Zuill Bailey releases Bach Cello Suites on Telarc

February 2010. Cellist ZUILL BAILEY began the month with a bang -- the release of his second album for Telarc: The Complete Bach Suites.

The release was celebrated with a coast-to-coast tour, including full-house shows at Yoshi's in San Francisco and New York City's Le Poisson Rouge. It's now on its third week on Billboard Classical chart, debuting at #2 and holding strong in the top three albums.

"From the first notes, this disc commands attention above most others currently available and might be headed for classic status thanks to the combination of vision, temperament, and technique that comes together to great effect." - THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, Feb. 14, 2010

In March Zuill joins the Orquesta Sinfonica Nationial (Mexico D.F.), then the Israel Philharmonic for performances led by Itzhak Perlman with the Perlman/Schmidt/Bailey Trio, and then heads on to Spain for the Deià International Music Festival. Other upcoming highlights include a Kennedy Center (Washington Performing Arts Society) recital with pianist Orion Weiss.

Read More about Zuill Bailey

Introducing pianist Dudana Mazmanishvili

February 2010. We're very pleased to announce that pianist DUDANA MAZMANISHVILI has joined the Colbert roster.

Originally from Tbilisi, Georgia, Ms. Mazmanishvili studied at the Munich Hochschule and in New York City at the Mannes School of Music (and yes she's got her oh-so-valuable greencard!) and is now based in Berlin. She brings poetic lyricism and fierce strength to the piano repertoire -- from the first time we heard her, we recognized her exceptional artistry, and subsequent hearings only confirmed and strengthed our wish to help others to come to know her artistry too.

And so it's no surprise to us that this month Dudana won first prize at the International Fryderyk Chopin Society's annual competition (Corpus Christi, Texas). A recent Musical America Rising Star, we believe her star is very bright indeed. Click here for video of her performing an excerpt from the Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D Minor.

Read More about Dudana Mazmanishvili

Ursula Oppens at Van Cliburn Foundation, Harvard and beyond

February 2010. 2010 has been busy for URSULA OPPENS; she began the year with a Grammy nomination for her disc of Elliott Carter's complete (so far) solo piano music. Although she didn't take the statue home, she did attend the ceremony and enjoyed the glamor and excitement of the live performances (Pink was a personal favorite!)

This month heard her in recital for the Van Cliburn Foundation, playing a program of American works, including pieces by Bolcom, Carter, Corigliano, Picker and Julius Hemphill: “One of the foremost interpreters of contemporary classical music...Throughout, Oppens played with authority and panache." - THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, Feb. 22, 2010

In March she plays recitals for Music Toronto, Baylor University and in Amsterdam, and visits Harvard University as the Blodgett Distinguished Artist, coaching and lecturing.

Read More about Ursula Oppens

Tafelmusik takes Galileo on the road

February 2010. Baroque orchestra TAFELMUSIK returned to the US this winter with their extraordinary Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres.

Featuring works by Monteverdi, Purcell, Lully, J.S. Bach and others (and performed from memory), and including a narrator and images from NASA's Hubble Telescope, the performances drew in audiences and critics alike: “The most imaginative, engaging, and spontaneous-sounding early music program I can remember attending. "- at La Jolla Music Society, SANDIEGO.com, Feb. 5, 2010

“The program was one of the best I’ve seen in years — a celebration of reason and imagination, whether in art, science or the world of ideas."- at Friends of Chamber Music, THE KANSAS CITY STAR, Jan. 31, 2010

This month Tafelmusik performs a new program "Bach in Leipzig" in hometown Toronto. They tour in May with regular collaborator, conductor Bruno Weill, performing throughout Belgium, The Netherlands and Spain.

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Till Fellner tours Beethoven sonatas, concertos

February 2010. Winter storms couldn't stop pianist TILL FELLNER as he crossed the midpoint of his Beethoven sonatas cycle this month; he played concerts in New York, Montreal, Baltimore and had only one snow-cancellation in inundated Washington, D.C. They'll have a chance to hear him next month when he returns to continue the cycle.

"At first I thought I was not going to like Mr. Fellner's "Waldstein." Rather than emphasizing the rhythmic drive of the repeated chord theme of the first movement, he took a restrained tempo and allowed the music to emerge in an eerie, slightly murky rumble of harmony. But I soon came round to his concept, which maximized the architectonic structure of the entire sonata. The second movement came through as an almost-improvisatory interlude that set up the finale, which Mr. Fellner played with magisterial restraint and myriad colorings. And when the prestissimo coda of the finale arrived, for once it seemed a wild and crazy final outburst." - Anthony Tommasini, THE NEW YORK TIMES, Feb. 14, 2010

This month also heard him playing Beethoven Cto. 1 with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony, with whom Fellner recorded the new ECM release: Beethoven Piano Ctos. 4 and 5, just out this week.

