The directors of the Boston Early Music Festival invite their audience to the rehearsal of "Venus and Adonis" and "Acteon."
The seven-year-old Savannah Music Festival has established a reputation for interesting programming crossing diverse musical boundaries, but their just-announced 2009 program may be the event's most interesting and most diverse yet. With top artists in various genres of jazz, roots, blues, world music, and classical, the upcoming festival, set for March 19 to April 5, 2009, puts a feather in the historic city's cultural cap.
The event's more than 100 performances are programmed in themes, series and special events. Some of the highlights are as follows:
In roots categories, Long Time Travelin' is a celebration of American folk song traditions featuring Rayna Gellert of Uncle Earl, gospel bluegrasser Doyle Lawson and hosted by Americana singer-songwriter Jim Lauderback, while Roots & Twang is a concert serieis featuring Neko Case and Crooked Fingers, Punch Brothers with Chris Thile, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Lovell Sisters and more. Read more »
On July 3 of next year, Maestro James Levine of the Boston Symphony Orchestra will be opening the Tanglewood Festival with a program made entirely of Tchaikovsky works: Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, and the Piano Concerto No. 1. Pianist Yefim Bronfman will be featured during this opening performance. Levine and the BSO will be bringing Mahler and Brahms pieces performed this fall back for an encore during the summer season. He will also be working with the students of the Tanglewood Music Center, who will perform Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Act III along with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.
Other highlights of next year's festival include "James Taylor and Friends," an extra week added to the Tanglewood season for master classes, workshops and concerts by James Taylor and select musicians. This segment will end with a Taylor-BSO collaboration concert featuring John Williams conducting. Read more »
Initially conceived in a roundtable of the elite of Los Angeles's high culture, to include more than 50 cultural and performing arts organizations all based in LA and officially announced by members of LA County's board of supervisors, tbe second largest city in America will in two years produce an intensive two-month tribute to the works not of a local heavyweight composer such as John Williams, but of a favorite son of Leipzig, Germany: Richard Wagner.
Prophesied to be "a defining moment in the cultural history of Los Angeles" by the Los Angeles Opera's General Director and powerhouse tenor Placido Domingo, Ring Festival LA, which is slated to begin on April 15th, 2010, will feature special exhibits and performances, symposia and other events all focused on the Los Angeles Opera's presentation of Wagner's four-epic opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. Read more »
I recently provided answers to some survey questions from a college student about the economics of the live music industry, which gave me a chance to write down some of my thoughts about the underlying appeal of festivals and the likely impacts of the economic downturn on the festival market. It struck me that some of those answers would be interesting to also post to the site. Comments are welcome.
What is it about festivals that intrigues you?I believe that as our lives become more isolated and mediated by technology, we are seeking out immersive experiences that connect us with "live" communities and give us a sense of participation in a technicolor, multi-sensory world. Festivals are uniquely suited to providing this kind of experience in a contained weekend-long break from our otherwise humdrum, cubicled existence. Read more »
With the current state of the economy, I've been noticing various articles being written about the impact financial crises are having on music festivals. Of significant importance is Spoleto Festival USA, one of FP's top tier classical festivals. Two different online news sources based in Charleston, South Carolina, where the festival is held, have produced articles describing Spoleto’s financial outlook. I, myself, am no economist so I will leave you with links, a short description, and excerpt from each article.
"Lowcountry braces for fallout from bank's sale" (The Post and Courier)
This article describes the impact of the sale of Wachovia Corp., an annual financial supporter of Spoleto for the past 14 years, to Citigroup Inc. Read more »
Within the last few months (July to be exact), Tanglewood Festival has added a new section to their Web site called Tanglewood Web TV. Have you seen it yet? The Tanglewood channel includes actual festival footage from 2007, clips from behind the scenes, documentaries on Elliot Carter, interviews with Tanglewood musicians, and a walking tour of the Tanglewood grounds. Offering over seven hours of video, it's perfect both for those who have never been to the festival and want to learn more and those frequent attendees who can't get enough. Check it out here.
A gala concert honoring the divas of mariachi music was the centerpiece of the 17th San Jose Mariachi Festival, but the month-long series of events celebrated all aspects of what might be considered the traditional classical music of Mexico.
The Mexican Heritage Center of San Jose CA produces a festival that includes workshops with world-renowned mariachi ensembles, several outstanding concerts, and a full-on free festival day with mariachi and Latin alternative music presented on multiple stages in downtown San Jose.
Mariachi music is an emotionally evocative and rich music that reflects the traditional Mexican spirit and culture.
Following its debut at last summer's Cabrillo Music Festival, Americana music master Mark O'Connor's first symphonic work has now been recorded by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and is set for release in March 2009. "Americana Symphony: Variations on Appalachia Waltz" is a full symphony is six movements, each a variant of the Appalachia Waltz theme that O'Connor composed in 1993 and recorded at that time as a collaboration among O'Connor, Yo Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer.
Following the original recording, a group of 15 American orchestras commissioned the full work, which O'Connor completed last year. The recording was produced by legendary producer Steve Epstein with Grammy winner Richard King engineering. Marin Alsop conducted the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
"Any composition is not quite finished until it is recorded, and it was great to put the wrap on this musical journey for me. It was thrilling putting it on tape. It sounded like it did when it was still dancing around my head," O'Connor said. It will be released March 10, 2009 by OMAC Records. Read more »
The Grand Canyon Music Festival has won the ASCAP Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous programming and here’s what’s in store for the second weekend of it’s 25th Silver Anniversary Season. Friday, Sept. 12 and Saturday, 13, 2008.
The festival presents pianist Joel Fan and the Enso String Quartet. These artists have garnered much high acclaim, The Boston Globe calls them “superb”, “extraordinary” says the Village Voice. Joel Fan is described as “versatile and sensitive pianist” by the New York Times.
From the Aspen Music Festival and School in Aspen, Colo., a gifted flutist embraces a Swiss ballade, a 16-year-old violinist tosses off a devilish sonata and a 14-year-old pianist tackles Liszt's Mephisto Waltz.
