In Thursday’s (1/29) Los Angeles Times, Jon Thurber reports, “Irving Bush, a trumpeter with a broad range of musical interests, including jazz and classical, who later in life served as personnel manager for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has died. He was 78. … Bush started his career playing with many top-name big bands, including ones led by Harry James and Nelson Riddle. He also worked in the studio orchestras at 20th Century Fox, MGM, Columbia, Paramount and Warner Bros., and he played on recordings by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing, Sarah Vaughan and Nat King Cole. … But in the early 1960s, Bush branched out into classical music and auditioned for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, joining the orchestra for the 1962-63 season. He recorded with the Columbia Broadcasting Symphony under the baton of Igor Stravinsky and participated in recordings for the Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Giulini, Andre Previn and Michael Tilson Thomas conducting. In 1982, Bush moved from his post as the Philharmonic’s associate principal trumpeter to personnel manager.”
Category: News Briefs
Henderson Sym to premiere new work
In Wednesday’s (1/28) Las Vegas Sun, Becky Bosshart reports, “The Henderson Symphony Orchestra will premiere commissioned work by UNLV professor and composer Virko Baley, who was inspired by desert sunsets and the beauty of the Las Vegas Valley. Baley’s two movements for the Henderson orchestra, ‘Mojave Dusk’ and ‘The Torrents of Springs,’ will highlight the Master Series III concert at 2 p.m. Feb. 8 at the Valley View Recreation Center. Baley, born in 1938 in the former Soviet Union, is a Las Vegas cultural icon, said Molly Murphy, executive director of the Henderson Symphony Orchestra. She called his new pieces ‘a reflection of our city. In this town he has been very important. He turned 70, so we wanted to honor him.’ In addition to his international work, Baley co-directs Nevada Encounters of New Music, a UNLV symposium and festival in early April.” Music by Barber, Ives, and Stravinsky round out the program.
NOLA music post Katrina
In Wednesday’s (1/28) Wall Street Journal, Larry Blumenfeld writes about the January 10 reopening of the Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans. “The opening concert was studded with local-hero performers, from singers Irma Thomas and Marva Wright to trumpeter Kermit Ruffins. Saturday’s ‘Evening of Music and Dance’ showcased the city’s fine resident orchestra [the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra], highlighted with performances by violinist Itzhak Perlman and principal dancers from the New York City and San Francisco ballet companies. … The celebration spilled into the next week: A Tuesday orchestra concert paired pianist-songwriter Allen Toussaint’s iconic hits with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony; a Friday tribute to gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, the theater’s namesake, starred singer Yolanda Adams along with trumpeter Irvin Mayfield’s New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.” But while musicians are coming back to the city, demand hasn’t kept up. “Since Katrina, music bookings are down by nearly half (45%), average wages by nearly one-fifth (18%). Meanwhile, costs of living have risen 11%. … ‘Historically, musicians have been taken for granted here because it’s so common and pervasive,’ said Scott Aiges, a director at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. ‘When we hear a brass band it’s just another day. But these musicians are the working poor, making an average of $21,000 a year.’ The foundation’s efforts include programs promoting musicians to international festival producers and film music supervisors.”
Boyd a candidate for Colorado Sym?
In Thursday’s (1/29) Rocky Mountain News, Marc Shulgold writes, “Life with the Colorado Symphony officially commenced for Douglas Boyd during concerts last weekend. Where it ends? Well, that’s yet to be determined. Boyd’s title of principal guest conductor began this month and continues with concerts this weekend in Boettcher Hall. Though his tenure is slated to carry him through the 2010-11 season, things have gotten interesting with the announced departure of music director Jeffrey Kahane at the end of the 2009-10 season. As a result, CSO interim President Cliff Gardiner acknowledged that Boyd likely has jumped into a new category: music director candidate.” Boyd acknowledges that he’s flattered for being considered, but states that he’s focusing on the job at hand, noting “the best things happen when you’re not looking for them.” “Among those things,” Shulgold writes, “was the invitation to serve as the CSO’s principal guest, succeeding Peter Oundjian.” Boyd is also an artistic partner at the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Photo: courtesy of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra
A new, improved Alice Tully Hall
In a front-page story in Wednesday’s (1/28) New York Times, Daniel J. Wakin reports, “With giddiness and glee, musicians tested the acoustics of the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall on Tuesday, less than a month before it reopens after a $159 million, 22-month upgrade, a major milestone in Lincoln Center’s $1.2 billion remaking. … The musicians, acoustical experts and Lincoln Center officials in attendance all proclaimed the hall much more present, alive and reverberant than the old Tully.” Commenting on the hall’s architecture in the February 2 issue of The New Yorker, Paul Goldberger writes, “Large sections of the surrounding Juilliard building have been renovated, and almost nothing about approaching, entering, and being inside the complex is the way it was. … Almost every change has made this building better—both more alive and more functional.” Goldberg states that the architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro might have been a surprising choice initially, but “they have turned out to be exactly what the place needed. So far, their Lincoln Center work—which will include several additional phases of reconstruction, beyond Alice Tully—shows a rare talent for being assertive without being egotistical.” Other renovation work at Lincoln Center will be completed in stages over the next couple of years.
