Classical Music News of the Week, May 20, 2012

LVMH & American
Composers Orchestra Announce the Continuation of Partnership to Support the
Work of Emerging American Composers

Milica Paranosic wins 2012 ACO / LVMH commission

World Premiere Concert – October 26, 2012 at Zankel Hall,
Carnegie Hall

Marks the Fourth Commission and Premiere to Come from
Partnership Between LVMH and ACO

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s leading high
quality products group, and acclaimed new music orchestra American Composers
Orchestra (ACO) are pleased to announce that Milica Paranosic has been selected
to receive the fourth ACO / LVMH-sponsored artistic commission. ACO’s Orchestra
Underground will perform the world premiere of the work featuring electronics,
projections and orchestra at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.

Renaud Dutreil, Chairman of LVMH Inc. in North America,
said of Milica’s work, “As an organization with a strong living cultural
heritage, we are very excited to promote Milica’s piece. The way Milica brings
a story to life giving you a pallet of visuals through all aspects of sound is
truly inspiring. The creativity and authenticity that emanates from her work
reflects LVMH’s Art de Vivre values.”

Robert Beaser, Artistic Director of American Composers
Orchestra, said, “American Composers Orchestra is delighted to be working with
LVMH on this fourth commission and premiere. It is enormously exciting that our
partnership will provide an opportunity and exposure for as creative a composer
as Milica. LVMH’s exceptional belief in the power of great new music by young
composers makes our partnership one of energy, commitment and synergy.”

About Milica Paranosic:

Born in Belgrade, Paranosic lives in New York City. As a
composer/sound designer/conceptual and multimedia artist/educator and producer,
she has provoked audiences from opera-goers to soccer fans.

Classically trained, Paranosic prefers calling herself
“classically challenged” as her influences are just as much the ones from the
street and pop culture as the ones from her formal education. Paranosic writes
music, concepts, sounds, computer patches, theatrical scripts, short stories,
and uses human voice, found objects, technological tools and musical instruments
as her music carriers, giving them equal “rights.” Paranosic first came to the
attention of ACO through its annual new music readings, a nationwide
professional development program providing career-building experience and
exposure to aspiring orchestral composers.

About LVMH:

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton is represented in Wines
and Spirits by a portfolio of brands that includes Moët & Chandon, Dom
Pérignon, Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Krug, Ruinart, Mercier, Château d’Yquem,
Hennessy, Glenmorangie, Ardbeg, Vodka 
Belvedere, 10 Cane, Chandon, Cloudy Bay, Terrazas de los Andes, Cheval
des Andes, Green Point, Cape Mentelle, Newton, Wen Jun. Its Fashion and Leather
Goods division includes Louis Vuitton, the world's leading luxury brand, as
well as Céline, Loewe, Kenzo, Givenchy, Thomas Pink, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, Donna
Karan, Marc Jacobs and Berluti. LVMH is present in the Perfumes and Cosmetics
sector with Parfums Christian Dior, Guerlain, Parfums Givenchy, Parfums Kenzo,
Perfumes Loewe as well as other promising cosmetic companies (BeneFit
Cosmetics, Make Up For Ever, Acqua di Parma and Fresh). LVMH is also active in
selective retailing as well as in other activities through DFS, Sephora, Le Bon
Marché, Samaritaine and Royal Van Lent. LVMH's Watches and Jewelry division
comprises Bulgari, TAG Heuer, Chaumet, Dior Watches, Zenith, Fred, Hublot and
De Beers Jewellery, a joint venture created with the world’s leading diamond
group.

About ACO:

Now entering its 36th year, American Composers Orchestra
is the only orchestra in the world dedicated to the creation, performance,
preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers. ACO makes the
creation of opportunities for American composers its central purpose. It serves
as an incubator of ideas and talent; as a catalyst for growth among orchestras;
and as an advocate for American composers and their music. ACO has performed
music by more than 750 American composers, including 250 world premieres and
commissioned works. Through its concerts at Carnegie Hall and other venues,
recordings, broadcasts, educational programs, New Music Readings and
commissions, ACO identifies today’s brightest emerging composers, champions
established composers and increases awareness of the variety of American
orchestral music. Among the honors ACO has received are awards from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters and BMI recognizing the orchestra’s
outstanding contribution to American music. ASCAP has awarded its annual prize
for adventurous programming to ACO 34 times, singling it out as “the orchestra
that has done the most for new American music in the United States.” ACO
received the inaugural MetLife Award for Excellence in Community Engagement,
and a proclamation from the New York City Council. ACO recordings are available
on ARGO, CRI, ECM, Point, Phoenix USA, MusicMasters, Nonesuch, Tzadik, and New
World Records, and live concert recordings are available at iTunes, Amazon.com
and InstantEncore.com.

