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  • Music Mountain’s 92nd Chamber Music Season

    Starts Sunday, July 4

    By: MM - May 04th, 2021

    Live music is back at Music Mountain! On Sunday, July 4, Music Mountain’s 92nd Chamber Music Concert Season kicks off  with the Shanghai Quartet  -- called "utterly sublime" by The New York Times -- playing Beethoven String Quartet in B Flat Major, Op. 18 #6, Zhou Long Chinese Folk Songs and Smetana String Quartet in E Minor, “From My Life.” Chamber music concerts will continue every Sunday afternoon at 3pm through Labor Day.

  • The Orchestra Now at Bard

    Maestro Leon Botstein Celebrates Beethoven

    By: Susan Hall - May 03rd, 2021

    The Orchestra Now opened its belated celebration of Beethoven’s birthday. Their performance of the Fifth Symphony lay somewhere between the unearthly suggestion the composer may have intended, and a fierce protest. From the introduction of iconic Da, da, da, DUM, either a major or minor key although we’re told this is a minor piece, to the figure's infinite variety of repetition through the piece, TON reminds us of why this is the symphony of symphonies.

  • Barber of Seville at San Francisco Opera

    A Drive In Performance

    By: Victor Cordell - May 03rd, 2021

    Desperate times call for desperate measures. With the stage of the grand War Memorial Opera House dark for over a year, the San Francisco Opera fashioned a creative fix – not a permanent solution, but one which offers a measure of the thrilling artistry that only live opera can provide. In overcoming myriad technical, logistical, marketing, and public health issues, the company has produced a wonderfully charming “Barber of Seville” that will live in our memories. Gioachino Rossini’s 19th century imagination could probably conceive of people driving automobiles, but patrons attending one of his great comedic operas while ensconced in their vehicles would probably be beyond his wildest notions.

  • FreshGrass at MASS MoCA

    Tenth Annual Festival

    By: MoCA - Apr 29th, 2021

    FreshGrass features bluegrass traditionalists and innovators on four stages and platforms throughout the museum’s 16-acre campus. Festival programming also includes FreshScores, a silent film with original live music; FreshGrass commissions and world premieres; instrument and industry workshops; pop-up performances and retail; and local Berkshire food and spirits vendors.   

  • Tippet Rise Spring Festival

    Streaming from New York

    By: Susan Hall - Apr 27th, 2021

    Tippet Rise is a striking arrival on the music scene.  Just when interest in conventional venues offering conventional programs is waning, along comes a venture located amidst grazing cattle on 12,000 acres in Fishtail, Montana. The venue traveled east for its spring festival. You begin to get a sense of how they fill their mission wherever they alight. The splendid array of talent seems present wherever they are. Topping the list in New York are veterans Richard Goode and Claire Chase.

  • A Letter To Harvey Milk: The Musical

    Coming Out in San Francisco

    By: Susan Hall - Apr 23rd, 2021

    A Letter to Harvey Milk had a successful run at the Acorn Theatre in New York in 2018.  It is streming free with suggested donations for the Actor’s Fund and The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Now it is streaming live.

  • Victoria Bond Presents Cutting Edge Music

    Glass, Warren, von Kampen and Bond Featured

    By: Susan Hall - Apr 22nd, 2021

    We are rooted in the Byzantine chant in this evening’s concert.  Pianist Paul Barnes chants in the Greek Orthodox service. As an introduction to each based on specific chants, he sang. We first heard the tones mixed with breath and feeling of these remarkable interpretations of the psalms. Listeners are able to slip into the works with echoes of their origins fresh in the memory.

  • Bang on a Can

    OneBeat Marathon Live Online Sunday, May 2,

    By: Bang - Apr 21st, 2021

    Bang on a Can announces the hourly schedule for the second OneBeat Marathon – Live Online – on Sunday, May 2, 2021 from 12pm - 4pm EDT, curated by Found Sound Nation, its social practice and global collaboration wing. Over four hours the OneBeat Marathon will share the power of music and tap into the most urgent and essential sounds of our time. From the Kyrgyz three-stringed komuz played on the high steppe, to the tranceful marimba de chonta of Colombia's pacific shore, to the Algerian Amazigh highlands and to the trippy organic beats of Bombay’s underground scene – OneBeat finds a unifying possibility of sound that ties us all together.   

