Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Princeton Festival

Princeton Festival June Highlights

Just as the 2015-2016 concert season becomes the stuff of memory, The Princeton Festival steps up for its 12th year to keep us contented for the month of June. The festival will present over three weeks of performances, lectures, previews and special events, beginning on June 1.

Highlights will include three performances of Benjamin Britten’s opera, “Peter Grimes,” ten of Stephen Sondheim’s waltz musical “A Little Night Music,” a screening of the Carl Theodor Dreyer film, “The Passion of Joan of Arc,” with live accompaniment by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and an appearance by Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant.

I try to encompass what I can in today’s article in the Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/05/classical_music_princeton_fest_2.html

PHOTOS: (Top) Princeton Festival artistic director Richard Tang Yuk rehearses the opera orchestra; (left to right) Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and “The Passion of Joan of Arc”

May 27, 2016
Princeton Festival’s Incendiary Figaro

Its source material was considered incendiary in its day. Performances of the original play were banned in France for its volatile political notions. It was barred from Austrian stages for its alleged licentious content.

When Mozart and his librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, proposed to Emperor Joseph II that they would like to turn it into an opera, they must have done some fast talking. The Emperor gave his blessing (on the condition that they tone down the revolutionary tendencies), and the result was one of the greatest operas ever written.

This weekend, the Princeton Festival will unveil its production of “The Marriage of Figaro,” which will run for three performances at McCarter Theatre Center: Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and 6/21 & 6/28 at 3 p.m. The festival’s artistic director Richard Tang Yuk will conduct.

This year’s musical theatre offering, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” will begin its run of ten performances at Matthews Acting Studio, Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University, beginning today at 8 p.m.

Also this weekend, the final round of the piano competition will take place on Sunday at 3 p.m., at the Clark Music Center, The Lawrenceville School, in Lawrenceville.

Other highlights of the festival include upcoming concerts by Concordia Chamber Players (6/20), the Nashville guitar duo Striking Matches (6/21), the Festival Baroque Orchestra (6/24), pianist Fei-Fei Dong (6/26), and the Indian music and dance group Pradhanica (6/27). Related lectures and events pepper the schedule.

The Princeton Festival runs through June 28. For more information, look online at http://www.princetonfestival.org.

You can read more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2015/06/classical_music_princeton_fest_1.html

PHOTO: Super-salesmen Mozart and Da Ponte

June 12, 2015
Strauss, Bernstein & More on WPRB This Week

A lousy night’s sleep, but lots of great music ahead, including Strauss conducting Strauss (on his birthday); Bernstein conducting American music (by request); birthday candles for Carl Nielsen (6/9), Carlisle Floyd (6/11), and Carlos Chavez (6/13); in studio visits by Richard Tang Yuk, artistic director of the Princeton Festival (who will conduct “The Marriage of Figaro” at McCarter Theatre, starting this weekend), and members of the Assisi Quartet (who will talk about Olivier Messiaen, in anticipation of their concert tonight at Westminster Choir College’s Bristol Chapel).

I hope you’ll join me, from 6 to 11 a.m.: WPRB 103.3 FM, or online at wprb.com.

Keep it classy with… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

PHOTO: A nattily dressed Strauss, on his birthday

June 11, 2015
WPRB: Strauss, Messiaen & Princeton Festival

Here’s an idea of what you can expect to hear if you join me tomorrow morning on WPRB.

Once again, we observe birthdays, belated, in anticipation, or right on the nose, including those of Richard Strauss (born 6/11) and Carlos Chavez (6/13). There will be a nod to Carlisle Floyd (6/11), along with the fulfillment of a request made last week for some American music conducted by Leonard Bernstein. I haven’t quite gotten Carl Nielsen (6/9) out of my system. And we’ll see, we may hit one or two others, as well. It’s been a busy week for birthday anniversaries.

Members of the Assisi Quartet, for 15 years resident quartet of Assisi Performing Arts, will drop by at 9:00, to talk a little bit about Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time.” The ensemble will perform the work tomorrow night, alongside music of Franz Joseph Haydn, on a 7:30 p.m. concert at Bristol Chapel on the campus of Princeton’s Westminster Choir College.

Richard Tang Yuk will be on hand at 10:00, to tell us about The Princeton Festival, now in progress, and this year’s production of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” Tang Yuk will conduct three performances of the opera at McCarter Theatre, on 6/13, 6/21 & 6/28.

Everything is extremely subject to change (I can’t seem to establish a playlist in advance, which makes it challenging since I bring all my own records), but in the best tradition of live radio, we will endeavor to push forward with a modicum of grace.

Tune in tomorrow from 6 to 11 a.m. to WPRB 103.3 FM, or listen online at wprb.com, and keep it classy with Classic Ross Amico.

June 10, 2015
WPRB Summer Classical Music Program Starts Now

A reminder to tune in to WPRB 103.3 FM this morning from 6 to 11 a.m. ET, to enjoy the first of 14 summer programs, hosted by Classic Ross Amico.

Among my guests this week will be Sandy Steiglitz, host of WPRB’s “Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy” (heard Sundays, from 6 to 10 a.m.), who will introduce recordings of baritone Robert Merrill, on this his birthday anniversary. That should take place around 8.

I’ll also be joined by Marvin Rosen, host of “Classical Discoveries” (Wednesdays, 5:30 to 11 a.m.), “Classical Discoveries Goes Avant Garde” (Wednesdays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and “Treasures of Early Music” (Mondays, 5:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.), who will introduce something extra special from his own record collection. Marvin will be flitting around all morning, since he doesn’t sleep.

Richard Tang Yuk will be in to talk about The Princeton Festival at 9. The festival kicks into high gear this weekend. Tang Yuk, the festival’s artistic director, will conduct three performances of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” June 13, 21 & 28, at McCarter Theatre. For more information on the Princeton Festival, look online at http://www.princetonfestival.org.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of American composer Alan Shulman. We’ll mark the occasion by listening to one of his neglected works. Also expect birthday nods, belated, in anticipation, or right on the nose, for Sir Edward Elgar, Carl Nielsen and Yevgeny Mravinsky.

If you tune in bright and early, you may even hear a couple of concert works by composers better known for their achievements in film. The signal is far-reaching, but if for some reason you can’t get it, you can hear the program anywhere via streaming at http://www.wprb.com.

Best wishes to the great Teri Noel Towe, host of Towe on Thursday, who, for just about the first time in seven years, did not have to uproot his life to ride New Jersey Transit on a Wednesday evening.

Keep it classy, folks, and remember I’m just getting my sea legs!

PHOTOS: Shulman enjoys a cigarette for his hundredth birthday; Mravinsky is just plain smokin’.

June 4, 2015

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS