Category: Classical music

One of the musical acts i’m always hoping might get back together at some point is Ektoise, an Australian group who from 2010 to 2013 put out a series of albums and EPs that forged an experimental synthesis of rock, ambient, doomjazz and shoegaze without once missing a step. While that hope – being almost a decade since their last album – grows increasingly vain, i want to revisit and celebrate their EP Down River, released in 2012. The four tracks are effectively remixes and reimaginings of ‘Down River’, a 16-minute piece included on their 2011 album Kiyomizu (which was one of my Best Albums of that year). However, that piece was structured in three very different sections – a hugely intense 5-minute introduction followed by a lengthy, drifting, ethereal middle sequence, ending with a crunchy coda festooned with a mess of beats and tangled melodies – and it’s essentially just the introduction that’s explored here.

To make that point, the first track, simply called ‘Down River’, consists of that 5-minute intro, though a quick comparison indicates that it’s been mastered differently from the original (the notes confirm that group member Greg Reason mastered the album, while the EP was mastered by Mark Godwin). In some respects i prefer the EP version more, as certain details are teased out more strongly, though there’s really not a lot in it. It says a lot for this music that its short duration supports over 40 minutes’ worth of further exploration on the rest of the EP, and to a large extent this rests on its sheer overwhelming intensity. It has the acute solemnity of a black passacaglia, processing onward according to the sluggish momentum of its abyssal bassline, while clunking sounds (possibly field recordings of boats and river passage) collide against each other and a nasal lament emerges from the dry friction of a kamancheh.

Its apocalyptic tone is shared by each of the three remixes that follow, two of which are significantly longer. The 17-minute ‘Down River From the Golden Bough is a Perilous Place’, created by the duo zK, ups the ante somewhat. Its opening five minutes correspond to a reworked take on the original, initially putting more emphasis on the field recordings, more heavily evoking the real world. Yet as soon as some of the track’s slow-moving material starts to fade in, the field recordings immediately recede, making the transition from reality to heightened hyperreality feel all the more acute. The duo make the brave decision to introduce beats to this leaden soundworld, setting up a combination of light percussion acting as a foil to the heavyweight elements they skitter across. It’s a combination that works, and which in turn reinforces further the weight a few minutes before the end, leaving us drowning in deep bass-laden fuzz as the kamancheh sings to the end.

Most extreme of all is the 21½-minute remix by Noah Landis. It’s a highly adventurous remix, reimagining ‘Down River’ within an environment filled with undulating bands of wind-like noise. When Landis introduces the original’s bassline, it’s so deep that it almost loses its pitch focus, creating a nicely polarised unpitched marriage of bass and noise. Landis adorns the processional tone with brighter synth elements, some vibrating across the space, others burning through the texture, while the field recordings are multiplied to create a dense percussive field. Seemingly impossibly, the bass gets lost in this, though Landis makes up for that by ramping up the force of the synth elements such that they end up grinding and buzzing in our faces. In its latter half things are pulled back a bit, and there’s the brief appearance of something akin to processed vocals, sounding like a strange combination of crying, singing and chanting. It continues as a constant tension tilting between bass, melody and noise, passing through some light quasi-tribal beats before reaching a wonderful climax, caked in abrasive overload. As it began, so it ends: polarised, the bass buzzing in the depths, while something unfathomable squalls above.

The final track, ‘Mangroves’, is a 4-minute epilogue that returns more closely to the original, adding some rogue guitar notes but otherwise allowing the elements to jostle and swirl around each other as if stuck in the viscous water of a sonic swamp.

Self-released by Ektoise in July 2012, Down River is available free from the group’s Bandcamp site.

© PTI

Varanasi, Jan 12 (PTI) On the sandy banks of the Ganga in Varanasi, over 200 tents offer tourists a panoramic view of the famed ghats of the holy city on the other side of the river along with live classical music, ‘aarti’ in the evening and yoga sessions.