"Words are inadequate to describe the sheer joy I experienced at listening to this disc. I’d long ago abandoned hope of ever hearing Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto played as I’ve heard it in my head, and as it is played here." - Jerry Dubins, FANFARE, March/April 2010

Click here to read an interview with Arthur Kaptainis and the Montreal Gazette in which Till shares some thoughts on Beethoven.

Read More about Till Fellner

San Francisco Classical Voice talks with Paul Jacobs

January 2010. In this interview, Paul Jacobs talks about his solo work with the San Francisco Symphony and discusses the repertoire featured on his Jan. 17, 2010 recital in Davies Symphony Hall. Click here to read the full article.

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2009 GRAMMY Nomination for "Best Soloist Instrumental Performance (without orchestra"

January 2010. Congratulations on the GRAMMY nomination for her album of Elliott Carter's complete piano music, Oppens plays Carter.

In a very personal project, Ursula Oppens recorded Elliott Carter's complete piano works (so far!) to celebrate his 100th birthday last year. She performed the program live throughout 2008, honoring her friend and colleague, Mr. Carter. "This is not easy fare, but Oppens embraces it almost rapturously. Among her many gifts is the sense of unity she confers on this disparate collection, shunning chronological order in favour of a sequence that both makes dramatic sense and leads the willing pilgrim into the eye of a hurricane. Her reading of Carter’s pointillistic tribute to Goffredo Petrassi on his 90th birthday prepares us for Retrouvailles (a birthday gift for Pierre Boulez), and for the deceptive simplicity of Two Diversions. Thence to the craggy peaks of Night Fantasies, which the pianist scales with an intuitive feeling for destination and a formidable technique that allows no expressive possibility to elude her." - The Financial Times, Dec. 10, 2008 on Oppens' live performance of the program at San Francisco Performances

Click here for listening samples of the disc.

Read More about Ursula Oppens

2009 GRAMMY Nomination for "Best Chamber Music Performance"

January 2010.

Several years ago, trailblazing harpist and mother Yolanda Kondonassis found herself yearning to do something tangible to help secure a safe future for her daughter. She gathered her friends, violist Cynthia Phelps and flutist Joshua Smith and the string orchestra, Oberlin 21, led by Bridget-Michaele Reisch, and put together Air (her fourteenth album on Telarc). A portion of the album’s proceeds go to the Environmental Defense Fund.

Air pairs the luminous compositions of Claude Debussy and Toro Takemistu, and it is Takemitsu’s work, And Then I Knew ‘Twas Wind, that received the Grammy nomination. Inspired in part by Emily Dickinson’s “Like rain it sounded till it curved / And then I knew ‘twas wind / It walked as wet as any wave / But swept as dry as sand”, the work focuses on the subject of wind, in the natural world, and in the soul.

Click here for a wonderful American Public Media feature on the album, to hear Yolanda, Cynthia Phelps and Joshua Smith speak with Fred Child and perform selections (including And Then I Knew 'Twas Wind) live in the studio, and visit Yolanda's website, www.yolandaharp.com, to learn more.

Read More about Yolanda Kondonassis

Marino Formenti returns to the LA Phil for West Coast, Left Coast with Dudamel

December 2009. Marino Formenti joined Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the opening concerts of the West Coast, Left Coast Festival (curated by John Adams,) playing Lou Harrison's Piano Concerto:

"Magic arrived when the expansive Asian-Californian fusion opening tune found its sweep. In the high-stomping second movement, which Harrison called a "Stampede," he asked the pianist to bang the keys with a large board in duet with drums. Formenti is a showman and delightfully used palms and forearms instead...the wondrous slow movement took my breath away. Formenti suspended chords in the air like bells in the clouds of lush string sonorities."  - Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 29, 2009

"Formenti offered the requisite dexterity and raw muscle for this wide-ranging work, but was most persuasive in its more intimate moments, whether in Bach-like precision or almost Brahmsian lyricism."  - David Mermelstein, MusicalAmerica.com, Nov. 30, 2009 (subscribers)

Read More about Marino Formenti

Rossetti String Quartet, lyrical and lush

November 2009. Change brings good things to the Rossetti String Quartet, as founding member Henry Gronnier moves to first chair and chamber music veteran Sara Parkins (of the Grammy Award-winning Angeles Quartet) becomes the second violinist, joining the extraordinary Thomas Diener, violist and Eric Gaenslan, cellist.

With its trademark lush lyricism and subtle, colorful palette, the Rossetti offers concerts of all-Russian, all-French and all-Dvorak programs in 2010/11.

Read More about Rossetti String Quartet

Juilliard String Quartet tours Japan, plays Alice Tully Hall

November 2009.

The Juilliard String Quartet heads east this month, playing concerts and offering masterclasses throughout Japan, following a round of critically acclaimed concerts in Houston, San Francisco and Philadelphia:

“Most performers are heard probing the piece from the outside; the Juilliard reading exuded inside understanding, particularly in the pulsating slow movement." -- David Patrick Stearns for THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, October 30, 2009

The JSQ returns to New York for a December 1 concert at Alice Tully Hall, heads to Baltimore for masterclasses at the Peabody Institute of Music and a concert at Shriver Hall Concert Series, and will join a celebration of founding member Robert Mann at the Manhattan School of Music on December 15.
 

