Orion Ensemble’s
“Danube Destinations” Features First of Three Beethoven Trios on Season
Programs

Hindemith, Mozart also on program in Evanston (Oct. 27),
Geneva (Nov. 3), Chicago (Nov. 6).
For “Danube Destinations,” its second concert program of
the season, The Orion Ensemble, winner of the prestigious Chamber Music
America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, begins the series of Beethoven
Opus 9 string trios that will carry through the rest of the season. These
performances include the Ensemble’s debut at Sherwood, The Community Music
School at Columbia College Chicago November 6, as well as performances at the
Music Institute of Chicago’s Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston October 27 and
the First Baptist Church of Geneva November 3.
Joining Orion is guest violist Stephen Boe, a member of
The Chicago Ensemble who teaches at the Music Institute of Chicago.
The program
With “Danube Destinations,” Orion turns to the works of
three German-speaking composers: Ludwig van Beethoven, Paul Hindemith and
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. All were prolific in many musical genres and
innovative in their writing styles, influencing the composers who followed
them.
Beethoven wrote his three Opus 9 string trios in 1797 and
1798, after he had made a name for himself as a pianist in Vienna and was
beginning to travel and be known in the wider continent. Each of the Opus 9
trios is in four movements, a form he would use for most of his quartets and
symphonies. The writing is weighty and virtuosic, often contrapuntal, and fully
Beethovenian in its energy, passion and strength. This program includes the Trio in G Major for Violin, Viola and Cello,
Op. 9, No. 1.
Hindemith’s Quartet
for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano (1938) exudes a surprisingly broad
and roomy air, given its conception just before WWII. It is a prime example of
Hindemith’s motivically conceived contrapuntal writing and is resplendent with
many textural contrasts.
The concert also features a seldom-heard bonus piece by
Hindemith, the Duett for Viola and Cello
(1934), which gives Orion the opportunity to highlight the musical talents of
guest violist Stephen Boe and Orion cellist Judy Stone.
Mozart composed the Quartet
in G Minor at the request of Austrian publisher and composer Franz Anton
Hoffmeister. It was unusual in that the string parts were more substantial than
earlier works written for piano with (usually one or two) strings. According to
music scholar David Grayson, no previous composer had so “transcended the usual
limitations imposed by private, domestic music-making and aspired to the level
of public concert music.” The quartet is replete with virtuosic piano writing,
similar to Mozart’s piano concerti, and features considerable interplay between
the piano and strings, as well as among the string parts.
Performance and ticket information:
The Orion Ensemble’s “Danube Destinations” concert program
takes place Sunday, October 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Music Institute of Chicago’s
Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue in Evanston; Sunday, November 3 at 7
p.m. at First Baptist Church of Geneva, 2300 South Street in Geneva; and
Wednesday, November 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Sherwood, The Community Music School at
Columbia College Chicago, 1312 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Single tickets
are $26, $23 for seniors and $10 for students; admission is free for children
12 and younger. A four-ticket flexible subscription provides a 10 percent
savings on full-priced tickets. For tickets or more information, call
630-628-9591 or visit
orionensemble.org.
--Jill Chukerman, JAC Communications
92nd Street Y
October Performances
Tuesday, October 8, 7:30 PM at SubCulture
Jason Vieaux, guitar
Julien Labro, bandoneón, accordion, accordina
Saturday, October 19, 8 PM
Opening Night with Valentina Lisitsa, piano
Saturday, October 26, 8 PM
An American Tribute to Andrés Segovia
Benjamin Verdery, artistic director & guitar
Eliot Fisk, guitar
Oscar Ghiglia, guitar
Adam Holzman, guitar
Martha Masters, guitar
Richard Savino, Baroque guitar
Christopher Parkening, speaker
Tuesday, October 29, 8:15 PM
A Night with András Schiff, Bach and Beethoven
Wednesday, October 30, 8:15 PM
Glimmerglass ShowTalk: Composers & Process
Tickets are available at
www.92Y.org/concerts or
212-415-5500.
--Ashlyn Damm, Kirshbaum Demler & Associates
American Bach
Soloists in December
ABS’s presentations this December will again be among the
must-see events for Northern California music lovers. Premium seating for our
annual performances of Handel’s Messiah at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral
(December 11 & 12) is nearly sold out for both nights and tickets for the
remaining seats have been moving rapidly. A third performance of Messiah at the Mondavi Center in Davis,
CA, follows on Sunday, December 15.