  • Newport Music Festival 2021

    53rd Season From July 4-20

    By: NMF - Apr 19th, 2021

    Newport Music Festival announces the complete seventeen-concert schedule for its 53rd season, from July 4-20, 2021. All concerts will be held outdoors at historic mansions and venues in Newport, Rhode Island including The Breakers, Bellevue House, Castle Hill Inn, The Chanler at Cliff Walk, King Park, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, Norman Bird Sanctuary, and Rough Point. The full schedule is included below and available at www.newportmusic.org. Tickets will go on sale to the public on April 19.  

  • Opera San Jose Live Streams

    A Trilogy of One Act Operas

    By: Victor Cordell - Apr 17th, 2021

    What a pleasure to see Bay Area opera companies offering alternatives to traditional live performance productions until we are able to return to the opera houses to experience their magnificence as intended.  Following its streaming production of “Three Decembers” by Jake Heggie, Opera San José now offers a curated trilogy of one-act operas.  Marital relationships, or more loosely, love constitutes the common bond among the trio.  With each requiring only two singing parts, they are highly conducive to the strictures of pandemic era productions.

  • Bard's TON Orchestra Performs Live

    Leon, Bernstein, Stravinsky and Mendelssohn

    By: Susan Hall - Apr 15th, 2021

    The Orchestra Now presented its first live concert of the 2020-21 season at the Fisher Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson. It was a smashing success.

  • Cutting Edge New Music Festival 2021

    The Art of the 21st Century Trombone

    By: Susan Hall - Apr 13th, 2021

    The Cutting Edge Concert Series 23rd season began this week. Victoria Bond has held this series through thick and thin.  It comes to us live streamed and is a treasure.

  • Les Arts Florissants at Versailles

    William Christie Brings Us Charpentier

    By: Susan Hall - Apr 12th, 2021

    The always delightful Les Arts Florissants’ bring us a performance of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Grand Motets, now available on Qwest TV. Qwest was developed by Quincy Jones, whose middle name is “Delight.”  And delight is what he brings us with the 17th century music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier. 

  • Bang on a Can Marathon

    Fifteen World Premieres

    By: BOAC - Apr 09th, 2021

    Bang on a Can announces the hourly schedule for its next Bang on a Can Marathon – Live Online – on Sunday, April 18, 2021 from 1-5pm ET. All 15 pieces on the program will be world premiere performances of newly commissioned works, streamed from musicians' homes around the country and across the world. Over its first six live online Marathons in 2020-2021 (May 3, June 14, August 1, October 18, February 21, and March 21) Bang on a Can has presented more than 125 performances, including 47 world premieres of new commissions and over 150 composers and performers. Bang on a Can plans to continue these Marathons, streaming online at live.bangonacan.org,

  • Julliard :Launches Julliard Live

    Presenting Music, Dance and Drama

    By: Julliard - Apr 08th, 2021

    Juilliard announces the launch of Juilliard LIVE, a new streaming initiative offering performances from across its three divisions—music, dance, and drama—online to a global audience. The broad initiative, part of the school’s long-term strategic plan, was accelerated over the past year when indoor performances were halted due to the pandemic. With a mix of livestreamed and on-demand content, Juilliard LIVE expands student performance opportunities both now and in the future, and it will increase accessibility to the performing arts for audiences around the world.

  • The Attacca Quartet Storms Columbia

    A High Hoedown with Adams, Wiancko, and Gabriella Smith

    By: Susan Hall - Apr 08th, 2021

    The Attacca Quartet won its first Grammy in 2019 for Caroline Shaw’s Orange. They favor music of living composers, as does Melissa Smey, Executive Director of the Arts Initiative and Miller Theatre and the new Lenfest Center for the Arts on the north campus. What was Mozart doing on your birthday? Decomposing.

