Classical Music News of the Week, October 9, 2011

UK Chamber Choir - Tenebrae - Announces Three-City U.S. Tour

Philadelphia, PA - Harrisonburg, VA - New York, NY - November 4-6, 2011

Tour features U.S. premiere of Paul Mealor's Now sleeps the crimson petal





Revered by critics and audiences as Britain's finest chamber choir, Tenebrae, makes a rare visit to the U.S. for a three-city tour November 4-6, 2011. Founded and directed by former King's Singer and choral expert Nigel Short, the twenty-voice choir blends the passion of a large cathedral choir with the precision of a chamber ensemble to create a unique and enchanting sound, one which is as effective in medieval chant as in contemporary works. With an impressive discography of fifteen critically acclaimed recordings, Tenebrae recently completed its first recording project for Decca Classics.  The CD is slated for release November 7 in the UK and early 2012 in the U.S. and features the music of composer Paul Mealor, whose moving Ubi Caritas was performed at the recent royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.



The first concert of Tenebrae's tour, 8 p.m. on November 4 at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, as well as the 8 p.m., November 5 performance at James Madison University's newly opened Forbes Center, features works by Vaughan Williams, Holst, Tavener, Parry and Joby Talbot as well as Paul Mealor's sublime Ubi Caritas. Mealor, the renowned British composer, praised the choir following their recent collaboration: ''Tenebrae is one of the world's finest chamber choirs. Working with them and their fabulous conductor, Nigel Short on my new album, 'A Tender Light' for Decca Records has been a dream experience! Every second of their consummate professionalism and delicacy of sound, matched with flawless intonation and innate musical shaping, takes me deeper into the very purest, most spiritual place.''



The final concert of the tour, at 8 p.m. on November 6 at St. Mary the Virgin (Smokey Mary's) in New York's Times Square, brings the U.S. Premiere of Mealor's Now sleeps the crimson petal. A delicately transcendent setting of Lord Tennyson's poem of the same name, Now sleeps the crimson petal opens from soft unison into a spectrum of warm sonorities exploring the intimacy of the work.



Click for complete concert and ticket information: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/202924



--Kirshbaum Demler & Associates



Remarkable Theater Brigade Presents Its Third Year of "Opera Shorts"

Unique Evening of 10-Minute Operas by Living Composers - at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall on November 4.

Opera Shorts 2011 features works by William Bolcolm, Jake Heggie, Tom Cipullo, Marie Incontrera, Mike McFerron, Anne Philips, Patrick Soluri, Davide Zannoni, and Christian McLeer, including six world premieres.



In its tenth season, New York's Remarkable Theater Brigade hosts its third annual night of Opera Shorts on November 4, 2011 at 8 p.m., at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. Earning renown as one of the most delightful presentations of contemporary music around, Opera Shorts produces a full evening of ten-minute operas by living composers, and, in the process, puts a fun face on what is often considered the most serious of art forms. For the first time, Opera Shorts will feature works by the Pulitzer Prize-winning William Bolcom, acclaimed vocal composer Jake Heggie (Dead Man Walking), Davide Zannoni and Mike McFerron, along with pieces by previous Opera Shorts composers Tom Cipullo, Marie Incontrera, Anne Dinsmore Phillips, Patrick Soluri and Remarkable Theater Brigade co-founder/artistic director Christian McLeer. The evening will present ten operas, six of them world premieres.



"Opera is usually considered this Very Serious Thing, but Opera Shorts is fun and irreverent and infectious," says Monica Harte, co-founder and general director of the Remarkable Theater Brigade. "It's not suits and gowns; it's much more laidback. I mean, our logo is a pair of boxer shorts, after all!"



Among the vast cast of performers for Opera Shorts on November 4 are Metropolitan Opera baritone Chris Trakas, as well as soprano Danya Katok and mezzo-soprano Amanda Crider of New York City Opera. The instrumentation ranges from string quartet to colorful chamber ensembles.



--Amanda Sweet, Bucklesweet Media



Pianist Piotr Paleczny to Perform Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto with National Philharmonic at Strathmore

North Bethesda, MD, September 27, 2011 – Prominent Polish pianist Piotr Paleczny will perform  Beethoven's  Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major ("Emperor") with the National Philharmonic, under the direction of Music Director and Conductor Piotr Gajewski, on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 3 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore. The concert will also showcase Beethoven's Prometheus Overture and Symphony No. 6 in F Major ("Pastoral").  At the helm of the orchestra will be the Philharmonic's new concert master, Justine Lamb-Budge, who replaces Jody Gatwood, concert master for the past twenty-five years.



Born in 1946, Polish pianist and professor Paleczny graduated from the Frederick Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw and was a prizewinner at five international piano competitions. He is famous for his interpretations of works by Chopin and other composers of the Romantic era. He has appeared as a soloist with such world-class orchestras as Warsaw's National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic and the BBC London Orchestra.



Since 1993, Mr. Paleczny has been the Artistic Director of the oldest music festival held in Poland -- the International Chopin Piano Festival in Duszniki Zdrój. He currently heads the piano performance class at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and serves on the juries of the Chopin International Piano Competition in Paris, Tokyo, Prague, Cleveland and Warsaw.



