Blog

Katherine Balch has composed a large-scale orchestral work for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The new piece, entitled musica pyralis, will be premiered on 16 February 2024 at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It will be performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Manfred Honeck. 

Songs and Dances of the Islands was commissioned by the clarinet and piano duo, Luca Ferrini & Jože Kotar. The Suite is in three movements and each movement is either inspired by, or an arrangement of songs and dances from the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Trinidad and Tobago.

Mexican Fiddle Tunes contains 42 original melodies, divided in 'Son huasteco' and 'Son calentano'. All pieces are written for solo violin, including chord symbols.

On 10 February 2024, the Staatstheater Hannover will present Aribert Reimann's Lear, one of the most significant operas of the 20th century. The production will be directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins, and the music will be conducted by Stephan Zilias.

The CD album Strings by Jim Snidero now includes the original scores of all recorded pieces in a version authorized by Snidero for the first time.

Written for the Pembroke College Chapel Choir in November 2022, Drop down, ye heavens is a setting of the refrain and final stanza of the Advent Prose, itself based on various portions of the Book of Isaiah. 

A girl has to be good and sweet? Not at all. The princess in the children's opera The Princess and the Pea by Ernst Toch has a mind of her own. The cheeky piece will be performed from 2 February 2024 in the BlackBox of the Landestheater Linz. The production is directed by Martin Philipp and the Bruckner Orchestra is conducted by Ingmar Beck.

An opera without words. Impossible? No, almost unavoidable. Chaya Czernowin has achieved this masterpiece with her work Pnima...ins Innere (“Pnima…inwards”). The opening night at Staatstheater Darmstadt takes pace on 27 January 2024, staged by Karsten Wiegand and conducted by Richard Schwennicke. 

The education and training of a musician mainly focusses on working with the instrument. It is often forgotten, however, that playing a musical instrument requires certain physical abilities. We take it for granted that we have the strength to hold it and that we are able to play for hours. Only when health issues arise like tenseness, overstraining or pain, do we realise the high performance we demand from our musculoskeletal system. Warming up should therefore be a fixture in our practising routine.

A new concerto for a celebration: Peter Eötvös's 80th birthday will be celebrated with a symposium and gala concert in Paris next weekend. Among other works by the Hungarian composer, his new Harp Concerto will see its world premiere. Eötvös wrote the concerto for harp and orchestra for the virtuoso Xavier de Maistre (pictured), who will perform it for the first time on 18 January with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Gergely Madaras at the Maison de le Radio et de la Musique.