The Pacific Symphony, an orchestra that does things differently, mounted a “Shostakovich Decoded” festival over the past two weeks in collaboration with Chapman University. There were more than a dozen events, including a conference on Stalin and culture, an exhibit of Stalinist kitsch, master classes and lectures, and a potent variety of concerts. The central participants … [Read more...] about Shostakovich Decoded
Search Results for: music unwound
The Greatest Film Score You’ve Never Heard
Silvestre Revueltas’s Redes is one of the greatest of all film scores. That it remains virtually unknown is a function of Revueltas’s own neglect and the neglect of the 1935 film itself, an iconic product of the Mexican Revolution. Unlike such renowned film scores of Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky and Virgil Thomson’s The Plow that Broke the Plains, the music of Redes is so … [Read more...] about The Greatest Film Score You’ve Never Heard
Orchestral Summitry
The recent “Orchestral Summit” at the University of Michigan was a labor of love on the part of Mark Clague of the university’s Musicology faculty. Mark is a tireless advocate of conciliation and consensual change in a field wracked by frustration and dissent. The conference had its ups and downs. I was especially impressed by the gravitas and honesty sustained by a panel of … [Read more...] about Orchestral Summitry
How Orchestras Can “Plug a Hole in the Curriculum”
“Music Unwound,” the $300,000 NEH initiative funding a consortium of adventurous orchestras, has two basic components. The first is contextualized thematic programming -- it supports concerts that explore music from a variety of vantage points, including visual art and literature. The second is linkage -- it supports connecting such programming with art museums, schools (grades … [Read more...] about How Orchestras Can “Plug a Hole in the Curriculum”
North Carolina’s State-Wide Symphony
Having just spent a week taking part in a “Dvorak and America” festival presented by the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, I think I’ve learned a thing or two about how an orchestra can serve an entire state. The NCSO travels the length and breadth of North Carolina – more than 12,000 miles annually, offering more than 150 concerts. And it’s done that for a long time. In all … [Read more...] about North Carolina’s State-Wide Symphony