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PRIORITY CLARINET AND MUSIC EVENTS

April 2019 Hot News

 

                 

         

28 April 2019

University of Delaware Clarinet Day - Dr Chistopher Nichols, Director

Newark, Delaware USA

 

28 April 2019

Cincinnati Clarinet Consortium MiniFest 2019 - VIP Ixi Chen, Director

Cincinnati, Ohio USA

 

 

 

 

 

26 April 2019

VIP and Solo Clarinetist in the Philadelphia Orchestra Ricardo Morales Performs Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Roxborough Orchestra                  

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA

 

 

         

26 April 2019

VIP Robert DiLutis Showing of new Mozart Clarinet Quintet Recording at the Buffet New York Showroom

New York City USA

 

                     

 

22 - 25 April 2019

V Festival Internacional de Clarinete - Antonio Mazzini, Director

Lima, Peru

 

 

             

23 April 2019

VIP Andreas Ottensamer (Solo Klarinettist in Berliner Philharmoniker) and Renowned Pianist Yuja Wang Recital at Carnegie Hall

New York City USA

                        On Tuesday, April 23 at 7:00 p.m., Nicola and Beatrice Bulgari and the Carnegie Hall Notables-a membership and ticket program for music enthusiasts in their 20s and 30s-will host the 15th Annual Notable Occasion. This private performance in Zankel Hall for Carnegie Hall Notables and special guests features Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist pianist Yuja Wang in recital with Andreas Ottensamer, principal clarinetist of the legendary Berliner Philharmoniker. After the exclusive concert, Notables gather at Brasserie 8 ½ for a cocktail reception. The 15th Annual Notable Occasion is generously underwritten by Nicola and Beatrice Bulgari.

                      The 15th Annual Notable Occasion is one of a series of annual special events offered for Carnegie Hall Notables members. The Carnegie Hall Notables support the education and social impact programs of Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute (WMI) and celebrate music through intimate discussions, concerts, cocktail parties, and more. WMI offers a wide range of visionary music education and social impact programs in the state-of-the-art Resnick Education Wing, classrooms, and in a variety of community settings, and also provides free music education resources to orchestras and schools across the country. The programs are designed to introduce people to the power of music; train and support aspiring young artists, and to explore inventive ways the music can play a meaningful role in people's lives.

About the Artists


                   Born in Beijing, Yuja Wang was encouraged to pursue music at an early age, starting piano lessons at the age of six and studying at Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music. She moved to Canada in 1999 and became the youngest student ever enrolled at Mount Royal Conservatory. Ms. Wang was appointed as a Steinway Artist in 2001 and accepted a place at the Curtis Institute of Music to begin studying piano with Gary Graffman the following year. After graduating from Curtis in 2008, she went on to be an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, prompting Gramophone to name her as its 2009 Young Artist of the Year after the debut of her first album. The following year, Ms. Wang was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. She earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for her 2011 recording of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Claudio Abbado. A 2018-2019 Perspectives artist at Carnegie Hall, Ms. Wang returns on Wednesday, April 10 at 8:00 p.m. to Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, joined by another esteemed colleague, cellist Gautier Capuçon, for a duo recital. Her Perspectives series concludes in May with two concerts with the New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy, led by Ms. Wang's longtime collaborator and fellow Perspectives artist Michael Tilson Thomas. On Wednesday, May 1 at 8:00 p.m. she plays Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 5 in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage on a program that also includes the New York premiere of a new work by Julia Wolfe as well as Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. The following evening, Thursday, May 2 at 7:30 p.m., Ms. Wang plays the New York premiere of a work by Michael Tilson Thomas for solo piano.

                Born in 1989, Andreas Ottensamer comes from an Austro-Hungarian family of musicians and was drawn to music early, receiving his first piano lessons when he was four. At the age of ten he began studying the cello at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, then changed to the clarinet under Johann Hindlerin in 2003. Andreas Ottensamer gained his first orchestral experience as a deputy in the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic and as a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. In 2009, he interrupted his Harvard studies to become a scholar of the Orchestra Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker. He is now the principal clarinetist of the Berliner Philharmoniker.

