However you celebrate the holidays, there’s probably nothing like playing with your new toy this time of year. It might be a video game with a soundtrack of some of the oldest tunes in the world. Early Music.
Dr. Karen Cook, an Early Music Scholar and a Video Game Scholar says while she’s playing some of the latest video games, she’s also listening to the soundtrack for the telltale signs of early music
There are two new very different albums that came out recently that could be on your holiday list.
Composer and author Tina Davidson has released her latest album Hymn of the Universe. It’s a choral work performed by VocalEssence and based on the writings of Jesuit Priest and Scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
And The Emerson String Quartet has released its final album after 47 years of performing all over the world. On Infinite Voyage, they perform the music of Schoenberg, Chausson, Berg and Hindemith sung in part by Soprano Barbara Hannigan.
The Emerson String Quartet (1976 to 2023) with Barbara Hannigan.
Inset: Paul Watkins and Tina Davidson
The Austin Chamber Music Center has opened its application season for the 2024 Coltman Chamber Music Competition. They’re inviting exceptional ensembles from across the country to compete for cash prizes and performance opportunities. Artistic Director Michelle Schumann says some past winners of this competition have gone on to solid careers in the chamber music space, like the 2023 Grand Prize Winner the Kodak Quartet.
Here’s a link to the performances of the 2023 winners of the Coltman Chamber Music Competition.
With TikTok, Facebook and other social media platforms, it’s hard to imagine a time when the only way to see a documentary was on television. That is the world the late Christoper Nupen lived and worked in. Starting in the 1960’s Nupen’s company, Allegro Films, started with Double Concerto. Nupen continued to produce ground breaking documentaries about classical musicians that revealed their off-stage lives and showed how much fun they had making the music they performed.
Matthew Percival, creative director, and partner at Allegro Films is now in charge of Nupen’s legacy with plans to make more films.
We’re a little more than a month away from 2024 which means it’s time to make plans for the summer. Specifically summer music programs for young musicians. Equity Arc has partnered with at least 17 summer music programs to provide applications fees and scholarships for BIPOC musicians via their Common Application for Summer Study.
Magee Capsouto, the Associate Director at Equity Arc says they’re trying to provide more diversity in the nation’s orchestral summer programs.
Austin Soundwaves will be able to serve more students in several ways after receiving a grant from Carnegie Hall’s Play USA program. Their mission is to train student musicians across the greater Austin area and to provide diverse opportunities for learners of all ages and backgrounds. Last year they served more than 1,100 students through 23 school partnerships and programs.
Deputy Director Hermes Camacho says they are very excited about the possibilities.
Cliburn Competition Applications Are Open. Already you say? Didn’t the Cliburns just crown a winner, Yunchan Lim of South Korea? Well, yes but that was an entire year ago. Now they’re looking for the next winner for the Seventeenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2025.
Jacques Marquis President and CEO of the Cliburn Competition says it takes a long time to find the pianist ready to embark upon an international career.
How much do you really know about your favorite composer? You love the music, but how did the composer come to write a particular piece?
Judith Lynn Stillman – the Artist-in-Residence and professor of music at Rhode Island College in East Providence answers that question and many more with her plays-within-a-concert. Her latest is Dvořák: A Bohemian Rhapsody. Did you know he loved trains?? It opens in East Providence with a livestream so anyone anywhere can watch it.
Judith Lynn Stillman – the Artist-in-Residence and professor of music at Rhode Island College in East Providence answers that question and many more with her plays-within-a-concert. Her latest is Dvořák: A Bohemian Rhapsody. Did you know he loved trains?? It opens in East Providence with a livestream so anyone anywhere can watch it.
If Judith Stillman wasn’t playing the piano for her latest production, she and you might enjoy Crescendo. It’s the documentary about the 2022 Cliburn Competition. The free screening is in Fort Worth on October 26th.
Even the Artistic Director and Founder of Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson, finds it hard to believe that the choral ensemble is 30 years old. He’s developed a fall season that’s kind of eclectic with a nod to the past and an eye on the future. One choral group is being invited back for the holiday program. It’s Isaac Cates & Ordained who will, says Johnson, bridge the past with the future.
The Long Center is celebrating its 15th anniversary with something they’ve never done before. They’re throwing open the doors of the performing arts facility for the First Annual Teresa Lozano Long Community Day. Dr. Long broke racial barriers at the University of Texas back in the 1950’s. She and her husband Joe have funded many scholarships, educational institutions and The Long Center.
