Results tagged “seattlesymphony”

Surprising absolutely no one, Intiman Theatre artistic director Bart Sher announced he's decamping for for New York, and will wrap up his term at the end of this 2010. He's more or less gone as of now, though--he's been in New York for his staging of Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and won't direct Othello this summer. He's sending in a Sher stunt-double to fill out his contract. Meanwhile, the search for a new Seattle Symphony music director (Gerard Schwarz steps down at the close of the 2010-11 season) will be headed up by Nancy Evans, who has a page with husband Dan at HistoryLink.org: "Together they personify the term 'power couple' in Washington state."

The multiplier effect can create some rather extraordinary sounds in a musical ensemble--the string section of an orchestra, for example, or a battery of snare drums in a marching band. On Tuesday night at Benaroya Hall, the extraordinary sound was that of four guitars. The acclaimed Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ) presented an eclectic program for a nearly packed hall, which included works with orchestra in the first half and three themed sets in the second half (Spanish Renaissance pieces, Brazilian music, and some quintessentially American tunes).

In the spirit of cultural sharing and collaborative willingness, Warren Chang, the Founder and Music Director of the Chinese Arts and Music Association, has created a theme this season of presenting Chinese traditional music at Western-oriented musical institutions in the Puget Sound region. On Friday, January 16th (tomorrow) at 6:00 p.m., in a mixed program of the Eastern and Western repertoire, the Seattle Symphony will be performing the beautiful and lush Butterfly Lovers Concerto, not with a violin soloist as is typical for this piece, but rather with Mr. Chang playing the erhu, a traditional Chinese two-stringed bowed instrument. Then, on January 25th at 3:00 p.m., the US China Music Ensemble, again directed by Mr. Chang, will celebrate the Chinese New Year with a concert at St. Mark’s Cathedral, the vast acoustics of which should provide an expansive aural experience for those who are able to attend.

The P-I reports that Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz has announced he'll step down at the end of the 2010-11 season. What is that, 25 years as music director? Like his director-doppelganger Speight Jenkins at Seattle Opera, Schwarz arrived in the mid-'80s and built a good-enough-for-Seattle organization into a nationally noticed one, albeit with more of a brash, East coast management style that's kept the orchestra split into friends-of-Gerry and I-spit-on-your-grave factions. We used to truck Gerry around to donor events when they were building Benaroya Hall, and, man, can that guy work a crowd. (However, he also lost a pen we loaned him, so that's a demerit.) He says he'll hang around town and guest conduct--he's also done some composing which we liked quite a bit. All in all, the future looks pretty rosy for the Schwarzes.

UNDER DA SEA: If, like Seattlest, you are fascinated with underwater life, tonight's your night to revel in the glories of the deep ocean. Seattle Symphony will be playing as a giant screen shows you images from the BBC series The Blue Planet.

G IS FOR GEORGETOWN: There are few parts of Seattle we love more and know less about than gritty and glorious Georgetown. We were smitten from the moment we walked into Jules Maes Saloon three years ago and have never looked back. Adding considerable wonderfulness to the neighborhood is the Georgetown Music Festival—Seattle's most under-appreciated music festival—happening this weekend. If you love local music like we do, you will be spending Friday and Saturday taking in rowdy performances from local bands such as Thee Emergency, Cancer Rising, the Lashes, and the Hands. We'd recommend wearing long pants to save your knees when you fall hard for Georgetown.

At the point that we realized all 24 dancers from the Mark Morris Dance Group were on stage simultaneously, we were struck by two thoughts. First: holy shit 24 dancers on stage at once in a delirious, joyous romp; and second: thank god dance companies can still exist that can put 24 dancers all on stage at once. Morris' company was celebrating the 20th anniversary of his early-career classic L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato at the Paramount Theater this past weekend. Set to a lesser-known pastoral work by Handel, the already overwhelming treat of seeing this work in person was escalated by full accompaniment from the Seattle Symphony and Chorale members directed by maestro Gerard Schwarz.

Once again, SIFF is upon us. Even though there are still three weeks until opening night, with today's press launch, things are gearing up for the 34th Seattle International Film Festival.

Tonight the Seattle Symphony gives you Dvořák's "New World" Symphony, which we love, but then so does everyone else so it's not a remarkable that we do. It's a "locals-only" evening, with Gerard Schwarz at the podium, and the Symphony's ace up its sleeve, horn-slinger John Cerminaro. Cerminaro can make that brass curtsy and serve tea if he wants. Why one time in Oklahoma...but we digress.

Joshua Roman, for those of you more concerned with what's going on at Neumo's than what's happening in Benaroya Hall, is the star cellist in Seattle Symphony. He's also 23, has hair like a young Bob Dylan, and seriously kicks ass.

