Author: Jennifer Melick

Brandee Younger “has spent a long time taking her instrument out of its traditional concert setting, and now she’s bringing it to the courtyard of the Baltimore Museum of Art” in a concert with double bassist Liany Mateo and flutist Anne Drummond, writes Micha Green in Sunday’s (7/17) Baltimore Sun. “While it seems [Younger] has come a long way from hauling her harp to producers’ ‘mama’s basements,’ she is sticking to her longtime goal … ‘You want to make sure that everyone has access to this instrument,’ Younger said, as she prepared for her upcoming performance at the Baltimore Museum of Art Sculpture Garden on July 24…. Younger started the harp as a flute-playing adolescent collaborating with a family friend, who saw the instrument as a route to a college scholarship. Since then, she’s worked with Lauryn Hill, Drake and Cassie, and has been nominated for a Grammy for her song ‘Beautiful is Black.’ … [At the museum concert], ‘I might rope you in with a nice beat, then segue into something more traditional…. I hope … the audience is both classical music and nonclassical music, and will take something away and hold onto it,’ she said.”

“American Composers Forum [has announced] recipients of this year’s McKnight Composer Fellowships and McKnight Visiting Composer Residencies,” reads an unsigned article in Tuesday’s (7/19) I Care if You Listen. “Both programs are funded by the McKnight Foundation…. The awardees of the McKnight Composer Fellowships are Mitchell Bercier, Mary Ellen Childs, Queen Drea, and Reinaldo Moya. The awardees of the McKnight Visiting Composer Residency are Byron Au Yong and Victor Márquez-Barrios…. The fellowships are part of the McKnight Artist Fellowships Program, created to increase the exploratory opportunity, economic stability, and productive capacity of artists by providing $25,000 in unrestricted support for mid-career artists living in Minnesota. Music creators living in other parts of the U.S. were invited to propose a residency project that responds to or reflects the unique qualities of people and communities in Minnesota. Each McKnight Visiting Composer receives $10,000 to spend time in Minnesota pursuing a self-designed residency project…. ‘We value the opportunity to invest in both artists who make their home where we were founded and those who seek to know our communities better,’ said ACF Executive Director, Vanessa Rose.”

“A new musician will assume the principal cello chair for the San Francisco Symphony,” writes Taylor Grant in Friday’s (7/15) Musical America (subscription required). “Rainer Eudeikis, who joined the Atlanta Symphony in 2019, starts with SFS in September. He succeeds the late Michael Grebanier, who led the cello section from 1977 until his death in 2019. The 32-year-old Eudeikis grew up in Texas and Colorado, and earned degrees at the University of Michigan, Indiana University, and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. While still at Curtis, he began a five-year stint at the Utah Symphony before moving to Atlanta…. During Grebanier’s long tenure, the cello section was one of the most unified sections in the orchestra due to low turnover and the players’ dedication to their section leader…. Eudeikis is not the only new player to be joining the symphony. Matthew Griffith, who has held positions with the North Carolina Symphony and the Nashville Symphony, will succeed longtime Symphony member Luis Baez as associate principal and E-flat clarinet. Joining the viola section are Katarzyna Bryla-Weiss, current co-principal of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s [in New York City], and Leonid Plashinov-Johnson, formerly of the Saint Louis Symphony.”

On July 20, musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra will perform with members of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra at Ambassador David L. Cohen’s residence in Ottawa in an event that promotes trade and learning between Philadelphia and Canada. The visit will include string quartet performances plus master classes, sectionals, and side-by-side performances with student musicians of the Ottawa Youth Orchestra Academy and a free performance on July 20 for Ukrainian refugees at Café Ukraine, a drop-in center where refugees can meet, share coffee and stories, and seek resources to adjust to life in Canada. A string quartet of Philadelphia Orchestra musicians will perform music by Dvořák and Florence Price; a quartet from the National Arts Centre Orchestra will perform music by Canadian composer Carmen Braden. Quartets from both orchestras will perform the first movement of Mendelssohn’s String Octet. The events are part of the Greater Philadelphia Trade Visit to Canada, an initiative to develop trade opportunities and business relationships between Canadian and Philadelphian minority-owned small and medium-sized enterprises. The musical activities follow a July 19 convening to develop trade opportunities and business relationships.

