Author: Mike Rush

The Madison Symphony Orchestra in Wisconsin has added several online resources at its website, after performances were cancelled this spring during the COVID-19 pandemic. The orchestra had been scheduled to perform the Dvořák Requiem on its April 3-5 concerts at Overture Center for the Arts; among the new online resources is a previously recorded performance of Dvořák’s Requiem by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. Also posted is a virtual concert talk from MSO Program Annotator Michael Allsen, who wrote the program notes for the cancelled program, and a letter to concertgoers from Music Director John DeMain to “let you know what I’ve been up to since we have had to distance ourselves from each other.”

“The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra has announced that member violist Vincent Lionti has died of COVID-19,” writes Francisco Salazar in Saturday’s (4/4) Operawire. “The orchestra announced the news via social media, stating, ‘We are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of one of our own. Vincent Lionti passed away due to complications related to Covid-19. “Vinnie” joined the viola section of the MET Orchestra in 1987…. We’ll miss you, Vinnie.’ Lionti joined the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra on September 1, 1987 after having played with the New York Philharmonic from 1981-1983. He was also a member of the Detroit Symphony from 1983-1987. During his time in Detroit, Lionti was a faculty member of the Macomb Community College, a member of the Lyric Chamber Players, the Renaissance City Chamber Players and a founding member of the Ventura String Quartet. [He] also served as guest Principal Viola for the Indianapolis, New Jersey, American Symphony Orchestras, and the Santa Fe Opera. Lionti served as conductor at the Greater Westchester Youth Orchestras Association, the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing, the Downtown Sinfonietta of White Plains and of the Merrick Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the NYU Steinhardt School Symphony Orchestra…. He held Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Juilliard School.”

“Reggie Mobley has been named the Handel and Haydn Society’s first-ever programming consultant, effective immediately,” writes Zoë Madonna in Friday’s (4/3) Boston Globe. “Mobley, a Boston-based countertenor who has long been a vocal advocate for ‘un-whitewashing’ classical music, will continue to direct the orchestra’s annual ‘Every Voice’ concert series, which celebrates music by underrepresented composers with free community concerts. In his new role, Mobley will help build diversity into H+H subscription concerts, starting with the 2021-22 season. ‘We want to start bringing this music into Symphony Hall,’ … Mobley said…. H+H president and CEO David Snead and vice president of artistic planning Ira Pedlikin recruited Mobley for the role after last fall’s Every Voice concert. … H+H mostly plays music from the Baroque through Brahms, but the group has already made encouraging first steps: It performed a piece by the Afro-French composer Chevalier de Saint-Georges in 2017. A piece by Clara Schumann is scheduled to open the 2020-21 season this fall. Mobley aims to reach even further beyond the Western European canon with his new role … ‘from the vantage points of these other composers who have been forgotten for so long,’ Mobley said.”

“After a two-year search, the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra Board of Directors has announced their pick for music director,” reads an unsigned Saturday (4/4) article at TV station WFIE (Evans-ville, IN). “Roger Kalia will be EPO’s Music Director, effective June 1, 2020.… Kalia currently serves as Music Director of … Symphony NH (Symphony New Hampshire), of California’s Or-chestra Santa Monica and Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, as well as Music Director and co-founder of the celebrated Lake George Music Festival in upstate New York…. Due to COVID-19 and Governor Holcomb’s [stay-at-home] directive, Maestro Kalia was formally introduced by a virtual press conference Saturday afternoon.… His first official performance as music director for the orchestra will be the opening concert, September 13, 2020…. Search Committee Chair Thomas Josenhans … stated, ‘After carefully reviewing applications from over 200 candidates during this process … we are confident that the energy and expertise that Mr. Kalia brought to the orchestra and our community during his visit will translate into an exciting new vision for the EPO.’ ” Kalia succeeds Alfred Savia, the orchestra’s music director since 1989, who will step down at the end of the 2019-20 season.

“Two weeks after temporarily laying off staff and musicians, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra is offering them reduced hours,” writes Michele Jarvie in Thursday’s (4/2) Calgary Herald (Canada). “Everyone will be able to work 70 per cent of regular hours per week at home while the CPO is shut down.… Says CPO president and CEO Paul Dornian, ‘We are so relieved to be able to give them a chance to earn more than they would be making on [Employment Insurance] during this difficult time.’ The layoff notices to 83 musicians and staff took effect on March 28 but, behind the scenes, the CPO had been collaborating with its board, management team, musicians’ union and foundation to find a solution. Musicians voted unanimously on March 30 to accept the part-time plan.… After the layoff notices went out, the federal government announced a wage subsidy program covering 75 per cent of lost salaries. Dornian is confident the orchestra will qualify for that. ‘You have to show a 30 per cent reduction in revenues,’ … he said.… All performances up to and including May 16 have been postponed or cancelled…. The cancellations are expected to cost the orchestra up to $2 million in lost revenues.”

