Convo, Recommended Andy Kozar Convo, Recommended Andy Kozar

Sounds and Spaces: Andy Kozar Interviews Eve Beglarian and Paula Matthusen

American trumpet soloist Andy Kozar’s recent New Focus Recordings release A Few Kites has been called ‘entrancing’ by Alex Ross (The New Yorker, The Rest Is Noise) and that ‘trumpeters around the world owe Kozar…a debt of gratitude…the variety here is simply astonishing. realms of expressiveness not heard since Luciano Berio turned his attention to the instrument in 1984 for Sequenza X' by anearful. Here Andy Kozar interviews composers Eve Beglarian and Paula Matthusen about their featured works on the record as well as their music’s relationship to physical space as an inspiration, or creative starting point.

Read More
Convo, Recommended Anna Heflin Convo, Recommended Anna Heflin

The Great Silence In Osvaldo Golijov's "Falling Out Of Time" For Silkroad Ensemble

Osvaldo Golijov’s Falling Out Of Time for Silkroad Ensemble is a masterpiece as intellectually stimulating as it is emotionally gripping. It cracks open how we experience time and how this experience is disrupted by grief and eventually dismantled by death. Based on David Grossman’s novel/fable on parental grief of the same name, which puts words to the wordless, Golijov’s Falling Out of Time puts sounds to the wordless with a deep sensitivity to language. This work inspired a lot of admittedly difficult questions from me, as the best works do, and here are Osvaldo Golijov’s illuminating answers . Falling Out Of Time will be released on October 9.

Read More
Convo, Recommended Anna Heflin Convo, Recommended Anna Heflin

Adrianne Munden-Dixon Showcases The Shape-Shifting Qualities Of The Violin In “patterns and cycles”

Adrianne Munden-Dixon’s debut EP patterns and cycles, featuring her own compositions and improvisations, uses electronics to heighten the shape-shifting qualities of the violin. She joins Classical Post to discuss the space in between composition and improvisation, the role of location in this album, the influence of fiddle playing on her work and more. Patterns and cycles will be released on October 2.

Read More

It’s All About Perspective In Du Yun’s “A Cockroach’s Tarantella”

Is there a right way to listen to an album? How literally should a listener take the track layout of an album? Does learning the intended listening experience of the composer bring you closer to a work? What is innate to a work, what is perspective and how does listening order impact an interpretation? These are some of the questions rummaging through my mind after speaking with Du Yun about her album A Cockroach’s Tarantella, performed marvelously by JACK Quartet with Du Yun.

Read More
Convo, Recommended Giancarlo Latta Convo, Recommended Giancarlo Latta

Patricia Kopatchinskaja Takes Vivaldi to All Imaginable Limits in “What’s Next Vivaldi?”

Patricia Kopatchinskaja has long been one of my favorite musicians. It somehow seems off the mark, not quite enough, to call her a violinist (not only because she has frequently performed the role of singer/speaker in Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire) though her capabilities on the instrument—technical, sonic, coloristic—are virtually matchless. Yes, she most often appears on stage with violin in hand, but her musical spirit reaches far beyond the scope of the instrument itself: she digs new tunnels into familiar repertoire and makes a striking, often bold case for each piece she brings into her sphere. The resulting performances, both live and on record, brim with electricity, risk, and an aliveness the scope of which words can only communicate a small part.

Read More
Recommended, Dispatch Classical Post Team Recommended, Dispatch Classical Post Team

Portland Piano International and Portland Youth Philharmonic Collaborate on Youth Piano Concerto Competition

For the last 90+ years PYP has held a biennial Piano Concerto Competition with the prize of performing with the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Once again, Portland Piano International / SOLO will be presenting the biennial Piano Concerto Competition that selects the soloists for upcoming Portland Youth Philharmonic performances.

Read More
Perspective, Recommended Michael Delfin Perspective, Recommended Michael Delfin

What Historical Recordings Teach Us, Part 1

In the last year, several prominent artists released albums highlighting their life-long journeys through an endlessly vast musical literature. Deutsche Grammophon released its long-awaited first solo album of acclaimed pianist Sergei Babayan, coinciding with the release of a duo album with his superstar student Daniil Trifonov. Two younger artists also made news this year. Pianist Jonathan Biss released his final volume of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas, and pianist Adam Golka is soon to release his first volume of the same monumental cycle. In the orchestral world, the San Francisco Symphony provided MTT’s Keeping Score to virtual audiences free of charge during the closing of concert halls worldwide. The Tetzlaff Quartet’s new Beethoven album was also released on the Ondine label to great critical acclaim.

