Sound Off: Music for Bail Opens Its 2023-2024 Season at People's Forum

The program features music by notable Black, Brown, and Asian historical and living composers performed by violinists Aurora Mendez and Celina Farmer, violist Jay Julio, and cellist Angelique Montes. Featured speaker Tatiana Hill will offer a history of her work with the NYC Office of the Community Liaison in the wake of Judge Shira Scheindlin’s 2013 ruling that “stop-and-frisk” policies are unconstitutional, and the path forward ten years later. General admission tickets are $15. Proceeds from these concerts directly support musicians and speakers. Free tickets are available at request to remove financial barriers to attendance.

Groupmuse's Beyond Borders Offers a Multifaceted Virtuosic Evening in NYC

On September 15, violinist Vijay Gupta, cellist Joel Noyes, and Kuchipudi dancer Yamini Kalluri had intended to present “Beyond Borders”, a multidisciplinary Groupmuse event combining poetry, classical music, and dance. The lingering existence of COVID-19 unfortunately necessitated a change in the programming. With Kalluri having tested positive the morning of, the remaining performers regrouped on this evening in Brooklyn, NY at Christ Church Cobble Hill that celebrated the eclectic and the intentional.

artist feature, chamber music, classical music, composers, concerts, dance, global, international, music, poetry, reviews, solo performances, strings, UncategorizedSeptember 28, 2023

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Black Orchestral Network responds to KC Symphony’s Tenure Denial

On Tuesday May 9th exactly one year after the Black Orchestral Network (BON)’s “Day of Solidarity” addressing anti-Blackness in US orchestras, the organization released a statement on social media protesting the Kansas City Symphony’s recent denial of tenure to acclaimed Principal Percussionist Josh Jones. Represent Classical’s Jay Julio interviews BON co-founder and Steering Committee member Jennifer Arnold about this latest development.

Filipino American Violinist Adrian Nicholas Ong Debuts at Carnegie Hall

Ong is the first recipient of FilAm Music Foundation’s New York City Recital Debut Award. He is a member of the young artists roster of the FilAm Music Foundation. Victor Santiago Asuncion, internationally acclaimed pianist and founder and artistic director of the FilAm Music Foundation, will accompany Ong on piano.

Chineke! Orchestra To Make Highly Anticipated Inaugural Tour to North Americ

Chineke!, Europe’s first majority-Black and ethnically diverse orchestra, led by conductor Andrew Grams, will make its inaugural North American tour this month performing in six cities across Canada and the U.S.

Interlochen, NY Phil to perform "MUKTI: A Movement of Liberation” at Lincoln Center

Featuring music by living Black composers, the concert program will be led by Interlochen Orchestra director Dr. Leslie Dunner, recipient of the Leonard Bernstein American Conductors Award and the NAACP's James Weldon Johnson and Distinguished Achievement Awards.

Sound Off, Planetary Music Project, PROTESTRA & VOCAL-NY Collab For Concert of Chamber and Orchestral Works at Robert Moss Theater

In collaboration with Groupmuse’s Planetary Music Movement and PROTESTRA, Sound Off: Music for Bail presents a hybrid program of chamber and orchestral music by leading contemporary and historical Black American composers alongside "Yet Unheard" a cantata dedicated to the life and memory of Sandra Bland by Rome Prize-winning composer Dr. Courtney Bryan at Playwrights Horizons Downtown.

Strike at The New School Ends: Tentative Agreement Reached

The action was the longest strike by adjunct college faculty in U.S. history and part of an increasing trend in worker uprisings at U.S. colleges and universities this year.

According to a post on the union's strike update website "You Are The New School", the agreement represents what part-time faculty are calling "significant achievements" for the teachers who make up about 87% of the school's faculty.

Review: Curtis Stewart & EXO at DiMenna Center

Yet through intelligent curation and a bit of ingenious staging, a clear but multifaceted thematic line emerged: combining performances and reimagining pieces by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson,Julia Perry, and Stewart himself with call-and-response, group singing, and even a mid-concert dialogue, pulling from community and scholarly knowledge offered by Stewart, Blachly, and guest lecturer Dr. Fredara Hadley, also of the Juilliard School.

