Author: Jennifer Melick

“Violinist Jennifer Koh … will perform on Saturday her third concert since 2013 with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic,” writes Brandy McDonnell in Sunday’s (1/5) Oklahoman (Oklahoma City). “With the theme ‘Minimalism in a New World,’ Saturday’s … concert will match [Philip] Glass’ first violin concerto with fellow American composer … Frank Zappa’s ‘The Dog Breath Variations,’ which draw inspiration from jazz, blues and rock, with Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8…. OKC Philharmonic Music Director Alexander Mickelthwate said [Dvořák] … ‘was giving this old voice, the traditional European voice, to America, this young country…. For me, that’s when America grew into its own.’ … In her 2013 and 2017 appearances with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Koh performed American composer Samuel Barber’s 1939 Violin Concerto…. Koh forged her connection with Glass in 2012, when she was a featured performer in the revival his seminal 1970s opera ‘Einstein on the Beach,’ in which she played violin and portrayed genius physicist Albert Einstein…. The Grammy-nominated violinist said, … ‘I really find there to be an emotionality and emotional core to [Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 1].… ‘There’s a kind of ecstasy that’s in it. It’s really a moving piece.’ ”

“Conductor and trumpeter Byron Stripling is the new principal conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s PNC Pops series, which features popular music ranging from Disney and The Beatles to Broadway and film scores,” writes Jeremy Reynolds in Tuesday’s (1/7) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Mr. Stripling, 58, has conducted the orchestra as a guest and will make his debut as principal conductor in October. This is only the second time the orchestra has named a principal pops conductor. The first was the renowned Marvin Hamlisch, who was hired in 1995 and died in 2012. The position has since been vacant. Mr. Stripling, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, is the former lead trumpeter and soloist with the Count Basie Orchestra. He has played and recorded with Dizzy Gillespie and Woody Herman, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. He has also appeared on Broadway cast albums, film and television soundtracks and has numerous soloist credits on television programs…. Mr. Stripling will conduct three performances the first season. He said that in addition to developing the pops series, he hopes to develop a presence in Pittsburgh’s schools and bring members of the orchestra into the community.”

“The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra has hired as its executive director Ben Cadwallader, who comes from the Vermont Symphony Orchestra,” writes Makeda Easter in Wednesday’s (1/8) Los Angeles Times. “Cadwallader, who succeeds Scott Harrison, is expected to begin in March. Cadwallader has been executive director of the Vermont Symphony since 2015. In 2016, he was one of nine arts administrators selected by the League of American Orchestras for its Emerging Leaders Program. An oboe player, he graduated from the Mannes College of Music at the New School in New York. From 2012 to 2015, he was the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s education programs manager. He led the composer fellowship program and worked with composers including Andrew Norman, Sarah Gibson and Christopher Rountree…. Cadwallader said he … plans to … ‘proactively encourage and engage with communities that have historically not been part of classical music.’ … Another priority, he said, is bringing ‘an entirely different category of music lover to the table by creating conditions where musical experiences can unfold.’ The ensemble … recently introduced its experimental ‘Session’ music events in alternative spaces. Cadwallader cited past success with Vermont Symphony programs, including … Jukebox, which presents classical music in alternative spaces.”

On display now through November 2020 at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at the University of Illinois in Champaign is “Anna Fay Herron and Bohumir Kryl: Mementos from the Women’s Symphony Orchestra of Chicago,” an exhibit documenting Herron’s experiences as an oboist and member of the touring Kryl Women’s Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra toured the Midwest and East Coast between 1943 and 1949 under founder Bohumir Kryl; he was a Czech émigré. Several of the orchestra’s musicians had successful music careers after leaving Kryl’s orchestra; Herron, born and raised in Central Illinois, went on to a nearly fifty-year career as a local music educator and performer. In announcing the exhibit, the University of Illinois noted that by the start of World War II, most women’s symphonies had disbanded as their musicians began to gain footholds in male-dominated orchestras after men left their positions to serve overseas in the war.

