Category: Classical | my/maSCENA

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A look back on the outstanding 42nd edition of the Festival de Lanaudière

By Newswire on 6 August 2019 Classical

A year of renewal and discoveries under a new artistic direction Joliette, August 5, 2019 – The 42nd season of the Festival de Lanaudière has just come to a close with a breathtaking weekend to crown this memorable edition. “We immediately felt the public’s confidence in this first season entrusted to Renaud Loranger. This paves the way for a bright future,” points out François Bédard, the event’s executive director. The Festival has rekindled its founder’s original vision: to share classical music with a large public and to shine a spotlight on talent from around the world. Powerful pieces, stunning performances, wonderful discoveries,…

Cellist Matthew Christakos Wins 2019 Michael Measures Prize

By Newswire on 17 July 2019 Canadian Music, Classical

Today, the Canada Council for the Arts announced the winners of the 2019 Michael Measures Prize, which recognizes promising young Canadian classical music performers enrolled in the summer training program of the prestigious NYO Canada (National Youth Orchestra Canada). This year’s Michael Measures first prize of $25,000 goes to cellist Matthew Christakos. Matthew attends the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists of the Royal Conservatory of Music, in Toronto, and will begin a bachelor’s degree in music at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Peter Wiley and Carter Brey in September 2019. The Michael Measures…

WHITNEY ROBINSON, ALEX SOARE and KEELY FUTTERER as The Marquise, Sulpice and Marie; photo: Gary David Gold

Opera Saratoga 2019 – Tales of Girls Interrupted

By Charles Geyer on 7 July 2019 Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Contemporary, Musical Theatre, Opera, Orchestral, Romantic, Theatre, Vocal

REVIEW: of Ellen West (the world premiere of a new work by Ricky Ian Gordon and Frank Bidart); and La fille du régiment (a new production of Donizetti’s 1840 comic opera). Opera Saratoga inaugurated its summer 2019 mainstage series on June 29 and 30 – the same weekend as the highly-touted “WorldPride 50” celebration. The latter event, of course, originated as homage to the purported founding moment of the modern gay rights movement; but it has by now pullulated far beyond its initial meaning, becoming a portmanteau affirmation of self-identities of all stripes. It is interesting, then, that – whether…

Photo: Rachel Dawson

Conductor Brian Law: A Musical Adventurer Returns

By Charles Geyer on 31 May 2019 Classical, Vocal

Author : (Charles Geyer )

“He did remarkable things,” says Julian Armour of Ottawa’s pioneering choral music conductor Brian Law. “He probably made a greater contribution to music in this city than anyone else in its history.” That’s no idle assessment, coming as it does from the founder of the original Ottawa Chamber Music Society and the Music and Beyond festival, and himself one of the capital’s most influential classical-music shapers. But Armour’s esteem for Law is well-founded. On a personal level, Law is responsible for one of Armour’s most important early professional opportunities, having offered Armour a place in the renowned Thirteen Strings chamber…

Photo : Pure Perception

International celebrities and a star-studded opening to the Festival de Lanaudière

By Newswire on 7 May 2019 Chamber Music, Classical, Newswire, Orchestral

Complete artistic programming for the 2019 edition unveiled Sublime voices and star pianists Berlioz tribute Many premieres Joliette, May 7, 2019 –Festival de Lanaudière’s Artistic Director Renaud Loranger today unveiled the complete artistic programming of the Festival de Lanaudière’s 42nd season. This year, the Festival features many artists making their debuts either at Lanaudière, in Quebec, or for some, in Canada. From July 5 to August 4, music lovers are invited to take advantage of the Festival’s top venues: the enchanting Amphithéâtre Fernand-Lindsay and several local churches. In the words of Mr. Loranger: “From Europe and America, a roster…

AUSTIN, TX - MAY 2, 2019 - Puccini's La Bohème.