--Christina Jensen PR

National
Philharmonic Presents DC Premiere of Debussy’s Martyrdom of St. Sebastian

The DC premiere of 
Claude Debussy’s Martyrdom of St.
Sebastian will be presented by the National Philharmonic, conducted by
National Philharmonic Chorale Artistic Director Stan Engebretson, on Saturday,
May 19 at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore. The concert will conclude
the May National Philharmonic and Strathmore celebration of the music of Claude
Debussy, marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of the most
important French composers. The concert will feature the National
Philharmonic’s nearly 200 voice all-volunteer Chorale, as well as soloists
Audrey Luna (soprano); Rosa Lamoreaux (soprano); Linda Maguire
(mezzo-soprano);  and narrator Eliot
Pfanstiehl, founder and CEO of Strathmore.

The martyr St. Sebastian's life, death, and miracles have
inspired painters and sculptors throughout history and in 1911, it captured the
imagination of Debussy in the form of a text by Gabriele d’Annunzio. The work
they created together retells the soldier-saint’s story as a medieval mystery
play in five tableaux or movements - The Court of Lilies, The Magic Chamber,
The Council of False Gods, The Wounded Laurel and Paradise. Reviewers have
praised the sheer beauty of the music, with its evocation of ecstasy and mysticism.
Describing his intentions with this piece, Debussy wrote, “. . . when in the
last act, the Saint mounts to paradise, I think I set down what I felt at the
thought of soaring to the heavens!” Audiences agreed. The piece debuted in
Paris in 1912 to great critical acclaim and packed houses – one audience
member, Arturo Toscanini, made immediate arrangements to take it to La Scala
for its Italian premiere, where it also triumphed.

About the Soloists:

Soprano Audrey Luna, whom Opera News says “has power and a
blazing coloratura facility that most lyric sopranos can only dream of,” is
fast emerging as one of the country’s brightest young artists.  Ms. Luna’s 2012-13 season includes her
return to the Metropolitan Opera as Ariel in The Tempest by Thomas Adès, Madame Mao in Nixon in China with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Ariel in The Tempest with Orchestra
Dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, soloist in George Crumb’s Star Child with American Symphony
Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos with Fort Worth Opera.  In summer 2012, she joins L’Opéra Festival de Québec to sing
Ariel in The Tempest.

Ms. Luna is the 2009 winner of the Loren L. Zachary Vocal
Competition and received the top prize awarded in the 2009 Renata Tebaldi
International Voice Competition. She has also been awarded first place in the
Terzo Concorso Lirico Internazionale “Alfredo Giacomotti,” the Caruso
International Voice Competition and Eleanor Lieber Awards, and has garnered
prizes from the George London Foundation, the José Iturbi International Voice
Competition, Elardo International Opera Competition, the Liederkranz
Foundation, the Licia Albanese – Puccini Foundation, and the Metropolitan Opera
National Council Auditions.

Soprano Rosa Lamoreaux, acclaimed for her "scrupulous
musicianship ... gorgeous sound and stylistic acuity" (The Washington Post), is engaged in an
international career of broad scope, including solo recitals, chamber music,
opera, and orchestral performances at major concert venues:  Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, the
Kennedy Center, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Strathmore Hall and the
Washington National Cathedral, among others. Her concert tours abroad have
included performances in Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Peru and
Japan.

Ms. Lamoreaux is Artistic Director of the National Gallery
of Art Vocal Ensemble.  Her art museum
performance venues also include the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the
Cloisters and the Phillips Collection. She has recently received her seventh
Washington Area Music Association WAMMIE award as Best Classical Vocalist.

