February 19, 2019
Rachel Barton Pine long ago established herself as a violinist willing to step outside the normal realm of the classical canon to explore a broader landscape of music. Pine’s performances of metal bands such as Metallica (she actually formed a band of her own, Earthen Grave), are one example of how she embraces music that …
February 5, 2019
American soprano Nadine Sierra, 2018 winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Beverly Sills Artist Award, has just signed on to Deutsche Grammophon. The daughter of parents passionate about music who sought a better life in the United States, Sierra’s debut CD reflects her own roots, as well as the experiences of composers from throughout the …
October 29, 2018
Winner of the 2018 Grammy for Best Choral Performance, The Crossing has just recorded an oratorio with a text that resonates with our times. Conductor Donald Nally is John Pitman’s guest, discussing “Zealot Chronicles, an oratorio for tolerance” by Lansing McLoskey. The composer based the text on “Twelve Canticles for the Zealot” by Nigerian Nobel …
August 27, 2018
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always loved classical music. Especially opera. More than once, people have captured her on their camera phones at Santa Fe Opera (you can find this on Facebook and You Tube). Now there’s a CD that sets her words, and those of friends and family to music. Soprano Patrice …
August 21, 2018
In this anniversary year – the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth – many record labels are releasing new performances of his music, as well as his own discography. Many of them are of his music: West Side Story, Mass, and other major pieces. Pianist Lara Downes took a more intimate approach in her disc. …
August 2, 2018
Back in 2011, American violinist Joshua Bell became the first music director of London’s Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, since its founding by Neville Marriner. Bell and the orchestra already had a longstanding relationship: Around the time of the violinist’s 19th birthday, he recorded Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Academy. Now it feels …
July 24, 2018
I recently returned from a semester abroad in London, where I intensely studied art and culture. While I was there I was required to take a few different arts courses. This included a music history course entitled, “Topics in Music History,” which sounded absolutely thrilling. As a music major, I had already taken two semesters …
June 29, 2018
In April, the Oregon Symphony presented a remarkable and powerful concert as part of its “Sounds of Home” series, where young mothers experiencing housing insecurity, had the opportunity to write lullabies for their children. These were performed by OSO musicians. Their concert was inspired by Carnegie Hall’s “Lullaby Project”, which recently released a CD under …
May 22, 2018
(Special Note: If you are new to this blog, click here to first read Part One of this series.) New Horizons: Postminimalism In our last post, we left off with a broader conception of minimalism as a music which creates a listening experience that is meditative, non-teleological, and process-oriented. It is through this broader lens …
May 17, 2018
Kazem Abdullah is an American conductor (he hails from Indiana, studied at Tanglewood and Peabody), and was General-Musikdirektor of the Symphony Orchestra in Aachen, Germany from 2012 to 2017. Maestro Abdullah has also been to Oregon: About ten years ago he subbed for one of Carlos Kalmar’s concerts. Based on the new recording (a live …