Read More about Juilliard String Quartet

Trio Jean Paul releases new Mendelssohn disc

November 2009.

This month Trio Jean Paul’s newest disc, Mendelssohn Piano Trios, Nos. 1 & 2, on Avie Records, is released in the US. The Trio’s "heartfelt yet scrupulous attention to European music's grammar and vocabulary" (NEW YORK TIMES) is put to gorgeous use in this recording, click here for listening excerpts.

Trio Jean Paul tours Bavaria next month, and returns to North America in the spring, playing concerts in Los Angeles, Vancouver, Quebec and Montreal.

2010/11 US touring times include October 7-17.

Read More about Trio Jean Paul

AMARCORD tours European Romanticism

November 2009.

Midway through a US tour, presenters and audiences are cheering about the dynamic a capella group, amarcord’s “wonderfully fun” and “deeply entertaining for everyone” program, “European Romanticism” featuring folks songs and works by Saint-Saëns, Mendelssohn, Janacek, and Elgar.

This season also sees the release of a new recording of German romantic works, “Rastlose Liebe” on Raum Klang. Featuring 8 works in their premiere recordings, including a rediscovered Mendelssohn chorus for male voices, the disc offers a musical view of amarcord's hometown Leipzig. Contact us for your complimentary copy here.

2010/11 US touring times include November 30 – December 7 and April 1 – 17.
 

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FLUX Quartet at Kennedy Center, playing a world premiere in NYC

November 2009.

The FLUX began this month with their annual visit to Wesleyan University, doing educational work and presenting a concert of student compositions. Other fall highlights include performances at the 5th International Festival of Culture in Chihuahua, Mexico (click here for video of FLUX performing with composer Julio Estrada) and at the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage, with composer/musician Sophia Serghi and friends. <br><br>
Next month they perform the world premiere of a new work by punk-innovator David First, commissioned by Meet-the-Composer’s Commissioning Music/USA program, and presented at the downtown new music space Roulette in New York City.<br><br>
And, in a Colbert web highlight, click here to listen to FLUX violist Max Mandel speak about Morton Feldman’s epic String Quartet No. 2.

Read More about FLUX Quartet

On Tour with MASQUES

November 2009. Masques made a welcome return to the US last month, playing a sublime program of Biber and his contemporaries (click here for listening samples from the album) at the equally sublime settings of the Frick Collection in New York City and the National Gallery in Washington D.C., and at the University of Vermont.

In 2010/11 Masques tours the US with a Spanish Baroque program November 3-14, and March 3-14.

Read More about Masques

Marino Formenti returns to LA Phil with Dudamel

November 2009.

Marino Formenti returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Lou Harrison’s Piano Concerto, led by Maestro Gustavo Dudamel -- a re-engagement following Formenti's wildly acclaimed performance of Messiaen's "Des Canyons aux étoiles" with Esa-Pekka Salonen. It’s just another highlight in a wonderful fall season: Formenti was artist-in-residence at the Weimar Festival, performed at the Hitzacker Festival, reunited with Maurizio Pollini to lead the Pollini Perspectives programs in Paris and Milan, and performed his renowned Kurtag’s Ghosts recital program at the Vienna Konzerthaus and at Peak Performances for Montclair State University.

Next month he returns to San Francisco Performances for a recital series Aspects of the Divine. It features Messiaen’s “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus” and a program, Seven Last Words, presenting Haydn’s masterpiece in conjunction with a new work by Bernhard Lang.

Read More about Marino Formenti

Till Fellner crosses midpoint of Beethoven Sonata Cycle

November 2009.

Till Fellner just wrapped up the fourth installment of his Beethoven Sonata Cycle, performing in Boston, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

 “The latest program, of five sonatas from across the first two stylistic periods of Beethoven's career, stood out as the most consistently beautiful, showcasing Fellner's exquisite musical craftsmanship, technically impeccable but never showy or vulgar.”  - Charles T. Downey, IonArts, November 3, 2009

Next week, Fellner plays Beethoven Concerto No.1 with the Vienna Chamber Philharmonic at the Vienna Konzerthaus, and then with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden & Freiburg. In December, he begins the fifth installment of the Beethoven Sonatas, playing in Stuttgart, Salzburg, Rome, Tokyo, and beginning the new year at the Vienna Konzerthaus, at Wigmore Hall in London, and in Paris. Fellner returns to North America in January, playing Beethoven 1 with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony, and touring the Beethoven Sonatas, installment V, in February 2010.

Read More about Till Fellner

Mari Kodama at Spivey Hall, in concert with Montreal Symphony

November 2009.

