Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Princeton Symphony Orchestra

Princeton Symphony’s World Tour with Upshaw and Luo

Armchair travelers, rejoice! The Princeton Symphony Orchestra will offer a trip around the world this weekend. Book passage to Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium this Sunday at 4 p.m., as the orchestra embarks for Hungary (by way of Zoltán Kodály), Spain, Eastern Europe, and Amherst, Massachusetts (by way of Osvaldo Golijov), China (by way of Jing Jing Luo), and Bohemia (by way of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart).

The PSO continues its season-long celebration of the creativity of women with not one, but two notable guest artists. Dawn Upshaw will be the soloist in Golijov’s “Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra.” Singer and composer are frequent collaborators, with Upshaw frequently described as Golijov’s muse.

The PSO’s other notable guest is composer-in-residence Jing Jing Luo. Luo, a native of Beijing, is “a self-taught calligrapher in Chinese ink brush painting,” an art she says she has practiced since childhood.

The title of her work, “Tsao Shu,” alludes to “Chinese cursive writing, with ink brush, not with pen.” She elaborates, “The piece, it’s about the motion of the calligraphy with the ink brush, the motions of the stroke. Each stroke in calligraphy is reflected in music through the string section, percussion section, woodwind and brass.”

Luo will join PSO music director Rossen Milanov for a pre-concert talk on Sunday at 3 p.m. Milanov will conduct the program, which will also include Kodály’s “Dances of Galanta” and Mozart’s Symphony No. 38, the “Prague” Symphony.

On Saturday at 4 p.m., Luo will converse with composer and PSO board member Julian Grant about Chinese culture and its influence on her art and music. The discussion will take place at the Arts Council of Princeton’s Paul Robeson Center for the Arts. The Saturday event is free with ticketed reservations through the PSO website, princetonsymphony.org.

Read more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/01/classical_music_pso_performing.html

PHOTO: Upshaw armchair traveling with Golijov

January 29, 2016
Dawn Upshaw Song Cycles on The Lost Chord

Tonight, after you’ve put away the snow shovel, popped some Advil, and finished slathering on the Bengay, consider tuning in for a couple of contemporary song cycles performed by Dawn Upshaw.

Upshaw will be my guest this week on “The Lost Chord.” She will talk about her working relationship with composer Osvaldo Golijov, whose “Three Songs” she will sing on an upcoming concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. We’ll also hear her astonishing recording of Golijov’s “Ayre,” a hypnotic synthesis of folk, pop and classical-inflected music on texts from Arabic, Hebrew, Sardinian and Sephardic sources.

Then she’ll melt our hearts by applying her distinctive timbre to selections from Maria Schneider’s “Winter Morning Walks.” Schneider is best known as a jazz artist, but, as is evident from her album “The Thompson Fields,” she possesses an extraordinarily ambitious compositional sense.

“Winter Morning Walks” was the recipient of three Grammy Awards in 2014, in the categories of Best Classical Contemporary Composition, Best Vocal Performance (for Dawn Upshaw), and Best Engineered Album, Classical. It was Upshaw’s fifth Grammy.

And lest you forget, Upshaw’s was the voice heard in the very moving recording of Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3, issued by Nonesuch Records in 1992, which sold over a million copies and became one of the best-selling classical music albums of all time.

Upshaw will appear at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on January 31 at 4 p.m. Also on the program, PSO music director Rossen Milanov will conduct works by Mozart, Kodály, and Jing Jing Luo, the orchestra’s current composer-in-residence. For more information, visit princetonsymphony.org.

I hope you’ll join me for “The Knack of Dawn” – new music performed by Dawn Upshaw – this Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

January 24, 2016
Winter Music Inspiration on WPRB

If, as Edison said, genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, where does that leave room for stimulation? I’ll let you know when I get to the bottom of my double-bagged, 20-ounce tea. The Bumble – well, The Bumble is as The Bumble does.

The snow begins tomorrow night in the Philadelphia-Trenton-Princeton area, and we’re back up to projected accumulations of at least a foot. Thankfully my new boots are in the mail, and I’ve got plenty of bread and milk.

