“On Thursday evening, about 150 mask-wearing, temperature-scanned, invited attendees—socially distanced around the 2,500-seat [Benaroya] hall—heard the [Seattle Symphony] and conductor/pianist Inon Barnatan perform the first live concert with an audience in the hall since a ‘Celebrate Asia’ program on March 8, 2020,” writes Melinda Bargreen in Saturday’s (5/22) Seattle Times. “The experience was surreal in many respects: vast, empty spaces between the masked concertgoers, and around 30 masked musicians on the stage…. The music was a revelation: two great piano concertos by Mozart and Beethoven, and a stellar piano soloist who also proved a nimble conductor from the keyboard. The hall’s acoustics were unusually reverberant with so few of the sound-absorbing patrons in the hall…. It was clear from the level of rapt attention that other music lovers were deeply affected…. [Seattle Symphony] publicist Dinah Lu says the SSO had been planning ‘very conservatively’ for next season (2021-22), with audience sizes around 400 people. Newly updated guidelines, however, indicate a possible audience size of ‘about 1,000,’ Lu noted…. In addition to allowing a limited, in-person audience, the symphony will continue to livestream its weekly concerts with shortened programs…. The season ends in July.”
Author: Ginger Dolden
Chautauqua Symphony to give in-person concerts in July-August
“The Chautauqua Institution announced Friday plans for the 2021 season for the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra” in upstate New York, reads an unsigned article in Friday’s (5/21) Your Erie (PA). “The orchestra will offer 14 performances between July 10th and August 14th…. Performances will often feature a small ensemble, the musicians will be socially distanced and the non-wind and brass players will be masked. ‘We’re beyond excited to welcome … symphonic music back to the Chautauqua Amphitheater and for an in-person audience this summer [and] excited to give our audience sips of compositions that are rarely heard,’ … said Deborah Sunya Moore, interim senior vice president and chief program officer.” Programs will include standard repertoire as well as Gabriela Lena Frank’s Elegia Andina; Joseph Bologne’s Symphony No. 2; George Walker’s Lyric for Strings; Wynton Marsalis’s Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra, with soloist Carol Jantsch, principal tuba of the Philadelphia Orchestra; Félix Alexandre Guilmant’s Organ Symphony No. 2; Jessie Montgomery’s Strum; Frances Pollock’s God is Dead, Schoenberg is Dead, but Love will come; and Carlos Simon’s Elegy: A Cry from the Grave. Stuart Chafetz will conduct two pops concerts: one featuring opera and another with vocalist Capathia Jenkins in Ella Fitzgerald and other American Songbook selections.
Baltimore Symphony to salute departing music director with “Marin Festival,” May 27-June 19
Marin Alsop conducts the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She will step down next month after 14 years as music director.
“When Marin Alsop steps down at the end of August … as the first woman to lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra … she will leave a gap more profound than the space on the podium,” writes Michael Andor Brodeur in Sunday’s (5/23) Washington Post. “Her career has been an exercise in exhausting the potential of the word ‘pioneer.’ … The [BSO’s] Marin Festival is a multiweek tribute to Alsop’s legacy as a conductor and music director, but also as an advocate for education and access, a mentor for new composers and young conductors, and a force for women gaining leadership roles in classical music. The festival opens Thursday…. She’ll conduct her final concert as BSO music director as part of a live televised gala featuring Renée Fleming and the world premiere of James Lee III’s ‘Destined Worlds.’ … Alsop is the subject … of ‘The Conductor,’ a moving documentary … available for home viewing on June 15…. From the BSO, Alsop will pick up her pandemic-delayed debut as chief conductor and curator at the Ravinia festival…. She’ll also continue to teach at Peabody [and] serve as the first music director of the National Orchestral Institute and Festival.”