Pianist Alessio Bax has a new solo recording entitled Italian Inspirations, featuring J.S. Bach’s arrangement of an Alessandro Marcello oboe concerto; Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Corelli; Liszt’s Italian-inspired St. François d’Assise: La prediction aux oiseaux and Après une Lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata; and Dallapicolla’s Quaderno musicale di Annilibera. Russian Renaissance—a chamber ensemble of balalaikas, accordions, and domras—has released its self-titled debut album on the Azica Records label. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein has recorded Bach’s complete cello suites for April 3 release on the Pentatone label. The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Radio Choir and perform choral works by Gordon Getty on Beauty Come Dancing, featuring settings of poetry by John Keats, Lord Byron, John Masefield, Sara Teasdale, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Ernest Christopher Dowson, on a new Pentatone recording. Naxos Records has released Sanctuary Road, the 2018 oratorio by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell premiered by the Oratorio Society of New York conducted by Kent Tritle; the work is based on writings of Underground Railroad “conductor” William Still. Music by Aaron Copland, Gordon Getty, Jake Heggie, and Michael Tilson Thomas are featured on A Certain Slant of Light, a new Pentatone recording of settings of Emily Dickinson’s poetry performed by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille conducted by Lawrence Foster. Violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra are featured in Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A minor and Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto in D minor, conducted by Teddy Abrams, on a new Avie Records release. Daniel Harding conducts the Swedish Radio Symphony in the orchestra’s new Harmonia Mundi recording of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht and Violin Concerto with soloist Isabelle Faust. The Vienna Philharmonic’s 2020 New Year’s Concert conducted by Andris Nelsons has been released on Sony Classical label in digital, CD, and DVD/Blue-Ray formats. A new book-and-CD project entitled Wild Symphony will be released on September 1, 2020 by Rodale Kids, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books. The project will feature musical portraits of animals composed by author Dan Brown, performed by Croatia’s Zagreb Festival Orchestra.

“Charles Wuorinen, winner of the 1970 Pulitzer Prize in Music and composer of the operas ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and ‘Haroun and the Sea of Stories,’ died from injuries sustained in a fall last September. He was 81,” reads an unsigned Thursday (3/12) Associated Press obituary. “Wuorinen, who composed more than 270 works, died Wednesday at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center…. Known for much of his career as an admirer of the 12-tone system of composition, Wuorinen was opinionated…. Born in New York on June 9, 1938, … Wuorinen received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia [University] in 1961 and a master’s in music two years later. He won the New York Philharmonic’s Young Composers’ Award when he was 16…. Wuorinen was 32 when he won the Pulitzer for ‘Time’s Encomium,’ a four-channel work for synthesized sound that became the first electronic composition to earn the honor…. James Levine … commissioned five works by Wuorinen, including his Fourth Piano Concerto for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and pianist Peter Serkin for its premiere in 2003…. His last completed work was his Second Percussion Symphony, debuted by Miami’s New World Symphony last September. He is survived by his husband of 32 years, Howard Stokar.”

“If there is a museum director who embodies Mayor Bill de Blasio’s commitment to empowerment and inclusion, it is Gonzalo Casals, who leads the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in SoHo, which is devoted to queer art,” writes Robin Pogrebin in Wednesday’s (3/11) New York Times. “Now the mayor has given Mr. Casals a new title: New York City’s Cultural Affairs Commissioner, for the largest local funder of arts and culture in the United States…. Mr. Casals is an immigrant from Argentina who identifies as queer. Since 2017, he has led the Leslie-Lohman, a museum with roots in the L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights movement, diversifying its collection and programming with contributions from the gay community. Mr. Casals previously served as deputy and interim director at El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem, a major center for Latino art and culture…. Mr. Casals also served as vice president for education and community engagement at Friends of the High Line, which focused on the elevated railway’s effect on surrounding neighborhoods…. Mr. Casals replaces Tom Finkelpearl, who stepped down in October after five years as Commissioner.” Casals begins in his new position on April 13.