Isaac Stern News

Orange County, Calif.-May 11, 2015-One of America's most versatile and prolific living composers, Andre Previn, joins Pacific Symphony as the honored guest and focus of the 15th American Composers Festival (ACF). Previn, who has been called one of America's least easily categorized musicians, began his remarkable career as a Hollywood "wunderkind" and a best-selling jazz pianist. Now 86, Previn has received four Academy Awards for his work in film, 10 Grammy Awards for his recordings (plus one more for his Lifetime Achievement), and he is also an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He's held a series of major conducting posts, including the L.A. Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra, but now exclusively composes. The concert is led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, whose great admiration for the legend shaped this year's ACF to reveal the scope of Previn's prowess as a composer. 

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music will grant Terry Riley, one of America's most influential living composers and a former Conservatory student, the honorary degree of Doctor of Music at this year's commencement ceremonies. With his landmark minimalist work In C, Riley pioneered a compositional style that has influenced everything from chamber and orchestral music to rock and roll. An artist who continues to inspire new generations of musicians, Riley was honored at SFCM last January with a concert of premieres written for his 80th birthday and at the recent Switchboard Music Festival with a rendition of In C rewritten as a tribute and performed by numerous Conservatory alumni. Riley will help send off the class of 2015 in ceremonies held at 10:30 a.m. on May 22 in the Conservatory's Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall.

?The Celebrity Series of Boston announced its 2015-2016 season today, marking 77 years of bringing the world's greatest performing artists to Boston. The season opens on Wednesday, October 14, 2015 with author and speaker David Sedaris. In total, the 2015-2016 season will include 48 music, dance and entertainment engagements. The 2015-16 season is sponsored by Amy and Joshua Boger.

Chicago, IL – (April 16, 2015) The Chicago Philharmonic announces its 2015-16 season, Chasing the Sun: Transitions and Transformations. The season explores works written by composers at moments of significant change in their lives or careers. Scott Speck leads the orchestra in his third season as artistic director. “With a beloved masterwork, a virtuoso soloist, and a 21st century composer represented on every concert, the Chicago Philharmonic continues its adventures in direct, urgent, truly relevant music-making,” said Speck.

For the first time in almost 30 years, an Australian conductor is to lead a major Australian symphony orchestra.

Carnegie Hall announced today that Sanford I. Weill will receive the Carnegie Hall Medal of Excellence at a gala benefit on Thursday, May 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Carnegie Hall's Weill Terrace and Terrace Room.

Vadim Gluzman will perform Violin Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Prokofiev in concerts with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts tonight, March 27 and Saturday, March 28, 2015 at 8pm. Music Director José-Luis Novo will also conduct the orchestra in The Sanguine Fan by Sir Edward Elgar and Symphony No. 9 by Dmitri Shostakovich.

The Chamber Music Society of Detroit presents an all-star cast of four distinguished musicians – violinist Daniel Hope, violist Paul Newbauer, cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han – coming together for an evening of piano quartets Saturday, April 11 at 8 PM. The concert is part of a twelve-concert U.S. tour featuring artist members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and includes quartets by three Romantic masters, Gustav Mahler, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. The evening also includes a pre-concert recital by duo pianists Yuki and Tomoko Mack beginning at 6:45 PM which is open to ticket-holders free of charge. The Mack sisters will perform music of Dvo?ák, Liszt, Piazzolla, Smetana and Gravilin.

The Cooperstown Summer Music Festival, under the artistic direction of flutist Linda Chesis, presents Three Faces of Romanticism on Sunday, April 26 at 4 pm at the Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown. The concert features Ms. Chesis, Nicholas Canellakis, cello; and Roman Rabinovich, piano, performing works by Beethoven, Reinecke and Rachmaninoff.

?Music Institute of Chicago, now in its 85th year, hosts its annual gala Monday, May 11 at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, 120 East Delaware Place. The oldest community music school in Illinois and one of the three largest community music schools in the nation, the Music Institute is planning a celebratory evening highlighted by the presentation of the Dushkin Award to John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts President and former Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association President Deborah F. Rutter.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), led by Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, presents Prokofiev's virtuosic Violin Concerto No. 2, featuring special guest violinist Joseph Swensen, and Mozart's resplendent Flute Concerto No. 1, highlighting LACO Principal Flute David Shostac, tonight, March 14, 2015, 8 pm, at Glendale's Alex Theatre, and Sunday, March 15, 2015, 7 pm, at UCLA's Royce Hall.