This season sees the welcome North American return of pianist Mari Kodama. While Europe is her home base for her family and much of her performing, Ms. Kodama is now broadening her schedule, with the current season hearing her on tour with the Ensemble Orchestrale de Paris, curating a chamber series at Bad Kissengen Klangwerkstatt, and running her very personal San Francisco chamber music festival, Forest Hill Musical Days. Last month she played a “fine performance, pearly in tone but somehow assertive” of Mozart K.595 with Bernhard Klee and the Montreal Symphony(Montreal Gazette, Oct. 29, 2009) and then began November with a well-received recital of Bach, Chopin and Beethoven at Spivey Hall in Georgia.

 

She now joins the Japan Philharmonic to tour the Liszt Concerto No. 1, and returns to the Montreal Symphony for a private performance of Mozart K.414 with Kent Nagano later this month. In December Kodama joins the Singapore Symphony for Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4.

Read More about Mari Kodama

Marc-André Hamelin tours Australia, Europe, plays in Mexico and the US

November 2009.

After beginning the fall on tour in Australia, pianist Marc-André Hamelin joined the Montreal Symphony for Liszt Concerto No. 2 in Montreal and at the International Festival de Cervantino in Mexico, where he played a recital as well.

 

Hamelin then headed home to Boston, joining the BSO’s Chamber Players for a performance of Brahms Piano Quartet No. 2 (he joins the orchestra next spring for Shostakovich 1). He played a recital at the Club Musicale de Quebec, and this month tours Europe, playing recitals in Portugal, Milan, Bergamo, Stuttgart, at London’s Wigmore Hall; the Strauss Burlesque with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; and Saint-Saens 4 with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Valencia in Spain.

 

In December Hamelin plays recitals at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, at San Francisco Performances, and for La Jolla Music Society.

Read More about Marc-André Hamelin

ALFRED BRENDEL on first US lecture tour

November 2009.

Pianist ALFRED BRENDEL kicked off a US lecture tour this week, offering his presentation, "On Character in Music", at the Philharmonic Society of Orange County.

 

"By assigning Beethoven's sonatas characters, descriptive phases, moods and other labels, he turns analysis, often so mathematical and structural, into a kind of poetry, available to the everyman. And though based on solid scholarship, he has fun with it, uses his imagination...Hearing Brendel talk about and play them again, even if in small slices, was a reminder of why he was such a great, beloved musician for so many years. He made them vivid for us." Timothy Mangan, The OC REGISTER, October 27, 2009

October 26 • Philharmonic Society of Orange County

October 30 • University of California, Berkeley

November 4 - 6 • New England Conservatory of Music

November 9 • Princeton University

November 11 • Yale University

November 16 • Washington Performing Arts Society (D.C.)

November 18 - 22 • The Juilliard School, co-sponsored by Carnegie Hall

Click here to read The Times Oct. 3, 2009 interview with Mr. Brendel, sharing his thoughts on life after performance, absurdist poetry, humor in music and more.

Read More about Alfred Brendel

October hears bass-baritone JASON GRANT in performances throughout the US

October 2009. October hears bass-baritone Jason Grant in performances throughout the U.S.  He began the month with Louis Langrée and the Houston Symphony, singing Beethoven Symphony No. 9, and then joined JoAnn Falletta and the Virginia Symphony for a critically acclaimed Brahms Requiem: “He shaped every phrase carefully, using clear diction and dramatic presentation to get at deeper meaning. In balance with the orchestra, his softest singing had the effect of fine chamber music while he became more operatic with his full force.” The Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 12, 2009. This week Grant sings the Mozart Requiem with the San Diego Symphony and Jahja Ling, and then reunites with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony for Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol (also featuring Colbert soprano Celena Shafer) for dates in Athens, GA, and at Carnegie Hall.

Read More about Jason Grant

JACQUES LACOMBE named Music Director of New Jersey Symphony

October 2009.

On Oct. 20, 2009, we at Colbert Artists Management headed out to Newark to celebrate the New Jersey Symphony's announcement that conductor JACQUES LACOMBE will be the Orchestra's 13th Music Director, effective September 1, 2010. This press conference marked the beginning of his tenure as Music Director Designate.

Lacombe's first appearance with the NJSO, leading Carmina Burana last season, was an electrifying event: "[Lacombe] is a musician's conductor, the rapport he achieved in rehearsal coming through on stage; blessed with a rare memory, he worked without a score, maximizing his eye contact with the orchestra and chorus, the intimacy aurally apparent." - THE NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER

At yesterday's press conference, Lacombe set out his agenda for the NJSO: "I want to build and strengthen partnerships with arts organizations and educational initiatives throughout New Jersey. I want us to be adventurous and also imaginative in terms of programming. We don't need to be a second-class New York Philharmonic or Philadelphia Orchestra. We need to be a first-class New Jersey Symphony."