The ‘Tent City’, to be inaugurated virtually by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, has been developed on the lines of similar setups in Gujarat’s Kutch and Rajasthan.

Three clusters of 10 hectares each comprise the Tent City and are expected to give a fillip to the city’s tourism potential, said Kaushal Raj Sharma, the divisional commissioner of Varanasi.

Vice Chairman of Varanasi Development Authority (VDA) Abhishek Goyal said the Tent City will be a confluence of religion, spirituality and culture.

“Guests at the Tent City will experience the sunrise, live music events in the morning, yoga session by the river as well as boat tours. Special care has been taken for the comfort, convenience and safety of all tourists,” he said.

Goyal said the three clusters of tents include villas of 900 sq ft each, super deluxe accommodation of 480 to 580 sq ft each and deluxe accommodation of 250 to 400 sq ft each.

The tent city is complete with Swiss Cottages, a reception area, a gaming zone, restaurants, dining areas, conference venues, spa and yoga centres, a library and an art gallery. It will also offer water sports, and camel and horse riding on the sandy banks of the Ganga, he said.

Neeraj Upadhyay, the designer of the Tent City, said it has been given the shape of temple spires. The tents will give the feel of luxury and offer the facilities of a hotel, he said.

“An attempt has been made to project the image of Kashi in it. The atmosphere of the Tent City is such that it will tickle all five senses. The fragrance of sandalwood, rose and lavender can be smelled across the tent city while the famous Banarasi thandai, chaat and Banarasi paan will a treat for the taste buds,” he said.

City Police Commissioner Mutha Ashok Jain said adequate security arrangements have been made for the Tent City.

Two temporary police outposts have been set up there. Non-veg food items and liquor have been banned there, he added.

The Philharmonia will perform at the Anglican Church in Batemans Bay on February 1 at 8pm and Ulladulla at St Martin’s Church on February 2 at 8pm.

Chamber Philharmonia Cologne 2023 perform a diverse program ranging from Antonio Vivaldi and his tremendously famous “Four Seasons” to Mozart and Niccolo Paganini

After several successful European tours the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne (Germany) returns to Australia in summer 2023 with a powerful and lovely new programme.

“Classical music the world over” – this is the motto of the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne.

A spokesperson for the Philharmonia said of the tour “It is irrelevant for our musicians whether they are playing in a little village church, in the open air, in Cologne Cathedral or in the Sydney Opera House – their enthusiasm to play music is the same every time.”

“The objective is simple – we want to inspire as many people as possible across all generations to enjoy classical music. The popularity of our ensemble is reflected in the fact that the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne gives around 300 concerts a year around the globe and listeners throughout the world look forward to a musical encounter with our exceptionally talented musicians.”

“The Chamber Philharmonia Cologne was founded in the city whose name they bear: Cologne. The city that is famous throughout the world for its University of Music and its musical and instrumental teaching. Generations of musicians have been trained there for many decades who, in terms of their musicality, are unparalleled around the world. Taking advantage of this pool of talent, a stock of outstanding musicians has accrued that in a changing cast of musicians take our motto across the world.

“Since November 2009, the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne has a very special partner at their side – the Mercedes-Benz Centre in Cologne. As part of a creative cooperation, this world renowned company, via its branch in Cologne, thrilled by our musical concept provides the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne with a comfortable tour bus. It enables our musicians to travel quickly and comfortably to the many varied concert locations. In return, the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne, in close cooperation with the Mercedes-Benz Center Cologne, organises special concerts for the car company’s special customers.

“The remarkable construction of the Mercedes-Benz Center is transformed in the process into a really top-class concert palace. This results in the smell of new cars mixing with the sounds of classical music.

“The Chamber Philharmonia Cologne is at home all over the world. Our tours regularly take us to New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Great Britain, Ireland and many other countries – and of course to Germany. In this context, the selection of works and soloists takes on a special significance. The multifaceted composition of the ensemble provides every member of the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne with the opportunity to perform as a soloist.

