A festival's fond farewell

by Francis Church
guest writer

The Hampden-Sydney Music Festival played its final notes this weekend. As always, they were high notes.

When the festival was started 29 years ago, in August of 1982, it seemed a formula for success: the lovely ambiance of Hampden-Sydney College in Prince Edward County; the enthusiasm of its co-founders, James Kidd of the college faculty and Ethan Sloane from Boston University, its artistic director; and the ideal medium of chamber music.

And a success it became, especially after the move from hot and humid College Church to the friendlier confines of the spanking new Crawley Forum. Sloane lined up consistently fine artists, many of them young and rising stars from the musical world. Kidd offered boundless enthusiasm in introducing the concerts each year, as well as providing splendid notes on the keyboard.

Along the way, they inaugurated a fellows program that introduced the likes of eighth blackbird, the Grammy Award-winning ensemble now in residence at the University of Richmond. Adult amateurs were invited to bring along their instruments, which they played between concerts, often in the company of the fellows.

One could sense trouble when, several years ago, the college withdrew support for the fellows program. And last year, when Kidd retired from the college faculty, the festival's fate was sealed.

This weekend's concerts and artists were typical of the festival at its best. The common chain was pianist Lydia Artymiw, who has emerged as one of the top chamber players on today's music scene. There was Erin Keefe, a young violinist about whom you are certain to hear more in the second decade of the 21st century. For maturity, there was Marc Johnson, whose Stradivarius cello added mellowness to the performances.

Last, Sloane was in top form in the Beethoven and Brahms trios for clarinet, cello and piano, which opened each concert. These masterpieces have become staples on festival programs.

An added note: Those who attended the first weekend concerts agreed that Sloane achieved his finest moments in the Mozart Quintet in A major for clarinet and strings. His collaborators: the Daedalus String Quartet, whose contributions also included quartets by Mozart and Beethoven.

Vying for honors as highlights of the closing weekend were Artymiw's account of three movements from Olivier Messiaen's deeply religious "Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus" and Keefe's and Johnson's reading of Zoltan Kodály's Duo for violin and cello.

The Messiaen mixes crashing chords with depictions of bird calls (a favorite of the composer), moments of heartfelt meditation and often times premonitions of Jesus' death on the cross, even though the work is all about his birth.

The Kodály is filled with many elements of Hungarian folk music, especially driving rhythm. Over all it wows the ears with technical display that both artists exploited to the fullest.

What a contrast to these works were Brahms' Piano Trio in C major and Schumann's Piano Trio No. 2. The latter is rarely played, perhaps because of its rambling nature and the daring harmonies which seem right out of the 20th century instead of 1847, the year of its birth. The players evoked tonal warmth in both.

Music lovers in Central Virginia certainly shall miss the Hampden-Sydney Music Festival. It has had quality written over all of it, from start to finish. An empty spot has been left in this listener's heart by the festival's demise.

Francis Church, who was music critic of The Richmond News Leader, is a cellist active in chamber and orchestral performance.

Death takes a holiday weekend

Three performances of György Ligeti's 1978-vintage avant-garde extravaganza "Le Grand Macabre," the grand finale of Alan Gilbert's first season as music director of the New York Philharmonic, sell out on Memorial Day weekend.

Might this have anything to do with the box-office rush? . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcqLA3YyFK4

Anthony Tommasini reviews the production in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/arts/music/29macabre.html?hpw

Another review by The Washington Post's Anne Midgette:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-classical-beat/2010/05/le_grand_macabre_death_be_not.html#more

Williamson to Opera Roanoke

Scott Williamson, director of the Virginia Chorale in Hampton Roads (and a performing tenor), will take over artistic and administrative direction of Opera Roanoke next season, while its current director, Steven White, becomes artistic advisor and principal guest conductor, Mike Allen reports in The Roanoke Times:

http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/248313

White, the company's maestro since 1999, in recent years has become more active conducting opera elsewhere in the Mid-Atlantic and serving as a cover conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. Earlier this season, he was one of the conductors brought in after Leonard Slatkin withdrew from a Met production of Verdi's "La Traviata."

Hard feelings in Winston-Salem

Flutist-conductor Ransom Wilson, in his final concert as director of orchestras at the UNC School of the Arts (formerly the North Carolina School of the Arts), fires a salvo apparently aimed at John Mauceri, the conductor and music-theater specialist who has been the school's chancellor since 2006. Ken Keuffel's report, with Wilson's statement, in the Winston-Salem Journal:

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2010/may/22/sour-note-sent-to-uncsa/

More or less?

The Oregonian's David Stabler outlines the 10 rules for survival of stressed arts groups devised by Michael Kaiser, president of Washington's Kennedy Center. Kaiser's advice, in essence, is to think big, not small, and long-term, not short-term:

http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2010/05/michael_kaisers_10_rules_for_a.html

The folks in charge of two of the country's most troubled orchestras, the Honolulu Symphony and Charleston (SC) Symphony, aren't reading Kaiser's playbook.

Management of the Hawaiian orchestra, currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, proposes cutting its budget and season by half, Dan Nakaso reports in the Honolulu Advertiser:

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100519/NEWS01/5190332/LOCALNEWSFRONT/Symphony+s+business+plan+

The Charleston Symphony's management and board responded to a financial crisis by shutting down the orchestra in March. Now they've proposed cutting musicians' pay by 84 percent, to $3,600 a year, and reducing the concert schedule – a plan, not surprisingly, rejected by the musicians. Adam Parker's report in The Post and Courier:

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/may/22/musicians-reject-cso-agreement/

Kaiser's rule No. 9: "Groups go through cycles. Are current board members the right governors for that moment in time?"

Water music

The New York Times’ Allan Kozinn profiles Bargemusic, the floating venue under the Brooklyn Bridge that is home to a thriving, increasingly multi-stylistic concert scene:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/arts/music/21barge.html?ref=music

The Bargemusic story is another reminder that, in the arts as much as in retailing and home-buying, location matters. And it leads me to wonder whether Richmond's performing-arts groups will ever find a useable venue within sight of the city's most obvious scenic asset: the James River.

For all the property development along the James in recent years, I’m not aware of any that includes, or might accommodate, an indoor or semi-enclosed space in which classical music, dance or theater could be staged for an audience of 500 people, let alone 1,000 or more.

There's plenty of music along the James. The Richmond Folk Festival, staged each fall around Gamble’s Hill and Brown’s Island, draws the largest crowds of any musical event in the city’s history. Pop-music concerts regularly play to thousands on Brown’s and Mayo islands.

But those are outdoor, amplified events on impermanent stages; their spaces and their atmospherics aren't welcoming to Mozart or Shakespeare or Ballanchine. And since they aren't, and since warm weather draws people out of confined spaces such as theaters, Richmond's high-end performing-arts scene more or less shuts down from late May until mid-September.

It may be that Greater Richmond, which according to a recent Brookings Institution study has a population of more than 1.2 million, cannot muster a year-round audience for classical music, ballet and serious theater. But really now, do their audiences scatter to summer homes and resorts for three months out of the year? They're more affluent than the population at large, but not that affluent. They're here for most of the summer.

And if the art forms that those audiences patronize in the winter were accessible in the summer, in spaces and with repertory that suit the season, I think they would turn out.