Austin Opera Breathes New Life into La Bohème

By Paul E. Robinson on 6 May 2019 Classical, Classical Music, Opera, Vocal, World Music

PUCCINI: La Bohème Elizabeth Caballero, sop. (Mimì) Kang Wang, ten. (Rofolfo) Noel Bouley, bar. (Marcello) Ashraf Sewailam, bass (Colline) Andrew Lovato, bar. (Schaunard) Susannah Biller, sop. (Musetta) Alison Moritz, stage director Michael Yeargan, scenic designer Walter Mahoney, costume designer Austin Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Peter Bay, conductor Long Center for the Performing Arts Austin, Texas May 2, 2019 Whenever lists are compiled of the most popular operas, La Bohème is invariably in the top two or three, with good reason. After more than a century, the beauty of its music and the appeal of its characters continue to win audiences. In…

Photo: Clive Barda

David Matthews: 9th symphony (Nimbus Alliance)

By Norman Lebrecht on 3 May 2019 CD and Book Reviews, Classical, Lebrecht Weekly

You may recognise the composer’s name as one of two brothers who assisted Deryck Cooke and Berthold Goldschmidt in creating the first performing edition of Mahler’s tenth symphony. Now 76, David Matthews has come a long way from those early Gustavian speculations. Where his brother Colin drew close to Benjamin Britten, David veered to the wilder fantasies of Michael Tippett while staying close to English roots and traditions. His ninth symphony, receiving its world premiere on this release, is a kind of summation. Starting with a self-composed carol and extending to a Bach chorale, it represents the best of British…

Soloist Augustin Hadelich

Nielsen Fifth Symphony Première in Dallas

By Paul E. Robinson on 25 April 2019 Classical, Classical Music, Orchestral, Strings, Violin

Haydn: Symphony No. 94 in G major “Surprise” Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor Op. 47 Nielsen: Symphony No. 5 Op. 50 Augustin Hadelich, violin Dallas Symphony/John Storgårds Meyerson Symphony Center Dallas, Texas April 7, 2019 It is one of the ongoing mysteries of classical music that the tiny country of Finland – population 5.5 million – manages to turn out more conductors with international careers than any other country in the world. While Esa-Pekka Salonen may be the best-known, the list of outstanding maestros past and present includes Paavo Berlund, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Sakari Oramo, Hannu Lintu, Susanna Mälkki, Santtu-Matias…

Baritone Tyler Duncan in "Leonardo" by Jonathan Berger

Da Vinci Our Contemporary – The Legendary Renaissance Polymath Arrives Center Stage in Composer Jonathan Berger’s New Monodrama

By Charles Geyer on 5 April 2019 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Contemporary, Education, La Scena Online, Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre, Visual Arts

PREVIEW: of the world premiere of Leonardo, a new operatic monodrama about Leonardo da Vinci by composer Jonathan Berger at NYC’s 92nd Street Y; and INTERVIEW: with composer/librettist Jonathan Berger. “Che cos’è uno starnuto?” Leonardo da Vinci asks himself – and his audience – at the top of composer Jonathan Berger’s new one-man opera, Leonardo. “What is a sneeze?” It may seem a disarmingly piddling question from one of history’s most titanic intellectual figures – but that is precisely composer Jonathan Berger’s point. “Leonardo’s greatest asset was his unabashed asking of simple questions,” Berger says, “and through those questions arriving…

Miró Quartet – Accent on the Positive

By Arthur Kaptainis on 28 November 2018 Chamber Music, Classical

Special symbols on the keyboard, sometimes it’s a little tough,” cellist Joshua Gindele said about the distinctive accent that adorns the name of the Miró Quartet. “But I haven’t seen one missing for a long time.” Yes, software is better than it was in 1995, when four students at the Oberlin Conservatory in Cleveland rallied around the surname of the Catalan artist Joan Miró to form an ensemble that took first prizes at the 1998 Banff International String Quartet Competition and the 2000 Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. Now in robust mid-career, the foursome of 40-somethings will appear in Pollack Hall…