“The permanently expanding repertoire of the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne consists primarily of hand-picked pieces. The real appeal of our programme lies in the meeting of popular and unknown works from a wide variety of musical epochs. This sees familiar greats like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Vivaldi in dialogue with works from people such as Sergei Prokofieff through to the “King of Tango” Astor Piazzolla. This mix promises great diversity of the very highest order, without us having to preach to the audience in the process. After all, music is for entertainment and not for instruction.

“To inspire people across the world to enjoy classical music – that’s what we view as our maxim! Quite simply: Classical music the world over!”

There’s nothing like being in a warm concert hall on a cold winter afternoon or evening. Here, in chronological order, are what seem to me some of the most warming and heartwarming musical events of the winter season. If I’ve left out some of your favorite groups, the reason may be that they have nothing scheduled before the arrival of spring.

Let me end with my usual advice: Be on the lookout for concerts (often free) at the schools and conservatories. Remember that Yo-Yo Ma first caught everyone’s attention when he was still an undergraduate. And that some of your own favorite musicians might have missed my eye, which is already on some of the exciting events that are coming after the first day of spring.

Emmanuel Church | Weekly through May 14

Emmanuel Music’s celebrated weekly Sunday morning cantatas continue through May. Come at 10:00 AM to hear authoritative and loving performances of Bach’s large spiritual enterprise, performed as part of the Sunday service. Emmanuel’s music director, Ryan Turner, conducts most weeks, but regular guest conductor John Harbison takes over on March 12 for Cantata 54, “Widerstehe doch der Sünde” (Just resist sin). The late Craig Smith, who started the whole series back in 1970, calls the first aria one of the most astonishing pieces in all of Bach.

The Boston Opera Collaborative will be presenting a new program in its popular “Opera Bites” series in partnership with the Longy School of Music. I’m not familiar with any of the composers, singers or members of the creative team. The only librettist whose work I know is the poet Enzo Silon Surin, whose powerful collection “When My Body Was a Clinched Fist” won the 2021 Massachusetts Book Award for Poetry. Still, I’m more than curious about this year’s “Opera Bites,” which will consist of eight new 10-minute operas in English. Will any of these young composers become the next Puccini?

The exciting Danish String Quartet has been missed, but returns to Boston, c/o the Celebrity Series of Boston, in an appealing program beginning with Haydn’s Op. 20, No. 3, Shostakovich’s No. 7, Britten’s Three Divertimenti, and a group of Nordic folk tunes arranged by members of the quartet.

We don’t get to hear much Wagner in Boston, but an ambitious concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra this winter is devoted entirely to music from Wagner’s “Tannhäuser.” I haven’t previously admired music director Andris Nelsons’s sluggish Wagner, but we live in hope. The impressive vocalists are tenor Klaus Florian Vogt in the title role of the minnesinger-knight struggling with his inner conflict between sacred and profane love, Amber Wagner as the pure Elisabeth, and the expressive German baritone Christian Gerhaher as the minstrel Wolfram, who gets to sing Wagner’s exquisite aria to the evening star.

A Far Cry, the brilliant chamber orchestra that performs without a conductor, offers a compelling program depicting the alleged romance between Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms through the music of both of these composers (arranged by “criers” Rafael Popper-Keizer and Sarah Darling) as well as music by the mysterious contemporary Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.

The Boston Early Music Festival’s big semi-annual international extravaganza begins later in the spring, but we don’t have to wait till then for the annual concert series. BEMF’s first winter concert sounds extremely appealing: the Bach Collegium Japan, under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki, with elegant guest baritone Roderick Williams. The program is music by Bach and Telemann, including one of Bach’s most profound cantatas, “Ich habe genug” (I have enough), with Williams.