There aren't many models for fine-arts performance in and around Richmond in summertime, but the few we can look at – the chamber music and jazz series formerly staged at the University of Richmond's Modlin Center, the Richmond Chamber Players' Interlude series, Richmond Shakespeare's performances at Agecroft Hall, the chamber-music festivals at Hampden-Sydney and in Fredericksburg – suggest that a summer audience is not necessarily averse to substantive or challenging programming. (The Chamber Players played Bartók's Sonata for two pianos and percussion to a standing-room-only audience last summer, and Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time" has proved to be a crowd-pleaser at Hampden-Sydney.)

I suspect that lighter repertory – a Mozart serenade, not a Mozart Requiem; a "Midsummer Night’s Dream," not a "King Lear" – generally would sit better with a summertime audience. But I could imagine a Mahler First or Bruckner Fourth or Copland Third with the falls of the James as a backdrop, or Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" or Michael Daugherty's "Metropolis" Symphony with the downtown skyline in view, playing to delighted and diverse crowds.

If only there were a place to draw such crowds.

Hopeful sign?

The biggest artistic casualty of the economic crash in Virginia was Roanoke's Mill Mountain Theatre, which shut down in January 2009. Now the company has cleared its debts and is raising funds to mount a full (albeit slimmed-down) season in 2012. Its Friday night improv show, "No Shame Theatre," will relaunch on May 28, Mike Allen reports in The Roanoke Times:

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/247572

The new touchstone

Jaime Weinman, writing for the Canadian magazine Maclean's, notes the rise of Gustav Mahler as the touchstone composer for conductors on the make. The mettle of maestros used to be measured by their interpretations of Beethoven; now it's their Mahler, and the trend is accelerating thanks to the back-to-back Mahler anniversaries (this year's 150th of his birth, next year's 100th of his death):

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/05/18/move-over-mozart/

Actually, the Mahler-as-touchstone trend has been building for a couple of generations. Leonard Bernstein, Bernard Haitink, Klaus Tennstedt and Giuseppe Sinopoli secured their international reputations with concert performances and recordings of Mahler; so, more recently, have Simon Rattle, Riccardo Chailly and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Jacques Houtmann, the former Richmond Symphony music director, measures a conductor's grasp of large-scale late-romantic Austro-German repertory not in Mahler but in Bruckner. Making a coherent whole out of Bruckner's elemental motifs, abrupt transitions and pregnant silences "is very difficult," Houtmann observes. "Mahler is big and long, but [interpretively] is much easier."

Yvonne Loriod (1924-2010)

French pianist Yvonne Loriod, widow of composer Olivier Messiaen and a leading advocate of music by Messiaen and other mid- and late-20th century composers, died On May 17.

Loriod was "the catalyst for the piano taking center stage" in Messiaen's creative output, beginning with "Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus" (1944), Christopher Dingle writes in an obituary for BBC Music Magazine:

http://www.bbcmusicmagazine.com/news/yvonne-loriod-dies-aged-86

A longer obituary by Paul Griffiths in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/arts/music/19loriod.html?ref=music

An appreciation by The Guardian's Tom Service:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/tomserviceblog/2010/may/18/yvonne-loriod

Dudamania recedes

Well, that didn't take long.

Nine months ago, Gustavo Dudamel made his debut as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic to an ecstatic public and critical reception. Now the 29-year-old Venezuelan conductor and the LA Phil are performing on a nationwide tour.

Along the way, critics are finding that Dudamel doesn't deliver the goods in the tour programs’ two warhorses, Mahler’s First Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 ("Pathétique").

In a May 14 concert, The Chicago Tribune's John von Rhein heard "half-formed interpretative ideas betray[ing] a lack of musical depth" . . .

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-live-0517-dudamel-review-20100516,0,344839.column

"At times Dudamel and the orchestra seemed utterly in sync, only to turn the page and come to grief on a simple question of ensemble or instrumental balance," the San Francisco Chronicle's Joshua Kosman wrote after a pair of performances earlier in the month:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/12/DDH11DDGHO.DTL

Dudamel certainly wouldn't be the first young conductor to come to grief essaying big standard works before he was ready. Getting the measure of the "Pathétique" requires seasoning, not just as a musician but as a human being. The same is true of the Mahler Fifth Symphony, which Dudamel recorded, with only middling success, in his mid-20s.

Most conductors make their maiden voyages in such music leading provincial orchestras in performances that never make it into their press kits. Dudamel will not be shielded by obscurity in his first goes and inevitable stumbles; so he should take extra care in selecting repertory, especially for high-profile touring and guest-conducting dates.

He would do well to look at the careers of Simon Rattle and Marin Alsop, two other conductors who attracted wide notice when they were young. Both wisely took their time getting to the 19th-century warhorses.

ADDENDUM 1: Another view, and more misgivings, from the Chicago Sun-Times' Andrew Patner:

http://viewfromhere.typepad.com/

ADDENDUM 2: Reviewing the May 17 performance at the Kennedy Center, The Washington Post's Anne Midgette writes of "one of the most involving and compelling performances of Tchaikovsky’s 'Pathétique' symphony I’ve ever heard. This was music played by someone who loves music, someone who had an idea where he was going with the piece; and the orchestra opened its collective heart and went right along with him. Perfect? No. Gorgeous? Yes." . . .

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-classical-beat/2010/05/in_performance_dudamel_and_la.html#more

ADDENDUM 3: The Baltimore Sun's Tim Smith on the Washington concert:

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/classicalmusic/2010/05/gustavo_dudamel_los_angeles_ph.html#more

ADDENDUM 4: "[A] slightly unkempt performance of John Adams' 'City Noir' . . . and an unremarkable Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6. But classical music was winning friends. Did it matter that many came for something other than the music?" writes Peter Dobrin in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/94559474.html#axzz0oZxvWdJU

ADDENDUM 5: "Rough and unfocused" Tchaikovsky at Lincoln Center, writes The New York Times' Anthony Tommasini:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/22/arts/music/22dudamel.html?hp

Name game

The New York Times' Allan Kozinn ponders the increasing tendency of classical-music groups to adopt quirky, catchy or elliptically referential names:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/arts/music/16names.html?ref=music

We'll know the trend has really arrived when Dave Barry writes, "That sounds like a good name for an alt-classical group."

(Note to The Times' copy editors: It's eighth blackbird, no capital letters.)

Review: Richmond Symphony

Jacques Houtmann conducting
May 15, Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage

In 1979, Jacques Houtmann, then music director of the Richmond Symphony, led the orchestra in its first concert in the former’s Loew’s movie palace. Three decades later, Houtmann returns to conduct the finale of the symphony’s first Masterworks season in the hall now known after its second renovation as the Carpenter Theatre. He started then, and ends now, in music of Camille Saint-Saëns.

Saint-Saëns and Houtmann are a good match. The composer, sometimes known as "the French Beethoven," absorbed the German classical-romantic orchestral style more fully than any of his countrymen. The conductor, who comes from the French-German border region of Alsace-Lorraine, has always shown an affinity for the German repertory. Both, however, filter their German inclinations through French sensibilities.

Houtmann’s interpretation of Saint-Saëns' Third Symphony – dubbed the "Organ" Symphony because the instrument figures so prominently in its finale – was Beethovenesque in its bluntly resolute statement of the broadly sung theme of its closing section, and quintessentially French in its renderings of tone color, the transparency of its woodwind parts and the quicksilver rhythms of the work’s internal sections.

Organist Michael Simpson did his best with the old Loew’s Wurlitzer, and blended well with the orchestra in the organ’s accompanying passages. At its loudest, though, this theater organ demonstrated almost painfully that it was not, is not and never will be a symphonic instrument.

