The head of the composition department at the Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University’s conservatory, Hersch was named the winner of the 2017 President’s Frontier Award, which goes to a JHU faculty member “poised to break new ground and be a leader in [his/her] field.”
Category: music
Getting Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto Back To What Tchaikovsky Really Wrote
“What we commonly hear is an overly ostentatious misrepresentation, tarted up after Tchaikovsky’s death” by a former student who had also studied with Liszt. Pianist Kirill Gerstein has gone back to the composer’s own conducting score and other sources to create a cleaner edition. “It’s still very much the Tchaikovsky concerto we love,” Gerstein says, “but it perhaps has a different facial expression than we are used to.” (includes sound clips)
What Philip Glass Learned In Paris
“As WNYC’s Sara Fishko tells us in this Fishko Files, Glass’s time away from America in the ’60s was central to his music, as he encountered a pair of powerful influences.” (audio)
A Seattle Orchestra Tackles Art About Homelessness
Local arts groups dealing with homelessness as a subject or a source of activism meet the dilemmas that always attend the task of simultaneously doing social good and putting butts in seats. But they also face a paradox particular to Seattle. Our progressive zeal leads us to demand of any major institution: “What are the arts doing to address homelessness?” Our contrarian skepticism then leads to the follow-up question: “What can the arts do about homelessness?” Bore people to death with a Berlioz concerto? Photograph their prostration? Exploit them for grant money in a woke af marketing campaign? People who don’t have housing need housing, not music appreciation classes. But complex problems require creative action.
PBS NewsHour Pays Visit To Dallas Opera’s Institute For Women Conductors
“According to industry data, of the nine largest American opera companies by budget, none has a female music director and principal conductor. And Marin Alsop in Baltimore, who served on the faculty at the Dallas workshop, remains the sole woman music director at the nation’s 24 largest orchestras. In Dallas, [general director Keith] Cerny hired Nicole Paiement as principal guest conductor, and she played a large role at the institute, encouraging.” (video)
‘Written On Skin’ Composer George Benjamin Is Writing A New Opera
Since its world premiere in 2012, Written on Skin has become one of the best-received new operas of the (still-young) century. The same team – Benjamin, librettist Martin Crimp, director Katie Mitchell, soprano Barbara Hannigan – will premiere Lessons in Love and Violence in London in 2018, with performances in six more cities to follow.
Jamie Barton Wins Met Opera’s Beverly Sills Award
“Ms. Barton jump-started her career by winning a series of prestigious prizes: the Met’s National Council Auditions in 2007, both the main and song contests at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2013 and the Richard Tucker Award in 2015.” Among previous winners of the $50,000 prize are Nathan Gunn, Joyce DiDonato, Angela Meade, Brian Hymel, and Michael Fabiano. (includes video)
There’s A Long History Of Protest Songs. But Is Anyone Listening Any More?
Voices are being heard, of course. Songwriters would be hard-pressed to resist the actions and rhetoric of the Trump presidency. But what rabble is being roused? Are the modern protest singers preaching to choirs? A nation is divided, and many of the protest songs are not of the unifying “this land is your land” kind.
What It’s Like To Join The Chicago Symphony
Nathan Cole: As I put in my first set of numbers, my stand partner made a sound, a kind of groan cut short. I looked over, the point of my pencil still on the page. “Did you want my markings on the bottom instead?” “We don’t mark fingerings here,” he said.” “Here, you mean at this spot?” “I mean in this orchestra.” His face softened, and he added, “Sorry, you’re probably used to seeing them, right?” I was indeed used to seeing fingerings as a matter of course. My mind was fairly blown. “How do you play all this music then?” My stand partner paused, as if he’d never considered the question before. “Practice?” he suggested. When you ask, be ready for the answer.
Before Spending All That Time And Money On A New London Concert Hall, Let’s Think It Through Properly
Jodi Myers considers some potential unintended consequences of going through with Sir Simon’s enormous pet project.