On Saturday December 14, ABS returns to St. Stephen’s
Church in Belvedere for “An ABS Christmas,” a special one-night only concert
featuring Baroque trumpet virtuoso John Thiessen and soprano Shawnette Sulker.
Handel’s Messiah:
Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 7:30 pm
Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street, San Francisco
Thursday, December 12, 2013, 7:30 pm
Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street, San Francisco
Sunday, December 15, 2013, 4:00 pm
Robert & Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing
Arts, Mrak Hall Drive, Davis, CA
Shawnette Sulker, soprano - Eric Jurenas, countertenor
Aaron Sheehan, tenor - Mischa Bouvier, baritone
American Bach Choir - Jeffrey Thomas, conductor
An ABS Christmas at St. Stephen’s
Saturday, December 14, 2013, 8:00 pm
St. Stephen’s Church, 3 Bayview Avenue, Belvedere, CA
Bach: Jauchzet
Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51
Bach: Ehre sei dir,
Gott, gesungen, BWV 248
Plus Holiday Carols and works by Britten, Conte, Howells,
Rutter, Vaughan Williams, & Whitacre
Shawnette Sulker, soprano - John Thiessen, trumpet
American Bach Choir - Jeffrey Thomas, conductor
--Jeff McMillan, American Bach Soloists
Berkeley Symphony
Announces New Chamber Music Series. Season Opens with World Premiere by Edmund
Campion. Alessio Bas Featured as Soloist in Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2
October 3
The 2013-2014 season highlights include a world premiere
by Samuel Carl Adams, Bay Area premieres from Esa-Pekka Salonen and Kaija
Saariaho, and performances by mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor and wiolinist
Anthony Marwood
Berkeley Symphony, recognized for its adventurous
programming and fresh interpretations of classic European traditions, expands
its 2013-2014 season with an announcement of the new Berkeley Symphony &
Friends Chamber Music Series. Co-produced by the Piedmont Center for the Arts,
the series includes five unique chamber music concerts scheduled throughout the
season and designed to showcase the exceptional artistry of the musicians across
a wider community. A strong presence in the Bay Area, Berkeley Symphony
recently performed with Placido Domingo for the Cal Performance/Another Planet
co-production at the Greek Theater on September 7. The Orchestra will team up
with the Martha Graham Dance Company on January 31, 2014 and February 1, 2014
also presented by Cal Performances. Berkeley Symphony’s prominence as a major
contributor in the classical world was recently acknowledged by the League of
American Orchestras with a 2012-2013 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming
and by the National Endowment for the Arts with an Arts Works grant to support
its Music in the Schools program.
Music Director Joana Carneiro leads the Berkeley Symphony
in the opening concert of the 2013-2014 season Thursday, October 3 at 7 p.m. at
Zellerbach Hall with a program featuring the world premiere of Ossicles (Tiny
Bones) by Bay Area-based composer and UC Berkeley composition faculty member
Edmund Campion. A co-commission with Cal Performances, Ossicles is Campion’s
fourth piece for orchestra and refers
to the three smallest bones in the human body, the
auditory ossicles, located in the middle ear. The piece focuses on the physical
aspect of sound, the wonder of sound and the miracle of cognition. San Francisco Chronicle critic Joshua
Kosman commented that “Campion keeps clarity and even beauty at the fore” and
is described as “essentially an impressionist, writing music based on gesture
and its expansion” by San Francisco
Classical Voice’s Benjamin Frandzel. The program also features fast-rising
Italian pianist Alessio Bax, considered by The
New Yorker as “perhaps the most elegant of today’s young pianists,” as
soloist in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto
No. 2. An active international soloist and winner of numerous prestigious
awards, Bax was recently honored with the 2013 Martin E. Segal Award and the
2013 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. Wagner’s symphonic poem Siegfried Idyll completes the program.
Immediately following the concert, Berkeley Symphony will
host an Opening Night Dinner honoring Cal Performances Director Matias
Tarnopolsky in the Zellerbach Mezzanine. Dinner guests will be joined by Joana
Carneiro, Edmund Campion and Alessio Bax.
