Stanford Live furthers Arts Initiative in 2014 at Bing Concert Hall
Stanford is poised to transform the Bay Area into “a Florence for the 21st century” according to the Economist, with the university’s Bing Concert Hall—“architecturally and acoustically…without peer” (San Francisco Classical Voice)—at the epicenter of the endeavor. The Bing Concert Hall is a major hub for the arts, with Stanford Live offering nearly 40 music, dance, and multimedia events between September 22 and May 16. Stanford’s own Grammy-nominated resident ensemble, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, will feature soprano Jessica Rivera on its Sundays with the St. Lawrence series (April 27), and Deborah Voigt, one of the world’s reigning dramatic sopranos, performs on April 11. Other upcoming highlights include recitals by violinist Joshua Bell, pianist Richard Goode, and soprano Angela Brown; a special event concert with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin; a new collaboration between Chanticleer and the New Century Chamber Orchestra entitled Atlantic Crossing; and performances by Israel’s Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and the Asif Ali Khan Ensemble.
As Stanford Live’s executive director Wiley Hausam explained, “Bing Concert Hall has indeed been transformational for music at Stanford and on the Peninsula.” A major milestone in the university’s Arts Initiative, the 842-seat Bing Concert Hall, the creation of an award-winning design team, is an exceptional new resource for creative exploration for students, faculty, artists, and the Bay Area community. Bing demonstrates the university’s confidence in the connection between innovation and the arts, as the Economist suggests:
“The Palo Alto-based university is trying to help answer one of the questions that haunts our ‘knowledge society’: where will new ideas come from? Many successful start-ups are the result of their founders spotting gaps in their own lives. But what if their thinking stretched far beyond their daily horizon? ‘The labour market is a rat race, so you’re in a permanent state of distraction,’ notes Wiley Hausam, the executive director of Stanford’s new Bing Concert Hall. ‘Art stops all of that and allows creative ideas to emerge almost on their own.’ ”
Hausam foresees the inevitable transformation in the area, and as he said in the Economist piece, “Arts will fundamentally change our students, and it will change students who come to Stanford. In five years I hope we’ll have a student body that embraces the arts and artistic living.” Hausam predicts: “Stanford Live’s second season will advance an exciting new era for the arts at Stanford” and beyond.
Deborah Voigt, who has long been recognized as one of the world’s most versatile singers, graces the Bing Concert Hall stage on April 11. Internationally revered for her performances in the operas of Wagner and Strauss, Voigt’s recent accolades include glowing reviews for her portrayal of Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Met. Anthony Tommasini remarked, “I have seldom heard the role sung with such rhythmic accuracy and verbal clarity.” At her recital at Bing Concert Hall, she will sing works by Amy Beach, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Benjamin Moore, Leonard Bernstein, and William Bolcom. As the New York Times observed, “The first thing to be said about Deborah Voigt…is that she knows how to put together a compelling recital program.”
Bing is also, as Hausam notes, “an ideal environment for the nuanced, delicate, and complex textures of the string quartet literature.” Stanford’s own St. Lawrence String Quartet—with its “irresistible exuberance, linking that sense of joy with artistry of subtlety and finesse” (Boston Globe)—performs a new work by George Tsontakis with soprano Jessica Rivera on April 27. Stanford Live also introduces a young quartet – the Aeolus – a participant in the SLSQ’s summer seminar series and winner of the SLSQ’s 2012 John Lad Prize (April 6).
Diverse classical events round out the season. Joshua Bell gives a solo violin recital on February 8, and soprano Angela Brown, whose career was launched after her 2004 Metropolitan Opera debut in Verdi’s Aida, makes her Stanford debut in a program entitled “Opera…From a Sistah’s Point of View” with pianist Kelleen Strutz on February 23. The Haifa Symphony Orchestra of Israel performs works by Carl Maria von Weber (March 16), and two internationally renowned Bay Area ensembles, Chanticleer and the New Century Chamber Orchestra, will join forces for the first time in a unique combination of male chorus and chamber orchestra. Together they will perform Atlantic Crossing, which evokes the period between the two world wars, imagining a cruise ship traveling between Germany and New York and incorporating the music of the 1920s and 1930s (March 20). The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra commemorates the 300th birthday of C.P.E. Bach on February 5, showcases works by 17th-century musical innovators on March 6, and on April 2 performs Juditha triumphans, the only surviving oratorio of the four Vivaldi is known to have composed. Finally, renowned pianist Richard Goode gives a solo recital on May 16.
In a special event concert, Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin bring Broadway to Bing in a night of musical theater (April 26). Asif Ali Khan and his ensemble, experts in qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia, take the Bing stage on their first West Coast tour together (April 1). Jake Shimabukuro demonstrates why he is credited with almost single-handedly reviving the popularity of the ukulele (April 24), and Brazilian dance company Grupo Corpo will present two performances at Memorial Auditorium: an evening-length program pairing works titled Sem Mim (“Without Me”) and Íma (“Magnet”) (Jan 31), as well as an abridged family matinee (Feb 1). Professor Tomás Kubínek, a virtuoso comic and vaudevillian whose theatrical performances offer an experience to remember, performs on May 4.
