OSSIA has been a student-run ensemble at the Eastman School of Music since the mid-1970’s. Chances are, even if you’ve heard of it or gone to one of its concerts, you haven’t been behind the scenes to learn that it is more than just an ensemble — it’s an incubator in arts management. With our […]
classical music
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CONCERT REVIEW: RPO “Applachian Spring”
Thursday night, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra put on a concert of works by Astor Piazzolla, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and Manuel de Falla. They added also an opening work titled “Fanfare to Flora,” to celebrate the life and music of Eastman School of Music Dean Douglas Lowry, who died earlier this month. The headline work […]
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“If Music Be the Food…”
Carol Rodland’s biography as a classical musician is sufficiently impressive to be its own article. She earned bachelor of music and masters of music degrees from The Juilliard School. She won a Fulbright Scholarship. She has traveled to study, teach, and perform in Europe. She is an associate professor of viola at the Eastman School […]
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Concert Review: RPO Opening Weekend (Mahler’s First Symphony)
Last night the fireworks of Mahler’s Titan Symphony exploded in the Eastman Theater, raining showers of brilliant sparks over the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and guest conductor Jun Märkl. (OK, not literally. But it was surely an opening-night performance filled with enough drama to give me goosebumps and have me imagining fireworks.) The RPO opened it’s […]
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CLASSICAL PREVIEW: More than filling the gap
CORRECTION: The original version of this article contained several erroneous listings for the conductors’ birth places and current cities of residence. We have removed those fields. When I first realized that the 2013-2014 season for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra would consist of 13 guest conductors plus one concert with Conductor Laureate Christopher Seaman (March 6 […]
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MUSIC: Classical smorgasbord
This is the first classical season since I started writing for City that I believe includes a concert and a composer for everyone. For someone like me, with far-flung musical tastes, it means I will be at concert after concert, throughout the entire season. So, allow me to offer three top picks on the season, […]
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Spectrum of Sound: Aspects of Organ Music Since 1940
Professor David Higgs is a pretty smart guy. He’s a professor at the Eastman School of Music and he’s the chair of the Department of Organ, Sacred Music, and Keyboard Instruments. He’s an organist. He’s a jurist. And, he was smart enough to headline this year’s Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative Festival, based around modern organ […]
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Finger Lakes Choral Festival
Rochester boasts an unusual number of choral groups, and when summer rolls around, most of those large choruses, small ensembles, school groups, and church choirs take a break. But choral singers still want to sing choral music. Luckily there are a few summertime outlets for them. Rochester’s Really Big Choral Show each summer is the […]
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CLASSICAL PREVIEW: Chamber Opera Festival 2013
If you inevitably associate the word “opera” with the word “grand,” prepare for an eye- and ear-opening couple of weeks from Rochester Lyric Opera. Its Chamber Opera Festival, opening this week and running until May 5, is a kind of operatic tapas bar — bite-sized but tasty offerings that offer something for all tastes. The […]
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Concert Review: Lyric Chorale at St. Louis Church
Through a combination of choral music and projected images, the Lyric Chorale presented works inspired by the Virgin Mary in the setting of St. Louis Church in Pittsford on Saturday, December 15. The Lyric Chorale was generous in its offerings during a nearly two-hour program, including various settings of “Ave Maria,” as well as Bach’s […]
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Concert Review: Celebrity Organ Recital Series feat. Ken Cowan
It was an organ concert to show off the vast array of available sounds of the newly restored Skinner Organ at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church — all 55 stops, 68 ranks, and 4,596 pipes — and organist Ken Cowan brought his unique approach to the job. Throughout Sunday’s concert, a camera displayed Cowan on a […]
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Concert Review: RPO’s Debussy at 150
Thursday night’s Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concert included the orchestra’s tribute for the 150-year celebration of French composer Claude Debussy, along with a symphony by Belgian composer César Franck. First up was the “Petite Suite” (the “Little Suite”) of Claude Debussy, the master of our romantic hearts. A lovely 15-minute piece, “Petite Suite” was everything one […]
