Author: Ginger Dolden

“After playing the violin in two moving orchestra performances as a student at the University of Maryland, College Park, Columbia resident Melanie Kuperstein decided to form a moving orchestra ensemble of her own,” writes Allana Haynes in Friday’s (7/30) Baltimore Sun. “Having performed in traditional orchestras like the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Maryland Symphony and the Mid-Atlantic Symphony, Kuperstein, 30, wanted to create [a] moving orchestra that requires musicians to memorize the music and play while performing choreographed movement. Gathering a group of 10 musicians … Kuperstein founded the Movement in Music Ensemble, which will be performing its debut concert at … Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods in Columbia on Saturday. First performing the style in college, Kuperstein said she wanted to find a way to continue it as a professional…. In the orchestra, musicians create movement by bowing, crouching down and walking in various patterns. Musicians who play larger instruments, like the cello, wear straps to help them more easily maneuver … Kristin Bakkegard, 31, who plays the violin in the ensemble … is the associate principal second violin of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and performs with several other orchestras in the region…. She said … ‘It’s really fun.’ ”

“A collaboration between the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and Laurel Arts will commemorate the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001,” writes Kelly Urban in Monday’s (8/2) Tribune Democrat (Johnstown, PA). “Pittsburgh native Thomas Dougherty was the winner of a composition competition. He will compose a piece of music for three JSO players that speaks to the experience and response of the Somerset community during the period surrounding Sept. 11.… An exhibit, ‘Reflections of the Human Spirit: America’s County Responds to the Tragic Events of September 11,’ will be free and open to the public from Sept. 6 through 30 at Laurel Arts [in] Somerset…. Dougherty’s work will be composed for oboe, viola and harp, and will be premiered at the exhibit by JSO principal oboe, Stephanie Caulder; principal viola, Stephen Weiss; and principal harp, Christine Mazza. Maestro James Blachly said the JSO is honored to have been invited to perform two concerts at Flight 93 National Memorial on Sept. 10 and 11…. Blachly said Nancy Galbraith, John Levey and Baljinder Sekhon, chairs of the composition departments of Carnegie Mellon University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Penn State University, respectively, served as judges for the competition.”

“Listen to Joseph Conyers talk about his time as a student at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and you’ll want to sign up yourself,” writes Joel Brown on Thursday (7/30) at Boston University’s website. “ ‘It was a magical summer … that forever changed my life, for all kinds of reasons,’ says Conyers (BUTI’98), acting associate principal bass in the Philadelphia Orchestra. ‘It introduced me to the Boston Symphony [Orchestra]…. That was transformative. And the friends I met there, they’re some of my dearest friends to this day.’ … Now Conyers has signed on as director of BUTI’s Young Artists Orchestra, a central component of the renowned summer training program for gifted young musicians in Lenox, Mass. He will begin the newly created position this fall…. He returned to the institute as a visiting artist in 2018…. That visiting artist stint turned out to be the start of a deepening reengagement with BUTI…. The response to Conyers’ 2018 residency, [BUTI executive director Hilary] Respass says, was ‘striking…. It just became a natural invitation to ask him to take a bigger role.’ In his director role, Conyers will help shape the Young Artists Orchestra program year-round.”

“Bryce Dessner is returning to Cincinnati this fall to collaborate with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in MusicNOW, the contemporary music festival he founded in 2006,” writes Janelle Gelfand in Friday’s (7/30) Cincinnati Business Courier. “The Cincinnati native … guitarist and co-founder of the rock band the National … will curate two programs in Music Hall Sept. 24-25, and the orchestra will perform Dessner’s own composition, ‘Quilting.’… The avant-garde ensemble Sõ Percussion [will perform] David Lang’s ‘man made.’… Louis Langrée will conduct the Cincinnati Symphony both evenings…. MusicNOW is one of several just-announced additions to the 2021-22 season…. The CSO’s creative partner Matthias Pintscher and his Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain will collaborate with the Cincinnati Symphony in three programs, Oct. 1-3, to celebrate the Jewish Cincinnati Bicentennial…. John Morris Russell and the Cincinnati Pops are also adding programs to the calendar, starting with their inaugural appearance on the Crown Jewels of Jazz series on Aug. 10 on the lawn of St. Aloysius in Bond Hill…. Singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan will join the Pops on Oct. 19 at Music Hall for a special concert hailing the voting rights of women.”

