Author: Ginger Dolden

On August 5, the Michigan Philharmonic will perform a free concert at the inaugural Detroit Motor City Car Crawl in Detroit’s Campus Martius Park. The “Motor City Movie Magic” program will feature music from car-themed movies including Cars and Back to the Future. The performance will also include “Hooray for Hollywood,” “Singin in the Rain,” “Over the Rainbow,” and “As Time Goes By,” plus music from Frozen, The Lion King, E.T., and Black Panther. Following the performance, there will be a screening of the movie Cars II. The Motor City Car Crawl encompasses multiple events from August 5 to 8. On August 21, the Michigan Philharmonic will perform a chamber concert at the historic Eleanor and Edsel Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan, and the orchestra’s 2021-22 season will open in October at Salem Auditorium in Canton, Michigan, with music by Kristin Kuster, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar, led by Music Director Nan Washburn.

“There’s a new sheriff in town at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He sings, he dances, he plays trumpet and he conducts—the inimitable Byron Stripling on Friday made his long-awaited debut with the orchestra at … the amphitheater at Hartwood Acres, leading the musicians in a program of jazz gems and American airs,” writes Jeremy Reynolds in Friday’s (7/23) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “The former lead trumpeter and soloist with the Count Basie Orchestra, Stripling kicked off the evening himself with a piercing sound that animated the ‘Tiger Rag’ by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band with vim, vinegar and verve. He maintained that initial zest throughout the evening, peppering pieces with commentary…. He found a deputy in the orchestra’s own [violinist] Jennifer Orchard, cowboy boots and all, who delivered a sizzling interpretation of the old favorite ‘Old MacDonald Had a Farm.’ … Other standout players included bass player and vocalist Nick Parrot … pianist Bobby Floyd [and] percussionist Jim Rupp…. Stripling himself led the evening’s conclusion with his trumpet, delivering a hearty take on ‘When the Saints Go Marching In,’ blasting a clarion call at the finale that signaled promising things from the pops series to come.”

“The Calgary Philharmonic has found its new CEO and president, announcing that the post will be filled by former National Arts Centre Orchestra General Manager Marc Stevens,” writes Eric Volmers in last Tuesday’s (7/20) Calgary Herald (Canada). “Stevens, who will join the Philharmonic in early September, takes over from Paul Dornian, who will retire in August after six years as president and CEO. Stevens spent seven years with the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, where he led tours across Canada and throughout Europe. During that time, the orchestra received five Juno nominations and was commissioned to play Carnegie Hall with Philip Glass. Stevens came to Canada producing concerts and recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra, including performances at the 2012 Olympic Ceremonies and movie scores for Star Wars and Harry Potter films. He became a Canadian citizen in 2019. The Philharmonic will announce its Fall 2021 lineup on Aug. 3, which will be a mix of in-person and virtual performances.”

“This week typically kicks off the Telluride Chamber Music Festival, which has been presenting classical music to audiences annually for nearly 50 years,” writes Justin Cried in Tuesday’s (7/28) Telluride Daily Planet (CO). “But the lingering COVID-19 pandemic and the sudden passing of cofounder Robin Sutherland in late 2020 caused organizers to cancel the 2021 iteration and focus on the direction of the festival moving forward. ‘We are using this time to rebuild and reframe the festival and have some exciting plans … Claire Beard will be taking over from Warner Paige as the new managing director of the festival,’ … a recent news release stated. The chamber also announced a free memorial concert for Sutherland, the beloved pianist and former San Francisco Symphony member, Sept. 12…. The chamber board plans to meet by the end of August…. Beard, who is a classically trained flute player, has been a fan of the festival since she moved to town from her native London, where she played professionally for 10 years…. ‘We’re going to move toward more of a series throughout the year instead of one weekend in August, so there’s more classical music throughout the year, which will be wonderful,’ she said.”

“Christian Reif is a young conductor with a career in full blossom,” writes Rob Hubbard in Tuesday’s (7/27) Star Tribune (Minneapolis). “He spent three years as resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony…. He earned affection… for the video musical missives he performed with his wife … soprano Julia Bullock during the pandemic. So what’s the next stop for this star on the rise? Brainerd, Minn. Reif was recently named music director of the Lakes Area Music Festival, which begins Friday and runs through Aug. 22…. The orchestra Reif will lead this summer features multiple members of New York’s Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the Dallas, San Francisco, and Seattle symphony orchestras. This year’s festival features a mix of new music and old…. ‘Our new home is called the Gichi-ziibi Center for the Arts, because we are on Ojibwe land,’ Reif said, referring to a freshly christened 1,200-seat concert hall in downtown Brainerd that takes its name from the Ojibwe word for the nearby Mississippi River. ‘So we are inviting an Ojibwe musician, a singer and drummer, who will present some traditional and contemporary Ojibwe songs.’ … Performances [will also be] livestreamed on the festival’s YouTube and Facebook pages.”

“The New Philharmonic, the professional orchestra in residence at College of DuPage’s McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn, plans to return to live, in-person performances for its 2021-22 season,” writes Scott Morgan in Monday’s (7/26) Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL). “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the New Philharmonic was forced to record and then stream performances online for its 2020-21 season…. The season opens with a ‘Halloween Spooktakular’ [featuring] selections from Offenbach’s ‘Orpheus in the Underworld,’ Berlioz’s ‘The Damnation of Faust,’ plus [music] from films such as ‘Psycho’ and ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas.’ … Rather than an opera or operetta as in past seasons, the New Philharmonic performs the musical ‘West Side Story’ in concert on April 9 and 10 [with] four soloists and a 90-voice chorus…. The New Philharmonic also plays Tchaikovsky’s evergreen holiday score for four performances of Salt Creek Ballet’s ‘The Nutcracker’ on Dec. 18 and 19.” Also planned are Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9; a New Year’s Eve program of arias, waltzes, and polkas, with baritone Ted Allen Pickell; and a program of film music including Gone with the Wind, Jurassic Park, and The Seahawk. Kirk Muspratt is music director of the New Philharmonic.

On August 4 and 5, Berkeley Symphony Music Director Joseph Young will return to conduct his first in-person performances with the orchestra in more than a year. The first concert, at Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda, California, will feature Brian Nabors’s Iubilo, the Overture from Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Gabriela Lena Frank’s Elegía Andina, the Waltz from Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst, Bizet’s Carmen Suite, and J.S. Bach’s Toccata y Fuga (arr. Hyken). The program will also include selections from Beethoven’s Egmont, Op. 84 in a collaborative presentation with actors from the Bruns Amphitheater’s resident company, California Shakespeare Theater. On August 5, Young will conduct string musicians from the orchestra in a free community concert at 5:30 p.m. at BART Plaza in downtown Berkeley, featuring chamber arrangements of classical repertoire.