While the rest of you are standing in line at the grocery store, I’ll be at WPRB this morning, setting the tone for the impending snowpocalypse, with music of a decidedly wintry nature. As time allows, we’ll take trips to the North Pole, with George Lloyd’s epic Symphony No. 4 – the “Arctic” symphony – and to the South – with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 7, the “Sinfonia Antarctica.” (If we run short, we may have to resort to selections from RVW’s film score to “Scott of the Antarctic,” which was the symphony’s source.)

Representatives of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, including composer-in-residence Jing Jing Luo, will drop by at around 9:00 to talk about their upcoming concert at Richardson Auditorium, on January 31 at 4 p.m. Luo’s work, “Tsao Shu” (“Grass Scripts”), was inspired by her fascination with Chinese calligraphy. Also on the PSO program will be music by Mozart and Kodaly.

Then at around 10:00, we’ll enjoy a chat with visitors from the orchestra Grand Harmonie. Grand Harmonie will present the U.S. authentic instrument premiere of Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” in a semi-staged performance, at Richardson this Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

We’ll also feature Dawn Upshaw’s Grammy Award-winning recording of Maria Schneider’s “Winter Morning Walks.” Upshaw will perform three songs by Osvaldo Golijov on the upcoming concert of the Princeton Symphony.

Get ready to scrape your windshields, from 6 to 11 ET on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll be Bumbling through another shift, on Classic Ross Amico.

January 21, 2016
Arctic Symphony Beethoven on WPRB

On a morning devoted to wintry topics, we’re currently listening to George Lloyd’s epic Symphony No. 4, subtitled the “Arctic.” Lloyd wrote the piece while recovering from injuries sustained in naval combat during World War II, when his ship was torpedoed, killing 17 of his crewmates and nearly drowning him in machine oil. Lloyd couldn’t speak afterward for nearly a year. The symphony reflects none of the horrors of war, but rather, as Lloyd put it, “a world of darkness, storms, strange colors, and a far away peacefulness.”

A little after 9:00, I will be joined by Jing Jing Luo, composer-in-residence with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Luo’s “Tsao Shu” (“Grass Scripts”), inspired by her fascination with Chinese calligraphy, will be performed by the PSO at Richardson Auditorium on January 31 at 4 p.m., on a program which will also feature works by Mozart, Kodaly and Osvaldo Golijov. (Dawn Upshaw will be the soloist in Golijov’s “Three Songs.”)

Later on, around 10:00, representatives of the orchestra Grand Harmonie will pay a visit, to talk about the U.S. authentic instrument premiere of Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” which the group will present, in a semi-staged performance at Richardson, this Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Before the morning is out, we’ll hear either the Symphony No. 7, the “Sinfonia Antartica,” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, or selections from the film score that inspired it, RVW’s music for “Scott of the Antarctic.”

One way or another, the snow’s a-comin’, this morning until 11 ET, here on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.

January 21, 2016
Winter Music on WPRB Radio Princeton NJ

If you’re a denizen of the Mid-Atlantic or Northeastern states, then chances are the impending winter storm is beginning to worm its way into your consciousness. This week on WPRB, we go with the flow, with a full morning of wintry music, including, if time allows, trips to the North and South Poles.

We’ll have two sets of visitors: one from the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, including composer Jing Jing Luo, whose work “Tsao Shu” will be heard on the orchestra’s next concert, which will take place at Richardson Auditorium, on January 31 at 4 p.m.; and the other from Grand Harmonie, which will present the U.S. authentic instrument premiere of Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” in a semi-staged performance, at Richardson this Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

We’ll also feature Dawn Upshaw’s Grammy Award-winning recording of Maria Schneider’s “Winter Morning Walks.” Upshaw will perform three songs by Osvaldo Golijov on the upcoming concert of the Princeton Symphony.

Pull on your boots and get in the mood for tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’re industriously loading snowballs into the freezer, on Classic Ross Amico.

More entertaining squirrel photos by Vadim Trunov here:

http://vadim-trunov.wix.com/foto

January 20, 2016

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