Pivot Arts, a hub for adventurous, multidisciplinary performance, announces “Reimagining Utopia,” the ninth annual Pivot Arts Festival featuring almost entirely world premieres, May 21–June 6, 2021 at several indoor and outdoor performance spaces. Following the all-virtual 2020 Festival, Pivot Arts this year plans to bring together audiences and artists safely and in observance of public health protocols.
Pivot Arts selected 12 artists and companies to create small, live works of theatre, dance and/or music, as well as video installations, inspired by this year’s theme, “Reimagining Utopia.” Pivot asked the artists to think about a better world post-pandemic and respond to the global health crisis and the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020. Audience members will also have the opportunity to respond with their visions of a brighter future and more just and equitable society.
To observe safety precautions due to the pandemic, most in-person festival works are video installations, and live performers and audience members must wear masks. Audiences engage in events by proceeding through a space featuring video and small live works, similar to a walking tour through a gallery, rather than sitting and watching longer performances. There are also outdoor events and videos on the Pivot Arts website.
Details and tickets are on sale April 30 at https://pivotarts.org/festival/.
--Jill Chukerman, JAC Communications
Orion Performs Mozart, Rabl
Concluding a four-concert season of limited in-person and virtual performances, The Orion Ensemble returns to perform at PianoForte Studios, 1335 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago, on Saturday, May 22 at 3 p.m.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Trio in C Major for Violin, Cello and Piano, K. 548, which Orion performs, in 1788, the year he also wrote his last and best-known symphonies and his final three piano trios. Some have compared this Trio to the “Jupiter” Symphony, written in the same key near the same time. Musicologist Alfred Einstein referred to this work as “classic in its mastery.” This Trio displays Mozart’s consummate artistry in handling a genre that began as a keyboard sonata accompanied by violin and cello and became in his hands so mature and balanced that it flows in elegant simplicity as a lively conversation between the three instruments.
Also on Orion’s program is Walter Rabl’s (1873–1940) Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano, Op. 1, which won the 23-year-old Austrian composer and pianist first prize in an important Viennese composition competition.
The Orion Ensemble performs Saturday, May 22 at 3 p.m. at PianoForte Studios, 1335 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago. Limited in-person tickets are $25 available for advance purchase only at 630-628-9591 or info@orionensemble.org. Virtual access is free; donations are welcome.
The livestream will be available on Orion's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4yVkS6Pp0wzG6HxxXGe1SA
--Jill Chukerman, JAC Communications
Colburn School Presents the World Premiere of the Film The Way Forward
Tickets for the online premiere are free and registration is required at. The screening will be followed by a Q&A at 1 p.m. PDT with director Hamid Shams and artists featured in the film, hosted by Chris Lee, Senior Reporter, Vulture/New York Magazine.
Limited capacity in-person screenings will be held on Friday, April 30, 2021 and Saturday, May 1, 2021 at 5 p.m. at Thayer Hall, and 8 p.m. at Zipper Hall. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at https://www.colburnschool.edu/calendar/events/online-film-premiere-the-way-forward/. Following guidelines from the LA County Department of Health, screenings will be at 25% capacity and temperature checks, face coverings, and physical distancing are required for all visitors, in addition to other safety protocols.
Please visit https://www.colburnschool.edu/calendar/events/online-film-premiere-the-way-forward to watch the trailer.
--Lisa Bellamore, Crescent Communications
What's Streaming: Classical (Week of April 19-25)
Monday, April 19 at 8:00 p.m. ET:
Davóne Tines interviewed by Kenneth Overton on “Black Opera Live!”
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAvuh5XgELmr1jNlPgL3OHw?view_as=subscriber
Wednesday, April 21 at 7:00 p.m. PT:
Pianist Shai Wosner performs a live-streamed recital with violinist Pinchas Zukerman and cellist Amanda Forsyth.
https://www.thebarclay.org/buy-tickets/2020-2021-season-events/pinchas-zukerman-amanda-forsyth-shai-wosner.html
Thursday, April 22 & Friday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m. ET:
James Conlon and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra perform works by Shostakovich, Mozart, and Saint-Georges.
https://www.dso.org/watch/1260255
Friday, April 23 at 7:00 p.m. ET:
Jennifer Koh and Davóne Tines present the world premiere of music film Strange Fruit for Carnegie Hall's "Voices of Hope" virtual festival.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoU7xxMfMAZmB7THNylLZ4g
Friday, April 23 at 2:00 p.m. PT:
Pianist and advocate Lara Downes launches University of Oregon virtual residency with "Uncovering Lost Treasures" seminar.
