Author: Mike Rush

“Patricia Silva Weitzel is the only African-American member of the 80-plus Quad City Symphony Orchestra” in Davenport, Iowa, writes Jonathan Turner in Tuesday’s (2/4) Quad-City Times. “But on Sunday night, Jan. 26 at the Grammy Awards, she performed with an all women-of-color ensemble. The talented double bassist—a 36-year-old native of Brazil who teaches … played in a special 23-woman orchestra, backing Grammy winner Lizzo in two songs to open the 62nd-annual ceremony.… ‘It was great,’ Weitzel, a QCSO member since 2013, said. ‘I don’t get to see that many women of color at the top of their game…. We’re from all over the country, but we all have the same experience navigating classical music. I felt very inspired by it.’… Of the Q-C Symphony (which includes several Asian-Americans), she noted: ‘I never felt uncomfortable with this group—they’re very welcoming.’ Lizzo … was nominated for eight Grammys and won three. The freelance orchestra, made up of players nationwide, rehearsed with her in L.A. … and had to perform the music from memory.…Weitzel thanked Lizzo on Facebook for ‘bringing a full cast of female musicians of color on stage to show the world that representation matters.’ ”

“St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music director Stéphane Denève is enthusiastic about what’s been planned for his second season,” writes Sarah Bryan Miller in Tuesday’s (2/4) St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “What excites him the most? ‘Everything,’ he said…. For the 141st season, Denève said he was inspired by the SLSO’s own DNA…. It … has a female CEO [Marie-Hélène Bernard] and a woman, Gemma New, as its resident conductor…. The opening weekend program … begins with former SLSO composer-in-residence Joan Tower’s ‘Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman,’ No. 1…. Jessie Montgomery’s ‘Starburst’ gets its first SLSO performance; the program … concludes with ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’ from Wagner’s ‘Die Walküre.’ The season’s artist-in-residence, Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti [will perform] in the SLSO premiere of the Violin Concerto by Wynton Marsalis…. Other highlights include a two-week festival … called ‘History. Her Story. Our Future,’ led by Denève…. The biggest work in the festival is the SLSO premiere of Arthur Honegger’s oratorio ‘Joan of Arc at the Stake,’ directed by James Robinson…. The St. Louis Symphony Chorus will perform in five concerts, concluding with ‘Turandot.’ … The In Unison Chorus [will] perform in … the SLSO premiere of Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3.”

Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra Executive Director Jason Miller “freely admits he wants to ‘trick’ his audiences into coming to an Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra performance. But it’s for all the right reasons,” he says, writes Becca Martin-Brown in Sunday’s (2/2) Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock). “ ‘We want diverse audiences to experience the music in a new, different way,’ he explained.… In the case of two back-to-back concerts Feb. 5, Miller has brought together theater, music and a world-class visuals arts setting for ‘Symphonie Fantastique: Obsession, Murder, and Unrequited Love.’ ” Miller contacted John Walch, head of the M.F.A. program at the University of Arkansas Department of Theater, who adapted it by adding new text, “ ‘co-written by M.F.A. candidates Lauren Ferebee and Brendan Beseth and me,’ says Walch. ‘The basic story,’ according to Walch, ‘is that composer Hector Berlioz wrote this symphony to get a girl, a popular actress in Paris during the 1830s named Harriet Smithson. But the way he pursued her was uncommonly bizarre.’ … All in all, says Miller, he and APO music director Steven Byess ‘are thrilled with this partnership, and we know it will highlight the music in a fun and creative way.’ ”

“The National Symphony Orchestra has canceled three concerts in China, which were to conclude its Japan-China tour next month, over concerns about the coronavirus outbreak,” writes Peggy McGlone in Tuesday’s (2/4) Washington Post. “The shortened trip—the first international tour with music director Gianandrea Noseda—will now feature five concerts in Japan, including a performance in Hiroshima honoring the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. The NSO is the first American orchestra to perform in Hiroshima in 50 years. The cancellation is the result of government warnings about the virus outbreak and major airlines deciding not to fly to China, according to NSO Executive Director Gary Ginstling…. Ginstling said the NSO sees no risk in traveling to Japan for the first, and longest, part of the tour. ‘We have five concerts in Japan,’ he said. ‘We’ll be there for eight or nine days. Based on the information we have, we feel confident there’s no increased risk there.’ The NSO tour was expected to end with two concerts in Beijing and one in Shanghai. Instead, it will begin March 6 in Fukui, stop in Sakai and Hiroshima and conclude with two concerts in Tokyo on March 10 and 11.”

