Author: Mike Rush

In Tuesday’s (2/2) Musical America (subscription required), Susan Elliott reports on two American conductors. “George Manahan will step down as music director of the American Composers Orchestra at the expiration of his contract, on July 1, 2021. He arrived in the post in 2010 as only the third of ACO’s music directors; his predecessors were founding ACO Music Director Dennis Russell Davies and Steven Sloane. Manahan exits with the title of music director emeritus…. Manahan has led the ACO in 191 works by 162 composers and premiered 82 new pieces…. The current director of orchestral studies at the Manhattan School of Music and a guest conductor at the Curtis Institute of Music, Manahan is music director of the Portland Opera and presided over the New York City Opera with distinction for 14 seasons…. Vinay Parameswaran has seen an extension of his contract with the Cleveland Orchestra that includes a promotion, from assistant to associate conductor. In that post he will continue to serve as music director of the Cleveland Youth Orchestra…. A former conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Institute, he arrived in Cleveland in 2017, serving as cover conductor.… He has led the orchestra on several occasions.”

“24-year-old Venezuelan-born violinist Samuel Abraham Vargas Teixeira is the first-prize winner in the senior division of the 2021 Sphinx Competition,” reads an unsigned report in Saturday’s (1/30) Violin Channel. “A student of Sergiu Schwartz at Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music, Samuel will receive the US $50,000 Robert Frederick Smith Prize plus invitations to make a number of significant solo debuts. Second and third prizes in this year’s senior division were awarded to bassist Christian Gray and cellist Luis Fernando Venturelli. First prize in the 17 years and under junior division was awarded to 12-year-old violinist Amaryn Olmeda. Second and third prizes were presented to violinist Jonathan Okseniuk and violist Dillon Scott. Detroit-based, the Sphinx Organization is a U.S. based non-profit organization dedicated to diversifying the arts…. Achievement Awards were presented to cellist Brandon Leonard and violinist Paul Aguilar. The 2021 jury comprised: Jennifer Arnold, Joel Krosnick, Tai Murray, Philippe Quint, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Matthew Van Besien, and VC Artist Milena Pajarovan de Stadt.” Sphinx Organization President and Artistic Director Afa Dworkin said, “What a privilege we have to support their careers and build a network so that they may innovate and collaborate.”

“A symphony requires all musicians playing their parts in harmony, but the pandemic makes that delicate choreography all the more challenging,” reports Jeffrey Brown in Monday’s (2/1) PBS News Hour. “Michael Tilson Thomas talks about that and passing the baton to a younger generation…. Tilson Thomas was ending a 25-year run as conductor and music director of the San Francisco Symphony, when the COVID shutdown began… ‘It was a shock, kind of numbing’ … says Thomas…. [He] is using his time to lean into his craft, as musician, composer and mentor [to musicians in] Miami’s New World Symphony… ‘All the plans that they had, the auditions they were set to take, the new positions they were about to begin, the most creative time of their lives had to stop,’ says Thomas. ‘So, they had to … think, how can I reinvent myself? … All the young people I’m working with have a real commitment to sharing their music and their vision with people younger than they are, and … have taken on the role as a teacher in a very expanded way.” Included are discussions and mentoring with New World Fellows Chelsea Sharpe (violin), Stephanie Block (viola), and Corbin Castro (French horn).

“Under the circumstances, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra navigated through 2020 reasonably well,” writes John Klyce in Monday’s (2/1) Memphis Business Journal (TN). “In the early days of the pandemic … about 91% of patrons said to consider their ticket costs donations, rather than ask for refunds… The administrative staff size was reduced, and remaining employees took compensation cuts…. The organization managed to end 2020 with a balanced budget. But that’s not sustainable…. ‘I’m trying to balance being realistic, and being optimistic,’ Memphis Symphony Orchestra president and CEO Peter Abell said…. The good news is that donations haven’t fallen drastically…. The bad news, ticket revenue is expected to drop … from over $1 million annually, to about $40,000 … The reduction is likely to come, in part, from the decrease in … performances…. The organization has been able to keep paying the 55 tenured performers it has under contract. But, there hasn’t been work for other musicians it would typically hire…. On Dec. 19, 2020, MSO held a live Christmas concert…. Abell … fretted over the decision to hold the concert. Then he heard the music. ‘And you think, “Oh, my gosh, this has been absent—this is so great,” ‘ he said.”

