July 2008 Archives

On Sunday, November 9, the 70^th anniversary of Kristallnacht, and 75 years since Adolf Hitler's rise to power, the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, in association with Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music, will launch "Music in Exile-Émigré Composers of the 1930s," a five-day series of concerts, talks, and a music-theater piece celebrating the music of Jewish composers forced to flee the Third Reich and German composers who resisted the Nazi regime.

The series takes place in the Museum's Edmond J. Safra Hall located at 36 Battery Place and includes premieres by five different composers and a lecture/talk about "Entartete Musik" by Gottfried Wagner, the great-grandson of composer Richard Wagner and the founder of the Post-Holocaust Dialogue Group, which seeks to reconcile victims and perpetrators of the Holocaust. Featured are the ARC Ensemble (Artists of the Royal Conservatory), who have dedicated themselves to the performance of both the traditional chamber music canon and the rediscovery of repertoire that, through political changes or shifts in musical fashion has been ignored or marginalized, including music written before and during the Holocaust. Simon Wynberg, artistic director of the ARC Ensemble, is curator of the series, and Stephen Vann is the artistic producer. Other artists include violinist Daniel Phillips, co-founder of the Orion String Quartet and professor of violin at Queens College; Canadian bass Robert Pomakov, and baritone Chris Pedro Trakas. Marc Neikrug conducts his music-theater work Through Roses, featuring veteran actor Saul Rubinek.

Pre-concert talks by such authorities as Michael Beckerman, professor of music and historical musicology at New York University, and Bret Werb, musicologist of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, will complement several presentations.

Information and tickets for "Music in Exile-Émigré Composers of the 1930s" are available by calling the Museum of Jewish Heritage at 646.437.4202 or by visiting the Museum's Web site at www.mjhnyc.org

Singers Gather in Seattle for "Wagnerian Idol"

Second International Wagner Competition to be Held at McCaw Hall August 16

Competition Includes Audience-Voted Prize

Seattle – Eight singers from around the world will compete in Seattle Opera's second International Wagner Competition on Saturday, August 16. The first competition held in 2006 was dubbed "Wagnerian Idol", reflecting the audience-vote component to the competition. Seattle Opera is internationally well-known for its focus on the works of Richard Wagner, including the company's signature performances of Der Ring des Nibelungen. The company's next complete Ring cycle will be performed in August 2009.

Each of the finalists – aged between 25 and 39 – will perform two arias accompanied by the Seattle Opera Orchestra conducted by Asher Fisch, Seattle Opera's principal guest conductor. Full program details are listed below. The finalists were selected via a series of international auditions. They are competing for two cash prizes of $15,000. In addition to the two main prizes, there is an "Audience Choice" prize and an "Orchestra Choice" prize.

The judges for Seattle Opera's second International Wagner Competition are an international group of authorities in all aspects of opera production – Hans-Joachim Frey, general director and chief executive officer of the Theater Bremen, which includes Oper Bremen; tenor Ben Heppner, well known for his acclaimed performances of the Wagnerian repertoire; stage director Peter Kazaras, a Seattle Opera Artistic Director of the company's Young Artists Program; Pamela Rosenberg, administrative director of the Berlin Philharmonic and former general director of San Francisco Opera; Stephen Wadsworth, frequent director of Seattle Opera productions, including its highly praised 2001 and 2005 Ring cycles and upcoming 2009 Ring; and Eva Wagner-Pasquier, the daughter of Wolfgang Wagner and an artistic advisor to the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

The second International Wagner Competition is once again made possible by a generous contribution from the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences.

The first International Wagner Competition, held in August 2006, was created by Seattle Opera's General Director Speight Jenkins to identify and recognize qualified, emerging opera singers who demonstrate clear promise of an important career in the Wagnerian repertoire. The winners of the 2006 competition were soprano Miriam Murphy from Dublin, Ireland and baritone James Rutherford from Dulwich, England.

International Wagner Competition
Saturday, August 16, 2008
7:30PM
Marion Oliver McCaw Hall
Seattle, Washington

For tickets and information, call 800-426-1619 or 206-389-7676 or visit www.seattleopera.org

The Cleveland Orchestra announces Gary Ginstling as General Manager

CLEVELAND , July 14, 2008 – Executive Director Gary Hanson announced today that Gary Ginstling has been appointed General Manager of The Cleveland Orchestra. Mr. Hanson said, "I am delighted to welcome Gary to the staff of The Cleveland Orchestra. His career in orchestra management and corporate marketing, alongside his experience as a professional musician, make him the ideal candidate to help lead our new initiatives in Cleveland and internationally."

As the General Manager of The Cleveland Orchestra, Mr. Ginstling will have overall responsibility for management of the Orchestra, Severance Hall and Blossom Music Center, as well as the Orchestra's educational and community relations activities.

Gary Ginstling's career in orchestra management includes serving as Executive Director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra from 2003-2006 and, most recently, as Director of Communications and External Affairs for the San Francisco Symphony since July 2006.

As Executive Director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Ginstling was responsible for a number of initiatives that enhanced the orchestra's reputation for creative programming and innovative projects. Under his tenure, the orchestra and Music Director Kent Nagano gave many world premiere performances, received three ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, and was a recipient of the inaugural Bank of America Award for Excellence in Music Education. Mr. Ginstling oversaw three consecutive years of balanced budgets, the elimination of all outstanding debt, and a significant increase in ticket sales.

In San Francisco , as a member of the senior management team, Mr Ginstling's responsibilities include the oversight and direction of public affairs, publications, and the organization's education/youth orchestra and community engagement activities. Previously, Mr. Ginstling worked for three years at Sun Microsystems as a marketing manager for multimedia and emerging markets.