“John Jesensky, the conductor of ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,’ in concert with the Madison Symphony Orchestra on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, is currently touring Germany with another Harry Potter film, the first in the series,” writes Lindsay Christians in Thursday’s (1/23) Capital Times (Madison, WI). “For six years he’s worked in various roles with CineConcerts, which broadcasts movies like ‘The Godfather,’ ’Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ and ‘Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage’ accompanied by a full, live orchestra. Q: What are you enjoying most about this Harry Potter tour? Jesensky: John Williams’ music was my first foray into the classical world.… If there is one thing I hope I accomplish in all of our performances, it is to inspire a youngster to pick up an instrument, or for an adult to decide they would love to come back and visit the orchestra again. Q: What happens if you and the orchestra get off step with the film? Jesensky: It’s in those moments that I earn my stripes as conductor! Whether it’s a wrong note, technical error or my own arms giv-ing an improper beat, it is my job to quickly course-correct and nonverbally get every musician back on the same page.”

“The Menuhin Competition Richmond 2020 on Wednesday announced the 44 competitors who had been selected from a pool of 321 applicants for the May event,” reads an unsigned Thursday (1/23) Associated Press article. Virginia’s Richmond Symphony is the host orchestra of the elev-en-day competition. “The Menuhin Competition, which is held every two years in a different location, is known as ‘Olympics of the Violin.’ The competitors represent 16 countries of residence across North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and 13 U.S. states, according to a press release from event organizers…. The junior level of the competition [is] for ages 15 and under. The senior level features musicians 21 and under. The event was founded in 1983 by violinist Yehudi Menuhin, one of the great musical talents of the 20th century.” In addition to the Richmond Symphony, competition co-hosts include the University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University, City of Richmond, and Richmond’s radio and TV network VPM. For more information and names of participants, visit https://2020.menuhincompetition.org/competition-2020/participants.

Following yesterday’s helicopter crash near Calabasas, California that killed nine people, including basketball player Kobe Bryant, Charles Solomon and Michael Cooper write in Sunday’s (1/26) New York Times about Bryant and Glen Keane’s 2018 animated short film Dear Basketball, which “illustrated the poem Bryant wrote in 2015 as a farewell to the sport he loved…. In the poem, recognizing that his body can no longer bear the game’s demands, he accepts the inevitably of retirement…. The film, featuring a score by the composer John Williams, won both the Academy Award for best animated short in 2018 and the Annie Award, the animation industry’s most prestigious prize. [Keane and Bryant] bonded through a shared love of Beethoven. Keane … was amazed to learn that in one championship game, ‘Kobe structured his performance and the strategy of the game to the rhythms of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.’ … Bryant had previously reached out to Williams, thinking he could learn a thing or two from another master of the score…. Bryant confessed to an ulterior motive: each night he would lull his daughters to sleep with Williams’s melodies—especially ‘Hedwig’s Theme’ from the ‘Harry Potter’ films—and he wanted to take a picture with the composer to show them.”

“As fans of the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra know, there’s a new music director in town,” writes Geraldine Freedman in Thursday’s (1/23) Daily Gazette (Schenectady, N.Y.). “ ‘So far, so good,’ said Glen Cortese. “His first official concert was Oct. 13…. Besides continuing as artistic director for the Western New York Chamber Orchestra near Buffalo, he’s conducted a wide range of orchestras both nationally and internationally, including the New Jersey, North Carolina and Na-tional Romanian Radio Orchestra; several opera … and ballet orchestras…. Cortese has premiered new works or collaborated with composers such as John Corigliano, George Crumb, Elliott Carter and Lukas Foss, as well as composed his own works—one of which will be performed at SSO’s March 22 concert. As a conductor of student orchestras at the Manhattan School of Music, he also received eight ASCAP New and Adventurous Programming Awards. These credentials impressed SSO’s board as well as the orchestra’s musicians…. ‘It was clear to us that he was the complete package,’ [orchestra President Robert] Bour said…. In June, Cortese was offered the job. ‘I’m en-joying this very much,’ Cortese said. ‘The musicians have been flexible and very accommodating, and work very hard.’ ”