Author: Mike Rush

“The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is offering an ambitious spring program of performances on CSOtv and other digital platforms,” writes Sarah Shay in Wednesday’s (4/28) Musical America (subscription required). “Among them are four new episodes of CSO Sessions, two new episodes in the CSO for Kids series, and three releases in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago series. The season kicks off on May 6 with episode 19 in the CSO Sessions series, which features four chamber works: Leo Sowerby’s Woodwind Quintet, Willard Elliot’s Two Sketches for Woodwind Quintet, Prokofiev’s Quintet, and an arrangement of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite for wind ensemble. The May 27 bill consists of Volume, a work for percussion by the CSO’s composer-in-residence Missy Mazzoli, and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night). Mazzoli, whose tenure with the orchestra concludes in June, when Jessie Montgomery takes over, has curated the remaining two episodes [featuring] world premieres—Wadada Leo Smith’s Delta Blues and Cult of Electromagnetic Connectivity by Nicole Mitchell—as well as Mazzoli’s Dark with Excessive Bright… Mazzoli has programmed the string quartet Prospective Dwellers by Tomeka Reid and … the world premieres of Requiem by Courtney Bryan, and ‘The Pub’ from In Dreams by David Reminick.”

The Omaha Symphony has launched a new streaming platform, SymphonyAnywhere.com, featuring virtual performances, interviews, education content, and behind-the-scenes stories. The platform, offering a mix of existing content and new Omaha Symphony performances, is an expansion of the orchestra’s Symphony Anywhere digital initiative launched last year. New content includes Music Director Designate Ankush Kumar Bahl conducting Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides” Overture, Caroline Shaw’s Boris Kerner, thirteen-year-old composer Winston Schneider’s Summer of Covid-19 from the Perspective of a 17-Year-Old Girl, and a collaborative performance of Saint-Saëns’ “The Swan” with the American Midwest Ballet. New content to be added this spring will include Thomas Wilkins’s final concerts in June as music director, featuring the world premiere of Michael Daugherty’s Lift Up Thine Ears for orchestra, Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and John Williams’s Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, with soloist Branford Marsalis. Education and family concerts include the Omaha Symphony’s Mission Imagination program geared toward pre-K to third grade students, “A Home for Treble,” and the Omaha Symphony’s performance of Clint Needham’s The Body Electric from the Celebrate Creativity program. The platform is free to access but also contains premium Omaha Symphony concert content, interviews, and educational programs. Learn more at omahasymphony.org/anywhere-series.

“Wayne Peterson, an American composer and educator whose ‘The Face of the Night, the Heart of the Dark’ was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1992 over the public objections of the Pulitzer [music] jury, died April 7 at his home in San Francisco,” writes Tim Page in Sunday’s (4/18) Washington Post. “He was 93…. For 30 years, Mr. Peterson had been a composer, pianist and professor at San Francisco State University, respected by most musicians who knew his work and highly regarded by his students. The Pulitzer … changed his life…. Mr. Peterson’s award has stood the test of time…. Wayne Turner Peterson was born in Albert Lea, Minn., on Sept. 3, 1927…. He studied piano and took a particular interest in jazz. By his late teens, he was touring with a big band and one could often hear the influences of bebop on his later music…. He studied in England at the Royal Academy of Music…. He taught at what became San Francisco State University from 1960 to 1991 and was a guest professor of composition at Stanford University from 1992 to 1994. In all, Mr. Peterson wrote more than 80 works for orchestra, chorus and chamber ensembles. His awards included fellowships and commissions from the Guggenheim, Koussevitzky and Fromm foundations as well as an award of distinction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.”

“Apple Music told artists it pays a penny per stream,” writes Anna Steele in Friday’s (4/16) Wall Street Journal (subscription required). “The disclosure, made in a letter to artists delivered Friday via the service’s artist dashboard and sent to labels and publishers, reflects music-streaming services’ increasing efforts to show they are artist-friendly…. Spotify Technology SA … last month shared some details of how it pays the music industry for streams on its platform. Apple’s penny-per-stream payment structure—which music-industry experts say can dip lower—is roughly double what Spotify … pays music-rights holders per stream. Spotify pays an average of about one-third to one-half penny per stream, though its larger user base generates many more streams. Apple’s payments come out of monthly subscription revenue from users. Artists, managers and lawyers, still reeling from the loss of touring revenue during the pandemic, have been calling for higher payouts from music streaming, which has grown rapidly in the past year…. Both Apple and Spotify pay rights holders based on the share of total streams their artists garner on each service…. Spotify has accused [Apple] of operating its App Store in a way that stifles competition.”

“A new partnership between [Boston-based radio] GBH and the German classical music streaming service IDAGIO … will present audiences with a series of five video concerts over the next several months that feature well-known classical musicians performing at GBH’s Fraser Performance Studio,” writes Malcolm Gay in Friday’s (4/16) Boston Globe (subscription required). “The series, dubbed ‘Performance Reimagined,’ will stream to IDAGIO’s Global Concert Hall and subsequently be available on-demand for a limited time. The first concert, which unlike future programs is pre-recorded, debuts Saturday, featuring violinist Gil Shaham and musicians from The Knights orchestra…. Future performances and artists will be announced at a later date…. The series’ format will [be] one part concert, one part masterclass, and one part intimate artist talk where the audience can participate…. The series is sponsored by Boston-area donors…. IDAGIO, a video and audio streaming service geared to the unique requirements of classical music, launched the Global Concert Hall in 2020…. The GBH series is using a pay-what-you-will model…. the idea to collaborate with IDAGIO began germinating soon after a Memorial Day performance by cellist Yo-Yo Ma at Fraser studio.”

“When the Aspen Music Festival and School announced the program for its summer season last week, the big news and the headline were that live music and orchestras would be returning after the long silence of the novel coronavirus pandemic,” writes Andrew Travers in Thursday’s (4/15) Aspen Times. “The 2021 season marks the launch of its initiative to spotlight diverse composers who identify as AMELIA (African-American, Middle Eastern, Latin, Indigenous, and Asian). It is the product of three years of evaluating diversity, equity and inclusion at the festival as well as canon-expanding scholarship and research by the festival’s artistic administration, led by Asadour Santourian…. Santourian said the festival is hoping to … properly [usher] composers and pieces of music that have been historically sidelined due to structural racism into the repertoire of musicians, orchestras and festivals. Some 75% of performances this summer will include works by AMELIA composers…. They range from new works by living composers to works by 18th century writers sidelined by history …The effort toward equity will be sustained in years to come, festival officials said, and will include commissions of new work by AMELIA composers.”

The next event in the Santa Barbara Symphony’s ongoing live-streamed series of concerts at the Granada Theatre will take place on April 17 at 7 p.m., with an encore matinee on April 18 at 3 p.m. Music and Artistic Director Nir Kabaretti will lead the program, which features works by American composers, including Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, and the world premiere of the orchestral version of local composer George N. Gianopoulos’s Polarity, part of his song cycle America for voice and piano. Bass-baritone Cedric Berry will serve as soloist in Polarity, and he also will perform Copland’s Old American Songs, which includes “Simple Gifts,” “I Bought Me a Cat,” and “Zion’s Walls.” The concert also includes works by George Walker, Samuel Barber, Charles Ives, and the late Santa Barbara composer Robin Frost. Concerts are performed without an audience, and ticketholders may watch the concert live or afterward on demand. A pre-concert virtual show will include behind-the-scenes interviews and other content.