Author: Mike Rush

“The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has announced two new Creative Chairs, with Yorta Yorta [Aboriginal Australian people] soprano and composer Deborah Cheetham to be the orchestra’s First Nations Creative Chair, and music educator and researcher Dr. Anita Collins appointed as the Creative Chair for Learning and Engagement,” writes Angus McPherson in Monday’s (3/8) Limelight Magazine (Australia). “Cheetham … has been working closely with the MSO recently. Her acclaimed oratorio Eumeralla: a war requiem for peace premiered (in its large-scale orchestral form) with the orchestra in 2019…. She was named Composer in Residence in 2020…. Anita Collins—whose role will focus on identifying priority needs within Victoria’s music education sector and working through how MSO can proactively address these needs with content and resource development—is best known to Australian audiences for her role in the ABC documentary Don’t Stop the Music … and has published a new book, The Music Advantage: How Music Helps Your Child Develop, Learn and Thrive…. ‘These two five-year appointments usher in an exciting period in the MSO’s evolution as we continue to promote our learning and engagement programs as well as our relationships with Indigenous artists and communities,’ said MSO Managing Director Sophie Galaise.”

“Nearly a year to the day that violinist virtuoso Zachary DePue was scheduled to make his Carmel Symphony Orchestra debut, he will finally take the stage,” writes Mark Ambrogi in Sunday’s (3/7) Current in Carmel (Carmel, IN). “DePue will be a guest artist when CSO performs … March 13 at the Palladium … in Carmel. A live audience of more than 400 will be permitted, allowing for social distancing among the 1,600 seats. A livestream also will be available. DePue, an Indianapolis resident known for his high-energy performance, is well known to central Indiana audiences, having served 11 seasons as concertmaster with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He also is a founding member of the ISO’s first ensemble-in-residence … Time for Three…. DePue will be the featured soloist on Antonio Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’ in the concert…. Eight dancers from Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre will perform during the ‘Winter’ concerto, the movement of the Vivaldi piece. ‘I saw their choreography and they are enchanting, and they are terrific,’ CSO Artistic Director Janna Hymes Hymes said. ‘We love to collaborate.’ The second part of the concert will include Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 5.”

The Oregon Bach Festival has announced that its 2021 edition will be presented virtually, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement was made by the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance (SOMD), which produces the festival. “We want nothing more than to return to full concert halls and large social gatherings,” said Sabrina Madison-Cannon, dean of the School of Music and Dance. “But, like so many other performing arts organizations of our kind, the health trends and data are telling us to consider alternative ways of serving our community.” The festival’s search for a new artistic director has been extended through the 2022 season; the three candidates for the position were previously announced as Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Eric Jacobsen, and Julian Wachner. Programming details for 2021 will be announced in late March, and the festival will also create digital opportunities this year for donors and patrons to interact with artistic director candidates. In 2022, audiences can expect to see each candidate lead OBF musicians in a Bach choral work and a chamber orchestra concert.

“In the wake of the College’s Feb. 16 announcement that Kresge Physical Sciences Library and Paddock Music Library will permanently close at the end of the academic year, students, faculty and staff have pushed back on the decision, citing impacts on accessibility to collections and the lack of input,” writes Arielle Beak in (2/26) The Dartmouth, student newspaper of Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH). “On Feb. 22, music department chair William Cheng penned an open letter … criticizing the College’s ‘ambush strategy’ of closing Paddock Library before notifying faculty. The letter is included in a document soliciting testimonials from Dartmouth community members … the document is over 120 pages long.… According to the College, the decision stemmed from a structural financial deficit.… According to Dean of Libraries Sue Mehrer … there has been a 35% decrease in the circulation of materials in the library system overall.… High-use material … will be relocated to Baker-Berry Library … and the rest of the libraries’ collections will be stored … off-site … available by request…. Music major Zack Olsen ‘21 … [said] ‘They have these big, complete work editions of all the famous composers, like hundreds of scores that are very big and unwieldy’ [that] are used ‘very frequently’ by students working within the library.”