* * *

Jacques Lacombe's 2009/10 season opened with acclaimed productions of Tosca at Covent Garden and Ariadne auf Naxos at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He reprises Der fliegende Holländer and Eugene Onegin at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and in addition to multiple concerts with the New Jersey Symphony, leads subscription concerts with the symphonies orchestras of Edmonton and Quebec. He is Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières, and was Principal Guest Conductor of the Montreal Symphony from 2002 to 2006.

* * *

For more information about the appointment, visit the New Jersey Symphony's special website introducing its new Music Director here.

Read More about Jacques Lacombe

Musical America's 2008 Young Artists list

September 2009. In this article from the 2008 Musical America International Directory, Harris Goldsmith writes that Dudana's "superb pianism strikes a rare balance between the characteristic virtuosity and showmanship of the Russian School and the Teutonic intellectual discipline one also expects of a born-to-the-manner classicist." Click here to read the full article.

Read More about Dudana Mazmanishvili

Talking with Marc-André Hamelin, Gramophone

September 2009. In this piece from the September 2009 edition of Gramophone, Marc-André speaks about his passion for collecting scores and discovering uncharted musical territory. Click here to download the PDF.

Read More about Marc-André Hamelin

JASON GRANT sings Mahler with Maazel

June 2009.

After beginning 08/09 at Mostly Mozart, bass-baritone JASON GRANT wraps the season back at Lincoln Center, singing Pater Profundis in Mahler 8 next week, for Lorin Maazel's final concerts as music director of the New York Philharmonic.

 

Next up Mr. Grant joins Carlos Kalmar and the Grant Park Festival Orchestra for Beethoven 9. Highlights of Fall 2009 include the Brahms Requiem with Joann Falletta and the Virginia Symphony, Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony (in Atlanta, Athens, GA and on the road at Carnegie Hall) and the Mozart Requiem with the San Diego Symphony.

Read More about Jason Grant

JACQUES LACOMBE leads Tosca at Covent Garden

June 2009.

Next month Maestro JACQUES LACOMBE begins 09/10 leading Tosca at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Deborah Voight, Marcello Giordani and Bryn Terfel. He follows Tosca with returns to Minnesota Opera for Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, with Isabel Bayrakdarian, and to Opera de Monte Carlo for Turandot.

Highlights of 08/09 included an acclaimed Carmina Burana with the New Jersey Symphony, led with "dynamic subtlety and zest"; concerts with the Montreal Symphony and violinist Joshua Bell; dates at Deutsche Oper Berlin for Der Fliegende Hollande and Ariadne auf Naxos; and Bluebeard and Ewartung at L'Opera du Quebec.

Read More about Jacques Lacombe

MARK KOSOWER tours Ginastera Cello Concerto 2

June 2009.

Cellist MARK KOSOWER recently toured Germany with his home orchestra, the Bamberger Symphoniker (where he is resident principal solo cello) playing the Ginastera Cello Concerto No. 2 in Erlangen, Bayreuth, Schweinfurt and Bamberg to widespread acclaim:

"Mark Kosower, Solo Cellist of the Bamberg Symphony, presented in conclusion the Cello Concerto No. 2 by the Argentinean Alberto Ginastera. The solo concerto from 1980 is a highly expressive, high spirited, yet elegiac work that the soloist performed with utmost concentration. Equally brilliant both technically and musically, listeners were deeply impressed to hear how Kosower immersed himself with sovereign intensity into these four disparate movements by superbly mastering both the daring sound cascade and melodic lines." ~ ERLANGEN NACHKRICHTEN, April 29, 2009

The performances were recorded by Naxos for an upcoming Ginastera Cello Concerti release (2010).

You may also have seen Mark in May's Strad Magazine - flip to the last page to read "Double Acts", a two-fold interview with Kosower and his wife and duo-partner, pianist Jee-Won Oh, in which they discuss the balance of relationship and music-making.  Read it here.

Read More about Mark Kosower

FLUX Quartet plays a world-premiere at Alice Tully

June 2009.

In May FLUX QUARTET joined Petr Kotik, Ostravska Banda and the Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble at Alice Tully Hall.

FLUX members Tom Chiu, Max Mandel and Felix Fan opened the concert with Christian Wolff's "Trio for Robert Ashley", then second violinist Conrad Harris led the orchestra in Salvatore Sciarrino's Vento D'Ombra, "a study of fleeting charm" (NYTimes, May 7, 2009)

 

FLUX then played the world premiere of Petr Kotik's String Quartet No.1 “Erinnerungen an Jan”.

 

The program notes explained, "The idea of writing a piece for string quartet followed Kotik's attendance of a concert by FLUX Quartet at Ostrava Days in the summer of 2007. In particular, the performance of quartets by Kurt Weill and György Ligeti (1953) impressed Kotik to such a degree that he decided to compose a string quartet himself."

 

 

Next month the FLUX appear on WKCR to discuss their landmark recording of the Feldman String Quartet No. 2, and return to Bargemusic for a mixed program on July 17. The next day FLUX participates in New York City's "The Big Draw", where they'll offer interpretations of audience members' hand drawn "scores". If you're in NYC on July 18, come to the performance and offer a score!  Learn more about the Big Draw in NYC.