The inaugural Berkeley Symphony & Friends Chamber
Music Series begins at 5 p.m Sunday, September 15 at the Piedmont Center for
the Arts and features guest violinist Stuart Canin, former concertmaster of the
San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera, alongside musicians from the
Berkeley Symphony. Works include Mozart’s
Duo
for Violin and Viola in G Major, Martinu’s
Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola, Prokofiev’s
Sonata for Two Violins and César
Franck’s
Sonata for Violin and Piano in A
Major. The Series continues throughout the 2013-2014 season with
performances on November 3, January 19, 2014, March 16, 2014 and April 13,
2014. Full artist and repertoire details for the remaining four programs will
be announced at a later date. For further information call (510) 841-2800, ext.
1 or visit
www.berkeleysymphony.org.
The 2013-2014 subscription season continues December 5 at
8 p.m. with a program featuring Australian composer Brett Dean’s most
celebrated work, Carlo, alongside two masterworks from the classical
repertoire. San Francisco Symphony Associate Principal Cellist Peter Wyrick
joins Berkeley Symphony to perform Haydn’s Cello
Concerto No.1 with Brahms’s Symphony
No. 2 completing the program. On February 6, 2014 at 8 p.m., Berkeley
Symphony will present a world premiere work for violin and ensemble by
Berkeley-native Samuel Carl Adams, son of composer John Adams and a graduate of
Berkeley’s Crowden School. British violinist Anthony Marwood, praised by BBC
Music Magazine as a “consummate artist…blessed with boundless energy,
intellectual curiosity and creative wizardry,” features as soloist.
Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite opens the program, which concludes with
Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 Scottish. The 2013-2014 season closes on May 1
with a program featuring Bay Area premieres from two highly regarded Finnish
composers: Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Nyx and Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Songs. Kelley
O’Connor, described as “a very young contralto with an astonishing voice” by San Francisco Classical Voice critic
Janos Gereben, is featured as soloist for the latter. The program concludes
with Beethoven’s beloved Symphony No. 5.
--Karen Ames PR
Cal Performances
Presents Jessica Rivera and Kelley O’Connor in World Premieres of Song Cycles
by Jonathan Leshnoff and David Bruce
Sunday, October 13 AT 3:00 p.m. in Hertz Hall, Berkeley,
CA. Pianist and music director Robert Spano accompanies the celebrated singers.
Soprano Jessica Rivera and mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor
will premiere song cycles by composers Jonathan Leshnoff and David Bruce in a
program of solos and duets on Sunday, October 13 at 3:00 p.m. in Hertz Hall,
Berkeley. Pianist and conductor Robert Spano will accompany the two singers.
The program also includes the Bay Area premiere of Cantos de la Cocina by
Berkeley native Gabriela Lena Frank, a Grammy Award-winning composer and pianist
who writes metaphorically of love and life through the act of cooking; the work
was composed for Rivera and is performed by her and O’Connor. “Rivera’s singing
is so distinctive in tone—and so unabashedly beautiful” (San Francisco Chronicle), while O’Connor, who makes her Cal
Performances debut, is acclaimed for “the beauty of her singing, the way every
word [is] given meaning” (Los Angeles
Times).
Both O’Connor and Rivera’s new song cycles receive their
world premieres at Cal Performances, where they and Spano kick off a nationwide
tour that includes stops in Georgia and Ohio, and culminates with a performance
in Carnegie Hall. Leshnoff’s new work for Rivera, Monica Songs, blends texts from the Book of Ruth, Emily Dickinson, e.e. cummings, and personal letters
to explore themes of life and death, love and loyalty, and joy and sorrow.
Rivera, a champion of new composers, also premiered a Carnegie Hall–bound work
by Mark Grey when she last sang at Cal Performances in 2011. Leshnoff’s recent
compositions span flute, guitar, and cello concerti, string quartets, and
orchestral works, and have been lauded for “sheer sonic beauty” (Washington Post). Bruce’s work, That
Time with You, for mezzo-soprano and piano, was commissioned by Carnegie Hall
and Kelley O’Connor. Bruce, who has written for Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble
and served as 2012–2013 composer in residence at London’s Royal Opera House,
has been praised for creating vocal lines that are “invitingly melodic and
deceptively simple. Though they often have a folksy ring at first, they
invariably grow more complex and varied” (New
York Times). Solo works by Federico Mompou and Claude Debussy, and duets by
Camille Saint-Saëns, Charles Gounod, and Felix Mendelssohn complete the
concert.