In the Saint-Saëns, as well as the orchestrations of Brahms’ "Gesang der Parzen" ("Song of the Fates") and "Nänie," Houtmann obtained robust and assertive sound, even at low volume, from the symphony’s violas, cellos and double-basses, and consistently rich sonority from all string sections.

The Richmond Symphony Chorus, prepared by Erin R. Freeman, delivered fine diction and some remarkably effective "stage whisper" effects in "Gesang der Parzen," although it sounded under-powered and sonically recessed at full voice. Choral-orchestral balance improved in the more lightly orchestrated "Nänie," and the choristers sang with gratifying lyricism and warmth.

The opening selection, Christopher Theofanidis’ "Rainbow Body" (2000), is a symphonic fantasy on a liturgical song by Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century German abbess whose music was the happiest discovery of the medieval-chant revival in the 1980s and ’90s. Theofanidis wraps Hildegard’s song, "Ave Marie, O Auctix Vite," in multicolored, rather cinematic symphonic trappings, with entertaining if not especially reverent effect.

Houtmann and the orchestra gave it an appropriately colorful performance, with an organ-like collective sonority that hinted at the Saint-Saëns to come.

The program repeats at 3 p.m. May 16 at the Carpenter Theatre. Tickets: $17-$72. Details: (800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster); www.richmondsymphony.com

'Ring' revolt in LA

The singers portraying Siegfried and Brünnhilde, John Treleaven and Linda Watson, in the Los Angeles Opera's production of Wagner's "Ring" cycle have publicly denounced the production, designed by the German visual artist and director Achim Freyer, as "artistically flawed and physically dangerous for performers," David Ng writes in the Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-ring-problems-20100514,0,6390533,full.story

Freyer's "avant-garde" production outfits the singers in masks and bulky costumes and places them on a steeply raked stage. Watson is quoted as calling it "the most dangerous stage I've been on in my entire career. . . . Your whole neck is tipped wrong. It's very painful to do it for hours."

Rosa Rio (1902-2010)

Rosa Rio, thought to be the last surviving theater organist who performed in the silent-film era, has died. She would have turned 108 on June 2. After the advent of talking pictures, she played for soap operas on radio and television. She resumed playing movie-palace Wurlitzers in the theater-organ revival of recent decades.

An obituary by Margalit Fox in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/15/arts/music/15rio.html?ref=music

'Mozart effect' R.I.P.

Science Daily reports that three University of Vienna researchers have presented "quite definite results" showing "no evidence for specific cognitive enhancements by mere listening to Mozart's music" . . .

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100510075415.htm

I'm still convinced that listening to Mozart saved me from flunking high-school algebra.

Wiley reups in Roanoke

David Stewart Wiley, music director of the Roanoke Symphony since 1996, has renewed his contract with the orchestra for three more years, Mike Allen reports in The Roanoke Times:

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/246490

Wiley also is music director of the Long Island Philharmonic in New York.

WDBJ-TV reports that the Roanoke Symphony is weathering the recession, increasing ticket sales and cutting expenses as donated revenue fell sharply over the past year:

http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=12460724

'Twelve plus a dog'

John Adams conducts Washington's National Symphony Orchestra May 13-15 in Elgar's "Enigma Variations," on a program also featuring his own Walt Whitman setting, "The Wound Dresser." The Elgar is "one of those very rare specimens in the arts, an absolutely perfect creation on all levels," Adams writes on his blog:

http://www.earbox.com/posts/80#post

Adams also hints that he may be influenced by Elgar's 1926 recording of the variations, in which "[t]he string playing is full of rich, drooping portamenti, a kind of melodic slipping and sliding that listeners today only associate with corny old movie music from the silent film era." That would make the critics rave, variously.

ADDENDUM: Chales T. Downey, reviewing the NSO concert for The Washington Post, notes that Adams didn't take Elgar's portamento bait:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-classical-beat/2010/05/in_performance_nso_with_john_a.html#more

POSTSCRIPT: Adams thinks and blogs at greater length on composers' intentions as reflected in their scores and their recordings of them:

http://www.earbox.com/posts/82

This bit is especially good: "[E]xtreme tempi, either VERY slow or VERY fast, are often how conductors (and pianists and other performers) think they can say something special about the music. But more often than not they are only saying something uncomfortably revealing about themselves."

Pay cut at NC Symphony

Musicians of the North Carolina Symphony have agreed to take a 15 percent pay cut for the next two seasons to ease financial strain on the orchestra, which has accumulated $3 million in debt in recent years, Rob Christensen reports in The News & Observer of Raleigh:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/05/11/476804/slash-in-pay-allows-symphony-to.html

Hunting the whale

Literary epics do not necessarily translate to great operas, but composer Jake Heggie (whose "Dead Man Walking" has proved to be one of the most compelling new operas of the past decade) and librettist Gene Scheer appear to have pulled it off with "Moby-Dick," their adaptation of the Herman Melville novel.

The Dallas Opera's debut production of "Moby-Dick," starring Ben Heppner as Ahab, opened on April 30 and runs through May 16 at the city's new Winspear Opera House.

Details from the company's website: http://www.dallasopera.org/the_season/091004-index.php

Sampling the first batch of reviews from . . .

The Dallas Morning News' Scott Cantrell:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/050210dngdmobyrev.4480a44.html

The New York Times' Steve Smith:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/arts/music/03moby.html

The Washington Post's Anne Midgette:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-classical-beat/2010/05/moby-dick_premieres_in_dallas.html

The San Francisco Chronicle's Joshua Kosman:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/03/DD101D8M6R.DTL

Heidi Waleson in The Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704342604575222100491965876.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

And George Loomis in The Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/419c132a-579d-11df-855b-00144feab49a.html

Review: Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio

May 5, Virginia Commonwealth University

Violinist Ani Kavafian, pianist André-Michel Schub and clarinetist David Shifrin, who form the most stellar trio of their instruments on the U.S. touring circuit, wrapped up the current season of VCU’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts with a seasonably light-textured, virtuosically rendered sampler of French and French-accented chamber music.

Kavafian, who has had a long career as a solo violinist, displayed her rich, robust tone and technical mastery in Saint-Saëns’ Sonata in D minor, Op. 75, a piece that begins with late-romantic portent but then settles into the tunefulness garnished with playfulness that is more characteristic of the French composer. Kavafian and Schub emphasized the Brahmsian intensity of the opening movement and the brilliant interplay of the subsequent adagio. The violinist nicely balanced lyricism and tonal-technical brilliance in the big tune of the adagio and its near-reprise in the sonata’s finale.

Shifrin’s showcase was Poulenc’s Sonata for clarinet and piano (1962), the last work completed by the composer and one of the most sophisticated examples of his melding of neoclassical form, vernacular style and the transparent texture and deceptive simplicity that one hears in Mozart. The sonata’s outer movements jangle to energetic phrases (or phraselets) and abrupt silences, which Shifrin and Schub played as if engaged in animated, fragmentary conversation. In the central romanza, which sounds like Schubert crossbred with torch song, the clarinetist played its long phrases soulfully but with wry or ironic undertones.

Stravinsky’s suite from "L’histoire du soldat" ("The Soldier’s Tale") displayed the three musicians’ mettle as ensemble players – especially Kavafian’s and Shifrin’s abilities to play assertively without stepping on each other’s lines – and gave Schub his most substantial part to play in the program. (The piano is the default orchestra in this trio arrangement of Stravinsky’s original septet orchestration.) Kavafian was notably effective in conveying the obsessively dutiful character of the chugging, double-stopped violin motif that runs through the piece. The ensemble played the sequence of tango, waltz and ragtime dance with droll affect.

