Author: Mike Rush

“The National Concert Hall in Taipei shut down indefinitely today after visiting Australian composer Brett Dean was diagnosed with coronavirus on his return to Brisbane,” writes Rudolph Tang in Thursday’s (3/5) Musical America (subscription required). “He is being treated in a hospital in Adelaide. Some of the orchestra members, including conductor Shao-chia Lu, are quarantined…. Korean conductor Myung-whun Chung is undergoing a self-imposed quarantine after returning to Paris from Tokyo with his wife on February 26.… Performance cancellations remain in place through the end of March in the major venues of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou…. The China Association of Performing Arts reports that, due to the cancellation of nearly 8,000 performances across China in 20 provinces in March, box-office-receipt losses will be at least $143 million.… [In Japan] thus far, 130 concerts have been cancelled or postponed, according to Maki Nagura of the Association of Japanese Symphony Orchestras, but all the concert halls remain open…. The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra will live stream for free its Muza Kawasaki Hall concerts on March 8 and 14, without an audience…. The Spring Festival in Tokyo will stream three of its chamber music concerts for free March 14-15 with no audience.”

The League of American Orchestras is tracking news and posting information about COVID-19 preparedness as a service to the orchestra field. Find resources, guidance, and updates on the League’s coronavirus preparedness site.

North Carolina’s Winston-Salem Symphony has named KAREN NÍ BHROIN assistant conductor, effective June 1, 2020. Ní Bhroin hails from County Wexford, Ireland and is currently assistant orchestra conductor at Kent State University, Ohio, where she will graduate with a master of music in orchestral conducting this May. At the Winston-Salem Symphony, Ní Bhroin will be responsible for managing and conducting the Winston-Salem Symphony Youth Orchestras Program; acting as cover conductor for the Winston-Salem Symphony; conducting a select number of Winston-Salem Symphony concerts; and engaging with the community. In 2019, Ní Bhroin was appointed assistant director of Ohio’s Akron Symphony Chorus and made her debut with the Akron Symphony Orchestra in 2020. Ní Bhroin attended Dartington International Summer School Advanced Conducting program. She was Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) Conductor in Training from 2016–2018, working with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and RTÉ Philharmonic Choir in Dublin, Ireland. She is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and made her conducting debut with the Trinity College Orchestra during the final year of her degree.

The Memphis Symphony Orchestra will perform the commissioned world premiere of Michael Gandolfi’s From the Hills to the Stars on its February 29 concert at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts in Memphis, conducted by Music Director Robert Moody. Also on the program will be Ventures on the Bluff by MSO French horn player Robert Patterson; Grieg’s Piano Concerto with pianist Bryan Wallick; and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. The program will be repeated on March 1 at Germantown Performing Arts Center in Germantown, Tennessee. The Gandolfi work was commissioned by MSO supporters Paul and Linnea Bert; Patterson’s Ventures on the Bluff was commissioned by MSO supporter Carolyn Hardy.

“In a concert season brimming with Beethoven favorites and rarities to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth, one presentation encompasses both categories: a Beethoven symphony cycle on period instruments,” writes Barbara Jepson in Wednesday’s (2/26) Wall Street Journal (subscription required). “Performed in chronological order by the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under John Eliot Gardiner at Carnegie Hall … the five … concerts were notable for their visceral excitement and unusual features. To emphasize Beethoven’s embrace of the ideals of the French Revolution, Mr. Gardiner had orchestra members briefly sing while playing a passage from the final Allegro of the composer’s Fifth Symphony…. Six of the works were performed with the violins and violas standing. More familiar was the sheer aural appeal of the original or reproduction instruments themselves: gut strings, sweeter overall than their modern counterparts, with double basses as smooth as velvet; mellow wood flutes and golden-hued trumpets…. The final program ended with an electrifying performance of the Ninth Symphony featuring the superb Monteverdi Choir…. Many conductors have captured the exuberant bonhomie of the ‘Ode to Joy’ section, but Mr. Gardiner also imparted its spiritual heart.”

“On a typical piano, there are 88 keys but only 12 different notes. Moving 12 notes up or down from, say, the note C will put you back on another C an octave above or below,” writes Jeremy Reynolds in Thursday’s (2/27) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “But what about that nebulous region between the C and the C-sharp? … These pitches open up new possibilities…. Once considered fringe, microtones have come to be commonly used in contemporary classical music…. Mathew Rosenblum [is] composer and co-director of the biennial Microtonal Music Festival in Pittsburgh along with fellow composer Eric Moe…. This year’s festival, the third since its inception, includes … concerts … symposiums and lectures…. The festival is sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh’s Music on the Edge contemporary series as well as The Andy Warhol Museum, where several of the events will take place. The festival … features music by Lou Harrison, Harry Partch—a 20th-century Western composer and early adopter of microtonal scales—and John Schneider as well as works by local Pittsburgh composers Eric Moe, Amy Williams, Federico Garcia-De Castro and Mr. Rosenblum…. ‘We’re trying to make Pittsburgh a hub for this sort of music,’ Mr. Rosenblum said.”

“In its upcoming season, the Louisville Orchestra is heading to the Big Apple,” writes Savannah Eadens in Saturday’s (2/22) Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky). “Conductor Teddy Abrams and the 60 plus members of the orchestra will bless our ears with performances in Louisville during the 2020-21 season before ending with a Carnegie Hall performance in New York City in February 2021. Joining the LO for that performance will be dancers from the Louisville Ballet and singer-songwriter Jim James, a Louisville native and the longtime front-man for the band My Morning Jacket. It’s only the third time the Louisville Orchestra has performed in the iconic theater…. The Louisville Orchestra will play its regular season at home, including the Signature Classic, Coffee, Pops, Music Without Borders and Family series…. When it comes to planning a new season, Abrams’ goal is to bring the Louisville community together…. Here are some highlights for the 2020-21 Louisville Orchestra … season: Louisville premieres of music by John Adams, Gabriel Kahane, Ellen Reid and Paola Prestini; celebrating Beethoven’s 250th anniversary; … Louisville Orchestra premiere of … the Turangalila symphony by French composer Oliver Messiaen; symphonic favorites including Ravel’s Bolero, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2.”

“The National Symphony Orchestra canceled the five performances in Japan of its Asian tour because of [the COVID-19] virus epidemic,” reads an unsigned Thursday (2/27) Associated Press article. “The orchestra originally was to play eight concerts in its first international tour with music director Gianandrea Noseda. On Feb. 4, the NSO called off shows in Beijing on March 13 and 14 and one in Shanghai on March 17. In an announcement Thursday night, the orchestra scrapped performances from March 6-11 in Fukui, Sakai, Hiroshima and Tokyo. It cited a recommendation from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that major cultural events be canceled for the next two weeks. ‘After multiple consultations with officials at U.S. government agencies and recommendations from the Japanese government, it became clear that these evolving circumstances are beyond our control,’ NSO executive director Gary Ginstling said in a statement. The NSO is based at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and hopes fill the void in its schedule with orchestra and chamber music in the Washington area. The Boston Symphony Orchestra canceled an Asian tour from Feb. 6-16 that had included performances in Seoul, South Korea; Taipei, Taiwan; Shanghai and Hong Kong.”