Thirteen years ago, super violist Kim Kashkashian was one of the original founders of a program called Music for Food. The idea was that distinguished musicians would give free concerts that would also encourage the audience to donate money to feed the hungry. This winter’s concert, called “Notes from Across the Sea: Voices from the United Kingdom,” includes Kashkashian and nine other musicians playing music by three of my favorite British composers, Charlotte Bray’s “Replay for Piano Quartet,” George Benjamin’s viola duet “Viola, Viola,” and Benjamin Britten’s String Quartet in D and “On This Island.”

It’s hard to believe that the ever-youthful Benjamin Zander is celebrating his 50th year as a conductor of exciting and revelatory performances. No coward, he leads his Boston Philharmonic Orchestra in one of the most monumental works of classical music (and one of his specialties), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra is presenting what sounds like a powerful and moving series this winter. It’s called “Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope” and includes two programs over two weekends of music that will be “exploring complex social issues.” Most of the music is by African-American and African-British composers, all under the direction of African-American conductors, and with mostly African-American soloists. The first concert, led by André Raphel, will feature Philadelphia jazz pianist and composer Uri Caine and the Uri Caine Trio, multi-dimensional vocalist Barbara Walker, and the Catto Chorus in Caines’s jazz/gospel/classical oratorio “The Passion of Octavius Catto” (postponed, if I’m not mistaken, from the BSO’s COVID lockdown in 2020), about the life and death of the important 19th-century African-American educator and civil rights leader (Symphony Hall, Mar. 3-5). The second program features Thomas Wilkins conducting the outstanding clarinetist Andrew McGill (remember him from President Obama’s first inauguration?) in Andrew Davis’s concerto “You Have the Right to Remain Silent.

Igor Levit, whose recordings the “New York Times” has called “astonishing,” is the Russian-born child piano prodigy who now lives and teaches in Germany and will be celebrating his 36th birthday the week after his eagerly anticipated Boston recital. He’ll be playing one (or is it three?) of the Everests of classical music, Beethoven’s final three piano sonatas: intimate and heroic, inventive and sublime, infinitely touching and equally confounding.

Benjamin Zander returns to lead the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, a phenomenal ensemble of superlative younger musicians. The winter program includes Bartok’s scintillating Concerto for Orchestra (a piece I never tire of hearing) and the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5, for which I wish I could say the same, though Zander will inevitably find something fresh to express in this familiar score.

If you’re up for a doubleheader, you could start Sunday afternoon, March 12 with the Boston Chamber Music Society, in a concert that includes the splendid ensemble of clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois, violinist Yura Lee, and pianist Max Levinson in one of the supreme Brahms masterpieces, his Clarinet Trio, along with the Adagio from Berg’s “Kammerkonzert.” Then cellist Edward Arron changes places with de Guise-Langlois to close the program with yet another masterwork, Schubert’s haunting Trio in E-flat—maybe especially familiar to fans of Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon.”

That evening, if you’re not out of breath, you could attend Collage New Music, Boston’s longest-running contemporary music group, which has been providing us with concerts of new music for 50 years, with many of its memorable events organized and conducted by its esteemed music director, David Hoose. Collage’s winter concert includes Boston or world premieres by Jihyun Kim, Boston’s Marti Epstein (about whose as yet untitled work the press release promises “subliminal mystery”), and Richard Festinger (a new Collage commission), along with the late James Primosch’s 2017 Collage commission, “A Sybil,” with Mary Mackenzie, the soprano who introduced it.

Last year the Boston Camerata streamed a new production of Henry Purcell’s operatic masterpiece, “Dido and Aeneas.” The music is easy enough for undergraduates, and yet Purcell’s nuanced combination of wit and tragedy, including one of the greatest tragic arias ever written, Dido’s suicidal “When I am laid in earth,” is very hard to pull off. The greatest production in my living experience was Mark Morris’s, especially when the same dancer—especially Morris himself—danced both Dido and her fatal fiendish nemesis, and the heart-stopping Lorraine Hunt Lieberson sang Dido. I had mixed feelings about the Camerata production I streamed on my computer. But this year, the Camerata is doing it live and in person, and I’m very curious about experiencing it in the format for which it was originally intended. Also, the opera will be introduced by the delightful and knowledgeable MIT Professor Emerita Ellen Harris, so I encourage you to come early.