The program opened with another mini-orchestration, Milhaud’s Suite, Op. 157b, for violin, clarinet and piano, a (usually) concise example of this composer’s penchant for spinning attractive melodies atop chunky chords at perkily energized tempos. In the "Jeu" ("Play") movement, Kavafian and Shifrin carried on a rather flirtatious conversation (with the piano as silent chaperone).

New maestro rethinks old tradition

Steven Smith, the new music director of the Richmond Symphony, believes that in order to survive in a new century, symphony orchestras need to branch out, but without severing their roots. That, he acknowledges, is a tricky bit of artistic ecology.

“Every community is different, with its own idiosyncrasies; so each orchestra has to look for its own possibilities to grow and thrive,” Smith said in a wide-ranging interview toward the end of a two-week introduction to his new orchestra, its patrons and artistic partners. “I like to hope that orchestras have a vital future, an important role in contemporary society. That means doing things differently – maybe a lot differently – in the future.”

However, “one of the strengths this orchestra has is its deep roots, long-standing ties. . . . Some of the same families involved in its founding are still involved today. So we need to build on those relationships, use those roots as a basis for moving beyond to plant new roots.”

In Richmond, Smith finds a town with an aesthetic and generational divide, a high-art establishment – symphony, opera, ballet, museums – coexisting, often uneasily, with contemporary and alternative art scenes. Established arts groups perform to mostly white audiences, largely middle-aged and older, while much of the city’s cultural energy is generated by younger people of varied ethnicity and cross-cultural interests who see and hear things differently, typically in different spaces.

The 50-year-old conductor has been here before, figuratively. For the past 11 years he has been music director of the Santa Fe Symphony, working in a multi-ethnic community with a long-established cultural and social hierarchy (older than Virginia’s – New Mexico’s capital was founded earlier than Jamestown) that in recent generations has become a center for contemporary art and music. Smith’s own artistic life straddles old and new: While mining music’s past as an orchestral concertmaster-turned-conductor, he also has been an active composer, contributing to music’s present and future.

As the first composer to assume artistic direction of the Richmond Symphony, Smith naturally is inclined to make modern and contemporary music an integral part of its concert programming. He arrives at a time when composers, especially in this country, are breaking free of the two styles, serialism and neoclassicism, that dominated art-music in the mid-20th century and alienated symphony audiences with knotty or arid sonic abstraction.

A third strain of modern composition, characterized by Witold Lutoslawski as “color” music, tracing its lineage to early 20th-century composers such as Debussy and Bartók, informs “a great deal of more recent music,” Smith observed, including the work of Jennifer Higdon, recipient of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for music. The conductor also notes that “a lot of [currently active] composers are more closely connected with folk and popular music traditions,” prominent examples being Michael Daugherty, Osvaldo Golijov and Bright Sheng.

Surveying a compositional scene that’s “pretty wide-open” stylistically, Smith sees ample opportunity to bridge old and new, “to create programs that [show] connections between different eras and styles of music" without “demeaning enjoyment of the pieces” or appreciation of their value.

The newest of the new is a fast-evolving genre known as “alt-classical,” in which classical instrumentalists and singers frquently collaborate with theatrical artists and musicians from other genres. One of the leading exponents of alt-classical music and performance is eighth blackbird, the sextet that has been in residence at the University of Richmond for the past six years.

A 75-piece orchestra performing in a concert hall doesn’t fit easily into this scene, Smith acknowledged. “So we have to explore ideas of [spinning off] smaller ensembles, playing in alternative venues, taking off white tie and tails, creating different kinds of musical experience.”

And not just in new music. Much of the baroque repertory, and works such as serenades and divertimenti, were meant to be heard not in formal concerts but in more casual, social settings. Smith said he is open to performing in cabaret or “coffee” concerts, using spaces such as art galleries – he specifically mentioned the “fabulous new spaces at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.”

The symphony orchestra, much of its most popular repertory, and the format in which it performs, are creations of the late-19th and early 20th centuries, and seem increasingly artificial – even antithetical to most people’s notions of what a concert experience should be. Smith, who grew up listening to pop music and experiencing its theatricalized, personality driven, audience-participation performance ethos, is aware of how strange and alienating it can be for newcomers to classical music to listen silently in the dark to a stage full of identically attired, anonymous-looking performers playing long stretches of music without words.

“One of the struggles that orchestras are facing now, and will even more so in the future, will be reinforcing human contact” between classical musicians and listeners, he said. That human contact is key especially to drawing young listeners and those not previously exposed to symphonic music. “We have to understand that youth and ‘outreach’ concerts are maybe the only experience with a symphony orchestra that these audiences have had,” and should not be treated as sidelights of the orchestra’s work.

Orchestral collaboration with performers in other disciplines, especially dancers and actors, can add visual stimulation and more focused personality to classical music, “bringing more energy and enthusiasm into orchestra concerts. But simply trying to repackage our tradition [to] make it more ‘attractive’ doesn’t accomplish what we’re setting out to do,” Smith said.

“The better approach is to take aspects of the symphony tradition and remodel it. That may involve creating a sense of theater in a concert, or setting up dialogues between performers and the audience, in a concert-hall setting or in some alternative setting.”

In exploring the new and different, though, “we have to ask ourselves, do these elements enhance the musical experience?”

Review: 'Porgy and Bess'

Virginia Opera
Peter Mark conducting
April 30, Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage

If you’re looking for a warm soak in the greatest hits of George and Ira Gershwin, the Virginia Opera’s current production of “Porgy and Bess” may prove unsettling. This show is as much about acting and physical movement as it is about music, and even at its most romantic and lyrical it has an edge.

The voices are big and the characterizations are commanding – especially those of Michael Redding (as Porgy), Kearstin Piper Brown (Bess) and Timothy Blevins (Crown), around whose passionate, violent love triangle the rest of the story orbits; but their passions almost burst out of their skins in vivid dramatic gestures.

The supporting cast, paced by Aundi Marie Moore (Serena) and Lawrence Craig (Sportin’ Life), and the chorus, augmented by members of local church choirs, sing while engaged in often intricately choreographed motion. Even in “Summertime,” ordinarily a calm, nostalgic prelude, Nicole Jenkins (Clara) is transported through a long, at times precarious-looking, glide above the stage through Howard Jones' skeletal set.

It’s not gratuitous hustle and bustle, though. Taking their cue from George Gershwin, who went to South Carolina and studied the folkways of the coastal Gullah culture as he composed the opera, this production’s stage director, Greg Ganakis and choreographer, Drew Franklin, draw liberally on African-rooted Gullah dance and Pentecostal worship.

The principal dancers, April Nixon and Darius Crenshaw, are as expressive in their movements as the singers are in the opera's great tunes.

Peter Mark, conducting members of the Richmond Symphony, gives freer-than-usual rein to the percussive and atmospheric elements of Gershwin's score.

The result is not a prettified Broadway/Hollywood vision of Charleston’s Catfish Row, but a raw, consuming experience. It rings with authenticity and throbs with energy.

