert…. Her appointment is welcome on multiple grounds. Her performances are good, her popularity with the orchestra was evident on Friday, and the public gave her a rousing reception. She is, of course, still more celebrated as a great contralto—a genuine deep and dark contralto, not a mezzo soprano—than as a conductor. Her track record ranges from new music … to the world of period performances. … In 2009 she founded her own chamber orchestra, Orfeo 55, with which she has recorded Bach, Handel and Vivaldi as singer and conductor.”

Posted January 18, 2017

“It’s not unusual to hear gospel music in East Side Baptist churches,” writes Nancy A. Fischer in Tuesday’s (1/17) Buffalo News. “But hearing that same music coming from a Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra quartet is a little more out of the ordinary. The BPO Diversity Council wants to change that perception. To that end, the string quartet performed three gospel songs during services Sunday at two predominantly African-American churches, Friendship Baptist and First Shiloh Baptist…. Said Otis N. Glover, Diversity Council co-chairman, … ‘We heard from members and children that said they didn’t know (the BPO) could play that kind of music and they were very surprised and happy.’ … This is not the first time that the BPO visited area churches…. But Sunday was the first time members have performed in churches under the auspices of the Diversity Council, which was created last year…. With the council … the BPO is formalizing, expanding and raising awareness of what it already has been doing.” The orchestra will perform at two other Buffalo churches this Sunday, and on March 4, the Diversity Council will host a reception with community leaders, following a concert featuring music of Nat King Cole.

Posted January 18, 2017

“As part of a national tour, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will debut Richard Prior’s latest composition, ‘A Canticle of Shadows,’ on Friday at Emory University” in Atlanta, writes Jon Ross in Wednesday’s (1/18) Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The piece is a musical response to images of the war in Syria, as well as other conflicts and crises. “The New York City-based 31-piece chamber orchestra, which plays without a conductor, will also perform Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto with violinist Vadim Gluzman. Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 will round out the program. For Prior, these pictures of devastation could easily translate into a thorny, dissonant piece of music that would force the audience to confront the pain of war. Instead, Prior has used chorale sections and restrained dynamics to create ‘an emotional release of grief,’ he wrote in the program notes…. While he thought about Emory’s general audiences—a mix of students, community members and longtime art patrons—he didn’t consciously work to make the music more approachable to classical newbies…. He believes that … his job is to wrap unfamiliar musical ideas ‘with things that are somehow familiar in the tapestry of the music and then extend beyond that.’ … If done correctly, this alchemy creates classical converts.”

Posed January 18, 2017