              Ottensamer has won first prize in competitions for clarinet, cello, and piano, and performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Sir Simon Rattle, Yannick Nezét-Séguin, Andris Nelsons, Pablo Heras-Casado and Alan Gilbert. His artistic partnerships as chamber musician include work with Murray Perahia, Leif Ove Andsnes, Leonidas Kavakos, Janine Jansen, Sol Gabetta and Yo-Yo Ma, and together with pianist José Gallardo he is artistic director of the Bürgenstock Festival in Switzerland. In February 2013, Andreas Ottensamer entered an exclusive recording partnership with Deutsche Grammophon, making him the first ever solo clarinetist to sign an exclusive agreement with the label. In 2005. Andreas Ottensamer founded the clarinet trio The Clarinotts with his father Ernst and brother Daniel, both principal clarinetists of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. A CD of the trio was released in 2016 by Deutsche Grammophon.

 

               

April 19 2018

Las Vegas Clarinet Day at the College of Southern Nevada featuring VIP Robert Spring (Professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona)

Las Vegas, Nevada USA

                      What an incredible weekend! This year the 2019 Las Vegas Clarinet Day welcomed clarinet enthusiasts of all ages and abilities from Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Arizona, California, Delaware, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Nevada!


                      Words cannot express my gratitude to our featured artist, Dr. Robert Spring! Bob is a world-class teacher and performer, and an equally wonderful person! It was truly a privilege to learn from and hear him perform for our Las Vegas music community!


                     Many thanks to all our amazing guest clinicians, coaches, and performers:
Alexandria Le, Aubrey Shirts, Becky Holstead, Christopher Nichols, Erin Vander Wyst, Jack Liang, Jeff O'Flynn, Jeremy Ruth, Jessie Thoman, Kimberly Fullerton, Liz Aleksander, Lucas Willsie, Patrick Englert, Teddy Nguyen (senior at Rancho High School with Clint Williams and Max Feld), Vanessa Davis, Vince Dominguez, Wen Wu, and Wolfgang Lohff!


                    Our master class participants did an outstanding job:
Jordyn Jory (junior at Sierra Vista High School with Melissa Bushee), Christopher Dehoney (junior at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts with Brian Downey and John Seaton), and Keokiana Wood (also a junior at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts)! was also an honor to host Friedrich Pfatschbacher, Europe Chair of the International Clarinet Association!


                  And finally, a huge shout-out to our many sponsors, exhibitors, and donors who helped cover the artist and venue fees to make this $4,000+ event FREE to all attendees (plus giveaways totaling over $2,000 in retail)! The 2019 Las Vegas Clarinet Day would not have been possible without
Conn Selmer, Vandoren USA, Family Music Centers, Kessler & Sons Music, Music & Arts, Buffet Crampon Wind Instruments, Lohff & Pfeiffer USA, D'Addario Woodwinds, College of Southern Nevada (CSN) Department of Fine Arts and Robert Bonora, CSN Performing Arts Center, Sigma Alpha Iota Las Vegas Alumnae, Southern Nevada Band Association and Brad Bradley, and all of our volunteers! THANK YOU!

                   Robert Spring has been described as "one of this country's most sensitive and talented clarinetists," Arizona Republic, "dazzled his audience...flawless technique," The Clarinet Magazine, and "a formidable soloist...played with great emotional life" Copenhagen, Denmark, Politiken. Spring's recording of Grawemeier Award winning composer Joan Tower's works for clarinet was described by The Clarinet Magazine as "truly outstanding....one would be hard pressed to find better performances of contemporary music....first rate music performed with the highest professional standards." The Instrumentalist Magazine says of his recording, "Dragon's Tongue", a CD of virtuoso music for clarinet and wind band, "His musicality and technique make this recording a must for every CD collection." Fanfare Magazine says of the CD, "Tarantelle", music that the famous violinist Jascha Heifetz recorded on violin, being performed on clarinet, "This recording was meant to amaze and, man, it succeeds."

 

                The America Record Guide writes about his recent recording of the Copland Clarinet Concerto, "Spring is fabulous in the Copland. His phrasing is elegant swing tailored with great flow and a spread of tone colors and expressive subtleties. His low- and mid-range are especially warm, rich, and embracing and highly effective in the introduction and in the bridge to the jazzy finale. And boy what a finale! The pace is neatly judged to pick up at critical junctures so that, by the end, it feels like an improvised jam session."

