Author: Jennifer Melick

A memorial service for Chester Lane, Symphony magazine’s longtime senior editor and the League of American Orchestras’ longest-tenured employee, will be held on Saturday, June 18 at 1:00 pm at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan. After the service, Marianne Sciolino, Chester’s wife of 13 years, will host a private reception from 2:30 to 5:00 pm on the rooftop garden of their apartment building. Please RSVP by June 8 to ChesterMemorialEvent@gmail.com. Those unable to attend in person are invited to watch the YouTube livestream. Chester died suddenly on November 24 at age 74; a remembrance appeared in the Winter 2022 issue of Symphony.

During his two-week spring residency at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen “brought with him Caroline Shaw’s ‘Entr’acte’ and his own ‘Gemini’—the only CSO subscription concert this season to feature two living composers in one go,” writes Hannah Edgar in Saturday’s (6/4) Chicago Tribune. Joining “the contemporary works on Thursday’s CSO program [was] Maurice Ravel’s choral-orchestral score to the ballet ‘Daphnis et Chloe.’ … The CSO’s decadeslong rapport with their guest maestro was audible from the ballet’s opening bars…. In the hands of principal Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson, this ‘Daphnis’ also featured the most stirring rendition of its famous flute solo I’ve yet heard—urgent at first, dying away, regaining its mettle and asserting its mind again…. One felt invited inside the mind behind that desolate yet brave voice…. The Chicago Symphony Chorus sang masked and in appropriately reduced numbers…. [In] Shaw’s ‘Entr’acte’ … CSO strings nailed [the work’s] pendulum swings between plushness and angularity, Salonen conducting them batonless and balletically…. Student attendees have been a core pillar of the CSO’s post-shutdown audience.… At ‘Gemini’s’ stomping conclusion on Thursday, a phalanx of about 20 or 30 attendees in my section—all seemingly under 25—rose in a standing ovation.”

In 2019, “Nathaniel Silberschlag … at just 21, had recently taken the seat of principal horn with Cleveland, one of the most skilled and storied orchestras in the country,” writes Joshua Barone in Monday’s (6/6) New York Times. “Now 23, and following a two-year probationary period, Silberschlag is an official, tenured member of the orchestra…. ‘The tradition of this orchestra, the tradition of this brass section—it is as cliché as it gets, but it is a dream come true that I made it here,’ [said Silberschlag]. Silberschlag was born into what he called a ‘very, very musical family.’… There are well over a dozen professional musicians … among his relatives. His grandfather was Sol Greitzer, a violist who played under Toscanini and held the principal seat at the New York Philharmonic for over a decade (appointed by Pierre Boulez). His parents met as members of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. And his older brother, Zachary Silberschlag, is the principal trumpet of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra…. Silberschlag started piano at 3, then horn at 4…. With the possibility of … decades ahead in Cleveland, Silberschlag said, ‘I couldn’t be happier that I got to be in this orchestra.’ ”

“After resuming performances in February following a pandemic hiatus, the Tumon Bay Youth Orchestra has several changes pending for its next season,” states an unsigned article in Sunday’s (6/5) Pacific Daily News (Guam). “Last month, the orchestra was accepted into the League of American Orchestras, according to the May 2022 newsletter of the Guam Philharmonic Foundation Inc. Founded in 1942, the League has more than 1,800 members made up of organizations and individuals…. With its acceptance, the [Tumon Bay Youth] Orchestra now is part of a national network of instrumentalists, conductors, managers and administrators, board members, volunteers and business partners…. In other news, resident conductor Amanda Bateman, who has led the orchestra since fall 2020, left her role in May to pursue graduate studies in music. Bateman successfully met the challenges of keeping the youth musicians engaged through the pandemic, holding virtual rehearsals before being able to meet [and perform] outdoors…. The foundation has not yet begun a search for Bateman’s replacement, said Maximo Ronquillo Jr., the foundation’s board president and chair…. The new conductor will be leading the youth orchestra when it travels in December to perform, possibly for a regional tour in Micronesia.”

“The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra has simultaneously announced both their 2022-2023 season and the appointment of an Artistic Advisor, the American conductor Michael Stern,” writes Mark Morris in Monday’s (6/6) Edmonton Journal (Canada). “Stern has been the Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony since 2005 [Stern is also music director of Connecticut’s Stamford Symphony]…. He is not, though, a replacement for Chief Conductor Alex Prior, who finishes his tenure with a pair of concerts … on June 17 and 18. Instead, both Annemarie Petrov, the CEO of the ESO, and Stern see his role as a ‘reboot’ of the orchestra after the shutdowns of the pandemic…. [Says Stern,] ‘The role of the Artistic Advisor is to reawaken the connection of the orchestra to the community, which I think is essential.’ He will also help run the search for Prior’s successor, conduct four concerts himself, and has been part of the team organizing the coming season, which of necessity had to be put together in a short time as the COVID-19 situation became clearer. A very welcome return is the season’s traditional opener, Symphony Under the Sky, still at Hawrelak Park [led by] Robert Bernhardt (Sept. 3 and 4).” Included are season details.