Author: Joanna Bettelheim

The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California has commissioned Santa Cruz-born composer and multimedia artist Scott Ordway to create a new work for orchestra and vocal ensemble. The End of Rain—to be premiered at the 2022 festival by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, led by conductor Cristian Măcelaru, and featuring the eight-member vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth—will weave together stories and words from regions of the western United States recently impacted by wildfire and drought. To collect the words that will form the foundation of the work, Ordway and the festival are asking members of the public to share their individual experiences of wildfire and drought. The collected stories will be translated into a musical form. Stories can be shared at theendofrain.com until May 15, 2021. The project’s website is presented in English and Spanish, and welcomes submissions in any language.

“For the Philadelphia Orchestra’s first concert before a live audience since the pandemic shutdown 14 months ago, the orchestra and Mann Center will present a free concert for first responders and other frontline workers,” writes Peter Dobrin in Monday’s (4/19) Philadelphia Inquirer. “The orchestra’s May 15 concert at the Mann, to be led by music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, will be open to hospital and health-care staff, emergency responders, teachers, grocery store workers, postal employees, and others…. The Fairmount Park venue, which has comfortably hosted a classical crowd of nearly 11,000, will only be able to accommodate about 1,200 listeners for this event, with no lawn seating or picnics. The concert, entitled ‘Hail to the Heroes: A Concert of Gratitude,’ will be aired at a later date on 6ABC. ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ with vocalist Laurin Talese opens the program, which also includes pianist Michelle Cann in Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement; the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7; and Seven O’Clock Shout by Valerie Coleman, written as a tribute to frontline workers and premiered last year. The orchestra … is planning to host live audiences at concerts in Fairmount Park this summer.”

“The University of Iowa School of Music … last week [announced] its next Director of Orchestral Activities, Professor Mélisse Brunet,” writes Delaney Orewiler in Monday’s (4/19) Daily Iowan, the student newspaper of the University of Iowa. “Originally from Paris, Brunet currently serves as the director of Orchestral Activities at Appalachian State University and director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic…. Brunet began her music career at age 7 at a music school in Paris. She started teaching by the time she was 17-years-old, and hasn’t stopped since…. She … became the first woman to direct the UI’s Orchestral Activities after a multiple-round hiring process alongside three other finalists.” Brunet participated in the League of American Orchestras’ Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview in 2018. “Brunet … noted that she has faced hardships as a woman in the industry, but that her experience shaped her into the person she is today. ‘Even if you get 3,000 “no”s, you keep going,’ Brunet said. ‘Believe in your instinct, find mentors in your field, and go realize your dreams.’ Brunet invited all students to join one of her orchestras … even those who are not majoring in music. ‘Music is for everyone,’ Brunet said.”

“Arguably the most stirring of colors, red is symbolic of various extremes,” writes Lawrence Elizabeth Knox in Tuesday’s (4/20) Houston Chronicle. “The vibrant hue has a significant history within the existence of humankind, a history that will set the stage for ROCO’s ‘In Concert’ program this weekend [which] will conclude its virtual season with ‘Flamenco,’ a fiery, free concert that will be livestreamed from the Church of St. John the Divine. The hour-long event, led by returning guest conductor Brett Mitchell, will feature the world premiere of ‘The History of Red,’ a co-commission by Indian American composer Reena Esmail based on a powerful text of the same name by Chickasaw poet Linda Hogan that explores the color’s association with life, death and the will to survive…. [Esmail’s] musical setting of the poem showcases soprano Kathryn Mueller as a soloist, who paints a world to which the orchestra responds, whether feeding her own phrases back to her or bringing the essence of the environment in the text to life.” Also on the program will be Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Quinn Mason’s Princesa de la Luna, Errolyn Wallen’s Photography, and Carlos Surinach’s Ritmo Jondo, with dancers from Houston’s Solero Flamenco.

“As the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra announces plans to return to live performances for its 2021-22 season, the lineup looks very much like the 2020-21 season the covid-19 pandemic forced the orchestra to dismantle,” writes Eric Harrison in Sunday’s (4/18) Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock). “The six ’21-22 Masterworks concert pairs … will feature all of the previously named [2020-21] soloists … and all five guest conductors. [Among] candidates for the ASO’s music director position, vacant since the 2018-19 season after the departure of Philip Mann … is Geoffrey Robson, the orchestra’s interim artistic director and conductor of its youth ensembles…. Small variations [in 2021-22] include … the addition to the April 2022 program of the world premiere of a work, by Tania Leon…. [During] the pandemic, Arkansas Symphony … programming, including the ‘Bedtime With Bach’ series, conceived and executed by Andrew Irvin, the orchestra’s co-concertmaster … has not only kept local patrons engaged, executive director Christina Littlejohn says, but it has attracted 1.1 million impressions on Facebook…. Meanwhile, the orchestra converted its rehearsal space … into a video recording studio, where they have taped performances [and where] Youth Orchestra members used the facilities to record college audition tapes.”

