Month: June 2009
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Zach Carstensen : How were you introduced to the violin? ZC: Your professional career began at a young age – you were 12 when you performed with the New York Philharmonic – what was it like being a classical music star while you are also entering your formative, teenage years? M: When a youngster is…
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Long time readers of The Gathering Note know that Music of Remembrance is one of our favorite music organizations in the Northwest. If you don’t know – MOR, as it is known in these parts – is dedicated to unearthing, restoring, preserving, and performing Holocaust-era serious music and music inspired by the Holocaust. MOR also…
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The Seattle Symphony Orchestra season keeps going deeper and deeper into summer. While one might think it would dumb down its programs, because of the longer, sunnier days, it is doing almost the opposite with well-considered, well-crafted collections of music. But it is not only the music that is often so striking but also the…
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This year’s competition had a lot of excitement after the last concert finished. The press in attendance was very divided regarding who the medalists would be. Most of the critics agreed that Bulgarian pianist Evgeni Bozhanov played himself out of contention with his bombastic style. But all of the five remaining competitors were mentioned as…
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Richard Rodzinski, president of the Van Cliburn Foundation and John Giordano, chairman of the jury, subjected themselves to numerous questions by the press. Here’s a compilation of some of the questions and answers (some of which wandered away from the questions). This conversation took place before the final round. I just haven’t had enough time…
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Orchestral musicians often chafe under the bit in orchestra performances where they don’t get to choose the music or the interpretation but must bow to another’s dictum. So many, if not most, play chamber music for pleasure, where they can follow their own inclination as to type of music, colleagues to play with, and just…
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Pacific Northwest Ballet says goodbye very well. At these special occasions — for example, Kent Stowell and Francia Russell as well as Patricia Barker — there is pomp and circumstance, sentiment, speeches, but not too many and not too long, and, of course, dancing. Barker and Nadeau said their farewells at their prime, even though…
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After a long wait, the audience again took their seats in Bass Hall to hear the who the winners of the Van Cliburn Competition are. So, here are the jury’s decisions: Gold: Haochen Zhang, Nobuyuki Tsujii Silver: Yeol Eum Son Crystal: not awarded Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance(s) of Chamber Music:…
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I’ve only got a few minutes to collect my thoughts about the six concert in the final round of this competition. Nobuyuki Tsujii gave the recital portion with pieces by Beethoven, Chopin, and Liszt. He did very well (especially considering that a Japanese TV crew just stopped in as well as more Japanese press and…
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At the end of this month the Seattle Symphony will premiere a major new work by Aaron Jay Kernis . The piece is the composer’s third symphony and is titled “Symphony of Meditations.” It was originally intended for the 2007/2008 Seattle Symphony season. Kernis has based the work on an 11th Century Sephardic poem. I…