Blog Archives - Classical Music Today

What pandemic? Dallas Symphony takes music to the people

11/30/2020

When most people think of concert venues, a functional box truck including piano and lights likely doesn’t come to mind. However, this mobility is precisely what makes the Concert Truck uniquely adaptable to traveling to and performing at many types of locations, and since 2016 the truck has performed in locations across multiple states, including Maryland and Minnesota, and it has performed at a number of virtual concerts.

The Concert Truck is by Susan Zhang and Nick Luby, both pianists, and the truck was recently in Columbia, South Carolina for Piano X as a guest artist. Currently, The Concert Truck is in Dallas from November 19 until December 17 in which it is working with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in a residency.

These free concerts will be about 45 minutes to an hour in length and feature Zhang and Luby musicians from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and other musicians as well.

You can see their entire schedule of appearances here.

Georgia Coles

Conductor injured in fall, recovering

11/25/2020

Conductor Benjamin Zander recently suffered a fall at home, resulting in a double quad rupture in both legs. Evidently he fell from the back steps of his house.

He is currently in rehab in Boston and says he is recovering nicely, expecting to be home soon.

Zander is approaching 80 years of age, and remains active as a conductor and speaker.

The photo here is one that he posted on his Facebook page.

Composer's papers may be lost forever

11/23/2020

A collection of the papers of the English composer Sir Malcolm Arnold currently has a fate in flux, as calls for the papers’ preservation for historians contrast with the possibility of the papers being destroyed.

Sir Malcolm Arnold, born in Northamptonshire in 1921, played the trumpet beginning at 12 and later attended the Royal College of Music. He joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1941, became principal trumpet in 1943, was principal trumpet at BBC Symphony Orchestra for a season, and returned to LPO until 1948. However, Sir Arnold is likely best known for his work as a composer.

Sir Malcolm Arnold composed well over one hundred film scores, including Hobson’s Choice and The Sound Barrier, and he won an Oscar for his score of The Bridge on the River Kwai. Additionally, he composed five ballets for the Royal Ballet, two operas, nine symphonies, and a musical. Mahler and Berlioz were among his influences. Until his death in 2006, Sir Arnold was Rochdale Youth Orchestra’s president.

However, current issues with regards to his correspondence are that his papers from 1979 to 1986, when he was in the Court of Protection’s care, might be lost. There are not current plans for destroying the papers. However, a petition for instead the placement of the papers into The National Archives has almost 1700 signatures.

--Georgia Coles

Pianist uses special gloves to play again

11/13/2020

.Brazilian pianist Joao Carlos Martins has had his share of challenges over the years: he suffered nerve damage from a soccer injury; he was attacked by a robber and hit over the head with a bat resulting in significant trauma; he lost the use of his left had to focal dystonia. He thought he'd never play again.

Now he can. A Brazilian designer has invented a pair of gloves that enable him to play once again.

You can read more about Martins and the special gloves he is now using here and here

New website helps you learn about classical music

11/10/2020

Music in the Air, or MITA, is a new application available for Windows and Mac by ArtsInteractive, Inc. Founded by Robert Winter and Peter Bogdanoff, MITA is an interactive manner of experiencing music that has a strongly narrative tone able to both stretch over a breadth of centuries and also focus on specific composers.

MITA also includes features such as music terms definitions, recordings of many genres, and videos. Further, MITA includes one hundred and thirty very annotated scores.

Overall, the application also seems to emphasize the options users have in how descriptive the software is, allowing users an overview of the music, or the option for going in for more depth. Offering both historical and theory-based perspectives, the service is available for students, educators, and music enthusiasts.

There is a monthly fee for access to the site. You can learn more here.

--Georgia Coles

Rigoletto on a baseball field?

11/9/2020

Tulsa Opera’s ‘baseball Rigoletto,’ filmed before a live, in-person audience at local baseball stadium ONEOK Field, will premiere as a free, on-demand streaming experience for viewers around the world starting Thursday, November 12 at 6:00 p.m. CT. This performance, which originally took place on Friday, October 9, was the first staged grand opera production in the United States since the coronavirus outbreak.

For this season-opening performance, Tulsa Opera Artistic Director Tobias Picker re-envisioned Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto to run 85–90 minutes without intermission. He invited Tulsa native James Robinson to direct the production in his company debut—taking the baseball diamond as his stage, with the court jester Rigoletto cast as a lowly team mascot, the Duke of Mantua depicted as a cocky star pitcher, and the hired killer, Sparafucile, as the umpire. For the live show, this ballpark setting allowed Tulsa Opera to accommodate a larger audience than the opera house and in safer, open-air conditions with rigorous health protocols in place.

Mr. Picker said:
“Our ‘baseball’ Rigoletto makes history as the first Rigoletto set in baseball AND on a baseball field, and it made history as the first grand opera to be performed live before a live audience by an American opera company since COVID-19 shut down the performing arts last spring. It also taps into the fascinating, but little-known history of the cultural intersection between baseball and opera in the USA going back to the MET’s epic performances throughout the country's baseball stadiums in the early 20th century. "

Streaming access will be free--just click here. Or you can visit the Tulsa Opera YouTube page.

The Pianist who would be President

11/2/2020

Originally from Charleston, South Carolina, Jade Simmons is a classically trained pianist with degrees from Northwestern University and Rice University. Additionally, Mrs. Simmons is a public speaker, CEO of Jade Media Global, and a 2020 independent presidential candidate. She has released music including Revolutionary Rhythm, Playing With Fire, and “The Flight” and is a Yamaha artist.

Also a talented public speaker, Jade Simmons is the host of the American Public Media Podcast Decomposed. Mrs. Simmons has worked with companies including the Hershey Company, Nationwide, and Mass Mutual, and her curated speaking engagements include topics such as fostering creativity, boldness, audacity, and reinvention. Additionally, she has authored Audacious Prayers for World Changers: Live and Pray Out Loud, a #1 Amazon Best-selling book. She has performed at South by Southwest and starred in the musical Lillette’s Rhythm Club.

Further, Mrs. Simmons is currently an independent 2020 presidential candidate; her running mate is Claudeliah Roze. Her platform focuses on issues including mental health awareness, small businesses, and immigration, among many other topics.

You can read about her campaign and platform here.

Denyce Graves to join Julliard Faculty

11/2/2020

Mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves will join Juilliard’s Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts as distinguished visiting faculty beginning this month.

“I am honored on behalf of Juilliard to welcome to our faculty the incomparable Denyce Graves,” said Juilliard President Damian Woetzel. “Our vocal students will be so fortunate to henceforth have Denyce’s wisdom and example to draw on, and the school as a whole will be similarly enriched by her presence among us.”

“Joining the faculty of Juilliard’s Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts is, for me, a career highlight!” Graves said. “There is nowhere in the world—and certainly no place where creative and performing arts education is alive and serious—that isn’t somehow associated with Juilliard. I’m thrilled beyond words to have been invited to contribute to the training that Juilliard’s talented young performers receive to launch their careers, and I couldn’t be more excited to join the colleagues and peers already there doing this important work. I have admired and respected this amazing institution of excellence for my entire career, and it will be a joy to become a part of this leader in performing arts education.”

In coordination with her performance schedule, Graves will be in residence at Juilliard for a multiweek residency each semester while also holding coaching and mentoring sessions throughout each term. Residencies may focus around a performance or showcase of opera scenes, or a group recital in which she works intensively with the singers. Some residency work may take place remotely in the coming year, in accordance with safety guidelines.