In November, the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Ethyl Smith’s The Prison was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album category, a recognition that “all comes back to what we did in Johnstown in 2018, when we performed the piece, which had been almost completely ignored for 90 years,” writes Johnstown Symphony Orchestra Music Director James Blachly in Saturday’s (2/27) Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, PA). Before the orchestra’s “concert of works by composers of African descent … Jeff Webb, our Johnstown Symphony Chorus director, and I spoke with [Johnstown NAACP President] Alan Cashaw on the NAACP’s TV show. That conversation led to many more with Cashaw … about the many Black composers who have written music for orchestras, much of which is largely unknown or has not been heard in decades…. I began to work with several colleagues on a database of the music by Black composers for orchestra [led by] Dr. Louise Toppin … called the African Diaspora Music Project … So far, our database … has nearly 1,000 entries…. Cashaw and I are planning some further talks in the community … to help share our ongoing discovery of so much beautiful and important music.”

Caramoor, the music and culture center in Westchester County, NY, “has appointed Edward J. Lewis III as president and CEO,” writes Nicholas Beard in Monday’s (3/1) Musical America (subscription required). “Lewis, a onetime violist in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, has been vice chancellor for advancement at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) for six years, a position from which he is credited with ‘surpassing all annual and campaign fundraising goals.’ He’ll start at Caramoor in May, succeeding interim CEO Nina Curley. Kathy Schuman remains VP and artistic director…. [Lewis] arrives after Caramoor’s successful capital campaign last year raised more than $40 million, quadrupling its endowment and enabling major investments in the 90-acre estate. Prior to UNCSA, Lewis was senior director of development at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he studied chamber music with the Guarneri String Quartet. He holds a BM from Northwestern University and an MM from the University of Michigan. Apart from the Dallas Symphony, he has played with Santa Fe Pro Musica, the Sphinx Symphony, and the Toledo Symphony.”

“Dr. Ronald Crutcher, a classical musician and president of the University of Richmond … is looking back in history to help inform and improve future race relations,” reports Charlayne Hunter-Gault in Thursday’s (2/25) PBS Newshour. Crutcher “has long used his musical talent to create harmony. But harmony is also a key component of his efforts as the president of a university, which, like many institutions, is beset with issues of racism and division. At the University of Richmond, that came to the surface a couple of years ago when a student-driven organization unearthed a number of racist images in past yearbooks. Dr. Crutcher has said he saw the issue as a call to action, one he hoped would help not only his university confront the complexities of racism, but hopefully come up with lessons for all educational institutions and even the larger society. Dr. Crutcher recently published his book ‘I Had No Idea You Were Black: Navigating Race on the Road to Leadership.’ ” The video includes Crutcher playing the cello and speaking about how students self-segregate; his Commission on University History and Identity at the University of Richmond; and his goal of developing cultures of trustworthiness.

“Oberlin Conservatory issued an apology after backlash against a flier for ‘A Celebration of Black Artistry,’ a virtual performance that ended Black History Month,” writes Emily Bamforth in Monday’s (3/1) Cleveland.com. “The flier highlighted the all-white group performing. The conservatory is housed at Oberlin College, a private, liberal-arts school. The apology, posted on Sunday evening hours after the flier was posted on social media, noted that the virtual performance was the last in a month-long series of events for Black History Month. ‘We acknowledge that it was a mistake to post this event out of context, and without pictures of the composers themselves, and we are deeply sorry. We will continue to be reflective and consider our policies moving forward in order to prevent a post of this nature from happening in the future,’ the apology read. The flier has since been deleted. Commenters on the online apology take issue with the statement that the post was ‘out of context,’ instead stating the problem is that an all-white group is performing a recognition of Black composers. The post with the apology links to several statements and initiatives surrounding racial justice [at Oberlin], including a presidential initiative on racial equity and diversity.”

“Aaron Copland’s ‘Appalachian Spring’ premiered at a time of global tumult, [when] World War II was still raging,” writes Peter Tonguette in Friday’s (2/26) Columbus Dispatch (OH). “Now, decades later, the Westerville Symphony has chosen the work for its first performance during a comparable period of uncertainty, as the world navigates the ongoing coronavirus pandemic…. Thirteen masked and socially distanced members of the Westerville Symphony recorded ‘Appalachian Spring’ in late January at the historic Everall Barn on North Cleveland Avenue in Westerville. The video can be viewed for free at westervillesymphony.org…. Music Director Peter Stafford Wilson felt this piece was the perfect note on which to return. ‘I don’t think it was by accident that Copland’s populist period came during some of the darkest days in our nation’s history,’ Wilson said… ‘There’s something enormously calming that came out of this whole period in Copland’s writing.’ … It also had special meaning for the musicians who assembled at the barn late last month… ‘Most of (the musicians) had not been playing with other musicians for almost a year.’ … Wilson said that additional online concerts are being planned for the spring, along with more traditional in-person concerts in the fall.”