Read More about FLUX Quartet

HEINZ HOLLIGER celebrates his birthday w/the Zehetmair Quartet and Elliott Carter

June 2009.

It was a grand time in New York this spring as Elliott Carter, the Zehetmair Quartet and a host of others joined HEINZ HOLLIGER for birthday celebrations at the 92nd Street Y.

 

The series heard the U.S. premiere of Holliger's String Quartet No. 2, as well as Holliger playing "a shapley account" of Carter's 'HBHH' (Happy Birthday, Heinz Holliger) and "taut high-energy performances" of the Carter Quartet for Oboe and Strings (2001). Read the full New York Times review.

 

The birthday celebrations continue; Schott Publishing releases two debut recordings of Holliger's compositions, Romancendres and Gesänge der Frühe.

"An immensely powerful, multilayered work, full of dense orchestral writing and highly wrought climaxes." - Andrew Clements on Romancendres for THE GUARDIAN, June 5, 2009

Happy birthday wishes to the Maestro!

Read More about Heinz Holliger

Keys to the City, The Boston Globe, June 12, 2009

June 2009. In this interview, published June 12, 2009, Marc-André Hamelin speaks with Geoff Edgers about his rising profile, his prolific recordings, and what he aims to achieve in performance. Click here to read more from the Boston Globe or download the PDF.

Read More about Marc-André Hamelin

The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres

May 2009. Join TAFELMUSIK for The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres for their Jan 28 - Feb 12, 2011 tour.

With images from NASA, the Hubble Telescope and Alan Dyer, narration by actor Shaun Smith - it's an exploration of the artistic, cultural and scientific world in which 17th- and 18th-century astronomers lived and worked. Tafelmusik performs the program - featuring many gems from the Baroque repertoire - from memory.

Click here to learn more about The Galileo Project.

Read More about Tafelmusik

Variations on a Spanish Theme and Biber and His Contemporaries

May 2009. Join MASQUES on tour in 2010/2011: Nov 3 - 14, 2010 and March 3 - 13, 2011. The dynamic group of up-and-coming international baroque musicians tour North America with two diverse programs:

• Variations on a Spanish Theme - Works by Cabanilles, Corelli, Falconieri, Telemann's Don Quichotte, and a world premiere “fandago” for Baroque Instruments by André Ristic (b. 1972) in a program that highlights the Baroque guitar.
• Biber and His Contemporaries (1623-1750) - Works by Heinrich I.F. von Biber, Muffat, Nicolai, Buxtehude, Kertzinger and Schmelzer, from their highly acclaimed recording Mensa Sonora: Biber and His Contemporaries (Analekta 29909).  Listen to clips from the album here.

Read More about Masques

"Double Acts", The Strad, May 2009

May 2009. Mark Kosower and his wife and duo partner, pianist Jee-Won Oh, discuss the balance of relationship and music-making in The Strad's May 09 feature, "Double Acts".

Read More about Mark Kosower

Marc-André Hamelin on tour with Takács Quartet

April 2009. This spring Marc-André Hamelin tours with the Takács Quartet, playing the Schumann Piano Quintet at the University of Chicago, at the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and elsewhere. They record the work for Hyperion next month. Last week he made a last-minute recital appearance at the Strathmore Center for the Washington Performing Arts Society, playing Haydn, Schumann, Fauré and Debussy:

"Hamelin is no second-rate consolation prize, but a major pianist, with a devoted following who prize him for his voracious musical appetite, intellectual control and fine technique. It was a stroke of good luck that the WPAS was able to secure him so quickly. And his performance was fascinating, nourishing and provocative." THE WASHINGTON POST, April 10, 2009

Hamelin now plays Liszt (Totentanz and the Schubert/Liszt Wanderer Fantasy) with the Seattle Symphony, and next joins the St. Louis Symphony for Saint-Saens 2 in May.

Other upcoming dates include recitals at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, returns to Aspen, Orford, and Ravinia, and an engagement with the New York Philharmonic for Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and "I've Got Rhythm" Variations. In Europe, he appears at the Salzburg and Aldeburgh festivals.

Last month heard Hamelin playing Shostakovich 1 with the North Carolina Symphony, and in a week honoring his artistry at the Pro Musica Society of Montreal, with chamber music, solo recital and concerto performances (Haydn D Major, Beethoven 3) with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy.

Read More about Marc-André Hamelin

Pianist/conductor Marino Formenti returns to LA's Monday Evening Concerts

April 2009. This week pianist and conductor Marino Formenti returned to LA's Monday Evening Concerts, conducting and performing in For Galina Ustvolskaya, a special program conceived by Formenti as a tribute to Ustvolskaya's unique compositional voice. The appearance was a critical and popular hit, with a full house and praise from Mark Swed at the Los Angeles Times:

"Marino Formenti, the Italian keyboard phenom, was on hand as pianist and conductor, and he was entirely in his element. That Formenti makes everything he touches, whether new music or old, seem astonishing is well known in Los Angeles, and the hall was full...The Monday Evening Concerts turns 70 next week. Although the series has had its ups and downs through the years, it now thrives full of extraordinary new and exciting life. What a way to celebrate!"