 

               Spring attended the University of Michigan where he was awarded three degrees, including the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. He was recently awarded the "Citation of Merit Award" from the School of Music Alumni Society. His teachers included John Mohler, David Shifrin and Paul Shaller. Spring has performed as a recitalist or soloist with symphony orchestras and wind bands in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and South America, and has been heard in the United States on National Public Radio's, Performance Today. He frequently serves as clinician and adjudicator and teaches on the faculties of several summer music festivals. He has published numerous articles on multiple articulation and other contemporary clarinet techniques.

 

              Spring was president of the International Clarinet Association from 1998-2000 and has performed for numerous International Clarinet Association conventions. He hosted the 1995 International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest at Arizona State University where he is presently professor of music in clarinet. Spring is also a guest professor at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music.

 

                        

17 April 2019

Manhattan School of Music Celebrates its 100 Year Anniversary at Carnegie Hall with Gala Concert

New York City USA

Manhattan School of Music celebrates its Centennial with a Gala Concert hosted by Alec Baldwin and conducted by Leonard Slatkin. The program features classical, jazz, operatic, and musical theatre works performed by artists drawn from the ranks of the MSM Community, including mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard, violinist Glenn Dicterow, pianist Olga Kern, organist Kent Tritle, violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, pianist André-Michel Schub, MSM Director of Orchestral Activities George Manahan, and many more.

Performers

Alec Baldwin, Host
Leonard Slatkin, Conductor
MSM Symphony Orchestra
MSM Precollege Philharmonic Orchestra
MSM Symphonic Chorus and Chamber Choir
American String Quartet
Susan Graham, Mezzo-Soprano
Terence Blanchard, Trumpet
Glenn Dicterow, Violin
Olga Kern, Piano
Kent Tritle, Organ
André-Michel Schub, Piano
Kelly Hall-Tompkins, Violin
George Manahan, Conductor
J'Nai Bridges, Mezzo-Soprano
Raehann Bryce-Davis, Mezzo-Soprano
Dominic Cheli, Piano
Mark Delpriora, Guitar
Blake Friedman, Tenor
Nathan Hetherington, Conductor
Thomas Lausmann, Piano
David Leisner, Guitar
Yunpeng Wang, Baritone

Program

ANNA CLYNE <<rewind<<

SHOSTAKOVICH Festive Overture

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Serenade to Music

VIVALDI Selections from Concerto in A Minor for Two Violins, Strings, and Continuo from L'estro armonico, Op. 3, No. 8

TERENCE BLANCHARD "Mantra" from A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina)

BORODIN Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor

STEPHEN GOSS "Gypsy Song" from Carmen Fantasy

WAGNER The Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre (arr. Chevillard)

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV "Flight of the Bumblebee"

BERLIOZ "Je vais mourir" from Les Troyens, Part II, Op. 5

BARBER Quintet from Vanessa

BOCK/HARNICK “When Did I Fall In Love” from Fiorello!

JOHN KANDER “Perfectly Marvelous” from Cabaret

SAINT-SAËNS Finale from Symphony No. 3, "Organ"

                     

                       

                       

                   

                     

       

14 - 18 April 2019

Gran Canaria International Clarinet Festival - VIP Radovan Cavallin, and Kristin Dizon, Directors

Canary Islands, Spain

 

15 April 2019

Music from the Heart from the Musicians of the Chicago Symphony (On Strike for a month)

Chicago, Illinois USA

Video of concert and explanation of the Strike action by VIP John Bruce Yeh

Chicago Symphony Orchestra clarinetist John Bruce Yeh speaks on musicians strike

By George Marlowe
15 April 2019

                            Musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) are currently in the sixth week of their longest-ever strike. Last week, they courageously rejected the intransigent “last, best and final” offer of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA), which could destroy their pensions and lower the artistic standards of the symphony.

                            At last week’s free concert at St. James Cathedral, which was one of many widely attended and successful free concerts performed by the musicians, the WSWS spoke with striking CSO musician John Bruce Yeh about the issues at stake in the strike.

                            Yeh joined the CSO in 1977 at the age of 19 and is the longest-tenured clarinetist in the orchestra’s history. Yeh has been the assistant principal clarinetist and E-flat clarinetist. In 1979, he became the founder and director of the chamber ensemble, Chicago Pro Musica. The first recording of the ensemble of Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldatwon the 1985 Grammy award for the best new classical artist. Yeh also taught at DePaul University’s School of Music for more than two decades and joined the faculty of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts in 2004.