Jessica Rivera’s performing career includes traditional
and contemporary opera, concert halls, and intimate recitals. She has
collaborated with composers, including John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, and Nico
Muhly, and sang the role of Nuria in the 2007 Grammy-winning recording of Golijov’s
opera Ainadamar with the Atlanta
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Spano. California native mezzo-soprano
O’Connor also appeared on the Ainadamar
recording as Lorca, and more recently sang in a world premiere staging by Peter
Sellars of John Adams’s The Gospel
According to the Other Mary conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. In addition to
opera and recitals, O’Connor has sung in concert with many top orchestras,
including the National Symphony Orchestra and symphony orchestras in Toronto,
Atlanta, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Detroit, and has performed and
recorded throughout Europe and Asia.
Accompanist Robert Spano is music director of the Atlanta
Symphony Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival and School. He has conducted
orchestras and opera companies worldwide, presented three world premieres in
his twelve years in Atlanta, and contributed to six Grammy-winning recordings.
As a pianist, he has performed works ranging from Bach to Gershwin to
Rachmaninoff and accompanied artists, including bass-baritone Eric Owens,
violinists David Coucheron and Yoon Jung Yang, and his frequent collaborator
Jessica Rivera.
Ticket information:
Tickets for Jessica Rivera and Kelley O’Connor, with
pianist Robert Spano, in recital on Sunday, October 13 at 3:00 p.m. in Hertz
Hall are $32.00 but are subject to change. Half-price tickets are available for
UC Berkeley students. Tickets are available through the Ticket Office at
Zellerbach Hall; at (510) 642-9988; at
www.calperformances.org; and at the
door. For more information about discounts, go to
http://calperformances.org/buy/discounts.php.
--Christina Kellogg, Cal Performances
The Phoenix
Concerts Celebrates AOP’s 25th Anniversary with Composers & the Voice Song
Concert
American Opera Projects and The Phoenix Concerts will
co-produce "AOP25: Celebrating Composers & the Voice," a concert
featuring the work of composers and librettists from AOP's C&V (Composers
& the Voice) program, an annual fellowship that trains composers to write
for the operatic voice. The concert will take place Friday, October 11 at 8PM
at the Church of Saint Matthew and Saint Timothy: 26 West 84th Street, New York
City. Tickets are $10 at the door or free with a student ID. A complete list of
artists will be available through The Phoenix Concerts website
www.thephoenixconcerts.org. Phoenix Concerts Artistic Director and C&V
alumna (2005-06) Gilda Lyons will be one of the highlighted composers, along
with Conrad Cummings, Daniel Felsenfeld, Vivian Fung, Hannah Lash, and many others.
The concert coincides with the seventh iteration of C&V and the
twenty-fifth anniversary of AOP. Featured performers include soprano Adrienne
Danrich (San Francisco Opera, Cincinnati Opera), mezzo-soprano Nicole Mitchell
(New York Philharmonic, Sarasota Opera) with Mila Henry on piano.
The primary focus of Composers & the Voice is to give
emerging composers and librettists experience working collaboratively with
singers on writing for the voice and contemporary opera stage. Previous fellows
in the Composers & the Voice program have gone on to receive numerous
awards, commissions, and premieres, including Jack Perla (Love/Hate, San Francisco Opera, 2012), Gregory Spears (Paul's Case, UrbanArias, 2013, and Pittsburgh Opera, 2014), Stefan Weisman (Darkling, AOP commission, NYC, 2006),
Hannah Lash (Aspen Music Festival), Daniel Felsenfeld (Nora, In the Great Outdoors,
AOP commission, NYC, 2011), Daniel Sonenberg (The Summer King, Fort Worth Opera Frontiers, 2013), and Vivian Fung
(2013 Juno Award "Classical Composition of the Year"). complete
list of alumni can be found at AOP's Web site,
--American Opera Projects News
The N.P. Mander
Organ Recitals
Kicking off the “Sacred Music in a Sacred Space’s” N.P.
Mander Organ Recital is resident organist K. Scott Warren, September 29 at New
York City’s Church of St. Ignatius Loyola.
Hear the spectacular N.P. Mander Organ played by organist
K. Scott Warren on September 29 at 3pm. This program will feature selections
from Bach and Widor performed in the spectacular and ethereal Church of St.
Ignatius Loyola in New York City. Call 212-288-2520 or click here for
tickets:
http://smssconcerts.org/concerts/cat.listevents/2013/09/09/.
Organist, pianist, conductor and composer K. Scott Warren
opens the N.P. Mander Organ Recitals with selections from Bach and Widor. His
program draws from the third part of the Clavierübung,
which Warren describes as “Bach's rich compendium of chorale preludes based on
the ordinary of the German Mass and catechetical hymns.” The first part of the
program features the famous Prelude and
Fugue in E-flat, with the Kyrie cycle and the baptism hymn Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam.
