Classical Streaming from 21C in January & Beyond
(Rolling; updated as new information comes in. Last updated Jan 7.)
21C’s artists and organizations are keeping music alive in 2021 with new livestreams and favorite archived performances. Stay up to date with this rolling list, which we’ll update and redistribute whenever new additions are announced. Upcoming and recent streams are up top; updates & additions to previously announced series are in red. (Updated Jan 7.)
For press passes to any of the ticketed streams, please contact Louise at 21C
STREAMS & BROADCASTS COMING UP IN NEXT 8 DAYS
(listed chronologically; livestreams in gold)
Mon, Jan 11 at 1pm ET: Choir of Trinity Wall Street performs Herbert Howells & Bach (see Trinity below)
Tues, Jan 12 at 1pm ET: Stravinsky Festival from Trinity, day 1 (see Trinity below)
Wed, Jan 13 at 1pm ET: Stravinsky Festival from Trinity, day 2 (see Trinity below)
Thurs, Jan 14 at 1pm ET: Stravinsky Festival from Trinity, day 3 (see Trinity below)
Thurs, Jan 14 at 1pm ET: Alan Gilbert leads Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in Mahler (see Gilbert below)
UPCOMING STREAMS
(LISTED ALPHABETICALLY BY ARTIST; newly announced streams in red)
PBS’s Articulate with Jim Cotter shines spotlight on LEIF OVE ANDSNES
(Tomorrow, Jan 8 from 3:30pm ET; prerecorded TV broadcast & video on website; free)
In its latest episode, PBS TV’s Articulate with Jim Cotter shines the spotlight on Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. Besides airing on PBS TV stations, the episode will be available for streaming on the network’s website.
THE ATLANTA OPERA presents company premiere of The Kaiser of Atlantis and more
(Webcasts; ticketed & available in new digital subscription service)
Atlanta Opera Spotlight Media’s new digital subscription service gives home audiences around the world long-term access to exclusive new video content from The Atlanta Opera. Each month, the company rolls out a substantial new streaming bundle, combining concerts, special recordings and behind-the-scenes footage with original opera productions captured live in the company’s innovative 2020-21 “Big Tent” series. Single-performance passes start at $10 and annual passes are priced at $99 per viewing household.
Three productions are available now:
Baritone Michael Mayes headlines General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun’s acclaimed company premiere of The Kaiser of Atlantis, a chilling satire on Hitler by eventual Auschwitz victims Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien.
Also filmed in the Big Tent, “Mezzo Extravaganza” celebrates the superlative voices of mezzo-sopranos Gabrielle Beteag, Daniela Mack, Megan Marino and Jamie Barton, BBC Music’s “2020 Personality of the Year.”
In the first of a series of “Love Letters to Atlanta,” bass Morris Robinson sings “The Impossible Dream” from Man of La Mancha at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre.
ALAN GILBERT leads two Royal Stockholm Philharmonic programs
(Two livestreams; free; Jan 14 & 21 at 1pm ET [7pm CET])
As Conductor Laureate of Sweden’s Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert leads the orchestra in two livestreamed performances this month, joined by soprano soloist Elin Rombo for Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (Jan 14) and by violin soloist Frank Peter Zimmerman for Schumann’s Violin Concerto, heard alongside music by French composers Ravel, Roussel and Lili Boulanger. Both programs will stream live, free of charge, on the orchestra’s website. Click here to stream the January 14 performance and here to stream the January 21 one.
Louisville Orchestra presents “CLASSICAL PAIRING” livestream
(Feb 13 at 7:30pm ET; livestream & subsequently available on website)
Music director Teddy Abrams leads the Louisville Orchestra in a “Classical Pairing” of Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 with John Adams’s Chamber Symphony. The performance will stream live at the orchestra’s website, where it will subsequently be available for streaming on demand from February 26 until April 11.
Orchestra of St. Luke’s presents new live streaming series
(Starts Feb 17)
On February 17, OSL will present the first of nine new weekly livestreams running through the winter and spring, following its live series this past fall. Full programming details will be announced on January 19.
DANIIL TRIFONOV joins ALAN GILBERT & NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester for Prokofiev
(Livestream; free; Feb 4 at 2pm ET [8pm CET])
Grammy-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov joins Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra for Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto under the leadership of Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert, who also leads the orchestra in an account of the Russian composer’s Classical Symphony. Please contact Louise at 21C for the streaming link, which isn’t yet available.
Trinity Church Wall Street continues its Comfort at One streams
(All streams at 1pm on weekdays; free; Facebook, Twitter and on Trinity’s website)
In 2021, Trinity Church Wall Street continues its three-century role of bringing solace to New York’s downtown community and the world at large, with a full program of online “Comfort at One” concerts. Taking advantage of Trinity’s extensive archives and high-quality recording and film technology, this free streaming series was launched after the suspension of in-person activities at the start of the pandemic last year. Read more about Comfort at One here. The weekday Comfort at One concerts stream on Facebookand Twitter, with full videos posted on Trinity’s website. All concerts start at 1pm.