Interview with John Yeh at St. James Cathedral. Video edited by Michael Walters

 

                    Yeh, a charismatic performer and music educator, spoke about the strike last week and its broader implications. “We’ve been on strike into the fifth week,” he said. “This is unprecedented in the 128 years of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It is a very serious and dire situation that we have been put into.

                   “When I joined in 1977, we were clearly the leaders in all aspects of conditions, compensation, pension benefits and, of course, artistic quality. Our music director at the time, Sir Georg Solti, would always come to us and give us a pep talk and say, ‘My dears, we must maintain our standard. And we must raise our standard! This is a very difficult thing, but we must do it!’”

                   Solti was one of the more influential conductors of the CSO, from 1969 to 1991. He was replaced by world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim, from 1991 to 2006. The current music director is Ricardo Muti, who directed the CSO musicians after Barenboim’s departure.

                   “Solti understood the importance of keeping the standard high, both musically and with respect to our conditions that allow us to be musically the greatest,” Yeh noted.

                   “The two major issues in our strike are our retirement benefits, which we have been guaranteed now for 50 years. We have a defined-benefit pension plan that our management has been insistent on removing. What we can deduce from that is they don’t really care about the money issue, I believe. It is becoming increasingly clear that this is an ideological agenda of our Board of Trustees. Our arts organization is a cultural jewel of the world.”

                    “It seems to be class warfare,” he added, “and we will not accept that.”

                     What the musicians confront in the strike is even bigger, in fact, than the issue of pensions and salary, as vital as that is, and bigger than the problem of the individual oligarchs and billionaires who control the CSOA board, such as Helen Zell, the wife of multi-billionaire real estate mogul, Sam Zell.

                    CSO musicians confront the aristocratic principle in defending not only pensions and salary, but music and art in general. Art, music and culture cannot survive under a society where the financial aristocracy and the ruling class determine what is acceptable, even as three billionaires control more wealth than half of the population in the United States.

                    Life under capitalism today is characterized by immense global social inequality, endless wars, attacks on democratic rights, police violence, poverty conditions for millions of workers and increasing authoritarianism and the danger of fascism. Funding for arts and education in the US has been decimated, with the support of both parties of big business, the Democrats and the Republicans, and with the complicity of the trade unions and their boosters.                    Such conditions make life for millions intolerable and certainly will not allow art and music to flourish, let alone allow the preservation of a good pension for musicians. Most orchestra musicians today make around $30,000 a year, on par with the poverty wages of teachers, who emerged into mass struggles in the last year in the United States and globally.

John Bruce Yeh

 

                  “Salaries,” Yeh noted, “have not kept pace with other major orchestras, our peer orchestras. We are trying to maintain and preserve and raise the standard of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.” CSO musicians have had to accept salary increases below inflation in previous contracts and are currently demanding higher raises than the proposals by management, which would continue to be below inflation.

n               “It is so heartwarming and amazing to see great support worldwide, from Chicago and the public, the teachers, the construction workers, the stagehands of course,” he added, about the immense support the musicians have received.

                  “If there is a silver lining to this terrible cloud,” he said about the strike, “it has brought the musicians even closer, we have greater solidarity. Because we not only fight for ourselves, for our successors, for our tradition, but for all orchestras throughout the United States. If we give out, if we give in, we will have let everybody down. We don’t intend to do that.”

                   Daniel Gingrich played the horn at the St. James Cathedral free public concert last Wednesday. Dennis Michel played the bassoon, Mio Nakamura played the piano and William Welter played the oboe. The musicians performed stirring renditions of the Sonata in B Flat Major, HWV 357 by George Frideric Handel, the Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120, No. 1 by Johannes Brahms and the Quintet in E Flat Major, K. 452 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

                 “We played music that is very, very dear to our hearts,” Yeh reflected. “I played the Brahms Sonata for clarinet and piano, the first of two sonatas that he wrote.

                 “They were the last instrumental pieces that Brahms wrote,” he added. “They are both autumnal in their beauty and also very optimistic in their end. That encapsulates the emotions we face today.

                 “And we played Mozart, which is always happy music. The Mozart quintet we played is reputed to be the favorite piece that he wrote. The Handel oboe sonata was played by one of our newest members, William Welter, a fabulous young oboe player. And I have to give a tip of the hat to our pianist Mio Nakamuro, who has been such a champion to join us in this concert and many concerts throughout the city during this time that we have been out of orchestra hall.”