San Francisco, CA. - The San Francisco Conservatory of Music is pleased to announce the appointment of Tom Hooten, principal trumpet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, to its collegiate faculty. The former principal trumpet of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and an experienced teacher, Hooten joins a distinguished faculty of brass instructors, many of whom hold principal positions with the San Francisco Symphony, Ballet and Opera orchestras. Hooten will assume his appointment in the fall of 2015, maintaining an active teaching studio in San Francisco while retaining his position with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Vadim Gluzman will perform Violin Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Prokofiev in concerts with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts on Friday, March 27 and Saturday, March 28, 2015 at 8pm. Music Director José-Luis Novo will also conduct the orchestra in The Sanguine Fan by Sir Edward Elgar and Symphony No. 9 by Dmitri Shostakovich.

New York, NY – The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) continues its 10th anniversary celebratory season with three concerts in April, reflecting BAC's expanded series of music programming for 2015. The weeklong celebration begins Monday, April 6 at 7:30pm, with one of BAC's signature events – a BAC Salon – in the Howard Gilman Performance Space, featuring the chamber music of Berio, Cage, and Mozart in an intimate salon setting. On Wednesday, April 8 at 7:30pm, composer and jazz pianist Stephen Prutsman will perform the entirety of his album Passengers for the first time ever, in another BAC Salon in the Howard Gilman Performance Space. The final performance of the week, on Saturday, April 11 at 8pm in the Jerome Robbins Theater, features the Latvian National Choir, hailing from BAC Artistic Director Mikhail Baryshnikov's birthplace of Riga and bringing to New York a program that includes music by Arvo Pärt, Grammy nominee Ugis Praulins, and the U.S. premieres of works by acclaimed Latvian composers Jekabs Janchevskis, Gundega Smite, and Raimonds Tiguls. The Latvian National Choir last appeared in New York as part of the 2010 White Light Festival at Lincoln Center, in performances The New York Times described as “ravishing.”

Tonight, February 25, 2015 at 7pm, cellist Inbal Segev, known for her 'warm, pure and beautiful tone' (Strings Magazine) will celebrate completing her recording of J.S. Bach's monumental Cello Suites with an Album Wrap Party & Concert at The Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center (Samuel B. & David Rose Building, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, 165 W. 65th St.).

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), led by Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, presents Prokofiev's virtuosic Violin Concerto No. 2, featuring special guest violinist Joseph Swensen, and Mozart's resplendent Flute Concerto No. 1, highlighting LACO Principal Flute David Shostac, on Saturday, March 14, 2015, 8 pm, at Glendale's Alex Theatre, and Sunday, March 15, 2015, 7 pm, at UCLA's Royce Hall. Kahane also conducts Haydn's Symphony No. 64 in A major, 'Times Change,' and LACO Composer-in-Residence Andrew Norman's Gran Turismo for eight solo violins, which the composer describes as a 'creative joyride' named for 'an addictive car racing video game.'

Carnegie Hall today announced that Sanford I. Weill, Chairman of Carnegie Hall's Board of Trustees since 1991, will retire from this post after 24 remarkable years of service and a total of 32 years as a Carnegie Hall trustee. Mr. Weill will continue to serve as a member of Carnegie Hall's board, transitioning to a new role as President, a title formerly held by the late violinist Isaac Stern. Mr. Weill is only the second person to hold the title of President since Carnegie Hall was established as a non-profit in 1960.

Beauty, powerful rhythmic energy and breathless joy -- all describe the program that the Pasadena Symphony has planned for a romantic Valentine's Day performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 tonight, February 14, 2015 at Ambassador Auditorium with both matinee and evening performances at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. The work's first performance was met with 'applause that rose to the point of ecstasy,' according to a contemporary newspaper account.

Soprano Lisa Delan (class of 1989) will perform on the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's distinguished Alumni Recital Series tonight, February 11, 2015, at 8 p.m. Ms. Delan's program will include works by American composers John Corigliano, David Garner, Gordon Getty, Jake Heggie and Luna Pearl Woolf. She will be joined by special guests Matt Haimovitz, Christopher O'Riley and Jake Heggie. The concert, held at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Sol Joseph Recital Hall, is dedicated to the memory of pianist Kristin Pankonin (class of 1989), alumna and former staff pianist of the Conservatory.

Segerstrom Center's Chamber Music Series continues tonight, January 31, 2015 with the acclaimed Szymanowski Quartet. For its third appearance, the Warsaw-based ensemble will perform traditional, popular and rare works by Polish composers Marcin Leopolita, Wac?aw of Szamotu?y, Krzysztof Penderecki and Graz?yna Bacewicz. Pianist Joseph Kalichstein makes his Center debut performing Chopin's Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52 and Dvor?a?k's Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 8. There will be a free Preview Talk by musicologist and author Herbert Glass at 7:15 p.m. in Samueli Theater.