Called a “thinking person’s pianist ... an artist with a deep soul, thoughtful, probing, alternately sublime and sassy,” by composer/conductor John Adams, Jeremy Denk is all of those things — and more. Winner of a MacArthur Fellowship (“genius grant”) and the Avery Fisher Prize, the North Carolina-born musician who received a doctor of music degree from the Juilliard School, was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Lammermuir festival’s artist-in-residence Jeremy Denk is a multi-faceted, intelligent pianist, equally at home playing solo Bach in recital, as he did over the weekend, or concertos with orchestra as he will demonstrate in the closing concert. This concert in the spacious surroundings of Dunbar parish church presented Denk in the guise of chamber musician performing Schubert’s Trout Quintet with an ensemble drawn from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
Successful relationships of more than 40 years are something to celebrate. Perhaps even envy.
America’s Emerson String Quartet has been active for 43 years. Three quarters of the group, violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer and violist Lawrence Dutton, have been playing together since they formed the ensemble in 1976. Cellist Paul Watkins has been part of the group for almost seven years. Few groups could claim such longevity and so many original members.
The Emerson String Quartet, a renowned chamber ensemble known for its lively, nuanced playing, announced on Thursday that it would disband in 2023, after nearly a half-century.
The quartet’s members said they had decided it was time to move on so they could focus on teaching and solo work.
The Emerson String Quartet, which for 45 years has dominated the genre with playing that ranges from tripping elegance to brutal stomp, will spend the next two years saying good-bye. That leaves time for at least one more New York premiere, an all-Beethoven road show, a European tour, and an entire valedictory season: “A huge crescendo, then a subito piano,” violinist Philip Setzer says with relish. “We all know artists who said they were going to retire and just kept going and going,” adds fellow violinist Eugene Drucker.
Known internationally as a visionary man of the theater, Bill T. Jones has built a reputation over the past 38 years for his ability to visualize the human condition through choreography and dance. Having received the National Medal of Arts, a MacArthur Genius Award, a Kennedy Center Honors Award and multiple Tony Awards, to name just a few of his honors, there is little imaginative territory Jones has not attempted.
Professional dancers from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company will perform the world premiere of a new work alongside Bloomington community dancers, including Indiana University students, Feb. 22 at Indiana University Auditorium.
Bill T. Jones, 69, is a choreographer, MacArthur Genius Fellowship Award winner, two-time Tony award winner, author and cofounder of the Bill T. Jones /Arnie Zane Dance Company. He’s performing with his own company for the first time in 15 years from Sept. 28 to Oct. 9 in a new work, Deep Blue Sea, commissioned by New York City’s Park Avenue Armory.
During a phone call from her New York City home, multi-Grammy-winning guitarist Sharon Isbin’s voice reveals patience and acceptance regarding the situation imposed by the current pandemic that has kept her and every other touring artist out of concert halls. “I haven’t traveled since the middle of February,” Isbin says. “But I live a block from the river and can go jogging whenever I want, and the grocery store where I shop is four blocks away.
In modern popular music, "sampling" is a common technique, taking an excerpt or element of an earlier song and transforming it into something new. This idea, in fact, dates centuries back.
The Utah Symphony's upcoming O.C. Tanner Masterworks Series program offers prime examples of musical tributes-or, what could be considered sampling in symphonic music. The concerts take place September 24 and 25 at Abravanel Hall, and the public is also invited to a ticketed dress rehearsal on the morning of September 24 to witness the artistic process of refining a performance.
