Author: Mike Rush

“Trained as an opera singer, Rhiannon Giddens, … a virtuoso fiddler and banjo player with a soulful voice … has delved into African-American and old-time traditions,” writes Zachary Woolfe in Tuesday’s (7/28) New York Times. “She won a MacArthur ‘genius’ grant in 2017 and wrote an opera based on the autobiography of Omar Ibn Said, a Muslim man from Africa who was enslaved in South Carolina…. Now she will have a new, global curatorial canvas for her genre-skipping ideas. On Tuesday, Silkroad, the cross-cultural music organization created by Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, announced that Ms. Giddens would be its next artistic director…. ‘This is a great opportunity to bring together what I’ve been doing and what they’ve been doing,’ Ms. Giddens, 43, said…. Silkroad began … as the Silk Road Project, an effort to bring together performers, and music new and old, from the cultures centering on the ancient network of trade routes between East Asia and the Mediterranean. It has since expanded into a multifaceted performing, education and social justice organization…. Her role will occasionally showcase her as a performer, including at a Silkroad concert available online starting Wednesday through Tanglewood.”

Read Rhiannon Giddens’ recent article in Symphony magazine.

The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra announced that its 2020-21 season, entitled “2020-21 Reimagined,” will begin on October 3 with a program of all six Bach Brandenburg Concertos, led by Music Director Delta David Gier. The orchestra has not been on the stage of the Washington Pavilion since March. The 2020-21 season will include classical, pops, and holiday performances continuing through May 1, when it performs an all-Beethoven program featuring the Ninth Symphony and the “Emperor” Piano Concerto with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra Chorus and pianist Emanuel Ax. All performances will be scaled according to current health and safety guidelines, and seating sections will be reserved for patrons who wish to physically distance. Policies will be established on a concert-by-concert basis, incorporating the most recent data and scientific information. “This season has been curated with great care by our artistic staff and SDSO musicians, with attention to the need to address this particular moment in the history of our community and country,” Gier said in a press release. “Flexibility is a key component of our strategy for navigating these unpredictable times, and further adjustments may be needed as we proceed.”

“The Richard Tucker Music Foundation, which grants prestigious awards to young singers, removed David N. Tucker from its board of directors on Monday evening,” writes Sarah Bahr in Monday’s (7/20) New York Times. “Mr. Tucker, a son of the distinguished tenor for whom the foundation is named, was removed after an uproar over racially charged comments that he made on a Black singer’s Facebook page. ‘The Richard Tucker Music Foundation condemns the hurtful and offensive comments made by one of our board members, David Tucker,’ Jeffrey Manocherian, the foundation’s chairman, and Barry Tucker, its president and another of Richard Tucker’s sons, said in a statement. On Saturday, Julia Bullock, a Black soprano, shared a Washington Post story on her Facebook page that quoted protesters in Portland, Ore…. In response, Mr. Tucker commented, ‘Good. Get rid of these thugs and I don’t care where you send them. They are a Pox on our society.’ … When Russell Thomas, a Black tenor, replied in a comment that the Tucker Foundation had given its top prize … to only one Black artist [tenor Lawrence Brownlee] since it was first granted in 1978, Mr. Tucker wrote that ‘pulling the race card is another convenient excuse to modify excellent standards of vocal artistry.’ ”

“The show must go on—just not quite as it did before,” reads an unsigned Friday (7/17) article in Ipswich Local News (Ipswich, MA). “The Cape Ann Symphony will hold a Summer Awakening concert outdoors, with a limited crowd and social distancing on August 16. ‘Cape Ann Symphony is very excited about being able to schedule an outdoor concert event during the time of COVID,’ CAS president Fran White said in an announcement…. ‘We are grateful to Fran White and her husband, David, for opening up their large backyard to host a concert,’ said conductor and music director Maestro Yoichi Udagawa.… White noted that organizers are following state guidelines for gatherings. ‘Hand sanitizer will be readily available, and attendees will be encouraged to maintain social distancing at all times. Masks will be required and available as needed..’… The Summer Awakening concert program includes: William Grant Still’s Mother and Child … Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll … Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 29.” White said, “Holding a concert this summer is important to Cape Ann Symphony, since we know that the rest of our 2020 season must be canceled. We hope that 2021 will bring progress to the control of the virus and we will be able to schedule concerts.”

“Micah Wilkinson, principal trumpet of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, hasn’t performed in Heinz Hall in months, but he has been serenading his neighbors,” writes Jeremy Reynolds in Monday’s (7/20) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He purchased recording equipment and decked out his home studio for online teaching, homing in on demand among trumpet players for intense study during the pandemic. Now the 36-year-old has gone beyond online classes to the freshly curated and edited ‘Book of Solos,’ which binds 30 key bits of trumpet repertoire and music… The idea came from a fellow musician and former classmate, trombone player Samuel Price, who created a similar, licensed book for that instrument and launched a publishing company, Price & Co. Publishing, to print it during the pandemic. The trumpet volume will be available July 24, and another iteration for flute is available for preorder…. It’s common for professional musicians to purchase such books at a young age and keep them well into their careers. The books become a catch-all for notes, personal interpretive marks and other tactile experiences.… Like other musicians around the country, Mr. Wilkinson has pivoted to online lessons and classes and will launch an online fundamentals workshop for trumpet players July 27.”

“If there is one topic that is on the lips of pretty much everyone in the orchestral world, it is the subject of diversity,” writes Leonard Slatkin in Friday’s (7/17) ArtsJournal.com. The article, a chapter from Slatkin’s forthcoming book, first appeared on the conductor’s website. “When I was appointed assistant conductor in 1968, there were just two members of the St. Louis Symphony who were black. That number has not changed by much over the years, and the same is true for most major orchestras…. The idea behind the use of the screen [at auditions] was that if no one could see the person auditioning for a position in the orchestra, then there could be no accusation of discrimination. This made perfect sense during the civil rights movement and continued into the equal-rights era…. But times have changed…. Often, when I speak to students of color, they tell me that they have been warned off by some about the prospect of entering the musical workforce with the odds stacked against them…. We can, however, alter the audition process, just a little, to help ensure the highest quality outcome while encouraging everyone of ability.”

“Social distancing demands not only that listeners be kept far apart but that musicians be, as well,” writes Howard Reich in Sunday’s (7/19) Chicago Tribune. “Gone, for now, are the tonal splendor of the full Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; the spectacle of Lyric Opera’s opulent productions of Verdi and Puccini…. Performances on that scale will be sorely missed…. But in their stead comes something else: a soloist or string quartet or jazz trio … a realm in which fortissimos can be less harsh, pianissimos can whisper still more softly, and everyone in the house can lean forward a bit to better catch sonic detail and artistic intent. In classical music, this amounts to a wide return to the salon…. The rumble of Beethoven’s piano sonatas rattles through your bones in a small room with a degree of force that cannot be conjured in a large hall…. An outdoor concert by members of the Chicago Symphony and Lyric Opera Orchestras early this month … felt more like a musicale from John Philip Sousa’s era than a concert from august musicians of our own time…. Our new reality is necessitating smaller dimensions and scaled-down performances…. Understatement, restraint and proximity may be valued anew.”