Upcoming concerts feature Trinity’s 2013 Stravinsky Festival, when the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, NOVUS NY and music director Julian Wachner presented three days of events celebrating the sacred works of Stravinsky, from his famous Symphony of Psalms to his last masterpiece, Requiem Canticles.
Mon, Jan 11: The Choir of Trinity Wall Street performs Herbert Howells’s Take Him, Earth for Cherishing, and is joined by Trinity Baroque Orchestra for Bach’s BWV 12 Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (from Bach + One, 2020).
Tues, Jan 12: The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, NOVUS NY, and Julian Wachner performed Stravinsky’s Introitus: T.S. Eliot in Memoriam, Threni, Abraham and Isaac and The Flood(from Trinity’s 2013 Stravinsky Festival).
Wed, Jan 13: More festival highlights include Stravinsky’s Canticum Sacrum, A Sermon, A Narrative and A Prayer, J.S. Bach: Choral-variationen: über das Weihnachtslied “Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her,” Elegy for J.F.K, In Memoriam Dylan Thomas and Requiem Canticles, featuring Dashon Burton, Mellissa Hughes, Luthien Brackett, Melissa Attebury, Eric Dudley, Steven Caldicott Wilson, Christopher Dylan Herbert, Geoffrey Silver, Adam Alexander and Kelvin Chan (from Trinity’s 2013 Stravinsky Festival).
Thurs, Jan 14: Festival highlights conclude with Stravinsky’s Three Sacred Choruses, Anthem: The Dove Descending Breaks the Air, Symphony of Psalms and Cantata, with soloists Marguerite Krull and Stephen Sands (from Trinity’s 2013 Stravinsky Festival).
Fri, Jan 15: Members of the Trinity Youth Chorus give a virtual performance of “Balulalow” from their signature holiday work, Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols.
SELECT ARCHIVED PERFORMANCE STREAMS STILL AVAILABLE
Bard Music Festival’s “Out of the Silence” available on demand
(Website; free)
Last September the Bard Music Festival joined forces with The Orchestra Now (TŌN)and the Bard College Conservatory to present “Out of the Silence: A Celebration of Music,” a series of four live-streamed concerts for string orchestra, piano and percussion. Pairing works by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Dvořák and Bartók – all past subjects of the Bard Music Festival – with music by ten prominent Black composers – ranging from Classical pioneer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges to contemporary Americans Alvin Singleton, Adolphus Hailstork and Jessie Montgomery, the series celebrates Bard’s commitment to neglected rarities and the unquenchable joy of music-making. All four programs were performed without an audience and with appropriate safety measures on Bard College’s idyllic Hudson Valley campus by its unique graduate training orchestra, TŌN, under the leadership of Music Director Leon Botsteinand other members of the TŌN artistic team. All the streams are now available on demand at UPSTREAMING, the Fisher Center’s virtual stage. Read more about “Out of the Silence” here.)
PROGRAM ONE
Works by William Grant Still, George Walker and Mendelssohn
PROGRAM TWO
Works by Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981), Alvin Singleton (b. 1940), Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941), and Dvořák
PROGRAM THREE
Works by Roque Cordero, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Tchaikovsky
PROGRAM FOUR
Works by Duke Ellington; Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges; and Bartók
JOSHUA BELL was Live with Carnegie Hall: Music as Medicine
(Archived video stream; website & socials, free)
In July, Grammy-winning violinist Joshua Bell paid tribute to the heroic healthcare workers serving tirelessly on the frontlines, many of whom are talented musicians themselves. In this special “Live with Carnegie Hall: Music as Medicine” event, Bell was featured in another performance with frontline medical workers in December, this time playing “Winter” from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.
Streaming free at: Carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2020/12/17/Live-with-Carnegie-Hall-Music-as-Medicine
JULIA BULLOCK sings NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, and “Brown Baby” on social media
(Tiny Desk: Recorded video livestream, free on NPR website; “Brown Baby”: at-home performance on social media)
Honored as a 2021 Artist of the Year and “agent of change” by Musical America, Julia Bullock gave a Tiny Desk (Home) Concert in NPR Music’s special quarantine edition of the series in December; NPR’s Tom Huizenga characterized it as “among the most transcendent musical moments I’ve experienced this year.” Streaming free on demand at NPR Music.