“A leading American soprano, Angel Blue, announced this week that she was withdrawing from her planned debut at the Arena di Verona in Italy to protest its use of ‘blackface makeup’ in a production of Verdi’s ‘Aida’ that starred the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko,” writes Javier C. Hernández in Friday’s (7/15) New York Times. “ ‘The use of blackface under any circumstances, artistic or otherwise, is a deeply misguided practice based on archaic theatrical traditions which have no place in modern society,’ Blue, a Black soprano … said … on social media, adding that she would withdraw from her upcoming performances in ‘La Traviata.’… Many leading opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, have only recently stopped the practice of having white singers darken their skin with stage makeup to perform the title roles in ‘Aida’ and ‘Otello.’ … But the practice is still common in parts of Europe and Russia…. Netrebko … posted photos on her Instagram this week showing her in extremely dark makeup [as] Aida…. Netrebko’s Instagram page was flooded with … comments, with many people denouncing her…. Some of her co-stars performed in the dark makeup…. The decision by Blue … was praised by many fellow singers and American opera executives.”

“The Windsor Symphony Orchestra used a $213,900 government grant to purchase video equipment and hire video technicians, which allowed it to complete two concert seasons that were fully virtual during the pandemic,” writes Julie Kotsis in Friday’s (7/15) Windsor Star (Toronto, Canada). “The Grow grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation was received in June 2020, and provided the means for the WSO to adjust to the forced termination of in-person concert performances due to COVID-19. The grant allowed the symphony to bridge two demographics—a traditional live concert audience that was not necessarily tech-savvy, and a new virtual audience that was comfortable with technology but may not have previously engaged with the WSO or other orchestra…. The WSO also adapted a new digital marketing strategy that it said resulted in a 50-per-cent increase in subscribers.” WSO Executive Director Sheila Wisdom said the grant “came when the WSO needed it most…. In the face of COVID, this grant helped the WSO shift from live concert performances into a new virtual realm that our patrons have really been enjoying.”

“Live music has returned to the San Francisco Symphony. Time for Three, a band performing with the symphony this week, is making waves through their notes by … sharing their message of what ‘contact’ means to them,” reports Amanda Starrantino in Wednesday’s (7/13) CBS San Francisco. “Time for Three is made of three [string musicians] from the East Coast: Nicolas Kendall, Charles Yang and Ranaan Meyer…. ‘We played with the [San Francisco Symphony] at Stern Grove years ago,’ said Meyer … ‘sort of the beginning of our relationship with the amazing organization.’ … Kendall, Meyer and Yang were forced into separation because of the pandemic, like so many others. But that time for them brought new ideas and new music to life. It is what their listeners get to experience now, in their latest of four concertos. Their newest [composed by Kevin Puts] is called ‘Contact.’ ‘We had time to really re-explore it during the pandemic, it is about this idea about the other, exploring new frontiers, but also reconnecting with ourselves as humans,’ said Kendall.” The Florida Orchestra and Time for Three performed the world premiere of Contact in March 2022.

“The pandemic, with its restrictions for indoor audiences, gave birth to several innovations for the Wichita Symphony Orchestra during the past year,” writes David Burke in Sunday’s (7/17) Wichita Eagle (KS). “And like Symphony in the Gardens at Botanica and Playing in the Parks with Wichita Parks and Recreation, the orchestra’s Symphony 360 is returning [July 23]…. The concert … at Century II’s convention hall, is symphony-in-the-round with audience members as close as 5 feet from the players. The audience surrounds the orchestra on all sides.… Last year’s [inaugural] concert was a hit with symphony patrons [and] also went over well with the symphony performers. ‘I think they liked the intimacy of it and what it invited, which was interaction between the audience and members of the orchestra,’ [Executive Director Don] Reinhold said…. The concert program, selected by [Music Director Daniel] Hege [features] ‘Sonata de Chiesa’ by contemporary Black American composer Adolphus Hailstork … Samuel Barber’s ‘Knoxville: Summer of 1915,’ featuring soprano Courtenay Budd … and Schubert’s Fifth Symphony…. ‘It’s a program of renewal…. It just seems to be the right program for the moment,’ he added.”