Mezzo-soprano Linda Maguire is an internationally renowned
vocal artist with an extensive resume in concert, recital and opera, as well as
live broadcasts and recordings. She has sung regularly with many of the major
orchestras of North America, including Calgary, Dallas and Vancouver.
Appearances abroad include Les Musiciens du Louvre, I Virtuosi di Praja, and
Les Violons du Roi.

Ms. Maguire attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in
Ohio before launching her twenty-three year international career as a vocal
artist. During this time, she has sung more than thirty "zwischen"
(essentially soprano) leading roles in the opera houses of Glyndebourne,
Montreal, Dallas and Toronto, among others.

Ms. Maguire has sung with City Choir of Washington, in
performances of Durufle’s Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem. She also appeared as
guest soloist with the U.S. Army Chorus and select members of US Army Band
“Pershing’s Own” in a concert featuring music by Schubert and Gershwin.

--Deborah Birnbaum, National Philharmonic

Philharmonia
Baroque Opens 2012 Berkeley Festival & Exhibition on June 3 and Napa
Valley’s Festival Del Sole on July 13

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s 2011-12 season officially
ended on April 22, but the music goes on through the summer as Philharmonia
Baroque performs on the opening nights of both the 2012 Berkeley Festival &
Exhibition and Napa Valley’s Festival del Sole.

The 2012 Berkeley Festival & Exhibition opens June 3
with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Music Director Nicholas McGegan at the
fortepiano in recital with soprano Dominique Labelle, violinist Elizabeth
Blumenstock, and cellist Phoebe Carrai, for a concert of “Beethoven Songs &
Haydn Trios.” The concert features songs, trios, and solo piano works by
Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Kotzwara, Monsigny, Boieldieu, and Pleyel. Since its
inauguration in 1990, the biennial Festival has been recognized worldwide as
one of the premier events of its kind, bringing together early music
performers, scholars, instrument makers, publishers, and enthusiasts for a week
of concerts, lectures, conferences, and master classes on and around the
University of California, Berkeley campus.

On Friday, July 13, Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia
Baroque Orchestra open the seventh season of Napa Valley’s Festival del Sole in
a concert featuring soprano Susan Graham at the majestic Castello di Amorosa, a
medieval-style Tuscan castle. The program for this concert features several Handel
arias; concertos by Vivaldi, Corelli and Durante; and Handel’s beloved Water
Music Suite No. 3. The luxurious evening begins with a wine reception atop the
castle tower, overlooking breathtaking vineyard views. Guests will then enter
the Castello’s beautiful and acoustically-inspired central courtyard for a
concert and following the concert, Gala VIPs enter Castello’s Grand Barrel
Room, where Festival Founding Benefactors Tatiana and Gerret Copeland will host
a lavish dinner complemented by fine wines from Castello di Amorosa and
Bouchaine Vineyards.

For more information, visit www.philharmonia.org or call
(415) 252-1288. You may also visit the Web sites of the 2012 Berkeley Festival
& Exhibition at http://bfx.berkeley.edu/ or Festival del Sole at http://festivaldelsole.org/.

--Karen Ames Communications

PARMA Recordings
Announces Winners of 2012 PARMA Student Composer Competition

The ten winners and the Grand Prize Winner of the
inaugural PARMA Student Composer Competition have been announced on the PARMA
Recordings Web site, www.parmarecordings.com.

Congratulations to Grand Prize Winner QUINN DIZON of the
University of Louisville, whose piece Awakening for piano quartet will be
recorded, produced, released, and promoted by PARMA Recordings and distributed
through Naxos on a compilation album on one of our labels.

Mr. Dizon and the other nine finalists will have their
works published in the 2012 PARMA Anthology of Music: Student Edition, which
will be provided to educators and performers free of charge. Visit
www.parmarecordings.com/studentanthology to view the full list of winners.

About the Competition Judges:

John Page studied at King's College London, University
College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, and Harvard University and began his
career with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland in 2000. In Ireland, his
2002 performances of Viktor Ullmann's The Emperor of Atlantis with Opera
Theatre Company garnered the prestigious Irish Times Opera of the Year award
and he was subsequently invited to give a Lyric FM broadcast concert with the
NSOI.  Throughout the next decade, Page
worked with the NEC Symphony, Boston Ballet, the Irish Film Orchestra, the
Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Modern Band, Mimesis Ensemble, the BBC
Ulster Orchestra, and many others with roles ranging from Conductor to Music
Director.