https://music.uoregon.edu/breaking-news/lara-downes-virtual-residency
Friday, April 23 at 7:00 p.m. CET / 1:00 p.m. ET:
Jonathan Biss performs Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto & Salvatore Sciarrino's Il sogno di Stradella with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
https://www.berwaldhallen.se/en/play/
Saturday, April 24:
AMPLIFY with Lara Downes features chef, writer, and opera singer Alexander Smalls*.
https://www.npr.org/series/922438111/amplify-with-lara-downes
--Shuman Associates
Newport Music Festival Announces Schedule
The Newport Music Festival has announced the complete seventeen-concert schedule for its 53rd season, from July 4-20, 2021. All concerts will be held outdoors at historic mansions and venues in Newport, Rhode Island including The Breakers, Bellevue House, Castle Hill Inn, The Chanler at Cliff Walk, King Park, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, Norman Bird Sanctuary, and Rough Point. The full schedule is available at https://www.newportmusic.org/. Tickets will go on sale to the public on April 19.
--Christina Jensen, Jensen Artists
Los Angeles Master Chorale Announces GALA 2021
The Los Angeles Master Chorale, the country’s preeminent professional choir, led by Grant Gershon, Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director, will honor its singers and the philanthropic leadership of Laney Techentin at GALA 2021: “Shine Bright,” on Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 5 p.m. PDT. This special online experience, hosted by Broadway legend Patti LuPone, will feature performances by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, including a virtual “surround sing,” and the world premiere of “Shine Bright,” a triptych of videos featuring Reena Esmail’s “TaReKiTa,” Meredith Monk’s “Earth Seen From Above” from her landmark opera Atlas, and Derrick Spiva, Jr.’s “Ready, Bright” (Los Angeles Master Chorale commission). “TaReKiTa” was released in November 2020, and “Earth Seen from Above” and “Ready, Bright” will premiere at GALA 2021.
Sunday, May 16, 2021: 5 p.m. PDT, reception; 6 p.m. PDT, show.
Tickets for GALA 2021 start at $25
For information about ticket packages and benefits, visit https://lamasterchorale.org/gala-2021.
--Lisa Bellamore, Crescent Communications
SOLI’s “Stories from the Voices Within”
SOLI Chamber Ensemble presents “Stories from the Voices Within,” April 25 and 26, 7:30 p.m., at the Betty Kelso Center and Greehey Lawn, San Antonio Botanical Garden, San Antonio, Texas.
SOLI continues its season at the San Antonio Botanical Garden with :Stories from the Voices Within – featuring two world premieres and special guest appearances by San Antonio Poet Laureate Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson and Flamenco artist Tamara Adira.
“Stories from the Voices Within” features world premieres of Aaron Jay Kernis’ “Elegy for those we lost” and San Antonio-native Darian Donovan Thomas’s “((HERE)),” an extended work for SOLI, electronics, vocalist (singing, rapping, and narrating), and androgynous dancer.
Tickets start at $15. Seating is limited at the Betty Kelso Center and Greehey Lawn and advance purchase is strongly recommended. To reserve a seat, click here: https://www.solichamberensemble.com/concerts/
Unable to attend in person...but still want to help SOLI bring new music to life? Please consider clicking here: https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/here2
--SOLI Chamber Ensemble
Colburn School Appoints Violist Geraldine Walther as Interim Director of Chamber Music
The Colburn School is pleased to announce that violist Geraldine Walther will join the Colburn School faculty as Interim Director of Chamber Music for the Colburn Conservatory of Music, beginning August 2021. Walther will oversee strings and piano chamber music, and will also be featured on the Colburn Chamber Music Society series in the 2021-22 season.
An international search for a permanent director of chamber music will begin immediately for a fall 2022 start date.
Walther succeeds current Director of Chamber Music and violinist Scott St. John, who has led the chamber music program for the Conservatory of Music and pre-college Music Academy since 2018. During his tenure, St. John developed and led the Beethoven 250 Celebration, a six-day festival built around the composer’s beloved string quartets, in collaboration with fellow Colburn faculty member and violinist Arnold Steinhardt, and mentored the Viano Quartet, the Colburn School’s first Ensemble-in-Residence, who recently joined the illustrious Opus 3 roster.
Learn more: https://www.colburnschool.edu/
--Lisa Bellamore, Crescent Communications