Month: February 2010

Transitions

From a Seattle Symphony press release…

Seattle Symphony Board Chair Leslie Jackson Chihuly announced the appointment of current Seattle Symphony Vice President of Development Mark McCampbell to the position of Interim Executive Director. McCampbell has 30 years of non-profit leadership and fundraising experience and was brought into the organization by current Executive Director Thomas Philion. Philion, who has served as Executive Director since 2007, will continue to work with the organization as Senior Advisor in the coming months. Philion decided in December not to seek renewal of his contract. A search for a new President & Executive Director is underway, led by search committee chair and longtime board member Marco Abbruzzese.

Auryn Quartet Makes Auspicious Debut

By any count, today is a golden age for string quartets. Dozens of groups of international standing ply the concert platform on several continents. One of those, founded nearly 30 years ago, made a belated debut at Meany Hall Thursday night.

The Auryn Quartet began life in Germany and is now based in Cologne. It has toured widely, in Europe and North and South America as well as Australia and Asia. The group’s recordings are equally impressive with complete cycles of the Beethoven and Schubert and Brahms quartets and Haydn to be finished just down the road. All together more than 150 string quartets have entered its repertory with about 100 chamber music works – trios to octets – performed with all sorts of eminent musicians and ensembles such as the Guarneri and Amadeus, with whom the Auryn studied, and the Prazak.

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Gershwin on Broadway

By Philippa Kiraly

S’Wonderful how a Fascinatin’ Rhythm can get your feet tapping at Meany Hall to something By Strauss, but I’d Rather Charleston on Broadway in Summertime with The Man I Love even if he considers A Woman is a Sometime Thing.. No matter if you Soon say Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off, They Can’t Take that Away From Me. I have my Rhapsody in Blue forever and Someone to Watch Over Me.

Well!

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Winter Festival closes its 2010 season Sunday

By R.M. Campbell

Just as the summer festival of the Seattle Chamber Music Society has taken a quantum leap in excellence over the past few years, so has the winter festival. The four-day event, which concluded Sunday afternoon with a splendid concert, gave evidence to that claim. This is the first year in nearly 30 in which both festivals will be held in the same place — Nordstrom Recital Hall. Home to summer event for most of its life, Lakeside School, and its pastoral calm, is no longer available to the festival. After a long search, Nordstrom was selected for its size, excellent acoustical properties and central location. There is room to grow in this hall, where there was none in St. Nicholas Hall, a smaller, less commodious and acoustically deficient venue. Officials have already been working on improving the extra-concert hall accommodations. I have no doubt that will be accomplished by summer — the festival opens July 5 — I believe people will readily embrace the new facility. If they want a bucolic ambience, they can attend concerts at Overlake School in Redmond, a summer Eastside branch of the main festival. Not only is there a handsome campus, the acoustics of its hall are superb.

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Thalia Symphony’s From Russia With Love

By Harlan Glotzer

On Saturday afternoon the Thalia Symphony presented a brief, but by no means unsubstantial, concert of two Russian masters. Thalia, a truly remarkable group of musicians, under the baton of Eric Hanson, has been the Seattle Pacific University Orchestra in Residence since 1994. Spanning a wide range of ages, comprised of professionals, SPU students, and SPU alumni, this ensemble embodies the essence of a community orchestra. Thalia is indeed a place for young musicians to hone their skills among the ranks of peers and mentors.

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