Rendering: Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Designer chosen for new Brooklyn Phil headquarters
The Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra has unveiled designs for the former Engine Company 204 Firehouse, where the orchestra is planning to move its administrative offices. The design group HOK NY is designing the DeGraw Street Firehouse as a pro bono project for the orchestra; the building will include a music rehearsal room and will also house Create!, a children’s art education and training nonprofit organization. The building’s multipurpose space will be used for performances, meetings, lectures, and other community uses. The new space will be known as The BP Music Center for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and will be the orchestra’s first permanent home in the Borough of Brooklyn. HOK plans to restore the firehouse’s brick exterior to its natural color and will design a modern, all-glass entrance with marquee.
Photo of future BP Music Center for the Brooklyn Philharmonic courtesy of the Brooklyn Philharmonic
Music and the brain in Florida
The Cleveland Orchestra’s January/February residency in Miami, Florida, will include a chamber music performance and discussion on February 2 of Music and the Brain with Welser-Möst and Ali R. Rezai, M.D., director of Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Neurological Restoration. Discussion topics will include the way in which music and the brain interact, the impact of music on health, and a sociological perspective of the role of the arts in neuroscience. The program is part of a recently launched collaboration between the orchestra and the Cleveland Clinic. (A similar symposium took place last August at Austria’s Salzburg Festival, when the orchestra was on tour.) During the residency, from January 27 to February 2, members of the orchestra also will participate in an exploration of the music and politics of Stalin’s Russia, in connection with performances of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 (“Leningrad”).
Photo of Dr. Ali Rezai by Wolfgang Lienbacher
Osvaldo Golijov to compose work honoring Henry Fogel
A consortium of American and Canadian orchestras will commission composer Osvaldo Golijov to write a new orchestral work honoring Henry Fogel, president of the League of American Orchestras from 2003 to 2008. The Memphis Symphony Orchestra will premiere the work, expected to be 15 to 20 minutes in length, in the fall of 2010. Executive leadership from the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Duluth Symphony, Glens Falls Symphony, Paducah Symphony, Reno Chamber Orchestra, and Vermont Symphony—the steering committee for the project—are inviting additional orchestras of any budget size to perform the work throughout the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 concert seasons. “I can’t think of a better way to honor Henry’s commitment and contribution to the vitality of American orchestras than with this commission,” said Jesse Rosen, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras. “I congratulate the consortium on commissioning Osvaldo Golijov, one of the most original voices of our time.” Golijov is the recipient of numerous honors, including a MacArthur Genius Award, the Vilcek Prize, two Grammy nominations for his opera Ainadamar, recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Musical America’s Composer of the Year Award. For more information on how to join the consortium of orchestras performing the work, visit earshotnetwork.org/fogel.html or contact Ryan Fleur at ryan.fleur@memphissymphony.org.
Photo of Osvaldo Golijov by Tanit Sakakini
Kurt Masur’s Mendelssohn concerts
Kurt Masur, considered to be one of today’s foremost interpreters of the music of Felix Mendelssohn, has been in the U.S. celebrating the composer’s 200th birthday (February 3, 2009) with two orchestras: the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. The BSO’s all-Mendelssohn concerts, which took place at Symphony Hall from January 22 to 27, featured the Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave) Overture and Symphony Nos. 3 (“Scottish”) and 4 (“Italian”). For the Philharmonic’s concerts from February 4 to 7, Masur will conduct performances of the Overture to Ruy Blas; the Violin Concerto, featuring Anne-Sophie Mutter; and the secular cantata Die erste Walpurgisnacht, with mezzo-soprano Christine Knorren, tenor Jorma Silvasti, bass-baritone Albert Dohmen, bass Thorsten Grümbel, and the Westminster Symphonic Choir. Masur also will participate in a discussion on February 2 with Mendelssohn specialist R. Larry Todd and the Philharmonic’s scholar in residence, James M. Keller.
Juilliard’s new-music festival focuses on California
The Juilliard School in New York is nearing the end of its 2009 FOCUS! Festival, “California: A Century of New Music,” which surveys the California scene and is designed to show how ideas from the West Coast have traveled throughout contemporary music. Five concerts and an opera will showcase the work of composers John Adams, John Cage, Henry Cowell, Robert Erickson, Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Roger Reynolds, and Morton Subotnick, as well as young composers Pamela Z, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Mason Bates. There will be the world premiere of a string quartet by John Adams, performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and Adams’s 1990 opera The Death of Klinghoffer will be performed in concert on January 31, led by the composer. All performances are free (tickets required) and take place at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, at the Juilliard School. The festival, conducted by founder Joel Sachs, is in its 25th year.
Photo of John Adams by Margaretta Mitchell