Richard Brooks is a native of upstate New York and holds a
B.S. degree in Music Education from the Crane School of Music, Potsdam College,
an M.A. in Composition from Binghamton University, and a Ph. D. in Composition
from New York University. From 1975 to 2004 he was on the music faculty of
Nassau Community College where he was Professor and, for 22 years, Department
Chair. In addition to his services in education, he has composed nearly ninety
works for various media and ensembles.

Timothy A. Davis is a Massachusett native who brings a
variety of administrative, corporate, and new music experience to his role as
CEO of the Boston New Music Initiative. 
Recognizing the need for a strong network across musical disciplines,
Tim's motivation in founding BNMI reflects his long-standing commitment to
furthering the careers of composers and musicians.  He has served as a judge for composition competitions with the
National Federation of Music Clubs and on judging panels for BNMI's Calls for
Scores.  As an educator, Tim provides
private composition instruction, and he worked as an instructor of theory and
aural skills at the University of Iowa, where he earned Pi Kappa Lambda honors
in graduating with a doctorate in composition in 2009.  He also holds degrees from Boston College
and the University of Massachusetts.

About the Editor:

Chris Brubaker is the founder and Manager of
ThatNewMusicLibrary.com and ThatNewMusicWebsite.com.  In 2011, PARMA acquired ThatNewMusic, and Chris continues to work
as one of PARMA's Musical Advisors. Chris was instrumental in the development
and release of the 2011 Anthology Of Contemporary Concert Music, a collection
of modern works distributed on ThatNewMusicWebsite, and serves as editor for
this Student Edition.

About PARMA Recordings:

PARMA Recordings LLC is the parent organization of the
Navona, Big Round, Ravello, and Capstone label imprints. The company's work
spans classical, jazz, rock, blues, family, and film, and includes programs and
divisions for custom audio, licensing, publishing and more.

PARMA's labels feature work by artists such as
Grammy-winner Richard Stoltzman, Pulitzer Prize winner Lewis Spratlan, renowned
percussionist Steve Gadd, Pixar/Randy Newman orchestrator Jonathan Sacks, New
York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, and The Who's Pete Townshend,
among others.

PARMA emphasizes new and engaging sounds, innovative
presentation, and an interactive experience from all of our physical and
digital products.  PARMA has pioneered
the use of Enhanced Content in our releases to bundle and incorporate digital
study scores, recording session photos and videos, composer interviews,
applications for mobile devices, and other contextual information to facilitate
a greater understanding of new music.

--Rory Cooper, PARMA Recordings

Music Institute of
Chicago Academy alumnus Kai Talim Hosts the Second Annual Walk with Children
Concert Benefiting ASHINAGA, Supporting Japanese Orphans Following the 2011
Earthquake

When: Friday, May 25, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston

Tickets: $15 adults, $10 students at the door (cash or
check only)

Kai Talim, an alumnus of the Music Institute of Chicago’s
Academy for gifted pre-college musicians, hosts the second annual “Walk with
Children” benefit concert featuring other Academy alumni, current students, and
friends. The program includes works by Handel, Schubert, Prokofiev, Ravel,
Villa-Lobos, Smetana, Piazzolla and more.

Says Talim, “On March 11, 2011, Japan was devastated by a
magnitude 9.0 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster. The damage
was tremendous; every aspect of the lives of the Japanese has been
significantly altered. One of the most striking videos of the disaster was of a
girl standing amongst piles of debris, crying out for her mother. As a
Japanese-American son of two supportive and loving parents, the stories of the
children of Japan have had a tremendous impact on me. My family is everything
to me, and I cannot imagine what children who lose their parents go through. I
decided I wanted to help these children by raising funds for an organization
called ASHINAGA, a group dedicated to improving the lives of Japanese orphans.
We cannot provide them with their lost parents. But we can give them the
feeling and knowledge that a group of people cares for them.

“The Music Institute is one of the best organizations that
supports children. My family and I moved from Portland, Oregon to be a part of
the Academy program. The experiences and support I received at the Academy will
always be a part of me. As a community, we can make a difference in the lives
of the orphans of Japan.”

--Jill Chukerman, JAC Communications