Author: Joanna Bettelheim

The Illinois Philharmonic will perform music for strings by Ruth Crawford Seeger and Arnold Schoenberg in two one-hour concerts on March 21 at Ozinga Chapel at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois. The concerts, at noon and 1:30 p.m., will feature Seeger’s Andante and Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night; the audience size is limited to 50 people, parties will be distanced six feet away from one another, chairs and surfaces will be sanitized, and there will be required masks, temperature checks, and wellness forms. In addition, the concerts will be filmed, to be streamed from April 9 to 23, 2021. Stilian Kirov is music director of the Illinois Philharmonic; Christina Salerno is executive director.

The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) in Taiwan, which opened in 2018, “is one of several venues under the auspices of National Performing Arts Center, which also include Taipei’s National Theater and Concert Hall and National Taichung Theater,” writes Susan Elliott in Wednesday’s (3/17) Musical America (subscription required). In an interview, General and Artistic Director Chien Wen-pin speaks about the past year for the arts center, which is currently presenting La Traviata with an all-Asian cast. Chien Wen-pin: … Weiwuying has an amazing asset…. The building’s … roof covers a surface area of more than 140,000 square meters, so many pockets under the roof are completely covered, yet ‘outdoors.’ So as early as May 2020 we could many hold events and activities that still complied with COVID-19 measures…. This year of lockdowns and quarantines has merely reinforced what we’ve always believed, both about the importance of the arts and the need for the arts to be flexible…. You need to make that connection by whatever means necessary. If you have to reduce your audience to safe levels, so be it. If you have to migrate all your programming to the internet, so be it…. We may learn something for the future.”

“The Billings Symphony Orchestra is … preparing for their 49th Symphony in the Park this summer, joining forces with the Yellowstone Art Museum (YAM) and the SummerFair” from June 25 to 27, reports Cornelia Nicholson in Monday’s (3/15) KULR-TV (Billings, MT). “The annual SummerFair and Symphony in the Park, like many other events last year, had to go virtual. Now, the YAM and Billings Symphony say they’re teaming up to bring a three-day festival to Pioneer Park…. ‘This is just a great opportunity for both organizations to show who we are and inspire thousands of people in the community,’ Billings Orchestra & Chorale Executive Director Ignacio Barron Viela said. The SummerFair is one of the largest arts festivals in the region. According to the museum’s Executive Director, Bryan Knicely, this year’s event will [include] ‘an education tent [with] artists doing their work’… Viela says you can expect the regular Symphony in the Park and … ‘the instrument petting zoo for kids so they can try instruments.’ … Before the Billings Symphony Orchestra … [performs] on Sunday at 7 p.m., the Billings Community Band will perform at 5, followed by the beloved Kids Conducting Contest at 6:45.”

“Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a plan for new, relaxed COVID capacity restrictions for indoor movie theaters, performance venues and museums,” write Michael Phillips, Steve Johnson, Chris Jones, Doug George, Tracy Swartz, and Jennifer Day in Friday’s (3/19) Chicago Tribune. “Chicago is evaluating the new state guidance and will be releasing updated city guidelines early next week…. The updated state guidance … provides for a new ‘bridge’ phase preceding Phase 5, when the state reopens completely…. The state revised its Phase 4 guidelines, allowing for 25% fixed seating capacity in indoor and outdoor film, theater, performing arts and other venues seating 200 or more. For fixed-seating venues with capacities under 200, the limit will increase to 50% capacity or 50 seats, whichever is fewer…. Outdoor festivals and spectator events will be limited to 30 people per 1,000 square feet … There has been no announcement of a 2021 date for Lollapalooza in Grant Park or Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park…. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association told the Tribune Thursday it hoped to return to live concerts before summer. It had previously canceled performances through June 13 … At Lyric Opera, no live indoor performances are planned until September.”

“Creative networking among central Ohio classical musicians led to the premiere of a new percussion concerto this weekend by the New Albany Symphony Orchestra,” writes Peter Tonguette in Thursday’s (3/18) Columbus Dispatch (OH). “In January 2019, Columbus Symphony associate violinist Heather Garner and percussion soloist Cameron Leach [were] chatting backstage…. Garner mentioned to Leach her interest in programming a percussion concerto at the community orchestra she runs [as executive director], the New Albany Symphony…. Leach recommended composer Adam Roberts, also a music professor at Kent State University…. Roberts, 40, was on board…. Leach successfully pitched the idea to both Garner and Columbus Symphony principal cellist Luis Biava, also the music director of the New Albany Symphony. ‘Within like 10 minutes, the piece was born,’ Leach said. With support from the Johnstone Fund for New Music, the New Albany Symphony will join Leach in performing Roberts’ Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra Saturday and Sunday … in New Albany.… Roberts composed the work on the assumption that the eventual work would be performed by an orchestra whose ranks would be thinned to allow for social distancing…. This weekend, the New Albany Symphony will field 42 musicians, about half of its normal size.”

“The Chautauqua Institution announced a new agreement with the musicians of the resident Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra [that] extends the current Collective Bargaining Agreement through September 2021, but makes some important adjustments that provide for flexibility and creativity in planning the ensemble’s 2021 season,” writes Joseph Dugan in Wednesday’s (3/17) NYS Music (New York State). “Performances will occur Weeks Three through Seven of Chautauqua’s nine-week Summer Assembly, and will often feature a smaller ensemble, with all musicians distanced and non-wind and -brass players masked…. Repertoire will be designed to showcase the members of the CSO [and] highlight a diverse range of composers and compositions…. The CSO’s opening night will feature Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Elegía Andina…. [Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra Music Director Rossen] Milanov will share the Amphitheater podium in 2021 with Stuart Chafetz, the CSO’s longtime principal timpanist, who was named the ensemble’s first-ever principal pops conductor in November 2019…. In addition to the CSO schedule, 2021 patrons will enjoy the Music School Festival Orchestra on Monday evenings Weeks One through Four, with a special additional performance on Saturday, July 3, keeping symphonic music as the centerpiece of Chautauqua’s Independence Day celebration.”

On March 13 at 7 p.m., Indiana’s Elkhart County Symphony will perform its inaugural online concert with guest quartet Third Coast Percussion. In addition to being the orchestra’s first online show, the free “Concert of Hope, Reflection, and Joy,” will mark Music Director Soo Han’s debut performance conducting the orchestra. Repertoire will include Augusta Read Thomas’s Selene featuring Third Coast Percussion and the orchestra’s string quartet. The online event will include an area for chatting and asking questions, a live intermission segment with Music Director Soo Han and Third Coast Percussion, and a “green room” meetup with the director after the concert. For more information, click here.