The Virginia Opera’s “Porgy and Bess” continues with performances at 8 p.m. May 1 and 2:30 p.m. May 2 at the Carpenter Theatre. Tickets: $29-$99. The run closes with performances at 8 p.m. May 7-8 at the Ferguson Arts Center of Christopher Newport University in Newport News. Tickets: $47-$79. Details: (800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster); http://www.vaopera.org/

May calendar

Classical performances in and around Richmond, with selected events elsewhere in Virginia and the Washington area. Program information, provided by presenters, is updated as details become available. Adult single-ticket prices are listed; senior, student/youth, group and other discounts may be offered.

SCOUTING REPORT

* In and around Richmond: Kicking off the month, the Virginia Opera’s "Porgy and Bess," May 1-2 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage; and programs by two of Richmond’s leading choirs – the Richmond Concert Chorale, performing on May 1 at Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and May 2 at Epiphany Catholic Church; and the James River Singers, May 1 at First Presbyterian Church and May 2 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church; and VCU Opera performing Johann Strauss II’s "Die Fledermaus," May 1 and 2 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Arts Center. (As Joseph Heller might have said, "I hear everything twice, four times.") . . . The Richmond Philharmonic plays Weber, Holst and Vieuxtemps, May 9 at VCU, with a May 3 preview at Hermitage High School. . . . The trio of violinist Ani Kavafian, pianist André-Michel Schub and clarinetist David Shifrin conclude this season’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts on May 5 (a Wednesday, not the usual Saturday) at VCU. . . . Erin R. Freeman conducts the Richmond Symphony in "Beethoven Lives Upstairs," concluding this season’s LolliPops series on May 8; and Jacques Houtmann, the orchestra’s former music director, returns to conduct a program of Saint-Saëns’ "Organ" Symphony, Christopher Theofanidis’ "Rainbow Body" and, with the Richmond Symphony Chorus, Brahms’ rarely heard "Gesang der Parzen" and "Nänie," May 15-16 at the Carpenter Theatre. . . . Organist Lynne Davis plays Bach, Vierne, Widor and more on May 16 at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. . . . The Hampden-Sydney Music Festival returns, with pianist Jon Klibonoff and the Daedalus String Quartet among the performers, on the weekends of May 21-22 and May 28-29.

* New and/or different: Violinist Akemi Takayama and the Williamsburg Symphonia perform Michael Daugherty’s "Fire and Blood," May 3-4 at the Kimball Theatre. . . . Cellist Zuill Bailey plays a newly commissioned piece by Roberto Sierra, May 4 at the Kennedy Center in Washington. . . . The Borup-Ernst Duo sample works of Judith Shatin, May 8 at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville (a benefit concert for the Piedmont Council of the Arts). . . . Simon Shaheen, the violinist and virtuoso of the oud (the Middle Eastern lute), performs with members of Qantara on May 8 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington and with the Roanoke Youth Symphony Orchestra on May 16 at the Jefferson Center. . . . Violinist Jennifer Koh plays Esa-Pekka Salonen’s "Lachen verlernt" with video artist Tal Rosner, as well as music of Bach, John Adams and Lou Harrison, May 9 at the Kennedy Center. . . . The Roanoke Symphony introduces Jerome N. Margolis’ "The Millcreek at Waxman’s Crossing," highlighting an all-American program on May 10 at the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre. . . . John Adams conducts Washington’s National Symphony in his music, alongside works by Elgar, Copland, Britten and Stravinsky, May 13-15 and May 20-22 at the Kennedy Center. . . . The Orion String Quartet plays Leon Kirchner’s Quartet No. 4, and works by Bach, Beethoven and Smetana, in a Virginia Arts Festival concert on May 20 at the American Theatre in Hampton. . . . Uri Caine and his trio perform on May 22 at Washington’s Atlas Center. . . . Flutist Jeremy McEntire and pianist Charles Hulin reprise a new Duo Concertante by Richmond composer Allan Blank and play pieces by Chaminade, Leclair, Haydn, Michael Colquhoun and Lowell Liebermann, May 23 at Richmond’s art6 gallery. . . . Opera Lafayette revives François-André Philidor’s "Sancho Pança," May 24 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Mahan Esfahani plays a Pleyel harpsichord in a re-creation of Wanda Landowska’s 1927 Library of Congress recital, May 29 in the LOC’s Coolidge Auditorium.

* Star turns: Pianist Maurizio Pollini plays all-Chopin programs in a Virginia Arts Festival recital, May 4 at Norfolk’s Harrison Opera House, and May 12 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Marvin Hamlisch leads the National Symphony and a cast of Broadway singers in a tribute to Stephen Sondheim, May 6-8 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic play Bernstein and Tchaikovsky, May 17 at the Kennedy Center (tickets are scarce, of course). . . . Plácido Domingo and Patrick Fournillier share conducting duties in a Washington National Opera production of Thomas’ "Hamlet," with Samuel Ramey as Claudius, in five performances from May 19 to 30 (and more in June) at the Kennedy Center. . . . Pianist Yuja Wang, who’s just added an Avery Fisher Career Grant to her string of awards, performs on May 22 at Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in Washington. . . . Cellist Steven Isserlis joins a Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival ensemble, May 26 at the Paramount Theater. . . . Charles Dutoit conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra, with Nicolai Lugansky playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, May 26 at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of D.C. . . . Soprano Kathleen Battle is joined by the Morgan State University Choir in "Underground Railroad," a program of African-American hymns and spirituals, May 27 at Strathmore. . . . Cellist Alisa Weilerstein visits the Virginia Arts Festival for two dates: a solo recital on May 27 at Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, and a performance of Dvořák’s Concerto in B minor with the Virginia Symphony on May 30 at the Williamsburg Lodge.

* Wild card: Six guest conductors, including Miss America Caressa Cameron and Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, join the Richmond Symphony in a "Celebrity Maestro" benefit for the orchestra’s educational programs, May 22 at the Carpenter Theatre.

* Bargain of the month: Lynne Davis’ organ recital, May 16 at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. (Free)

* My picks: The Virginia Opera’s "Porgy and Bess," May 1-2 at the Carpenter Theatre in Richmond, May 7-8 at the Ferguson Arts Center of Christopher Newport University in Newport News. . . . Maurizio Pollini’s Virginia Arts Festival Chopin recital, May 4 at Harrison Opera House in Norfolk. . . . The Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio’s program of Milhaud, Saint-Saëns, Poulenc and Stravinsky, May 5 at VCU. . . . John Adams’ May 13-15 concerts with the National Symphony, including his "The Wound Dresser," at the Kennedy Center. . . . Jacques Houtmann’s concerts with the Richmond Symphony and Symphony Chorus, May 15-16 at the Carpenter Theatre. . . . The Hampden-Sydney Music Festival’s May 22 program of Chopin, Mozart and Beethoven, played by pianist Jon Klibonoff, the Daedalus Quartet and clarinetist Ethan Sloane.


