by Mike Telin
TODAY’S EVENTS:
Although our concert calendar is void of performances today, there are plenty taking place during the long Fourth of July weekend. Visit our Concert Listings page here.
IN THE NEWS:
Season tickets go on sale today for the four concerts in the Kent Blossom Music Festival Faculty Series, featuring Kulas Visiting Artists Paul and Helen Huang (pictured), Demarre McGill, and Rodolfo Leone, plus the Miami String Quartet and members of The Cleveland Orchestra. This season’s concerts are offered in a hybrid format: in-person in Ludwig Concert Hall (limited to 200 guests), and by live stream. Read a preview here.
A quick reminder that tickets also go on sale today for Tuesday Musical’s performance by Chanticleer at E.J. Thomas Hall on July 27 at 7:30 pm. The celebrated 12-voice male chorus from San Francisco will present “Awakenings,” with music by Monteverdi, Byrd, Vicente Lusitano, Villa-Lobos, Augusta Read Thomas, Ulysses Kay, Steven Sametz, Burton Lane, and a newly commissioned work by Ayanna Woods. Click here for ticket information.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Today marks the anniversaries of two births of note — German composer Hans Werner Henze in 1926 and American conductor Philip Brunelle in 1943.
We’ll begin with Henze whose extensive body of works incorporated neoclassicism, jazz, twelve-tone technique, serialism, as well as rock and some popular music.
Gay, and an avowed Marxist, Henze was influenced by the theater, serialism, Italian and Arabic music, and jazz. The 1968 Hamburg premiere of Das Floß der Medusa, a requiem for Che Guavara, sparked a riot and the arrest of his librettist. Listen to his “oratorio volgare e militare” in a 2017 performance here.
An example of his works for smaller forces is the Ode an eine Äolsharfe, pour guitare concertante et quinze instruments (1986). Guitarist Pierre Bibault and the Ensemble intercontemporain under the direction of Brad Lubman perform movement III: “An Philomene” here.
Following his death in 2012, The Guardian’s Guy Rickards beautifully summarized the composer’s fascinating life. Read the obituary here.
Philip Brunelle, probably best known for his choral work with Vocal Essense on A Prairie Home Companion, gave a series of chats about composers from the piano in the Guild Hall of Minneapolis’ Plymouth Church. In episode No. 70, he discusses African American composer Hall Johnson, who wrote “choral music that sounds like a symphony orchestra.” Watch here.