Nurturing students to become complete performing artistes is an organisation called Malhaar – a KHDA approved Indian performing arts centre

Indian curriculum schools like GEMS Modern Academy, GEMS Legacy School, GEMS Millennium School Sharjah and Amity School Sharjah have already embedded performing arts in their curriculum.

Head teachers of these schools note that these different art forms enable pupils to identify their emotional and physical needs, which in turn helps in personality development.

Nurturing students to become complete performing artistes is an organisation called Malhaar – a KHDA approved Indian performing arts centre.

Jogiraj Sikidar, Founder and Director of Malhaar Centre for Performing Arts, says, “in 2017, we approached Gems Modern Academy, Dubai to provide training on Indian classical music and dance to students, and we became part of after-school activities (ASAs). These after school activities are an extension of hobby classes. We also found that there is a lack of continuity in ASAs, as students keep experimenting with different types of activities every other term.”

Shedding light on the challenges, Sikidar adds, “Indian classical music or dance is a practicing art, and it requires discipline, commitment and Reyaaz (practice). We realised that if, and only if, we can introduce it as a compulsory subject in schools, will students take it seriously and [fully receive] the benefits of learning them. Our idea was simple: catch them young. We thought to start this programme at the primary school level as younger students will have more time to devote to learning these traditional skills.

“To encourage students to pursue the Indian classical arts further, in December 2022, we organised an inter-school competition titled ‘Sur Taal Sangam – Season 1’, focusing only on Indian classical music and dance. We were overwhelmed by the response the debut season of the competition [received]. There were 136 entries across 24 schools from all over the country. Our panel of judges chose 54 finalists and 15 winners from across the art forms and categories.”

The teaching module is called ‘Listen, Learn and Perform’, and it enables a holistic view of the Indian Performing Arts. Teaching modules are customised for the KG and Primary sections. In the KG section, students follow the foundation course of the Indian classical dance and Hindustani classical vocal music.

In primary school (grade 1-5), students can select one of the classical art forms such as Hindustani classical vocal, Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Violin or Tabla. Faculty members provide expert advice regarding which art form would be best for each child, based on their aptitude and inclination.”

Each school is given a dedicated Guru, with dance and music heads of faculty personally supervising the training plan and progress.

Nargish Khambatta, Principal GEMS Modern Academy and Vice President, Education GEMS Education, explained, “There are two reasons as to why we decided to have the Indian performing arts in primary schools as a compulsory subject. First [is] the sheer discipline that it sets among the students. For them, the understanding of the rhythm and the way they respond to rules [is so important]; the whole “Guru culture” is fast disappearing.

So we felt that it’s important for children to touch base with their roots, and for them to pursue something [with] all sincerity and over a [consistent] period of time to achieve success. The accomplishment that that gives is fantastic. This has also helped [with] instilling the right values in children.”

“The feedback has been overwhelming. There was an independence day programme [where] we had the entire gamut, and parents were standing and listening in awe. That’s when we decided to move from a sign-up programme to a more actual in-school part of the curriculum kind of a programme. I am happy about it,” she added.

Research demonstrates that when music is heard from ages 0-6, there is a developmental window of learning how to “unscramble” or “organise” the sound.

Music lessons in childhood impacts the brain positively. Researchers at the University of Munster in Germany found that “the younger the musicians were when they started musical training, the bigger this area of the brain appears to be.” Music lessons appear to strengthen the links between brain neurons and build new neural bridges needed for good spatial reasoning.

Asha Alexander, Principal and CEO Gems Legacy School, Dubai, says, “It has been a dream of mine for a long time that our students learn Indian classical forms. So, when we introduced Malhaar, we found that there was a great positive reaction in parents. They were delighted with the outcomes.”

