Choral - my/maSCENA

Local Students Recognized In International Young Composers’ Competition

By Newswire on 8 May 2017 Choral, Newswire

The Vancouver Chamber Choir and Artistic Director Jon Washburn have drawn their 46th concert season to a close with the performance of YOUTH AND MUSIC 2017 and winner announcements of the 13th Biennial Young Composers’ Competition. The Vancouver Chamber Choir gives outstanding support to the growth and development of talented young composers. This year’s competition finalists were selected from 64 pieces submitted worldwide. The judges were conductor/composer Kathleen Allan, conductor George Roberts and Vancouver Chamber Choir Conductor and Artistic Director Jon Washburn. Each finalist’s piece was performed by the Vancouver Chamber Choir prior to winner announcements. Elementary (Ages 8-12) 1st…

Lebrecht Weekly – Karol Szymanowski; Stabat Mater, 3rd Symphony (Warner)

By Norman Lebrecht on 13 April 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral

Never a big Easter bunny, I generally receive the springtime festival releases with the same excitement as I’d feel about a Placido Domingo Christmas record. What comes round, comes round. This one, however, is pure class. The international Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak opens with a Litany to the Virgin Mary that is slow, devout, soulful and twenty shades lighter than one might expect from a Polish Catholic ritual. Kurzak has never sounded sweeter or more comfortable on record. The little-known Litany is followed by the more familiar Stabat Mater and capped with Szymanowski’s third symphony, the ‘Song of the Night’…

Canadian Baritone Philip Kalmanovitch Makes Finals of 20th Annual Lotte Lenya Competition

By Newswire on 5 April 2017 Art Song, Arts Industry, Choral, Education, Opera, Vocal

The Kurt Weill Foundation is pleased to announce the fourteen young singer/actors named as finalists for the 20th annual Lotte Lenya Competition: Curtis Bannister (31, Green Bay, WI) Gan-ya Ben-gur Akselrod (29, Tel Aviv, ISR) Felipe Bombonato (28, Gainesville, FL) Molly Dunn (28, South Orange, NJ) Jasmine Habersham (27, Macon, GA) Michael Hewitt (26, Denver, CO) Philip Kalmanovitch (32, Ottawa, ON) Marie Oppert (19, Paris, FR) Tony Potts (24, Fargo, ND) Taylor Raven (25, Fayetteville, NC) Katherine Riddle (25, Annapolis, MD) Lisa Rogali (22, Bergenfield, NJ) Bradley Smoak (32, Cary, NC) Paulina Villareal (27, Torreón, MX) The contestants represent a…

CMIM Voice 2018 Applications Are Open

By Newswire on 5 April 2017 Art Song, Arts Industry, Choral, Newswire, Opera, Vocal

Montreal, April 4, 2017 – Applications for the next Voice edition of the CMIM (Concours musical international de Montréal) taking place May 27 to June 7, 2018 are now open. Singers around the world born on January 1, 1983 or later are invited to apply by December 15, 2017. The online application form, as well the rules and conditions for participation and the required repertoire are all available on CMIM’s official website at concoursmontreal.ca/voice. Transportation and accommodations are offered to the candidates who are selected, in accordance with the terms of the Competition. Starting in 2018, the vocal competition features…

Philippe Bourque

Philippe Bourque’s Mendelssohn Elijah

By Xenia Hanusiak on 1 April 2017 Choral, Romantic

In 1846, when Felix Mendelssohn conducted the commissioned premiere of his oratorio Elijah for the Birmingham Festival he presided over an orchestra of one hundred and twenty five musicians, ten soloists, and a chorus of four hundred singers. Mendelssohn was in his mid thirties. Fast-forward one hundred and seventy years, and another conductor in his mid- thirties will direct one of the most popular oratorios of the choral repertoire. On March 9, for the 45th anniversary of the St. Lawrence Choir, its Artistic Director Philippe Bourque will debut his first Elijah. “This work is intensely personal for me,” says Bourque.…