Program:
Schubert: “Wanderers Nachtlied II”
Kurt Weill: “Wie lange noch”
Trad. spiritual: “City Called Heaven” (arr. Hall Johnson)
Billy Taylor: “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” (arr. Jeremy Siskind)
Earlier in the year, Bullock sang Oscar Brown Jr.’s song “Brown Baby” on social media. She says: “We are responsible and must care for the generations that come after us. This song is about wanting for the future … the sadness and anger comes from the reality of the present. I, as so many others, am mourning the lives of those continually lost to blatant violence and brutality. I need to sing about it. I need to shout about it.” The video marks Bullock’s most recent contribution to the #SongsOfComfort series; click here to see her previous performances of Carole King’s “Up on the Roof,” Connie Converse’s “One by One” and Schubert’s “Wanderers Nachtlied II.”
Fabio Luisi leads DALLAS SYMPHONY in Next Stage Digital Concert Series
(Recorded performances; videostreams; website; ticketed)
On Sep 10, Grammy-winning conductor Fabio Luisi launched his tenure as Music Director of the Dallas Symphony, which is among the first major US orchestras to return to performing since the outbreak of COVID-19. Powerhouse pianist Yefim Bronfman joined Luisi and the DSO for an all-Beethoven program for the season-opening concerts; a free video stream of the opening program is now available here, and available and upcoming streams in the orchestra’s Next Stage Digital Concert Series are detailed below. For the safety of DSO musicians and audiences during the ongoing pandemic, the fall programs are performed with no intermission; are composed of smaller, socially-distanced orchestral ensembles (reduced from about 70 to 35) with the string players wearing masks; and allow an audience of only 50-75 guests. Tickets: $10 for individual concerts; full series of 20+ concerts $125 with the NEXT STAGE Digital Pass. For more details about DSO’s upcoming season, visit Mydso.com/nextstage. (Please contact Louise at 21C for press passes.)
Fabio Luisi, conductor; Yefim Bronfman, piano
Works by BEETHOVEN; free at Vimeo.com/459411068
Gemma New, conductor; Emily Levin, harp
Works by WALKER, GINASTERA and MOZART
Fabio Luisi, conductor; Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano; Stuart Skelton, tenor
MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth; chamber ensemble version by Schoenberg/Riehn)
Fabio Luisi, conductor; Krassimira Stoyanova, soprano; Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano; Piero Pretti, tenor; Wenwei Zhang, bass
VERDI: arias, duets & overtures from Aida, Don Carlo, The Force of Destiny and others
ALAN GILBERT led NDR Elbphilharmonie in works by Dvořák & Mahler; plus conductor chats on Facebook
(Archived video stream; website, plus live audio broadcast; free)
In December, Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert was joined by cellist Gautier Capuçon and soprano Anna Prohaska for a live performance of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. The free concert stream is archived at NDR’s website. More info here.
From his home in Stockholm, Gilbert has hosted hourlong discussions on Facebook Live with fellow conductors Karina Canellakis, Daniel Harding and Sir Simon Rattle, Marin Alsop, Sir Antonio Pappano and Esa-Pekka Salonen, Herbert Blomstedt, and most recently, Thomas Morris and Christoph von Dohnányi.
GLOBAL ODE TO JOY was Live with Carnegie Hall
(Recorded webcast on YouTube & Facebook; website; free)
On December 3, the Global Ode to Joy (GOTJ) brought together artists and music-lovers around the world to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday with a special edition of “Live with Carnegie Hall.” Hosted by MacArthur Award-winning conductor Marin Alsop and featuring British violinist Daniel Hope, President of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, the webcast also includes musical performances and guest appearances by Emanuel Ax, Joyce DiDonato, Leonidas Kavakos, Yo-Yo Ma, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, Austria’s ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP) and the international Stay At Home Choir. Streaming on Facebook and YouTube, the webcast complemented the social media project launched in November in collaboration with YouTube, Google Arts & Culture, BTHVN2020 and the leading arts organizations of five continents. Inviting the global community to celebrate Beethoven’s birthday with joy-filled videos tagged #GlobalOdeToJoy, the project aimed to amplify the message of his beloved “Ode to Joy” chorus by flooding the digital sphere with unity, solidarity and hope.
Daniil Trifonov was “Live with Carnegie Hall”
(Archived: website and social media)
Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov discussed his career – and close association with Carnegie Hall – with fellow pianists Emanuel Ax and Sergei Babayan and the venue’s Executive and Artistic Director Sir Clive Gillinson. Interspersed with excerpts from Trifonov’s performances, one newly recorded at home and others previously captured at Carnegie Hall, their conversation is still available on demand at the venue’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Alisa Weilerstein was Live with Carnegie Hall
(Streamed conversation with archived video; website and social media)
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein devoted both her most recent studio recording and her celebrated social media series #36DaysOfBach to the complete cello suites of J.S. Bach. In the new Live with Carnegie Hall streaming series, she talked to Carnegie’s Executive and Artistic Director Sir Clive Gillinson and moderator John Schaefer about the importance of Bach’s music and his sixth and final Cello Suite. The conversation is available on demand at the venue’s website.