A free pre-concert lecture will be offered at 6:45 pm on Saturday, November 5 and at 1:45 pm on Sunday, November 6 in the Concert Hall at the Music Center at Strathmore. To purchase tickets to the All Beethoven concerts, please visit www.nationalphilharmonic.org or call the Strathmore box office at (301) 581-5100. Tickets are $32-$79; kids 7-17 are FREE through the ALL KIDS, ALL FREE, ALL THE TIME program (sponsored by The Gazette). ALL KIDS tickets must be purchased in person or by phone.



--Deborah Birnbaum, National Philharmonic



Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Begins Landmark 2011-2012 Season

The season opens on October 13, 2011, at Carnegie Hall and featured artists include Gil Shaham, Albrecht Mayer, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Chris Thile, and Viviane Hagner.

 

New York, NY-- After nearly four decades of bringing artistry and innovation to concert audiences in New York and around the world, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra begins its landmark 39th season this October. With two international tours, the first year-long Orpheus Institute residency, the first collaboration between Orpheus and a Composer-in-Residence, the world premiere of four Project 440 commissions by emerging composers, and the return of its famed Carnegie concert series, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will carry out one of its most exciting seasons to date.



Orpheus's Carnegie Hall season program is a delicate balance of favorites such as Brahms, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Bach with undiscovered repertoire such as Thile, Tippett, Hindemith, Schreker, Honegger, and the works by the Project 440 winners. Orpheus is unique in its drive to explore new works in relation to the old, finding surprising resonances and fruitful contrasts.  The 11-12 season also features top soloists Gil Shaham, Albrecht Mayer, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Chris Thile and Viviane Hagner. A special thread running through the season is Project 440, an initiative to commission four composers in celebration of the orchestra's upcoming fortieth anniversary. The commissioned composers—Alex Mincek, Clint Needham, Andrew Norman and Cynthia Wong—represent different backgrounds and styles, but they all share an uncanny sensitivity to colors and textures. These young composers are redefining the very fabric of the orchestra, and Orpheus, always a fearless ambassador for new music, welcomes the stretch. All except one Carnegie Hall concert date in the 2011-12 season will feature a piece by one of the Project 440 composers. A full schedule of Orpheus' Carnegie season can be found at the end of this release.



--Amanda Ameer, First Chair Promotion



The Callas Effect: The Greatest Opera Singer of All Time - A Profile of the Impact and Influence of Maria Callas Through CD's, a Newly Produced DVD, and a Lavishishly Illustrated Book

International release: September 26, 2011



"I would like to be Maria, but there is La Callas who demands that I carry myself with her dignity."

--Maria Callas



Widely regarded as the greatest opera singer and performer of all time, Maria Callas is the original diva, the ultimate opera icon. Her life story, voice and performances intrigued, thrilled and inspired audiences during her lifetime and continue to do so today. Thirty-four years after her death, Maria Callas is not only the world's bestselling soprano but also EMI Classic's bestselling artist of all time.



Diva, artist, style icon.  Who was the real Maria? The Callas Effect is a deluxe presentation bringing together two CD's of her finest, most-personal recordings, a new documentary DVD featuring fresh insight from those closest to her, and a lavishly illustrated 124-page hardcover book with an essay illuminating and honouring the essence of Maria Callas, the woman and the myth.



Callas dévotées will find new material and food for thought in The Callas Effect. Those less familiar with her personal and musical allure will find an attractive and compelling introduction.  Callas is an artist whose music sounds as unique and inspired today as it did in her lifetime and has been named as a musical influence by such diverse popular artists as Celine Dion, Linda Ronstadt, Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris, Jason Mraz and Rufus Wainwright.



The CDs contain exquisitely interpreted arias from nearly 30 operas, including such favourites as "O mio babbino caro," "Vissi d'arte," and "Casta diva."



The newly-produced DVD documentary-memoir features performance footage, recordings and still photos combined with powerful first-hand accounts of Maria Callas's genius from witnesses of all walks of life. Opera singers, stage directors, actors/actresses, backstage theatre crews, recording staff, impresarios and opera fans who queued for days to buy tickets to her performances all describe how Maria Callas exerted a unique and extraordinary effect on them. Among the interviewees are singers Mirella Freni, Joyce DiDonato and John Dobson, former General Administrator of the Royal Opera House John Tooley, stage director John Copley, EMI Classics Callas biographer Tony Locantro, critic and broadcaster John Amis – and Maria Callas herself, in conversation with Lord Harewood.



The glossy, hardcover book contains a new article by Ira Siff, translated into German, French, Spanish and Italian. Siff suggests that Maria Callas, without doubt the most influential opera singer of the 20th century, had such a far-reaching impact on opera that her influence is still gaining momentum today. Her timeless, universal appeal captures the imagination, not only of opera lovers but of people who have never set foot in an opera house.



Her career was short but, as Tito Gobbi's daughter, in the DVD documentary, quotes her father as saying, "Maria is immortal." And she is.



--Doreen D'Agostino, Doreen D'Agostino Media

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