                Continuing to speak on the strike, Yeh noted, “The way we feel that the fight that we carrying on right now is that we are demanding to be valued for what we are and what we do. We really feel that we are being devalued on a constant basis—not enough money. When we have discussions, negotiations, it’s always about them trying to take away from us. In doing so, they take away from our ability to provide society with what we need to nurture and nourish our society. Our traditions need to be examined.”

                When asked what he thought about the rise of nationalism, fascism and increasing forms of authoritarianism internationally and the role of the musician, he said, “Music, the arts, all sorts of arts, are food for the soul. We need to nurture and nourish our soul. We need to continue to fight to have the opportunity to do that. If we have massive inequality, poverty and rising authoritarianism, then that is just antithetical to have a society that is raised up, where everybody is raised up with cultural benefits, with music, art, with just joy. Unfortunately our society today is going in the opposite direction.”

               “We are committed to fighting for continued growth in the arts and the ability to have music for everybody,” he said about the importance of broad access to arts and culture. “Our music director Maestro Muti is very keen on taking our message all around the world to people who don’t have access to it. We played in prisons, in places where people don’t ordinarily have the chance to hear our music at this level.

               “Our very, very good friend, Yo-Yo Ma, is another one who has really used his ability and artistry to draw people towards understanding that art and music is really food for the soul. And we can rise above strife, above poverty, if we use art as a means of communication. It’s a means to connection.”

              On Saturday, musician Ma performed Bach’s Suite No. 1 for the cello at the Juarez-Lincoln international bridge at the US-Mexico border to oppose the attacks on immigrants by the Trump administration and the political establishment.

Striking musicians at St James

 

                 “We have an international orchestra,” Yeh said about the world-class musicians in the CSO. “When I joined the orchestra in 1977, I was the first Asian member of the orchestra, but I was born in America. Now we have about 20 musicians who are immigrants, from South America, from Scandinavia, from all corners of the world. We are an international group of musicians. To devalue anybody because they are not born in America is antithetical to common sense. We reject the notion that immigrants should be devalued in any way. We will continue to stand up for that.”

                Speaking about the recent wave of teachers strikes, Yeh added, “What we as musicians, as artists do, is encourage this sort of activity by reaching out and giving strength to the uprising of the working class. I really want to emphasize that. We are with the working class. We are the working people!”

                While there is a constant refrain by the CSOA board and the rest of the political establishment that there is no money for pensions and other social programs, trillions of dollars continue to be spent to carry out criminal wars and boost the profits of Wall Street and the super rich. The fortunes of just the Zells ($5.5 billion) alone could fund a 100-person orchestra making $150,000 a year for the next 367 years.

                The United States is home to 540 billionaires, with immense wealth concentrated in a few hands at the expense of the vast majority. Resources exist, but it poses the question of who controls society—the vast majority of the world’s working class that produce society’s wealth, or a tiny handful of social parasites who control it?

 

14 April 2019

University of Maryland Clarinet Day and Sidney Forrest Clarinet Competition - VIP Robert DiLutis, Director, with VIPs Laura Grantier and Julia Heinen

College Park, Maryland USA

 

 

             

13 April 2019

East New Mexico Clarinet Celebration with VIP Timothy Phillips

 

 

12 April 2019

WA Concert 'Wind Power' with the New York Woodwind Quintet at the Tenri Cultural Center - Senior VIP Charles Neidich, Director

New York City

Wa Concert Series presents Wind Power in Review

New York Woodwind Quintet
Carol Wincenc, flute; Stephen Taylor, oboe; Charles Neidich, clarinet; William Purvis, French horn; Marc Goldberg, bassoon; Bryan Wagorn, piano (guest)
Tenri Cultural Institute, New York, NY

 

                        The beneficent ghost of Samuel Baron (1925–1997) was undoubtedly smiling in attendance at the New York Woodwind Quintet’s April 12th concert at the Tenri Cultural Institute. Mr. Baron, founder of the Quintet in 1949 and, for a half-century, a beloved conservatory mentor to flutists (and their collaborative pianists), was also a conductor, a champion of new composers, a musical entrepreneur, an arranger, a member of the Bach Aria Group, New York City Symphony and City Opera, and a captivating lecturer on subjects psychological and practical. In this April installment of the Wa Concert Series, titled “Wind Power,” quintets by John Harbison and György Kurtág preceded a rendition of Mr. Baron’s sextet transcription of the Brahms G minor Piano Quartet, Op. 25, comprising throughout a glorious tribute both to Baron’s own legacy and to the Quintet’s seventieth anniversary.