South Carolina’s Spartanburg Philharmonic has announced details of its in-person 2021-22 season, with five programs led by conductors Kayoko Dan, Roger Kalia, Genevieve Leclair, Kelly Corcoran, and John Young Shik Concklin. Kayoko Dan will lead the season-opening program on September 18, dedicated to the community’s front-line workers and the memory of those lost over the past year; the program will feature George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Rissolty Rissolty, “Nimrod” from Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Brahms’s Symphony No. 2, and a new work by Peter B. Kay. Roger Kalia will lead a program featuring music by John Williams; Genevieve Leclair will lead Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker in a performance with Ballet Spartanburg; Kelly Corcoran will conduct music by Bologne, Farrenc, and Mozart; and John Young Shik Concklin will conduct music by Mahler and Coleridge-Taylor. The orchestra’s Espresso chamber-music series will feature screenings of Charlie’s Chaplin’s The Tramp and Buston Keaton’s One Week, with new music; and music by John Adams, Beethoven, Britten, Debussy, Philip Glass, Gounod, Haydn, Mozart, Ravel, Rossini, and Caroline Shaw. The orchestra’s free lunchtime series will take place at the Spartanburg County Public Library Headquarters, and youth orchestra and other education programs will continue in the fall.

“Some conductors use a guest appearance with a major orchestra as an opportunity to show what they can do. Michael Morgan uses it to show what the orchestra can do,” writes Joshua Kosman in Saturday’s (7/24) San Francisco Chronicle. “Morgan’s concert with the San Francisco Symphony … on … July 23 introduced the regrettably overlooked French composer Louise Farrenc to the orchestra’s repertoire. Then it took what Morgan called a ‘whiplash-inducing turn’ into the world of 1920s jazz, with a joyous rendition of James P. Johnson’s ‘Charleston.’ … [Farrenc’s] majestic Third Symphony … suggests how much we’ve been missing by not performing her work…. Most impressive is the expansive slow movement, built around a beautifully songful main theme…. The ‘Charleston’ is … not the sort of music we usually encounter from a symphony orchestra. Yet Friday’s performance, in an orchestral version by David Rimelis arranged by Nicholas Hersh, demonstrated just how well this ensemble … can swing. It helps to have skilled jazz improvisers such as trumpeter Mark Inouye, clarinetist Jerome Simas and trombonist Nicholas Platoff on hand…. Drummer Jacob Nissly [exploded] at the end with his own solo turn.” Also on the program were Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra Overture and William Tell ballet music.

“Simon Rattle has said he avoided conducting at the Last Night of the Proms throughout his career because of his discomfort at its ‘jingoistic elements,’ ” writes Lanre Bakare in Monday’s (7/27) Guardian (U.K.). “In an interview with Radio Times, the conductor … said nationalistic aspects of the event left him ‘uneasy. I never conducted the Last Night, always avoided it a bit. I’ve been uneasy about some of the jingoistic elements, ever since the Falklands in 1982.’…. Rattle has previously spoken about being ‘uncomfortable’ with the imperial suite of songs that is played on the last night of the event, and his comments come a year on from a row over whether the lyrics of ‘Land of Hope and Glory,’ and ‘Rule, Britannia!’ should be sung. The conductor … also raised concerns about the number of classical musicians who had left the industry during lockdown. Rattle said many freelance musicians he had approached to perform in a concert planned for earlier this year turned the down opportunity because they had moved on to other forms of employment…. Rattle has consistently argued for support for classical musicians throughout the pandemic, and used his voice to criticize the lack of straightforward touring arrangements for musicians post-Brexit.”

“Back in 1994, Priti Gandhi auditioned for a job in the chorus at San Diego Opera. On Wednesday, Gandhi was named the new artistic director for Portland Opera, joining general director Sue Dixon at the 57-year-old company known for its progressive and boundary-breaking work,” writes Pam Kragen in last Wednesday’s (7/21) San Diego Union-Tribune. “Gandhi’s role will include artistic and repertoire planning, casting, developing a resident artist program and [overseeing] … education and community engagement programs. Gandhi spent nearly 20 years as an opera singer before moving to the administrative side of the industry in 2013, when she spent five years as artistic administrator at San Diego Opera and the past three years as chief artistic officer at Minnesota Opera…. As a woman of color, Gandhi said she is honored to be part of the national dialogue the [George Floyd] tragedy has opened up in many industries where minorities are under-represented, including the opera world. ‘There are so many branches of this industry that are creating needed change to evolve not only how we do business, but why,” she said…. She will become one of a handful of women of color in artistic leadership positions at American opera companies.”

“New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced the full lineup for the city’s big upcoming ‘Homecoming Concert,’ ” reports Andrew Limbong on Wednesday’s (7/28) National Public Radio. “The list covers a range of artists from classic rock mainstays to contemporary rap stars: Patti Smith, Paul Simon, Lucky Daye, The New York Philharmonic, Polo G, Carlos Santana, Rob Thomas and more. The concert will be held in Central Park on August 21st. A proof of vaccination will be required to enter, and masks will be optional. 80 percent of the tickets will be made available for free. ‘This is a celebration of our city, of every working family who faced incredible challenges last year and overcame,’ said Mayor de Blasio in a statement. ‘This is a celebration for you.’ The announcement is coming at the start of a delayed summer-music festival…. It’s also happening as increasing concerns over the delta variant has the Centers for Disease Control revising its guidance on some fully vaccinated people wearing masks… One of the concert’s producers, music industry titan Clive Davis, said the show will celebrate ‘the reopening of New York City.’ The show will also be broadcast live on CNN.”