by Jarrett Hoffman
TODAY ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:
Thanks to WCLV Ideastream, here’s your lunch crew for today at noon: Franz Welser-Möst, Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, and The Cleveland Orchestra. After dinner, how about a live performance via stream? Coming to you from the Maltz at 8, Youngstown State piano professor Caroline Oltmanns plays music by Schubert, Debussy, Janáček, Griffes, Crumb, Chopin, and University of Akron composition professor James Wilding.
Oltmanns performed the same program this summer from her home as part of London’s Piano Week Online Edition. On her website, she shared a sample of the Griffes piece, “The Night Winds” from his Three Tone-Pictures, which is based on a poem by Edgar Allan Poe. She noted that “to set up the mood perfectly,” she loves to read a short passage of Poe before performing the piece — perhaps that will be the case tonight?
The pianist also recently caught up with Zsolt Bognár, host of Living the Classical Life, on his “Where Are They Now Wednesdays?” series on Instagram. They discuss “playing online and on ground,” staying healthy amidst the pandemic, and talking shop with Martha Argerich.
You can find more details about today’s performances, including the nightly Met Opera stream, in our Concert Listings.
NEWS FROM NO EXIT:
The Cleveland-based new music ensemble will begin its 12th season with a free, virtual concert on Friday, October 2 at 7:00 pm. Mostly made up of solo works, the evening will include music by Adam Roberts, Heitor Villa-Lobos, William Grant Still, and Harald Genzmer, as well as a world premiere written and performed by percussionist Luke Rinderknecht.
The smaller scale of the program will allow for social distancing among the performers, but it also comes with a silver lining, as artistic director Tim Beyer wrote in a press release: the opportunity to individually showcase the musicians, who are “not only great ensemble players, but very gifted soloists.”
Going forward with its season, No Exit plans to be flexible — concerts might be online, in person, or both. “Obviously, the safety and well-being of our audience and ensemble members are main priorities,” Beyer wrote. “We are prepared to adjust as needed depending on how the situation unfolds in the coming months.”
See the full program here.
AVERY FISHER PRIZE AWARDED:
Clarinetist Anthony McGill has received the Avery Fisher Prize. The principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic is also a prominent advocate for social change — the embodiment of a “citizen musician” since long before the start of his #TakeTwoKnees movement following the killing of George Floyd. (He was in fact chosen for the award last December.)
Speaking about the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, of which McGill is artistic director, he told The New York Times, “We’re trying to ensure openness and opportunity for all kids, regardless of background, race, religion, sexual orientation…That’s my No. 1 goal and passion.” Read more here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Among the anniversaries to mark today is the birth of French composer, conductor, keyboardist, and teacher Nadia Boulanger in 1887 in Paris. Best known as a pedagogue, she made a particularly strong impact on American composers of a wide stylistic variety.
Her students included Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Philip Glass, and Virgil Thomson, who called her “a one-woman graduate school so powerful and so permeating that legend credits every U.S. town with two things — a five-and-dime and a Boulanger pupil.”
Boulanger was the first woman to conduct such ensembles as the BBC and Boston Symphonies, the New York Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. She took second in the Prix de Rome in 1908, but mostly stopped composing after the death of her sister Lili Boulanger in 1918. You can hear her Three Improvisations on Friday in the hands of organist Nicole Keller during a live stream from Trinity Cathedral — read Daniel Hathaway’s preview here for details.