Author: Ginger Dolden

“The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will celebrate Anne Parsons, its late president and chief executive officer who died in late March after a long battle with lung cancer, with a free special performance May 17 at Orchestra Hall,” writes Maureen Feighan in Friday’s (4/15) Detroit News. “Conducted by Music Director Jader Bignamini, the program will feature orchestral and chamber music ‘that holds a special connection to Parsons,’ according to a press release. The DSO’s musicians are donating their services for the performance. Parsons led the DSO for 17 years, guiding it through a series of challenges during her tenure, including the Great Recession, a bitter musicians’ strike and later the pandemic. She retired last fall to focus on her health. She was 64 when she died. Tickets to the May 17th performance are free and available to the public,” and the concert will be also be offered as a free webcast at the DSO’s site.

“The American conductor Gavriel Heine has been a fixture at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, for 15 years,” writes Javier C. Hernandez in Monday’s (4/18) New York Times. “He has led hundreds of performances of classics like ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘The Rite of Spring.’ And he has done so as a protégé of the company’s leader: Valery Gergiev. On Saturday, Mr. Heine went yet again to the Mariinsky … to inform Mr. Gergiev—a longtime friend and supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia—that he was resigning from his post as one of the state-run theater’s resident conductors…. Mr. Heine, 47, had been increasingly disturbed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine…. He … served as chief conductor of the Kharkiv Symphony Orchestra … from 2003 to 2007. When he saw images of Russian missiles hitting a building in Kharkiv in early March, he was distraught. ‘That broke me,’ he said…. His family left for the United States in early March, while he went to Switzerland to lead a production of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Eugene Onegin’ at the Opéra de Lausanne…. ‘The theater’s not going anywhere,’ he added. ‘I am.’ ” Heine is an alumnus of the League of American Orchestras Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview.

The South Carolina Philharmonic will present the world premiere of the orchestral arrangement of David Kirkland Garner’s Melt on its final 2021-22 Masterworks program of the season on April 23. Music Director Morihiko Nakahara will conduct the concert, which also features Arutunian’s Trumpet Concerto with Principal Trumpet James Ackley, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. The concert will be performed in person at Koger Center for the Arts and will also be livestreamed. Garner’s Melt was originally scored for chamber ensemble. The composer is an assistant professor of composition and theory at the University of South Carolina. In a press release, Garner says, “Melt is a dance that spins and dips in perpetual motion without really going anywhere. Occasionally, moments of rest materialize only to get swept back up in the cyclone. It is a dance of change without change—of a mobile spinning in the wind.”

“Bernard Jacobson, a classical music critic and writer for more than six decades, died on Feb. 14, 2022, in Philadelphia. He was 85,” writes Sarah Shay in Wednesday’s (4/13) Musical America (subscription required). “Born in London … he began his career in the Netherlands, where wrote liner notes for Philips before [becoming] artistic director of … The Hague Philharmonic and then as artistic advisor to the North Netherlands Orchestra. [In] London, he worked for EMI and Boosey and Hawkes…. [In Chicago,] he was music critic for the Chicago Daily News and taught music at Roosevelt University. In 1984 he and his wife relocated to Philadelphia, where the Philadelphia Orchestra hired him as program annotator and musicologist…. Jacobson remained a fixture on the Philadelphia music scene for the rest of his life, writing program notes for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. As a performer, Jacobson” narrated works by Stravinsky with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Jose Symphony, and narrated Martinů’s The Epic of Gilgamesh at Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival. “Jacobson contributed articles to High Fidelity, Musical America, Fanfare, and Seen and Heard International, and authored The Music of Johannes Brahms, Conductors on Conducting, A Polish Renaissance, and Star Turns and Cameo Appearances: Memoirs of a Life among Musicians.”

“Philippe Tondre and Katherine Needleman, principal oboists in the orchestras of Philadelphia and Baltimore, respectively, will take over Curtis [Institute of Music’s] oboe studio this fall, the school announced Thursday,” writes Peter Dobrin in Thursday’s (4/14) Philadelphia Inquirer. They succeed Richard Woodhams, who retired as Philadelphia Orchestra’s principal oboist in 2018. “The appointment marks a significant departure from tradition…. Tondre and Needleman represent two different schools of playing. Tondre has a European sound, while Needleman, who studied with Woodhams at Curtis, is part of an American pedagogical lineage at the school going back to Woodhams’ teacher, John de Lancie, and de Lancie’s teacher, Marcel Tabuteau. Giving students access to both philosophies was part of the thinking behind the joint appointment, as was maintaining Curtis’ historic connection with the Philadelphia Orchestra…. All of Curtis’ oboe students—there are typically five—will study with both faculty members; the school has been moving toward a system in which all students train with more than one major teacher…. Needleman joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2003…. She has played the premieres of several new works for her instrument…. Tondre joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2020 and continues to play principal oboe with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.”

“Questlove teaming up with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for a ‘hip-hop brunch’ [is] a surprising pairing,” writes Thor Christensen in Thursday’s (4/14) Dallas Morning News. “Titled ‘Questlove’s Hip-Hop Brunch: A Visual Journey Through Hip-Hop,’ the concert Saturday at the Factory in Deep Ellum is billed as ‘an immersive brunch’ with visuals by Dallas artists Jeremy Biggers and JM Rizzi and a live collaboration between Questlove and the DSO…. Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson [is] best known as the drummer of the Roots … band…. He’s also a producer, an adjunct professor, a podcast host (Questlove Supreme), a historian who’s written six books and a director who won his first Academy Award in March for the documentary Summer of Soul…. He isn’t the first rock or R&B artist to team up with the DSO. St. Vincent did it in 2015 … and Q’s old pal Erykah Badu did it in 2019…. It’s also not Questlove’s first dance with an orchestra. In 2017, the Roots performed ‘A Night of Symphonic Hip-Hop’ with the Dallas Pops … and live-streamed it worldwide.” DSO President and CEO Kim Noltemy “compared Saturday’s concert to the 2018 Soluna Festival, when the DSO joined forces with the rapper Nas.”

“Few people know the music of Star Wars as intimately as Anthony Parnther,” writes Julian Sancton in Thursday’s (4/14) Hollywood Reporter. Parnther, who is a bassoonist and film and orchestra conductor, “played bassoon on the scores for Episode IX—The Rise of Skywalker (by John Williams), Rogue One (by Michael Giacchino), and Solo (by John Powell); and conducted Ludwig Göransson’s score for the hit Disney+ series The Mandalorian…. On April 24, Parnther will make his debut at Carnegie Hall as the guest conductor of the famed Gateways Music Festival Orchestra…. The seasonal orchestra consists entirely of Black musicians…. After its longtime musical director Michael Morgan died in August 2021, Parnther seemed the obvious choice to replace him for the concert. ‘He is mesmerizing, on the podium and in real life,’ says Lee Koonce, president and artistic director of Gateways Music Festival…. The program … will include works by Brahms … George Walker and Florence Price. Carnegie Hall’s 2021-22 Perspectives artist … Jon Batiste will join the orchestra on piano for the premiere of his new work ‘I Can.’ ” Parthner is music director of the San Bernardino Symphony and Southeast Symphony and Chorus, both in California.