Formenti begins next fall as artist-in-residence at Nike Wagner's Weimar Kunstfest, and reunites with Maurizio Pollini to lead "Pollini Prospettive" at the Salle Pleyel in Paris and in Milano. He also joins Gustavo Dudamel, in his inaugural season with the LA Philharmonic, for Lou Harrison's Piano Concerto.

Recent highlights include a performance of Kurtag’s Ghosts at the Vienna Konzerthaus, as well as Kurtag's Ghosts on Kairos Records.

Read More about Marino Formenti

Yolanda Kondonassis plays Bright Sheng Concerto

April 2009. Harpist YOLANDA KONDONASSIS began the month with more performances of Bright Sheng’s Never Far Away, with the Grand Rapids Symphony. She premiered the work last fall with the San Diego Symphony, and has since performed it with Leonard Slatkin and the Dallas Symphony:

"The piece is in three movements and 23 minutes long, counting a couple of minutes to prepare the harp for the finale’s special effect: strips of yellow envelope paper woven through the strings to produce a banjolike twang. The strips are removed gradually as the movement progresses. The title alludes to Sheng’s enduring identification with his native Chinese culture, and it is typical of his East-meets-West musical melanges. The first two movements are based on traditional Chinese tunes. Kondonassis, who is a brilliant and expressive player, did her part with great flair." ~ SCOTT CANTRELL, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Jan. 25, 2009.

The work will be recorded and released by Telarc. This spring Kondonassis also performed the Ginastera Harp Concerto with the Lexington Philharmonic and the Elgin Symphony:

"Yolanda Kondonassis was splendid, making a brittle aggressiveness as palatable as the delicacy of her soft phrase shaping." ~ THE LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER, FEB.16, 2009.

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Soprano Juliane Banse sings Mahler with Boston Symphony, Tonhalle-Orchestre Zurich

April 2009. It's a great season for soprano JULIANE BANSE. Recent highlights include a February tour of Strauss' Vier letzte lieder with Manfred Honeck and the Czech Philharmonic, Mahler 8 with David Zinman and the Tonhalle-Orchestre Zurich, and performances with the Sao Paulo Symphony.

This month she joins the Boston Symphony for performances of Mahler 4 (April 16, 17 and 18), sings Bernstein's Kaddish Symphony with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, and sings Agathe in concert-performances of Der Freischütz with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, a production they also bring to the Baden-Baden Pfinstfestspiele this summer.

In other news, her performance in the title role in the DVD release of Schumann's Genoveva continues to garner critical acclaim, including this review from the March 2009 Opera News "In the title role, Juliane Banse shows unwavering commitment, and she manages to execute the director's ritualistic, robotic moves while singing in the most simple and touching manner. In her physical fragility and wounded eyes she resembles the great singing actress Teresa Stratas, and Banse's performance has an affecting truth that perfectly serves the music."

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Charlotte and Chris on the road with Janos Starker

April 2009. "E-mails have been flying, messages on Facebook, every cellist in town is talking about this class!" That was the buzz April 6 at Temple University, when JANOS STARKER gave one of his legendary master classes to a capacity crowd at the Boyer College of Music.

Attendees, including Colbert Artists' Charlotte Schroeder and Christina Putnam on a Philadelphia field trip, watched and listened as Maestro Starker coached his four young charges through Bach, Boccherini, Brahms and David Popper. "Less commotion" "That's very close" "Better" "Am I talking in Chinese?" "Don't MAKE it jump, LET it jump!"

To the first three presenters to correctly name the word Starker says is the most important word in the English language for making music, we will send a copy of his autobiography, "The World of Music According to Starker."Just click here to submit your answer.

Future classes include the Summer Academy in Toronto, call us for details, and talk to us about organizing a class in your town. You'll create a buzz!

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SOLD OUT Debut - Tafelmusik at Carnegie Hall

March 2009.

Baroque orchestra TAFELMUSIK wrapped up its annual US tour with two sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, playing Handel's Watermusic on Friday, Feb. 13, and a Young Persons' program on Saturday.

"Tafelmusik avoided the frantic tempos sometimes preferred by period-instrument groups, performing with elegant phrasing and lithe clarity and aptly illuminating the contrasting character of each section." - Vivienne Schweitzer for THE NEW YORK TIMES, February 16, 2009

The orchestra now returns to home base Toronto for regular programming. Last seen in Toronto was their newest program, Galileo: Music of the Spheres. Premiered to critical and popular acclaim, Galileo will be seen on tour next season - click here to learn more.

