Don Potter is plugged into Christmas. He returns to Rochester this weekend for four Holiday Pops shows โ one Friday, two Saturday, one more on Sunday โ with Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.
RPO
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RPO and Ward Stare’s recording up for two Grammys
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director Ward Stare’s recording of composer Jennifer Higdon’s “Harp Concerto,โ featuring the classical harpist Yolanda Kondonassis,ย has been nominated for two Grammys.
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Classical review: โBach to Bartรณkโ an RPO journey worth taking
Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg โ great composers but only occasional visitors to Kodak Hall at best โ finally made it on the same Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra program last night.
Posted inSpecial Sections
David reviews ‘Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra: Scheherazade .2’
A symphony orchestra in a Fringe Festival? It sure makes sense when the orchestra gives an entire program of recent music by four American composers, all very much alive. Space is limited, so Iโll start with the piece that gives the concert its title: a spectacular โdramatic symphonyโ for violin and orchestra by John Adams, […]
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Classical review: RPO with Augustin Hadelich
At first, putting Sibelius and Shostakovich on the same orchestral program sounds like a dark and weighty proposition. In reality, when the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director Ward Stare presented the two modern classical masters side by side on Thursday, the sound was much more nuanced.
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Classical review: RPO performs ‘Mahler 7’
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra last performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 in 1982. RPO Music Director Ward Stare is bringing Mahlerโs Seventh Symphony back this week and Stare and the orchestra are doing a bang-up job with this huge, difficult work.
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RPO 2019-20 season brings fresh programming
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra has announced its 2019-20 Philharmonics and Pops series. Next year’s season features a meticulously crafted blend of beloved, heavyweight composers and fresh, new-to-the-RPO works from the 20th and 21st centuries.
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Ward Stare leads RPO in Mahler, Shostakovich symphonies
Ward Stare returns to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra next week with two ambitious programs: On February 28 and March 2, heโll essay Mahlerโs enormous Symphony No. 7, and on March 7 and 9, heโll highlight another 20th-century masterpiece, Shostakovichโs Symphony No. 10.
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Classical review: RPO with Jon Nakamatsu
On Thursday, Jon Nakamatsu’s finely judged reading of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra was not only drop-dead elegant, but also full of the composer’s signature energy.
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Classical review: RPO with Vadym Kholodenko and Gemma New
It’s interesting to see which guest conductors and soloists Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra audiences
will take to, and wonder why they make that connection. This week the RPO invited a young conductor and a young pianist, and the crowd went wild, as they say.
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Classical review: RPO performs an inconsistent concert with Isabel Leonard
On Thursday, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director Ward Stare welcomed accomplished opera star Isabel Leonard to Kodak Hall for a program that was heavy on Spanish influence โ a welcome programmatic turn โ but light on consistency. The story of the concert was a tale of two halves. The inconsistency was apparent from […]
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Ward Stare reflects on RPOโs 2015-16 season
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2015-2016 season was Ward Stare’s first year to program as the orchestra’s music director — he officially took over the position in September 2014, and led several concerts during that season, but its programming had already been set. And this season was, by artistic and financial standards, a success. Stare’s musicality […]
