It's not every day that a newly minted Pulitzer Prize-winning composer visits St. Louis just after winning said prize. Yet that is what is happening this week, after Caroline Shaw just won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her work "Partita for 8 Voices". Shaw is appearing this Friday, 4/26/13 at UMSL's Touhill Performing Arts Center with the contemporary music group Alarm Will Sound. More information about the concert is here. If you ever wanted to meet a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer in person, now's your chance.
Author Archive
Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw in STL this Friday, 4/26/13
Monday, April 22nd, 2013Interview with ETHEL violinist Kip Jones, Sat. 3/9/13, 11 AM
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013In anticipation of the Friday, 3/22/13 appearance of the downtown New York string quartet ETHEL with flutist Robert Mirabal at the 560 Building, KWUR will be doing an interview with ETHEL violinist Kip Jones this coming Saturday during my classical show, around 11 AM (barring technical glitches). You can watch some of the artistry of ETHEL and Robert Mirabal from these video links:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/wF5utPE3iHk
http://www.youtube.com/embed/92XO4TyF4Aw
http://www.youtube.com/embed/EeoAZrvaHSA
Feel free to tune in, terrestrially or via the internet.
Exclusive interview with Polly Ferman this Sat. 10/6/12, ~12PM
Thursday, October 4th, 2012The pianist Polly Ferman, a specialist in tango and South American music, is performing a solo recital at UMSL's Touhill Performing Arts Center this Saturday night, 10/6/12, at 8 PM. I will be interviewing her this coming Saturday on my show, around 12 noon. She'll be bringing her recordings. This is her only radio interview in St. Louis before her concert. Some videos of her performances are here, here, and here.
(PS: Yes, there is a certain irony that Wash. U.'s radio station is featuring an interview with an artist performing at UMSL.)
KWUR Saturday Opera Broadcasts, August 2012 Encore
Saturday, August 4th, 2012One last gasp for this summer of broadcasts of opera recordings from KWUR, for the next 4 weeks, as follows:
a) Sat. Aug. 11: Verdi: Rigoletto. Robert Merrill (Rigoletto), Roberta Peters (Gilda), Richard Tucker (The Duke of Mantua), Mignon Dunn (Maddalena), Bonaldo Giaiotti (Sparafucile). Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus; Fausto Cleva, conductor (Sony 8697-91005-2).
b) Sat. Aug. 18: Handel: Il pastor fido. Lucy Crowe (Amarilli), Anna Dennis (Mirtillo), Katherine Manley (Eurilla), Madeleine Shaw (Dorinda), Clint van der Linde (Silvio), Lisandro Abadie (Tirenio). La Nuova Musica; David Bates, direction (harmonia mundi 907585.86).
c) Sat. Aug. 25: Michael Berkeley: Baa Baa Black Sheep (libretto by David Malouf). Malcolm Lorimer (Punch / Mowgli as a child), William Dazeley (Mowgli as a young man), Ann Taylor-Morley (Judy / Grey Wolf), George Mosley (Father / Father Wolf / Messua's husband), Eileen Hulse (Mother / Mother Wolf / Messua), Henry Newman (The Captain / Akela), Fiona Kimm (Auntirosa / Baldeo), Philip Sheffield (Harry / Sheer Khan), Mark Holland (Bhini-in-the-garden / Baloo), Clive Bayley (Meeta / Bagheera), Paul McCann (Captain Sahib snake-man / Ka), Brian Cookson (Priest). English Northern Philharmonia; Chorus of Opera North; Paul Daniel, conductor (Collins Classics 70362).
d) Sat. Sept. 1: Hugo Weisgall: Six Characters in Search of an Author (libretto by Denis Johnston, after Pirandello). Elizabeth Futral, Nancy Maultsby, Gary Lehman, singers from the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. Members of the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra; Lee Schaenen, conductor (New World Records 80454-2.
Hope you can listen in. Feel free to drop a line here, and thanks for reading.