May 1 (5 p.m.)
Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 8 N. Laurel St., Richmond
May 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Epiphany Catholic Church, 11000 Smoketree Drive, Midlothian
Richmond Concert Chorale
Grant Hellmers directing
Crystal Jonkman accompanying
Byrd: "Mass for Three Voices"
motets and anthems by Victoria, Philips, Gibbons, Brahms, Stanford, Woods
part-songs by Schumann, Brahms
Donation requested
(804) 353-5236

May 1 (7 p.m.)
First Presbyterian Church, 4602 Cary Street Road, Richmond
May 2 (5 p.m.)
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 520 N. Boulevard, Richmond
James River Singers
Jeffrey Riehl directing
R. Murray Shafer: "A Medieval Bestiary"
Menotti: "The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore"
$15
(804) 289-8282
www.jamesriversingers.org

May 1 (7:30 p.m.)
May 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Opera
Melanie Kohn Day & Kenneth Wood directing
Johann Strauss II: "Die Fledermaus"
cast TBA
$15
(804) 828-6776
www.vcumusic.org

May 1 (8 p.m.)
May 2 (2:30 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Virginia Opera
Peter Mark conducting
The Gershwins: "Porgy and Bess"
Michael Redding (Porgy)
Kearstin Piper Brown (Bess)
Timothy Robert Blevins (Crown)
Lawrence Craig (Sportin’ Life)
Nicole Jenkins (Clara)
Kevin Moreno (Jake)
Aundi Marie Moore (Serena)
Triumphant Baptist, Ebenezer Baptist, Quioccosan Baptist, Sharon Baptist church choirs
Greg Ganakas, stage director
in English, English captions
$29-$99
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.vaopera.org

May 1 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Fairfax Symphony Orchestra
Glenn Quader conducting
Jennifer Higdon: "Blue Cathedral"
Elgar: Cello Concerto
Julie Albers, cello
Mozart: Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504 ("Prague")
Barber: "Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance"
$35-$55
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.fairfaxsymphony.org

May 1 (7 p.m.)
May 2 (2 p.m.)
May 4 (7:30 p.m.)
May 5 (7:30 p.m.)
May 7 (7:30 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Patrick Fournellier conducting
Mozart: "The Marriage of Figaro"
Ildar Abrazakov/Kostas Smoriginas (Figaro)
Veronica Camgeni/Amanda Squitieri (Susanna)
Virginia Tola/Stefanie C. Braun (Countess Almaviva)
Teddy Tahu Rhodes/Trevor Scheunemann (Count Almaviva)
Michèle Losier/Renata Pokupic (Cherubino)
Valeriano Lanchas (Bartolo)
Victoria Livengood (Marcellina)
Robert Baker (Don Basilio)
José Ortega (Don Curzio)
Harry Silverstein, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$50-$300
(800) 876-7372
www.dc-opera.org

May 1 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Hans Graf conducting
Debussy: "Images"
Giullaume Connesson: new work TBA for piano and orchestra
Ravel: Piano Concerto for the left hand
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Ravel: "Daphnis et Chloë" Suite No. 2
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 1 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Piotr Gajewski & Stan Engretson conducting
Barber: Adagio for strings
Andreas Makris: Symphony for soprano and strings
Audrey Elizabeth Luna, soprano
Barber: Agnus Dei
Vivaldi: Gloria
Audrey Elizabeth Luna, soprano
Magdalena Wor, mezzo-soprano
National Philharmonic Chorus
$29-$79
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

May 2 (2:30 p.m.)
Shaftman Performance Hall, Jefferson Center, 541 Luck Ave., Roanoke
Opera Roanoke
Roanoke Symphony & Chorus
Steven White conducting
Donizetti: "Lucia di Lammermoor" (concert presentation)
Amy Cofield (Lucia)
$20-$80
(540) 982-2742
www.operaroanoke.org

May 3 (7:30 p.m.)
Hermitage High School auditorium, 8301 Hungary Spring Road, Richmond
May 9 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Richmond Philharmonic
Robert Mirakian conducting
Weber: "Oberon" Overture
Vieuxtemps: Violin Concerto No. 5 (allegro non troppo movement)
Annika Jenkins, violin
Holst: Suite from "The Planets"
$5 per person, $10 per family donation suggested
(804) 673-7400
www.richmondphilharmonic.org

May 3 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Richmond Piano Trio:
Susanna Klein, violin
Dana McComb, cello
Dmitri Shteinberg, piano
program TBA
$5
(804) 828-6776
www.vcumusic.org

May 3 (8 p.m.)
May 4 (8 p.m.)
Kimball Theatre, Merchants Square, Williamsburg
Williamsburg Symphonia
Janna Hymes conducting
Ibert: "Hommage à Mozart"
Michael Daugherty: "Fire and Blood"
Akemi Takayama, violin
Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
$30-$42
(757) 229-9857
www.williamsburgsymphonia.org

May 4 (10:30 a.m.)
Trinity Episcopal Church, 500 Court St., Portsmouth
Virginia Arts Festival:
Cavani String Quartet
Haydn: Quartet in D major, Op. 20, No. 4
Dvořák: Quartet in F major, Op. 96 (“American”)
$20
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.vafest.org

May 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Harrison Opera House, 160 E. Virginia Beach Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Arts Festival:
Maurizio Pollini, piano
Chopin: two nocturnes, Op. 55
Chopin: three mazurkas, Op. 56
Chopin: Berceuse in D flat major, Op. 57
Chopin: Barcarolle in F sharp minor, Op. 60
Chopin: Polonaise-Fantasie in A flat major, Op. 61
Chopin: two nocturnes, Op. 62
Chopin: Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58
$20-$45
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.vafest.org

May 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Zuill Bailey, cello
Orion Weiss, piano
Beethoven: Variations on "See the conq’ring heroes comes" from Handel’s "Judas Maccabeus"
Mendelssohn: Concert Variations, Op. 17
Roberto Sierra: commissioned work TBA
Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99
$35
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

May 5 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio:
Ani Kavafian, violin
André-Michel Schub, piano
David Shifrin, clarinet
Milhaud: Suite for violin, clarinet and piano, Op. 157b
Saint-Saëns: Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75, for violin and piano
Poulenc: Sonata for clarinet and piano
Stravinsky: "L’Histoire du Soldat" Suite
$32
(804) 828-6776
www.vcumusic.org

May 5 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Vocal Arts Society:
Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor
Warren Jones, piano
program TBA
$45
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 6 (7:30 p.m.)
Chrysler Museum Theater, 245 W. Olney Road, Norfolk
Virginia Arts Festival:
Cavani String Quartet
Mozart: Adagio and Fugue in C minor
Mendelssohn: Quartet in A minor, Op. 13
Beethoven: Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 ("Razumovsky")
$30
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.vafest.org

May 6 (7 p.m.)
May 7 (8 p.m.)
May 8 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra Pops
Marvin Hamlisch conducting
Liz Callaway, Michael Cerveris, Brian d’Arcy James, Maria Friedman & Patricia Noonan, guest stars
"Sondheim at 80," music of Stephen Sondheim
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 7 (8 p.m.)
May 8 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Virginia Opera
Peter Mark conducting
The Gershwins: "Porgy and Bess"
Michael Redding (Porgy)
Kearstin Piper Brown (Bess)
Timothy Robert Blevins (Crown)
Lawrence Craig (Sportin’ Life)
Nicole Jenkins (Clara)
Kevin Moreno (Jake)
Aundi Marie Moore (Serena)
Greg Ganakas, stage director
choirs TBA
in English, English captions
$47-$79
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.vaopera.org

May 7 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Christine Brewer, soprano
Craig Rutenberg, piano
Gluck: "Divinités du Styx" from "Alceste"
songs by Joseph Marx, Richard Strauss, Frank Bridge, Edwin MacArthur, others
$38
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 8 (11 a.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony LolliPops
Erin R. Freeman conducting
"Beethoven Lives Upstairs"
$12-$17
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 8 (8 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Borup-Ernst Duo
Judith Shatin: works TBA
$25 (proceeds benefit Piedmont Council of the Arts)
(434) 979-1333
www.theparamount.net

