tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54 2009-02-04T19:03:41Z Who’s making news, noise and splash in the Philadelphia arts world and beyond. Movable Type 3.35 tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7898 2009-02-04T18:40:08Z 2009-02-04T19:03:41Z

The Inquirer is moving bloggers to a new publishing platform. If this is Greek to you, don't worry. All you need to know is that from now on ArtsWatch can be found here....

Peter Dobrin here.]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7893 2009-02-03T17:22:58Z 2009-02-03T17:32:31Z

Inquirer music critic David Patrick Stearns is about to meet up with the Philadelphia Orchestra on tour in Europe, but in the meantime take a look at photos and a blog on the orchestra's own tour website. (Pictured: The Auditorio...

Peter Dobrin Inquirer music critic David Patrick Stearns is about to meet up with the Philadelphia Orchestra on tour in Europe, but in the meantime take a look at photos and a blog on the orchestra's own tour website. (Pictured: The Auditorio de Tenerife in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, designed by Santiago Calatrava.) ]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7890 2009-02-02T11:36:53Z 2009-02-02T18:26:52Z

Lukas Foss, the composer, conductor and pianist, has died. He was 86. Foss was born in Berlin, educated at Curtis, and pursued an energetic career that expressed itself in a variety of music styles . Read the New York Times...

Peter Dobrin Lukas Foss, the composer, conductor and pianist, has died. He was 86. Foss was born in Berlin, educated at Curtis, and pursued an energetic career that expressed itself in a variety of music styles . Read the New York Times obit here. Foss not only attended Curtis. He visited the school to lead the orchestra while Gary Graffman was director. He received an honorary degree from Curtis in 1988. Here is what Graffman had to say about Foss this afternoon. "He was one of those triple threats – when he was at Curtis he was studying piano and composition and conducting. I am told that when he auditioned he also wanted to audition as a flutist, but they thought enough was enough. "He was an incredible sight-reader. I had the feeling that if you would turn a Strauss score upside down he would read it, which of course was the appeal for Koussevitzky, who relied on Lukas to read contemporary scores people sent to him." About Foss' diversity as a composer, Graffman said: "He was not doing it in my opinion because it was the style. He really wanted to experiment and see what he could do, what all of it could be." (Foss is pictured with Leonard Bernstein at the keyboard in an AP photo.)]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7882 2009-01-27T11:47:39Z 2009-01-27T11:57:37Z

Seems to me the economic crisis is going to provide cover for bad management at arts institutions who will now be able to blame forces they portray as out of their control. Take a look at this stunning quote from...

Peter Dobrin whole story in the Boston Globe. It's pretty jaw-dropping.]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7875 2009-01-23T11:14:31Z 2009-01-23T11:23:48Z

Turns out Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill and Gabriela Montero were not really playing at the presidential inauguration, the New York Times reports. Well, they were playing, just not that day. Well, they played that day, but that's not...

Peter Dobrin reports. Well, they were playing, just not that day. Well, they played that day, but that's not the performance everyone heard. They were doing the instrumental version of lip-synching. Opinions, please.]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7871 2009-01-20T18:00:17Z 2009-01-20T18:22:31Z

Classical music had maybe its largest and most captive audience ever this afternoon when John Williams' Air and Simple Gifts debuted just before Barack Obama took the oath of the office. An ensemble of clarinetist Anthony McGill, cellist Yo-Yo Ma,...

Peter Dobrin Classical music had maybe its largest and most captive audience ever this afternoon when John Williams' Air and Simple Gifts debuted just before Barack Obama took the oath of the office. An ensemble of clarinetist Anthony McGill, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianist Gabriela did the honors. It was a relatively introspective choice for a moment that might have been relegated to bombast or boilerplate patriotism. Harmonies were hard to hear, but when clarinetist McGill introduced the melody, first in bits, it was unmistakable: "Simple Gifts," the 1848 Shaker song by Elder Joseph Brackett. Copland used it of course in Appalachian Spring (first called "Ballet For Martha," as in Martha Graham). The Pittsburgh Symphony gives the Williams work another chance to be heard in concerts this weekend for which Montero was already booked to play Rhapsody in Blue. The adaptation by Williams (pictured) was instrumental, but here are the words: 'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free, 'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gain'd, To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd, To turn, turn will be our delight, Till by turning, turning we come round right. ]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7870 2009-01-20T10:47:56Z 2009-01-20T11:15:03Z