The second half is reserved for Widor's iconic Third Symphony, an enduring favorite
with the brooding, canonical opening movement. The animated March in F-sharp major follows and leads
to the quietly majestic Final in E minor.
What a thrill to hear these iconic works in the sacred space that is the Church
of St. Ignatius Loyola--a space, which Gramophone
described as “…breathtaking atmosphere…ethereal…”
--Amanda Sweet, BuckleSweet Media
Music Institute of
Chicago Presents Free Luncntime Concerts
New Downtown Evanston Campus Welcomes Musicians and Music
Lovers Monthly
To introduce its stellar faculty to downtown Evanston
workers and residents and welcome them to its new campus, the Music Institute
of Chicago is offering free lunchtime concerts and conversation one Wednesday
per month from 12:15 to 1 p.m. at its new home, 1702 Sherman Ave., Evanston,
IL. Lunch is available for purchase from the Pret A Manger Kiosk, and free
coffee will be served.
Kicking off the series Wednesday, September 25 is jazz and
classical pianist Ron Surace, who will perform some of his favorite jazz
standards and original compositions. He has performed extensively throughout
the U.S. and Europe. He is narrator/pianist with the Concertani di Chicago
Orchestra, Atlanta Pops Orchestra, and the Huntsville Symphony and has
performed with the Glenn Miller Orchestra (Ray McKinley), Bob Crosby, Ralph
Marteri, Si Zentner, and the Bob Hope and Steve Allen road show orchestras. He
is director/pianist of the “In Full Swing” jazz orchestra.
“We have received such a warm welcome from the community
since relocating our headquarters to downtown Evanston this summer,” said Music
Institute President and CEO Mark George. “Our Institute for Therapy through the
Arts (ITA) and Musical Theater program are already serving segments of the
Evanston community. We are now pleased to present a free lunchtime concert
series for the entire community, particularly our new neighbors in downtown
Evanston. These informal performances will feature our spectacular artist
faculty.”
George continued, “Evanston is an arts-friendly city. I am
truly appreciative of the assistance we received from the City of Evanston’s
Economic Development Division. The Music Institute of Chicago plans to be in
Evanston for a very long time.”
The complete schedule of free lunchtime concerts includes:
September 25: Ron Surace, Piano
Jazz Piano—Favorite Standards and Original Compositions
October 23: Rae-Myra Hilliard, Soprano and Louise Chan,
Piano
Excerpts from “Seasons Change: Music written by Black
American Composers”
November 13: Michael Buckwalter, French horn, Chelsea
French, trombone, Amy Larsen, trumpet, and Dr. Mark George, piano
Brass Chamber Music
December 11: Aimee Biasiello, viola, Kathy Lee, piano, and
Ellen McSweeney, violin
Chamber Music:
January 22: Dr. Mark George, piano, and Almita Vamos, violin
Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op 80
February 12: Mary Drews, piano, and Shigetoshi Yamada,
violin
Fritz Kreisler compositions and arrangements
March 19: Fred Simon, jazz piano with Music Institute
guests
Program TBD
April 23: Winds Chamber Music
May 21: Eric Sutz, jazz piano
June 11: Alexander Djordjevic, piano
Schubert’s Impromptus
For more information, click
musicinst.org/
--Jill Chukerman, JAC Communications
Malcolm McDowell
Joins the Angel Heart Cast, Oct. 6 at Cal Performances
Actor Malcolm McDowell has just been announced as the
narrator for Angel Heart. The family,
musical storybook premieres at Cal Performances before heading to Carnegie
Hall. The production will take place Oct. 6 at 5 p.m. at Hertz Hall, Berkeley,
CA.
The Wall Street
Journal recently published an article on the production: “A Fairy Tale for
the Digital Age.”
Angel Heart
blends original music by award-winning composer Luna Pearl Woolf with familiar
tunes and original text by bestselling children’s fantasy writer Cornelia
Funke. The production brings together celebrated artists from multiple
disciplines, including cellist Matt Haimovitz (Woolf’s husband) and his
all-cello ensemble Uccello, soprano Lisa Delan, and mezzo-soprano Frederica von
Stade, along with the Oakland-based Children’'s Choir of St. Martin de Porres
School, a vocal ensemble founded by von Stade.
--Christina Kellogg, Call Performances