21C Artists to Watch news: The Knights, Edwin Outwater, and Joshua Roman
This spring, The Knights chamber orchestra launches “Blueshift,” an exciting new chamber initiative at the hot new Manhattan venue SubCulture. Conductor Edwin Outwater announces another adventurous season with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, where his contract as Music Director has just been extended. Cellist Joshua Roman returns to perform in his native Oklahoma, and features as both recitalist and composer in Seattle’s TownMusic series, where he serves as Artistic Director.
The Knights launch “Blueshift” at SubCulture, NYC, on March 13
On March 13, the trailblazing orchestra collective The Knights unveils its new chamber music series, “Blueshift,” in the intimate, informal setting of SubCulture, a new venue for eclectic music in New York City’s NoHo neighborhood. Members of the ensemble will take turns curating and performing in concerts that showcase the diverse array of creative influences from which they take inspiration. The inaugural program, curated by The Knights co-founders, Colin and Eric Jacobsen, juxtaposes new contributions to the repertory by contemporary composers William Bolcom, Giya Kancheli, and Andrew Norman with a pair of 20th-century chamber classics: Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony, arranged for quintet by Webern, and the Suite from Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale.
This past fall, The Knights marked the 75th anniversary of another of Stravinsky’s neoclassical masterpieces, “Dumbarton Oaks,” with a performance at the Washington estate for which it was originally named. The Washington Post admired the “hip, collaborative and innovative Brooklyn-based chamber orchestra,” finding its rendition “sizzling,” and adding:
“It is a joy to see such deeply committed music-making. The Knights have no conductor; only the bassoonist and cellists play seated; every player is viscerally caught up in the shape of every phrase. That they suggest a rock band is not accidental, but the precision of balance and ensemble bespeaks the highest level of musicianship and preparation.”
For more information, visit www.theknightsnyc.com.
Edwin Outwater announces new season and extends contract with KWS
Conductor Edwin Outwater has just announced details of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s 2014-15 season, which marks his eighth as Music Director of the orchestra. Highlights include his leadership of Mendelssohn’s rarely-heard complete incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream; “Edwin’s Guide to Stravinsky,” in which he reveals the Russian composer to be as steeped in tradition as he was revolutionary; an evening of music and comedy embracing works by PDQ Bach and Rossini; and collaborations with artists ranging from Russian-American pianist Natasha Paremski and Chinese pipa virtuoso Lan Weiwei to Canadian video artist Tess Girard and Time for Three. This announcement follows on the heels of news that the orchestra has extended Outwater’s contract until the end of the 2016-17 season, taking his tenure to a full ten years.
Equally sought-after as a guest conductor, Outwater looks forward to engagements with orchestras including the New World Symphony (April 12-13) and Indianapolis Symphony (April 26), where he joins Raymond Laflamme, Director of the Institute for Quantum Computing, to present “Quantum: Music at the Frontier of Science.” An exploration of the ways that new discoveries in theoretical physics have influenced composers from Mozart to Xenakis, the program has been described as offering “music as weirdly beautiful as the universe itself…that worked the brain cells in a new way” (Culture Guru blog).
For more information, visit EdwinOutwater.com
Joshua Roman heads home for Oklahoma City chamber concerts on March 10-11
Joshua Roman’s recent collaboration with the Omaha Symphony was proclaimed “an experience to treasure…truly a ‘Roman Carnival”; the Omaha World-Herald marveled at “the tour de force that was cellist Joshua Roman’s performance,” and the alacrity with which “the audience leapt to its feet in delight.”
Now Roman – “a cellist of extraordinary technical and musical gifts” (San Francisco
Chronicle) – headlines “Transcendental Doxology” with the Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble in Oklahoma City on March 10 and 11. Presenting his account of Schumann’s romantic Adagio and Allegro for cello and piano alongside Mendelssohn’s Second Piano Trio and Schubert’s sublime String Quintet in C, the concerts represent a homecoming for the cellist, who was born and raised in the Oklahoman capital.