“The government has pledged £85 million [$112 million] for music education and will pay for lessons to ensure ‘all children’ know their arias from their cello bows,” writes Craig Simpson in Friday’s (1/3) Telegraph (U.K.). “Ministers hope the investment will be instrumental in making students musically literate and exposed to a wider range of styles and traditions. The funding announcement follows claims that music was becoming the preserve of the privileged…. It is hoped that thousands more young people will join choirs and orchestras as a result…. The funding scheme for 2020/21 follows concerns music was disappearing from the curriculum in schools, with … less privileged students being priced out of tuition. An £80 million package will fund hubs offering participatory musical activities, promoting choirs, orchestras and bands. A further £4 million will go towards cultural education programs, and £1 million will be allocated to charities ensuring exposure to a breadth of styles…. Part of the decline [in music education] has been blamed on the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), which was introduced in 2010 [and] focuses on core subjects…. Funding will go to music hubs established in 2012, which offer specialist support outside the school curriculum.”

“Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th birthday is now being celebrated here, there and everywhere,” writes George Varga in Sunday’s (1/5) San Diego Union Tribune. “ ‘We have a fidelity to Beethoven,’ said San Diego Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer, who worked closely with the orchestra’s new music director, Rafael Payare, to program the symphony’s ongoing ‘Beethoven at 250’ celebration…. San Diego Symphony principal guest conductor Edo de Waart … will conduct nine ‘Beethoven at 250’ concerts here this month…. ‘Everything Beethoven wrote was eye-opening,’ de Waart said in a recent phone interview…. His sentiments are shared by violin star Leila Josefowicz, who will perform here with de Waart and the San Diego Symphony on Jan. 17 and 18. ‘After he emerged, Beethoven influenced all composers from then on,’ Josefowicz said…. One of those is John Adams…. By coincidence, de Waart was one of Adams’ earliest and most profound champions. During his tenure as the San Francisco Symphony’s music director, de Waart appointed Adams as the orchestra’s composer-in-residence in 1982. De Waart went on to record such pioneering compositions by Adams as ‘Shaker Loops,’ ‘Harmonium’ and ‘Nixon in China,’ and his endorsement helped propel Adams onto the world stage.”

“2020 is a big year for Charleston, with the Holy City celebrating its 350th anniversary,” writes Michael Smallwood in Sunday’s (1/5) Charleston City Paper (S.C.). In connection with the anniversary, Spoleto Festival USA has commissioned Omar, an original opera by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels “based on the life of Omar Ibn Said, who was taken from his West Africa homeland in 1807 and sold into slavery here in Charleston.” The festival will include a screening of the 2018 film Get Out, scored by Abels, with Abels conducting the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra and Westminster Choir…. The Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra will [perform] an evening collection of musical selections conducted by Charlestonian Jonathon Heyward. One of the pieces included in the evening is ‘Rhapsodic Overture,’ written by Edmund Thornton Jenkins [whose] father operated the once-landmark orphanage on King Street…. The Trisha Brown Dance Company … returns to Spoleto for the first time in five years. [South African jazz pianist and composer] Abdullah Ibrahim … will be playing a show … while Preservation Hall Jazz Band kick off the festival opening at the Cistern Yard…. John Kennedy will conduct composer Max Richter’s post-minimalist reimagining of Vivaldi’s masterpiece The Four Seasons.”

“Banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck will perform his Second Banjo Concerto, named ‘Juno’ for his first son, with the Winston-Salem Symphony next weekend,” writes Lynn Felder in Saturday’s (1/4) Winston-Salem Journal (N.C.). “Juno is now 6½, and Fleck and his wife, Abigail Washburn, also a musician, have another child, Theo, 1½…. Fleck … grew up on New York’s Upper West Side hearing the city’s symphony orchestras and listening to his stepfather play chamber music around the house…. He was given a French horn but [played] banjo ‘on the sly at home…. I could play a Paganini thing that would just about kill me,’ he said…. ‘But there are things that you can play on the banjo that just sound magic.’ … Eventually, he met Edgar Meyer, a virtuoso classical bassist…. With Meyer, Fleck recorded transcriptions of Bach, ‘Perpetual Motion,’ with violinist Joshua Bell, mandolin player Chris Thile and others…. In addition to Fleck’s concerto, the symphony will perform Aaron Copland’s ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ and Four Dance Episodes from ‘Rodeo’; and local composer Kenneth Frazelle’s ‘Shivaree.’ ” Fleck says, “I’ve been playing ‘Juno’ a lot recently. I like it. The orchestra likes it, and nobody gets hurt.”