Archana Sagar, Principal, Amity Private School, Sharjah says, “More than anything else, it’s so varied and vibrant. There is such a large variety on offer that it can cater to the needs and wants of everyone. It’s very important to hit the right chord with children without imposing things on them. So, through this learning, children’s potential is first explored, and then according to their potential, children are trained.”

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Project Música no Museu (“Music in the Museum”) is coming back tomorrow (Jan. 11) with its concert series The Immortals of Brazilian Music and International Geniuses, at cultural center CCBB, in downtown Rio.

The lineup should feature soprano Georgia Szpilman and pianist Maria Luiza Lundberg revisiting the work of Brazilian musician and composer Chiquinha Gonzaga, with clarinetist Moises Santos as a special guest.

Sergio da Costa e Silva, the project’s creator and director, said that the series highlights the most brilliant names in Brazilian music, including Villa-Lobos, Francisco Mignone, Ernesto Nazareth, Ary Barroso, and Tom Jobim. “We’re giving special attention to 15 Brazilian authors and musicians, plus foreign ones, such as Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, and Brahms—the great names of international and national classical music,” he said.

The program this month will end on January 25 with pianist Cláudio Vettori and lyric tenor Rodrigo Mathias performing. The lineup includes the composer of the opera O Guarani, Carlos Gomes, and arias from the operas La Bohème and Tosca.

In February, the project will bring to the public Carnival Classics. A woman ahead of her time, Chiquinha Gonzaga will have her timeless song Ô Abre Alas song open the series.

Cultural heritage

Last year, on its 25th anniversary, the Música no Museu project was granted the title of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Rio de Janeiro. “In the field of classical music, only the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra (OSB) and the Música no Museu have this title. It’s a great honor for us,” Costa e Silva declared.

This year, he added, the project will bring performances to the Portuguese cities of Lisbon, Coimbra, and Porto, and also to Vienna, Austria, “taking musicians and Brazilian music abroad. We bringing back what we had been doing since 2006. These presentations will begin next February.”

In the first three months of 2023, the project will launch a book telling the project’s history. “Because the project has had concerts in countries across all continents. It’s been to Australia, India, Vietnam, Morocco. A performance was also staged at New York’s Carnegie Hall,” he concluded.

In his penultimate summer as the guiding artistic light of the Grant Park Music Festival, Carlos Kalmar will continue to be a podium presence even as the lakefront festival ramps up the number of guest conductors in search of a successor.

The ten-week festival will serve up its usual artful mix of orchestral favorites, rarities and contemporary works from June 14-August 19. Though in this year’s manifesto, er press release, the music at times almost seems to be an afterthought.

Even more than in past years, the city festival seems primarily focused on what it calls “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging (DEIB).”

“Fostering equitable representation in the classical music field is a priority for the Grant Park Music Festival,” the statement reads. “The 2023 season aspires to better reflect our community by presenting more works by women and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).”

That applies to the booking of guest artists as well: “The Festival’s commitment to DEIB extends to fostering a more equitable environment for music professionals, including the artists who grace our stages. This season, the Grant Park Music Festival welcomes a number of gifted women and BIPOC artists.”

Performing more music by non-European composers is, of course, laudable. But booking soloists primarily on the basis of ethnic and gender bean-counting risks crossing the line from “equity” into race-conscious discrimination itself.

Kalmar will open the ten-week season June 14 leading the Grant Park Orchestra in Schumann’s Symphony No. 4, Robert Muczynski’s Symphonic Dialogues and Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 with concertmaster Jeremy Black as soloist.

Kalmar will devote the first weekend (June 16-17) to a single solo work, Dvořák’s rarely heard Stabat Mater with the esteemed Grant Park Chorus. A program of Shakespeare-inspired music will be heard on June 23-24. Other works Kalmar will conduct include Mendelssohn’s rarely heard Walpurgis Nacht, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8, William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, Joel Thompson’s Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, and Brahms’ German Requiem.             