The Seattle Times tries to put a happy face on the news that the Seattle Symphony is projecting an accumulated $5.5 million deficit by pointing out that ticket sales are up. But the troubling fact remains that over the past three years the deficit has grown from $1 million, to $3.2 million, to $5.5 million. For an annual budget of around $21 million, a deficit of $5.5 million is remarkable.

Last year, at 22, cellist Joshua Roman became the youngest principal player in Seattle Symphony history. What did you accomplish when you were 22? Yeah, we thought so.

Not to kick the TAG people in the teeth while they're down, but that's ridiculous. They're talking about needing $100,000 in operating capital to keep the doors open, and foundations have never been crazy about that kind of in extremis giving. (Sometimes individual major donors will pony up via a foundation.)

One of the endlessly amusing things about arts orgs is how desperate they are all for cash -- big or small, there's no amount of money-grubbing that's beyond them. It's normal. You go to a show, pay $$ for a ticket, and then a little while later you get a letter or a phone call "informing" you that, you know, what you paid was "really" half-price and could you stand to kick in a little, well the other half, no it's okay we take credit cards.

SATURDAY: In addition to talks and tours, you and the kids can see live demonstrations of wood carving, drum-making, and weaving at the Opening Day Celebration for In the Spirit of the Ancestors, the Burke Museum's new exhibit of contemporary Northwest Coast Native art.

Wednesday, January 17

Wednesday, January 3

What's the kindest thing you can say about the Empty Space Theatre closing its doors after 35 years? It can't be this, in the comments section over on the Stranger's Slog:

Now that there's a chill in the air, Seattlest has taken to closing our windows at night before curling up in a warm bed with some hot cocoa and earplugs. That's right, it's officially the fall tour season, and there's live music galore. Behold!

Seattlest serves up musical jambalaya for the masses… Delicious!

All right, so Seattlest hasn’t yet seen Così fan Tutte, which is playing right now at Seattle Opera. In fact, tonight, Friday night and Saturday night are your last chances to see it, with Friday and Saturday being your best bet for seats.

A couple weeks ago, we erroneously reported that button-down genius Bob Newhart would share the Benaroya Hall stage with the Seattle Symphony. Though Newhart is indeed an amateur drummer, we regret to inform there’ll be no such onstage mashup. However, it is true that Bob and Bob alone will perform his standup comedy act at Benaroya -- where in 1999 we attended his last Seattle performance -- Friday night at 8 and Saturday afternoon at 3.

Last Saturday night Seattlest trundled off to McCaw Hall for opening night of Die Fledermaus (running through January 28). We were a little doubtful about just how much fun the operetta (a word that means, "before there were Broadway musical-comedies") would be. General Director Speight Jenkins had cast some giant-voiced Wagnerians in the leads of a lithe, witty farce and it seemed counterintuitive, to be frank with you. With an icing-thin plot involving an extended, not-very-funny practical joke, Fledermaus only works if the Viennese tendency to waltz in the face of disaster perfectly balances the sad reality of a couple who have gotten tired of each other and are looking elsewhere for fun.

The Tuba is the red-headed stepchild of the orchestra; always shunted to the back, never in the spotlight. But not anymore! Tonight, the Tuba will finally get its due. The Seattle Symphony is pairing Seattle Symphony Composer in Residence Samuel Jones’s Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra with Tchaikovsky’s much-loved "Pathetique" Symphony (No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74). The world premiere (of Jones's piece) was Thursday but you could go today and still say you’d been to the premiere. We sure aren’t going to tell anyone.

The summer’s dearth of classical music is finally over. In fact, there’s so much happening around town we may have trouble fitting it all in without overwhelming you.

Well, we’ve done it. Seattlest is finally done with the Ring Cycle. And despite ourselves, we enjoyed it.

It’s summer, or at least it is practically everywhere else in the country, and every classical musical group in this town and towns nearby seems to be taking a summer hiatus. Seattlest thinks a lot of people are heading out of town this weekend anyway, so perhaps this break is a good business move for the classical folks.

Seattle has many classical music outlets, primary among them Seattle Symphony. Next week (from June 23rd to 26th), the Symphony is bringing Verdi's Requiem to Benaroya.

Late last night Seattlest was mingling with the post-concert crowd in the Founders Room at Benaroya Hall. We'd just had our socks knocked off by an Erwin Schulhoff piece in the Music of Rembrance concert commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day. (Which makes Schulhoff's death one more thing we have against Nazis.) According to our notes, try the cheese plate, skip the house Pinot.