21C Artists to Watch news: The Knights, Edwin Outwater, and Joshua Roman

This summer, New York-based orchestral collective The Knights takes its innovative programming on a tour of top summer festivals, including Central Park’s Naumburg Concert series and Tanglewood. Celebrated conductor Edwin Outwater launches his inaugural season in the specially created new position of Director of Summer Concerts at the San Francisco Symphony. Joshua Roman, “a virtuoso on the cello” (Daily News), will not only be featured as a recitalist this summer but will also act as a curator, composer, and conductor at Seattle’s TownMusic concert series and the Music Academy of the West.
 
 
 
The Knights continue tour of top summer festivals on June 24
 
The Knights resume their annual two-concert summer collaboration with Central Park’s Naumburg Orchestral Concerts for the sixth consecutive season (June 24 & July 22). In the review of last year’s concert, the New York Times remarked, “Camaraderie and shared enthusiasm for playing music are what drive the ensemble, and those qualities came through on Tuesday in an adventurous program.” The orchestral collective is known for juxtaposing nontraditional rarities and premieres of new music with repertory staples, drawing out unexpected parallels for interesting and unexpected listening. The first Central Park concert encompasses a broad range of musical periods, featuring works by Boccherini, Ives, and young American composers Andrew Norman and Timo Andres. The collective performs Andres’s re-composition of Mozart’s “Coronation Concerto” with the composer himself at the piano. The second concert juxtaposes examples of different musical genres, combining the U.S. premiere of a new suite from the album Run Rabbit Run by songwriter Sufjan Stevens, arranged by Knights solo hornist Michael P. Atkinson; Stravinsky’s neoclassical masterpiece Dumbarton Oaks; Ligeti’s Old Hungarian Ballroom Dances; and, in keeping with the Hungarian theme, Bartók’s Divertimento. Both concerts will be streamed, archived, and rebroadcast at WQXR.
 
Having launched the summer with a number of innovative programs at California’s Ojai Music Festival, where they were in residence, The Knights also look forward to heading to Tanglewood with soloists Hakan Hardenberger and Dawn Upshaw, who “represents the highest ideals of pristine musicianship, intellectual curiosity, and artistic integrity” (Opera News), for a program that includes a performance of Maria Schneider’s multiple Grammy-award winning work Winter Morning Walks (July 23). Their summer season concludes at the Ravinia Festival with two concerts. The first features Upshaw, and in the second their longtime musical partner, superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma, joins as soloist on Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo” Variations.
 
For more information, visit www.theknightsnyc.com.
 
 
Edwin Outwater starts the summer as Director of Summer Concerts at the San Francisco Symphony
 
This summer marks Edwin Outwater’s first season as Director of Summer Concerts at the San Francisco Symphony. He has had a long relationship with the SFS, where he was resident conductor from 2001-2006, and his newly-created position involves creative leadership of the Symphony’s annual “Summer and the Symphony” concerts for two years. Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas welcomed back Outwater, saying “he is one of the most innovative conductors on the scene today. … I look forward to a new level of creativity in our summer programming.” This season Outwater conducts ten performances beginning with Pink Martini (July 2-3). He leads an exploration of the fusion of jazz and orchestral music with works by Bernstein, Gershwin, and Ravel, featuring jazz pianist Makoto Ozone (July 5), as well as two free SFS concerts, one at the Stern Grove Festival (July 6), and the other in Civic Center Plaza with violinist Benjamin Beilman (July 27). On August 1, Outwater and the Orchestra perform an all-Beethoven concert featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and the Triple Concerto with frequent collaborator the Gryphon Trio.
 
Outwater’s new appointment also includes duties that reach beyond the orchestra’s summer season. This season he will curate and lead the San Francisco Symphony’s Music For Families concerts, where he will introduce a new and engaging format, making the concerts contemporary, educational, and entertaining for all ages. Later in the season Outwater, a celebrated champion of new music, teams up with composer Nathaniel Stookey in a program that provides an in-depth look at the California musical counterculture, including an important commission by composer Nicole Lizée, at the San Francisco Symphony’s new alternative performance space, SoundBox.
 
More information about the artist is available at his newly redesigned website EdwinOutwater.com
 
 
Joshua Roman premieres new compositions at Seattle TownMusic series and begins second season as Alumnus in Residence at Music Academy of the West
 
This summer sees Joshua Roman wear all his different hats: cellist, composer, programmer and leader. In Seattle’s TownMusic series, where he is in his seventh season as artistic director, Roman features as both recitalist and composer. He is joined by Mary Mackenzie, “a soprano of extraordinary agility and concentration” (New York Times) for Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire as well as new works, including the world premiere performance of his own new composition for voice and ensemble, a piece that will be the first part of a song cycle based on Tracy K. Smith’s Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection Life on Mars (June 24). 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.” The second part of the song cycle is commissioned by and will be performed at The Music Academy of the West, where Joshua will spend his second season as Alumnus in residence. He will conduct the Academy orchestra in a performance which includes this work and other contemporary compositions including John Adams’s minimalist, high-energy piece, Shaker Loops (August 2).
 