  • Tanglewood 2021

    Highlights from July 9 to August 16

    By: BSO - Apr 08th, 2021

    Marking the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s triumphant return to its summer home, BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons—who leads eight orchestra programs this summer—opens the BSO’s Tanglewood season on Saturday, July 10, with an all-Beethoven program, featuring one of the festival’s most preeminent guest artists, Emanuel Ax, performing the Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor, on a program with one of Beethoven’s most iconic works, Symphony No. 5.

  • Sir Simon Rattle in Ademek World Premiere

    Mezzo Magdalena Kožená Searches for the Divine

    By: Susan Hall - Mar 11th, 2021

    Sir Simon Rattle has taken out German citizenship to be closer to his children. It is also said he is exiting Britain and the cultural consequences of Brexit. Rattle will succeed Mariss Jansons as the chief conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerische Rundfunks. Recently he conducted the orchestra in a world premiere of Ondrej Adámek's "Where Are You?"

  • Groupmuse Now Musician Owned Cooperative

    Inspired by Covid

    By: Susan Hall - Mar 10th, 2021

    Groupmuse, the community-building startup that aims to adapt the concert experience, announced their plan to become a musician-owned cooperative. They have assembled a Founding Council made up of ten diverse young musician activists. ranging from international prize-winners, to artists who have played over 150 concerts through Groupmuse, to social justice activists fighting to bring about a more equitable and inclusive concert music ecosystem.

  • Tosca at San Francisco Opera

    On Screen Outdoors

    By: Victor Cordell - Feb 23rd, 2021

    Last weekend, SF Opera offered four screenings in the drive-in movie format at Fort Mason.  The filming was the company’s 2009 fine production of Puccini’s brilliant “Tosca.”  A review of the film of a 12-year-old stage production that has completed its drive-in run may seem fatuous. However, it could be of interest to those who might consider viewing a future streaming of the production or buying an electronic copy.

  • John Musto Premiere from Copland House

    Alexis PIa Gerlach and Michael Boriskin Perform

    By: Susan Hall - Feb 23rd, 2021

    On the fourth Monday of every month, the Copland House brings us Underscored,  zoomed performances from Aaron Copland’s study. Contemporary composers are featured. This must attend musical event is presented in collaboration with the Graduate Center of the City University  of New York. Founder and pianist Michael Boriskin introduced the premiere of John Musto’s Cello Sonata.

  • Thoughts on a New BSO CEO

    Gail Samuel Arrives from Los Angeles

    By: Susan Hall - Feb 18th, 2021

    The Boston Symphony Orchestra is taking a big step toward its future with the appointment of Gail Samuel to succeed Mark Volpe this June, just in time for Tanglewood. 

  • Bang on a Can

    March-May Programming

    By: Bang on a Can - Feb 18th, 2021

    Bang on a Can announces a dynamic slate of new virtual programming taking place from March through May 2021, all streaming at live.bangonacan.org. All shows are free to watch, but viewers are encouraged to consider purchasing a ticket to help support the performers and commissioned composers.

  • Gail Samuel Named CEO of BSO

    Appointment Will Impact Tanglewood

    By: BSO - Feb 18th, 2021

    As the Julian and Eunice Cohen President and CEO of the BSO, Gail Samuel will lead the Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and Tanglewood, and will oversee a robust, rapidly evolving slate of initiatives intended to expand the reach and relevance of orchestral music in the Boston area and beyond.

  • Opera Philadelphia's Channel Introduced

    David T. Little's Soldier Songs an Inventive Triumph

    By: Susan Hall - Feb 16th, 2021

    Without foregoing any production value, and in fact capitalizing on new opportunities, Opera Philadelphia has been leading the field in contemporary productions that attract new audiences. Over the past decade daring experiments have been undertaken, always with careful consideration. A warehouse was the setting for the production of an opera about Andy Warhol (reminiscent of a Factory?). Composers in residence have been encouraged to test the limits of an operatic stage, like Philip Venables’ Denis and Katya, designed as a social media transmission.

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