Wheeling Symphony: outdoors, chamber music, three-course meals
The Wheeling Symphony Orchestra’s final chamber concert of the 2020-21 season will be an outdoor “Sunday Serenades” event on May 23 featuring two performances at the Crispin Center Patio at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, West Virginia. Each event—a 1:30 p.m. brunch concert, and a 6:30 dinner p.m. dinner concert—will include a cocktail and a three-course meal. Repertoire will include music from Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Clarice Assad’s Impressions Suite for Chamber Orchestra, and Mozart’s Gran Partita. Also scheduled are Stacy Garrop’s Lo Yisa Goy, featuring WSO Principal Viola Jennifer Gerhard as soloist; and senior members of the Wheeling Symphony Youth Orchestra performing in a side-by-side performance. Safety protocols will be in place at the concerts. John Devlin is music director of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra; Bryan Braunlich is executive director.
Review: Princeton Symphony returns in person, outdoors, with cello/guitar chamber concert
“Princeton Symphony Orchestra welcomed a live audience to Morven Museum & Garden for the first time in months last Thursday night with a presentation … featuring guitarist Rupert Boyd and cellist Laura Metcalf,” writes Nancy Plum in Wednesday’s (5/19) Town Topics (Princeton, NJ). “The ‘pods’ of audience members on the lawn of Morven’s pool house were clearly elated to be out on a warm night of music…. Boyd and Metcalf, a married couple …, presented … music ranging from the 19th to 21st centuries, crossing genres from Romantic masterpieces to contemporary classical to the Beatles…. Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1, originally composed for solo piano, was played with a sweet cello melody and with both instruments executing the polyrhythms well…. The most powerful moment of the performance was a movement from Oliver Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time…. Two selections from [Robert] Beaser’s Mountain Songs set story-telling Appalachian folk songs in an open and airy musical texture…. Boyd and Metcalf [performed] arrangements of songs by Beyoncé and the Beatles…. The duo played ‘Eleanor Rigby’ nimbly…. Boyd and Metcalf’s performance of ‘Blackbird’ [incorporated] bird sounds to complement those naturally heard in the Morven Garden.”
Violinist Ezinma: Bach, Beyoncé, and beyond
“Ezinma has become one of the most talked-about classical musicians of her generation,” writes Mark Savage in Thursday’s (5/20) BBC News. “She fell in love with the violin as a toddler…. Years of grueling practice followed, taking her from Nebraska to New York’s prestigious New School. There … she became ‘obsessed’ with the idea of fusing an orchestral sound with the heavy beats of trap, a subgenre of hip-hop. Before long, she was hired by Kendrick Lamar, SZA and Mac Miller to add strings to their music. That led to an appearance at Beyoncé’s historic Coachella set. But her solo career really took off when she filmed herself playing along to Future’s ‘Mask Off,’ showing off bold sautillé and flying spicatto…. The video went viral and landed Ezinma a deal with Decca Records, who recently released her debut EP, Classical Bae, which puts a new spin on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Bach’s G Major Prelude … then re-contextualises them with stuttering hi-hats and foundation-shaking sub bass…. She also hopes it’ll open up the classical world to black musicians…. ‘Growing up, it would have meant so much for me to hear this type of music, and see somebody like me playing it,’ she says.”