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Anne Akiko Meyers, Smile, BBC Scotland Barber Concerto

March 2009. Anne Akiko Meyers' new album Smile, on Koch Records, is on the charts, in the top 20 Classical discs. Anne played her CD launch at New York City's hot new venue, (Le) Poisson Rouge:

"She played with an unfailingly sweet tone, molding her phrases like a singer...If anyone needed reminding that Ms. Meyers is a performer of substance and skill, here was the proof." Steve Smith for THE NEW YORK TIMES, Feb. 5, 2009

Coming up, Anne plays the Barber Concerto for a return to the BBC Scottish Symphony and the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Osaka Philharmonic in Japan.

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Colbert on the road with AMARCORD

March 2009.

Lee Prinz and Chris Putnam had an excellent adventure in Gettysburg, PA, where they heard AMARCORD in a program of part European Romantics (Saint-Saens, Mendelssohn, Janacek, Elgar), and part a world travelogue of folk songs from Norway, Australia, Cuba, Japan, the U.S. And Germany. All 5 singers of this excellent a cappella group took turns making fun and factual introductions of the folk melodies, which were sung with the purity of pitch, purpose and style that is the hallmark of the group's origin, the Boys Choir of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. At the average age of 30, all 5 amarcord singers are alumni of the Thomanerchor, Bach's church choir -- and they have been singing together in this smaller ensemble for the better part of 15 years.

The evening was as much entertainment as high class chamber music. At the post concert CD signing (5 silver sharpies on a table in a row), we heard snippets from adult patrons and students alike (Gettysburg College presented the concert + a day of amarcord master classes at the Conservatory) exclaiming about "What a good time we've had!"

The CD's on hand included the latest, the award-winning recording Album Francais, as well as discs of Madrigals, new music and sacred works -- emblematic of the far-reaching interests of this inspiring group.

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Merci beaucoup, José van Dam

March 2009. For 10 young singers participating in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program of the Metropolitan Opera, José van Dam was the master teacher for two weeks in February, focusing on French song during intensive one-on-one sessions. Master classes at the Juilliard School and for the Met's National Council were fitted into the schedule and every day the response was "Merci, Maestro!"

Last month he sang the title role in the Boston Symphony's recent concert performances of Simon Boccanegra, led by James Levine. Jeremy Eichler of the Boston Globe commented, "Jose Van Dam's portrayal had depth, style, and poignancy, conveying the fierce strength and cunning of a successful political leader but also the private doubts and inner longings that trail him like a shadow."

With such performances, it's good that Maestro van Dam can share his art with audiences and students alike. He next returns to North America in May for Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été and Ibert and Ravel's respective Don Quichotte songs with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony.

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Hitting the charts: Zuill Bailey in "Russian Masterpieces"

February 2009.

"There's no chance of drowsiness with Bailey, whose vigorous and rough-hewn playing style proves a winning tonic for this music, causing you to hear it afresh, and perhaps even to reappraise its merits. " - Classics Today, Jan. 22, 2009

Reaching No.11 on Billboard's Classical Charts its second week out, Telarc's "Russian Masterpieces" offers performances of Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme, Pezzo Capriccioso, Nocturne and Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1.

"When I file this CD, it shall be under Shostakovich, for it is in the composer’s first Cello Concerto that Bailey makes his splash...Bailey proves a master of the art by giving us one of the finest readings I have yet heard of this wondrous score!" - Audiophile Audition, Jan. 23, 2009

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JAMES TAYLOR sings Haydn in New York, St. Paul

February 2009.

The New Year gets off to a strong start for tenor JAMES TAYLOR.  This month he sings Handel  with the International Bachakademie Stuttgart, and a song recital at Yale University.  In February, he sings Haydn's Creation, First at Carnegie Hall with Helmuth Rilling and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, then with Nicholas McGegan and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Other upcoming highlights include touring Handel's Messiah with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and a return to the Berliner Philharmoniker, with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, for Haydn's Orlando Paladino.

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JULIANE BANSE singing Strauss, Mahler, Berg and more

February 2009.

In January, soprano JULIANE BANSE joins Manfred Honeck and the Czech Philharmonic for Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder in Prague, and next month on tour throughout Switzerland (Zurich, Geneva, Bern and Montreaux.)  She also sings recitals in Spain, Berg's Sieben Frühe Lieder with the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra in Moscow, and returns to Innsbruck for a performance of Eugene Onegin as Tatiana.

In February she joins the Leipzig String Quartet at the Festival Neue Musik Stuttgart and sings performances of Mahler 8 with David Zinmann and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich.

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JOSÉ van DAM is Boston Symphony's Simon Boccanegra

February 2009.

In February the masterful JOSÉ van DAM makes a welcome return to the Boston Symphony Orchestra for performances in the title role in Simon Boccanegra, led by James Levine. Learn more about the production.

He then heads to New York, where he'll lead masterclasses and coachings at the Juilliard School and at the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera.

Recent highlights include a recording of his signature role in L'Enfant et les sortilèges with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker, as well as performances as Der Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte at the Bastille in Paris.

Read More about José van Dam