Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto (which will be performed by Colin Currie and the Oregon Symphony next season) has won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition! The recording which was nominated and won featured Colin Currie and Marin Alsop with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s available on the London Philharmonic’s own label.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The orchestra got a copy of the brochure for next year’s concerts, and the season looks extraordinary! There will be lots of reasons to buy a subscription, including nearly 30 pieces never before played by the Oregon Symphony, a slew of A-list soloists, and some old chestnut favorites, too. I’ll write a post on my
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
It appears that a long stretch of tense contract negotiations have come to a close without a work stoppage in Seattle. The Seattle Symphony and Opera players and management reached a tentative agreement Wednesday after several nearly around the clock negotiating sessions. The players have agreed to each pony up just over $2000 to help
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A suite of three instrumental sections from Thomas Adés’ opera Powder Her Face will be amongst the works performed this coming weekend on the Oregon Symphony’s next classical series of concerts. Here’s a clip of the Overture, as performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Christoph von Dohnanyi. Enjoy!
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
This week we’ve been fortunate to have the wonderful violinist Chee-Yun in town (replacing the ailing Arabella Steinbacher) to play the Dvorak Violin Concerto. She’s playing so well – a great combination of clean playing and grab-you-by-the-throat intensity that’s often lacking in the newer generations of violinists (you often get either clean playing, or passionate
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Of course, it’s in China. [link]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
If you came to tonight’s Oregon Symphony concert (and given the modest numbers in attendance, you most likely did not), you might have noticed that our principal flutist, David Buck, was not on stage. (He was capably covered for by assistant principal flutist Alicia DiDonato Paulsen in many solo turns in the Rossini.) It turns
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
You may recall a year or so ago I posted an entry about the new Park Block that was being planned at SW Park and Taylor in downtown Portland. Included in the plan was a small, glass-enclosed restaurant space that had a lessee in place – and they planned to call the restaurant “Viola”. Being
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Violist Sam Bergman, of the Minnesota Orchestra (and fellow BBB – Bratsche Blogging Brother) made this arrangement of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man for a Minnesota Orchestra function. I kind of like it – it might be something we should do here in Oregon…
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I just caught this on a feed that I regularly watch. It’s an open letter from the lead singer of the band OK Go to the band’s fans explaining why they cannot embed the band’s YouTube videos on their blogs or websites. It shows how slow the industry (major record labels) is to respond to
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
This is the first local, large-scale benefit for victims of the Hatian earthquake that I know of, organized by local dynamo/musician/blogger/organizer Stephen Marc Beaudoin. It’s called Songs for Haiti, and it features a who’s who of local Portland’s classical and non-classical musicians. And it benefits Mercy Corps, which is notable among major charities in that
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
From the New York Times: A one-day strike at the Cleveland Orchestra ended Tuesday morning with a tentative agreement but the issues that led to the dispute point to troubled times for the nation’s elite classical musical ensembles amid the Great Recession. Orchestra members struck on Monday, the first such work stoppage here in 30
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Cleveland Orchestra musicians on strike Article from Cleveland.com [link]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Photo [L-R]: Jun Iwasaki, Charles Noble, Gregory Ewer, Trevor Fitzpatrick, Viorel Bejenaru, Justin Kagan. UPDATE: Northwest Reverb posted a review of the concert on Sunday. Saturday evening saw the inaugural concert of a new presenter in town: 45th Parallel. Founded by artistic director Gregory Ewer (also a violinist in the Oregon Symphony), it is a
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
via non divisi
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