May 8 (8 p.m.)
Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE, Washington
Simon Shaheen, violin & oud
members of Qantara
Shaheen: new work TBA
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0910-schedule.html

May 9 (7 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Jeffrey Siegel, piano & narrator
"Keyboard Conversations: Chopin and the Future"
$19-$38
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://cfa.gmu.edu/calendar/

May 9 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Jennifer Koh, violin
Thomas Sauer, piano
Bach: Partita in E major for solo violin
Ysaÿe: Sonata No. 2 for solo violin
John Adams: "Road Movies"
Esa-Pekka Salonen: "Lachen verlernt"
Tal Rosner, video artist
Lou Harrison: "Grand Duo" for violin and piano
$25
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 10 (7:30 p.m.)
Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 520 Graydon Ave., Norfolk
May 28 (10:30 a.m.)
Williamsburg Winery, Lake Powell Road, James City County
Virginia Arts Festival:
JoAnn Falletta, guitar
women of the Virginia Symphony
Schubert: Guitar Quartet
Muczynski: Quintet for winds
Glanville-Hicks: "Concertino Antico" for harp and string quartet
Ravel: String Quartet
$30 (Norfolk), $20 (Williamsburg)
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.vafest.org

May 10 (8 p.m.)
Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre, Orange Avenue at Williamson Road
Roanoke Symphony
David Stewart Wiley conducting
Copland: "Billy the Kid" Suite
Joan Tower: "Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman"
Gershwin: "An American in Paris"
Jerome N. Margolis: "The Millcreek at Waxman’s Crossing"
Richard Rodgers: "Victory at Sea" (excerpts)
Bernstein: "West Side Story" (excerpts)
$21-$41
(540) 343-9127
www.rso.com

May 11 (7 p.m.)
First English Lutheran Church, Monument Avenue at Stuart Circle, Richmond
Delaware State University Tour Choir
Curtis Everett Powell directing
classical, African-American religious works TBA
Free
(804) 355-9185
www.felcrichmond.org

May 12 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Maurizio Pollini, piano
Chopin: nocturnes, Op. 27
Chopin: preludes, Op. 28
Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23
Chopin: Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20
Chopin: eight études, Op. 25
$35-$95
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

May 13 (7 p.m.)
May 14 (8 p.m.)
May 15 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
John Adams conducting
Copland: "Billy the Kid" Suite
Adams: "The Wound-Dresser"
Eric Owens, bass-baritone
Barber: Adagio for string
Elgar: "Enigma Variations"
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 14 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Woodley Ensemble
Frank Albinder directing
Schumann: "Vier doppelcörige Gesänge," Op. 141
Barber: "Reincarnations," Op. 16
other works TBA
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0910-schedule.html

May 15 (8 p.m.)
May 16 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Jacques Houtmann conducting
Christopher Theofanidis: "Rainbow Body"
Brahms: "Gesang der Parzen"
Brahms: "Nänie"
Richmond Symphony Chorus
Erin R. Freeman directing
Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 ("Organ")
organist TBA
$17-$72
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 16 (3 p.m.)
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 12291 River Road, Goochland County
Lynne Davis, organ
Louis-Nicolas Clerambault: "Suite du Deuxième Ton"
Bach: Chorale Prelude, "Erbarm’ dich mein o Herre Gott"
Bach: Fantasy and Fugue in G minor
Vierne: Toccata from "Pièces de Fantaisie" Suite No. 2
Widor: Andante sostenuto from "Gothic Symphony"
Henri Mulet: "Carillon-Sortie"
Jehan Alain: "Première Fantasie"
Free; reception follows
(804) 784-5678
www.stmarysgoochland.org/

May 16 (4 p.m.)
Bon Air Presbyterian Church, 9201 W. Huguenot Road, Richmond
Second Sunday South of the James:
Windemere String Quartet
Kaith Hanlon, flute
Mozart: Flute Quartet in D major, K. 285
Haydn: String Quartet in G major, Op. 77, No. 1
Dvořák: Sonatina in G major, Op. 100 (string quartet transcription)
Donation requested
(804) 272-7514

May 16 (8 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony Youth Concert Orchestra
Camerata Strings
String Sinfonietta
Kabalevsky: Violin Concerto
Helen Jung, violin
other works TBA
Free
(804) 788-4717
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

May 16 (3 p.m.)
Shaftman Performance Hall, Jefferson Center, 541 Luck Ave., Roanoke
Roanoke Youth Symphony Orchestra
James Glazebrook conducting
Simon Shaheen, oud
"Silk Road to Roanoke"
Shaheen: works TBA
$8-$12
(540) 345-2250
www.rso.com

May 17 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel conducting
Bernstein: Symphony No. 2 ("The Age of Anxiety")
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 ("Pathétique")
$35-$115 (waiting list)
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

May 19 (7 p.m.)
May 22 (7 p.m.)
May 24 (7 p.m.)
May 27 (7:30 p.m.)
May 30 (2 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Plácido Domingo & Patrick Fournillier conducting
Thomas: "Hamlet"
Liam Bonner/Michael Chioldi (Hamlet)
Diana Damrau (Ophelia)
Samuel Ramey (Claudius)
Elizabeth Bishop (Gertrude)
John Tessier (Laertes)
Leo An (Polonius)
José Ortega (Marcellus)
Thaddeus Strassberger, stage director
in French, English captions
$50-$300
(800) 876-7372
www.dc-opera.org

May 20 (7:30 p.m.)
American Theatre, 125 E. Mellen St., Hampton
Virginia Arts Festival:
Orion String Quartet
Bach: Contrapunctus 1 from "Art of the Fugue"
Leon Kirchner: Quartet No. 4
Beethoven: Quartet in E flat major, Op. 74 ("Harp")
Smetana: Quartet No. 1 in E minor ("From My Life")
$40
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.vafest.org

May 20 (7 p.m.)
May 21 (1:30 p.m.)
May 22 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
John Adams conducting
Britten: "Four Sea Interludes" from "Peter Grimes"
Adams: "The Dharma at Big Sur"
Leila Josefowicz, violin
Stravinsky: "Feu d’Artifice"
Adams: "Dr. Atomic" Symphony
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 21 (8 p.m.)
Crawley Forum, Hampden-Sydney College, 5 miles south of Farmville
Hampden-Sydney Music Festival:
Schumann: "Fantasiestücke," Op. 73, for clarinet and piano
Ethan Sloane, clarinet
Jon Klibonoff, piano
Mozart: String Quartet in B flat major, K. 598 ("Prussian")
Daedalus String Quartet
Dvořák: Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81
Jon Klibonoff, piano
Daedalus String Quartet
$20
(434) 223-6273
www.hsc.edu/musicfestival

May 21 (10:30 a.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Arts Festival:
André-Michel Scub, piano
Orion String Quartet
Haydn: String Quartet in D major, Op. 76, No. 5
Schumann: Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 47
$20
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.vafest.org

May 21 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Virginia Arts Festival:
Boston Brass
program TBA
$32
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.vafest.org

May 21 (8 p.m.)
May 22 (8 p.m.)
Filene Center, Wolf Trap, Trap Road, Vienna
New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players
Gilbert & Sullivan: "The Mikado"
cast TBA
$8-$48
(877) 965-3872 (Tickets.com)
www.wolftrap.org