                     Mr. Baron viewed the principal winds, the core of the symphony orchestra or the “leaders from within,” as bearers of a crucial responsibility in the realm of chamber music; in place of their standard role as simple executants of an orchestral conductor’s wishes, the players in a small ensemble could—and must—be interpreters and magical conjurors, channeling the composer’s ineffable spirit. To this aim, the most spectacular of the Quintet’s achievements on April 12 was Kurtág’s Woodwind Quintet, Op. 2 (1959), with Harbison and Brahms trailing close by.

                   György Kurtág, who is 93, has often been compared to Anton Webern, albeit in Central European Jewish guise. Kurtág was lucky enough to sidestep the horrors of World War II by studying in 1940 in the inconspicuous locale of Temesvar (Timişoara), Romania, later emigrating to Hungary in 1946. A pithy writer heavily influenced by Kafka, he underwent a brutal course of psychoanalysis during his years of study in the late 1950s in Paris, where he recounted the reverse metamorphosis of a “cockroach striving to change into a human being, seeking light and purity.” Perhaps stemming from art therapy sessions in which Kurtág was asked to create confessional sculptures from matchsticks, his penchant for divining expressive significance from the most ascetic of materials led to his rough-hewn, aphoristic early style.

                  Kurtág’s Quintet for Winds traverses eight movements in as many minutes, implanting microcosmic layers of intent within every terse utterance. For the breath-stopping duration of these miniatures, the bright and sterile concert room of the Tenri became a murky, post-war therapist’s lair, in which out-of-doors motifs of Bartók were exhumed and the birdcalls of Messiaen (with whom Kurtág studied) twisted themselves around a skein of intimate associations. Whirs and jabs floated, pierced, fell by microtones, and leapt questioningly from flute to oboe to clarinet and bassoon, all over a sustained horn (Mr. Purvis appeared to have a mountaineer’s lung capacity). This sort of identification with black dots takes place only under the obsessive tutelage of a composer, and although the twelve-page program booklet neglected to offer notes on the music (or even the correct key of the Brahms), we were treated to helpful verbal explanations of Kurtág’s coaching and the nurturing process behind what we were hearing.

               The stage-setter for this catharsis came from the opposite end of the Schoenberg-Stravinsky spectrum. John Harbison, 80, is one of our national treasures and has been especially fêted in the current season. At the height of his career, the renowned composer is unveiling new recordings, world premieres, a book, and numerous performances to add to an enormous catalogue of symphonies, concerti, choral works, and operas including “The Great Gatsby,” commissioned by the Met. Mr. Harbison, winner of countless accolades in addition to a MacArthur Fellowship and a Pulitzer Prize, hails from the Northeast (Harvard, Princeton, MIT) and is active throughout the United States, with many of his compositions receiving performances worldwide.

               His five-movement Quintet for Winds, a Naumburg commission from 1978—both Mr. Neidich and Ms. Wincenc are former Naumburg Competition winners—is an aural feast as well as a cerebral one; traditional dissonances and tensions between mismatched notes speak the language we know from Bach and Stravinsky, merely updated and laced with Americana, lyricism, and humor to bring us home. Harbison is all about communication, from before the music starts until the performers walk offstage, and this group’s burnished blend could react to the gesture of a shifting eyeball on the part of Mr. Goldberg. The clever choice to open the concert with Harbison’s animated declamation (Intrada), filled with sevenths, expressive doublings, and stratospheric explorations of every instrument’s range, was outdone only by the players’ attention to highlighted balances and well-honed intonation, leaving no harmony to chance. A moment for Mr. Taylor to shine in the plaintive Romanza opened forth into a series of escalating, quirky punctuations, perfectly calibrated, followed by the most seamless and ridiculous barrage of perpetual natterings in clarinet, flute, and bassoon (Scherzo: Prestissimo), paving the way for a somber Adagio and a hilarious, multi-tongued, gimpy march to close.