For more information, visit JoshuaRoman.com.
 
 
 
Artists to Watch: Upcoming engagements
 
June 24: The Knights
Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
New York, NY
Central Park, 7:30 pm
Timo Andres, piano/composer
Boccherini: Quintet in C major Op. 30, No. 6, “La Musica Notturna delle strade di Madrid,” arranged for string orchestra
Andrew Norman: Light Screens
Ives: Three Places in New England
Timo Andres: Re-composition of Mozart’s “Coronation Concerto”
 
June 24: Joshua Roman
TownMusic at Town Hall Seattle
Seattle, WA
Original Works by composers Raymond Lustig, Amir Shpilman, Wang Jie, and Joshua Roman
Mary Mackenzie, soprano
Bill Kalinkos, clarinet
Daria Binkowski, flute
Karen Kim, violin/viola
Joshua Roman, cello
David Kaplan, piano
 
July 2-3: Edwin Outwater
San Francisco Symphony 
“Pink Martini at the Symphony”
 
July 4: Edwin Outwater
San Francisco Symphony
Fourth of July Celebration at Shoreline Amphitheater
 
July 5: Edwin Outwater
San Francisco Symphony
Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (Makoto Ozone, piano)
Bernstein: Selections from Divertimento for Orchestra
Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte (with Makoto Ozone and Ensemble)
Ravel: Bolero (With Makoto Ozone and Ensemble)
 
July 6: Edwin Outwater
San Francisco Symphony
Free Concert at Stern Grove
 
July 21 – August 3: Joshua Roman
Music Academy of the West
Santa Barbara, CA
Alumnus-in-Residence
 
July 22: The Knights
Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
New York, NY
Central Park, 7:30 PM
Ligeti: Old Hungarian Ballroom Dances
Bartók: Divertimento
Sufjan Stevens (arr. Atkinson): Suite from Run Rabbit Run (U.S. Premiere)
Ljova: Ori’s Fearful Symmetry
Stravinsky: Concerto in E-flat, “Dumbarton Oaks”
 
July 23: The Knights
Tanglewood Music Festival
Lenox, MA
Dawn Upshaw, soprano
Hakan Hardenberger, trumpet
Ligeti: Old Hungarian Ballroom Dances
Various: Selections from Both Sides, Now (with Hakan Hardenberger)
Ljova: Ori’s Fearful Symmetry
Stravinsky: Concerto in E-flat, “Dumbarton Oaks”
Maria Schneider: Winter Morning Walks (with Dawn Upshaw)
 
July 24-25: Edwin Outwater
San Francisco Symphony
“Hello Gorgeous!” Cheyenne Jackson Goes to the Movies
 
July 26: Edwin Outwater
San Francisco Symphony
Green Center for the Performing Arts, Sonoma, CA
Tchaikovsky: Marche slave
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Simon Trpceski, piano)
Tchaikovsky: Selections from Swan Lake
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture
 
July 27: Edwin Outwater
San Francisco Symphony
Free Concert at Civic Center Plaza
Tchaikovsky: Marche slave
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor (Benjamin Beilman, violin)
Tchaikovsky: Selections from Swan Lake
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture
 
Aug 1: Edwin Outwater
San Francisco Symphony
Beethoven: Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus
Beethoven: Triple Concerto (Gryphon Trio)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
 
Aug 2: Joshua Roman
Music Academy of the West
Friar: Scale 9
Roman: TBA (world premiere)
Cerrone: The Night Mare
Adams: Shaker Loops
Joshua Roman, conductor
 
Aug 10: Edwin Outwater
Kyoto Symphony Orchestra
Kyoto, Japan
Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande: Suite
Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D major, “Haffner”, K. 385
Rutter: Magnificat (Maki Mori, soprano; Kyoto Symphony Chorus)
 
Aug 12: Joshua Roman
Sun Valley Summer Symphony
Ketchum, ID
Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1
Alasdair Neale, Conductor
 
Aug 16: Joshua Roman
The Stone
New York, NY
Works by Lisa Bielawa
Lisa Bielawa, voice
Joshua Roman, cello
Evelyne Luest, piano
 
Aug 20: The Knights
Ravinia Festival
Highland Park, IL
Dawn Upshaw, soprano
Ives: Three Places in New England
Dowland (arr. Bruce): Two Laments
Stravinsky: Concerto in E-flat, “Dumbarton Oaks”
Sufjan Stevens (arr. Atkinson): Suite from Run Rabbit Run
Maria Schneider: Winter Morning Walks
 
Aug 21: The Knights
Ravinia Festival
Highland Park, IL
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Stockhausen (arr. Shaw): Tierkreis (Leo)
Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C, K. 551 (“Jupiter”)
Boccherini: Quintet in C major Op. 30, No. 6, “La Musica Notturna delle strade di Madrid,” arranged for string orchestra
Milhaud (arr. The Knights): Le boeuf sur le toit
Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 
 
 
 
 
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© 21C Media Group, June 2014