Artistic director Ted Sperling conducts the audience, Photo: Erin Baiano

With This St. John Passion, MasterVoices Announces There’s a New Evangelist in Town

By Charles Geyer on 17 February 2017 Baroque and Early, Choral, Concert Reviews

PERFORMANCE REVIEW AND TEXT ANALYSIS: MasterVoices’ new English-language version of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion, translated by Michael Slattery (at Carnegie Hall, February 9, 2017, 7 p.m.). New York City had sustained a twelve-hours’ accumulation of snow. By 7 p.m. on February 9, post-storm sub-freezing temperatures had turned midtown Manhattan’s grid into a treacherous terrain of jagged curbside alpine ranges bounding streets and sidewalks alike of glassy ice. Traffic and transit were hobbled, commerce and commuting statistically decimated. Thus it might seem sheer masochism, or penance, to hazard the elements and venture forth for something so non-essential as choral music.…

Svend Asmussen, Famous Jazz Player, Died yesterday

By Olivier Gentil on 8 February 2017 Canadian Music, Choral, Classical, Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Quebec Music, Violin

CANADA The Amadeus Choral from Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean will celebrate its 75th anniversary on February 12 with a special mass. [Plus d’infos] Classical’s nomination for the JUNO Awards. A special article of The Scena Musica on it ! [JUNO Awards – And the 46th JUNO Award Nominees are…] Program announced for the 21C Music Festival in May 24-28 2017. [Newswire in My Scena] INTERNATIONAL The famous violinist Svend Asmussen died yesterday, a few days before his 101th birthday. He was well-know for his performances with many stars of jazz like with Stéphane Grappelli, Josephine Baker and Duke Ellington. LaPresse : [Plus d’Infos] LeDevoir: [Plus d’Infos] LeFigaro: [Plus…

Ted Sperling, Photo: Laura Marie Duncan

Maestro Ted Sperling’s Polite Passions – from Broadway to Bach

By Charles Geyer on 7 February 2017 Baroque and Early, Choral, Interviews, Musical Theatre

PROFILE: Interview with Ted Sperling, artistic director of MasterVoices (formerly the Collegiate Chorale); PREVIEW: MasterVoices’ new presentation of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion – Carnegie Hall, February 9, 2017. He’s soft-spoken, genial, elegantly self-possessed. It’s difficult to imagine him indulging in tirades, or hurling withering invective. He’s a nice guy. He’s also brilliant, prodigiously talented, professionally indefatigable, and apparently liked by everyone. Ted Sperling is, in short, a bit of a blessed paradox: probably the most mannerly guest at any dinner party, he is also one of today’s most accomplished, versatile – and, yes, passionate – practitioners of a craft…

Daniel Taylor: The Tree of Life (Sony)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 February 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Choral

The Tree of Life Daniel Taylor & The Trinity Choir Sony 2016. 88985387032. 55 min. Its conspicuous release before Christmas is no accident: like the 2015 release of Four Thousand Winter, The Tree of Life is a selection of a capella Christmas pieces. Unlike the previous album, The Tree of Life is curated to lead the listener on a journey where stillness and silence are equal players to the music of Mouton, Tavener, Britten, Elizabeth Poston, Robert Parsons, and Pärt. On this disc, leading Canadian countertenor Daniel Taylor is joined by soloists Jeremy Budd (treble), David Clegg (alto), Nicholas Pritchard…

Lebrecht Weekly – Schoenberg and Shostakovich (CSO.Resound)

By Norman Lebrecht on 4 November 2016 Choral, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly

Two composers in despair, reaching deep into their souls. Arnold Schoenberg, a penniless refugee in Los Angeles in 1938, was commissioned by a liberal temple to make a modern version of the Yom Kippur introductory prayer. Dmitri Shostakovich, dying of lung cancer in 1974, wrote a song cycle for bass singer and piano from Michelangelo’s battle between public expectation and personal need. Together, the two works contains some of the darkest moments known to music. Schoenberg, unexpectedly, delivers confidence, hope and consolation. Without yielding to the temptations of simple faith or melody, he conjures serenity out of musical austerity by…

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