“Anne Parsons, the longest-serving leader in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s modern era, will step down next year,” writes Brian McCollum in Wednesday’s (4/21) Detroit Free Press. “Parsons, the DSO’s president and CEO, plans to retire by November 2022, when she’ll mark her 65th birthday. Parsons faced a financially embattled DSO when she took the reins in 2004, followed by grueling labor strife several years later. She ultimately helped guide the organization to fiscal stability, along with global acclaim for a series of pioneering digital initiatives. Parsons also oversaw the appointment of two music directors, Leonard Slatkin in 2007 and Jader Bignamini in 2020…. Parsons said she has been planning for an eventual departure since … 2015. Three years later, she was diagnosed with lung cancer, continuing to work while undergoing treatment…. The DSO has enjoyed operating surpluses annually since 2013, including last year, when the orchestra navigated the pandemic with swift budget moves, online programming and small-scale outdoor performances…. Parsons … said she expects to retain a presence in the arts world, perhaps as a consultant…. And she looks forward to being a DSO patron.”

The Sphinx Organization has announced three Sphinx Medals of Excellence recipients for 2021: conductor Lina González-Granados, composer Carlos Simon, and oboist Titus Underwood. The award recognizes extraordinary early-career classical Black and Latinx musicians and comes with a $50,000 career grant. González-Granados is founder and artistic director of Unitas Ensemble, which performs works by Latinx composers and provides free performances for underserved communities. Simon’s music ranges from concert works for large and small ensembles to film scores with influences of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism; recent commissions have come from the Philadelphia Orchestra, Washington National Opera, Reno Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, and Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra. Underwood is principal oboe of the Nashville Symphony. Prior to the Nashville Symphony, he was acting associate principal of the Utah Symphony. The awards will be bestowed at the Sphinx Medals of Excellence luncheon, and honorees will be celebrated at a black-tie private dinner in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit https://www.sphinxmusic.org/sphinx-medals-of-excellence/.

“Try to imagine Gustavo Dudamel conducting 50 musicians huddled in an orchestra pit, with 75 singers packed on the stage above and 1,000 people on hand just to watch, all indoors,” writes James C. Taylor in Tuesday’s (3/30) Los Angeles Times. “That’s exactly what maestro Dudamel pulled off on Saturday night … when the Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor premiered a starry Bavarian State Opera production of Verdi’s ‘Otello’ at the Gran Teatre del Liceu…. Dudamel made his Spanish opera debut in an uncut, fully-staged production that many hoped would mark the beginning of the post-COVID-19 era. The sold-out audience was told to arrive at staggered times to avoid lines and to sanitize hands after scanning tickets…. Every other seat in the 2,292-capacity house was roped off. Black tie was not required, but masks were…. Only about 5% of Spain’s adults are fully vaccinated. Catalans watched the opera Saturday with eight international singers performing without masks, 70 choristers singing with masks, dozens of musicians (including horns and woodwinds who could not be masked) plus dozens of others working backstage. Dudamel conducted behind five plexiglass screens. Spain is an outlier here in Europe. Concert halls in Vienna are shuttered, as are theaters in London.”

“Pandemic willing, live shows will be back across the United States this spring and summer,” writes Julie Besonen in Friday’s (4/2) New York Times. “Scores of festivals, benefits and theatrical events are playing it safe with digital editions or postponements, but some impresarios are forging ahead, adhering to safety protocols, capping audience size and keeping it outside…. For the first time since 1966, Monadnock Music, the southern New Hampshire chamber music festival, will be held completely outdoors. Backdrops include … Cathedral of the Pines, an open-air concert space perched on a hilltop overlooking Grand Monadnock Mountain.… There will be soloists and five-member ensembles…. In the Berkshires, a downsized Tanglewood is returning from hiatus, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra playing a curtailed season (July 9 to August 16)…. The Newport Music Festival … will present 17 concerts—less than half its usual number—outside Gilded Age mansions and at the Norman Bird Sanctuary. The new executive director, Gillian Friedman Fox, is stitching together a rich tapestry of works, featuring the contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery and the premiere of a commissioned piece.” Included are summer plans for multiple U.S. theater, dance, and music festivals.