In South Carolina, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition’s BravoPiano! Festival has been scheduled for June 4 to 12, 2021. The festival, presented every three years by HHIPC, this year will feature music of the Americas, with performances of solo piano, piano with small ensembles, and piano with orchestra at venues throughout the Hilton Head/Bluffton area. All repertoire will be by composers living or having lived in the Americas, from Canada to Argentina. The festival will begin on June 4 with piano duo Anderson and Roe; the week will include classical, jazz and Gullah-Geechee music, including a world premiere by American composer Hannah Lash. The final concert on June 12 with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, at Hilton Head’s First Presbyterian Church, conducted by HHSO Music Director John Morris Russell, will Reed Tetzloff performing Edward McDowell’s Piano Concert No. 2; Michelle Cann in Florence Price’s Piano Concerto; and composer/pianist Stewart Goodyear performing his own Callaloo Suite for piano and orchestra.

“When it began live streaming chamber music concerts in June last year, London’s Wigmore Hall was hailed as a beacon of hope for players and audiences alike,” reads an unsigned article in Tuesday’s (1/26) The Strad (U.K.). “In an interview with the Financial Times, the venue’s chief executive and artistic director John Gilhooly has now laid bare the cost of the initiative, which has included performances by the likes of Steven Isserlis, Mitsuko Uchida and the Heath Quartet, and which continues into 2021…. Staff costs and copyright charges for each performance come to around £3,000, plus artists’ fees. While the concerts are free to view, audiences have donated some £750,000 … and the number joining its membership scheme has increased by a quarter. ‘All that we have received has been ploughed back into paying artists their full fee and investing in programming,’ [said] Gillhooly…. The hall aims to have raised £1 million by … later this year [representing] …. This would represent only around one-seventh of the hall’s usual income over the period. A quarter of the Wigmore Hall’s staff have been made redundant since the start of the pandemic…. The main advantage of live streaming, according to Gilhooly, it its ability to reach wider audiences.”

“There are well-known masterpieces in Classical music we all know and love,” writes Ella Harpstead on Wednesday’s (1/27) at Colorado Public Radio. “But every year, musicians and composers create new music that breaks boundaries. Here are 11 composers you may have heard of, or may be brand new! They represent every corner of classical music from film, jazz, choirs, concert bands and orchestras, string quartets and clarinet solos…. After listening to the playlist, you may just come away with a new favorite artist.” The article lists composers Michael Abels, Eleanor Alberga, Valerie Coleman, Augustus Hailstork, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Omar Thomas, Jessie Montgomery, Quinn Mason, Nkeiru Okoye, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and Mary D. Watkins and includes a brief biography of each along with video clips of performances of their scores. Read Symphony magazine’s Winter 2020 article about Black composers, past and present.

“The Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra returns for its third concert of the season this weekend, and it’s looking to live up to the program’s title, ‘Small Scale, Big Heart,’ ” writes John Lamb in Thursday’s (1/28) Forum (Fargo, ND). “The concert will be recorded Thursday night, Jan. 28, and posted on the symphony’s website [on] Jan. 31. As with all of the FMSO productions for the past year, only a limited number of musicians can be on stage at one time due to pandemic restrictions. The limitations have been a challenge and presented opportunities for FMSO Music Director Christopher Zimmerman as he now can look at works for smaller ensembles. ‘I have an opportunity to bring in something new,’ he says. He’s cashing in on that opportunity by conducting works by three contemporary composers never performed in an FMSO concert as well as three lesser-known pieces by popular composers.” The program includes Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Trumpet, and Strings, Op. 35; Arvo Pärt’s Fratres; George Walker’s Lyric for Strings; Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll; and Petite Prelude and Fugue for Brass Quintet by Minneapolis-based composer Martha Helen Schmidt. “Interviews with Zimmerman and musicians will be interspersed between performances.”

“Professional classical musicians typically string together positions in several orchestras, along with other gigs, to make a living,” writes Indiana Nash in Thursday’s (1/28) Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY). “Those orchestra jobs and gigs either disappeared or were severely cut back… at the start of the pandemic…. During this time, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, which … is a pay-per-service orchestra, set up an emergency fund for its musicians…. Some musicians have taken other jobs as contact tracers, UPS drivers, dog walkers…. [ASO violist] Dana Huyge recently turned to real estate…. For [ASO violinist] Aleksandra Labinska … the onset of the pandemic brought concerns regarding her [artist] visa…. ‘One of the requirements is that you have to show activity for the next three years, which [before the pandemic wasn’t a problem,’ … Labinska said…. They were approved at the end of May…. For now, some musicians have found work through virtual concerts. Schenectady Symphony and ASO have both hosted a few and there are others in the works…. They’ve kept people like bassist Luke Baker afloat…. ‘Since the beginning of November, every month at least I’ve had good work,’ Baker said. He’s also been teaching students virtually and has been supported by his wife, who is a nurse.”