Upcoming concerts in Seattle’s TownMusic series feature Roman as both performer and composer. He gives a recital of Stravinsky, Schnittke and more with Grammy-nominated pianist Andrius Zlabys (April 22), and looks forward to the world premiere performance of his new composition for voice and ensemble, with Mary Mackenzie, “a soprano of extraordinary agility and concentration” (New York Times) (June 24). Roman is currently in his seventh season as Artistic Director of the celebrated Seattle series; as Seattle Metropolitan magazine observes, TownMusic “found a good thing in Joshua Roman: a young artistic director whose main concern in life is moving forward, and taking along any audience willing to share the ride.”
For more information, visit JoshuaRoman.com.
Artists to Watch: Upcoming engagements
March 8: Edwin Outwater
Edmonton, Canada
Vaughan-Williams: Overture to “The Wasps”
Stanhope: Variations on a Theme of Vaughan-Williams
Arnold: Tam O’Shanter Overture
Elgar: Violin Concerto (with Elena Urioste, violin)
Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
March 10 & 11: Joshua Roman
Oklahoma City, OK
All Souls Episcopal Church
Chamber Concert
Schumann: Adagio and Allegro
Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 66
Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, Op. post., D.956 (with Stephen Buck, piano; Gregory Lee, violin; Samuel Formicola, violin; Mark Neumann, viola; Tomasz Zieba, cello)
March 13: The Knights
New York, NY
Subculture
Bolcom: Graceful Ghost Rag
Stravinsky: Suite from The Soldier’s Tale
Kancheli: Rag-Gidon-Time
Norman: Light Screens
Schoenberg (arr. Webern): Chamber Symphony, Op. 9
March 14 & 16: Edwin Outwater
Tucson, AZ
Bates: Alternative Energy
Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 (with Amit Peled, cello)
Debussy: La Mer
Tucson Symphony Orchestra
March 20: Joshua Roman
Malmö, Sweden
Malmö Konserthus
Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor
Malmö Symphony Orchestra / Rafael Payare
March 21 & 22: Edwin Outwater
Kitchener, Canada
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Jon Kimura Parker, piano)
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony
April 3 & 4: Edwin Outwater
Kitchener, Canada
Intersections Series
Daniel Lopatin and William Brittelle: Electronic Atmospheres
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony
April 12 & 13: Edwin Outwater
Miami, FL
Concerto Night program with NWS soloists
New World Symphony
April 22: Joshua Roman
Seattle, WA
Town Hall Seattle
Recital
Stravinsky: Suite Italienne
Schnittke: Sonata
With Andrius Zlabys, piano
April 26: Edwin Outwater
Indianapolis, IN
Quantum: Music at the Frontier of Science
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
May 1: Joshua Roman
Glasgow, Scotland
Grand Hall
Dvorák: Cello Concerto
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Richard Farnes
May 2 – 4: Edwin Outwater
Kitchener, Canada
Copland: Billy the Kid Suite
Bernstein: Chichester Psalms (with Scott Belluz, countertenor)
Cowell: Synchrony
Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story”
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony
May 6 – 8: Edwin Outwater
Chicago, IL
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
May 9 & 10: Edwin Outwater
Chicago, IL
Nielsen: Selections from Aladdin Suite
Rimsky-Korsakov: Selections from Scheherezade
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
May 11: Joshua Roman
Seattle, WA
Benaroya Hall
Kernis: Dreamsongs
Seattle Youth Symphony / Stephen Rogers Radcliffe
May 25: The Knights
Darmstadt, Germany
Darmstadt State Theater
Philharmonie Merck
May 27: The Knights
Würzburg, Germany
Mozartfest
May 28: The Knights
Dresden, Germany
Dresden Music Festival
May 30 & 31: Edwin Outwater
Kitchener, Canada
Sokolovic: Ringelspiel
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto (With Karen Gomyo, violin)
Stravinsky: Pétrouchka
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony
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© 21C Media Group, March 2014