KWUR Saturday opera broadcasts, May-July 2012
Saturday, May 12th, 2012KWUR has received a bunch of new historic Metropolitan Opera recordings as part of their next wave of CD issues of archived Met performances some months back. In keeping with the first experiment of summer opera broadcasts last summer, I'm going to try it again this summer, if all goes well. It'll be a mix of mostly the Met recordings with other issues. There's a heavy emphasis in the Met issues on Verdi, for some reason, since his bicentenary isn't until next year. That aside, here's the tentative schedule, starting Saturday mornings at 11 AM:
(1) Sat. May 26, double bill:
(a) Stephen Sondheim: Sweeney Todd, Act 2. Len Cariou (Sweeney Todd), Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Lovett), Victor Garber (Anthony Hope), Ken Jennings (Tobias Ragg), Merle Louise (Beggar Woman), Edmund Lyndeck (Judge Turpin), Sarah Rice (Johanna), Joaquin Romaguera (Pirelli), Jack Eric Williams (Beadle Bamford). Orchestra and Chorus; Paul Gemigiani, conductor (RCA CBL2-3379)
(b) Leoncavallo: Pagliacci. Anselmo Colzani (Tonio), Franco Corelli (Canio), Franco Ghitti (Beppe), Lucine Amara (Nedda), Calvin Marsh (Silvio). Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Nello Santi, conductor (Sony Classical 8691-90999-2)
(2) Sat. June 2: Verdi: Ernani. Carlo Bergonzi (Ernani), Leontyne Price (Elvira), Cornell MacNeil (Don Carlo), Carlotta Ordassy (Giovanna), Giorgio Tozzi (Don Ruy Gomez de Silva), Roald Reitan (Jago), Robert Nagy (Don Riccardo). Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Thomas Schippers, conductor (Sony Classical 8691-90996-2)
(3) Sat. June 9: Verdi: Luisa Miller. Sherill Milnes (Miller), Montserrat Caballe (Luisa), Nancy Williams (Laura), Richard Tucker (Rodolfo), Ezio Flagello (Wurm), Giorgio Tozzi (Count Walter), Louise Pearl (Federica), Lou Marcella (Peasant). Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Thomas Schippers, conductor (Sony Classical 8691-90994-2)
(4) Sat. June 16: Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana. Richard Tucker (Turiddu), Eileen Farrell (Santuzza), Lili Chookasian (Mamma Lucia), Cesare Bardelli (Alfio), Mildred Miller (Lola). Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Nello Santi, conductor (Sony Classical 8691-90999-2)
(5) Sat. June 23: Rossini: Il Signor Bruschino. Alessandro Codeluppi (Florville), Maurizio Leoni (Gaudenzio), Elena Rossi (Sofia), Dario Giorgele (Signor Bruschino), Antonio Marani (Filiberto), Clara Giangaspero (Marianna), Massimilano Barbolini (Bruschino Figlio), Vito Martino (Commissario). I Virtuosi Italiani; Claudio Desderi, conductor (Naxos 8.660128)
(6) Sat. June 30: Verdi: Un ballo in maschera. Giorgio Tozzi (Samuel), Norman Scott (Tom), Roberta Peters (Oscar), Jan Peerce (Riccardo), Robert Merrill (Renato), James McCracken (Judge), Marian Anderson (Ulrica), Zinka Milanov (Amelia), Calvin Marsh (Silvano), Charles Anthony (Servant). Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Dmitri Mitropoulos, conductor (Sony Classical 8697-91002-2)
(7) Sat. July 7: Verdi: Il trovatore. William WIlderman (Ferrando), Teresa Stratas (Ines), Leontyne Price (Leonora), Mario Sereni (Count di Luna), Franco Corelli (Manrico), Irene Dalis (Azucena), Carlo Tomanelli (Gypsy), Robert Nagy (Messenger), Charles Anthony (Ruiz). Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Fausto Cleva, conductor (Sony Classical 8697-91006-2)
(8) Sat. July 14: Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore. Carlo Bergonzi (Nemorino), Roberta Peters (Adina), Fernando Corena (Dulcamara), Frank Guerrera (Belcore), Loretta di Franco (Gianetta). Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Thomas Schippers, conductor (Sony Classical 8691-90991-2)
(9) Sat. July 21: Verdi: Don Carlo. Justino Diaz (A Friar), Franco Corelli (Don Carlo), Nicolae Herlea (Rodrigo), Marcia Baldwin (Tebaldo), Irene Dalis (Princess Eboli), Leonie Rysanek (Elisabeth of Valois), Giorgio Tozzi (Philip II), Robert Nagy (Herald), Junetta Jones (Celestial Voice), Gabor Carelli (Count of Lerma), Hermann Uhde (Grand Inquisitor). Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Kurt Adler, conductor (Sony Classical 8691-91004-2)
More may follow in August. Thanks for reading.