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NYFOS Next: Christopher Cerrone & Friends

By Xenia Hanusiak on 21 December 2016 Art Song, Concert Reviews

In the same week that the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) presented a contemporary art song program entitled “Christopher Cerrone & Friends” at National Sawdust (viewed December 8, 2016), Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize. The legitimacy of granting the prize to a singer-songwriter received the public auditing the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences anticipated, but also produced an opportune moment to shine a spotlight on the art of song. As part of his acceptance speech, Bob Dylan stated, “Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, ‘Are my songs literature?’” Dylan’s response politely rebuked…

Photo: Robert Altman

Brooklyn, Beer, Bleachers…and Macbeth!

By Charles Geyer on 21 December 2016 Opera, Romantic

REVIEW AND COMPANY PROFILE: LoftOpera’s unique, found-site production of Verdi’s Macbeth (viewed December 14, 2016) The production has run its course, the drums are silent. But a rising subterranean tattoo of enthusiasm for the vibrant LoftOpera brand of alt-opera experience goes on, and it’s well worth logging a memoir of the company’s most recent happening. A Drum, a Drum! Macbeth Doth Come! Fate has calendared a rendezvous for you in the wilds of Brooklyn. You trek through hell and high water – not to mention some of the borough’s more recherché endroits – to get there. Witches gambol and do…

This Week in Montreal (December 12-18)

By Nicole Yeba on 12 December 2016 Art Song, Classical, This Week in Montreal

OM – IN TCHAIKOVSKI’S COMPANY A true musical symbol of Christmas evening, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker rejoices music lovers young and old each year. The Orchestre Métropolitain, under Julian Kuerti, will also perform his Symphony No. 2 “Little Russia,” Glière’s Harp Concerto (with OM artist-in-residence Valérie Milot), and music by Morel. (December 13 to 17 at 7:30 PM in 5 boroughs; 1 Maison symphonique, Sunday December 18, 3:00 PM). www.orchestremetropolitain.com SMAM – CHRISTMAS WITH CHARPENTIER Le Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, in collaboration with Clavecin en concert, under Andrew McAnerney and Luc Beauséjour, will perform five of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s sacred…

Eric Owens as Jaufré Rudel in Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin. Photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

So Far! So Good! L’Amour de loin Comes to the Met

By Charles Geyer on 9 December 2016 Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Opera

OPERA REVIEW: L’Amour de loin by Kaija Saariaho and Amin Maalouf – Metropolitan Opera debut (December 1, 2016) Meditative, poised, sly, and slow-burn, L’Amour de loin oh so gradually grows to dramatic ripeness. Its music glimmers, undulates, bewitches – as fluid in its variety and moods as the play of sun and moonlight on the Mediterranean. But the opera hangs full fire until, ultimately, it knocks you back with its hidden emotional and existential wallop. This elegant and profound French-language work by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, with libretto by Lebanese novelist Amin Maalouf, has been accruing international kudos through more…

Sheku Kanneh-Masson et violoncelle Amati de 1610

Daily News Roundup: 8 December 2016

By Nicole Yeba on 8 December 2016 Daily News Roundup, Opera, Orchestral, Popular Music, Strings, Violin

Greg Lake, bassist, guitarist and singer of British progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer lost his fight to cancer yesterday at the age of 69. The keyboardist Keith Emerson took his own life in March 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89g1P_J40JA Sheku Kanneh-Mason was presented with the 1610 Amati cello he played at BBC Young Musician of the Year. The instrument is a permanent loan from Florian Leonhard workshop in London. Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky announced today he was withdrawing from all coming opera engagements. The 54-year-old singer who was diagnosed with brain tumor in 2015 will continue giving concerts and recitals,…

Anthony Bramall - Photo: Andreas Pohlmann

Daily News Roundup: 7 December 2016

By Nicole Yeba on 7 December 2016 Daily News Roundup, Opera, Scena Jazz, Violin

Jazz pianist Joey Alexander is nominated for a Grammy in the jazz solo category. The 13-year-old Indonesian was nominated last year in two jazz categories but left empty-handed. Find out who the other nominees are here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1liUart72g Anthony Bramall has been named principal chief conductor of Munich’s State Theater on Gärtnerplatz. The British conductor, 59, will start in summer 2017. The Northern Ireland Opera has appointed Walter Sutcliffe as its new artistic director. The 30-year-old British will be starting in February 2017. Violinist and concertmaster Jerrold Rubenstein passed away yesterday in Brussels. The New Yorker taught at the Antwerp…

Daily News Roundup: 6 December 2016

By Nicole Yeba on 6 December 2016 Daily News Roundup, Opera, Vocal

The song competition of the Concours international de musique de Genève, which ended December 2, didn’t hand out a First Prize. Four prizes were handed to German tenor David Fischer: Second Prize, Public Prize, Students Prize and Yvonne Sigg Prize. The Swiss Marina Viotti and Korean Seung-Jick Kim shared the Third Prize ex aequo. Soprano Elisabeth Carron died last Thursday at the age of 94. She sang as Mimi from La Bohème at the MET and as the main role of Madama Butterly at City Opera among many leading roles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m8n28ypNo8 Soprano Gigliola Frazzoni died between Saturday and…

Tamara Mumford as the Pilgrim, Eric Owens as Jaufré Rudel and Susanna Phillips as Clémence in Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin. Photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Met Premiere: L’Amour de Loin by Kaija Saariaho and Amin Maalouf

By Xenia Hanusiak on 6 December 2016 Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Opera

The Metropolitan Opera’s production of L’Amour de Loin, by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, shines on the most trailblazing composer of the 21st century. It has been a limelight month for Saariaho in New York. Ensembles from the New York Philharmonic to educational institutions such as the Mannes School of Music have given Saariaho’s music a highlight in their programming calendar. These dedicated performances together with the house premiere of L’Amour de Loin at The Metropolitan Opera have not only addressed Saariaho’s stellar status but have inserted a post script on the position of female artists in opera. While Saariaho frequently…

This Week in Montreal (December 5-11)

By Nicole Yeba on 5 December 2016 Orchestral, This Week in Montreal, Vocal

Christmas at Bourgie Hall With its colorful stained glass and its warm atmosphere, Bourgie hall is a choice venue for Christmas celebrations. Les Idées heureuses, under Geneviève Soly, transports us to 17th-century Ville-Marie, during Advent and Christmas period. Church music, Gregorian chant, organ, Christmas hymns and motets are on the program. In collaboration with the Scholastica women’s vocal ensemble, under Rebecca Bain. (Bourgie Hall, Thursday December 8, 11 AM). A popular Montréal tradition, the Sing Along at Bourgie Hall and Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul marks its 37th edition. Produced by CBC Montréal, in collaboration with the Church of St. Andrew…

La musique aux enfants room Photo: Raphaël Thibodeau

La musique aux enfants

By Nicole Yeba on 1 December 2016 Education, Piano, Violin, Vocal

Yesterday, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) and other partners launched La musique aux enfants, a prekindergarten and kindergarten music project at École St-Rémi-Annexe of the Commission scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’Île (CSPI) in the borough of Montréal-Nord. The project imagined by Maestro Kent Nagano, and developed by the OSM in collaboration with the Université de Montréal and the CSPI, is to introduce preschool children to music as a means to support their overall development. All the students of École St-Rémi-Annexe will receive a minimum of one lesson in rhythm and choral singing per week. They will also be able to participate in cultural activities putting…

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