Young Concert Artists, the prestigious New York competition, has awarded seven first prizes for its 2008-09 International Auditions, and among them are current Curtis Institute of Music violin student Ray Chen (pictured) and 2008 Curtis grad Bella Hristova. YCA has...

Peter Dobrin Young Concert Artists, the prestigious New York competition, has awarded seven first prizes for its 2008-09 International Auditions, and among them are current Curtis Institute of Music violin student Ray Chen (pictured) and 2008 Curtis grad Bella Hristova. YCA has been a pretty reliable indicator of great musical things to come since its start in 1961. Among past awardees are Pinchas Zukerman (a 1966 winner), the Tokyo String Quartet (1970) and Emanuel Ax (1973). Winners receive two of the things that are hardest to get for nascent musicians: professional management and performance opportunities.]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7866 2009-01-19T11:03:06Z 2009-01-19T15:06:32Z

Clarinetist Anthony McGill joins Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and pianist Gabriela Montero tomorrow in a new work of John Williams just before Obama takes the oath. McGill, 29, a 2000 Curtis grad who is now a principal clarinetist in the...

Peter Dobrin Clarinetist Anthony McGill joins Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and pianist Gabriela Montero tomorrow in a new work of John Williams just before Obama takes the oath. McGill, 29, a 2000 Curtis grad who is now a principal clarinetist in the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, said this was "probably the greatest thing I’ve eve been a part of. It is humongous, to be a part of history, any inauguration. This one especially has a little bit of special meaning personally. It’s hard to even talk about it still." The piece by Williams - he who writes Olympic themes and some most excellent movie scores - is about five minutes long. "Not to sound cheesy, but definitely once you hear it you know what I am talk about: it sounds like America. It does," said McGill, who grew up in Chicago and moved away for school in 1994. It's open, it's free, it has a lot of different, very American sounding music. And in its beginning it’s almost sorrowful and in the end triumphant. And yet there’s a lot of nostalgia in the piece as well. Once you recognize the melody, it sounds very American in the best sense of the word." McGill has played with Yo-Yo Ma before. In 2001, with pianist Mitsuko Uchida, they collaborated on Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. "I wanted to play with him again for a long time," said McGill. Seven or eight years later, not a bad encore. Here's a review of a recital McGill played here in 2005.]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7863 2009-01-15T16:46:52Z 2009-01-15T16:54:56Z

Christoph Eschenbach has canceled his appearance at the keyboard this weekend in a Philadelphia Orchestra chamber-music concert because of what the orchestra says is "a minor hand injury." His conducting activities with the orchestra during the month of January will...

Peter Dobrin Andante and Variations, WoO 10, for two pianos, two cellos and horn at the concert scheduled for Sunday in the Kimmel's Perelman Theater. ]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7860 2009-01-14T16:25:50Z 2009-01-15T10:30:49Z

Philadelphia Orchestra president and CEO James Undercofler will depart sooner than previously announced. Rather than leaving in July, yesterday was his last day in the office. No successor has been found. In fact, the orchestra has only just hired a...

Peter Dobrin here.]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7857 2009-01-13T16:02:08Z 2009-01-13T18:24:57Z

The National Constitution Center has a new leader, at least temporarily. Linda E. Johnson will become acting president and CEO when Joseph M. Torsella leaves at the end of January. A member of the Center’s board since 1997, Johnson is...

