Author: Ginger Dolden

“The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has named a rising young talent as its next resident conductor,” writes Susan Elliott in Tuesday’s (6/21) Musical America (subscription required). “Trevor Wilson, who trained under Marin Alsop at the Peabody Institute and Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Orchestre Métropolitain’s Orchestral Conducting Academy, starts next fall in the two-year position. At the same time, he begins his pursuit of a Professional Studies Diploma at the Cleveland Institute of Music under Carlos Kalmar. TSO Music Director Gustavo Gimeno commented that his new right-hand-man ‘showed a confidence, musical intelligence and sensitivity’ in his audition for the job. The Ottawa-born Wilson has been active on local podiums, including that of the University of Ottawa Orchestra, and is co-founder and music director of the Ottawa Pops Orchestra. He also served as the assistant conductor of the National Academy Orchestra of Canada under the late Boris Brott, and, while earning his graduate degree at Peabody, was assistant director of the Institute’s choruses. In the position of TSO resident conductor, Wilson succeeds Simon Rivard, who has held the job since 2018 and at the same time has been the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra’s conductor—a post he’ll retain.”

“American orchestras have long fallen short when it comes to performing compositions by women and people of color, sticking to a canon of music dominated by white, largely male composers,” writes Javier C. Hernández in Tuesday’s (6/21) New York Times. “But the protests over racial justice and gender disparities in the United States appear to have prompted some change. Compositions by women and people of color now make up about 23 percent of the pieces performed by orchestras, up from only about 5 percent in 2015, according to [the 2022 Orchestra Repertoire Report] released on Tuesday by the Institute for Composer Diversity at the State University of New York at Fredonia. The increase comes amid a concerted effort in the performing arts to promote music by women and people of color, prompted in part by the #MeToo movement and the death of George Floyd. ‘The change that has been talked about for a very long time has suddenly been tremendously accelerated,’ Simon Woods, president and chief executive of the League of American Orchestras, which helped produce the report, said in an interview…. The League of American Orchestras, aiming to make works by living composers a more permanent part of the orchestral landscape, announced [the Virginia B. Toulmin Orchestral Commissions Program] last month to enlist 30 ensembles in the next several years to perform new pieces by six composers, all of them women.” Read the complete Repertoire Report.

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra will launch its 2022 summer season in communities throughout the Buffalo-Niagara region on July 2 with a free performance in Academy Park in Lewiston, New York. BPO Assistant Conductor Jaman E. Dunn will lead a program to include Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, James Reese Europe’s Castle House Rag, the Armed Forces Salute, and more. Additional events are scheduled for July 3, a pops concert at the Ellicottville Summer Festival led by Ron Spigelman; July 9 at Artpark, with the BPO performing John Williams’s score for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as the film is screened; July 15, a free concert at Cazenovia Park honoring the 200th birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted in collaboration with the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, featuring works with Irish, Polish, Hispanic, and Black and African American roots; July 22 at Buffalo’s Outer Harbor, with the BPO joined by Canadian band The Strictly Hip, led by Stefan Sanders; July 30 at Artpark in Lewiston, NY, featuring Gil Rose conducting opera music; and July 31 at Old Fort Niagara, with Jaman E. Dunn leading popular and patriotic music, followed by fireworks. For more information visit bpo.org/summer.

“You might assume that a Black Renaissance composer would be a figure of significant interest, much-performed and studied,” writes Holly Williams in Wednesday’s (6/15) BBC (U.K.) “In fact, the story of the first known published Black composer—Vicente Lusitano—is only now being heard, alongside a revival of interest in his long-neglected choral music. Lusitano was born around 1520, in Portugal…. It is most likely that Lusitano had a Black African mother and a white Portuguese father … Comparatively little is known about Lusitano’s life—a fact which has certainly not helped his historical legacy … What we do know is that Lusitano became a Catholic priest, composer, and music theorist, and in 1551 left Portugal for Rome … Lusitano appears to have done very well for himself there, publishing a collection of motets: sacred, polyphonic choral compositions … During the pandemic, two Renaissance music lovers separately discovered Lusitano, and are staging concerts and bringing out records of his work, while a new piece reimagining a Lusitano composition is currently on tour across the UK…. At least now we can put paid to the idea that there simply weren’t any non-white composers writing music in the Renaissance.”

“The 1714 ‘da Vinci, ex-Seidel’ Strad, anticipated to fetch ‘up to $20 million’ at auction by Tarisio, finally sold last week for 12.29 million euros, about $15.34 million, the second highest amount ever fetched for a Stradivari violin at auction,” reports Anthony Brown in Thursday’s (6/16) Musical America (subscription required). “The first was the Lady Blunt Stradivari, also offered via Tarisio, which went for $15.9 million in 2011. The ‘da Vinci, ex-Seidel’ was crafted during Antonio Stradivari’s Golden Period, only the second one to come up for auction in 15 years. It is reportedly in perfect, ‘concert-ready’ condition. The instrument takes its name from Russian-American violinist Toscha Seidel, its owner for nearly 40 years, a protégé of Leopold Auer. In 1924, Seidel paid $25,000 for it, performing and recording with major international orchestras, not to mention on the soundtracks for The Wizard of Oz, Intermezzo, and Melody for Three, among others. He died in 1962 at which time it was purchased by Canadian violinist Muriel Rubin, who in turn auctioned it off to a Japanese collector.”

“After nearly nine months of a concert season lost to a musicians’ strike and failed contract negotiations, the 83-year-old San Antonio Symphony is no more,” writes Nicholas Frank in Thursday’s (6/16) San Antonio Report (TX). “The Symphony Society of San Antonio board of directors announced Thursday that it had reached a unanimous decision to dissolve the orchestra and file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy…. The board of directors cited the withdrawal from negotiations of the musicians’ union, American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 23, in April, and musicians’ demands for ‘a budget that is millions of dollars in excess of what the Symphony can afford.’ During negotiations that began in 2021, the musicians and the orchestra management made multiple proposals to continue the 2021-2022 season with concessions including a reduced schedule and wage reductions. What ended negotiations was the musicians’ refusal to accept a two-tier wage schedule imposed on them by management in September, which resulted in a strike that continued until the season was canceled in May…. The board of directors thanked ‘the hundreds of talented musicians and administrative staff who have served our organization since its founding.’ ”

“Have things returned to something like normalcy for the Bay Area’s classical music scene this summer?” writes Joshua Kosman in Wednesday’s (6/15) San Francisco Chronicle. “At a superficial glance, the coming activity feels much as it did before COVID-19 struck in 2020. The same familiar festivals are operating at full swing, while the sounds of opera and symphonies and chamber music resound both indoors and out. Yet it feels wrong to say, or even imply, that the world looks quite as it once did. All we can do is forge ahead with the comfortable seasonal routines, in hopes that they can offer some sort of solace.” The article lists upcoming performances by classical-music groups including the San Francisco Symphony, Festival Napa Valley, Music@Menlo, Valley of the Moon Music Festival, American Bach Soloists, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and opera companies and jazz ensembles.