Returning this summer are two conductors deserving of consideration as Kalmar successors: Gemma New (July 12) who will lead a program of Barber, Tchaikovsky and Vivian Fung, and David Danzmayr (Beethoven, Rodrigo and Unsuk Chin on August 2).

Conductors making their festival debuts this summer will be Jordan de Souza, Valentina Peleggi, Ludovic Morlot, Kevin John Edusei, Eric Jacobson, and Ken-David Masur.

Soloists appearing this summer are pianists Michelle Cann, Stewart Goodyear, Joyce Yang, and Stephen Hough, violinists Augustin Hadelich, Stefan Jackiw, Tai Murray, and Esther Yoo, cellist Zlatomir Fung, guitarist Aniello Desiderio, and violist Masumi Per Rostad,

Festival memberships are currently on sale. Go to grantparkmusicfestival.com

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Listen to this debut radio season on Mondays at 5 p.m. to explore works by James V. Cockerham, William Grant Still, William Levi Dawson, Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Adolphus Hailstork, Carlos Simon, arrangements of traditional spirituals by Harry T. Burleigh, Hall Johnson and more.

Performers include pianists Armenta Hummings Dumisani and Althea Waites, saxophonists Branford Marsalis and Thomas Walsh, clarinetists Alexander Laing and Anthony McGill, the Imani Winds, Catalyst Quartet, Harlem Quartet and the Gateways Orchestra with performances under the baton of Gateways’ late music director Michael Morgan.

See the entire broadcast schedule below.

Episode 1 (Jan. 3)
The season premieres with works by Gabriela Lena Frank, James V. Cockerham, Gernot Wolfgang, Scott Joplin and William Grant Still.

Episode 2 (Jan. 10)
Hear performances by the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble, pianist Althea Waites, the Howard Johnson Chorale and the Gateways Orchestra under the baton of Michael Morgan.

About the Host:
Garrett McQueen is the host and producer of widely syndicated radio programs including The Sound of 13, The Sounds of Kwanzaa, and now, Gateways Radio. He has been a member of several professional orchestras, most recently the Knoxville Symphony, and holds a Bachelor of Music in Bassoon Performance from the University of Memphis, and a Master of Music in Bassoon Performance from the University of Southern California. He serves on the board of the American Composers Forum and maintains leadership and advisory positions with the Black Opera Alliance, the Gateways Music Festival, and the Lakes Area Music Festival. Away from the airwaves, McQueen offers music and racial equity presentations with past collaborators including the Sphinx Organization, the Kennedy Center, the Apollo Theater, the Minnesota Music Teachers Association, and countless schools, colleges, and universities.

About Gateways Music Festival:
Gateways was founded in 1993 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina by noted classical concert pianist and educator Armenta Hummings Dumisani. The festival relocated to Rochester, New York in 1995 when Dumisani became an Associate Professor at the Eastman School of Music. During the festival, musicians of the Gateways Orchestra, players from major symphony orchestras, faculty from pre-eminent music schools and conservatories, and freelance artists, participate in seven days of performances and events including chamber music recitals, full orchestral concerts, a film series, professional development activities, open rehearsals, lectures, and panels. In addition to inspiring musicians and audiences, Gateways affirms the important role people of African descent have played in classical music for centuries.

To begin my usual January focus on interesting free music, i’m returning to the ephemeral world of netlabels. Rural Colours appeared in 2010 as a tangential off-shoot from parent label Hibernate, which had begun the previous year. What distinguished them both from other netlabels was the fact that their releases were not purely digital but also made available in limited edition runs of CDs. Another distinguishing feature is their relative longevity, with both labels continuing until 2020. One of Rural Colours’ most compelling releases was Sieleslyk, a 2011 collaboration between clarinettist Gareth Davis and brothers Jan and Romke Kleefstra. The title translates as “soul slime”, and it’s a classic example of what i’ve referred to previously as a steady state.