Peter Dobrin The National Constitution Center has a new leader, at least temporarily. Linda E. Johnson will become acting president and CEO when Joseph M. Torsella leaves at the end of January. A member of the Center’s board since 1997, Johnson is resigning as CEO of the Free Library of Philadelphia Library Foundation to take the job. She is a veteran of various boards, from the Free Library to Hamilton College to the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network. At the Free Library, Johnson, a lawyer, was working to raise money for a renovation and major expansion of the main branch. The project is still happening, though a groundbreaking is not imminent. "We were ready to go to groundbreaking, but with the situation with the branches and the economy, we decided not to go to groundbreaking just yet," said spokeswoman Sandra Horrocks. About $105 million has been promised toward the project's $175 million goal, Horrocks said. "We have a ways to go. We’re still fund-raising," she said. A CEO search committee will be established, and today Johnson was put back on the Free Library Foundation's board. tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7852 2009-01-12T13:58:08Z 2009-01-12T14:27:23Z

The New York Philharmonic will play the 600-seat Hanoi Opera House (pictured) during its Asia tour next season, the New York Times reports. Vietnam doesn't have the classical ambitions of some of its neighbors (Korea, China). But, says Philharmonic...

Peter Dobrin The New York Philharmonic will play the 600-seat Hanoi Opera House (pictured) during its Asia tour next season, the New York Times reports. Vietnam doesn't have the classical ambitions of some of its neighbors (Korea, China). But, says Philharmonic chief Zarin Mehta: “This is a country that we felt as Americans that we owed a visit to,” he said “We had a big war with them. The country was coming back, and we felt it was a good thing to reach out to the people there.” The Philadelphia Orchestra, you might recall, broke the Vietnam barrier a decade ago. The Philharmonic, in announcing its 2009-10 season (Alan Gilbert's first as music director), also revealed two interesting bits of artistic news: Riccardo Muti will return to lead concerts, and Vladimir Jurowski will make his New York Philharmonic debut. Combined with his Met appearances and tour concerts at Lincoln Center, Jurowski is establishing a major New York presence.]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7847 2009-01-08T01:08:32Z 2009-01-08T11:01:56Z

Mervon Mehta (pictured), the Kimmel's vice president for programming, is leaving the center. He'll be replaced by Kimmel-Philadelphia Orchestra veteran Tom Warner (not pictured). More here....

Peter Dobrin Mervon Mehta (pictured), the Kimmel's vice president for programming, is leaving the center. He'll be replaced by Kimmel-Philadelphia Orchestra veteran Tom Warner (not pictured). More here.]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7845 2009-01-07T10:50:00Z 2009-01-07T11:03:56Z

Not many classical artists are getting signed by record companies these days - and getting signed doesn't mean what it meant in the days when the labels sold more than a few thousand copies per title - but Curtis...

Peter Dobrin Not many classical artists are getting signed by record companies these days - and getting signed doesn't mean what it meant in the days when the labels sold more than a few thousand copies per title - but Curtis Institute of Music pianist Yuja Wang is now with Deutsche Grammophon. Her first release, Feb. 17, includes works of Liszt, Scriabin and Ligeti. ]]> tag:blogs.phillynews.com,2009:/inquirer/ArtsWatch//54.7837 2009-01-05T11:01:52Z 2009-01-05T11:31:13Z

The Inquirer today follows Stephan Salisbury's story on how the city violated the Culture Fund's process to send $250,000 to the Philadelphia Orchestra. Today's story says many of the orchestra's board members were also donors to Mayor Nutter's campaign. Not...

Peter Dobrin story on how the city violated the Culture Fund's process to send $250,000 to the Philadelphia Orchestra. Today's story says many of the orchestra's board members were also donors to Mayor Nutter's campaign. Not to beat a dead horse, but the overlap is more a consequence of the limited leadership pool in Philadelphia than payback (although I'm sure there's some of that). If you made a list of philanthropists to cultural groups, donors to political campaigns, generally civic-minded leaders and other community activists, you would find many of the same names popping up on five or six board lists. Expanding the talent pool beyond the usual suspects would not only reduce the chances of back-room dealing, it would help alleviate donor-fatigue among people like orchestra chairman Harold Sorgenti, whose multi-tasking in philanthropy has been admirable. How about a campaign to recruit more involvement from philanthropists and business leaders hiding in the suburbs?]]>