NatPhil Messiah Concert to Benefit Maryland's Historic "Scotland Church"

National Philharmonic (NatPhil) will present three performances of George Frideric Handel’s "Messiah" at 8 p.m. on December 17 and 3 p.m. on December 18 at The Music Center at Strathmore, as well as at 7:30 p.m. on December 23 at Capital One Hall. Conducted by Stan Engebretson, the program will feature a cast of African American singers alongside the National Philharmonic Chorale.

2023 Grammy Nominations Announced

This year BIPOC classical composers' works have been Grammy nominated in several award categories and BIPOC classical musicians perform on a number of Grammy nominated recordings in the Classical Music category, as well as the Americana category.

Review: Sitarist Megha Rawoot at Shift

From the first enchanting scale that echoed through the space, the Wednesday audience at Williamsburg’s art-laden, intimate, behind-a-record-store venue Shiftwere in for a rare treat. Mumbai-based sitarist Megha Rawoot offered a 45-minute set of rhapsodic solo music that served as testament to the versatile capabilities of her chosen instrument and to her own world-class abilities.

artist feature, classical music, global, in person concerts, in person events, international, music, reviews, solo performancesNovember 2, 2022

EVENTS: Women in Classical Music Symposium

The 3-day event is sponsored by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and is now in its fourth year. The symposium's organizers say despite the fact that more women graduate from prominent conservatories and schools of music than their male counterparts, they are "severely underrepresented in titled conducting positions, in programming by major orchestras, on stage as soloists, and in management leadership positions."

FilAm Summer Music Festival Returns To Chicago

FilAm Music Foundation and Evanston Chamber Music Society will present their Summer Music Festival August 19 to 21 at the Charles Gates Dawes House in Evanston, IL to showcase classical musicians of Filipino descent.

This year's festival will consist of voice, winds, strings, and piano in chamber music performances highlighting the talents of Filipino American classical musicians from across the U.S.

As Artists Continue to Draw the Line, Real Time DEI Will Change Classical Music

he positive, residual impact of this dialogue-based approach toward change can’t be denied; however, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to address today’s missteps and examples of inequity in performance spaces by and with words alone. It begs the question: What should the next stage of change-making in the arts look like, considering the relative normalization of the talk-centric aspects of this work?

activism, arts activism, classical music, global, international, music, music administration, operaGarrett McQueenAugust 8, 2022

Quinteto Latino's Seminario Returns for 2022

Quinteto Latino's mission is to disrupt racial and economic disparities within the classical music field by championing past, present, and future contributions by Latino composers and musicians. The organization promotes classical music by Latino and Latin American composers through performances, commissions, mentoring, and child and adult education.

India at 75: Carnegie Hall Concert Series Celebrates Indian Independence

The Indo-American Arts Council, a New York City based non-profit that promotes Indian theater, performing arts, media, fashion, and literature in the United States, will celebrate 75 years of Indian independence this month with three concerts August 13 to 15 at Carnegie Hall featuring top Indian classical and contemporary musicians.

This week on TRILLOQUY: Opus 157

Inspired by the viscerally provocative poem, "Here, Bullet" by Brian Turner, the art song of the same name by composer Kurt Erickson is, among many things, a plea for western classical arts spaces to directly address gun violence.

Josh Tatsuo Cullen: "Scenes In Tin Can Alley"

Pianist Josh Tatsuo Cullenhas recorded an entire album of Florence B. Price's music for solo piano, specifically pieces that were discovered in 2009 at the composer's summer home after her death.

"Scenes in Tin Can Alley: Piano Music of Florence Price" (Blue Griffin) was released on June 3.

When Gun Violence Erupts Again, Will The Concert Hall Be Spared? Not Unless We Act Now

While this story may seem inappropriate, exaggerated, and even far-fetched for many classical concert goers, the reality of gun violence is becoming more widespread and normalized across American society. As of mid-July, 2022, over 300 mass shootings had been reported in the United States, with associated deaths stacking up to over 60. Orchestral and opera venues have long been considered “safe spaces” where issues of systemic racism, patriarchal norms, and class division (among others) have been pushed to the proverbial nosebleeds, but as the issue of gun violence continues to grow, so should the attention that arts institutions are paying this issue.