Search Results for: lakota music project

I wasn’t initially planning to write anything about Wednesday night’s Carnegie Hall concert by the Chicago Symphony under Klaus Makela, their 30-year-old impending music director. I’ve written about Makela quite enough. I have no doubt that he is immensely gifted. I have seen him ignite an orchestra with a rare exercise of spontaneous authority. But he seems to me too young for … [Read more...] about Klaus Makela Again

Following up on my NPR story about the Lakota Music Project, I write today for “Persuasion” online: In South Dakota, Bishop Scott Bullock of Rapid City wrote [of Pete Hegseth’s insistence on the heroism of American soldiers who slaughtered Lakotas at Wounded Knee in 1890]: “If we deny our part in history we deepen the harm. We cannot lie about the past without perpetuating … [Read more...] about “Never before has the perseverance of historical memory been more inspirational — or more necessary”

The final NEH-funded, multi-media “Music Unwound” concert featuring the South Dakota Symphony took place last Saturday night. I cast myself in a cameo role, playing the Soldier in three excerpts from Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale. I modelled my impersonation on Elmer Fudd. The main events, however, were Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and … [Read more...] about Stravinsky, Elmer Fudd, and the South Dakota Symphony

I have just returned from a trip to Sioux Falls, where I heard Delta David Gier lead the South Dakota Symphony in Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. As readers of this blog know, I regard the SDSO as an American cultural institution that must be studied and emulated. When I arrived at my balcony seat I was addressed by a couple of young men sitting just in front of me. They had heard … [Read more...] about Mahler in Sioux Falls (with yet another glance at Klaus Makela)

It’s now official: Klaus Makela will become the next music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, beginning in 2027-2028. He’ll conduct fourteen weeks of CSO concerts of which four will be on tour. He’ll concurrently become music director of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra. He’ll retain relationships with the Oslo Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris. He’ll be … [Read more...] about The Chicago Symphony Lands Klaus Makela