The 22-minute piece essentially comprises just a few elements, each of which persists in a behaviourally static manner throughout. The most basic is an underlying drone, a deep D natural, the clarity of which continually varies, partly due to what goes on above it, but also due to its own subtle movements, periodically adjusting and causing brief swells or ripples that make it gently throb. The drone also has an interesting timbre, suggesting that it derives at least in part from Davis’ contrabass clarinet, though its exact nature is ambiguous. The second element is Romke Kleefstra’s guitar, not so much a presence as a vaporous apparition, heard together with a continual but sparse array of “effects” – varieties of noise and percussive sounds – that establish more fully the atmosphere. At times there’s the impression of wind, or the innocuous clank of something metallic, alongside more tangible strums of contemplative chords.

Gareth Davis’ contrabass clarinet is the most pervasive element, contributing overtones to the drone from the outset, both consolidating and muddying its fundamental pitch. More significantly, though, Davis’ contributions have a lovely precarious quality, always lyrical but brief, giving the impression of momentary glimpses when an ongoing state of emotionally-charged expression breaks the surface, emerging as small trills, projected tones or cracked harmonics and multiphonics. The final element is Jan Kleefstra’s voice: on four occasions his voice intones a Frisian text that in this already intensely heightened environment has a tone of incantation. Briefly in the foreground, it renders Davis’ clarinet phrases a counterpoint to this now primary action, in the process making everything feel solemnified, even the product of a slow ritual.

With the exception of the drone, heard throughout, the other three elements come and go with absolute freedom though in a way that’s predictable and, in the long term, unchanging. The texture thickens and thins accordingly, the latter leading to a couple of episodes (~6:40 and ~17:50) of the most beautiful repose, where the drone has a chance to radiate a little more strongly some of its black glory. The noirish nature of Sieleslyk means that, though highly attractive, it’s not exactly easy or relaxed listening, laden with an active darkness that manifests as edgy, tense and nervous, the music’s apparent freedom set within a language that sounds paradoxically taut.

Sieleslyk was released by Rural Colours in April 2011 as a limited edition mini CDr and MP3. The label’s website has been defunct for over five years, but Sieleslyk remains available via the Internet Archive.

One of Australia’s oldest symphony orchestras, Melbourne’s Zelman Memorial Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 90th birthday in 2023.

Founded by the amateur players of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 1933, and named after the esteemed Melbourne violinist Alberto Zelman Jr, who died six years before its founding, the orchestra has given at least three concerts each year since. It is now one of Australia’s leading community orchestras, comprising more than 60 players in a full symphonic ensemble, performing classical, romantic and 20th-century symphonies and concertos with guest soloists.

Led by Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Rick Prakhoff, the Zelman’s birthday celebrations begin in March at the Melbourne Recital Centre with a musical tour of Vienna featuring works by Strauss, Kreisler and Korngold. Canadian violinist Alexandre Da Costa is guest soloist, playing his 1701 “Devault” Stradivarius in a program reflecting his passion for Viennese music. Da Costa will conduct the orchestra with his bow in the Stehgeiger fashion, a technique he has mastered.

Alexandre Da Costa. Photo: Supplied

On Saturday 17 June at Methodist Ladies’ College, Kew, Zelman Symphony will present two Australian works: Opal: Double Concerto for Horns and Orchestra by Melbourne composer May Lyons and Haunted Hills by Margaret Sutherland. It will also play Brahms’ Symphony No 1.

The orchestra’s actual birthday will be celebrated on 10 September with Mahler’s Symphony No 2 at the Melbourne Town Hall. The venue – in which the orchestra debuted in 1933 – will ring with the massed voices of the Melbourne Bach Choir and featured soloists, soprano Anna-Louise Cole and mezzo-soprano Belinda Paterson.

The birthday celebration concludes at MLC Kew on 25 November with a concert of Bruch’s Double Concerto for Clarinet and Viola partnered with with the world premiere of a commissioned work composed by Sydney-based composer Harry Sdraulig and Sibelius’ Symphony No 2.

For more information on the Zelman Memorial Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 season, visit its website.