             Considerations of balance were evidently central to Mr. Baron’s arrangement of Brahms for piano and five winds (the original calls for piano and three strings). Pre-concert publicity and print had conspired to secrecy about the name or even the existence of a pianist in this piece, leaving the introduction of a mystery guest to Mr. Neidich. When he arrived, however, Bryan Wagorn was a game contributor to the festivities. Already an established figure in the vocal world, Mr. Wagorn has performed with legendary singers and worked as assistant conductor at the Met. His presence at the Tenri’s seven-foot Steinway, a Wittgenstein family bequest, was dazzling and evocative, and certainly Mr. Baron’s arrangement of the G minor Quartet is a thrill to hear. The piece presents new challenges in wind territory, as double-reeds and brass tend to drive the tone much more than bowed nylon and titanium, and the horn’s dominating lines kept bringing to mind stretches of unwritten Mahler symphonies. The molto piano, con sordino pulsating triplets in the Intermezzo were recast as vibrantly tongued attacks, a timbral stimulant to the piano’s whimsical folk melodies. If one was looking for completion from the earnest, soul-searching Brahms, his reassuring voice warmed the air in transitional moments such as the piano’s Bachian cadenza in the Zingarese finale and a heavenly flute entrance joining its afterglow.

                 

        

4 - 14 April 2019

Samnium International Competition

Benevento, Italy

 

     

13 April 2019

Radovan Cavallin Žerjal performs world premiere of  Tomislav Antun Šaban Concerto for Clarinet and Strings written as a present for my 50th Birthday at 30. Music Biennale Festival in Zagreb, Croatia with a brilliant Chamber String Orchestra of Slovenian Filharmonic wonderfully conducted by Steven Loy

Zagreb, Croatia

                   

                   

                   

12 - 13 April 2019

University of Oregon Clarinet Symposium and Competition - VIP Wonkak Kim, Director

Portland, Oregon USA

 

 

 

 

 

     

10 April 2019

VIP Jorge Montilla Master Class at the University of California at Northridge - VIP Julia Heinen, Host

Northridge, California USA

 

David Gilbert
Daniel Gilbert
Jeff Lederer
Jeff Lederer
Levana Cohen
Levana Cohen
Anat Cohen
Anat Cohen
Christine Altman
 
Christine Altman
Christine Doré
 
Christine Doré

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 April 2019

Long Island University (LIU) Clarinet Fest

Brookville, New York

 

 

 

6 April 2019

VIP Simon Reitmaier Master Class

Kulmbach, Germany

 

 

6 April 2019

4th Annnual Southeastern Louisiana University Single Reed Day

Mississippi

 

 

5 April 2019

Renowned Clarinetist and Clarinet Maker from Argentina Luis Rossi appointed to the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University

Bloomington, Indiana USA

                         The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is pleased to announce the appointment of clarinetist Luis Rossi as visiting professor of music in clarinet, effective Aug. 1, 2019.

                         In her book “Clarinet Virtuosi of Today,” British clarinet historian Pamela Weston described Rossi as the “only top player in the world performing with instruments of his own design and construction.”

                       He is the founder and owner of L. Rossi Clarinets, which produces a complete line of renowned clarinets.

                      Hailed by critics as “a first-class soloist” for his “supple, soaring melodic lines” and “effortless technique” (The Clarinet), Rossi received the Konex Prize in 1989, an honor he shares with fellow Argentines Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim. Most recently, he was honored alongside Karl Leister and Charles Neidich by the International ClarinetFest 2018.

                     “It is with great pleasure that the Woodwinds Department at the Jacobs School of Music welcomes legendary clarinetist and instrument designer Luis Rossi,” said Kathleen McLean, associate professor and chair of the department. “He brings a wealth of expertise on so many levels—as a brilliant clarinetist, a world-class pedagogue and an instrument acoustician.”

                     Born in Viedma, Argentina, Rossi began his clarinet studies at age 13, studying in Buenos Aires and London, where he was a pupil of John McCaw. Rossi moved to Chile in 1978, where his clarinet workshop and solo career continued to flourish.

                    Accompanied by the Chile Chamber Orchestra, he has performed the canon of clarinet works throughout Europe and South America. Alongside the Simon Bolivar Symphony in Caracas, he gave the South American premieres of three contemporary clarinet concertos—by John Corigliano, Blas Atehortúa and Adina Izarra, the last two written in dedication to Rossi.