May 22 (8 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith & Erin R. Freeman conducting
Dwight C. Jones, Bobbie Barajas, Caressa Cameron, Susan Greenbaum, Lance D. Watson, Nutzy (Richmond Flying Squirrels mascot), guest conductors
program TBA
$25-$75 (proceeds benefit symphony's educational programs)
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 22 (8 p.m.)
Crawley Forum, Hampden-Sydney College, 5 miles south of Farmville
Hampden-Sydney Music Festival:
Chopin: Barcarolle, Op. 60
Chopin: Scherzo No. 3 in C sharp minor, Op. 39
Jon Klibonoff, piano
Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581
Ethan Sloane, clarinet
Daedalus String Quartet
Beethoven: Quartet in E flat major, Op. 127
Daedalus String Quartet
$20
(434) 223-6273
www.hsc.edu/musicfestival

May 22 (8 p.m.)
Salem Civic Center, Boulevard Roanoke
Roanoke Symphony Pops
David Stewart Wiley conducting
Jeans ’n Classics, guest stars
"A Night at Woodstock"
$39-$64
(540) 343-9127
www.rso.com

May 22 (8 p.m.)
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, Sixth and I streets, Washington
Yuja Wang, piano
Schumann: "Symphonic Études," Op. 13
Schubert-Liszt: three Lieder
Prokofiev: "Visions fugitives" (excerpts)
Prokofiev: Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82
$40
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

May 22 (8 p.m.)
Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE, Washington
Uri Caine Trio
program TBA
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0910-schedule.html

May 22 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Piotr Gajewski conducting
Schumann: "Manfred" Overture
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2
Piotr Paleczny, piano
$29-$79
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

May 23 (4 p.m.)
art6, 6 E. Broad St., Richmond
Jeremy McEntire, flute
Charles Hulin, piano
Cecile Chaminade: Concertino, Op. 107
Leclair: Sonata in E minor, Op. 9, No. 2
Haydn: Piano Sonata No. 48 in C major
Rachmaninoff: Vocalise
Allan Blank: Duo Concertante (2008)
Michael Colquhoun: "Storyteller" (1988)
Lowell Liebermann: Sonata, Op. 23 (1987)
$20
(804) 343-1406
www.art6.org

May 23 (7 p.m.)
Heritage Amphitheater, Pocahontas State Park, Route 655 (Beach Road) Chesterfield
Richmond Symphony
Erin R. Freeman conducting
SPARC (School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community) singers
light-classical, music theater works TBA
Free
(804) 796-4255
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

May 23 (6 p.m.)
Williamsburg Winery, Lake Powell Road, James City County
Virginia Arts Festival:
André-Michel Schub, piano
Orion String Quartet
Schumann: String Quartet in A minor, Op. 41, No. 1
Schumann: "Märchenbilder," Op. 113, for violin and piano
Schumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44
$40 for concert, $65 for wine-tasting and concert, $150 for concert and dinner, $175 for wine-tasting, concert and dinner
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.vafest.org

May 23 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Choral Arts Society of Washington
Norman Scribner & Joseph Holt directing
"One Enchanted Evening with Richard Rodgers"
$15-$65
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Opera Lafayette
Ryan Brown conducting
François-André Philidor: "Sancho Pança"
Darren Perry (Sancho Pança )
Elizabeth Calleo (Thérèse)
Karim Sulayman (Lope Tocho)
Meghan McCall (Juliette)
Tony Boutté (Don Crispinos)
Eric C. Black (Torillos)
John Lescault, actor
members of Opera Lafayette Young Artists Program
in French, English captions
$60
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 26 (7:30 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Blue Ridge Trio:
Tabatha Easley, flute
Susan Hochmiller, soprano
Catherine Garner, piano
with Charles West, clarinet
works by Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Katherine Hoover, Jennifer Brandon, Judith Shatin
$5
(804) 828-6776
www.vcumusic.org

May 26 (8 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival:
Steven Isserlis, cello
Timothy Summers & Jennifer Frautschi, violin
Dov Scheindlin & Kyle Armbrust, viola
Raphael Bell, cello
Ya-Fei Chuang, piano
Mozart: String Quintet in B flat major, K. 174
Franck: Cello Sonata
Dvořák: bagatelles, Op. 47 (selections)
Dvořák: String Sextet in A major, Op. 48
$20-$50
(434) 979-1333
www.theparamount.net

May 26 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Stephen Salters, baritone
David Zobel, piano
program TBA
$45
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 26 (7:30 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Philadelphia Orchestra
Charles Dutoit conducting
Glinka: "Russlan and Ludmilla" Overture
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Nicolai Lugansky, piano
Stravinsky: "Petrouchka"
$40-$115
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

May 27 (7:30 p.m.)
Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, 215 Richmond Road
Virginia Arts Festival:
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
program TBA
$30
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.vafest.org

May 27 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Kathleen Battle, soprano
Morgan State University Choir
Eric Conway directing
"Underground Railroad," African-American spirituals and hymns
$30-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

May 28 (8 p.m.)
Crawley Forum, Hampden-Sydney College, 5 miles south of Farmville
Hampden-Sydney Music Festival:
Beethoven: Trio in E flat major, Op. 11
Ethan Sloane, clarinet
Marc Johnson, cello
Lydia Artymiw, piano
Messiaen: three movements from "Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus"
Lydia Artymiw, piano
Brahms: Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op. 87
Erin Keefe, violin
Marc Johnson, cello
Lydia Artymiw, piano
$20
(434) 223-6273
www.hsc.edu/musicfestival

May 28 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Ensemble Caprice
Matthias Maute directing
"Bach and the Bohemian Gypsies," works by Bach, Telemann, others
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0910-schedule.html

May 29 (8 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony Pops
Erin R. Freeman conducting
Steve Lippia, vocalist
"Simply Sinatra," music of Frank Sinatra
$17-$72
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 29 (8 p.m.)
Crawley Forum, Hampden-Sydney College, 5 miles south of Farmville
Hampden-Sydney Music Festival:
Brahms: Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114
Ethan Sloane, clarinet
Marc Johnson, cello
Lydia Artymiw, piano
Kodály: Duo for violin and cello, Op. 7
Erin Keefe, violin
Marc Johnson, cello
Schumann: Piano Trio No. 2 in F major, Op. 80
Erin Keefe, violin
Marc Johnson, cello
Lydia Artymiw, piano
$20
(434) 223-6273
www.hsc.edu/musicfestival

May 29 (8 p.m.)
First Presbyterian Church, 500 Park St., Charlottesville
Oratorio Society of Virginia
L. Thomas Vining directing
Rebecca Ewing, soprano
Stanley Webber, baritone
David Norfrey, organ
Haydn: "Little Organ" Mass
Liszt: "Missa choralis"
Vaughan Williams: "Dona nobis pacem"
$20
(434) 295-4385
www.oratoriosociety.org

May 29 (2 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Mahan Esfahani, Pleyel harpsichord
Re-creation of Wanda Landowska’s 1927 recital at Library of Congress
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0910-schedule.html

May 30 (7 p.m.)
Virginia Room, Williamsburg Lodge, 310 S. England St.
Virginia Arts Festival:
Virginia Symphony
JoAnn Falletta conducting
Handel: "Music for the Royal Fireworks"
Tchaikovsky: Suite No. 4 in G major, Op. 61 ("Mozartiana")
Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
$35-$50
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.vafest.org

May 30 (8 p.m.)
West Lawn, U.S. Capitol, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
conductor TBA
guest stars TBA
"National Memorial Day Concert"
program TBA
Free
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org