21st-century audiences reap enormous benefits of current technology when it comes to recordings, and never more so as during the COVID-19 pandemic, when public concerts have been shelved for safety concerns. Modern audiences also enjoy nearly limitless access to recordings from decades and even a century ago through YouTube, Spotify, and various archival projects, such as those of Allan Evans for Arbiter Records and Ward Marston for Marston Records. Over a hundred years of technological advances have created a world of difference in recording quality, yet today’s musicians are still encouraged to explore the mesmerizing performances of Cortot, Kreisler, and Casals, and even earlier performers such as Rachmaninoff, Leschetizky, and Toscanini. Beneficiaries of modern recording technology may very well ask, why ought one to listen to historical recordings with seemingly shoddy audio quality, narrow or distorted sound, and less accurate playing?

Read More
Recommended, Perspective Jonathan Eifert Recommended, Perspective Jonathan Eifert

How to Pivot to a Digital Concert Season

Times of crisis call for radical action. Clearly we can all agree we’re in a state of emergency as a global society, but specifically in the arts and live entertainment. As we’re already months into the problem, there are not many concrete answers. As the situation prolongs, we wait patiently for a recovery to “the good old days” of attending live concerts and events in-person. This is anxiously anticipated, obviously, but it does seem short-sighted from what I’ve seen and heard working within this space.

Read More
Convo, Recommended Bridgid Bergin Convo, Recommended Bridgid Bergin

A Conversation With Members Of The Iranian Female Composers Association

On April 26, 2020 the Emruz Festival: Virtual Series presented “Iranian Female Composers Association Meet Up: Conversation & Music Performance” via Zoom. Around 30 members of the Iranian Female Composers Association (IFCA) joined Bridgid Bergin (panel moderator) for an hour-long conversation. The conversation led to a longer form piece, showcasing how composers have been navigating quarantine life, interrogating gender identity and societal issues in Iran (as well as the broader new music scene), and highlights how IFCA has cultivated a community all within the digital realm, becoming an organization that truly amplifies and celebrates Iranian female-identifying composer voices.

Read More
Recommended, Query Anna Heflin Recommended, Query Anna Heflin

Abigail Rollins Leads Berkshire Opera Festival With Grace Through Tumultuous 2020

Abigail Rollins’ first year as Executive Director of Berkshire Opera Festival has not gone as expected. The company initially pivoted their Mainstage Don Giovanni to a concert version of the work and now finally to a digital performance featuring the original cast but different music entirely. Despite these tumultuous times, Rollins and the BOF team have prioritized supporting their artists.

Read More
Perspective, Recommended Emelyn Bashour Perspective, Recommended Emelyn Bashour

We Can Find Compassion at Conservatory Without Compromising Excellence

April, 2020: It’s a few weeks into quarantine, and the music students are getting restless. While most other college programs continued virtually after the sweeping March shutdown, conservatories cut their semesters short and canceled all remaining rehearsals and performances, citing the infeasibility of conducting them online. I felt as though I had been unceremoniously plucked from my life of rehearsing string quartets and memorizing concertos and thrust into a vacuum. Mere weeks from the end of my graduate degree, my already-uncertain future was now on indefinite hold, and it seemed like my life in music would never look the way I expected.

Read More
Convo, Recommended, Celebrity Artist Anna Heflin Convo, Recommended, Celebrity Artist Anna Heflin

Returning To The Stage At Classical Tahoe Brought Tears To Frederica von Stade’s Eyes

Legendary mezzo-soprano Frederica “Flicka” von Stade returned to the stage on July 30 and August 1 for Classical Tahoe’s adapted 2020 season to sing works by Offenbach, Mahler, and Heggie for an intimate 25-person audience. Classical Tahoe ensemble members include principal New York City Metropolitan Opera Orchestra musicians Nathan Hughes (oboe) and Milan Milisavljević (viola). Frederica von Stade joins Classical Post to discuss this moving experience, which young opera singers have the most star power, what she’s been watching on Netflix and more.

Read More