                  Regularly offering recitals, he has been a featured guest artist and pedagogue at institutions and venues such as Lincoln Center, New England Conservatory’s International Clarinet Connection, Lemmens Institute (Leuven), London’s Royal College of Music, Michigan State University, Indiana University, Western Michigan University, Oberlin College and Ohio State University.

                 A talented pedagogue, Rossi’s teaching activities in Caracas, Santiago and Buenos Aires have helped to produce an outstanding and unprecedented generation of clarinetists. His six acclaimed solo CDs are available for download.

               “It is a great honor to become part of the faculty at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music,” said Rossi. “This is one of the best music schools in the world, and I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues Howard Klug and Eli Eban to train the next generation of top-notch professional clarinetists.”

2 April 2019

VIP Julian Bliss Clarinet Workshop at Rowen University - Dr  Rie Suzuki, Host

Rowen, New Jersey USA

 

 

                 

 1 April 2019

VIP and Solo Clarinetist Stephen Williamson performs Mozart Clarinet Concerto with Striking Musicians of the Chicago Symphony at the Teachers Union at the Benito Juarez Academy

Pilsen, Illinois USA

Video of the Concert with Steve Williamson playing the Mozart Concerto

             As day 22 of our strike comes to an end after playing our second orchestral concert at the Benito Juarez Academy in Pilsen, some images of the past week set to the beautiful playing of our principal clarinet Stephen Williamson’s performance of Mozart’s clarinet concerto with the Musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Chicago Teachers Union last Monday. I feel so inspired by the positivity and support from people on the picket line, on social media, on the street, at our performances and the San Francisco Symphony Musicians, Musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and I hope we will be back in Orchestra Hall performing soon

CSO review: Striking musicians play off campus

                             The standing-room-only crowd that packed Chicago Teachers Union Headquarters on Monday evening came to hear something unusual: the musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in exile.

                            For the first time since calling a strike on March 10, the CSO instrumentalists convened en masse to reach an audience longing to hear them. That much was apparent from the duration and frequency of its standing ovations.

                          “We are here to say thank you,” veteran CSO bassist Stephen Lester told the crowd before the first notes sounded.

                         The gratitude was “for the tremendous support we have had, not just the past few weeks, but for our entire careers,” added Lester, who’s also chair of the musicians’ negotiating committee.

                      “Words can’t really describe how important it is to see a big crowd like this at an event like this.”

                      Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, told the audience that he and his colleagues were “very proud” to host the event. Then, while looking toward the musicians, Montgomery added, “We are honored to stand with you today in this room.”

                    The most eloquent statements in the free concert, however, came not with words but with music. For the CSO brought palpable fervor to Beethoven and Mozart, as if underscoring what this occasion meant to them.

                  Longtime CSO principal trombone Jay Friedman served as conductor, opening with Beethoven’s “Egmont” Overture. Even if you didn’t know that the work – like so much of Beethoven’s music – addresses the theme of resistance, there was no mistaking the ardor of the CSO’s message. The solemnity of the opening pages illuminated the gravity of these times, while the unstoppable crescendo that followed pointed to this orchestra’s corporate strength.

                 Friedman led a performance that was warm in tone and devoid of bombast, in essence tailoring the scope of the performance for the room’s size. Though it was unfortunate that what sounded like a noisy ventilation system provided an unwanted obbligato, the spirit of the occasion transcended this annoyance.

               Next, CSO principal clarinet Stephen Williamson stepped forward to play Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, without a conductor. This underscored the evening’s intimacy, listeners in effect hearing soloist and orchestra in what amounted to a chamber-music setting.

             The fluidity and gracefulness Williamson brought to the first movement served its innate lyricism, thanks to his elegant turns of phrase and delicate tonal shadings. It was easy to savor the sense of stillness and repose Williamson conjured in the second movement, the CSO strings providing the most tender playing of the night. Though the finale seemed hasty, there was no denying the clarity of Williamson’s articulation, even at such a clip.

             Conductor Friedman returned to the forefront for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, the reading straightforward, texturally lucid and free of histrionics. The orchestra’s depth of sound told the story here, the momentum of the performance interrupted briefly when the room’s overhead lights inexplicably went out during the scherzo. In a few moments they were back on, the musicians forging ahead. The gathering force of the finale reminded everyone of what a great orchestra can achieve under stress.

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  Revised: April 30, 2019