The United States has a long, rich choral music tradition that extends from the Moravians to William Billings, from spirituals to Morten Lauridsen. And now there are a number of prominent younger composers diligently adding to this repertoire. Minnesota-based Jake Runestad, who is only 29, is among these creators, and his new cantata, The Hope of Loving, had its world premiere … [Read more...]
Pianist Dinnerstein to open Festival Miami with Lasser concerto
The American pianist Simone Dinnerstein made her mark on the concert scene with her peerless readings of the music of J.S. Bach, and the Goldberg Variations in particular. But her career has also brought attention to the music of a living composer, Philip Lasser, a Juilliard professor whose Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach was featured on Dinnerstein’s recording of … [Read more...]
Composer Runestad offers message of love in new work for Seraphic Fire
Rather than hire a babysitter when they had choir practice at night, the parents of Jake Runestad simply took their son along to rehearsals. “I would just run around in the choir room, and I think a lot of that music seeped into my brain,” says Runestad (pronounced RUN-uh-sted), speaking last week from his home in Minneapolis. “There was just a lot of music in my own … [Read more...]
Lynn Philharmonia reaches new level in opening concerts
Every season, South Florida gets visited by touring big-name orchestras from northern climes worldwide that for some reason find this part of the country particularly urgent to see in February. One of the benefits of our gentle weather is that we can see these major orchestras up close, but another less appreciated benefit for us local concertgoers is that these visits provide … [Read more...]
Arts preview 2015-16: The season in classical music
The classical music season for 2015-16 will be its usual overstuffed self, especially if you’re keen to travel outside Palm Beach County. Inside the county, things incline to the tried and true, but further south, they’re edgier. Nevertheless, it’s a rich and bountiful season, and the first three months of the new year will present concertgoers with a huge menu of possible … [Read more...]
Arts preview 2015-16: The season in opera
A searing contemporary opera about Auschwitz and the completion of an unprecedented 28-year effort to present all of the operas of Giuseppe Verdi are among the high points of the coming operatic season in southern Florida. While the Sarasota Opera’s end of its Verdi Cycle will draw international attention, operaphiles closer to home will be eager to see Palm Beach Opera’s … [Read more...]
Nu Deco Ensemble makes delightful, important debut
There has been nothing quite like it in Miami classical circles, to say nothing of South Florida as a whole, but it is a very good thing that it has now arrived. The Nu Deco Ensemble, a chamber group that bills itself as a “21st-century orchestra,” presented the first concert in its inaugural season Friday and Saturday night at the Light Box at Goldman Warehouse in Wynwood. … [Read more...]
U.S. pianist’s Chopin survey impresses as she heads to Warsaw
The music of Frédéric Chopin remains unique in music history in that most of what the Polish composer wrote is in the active repertory. Chopin is critical to the repertoire of pianists everywhere, and next month, Rachel Naomi Kudo, a 28-year-old American pianist from the Chicago suburbs, heads to Warsaw to take part in the 17th International Chopin Competition, having won a … [Read more...]
Three-nation youth orchestra to perform in Delray
A youth orchestra concert with roots in a rural Mexican library comes to Delray Beach’s Crest Theatre on Sept. 19. The concert, called “Harmony Without Borders,” will feature children from the Imagina Symphonic Orchestra in León, Mexico; 24 children from the Siman Orchestral Foundation in Miami; and 10 children from the Pequeñas Huellas cultural project in Turin, Italy. They … [Read more...]
Fun staging, excellent singing mark Miami Summer Music Festival’s closing ‘Don Giovanni’
The Miami Summer Music Festival closed its second season on Sunday afternoon with a remarkable performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, epic and uncut, and featuring several standout singers in the festival’s Opera Institute program. Smartly and snarkily staged by Jeffrey Marc Buchman, who updated the opera to contemporary times in a gambling resort, this Don Giovanni lost only … [Read more...]