For a complete list of upcoming events at Bing Concert Hall, please see below.
About Stanford Live
Stanford Live is a university organization committed to sharing, celebrating, and advancing the arts of live music, dance, theater, and opera. The organization unites celebrated and emerging artists with the Stanford campus and greater Bay Area communities in a broad range of experiences to engage the senses and emotions, stimulate minds, and enrich lives. It values artistic vitality, learning, and an inclusive community.
Stanford Live: 2013-14 season
Except where noted, all events take place at Bing Concert Hall, 327 Lasuen Street, Stanford University.
Fri, Jan 31, 7:30pm
Grupo Corpo
Sem Mim by Rodrigo Pederneiras, music by Carlos Núñez and José Miguel Wisnik
Íma by Rodrigo Pederneiras, music by +2 (Moreno, Domenico, and Kassin)
Memorial Auditorium, 551 Serra Mall, Stanford University
Sat, Feb 1, 2:30pm
Grupo Corpo
Family matinee (reduced 40-minute show)
Memorial Auditorium, 551 Serra Mall, Stanford University
Wed, Feb 5, 7:30pm
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra – “The Grand Tour”
Ya-Fei Chuang, fortepiano; Robert Levin, harpsichord
“C.P.E. Bach & Haydn: Berlin and Vienna”
C.P.E. Bach: Symphony in E minor, Wq. 178
C.P.E. Bach: Concerto for Fortepiano and Harpsichord in E-flat, Wq. 47
Haydn: Keyboard Concerto No. 11 in D, Hob. XVIII/11
Haydn: Symphony No. 68 in B-flat
Sat, Feb 8, 7:30pm
Joshua Bell, violin
Mon, Feb 10, 12pm
Chamber Music with members of the San Francisco Symphony
Nathaniel Stookey: Trio for violin, cello and piano
Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581
Fri, Feb 14, 7:30pm
Cécile McLorin Salvant, jazz singer
Sun, Feb 16, 12pm
Live Simulcast of Dallas Opera’s Death and the Powers
Sun, Feb 23, 2:30pm
Angela Brown, soprano; Kelleen Strutz, piano
“Opera…from a Sistah’s Point of View”
Thurs, March 6, 7:30pm
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra – “The Grand Tour”
Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin and leader
“Music from the Heart of Europe”
Muffat: “Fasciculus I: Nobilis Juventus” from Florilegium Secundum
Schmelzer: Sonata III from Sacro-Profanus Concentus Musicus
Schein: Suite V from Banchetto musicale
Biber: Sonata IX from Sonatae tam aris quam aulis servientes
Schmelzer: Balletto à 4 (Pastorella)
Johann Georg Benda: Violin Concerto in A
J.S. Bach: Ricercar a 6 from The Musical Offering
Telemann: Overture-Suite in B-flat, “Les Nations”
Sun, March 16, 2:30pm
Haifa Symphony Orchestra of Israel
Boguslaw Dawidow, Principal Guest Conductor; Roman Rabinovich, piano
Carl Maria von Weber: Overture to Euryanthe
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
Thurs, March 20, 7:30pm
Chanticleer and the New Century Chamber Orchestra
With music director and violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
Atlantic Crossing
Tues, April 1, 7:30pm
Asif Ali Khan
Wed, April 2, 7:30pm
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra – “The Grand Tour”
“Vivaldi’s Venice”
Vivaldi: Juditha triumphans
Cécile van de Sant, mezzo-soprano (Juditha); Vivica Genaux, mezzo-soprano (Vagaus); Diana Moore, mezzo-soprano (Holofernes); Dominique Labelle, soprano (Abra); Virginia Warnken, mezzo-soprano (Ozias)
Philharmonia Chorale, Bruce Lamott, director
Sun, April 6, 2:30pm
Aeolus Quartet
Henry Purcell: Selections from Four-Part Fantasias
Christopher Theofanidis: Ariel Ascending
Beethoven: String Quartet in F, Op. 59, No. 1
Fri, April 11, 7:30pm
Deborah Voigt, soprano
Thurs, April 24, 7:30pm
Jake Shimabukuro, ukulele
Sat, April 26, 7:30pm
Special Spring Event: Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin in Concert
Sun, April 27, 2:30pm
St. Lawrence String Quartet
Haydn: String Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 20, no. 1
George Tsontakis: new work with Jessica Rivera
Verdi: String Quartet
Sun, May 4, 2:30pm
Tomás Kubínek – Family Matinee
Sun, May 4, 7pm
Tomás Kubínek
Sat, May 10, 7:30pm
Stanford Philharmonia Orchestra
Mozart: Symphony No. 31 (“Paris”)
Kurt Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins
Fri, May 16, 7:30pm
Richard Goode, piano
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 30 in E, Op. 109
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat, Op. 110
Beethoven: Selections from Bagatelles, Op. 119
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
live.stanford.edu/bingconcerthall
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© 21C Media Group, January 2014