Gary Ginstling is also a professionally trained musician. He served as principal clarinet of southern California 's New West Symphony for eleven seasons, and has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Santa Barbara Symphony. He was a Fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida , from 1992 to 1996.

Mr. Ginstling is a board member of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras (ACSO) and served as a board member of the San Francisco Opera BRAVO! Club for young professionals. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University, a Master of Music from The Juilliard School, and an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA.

Gary Ginstling succeeds Jonathan Martin, who served as General Manager of The Cleveland Orchestra from 1999 to March 2008. Mr. Martin is now the Executive Director of the Charlotte Symphony in North Carolina.

www.clevelandorchestra.com

The music of Kaija Saariaho will be widely heard in the United States this summer. Saariaho's second opera 'Adriana Mater' will get its U.S. premiere on July 26, 2008, at the Santa Fe opera. In August, Saariaho is featured as the composer-in-residence of the Mostly Mozart festival in Lincoln Center, New York. The festival programme includes for example the U.S. premiere of the oratorio 'La Passion de Simone' on August 13, as well as Saariaho's cello concerto 'Notes on Light' (Aug 14) and the string quartet 'Terra Memoria' (Aug 21).

Full news in more depth can be found at http://www.fimic.fi/news

Pianist Charles Rosen, the 81-year-old classical music legend and Musical America’s 2008 Instrumentalist of the Year, will perform four works by Elliott Carter in Tanglewood’s “Elliott Carter Centenary Celebration” all in Seiji Ozawa Hall. On Sunday, July 20, at 10 a.m. he will play Carter’s Double Concerto for Piano and Harpsichord with Ursula Oppens in a concert conducted by Oliver Knussen. The following day on Monday, July 21, he will perform Carter’s Piano Sonata in the Prelude Concert at 5 p.m. And on Thursday, July 24, he will play 90+ and will join cellist Fred Sherry in Carter’s Elegy in the 5 p.m. Prelude Concert.

For tickets and information, call SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200 or visit the Tanglewood Web site at www.tanglewood.org

Charles Rosen and Elliott Carter have been lifelong friends. It’s been said that there is no other pianist who understands Carter's music better, and in fact, Charles Rosen was one of four pianists who commissioned Night Fantasies from Elliott Carter (Ursula Oppens, Gilbert Kalish, and the late Paul Jacobs were the others), Charles Rosen, at 81 years of age, is one of the most widely respected pianists of our time, internationally acclaimed for his performances and recordings of a diverse repertoire ranging from Bach to works by today’s most important composers. His combination of musical sensitivity and powerful intelligence produces interpretations of exceptional understanding and impact, as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted when it wrote: “Rosen’s piano playing is riveting in the way it combines formal clarity and musical insight with an uncommon gestural and speech-like expressiveness.”

PROKOFIEV AND HIS WORLD

Two summer weekends, august 8–10 and august 15–17, offer expansive survey of music by the great Russian composer and his contemporaries, with life and times of Prokofiev further illuminated by preconcert talks, panel discussions, and a symposium

"Prokofiev and His World," a centerpiece of the seven-week 2008 Bard Summerscape Festival, offers first close examination of composer's life and career since historical archives left behind in Russia were partially opened in 2003

"Part boot camp for the brain, part spa for the spirit" –New York Times

Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. – The last two weekends of Bard SummerScape 2008 will feature the world-renowned Bard Music Festival, returning in its 19^th annual season for an exploration of "Prokofiev and His World." The eleven summer programs of the Bard Music Festival will take place over two weekends on August 8–10 and August 15–17, to be followed by an autumn finale featuring two additional programs (October 24 and 25).

For more information, see: www.fishercenter.bard.edu

Szymanowski's opera King Roger and his "Pastoral Dance" Harnasie will be performed by the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, in productions designed and directed by Lech Majewski, for five performances opening July 25

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – Bard SummerScape's exploration of "Prokofiev and His World" will be enriched by productions of two rapturous works by Polish composer Karol Szymanowski – a contemporary and friend of Prokofiev's – opening Friday, July 25 for a run of five performances through August 3. Under music director Leon Botstein, SummerScape's resident American Symphony Orchestra will play both the acclaimed opera King Roger (The Shepherd) and Harnasie, a pastoral dance by the composer who is widely considered the father of modern Polish music. The Wroclaw Opera Chorus will perform, with Polish vocal soloists, and a children's choir. Both works will be directed and designed by Lech Majewski.

For more information, see: www.fishercenter.bard.edu

Featured Artists:

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Bramwell Tovey, conductor
Cyndia Sieden, soprano
Pacific Chorale (John Alexander, artistic director)
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (Anne Tomlinson, artistic director)

TOVEY Urban Runway
STRAUSS  Don Juan
ORFF  Carmina Burana
 
Bramwell Tovey and the Los Angeles Philharmonic will launch the annual Tuesday/Thursday Classical concerts under the stars. The program concludes with Carl Orff's influential and powerful Carmina Burana, music heard so often at the movies and on TV.

To purchase tickets, visit: http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/tickets/performance_detail.cfm?id=3508
Enter code: BOWL

---

 
Featured Artists:

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Bramwell Tovey, conductor
Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano (Carmen)
Pacific Chorale (John Alexander, Artistic Director; Robert Istad, Chorus Master)
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (Anne Tomlinson, music director)

One of the most passionate and tuneful of all operas comes to life with the sultry Denyce Graves in the title role.  A benefit for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Musicians Pension Fund.

To purchase tickets, visit:
http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/tickets/performance_detail.cfm?id=3513
Enter code: BOWL