Tag: News

In Memorium: Perry Lorenzo

There is no easy way to break this sad news.  I will let the the Seattle Opera’s press release speak for itself:

Seattle—Seattle Opera’s General Director Speight Jenkins announced today that Perry Lorenzo, an internationally acclaimed speaker on opera and for almost twenty years Director of Education at Seattle Opera, passed away on December 19. He fought a valiant fight against lung cancer for the past seven months. He was 51.

Dedicated to introducing everyone to opera, Lorenzo lectured widely both here and abroad. He took a fledgling Education program at Seattle Opera and expanded it exponentially, drawing to him a devoted core of speakers and discussing opera in many forums. He worked with students in many communities all over the state as well as in the Seattle area. At Woodinville High School, for example, he was well known as the “Opera Guy.”

Continue reading In Memorium: Perry Lorenzo

Questioning Gary Thor Wedow

I’ll be doing a video interview with Gary Thor Wedow Monday. Wedow is in town to conduct the Messiah with the Seattle Symphony. Wedow has conducted the Seattle Symphony before and the Seattle Opera, but I suspect most people are unfamiliar with him as a conductor. Wedow is an active opera conductor and proponent of historically informed performances. One of Wedow’s accomplishments this fall was to lead a new production of Don Giovanni at the renewed City Opera. I’ll be preparing to interview Wedow this weekend, but what do you, the Gathering Note’s loyal readers, think I should ask Wedow?

NY Phil season pass

An interesting concept has come from the New York Philharmonic — a NY Phil season pass on iTunes.  Everyone knows iTunes is a destination point for downloading music, but it has also become a source for downloading just about every other type of content as well (from podcasts to television shows).  Until know, iTunes season passes were primarily used for television shows and other serial media.  This season, the NY Phil is experimenting with selling a pass for the orchestra’s concert season.  The concept of having concert performances available for download soon after a concert is over has been kicking around for sometime now.  Some, like the Berlin Philharmonic, are making concert broadcasts available online and the Metropolitan Opera offers current HD productions as well as a vast catalog of previously recorded operas available for viewing.  Both come at a cost and both enrich the audio experience with visuals.  I believe the NY Phil’s iTunes season pass is the first to offer a subscription for audio recordings only.

The season pass makes perfect sense and I hope the NY Phil continues to offer season passes in future seasons. For many orchestras, concerts over the course of a season, aren’t always just a string of stand-alone musical events.  Concerts reinforce and build off of one another.  In Seattle a few years ago, the SSO had a season highlighting music by composers who emigrated to the United States.  Alan Gilbert’s first season on the podium may not be defined by one, overarching musical idea, but that’s not to say future seasons won’t be.  Where seasons are tied together by one idea or series of ideas, a season pass would be an invaluable tool to experience the artistic concept as it evolved over a series of months.

Quarter notes: upcoming

James Garlick

James Garlick

December is here and the holiday concert season has begun. Tomorrow Christopher Seaman leads the Seattle Symphony in a concert which resembles a prolonged encore. Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korsakov, Dukas, and Humperdink are all represented on the program. On Friday, Renee Fleming performs a recital at Benaroya Hall. Fleming is one of opera’s reigning divas. Her performances routinely sell out in these parts. In Wallingford, on the same night, local violinist James Garlick and pianist Judith Cohen, perform a hefty recital of Ives, Debussy, Bartok, Corigliano, and Bach. Garlick told me over coffee at Fuel a few weeks ago, he was inspired to play the Ives second sonata after reading through the piece this past summer with pianist and Ives aficionado Jeremy Denk. This weekend, Seattle Pro Musica performs their holiday concert – Eastern Lights – on the 5th. There is another performance on the 12th.  George Shangrow and Orchestra Seattle trot out their Messiah on Sunday the 6th. Currently OSSCS is leading in the “best Messiah” poll.  Shangrow doesn’t cut, trim, or abridge any of Handel’s music.  Every note is played. This makes Orchestra Seattle’s Messiah the longest in the region.   Also on Sunday Opus 7 will perform Heaven on High, a concert featuring two early choral pieces by Mendelssohn and Rautavaara’s Canticum Mariae Virginis.

Breakfast with Paul Taub

This Saturday, acclaimed local flutist Paul Taub is celebtrating 30 years in Seattle with an anniversary concert at Cornish College.  Seattle audiences know Paul well through his work with the Seattle Chamber Players, his solo flue recitals, and through his work as a Cornish faculty member.  I was lucky to be able to sit down with Paul this past weekend and chat with him about his upcoming concert.  The concert will feature works by a number of composers, many of whom Paul has gotten to know through his association with the Seattle Chamber Players. 

As you will hear in Paul’s own words, anyone interested in the flute and new music should definitely check out this concert.  On a side note, anyone interested in perfect pancakes and delicious, garlic laddened scrambled eggs should head over to the Blue Dog Kitchen in the U-District (thank you Paul and thank you Yelp). I recommend the Blue Dog Special with veggies.

Astor Piazzolla’s Four Season’s of Buenos Aires; Q&A with violinist James Garlick

The Northwest Sinfonietta returns to action this week with a program that features eight seasons — Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.”  James Garlick — friend of the Gathering Note, frequent concertmaster with the Sinfonietta, and occasional contributor — took a few moments to talk about Piazzolla’s “Seasons.”  Garlick is soloing with his orchestra for the Piazzolla while Adam LaMotte, the Sinfonietta’s concertmaster, is taking up solo duties for Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”

Continue reading Astor Piazzolla’s Four Season’s of Buenos Aires; Q&A with violinist James Garlick

Conductor Stewart Kershaw resigns from Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Photo courtesy Angela Sterling
Photo courtesy Angela Sterling

Today, Stewart Kershaw, music director and conductor of Pacific Northwest Ballet announced his departure from the organization, effective immediately.

Kershaw, 68, has been PNB’s conductor for 25 years and it’s now 20 years since the orchestra began its own orchestra, last summer described in The New York Times as perhaps the best ballet orchestra in the country.

Kershaw emphasizes that he is leaving now, not because of any disagreements with PNB but the opposite. He wants to retire on a high note, and he considers the production of “Romeo et Juliette” just past was a highlight for the company and the PNB orchestra. He has just chosen a new concertmaster for the orchestra, Michael Lim, and feels he leaves the group in very good hands with Lim and, until a new music director is found, assistant conductor Allan Dameron.

Kershaw has been a ballet conductor for 43 years, directing the music for such luminaries as Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev among many others. He remains in town and will continue to conduct the Auburn Symphony, where many of the PNB orchestra also play.

PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal accepted Kershaw’s resignation with sadness, commenting that he had contributed tremendously to the company over the past quarter century. The company will begin to look for a successor immediately.