Vancouver Symphony’s Salvador Brotons to return to podium for first concerts in 14 months
“Grammy Award-winning cellist Zuill Bailey will play Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra this weekend,” writes James Bash in Thursday’s (5/20) Columbian (Vancouver, WA). “ ‘Haydn’s First Cello Concerto is like popping open a bottle of champagne,’ Bailey said. ‘It’s a joy. It’s celebratory.’ … Bailey … also the artistic director of El Paso Pro-Musica, the Sitka Summer Music Festival (Anchorage, Alaska), the Northwest Bach Festival (Spokane) and the Classical Inside and Out Series (Mesa, Ariz.) … will team up with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra [Principal Cello] Dieter Ratzlaf, [Assistant Principal Cello] Erin Ratzlaf and [cellist] Jonah Thomas to perform Max Bruch’s ‘Kol Nidrei’ … The season-ending concert will also hail the return of music director Salvador Brotons, who has been sequestered in his hometown of Barcelona, Spain, for the past 14 months. Besides the Haydn, he will conduct … Copland’s ‘Appalachian Spring’ and … Bloch’s Concerto Grosso No. 1…. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra … will announce the lineup for its 2021-2022 season… ‘We … are planning a live in-person season,’ said Igor Shakhman, executive director. ‘We will continue to do streaming for those who choose to watch concerts at home or for those out of town.’ ”
Elgin Symphony’s Fridays on the Farm series, part of a larger plan
“On Friday, about 150 audience members, 34 orchestra string players, violinist Karen Gomyo, and Elgin Symphony Orchestra (ESO) music director Andrew Grams will flock to Goebbert’s Farm in Pingree Grove to kick off Fridays on the Farm, the orchestra’s first-ever summer concert initiative,” writes Hannah Edgar in Thursday’s (5/20) Chicago Tribune. “That’s not what makes the orchestra’s mini-residency at the pumpkin patch and orchard so momentous: While arts organizations … have funneled resources into digital-first concerts over the past year, the ESO made the difficult decision to mostly resist the digital-concert cottage industry. Since lockdown, the ensemble has only streamed performances which also included a live audience, the largest being a string orchestra showcase at Goebbert’s last September…. Music director Grams and executive director Erik Malmquist say the ESO, as a small-to-mid-budget ensemble that laid off most of its operational staff during the pandemic, couldn’t have possibly achieved the production quality and output necessary to justify … digital-first concerts. Instead, ESO leadership made the risky decision to buckle down and focus on the ESO’s core tenet: community engagement…. ‘Everything we do needs to check off at least one of three boxes: musical excellence, economic development, and social advocacy for the communities we serve,’ Malmquist says.”
Florida Orchestra’s 2021-22 season, from Vivaldi to Puts and Ippolito—plus choral works by Beethoven and Mozart
“As the Florida Orchestra wraps up its revised 2020-21 season, it announces its 2021-22 season beginning in the fall,” writes Maggie Duffy in Tuesday’s (5/18) Tampa Bay Times. “While the past season saw fewer musicians on stage, reduced audience size and shows at just one venue, the new season brings back a full symphony with full audiences at venues across Tampa Bay. The season will kick off with … Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons…. Music director Michael Francis said he chose Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony for the opening concert because the piece gives the ultimate sense of darkness turning into light. He chose The Four Seasons because he sees the pandemic as a season and ‘now it feels like the ice is melting and we’re entering into a spring.’ … Crossover string trio Time for Three will perform the Florida premiere of Kevin Puts’ Triple Concerto…. The season will open with another commissioned piece by Michael Ippolito…. Community concerts also return in the fall, bringing back Pops in the Park … A full schedule … will be released over the summer.” The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay will perform in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mozart’s Requiem.
Hawaiʻi Symphony, spotlighting local composer Michael-Thomas Foumai
Michael-Thomas Foumai (left) at the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra’s world premiere of Raise Hawaiki, March 28, 2019. Esther S. Yoo conducted the performance.
“Michael-Thomas Foumai is the brilliant young composer featured in [the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra’s] Sheraton Starlight Series, showcasing a festival of Foumai’s music over the next few months with in-person, outdoor performances,” writes Zenaida Serrano Arvman in Thursday’s (5/19) University of Hawaiʻi News (Honolulu). “The series began May 14, and runs throughout the summer. In a first for a Hawaiʻi composer, Foumai will have a total of seven of his orchestral works and new arrangements of mele [songs] by Queen Liliʻuokalani performed by the symphony…. This speaks to the symphony’s extraordinary commitment to new symphonic music and the composers of Hawaiʻi, said Foumai…. The concert series features … Foumai works, all composed in the last decade. Much of the music has a story to tell, Foumai said, and is inspired by cinema, cartoons, poetry, literature, history and Hawaiʻi … ‘Almost all these works will be Hawaiʻi premieres,’ Foumai added. ‘Many of these works were written for and performed by orchestras across the country, so I’m grateful for the opportunity to have these works performed for the first time right here at home with our own Hawaiʻi Symphony.’ ”