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Akron Symphony — Sounds of Akron: City Meets Symphony (April 16)

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by Mike Telin

ASO-Sounds-of-AkronWhat does Akron sound like to you? This is the question the Akron Symphony Orchestra and composer Clint Needham asked when they invited Akron area residents to download a smartphone app and upload their recordings to the Sounds of Akron website from late last spring through the fall. Those sounds became the inspiration for Needham’s imaginative new work, Sounds of Akron: City Meets Symphony, which received its premiere by the Akron Symphony under the direction of Christopher Wilkins on April 16 at E.J. Thomas Hall. [Read more…]

Clint Needham’s Sounds of Akron to debut at E.J. Thomas this Saturday

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by Mike Telin

Clint Needham-09What does Akron sound like to you? This is the question the Akron Symphony Orchestra and composer Clint Needham asked when they invited Akron area residents to download the iOS or Android apps and upload their recordings to the Sounds of Akron website from late last spring through the fall.

Those became the inspiration for his new collaborative work, Sounds of Akron: City Meets Symphony, which will be premiered by the Akron Symphony at E.J. Thomas Hall under the direction of Christopher Wilkins on April 16 at 8:00 pm. The program will also include Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 featuring soprano Christine Brandes. A pre-concert celebration will begin at 6:00 pm. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony with pianist Richard Kogan (Feb. 6)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Kogan-RichardPianist-psychiatrist Richard Kogan met Akron Symphony music director Christopher Wilkins when both were undergraduates at Harvard. During that time, Kogan played a concerto with the student-run Bach Society Orchestra under Wilkins’s baton. The two met up again on Saturday, February 6 in E.J. Thomas Hall for a performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s second concerto, preceded by an introductory talk by Kogan. [Read more…]

Richard Kogan, pianist & psychiatrist, to be featured with the Akron Symphony

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by Mike Telin

Kogan-RichardOn Saturday, February 6 at 8:00 pm in E. J. Thomas Hall, the Akron Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Christopher Wilkins will challenge the stigma surrounding mental illness during a concert featuring Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.

The soloist in Rachmaninoff’s concerto will be Dr. Richard Kogan, a Harvard Medical School-trained psychiatrist, acclaimed pianist, and artistic director of the Weill Cornell Music and Medicine Program in New York. “For many years I’ve had parallel careers as a concert pianist and as a psychiatrist,” Kogan explained during a telephone conversation.

The two strands of Kogan’s career came together some years ago when he was asked by the American Psychiatric Association to lead a symposium on creative geniuses and mental Illness. [Read more…]

Olivier Brault and the Akron Symphony: a dialogue of traditions (January 16)

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by Christine Jay

BRAULT-OlivierThankfully not all old traditions die hard. On January 16 in the University of Akron’s E. J. Thomas Hall, music director Christopher Wilkins, baroque violinist Olivier Brault, and the Akron Symphony presented a concert entitled “Vivaldi and Bach — The Great Inspiration.” An intermingling of historical and modern performance traditions ensued, with inspiring results. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony:
Keep Calm and Play Bach —
a chat with violinist Olivier Brault

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by Christine Jay

BRAULT-OlivierHow do you follow a celebrated performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons? Christopher Wilkins, Music Director of the Akron Symphony, created this fabulous conundrum when he invited Olivier Brault, concertmaster of Apollo’s Fire (and other historically informed ensembles across the globe), to lead Vivaldi’s iconic work in January 2014. Brault excelled and left the audience with a Vivaldian fire in its veins — but what next after Brault’s maiden voyage with the Akron Symphony two years ago?

Keep calm and play Bach.

Both friends and lovers of Bach, Wilkins and Brault devised a program of their favorite repertoire — teeming with the usual hyper-caffeinated Vivaldi and fervent complexity of Bach — for a program entitled “Vivaldi and Bach: Inspired Connection” with the Akron Symphony on January 16, 2016 at 8:00 pm in the E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony Holiday Pops at E.J. Thomas Hall (December 11)

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by Jane Berkner

ASO-Holiday-PopsA couple of weeks ago, The Price Is Right host and former Clevelander Drew Carey urged long-suffering Cleveland Browns fans to stop attending (expletive) Browns games and instead go see the (expletive) orchestra. This prompted the Akron Symphony Orchestra to champion the comedian’s cause by offering to exchange a Browns ticket stub for a free ticket to their annual holiday pops concert, “Home for the Holidays,” on Friday, December 11 at E.J. Thomas Hall. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony: a conversation with guest conductor JoAnn Falletta

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by Mike Telin

FallettaThe Akron Symphony Orchestra will continue its Classic Series on Saturday, November 14 at 8:00 pm in E.J. Thomas Hall. The concert, under the direction of celebrated guest conductor JoAnn Falletta, will include works by Roussel, Copland, and Brahms.

“It’s been a long time since I last conducted in Akron, and I’m delighted to be coming back,” the engaging, Grammy-award-winning conductor said via telephone. “Christopher Wilkins and I have known each other for a long time. We’re really good friends, and I’m happy he invited me.”

Falletta, who serves as the Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, will open Saturday’s concert with the second suite from Albert Roussel’s Bacchus and Ariadne. [Read more…]

The Akron Symphony and “Sounds of Akron”

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by Mike Telin

Sounds-of-AkronFor the past five months the Akron Symphony Orchestra and composer Clint Needham have been asking people one question: what does Akron sound like to you? The Symphony and Needham are currently working with the community to create a collaborative symphony using sound submissions from the public. Needham will use these as the inspiration for a new work that will be premiered by the Akron Symphony at E.J. Thomas Hall under the direction of Christopher Wilkins on April 16, 2016.

“This project is cool,” an enthusiastic Wilkins said during a recent telephone conversation. “It really is verging on performance art in that it’s breaking down the fourth wall in making the community part of the creative process. In a way, asking what Akron sounds like is similar to asking who you are — from a sonic point of view.” Wilkins encourages everyone to download the iOS app or the Android app and upload their recordings to Sounds of Akron. On Sunday, October 11 the Symphony invites area residents to collect sounds during an outing at the Akron Zoo. “People should know that we still want submissions,” Wilkins said, adding, “they should send us anything that they think is interesting.” [Read more…]

Akron Symphony: “American Journey” at E.J. Thomas Hall (September 19)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ThomsonPianist Philip Thomson joined music director Christopher Wilkins and the Akron Symphony Orchestra in a spirited concert on Saturday, September 19 at E.J. Thomas Hall. The “American Journey” began in Mexico with Aaron Copland’s El Salón México, stopped in Texarkana, Texas for Clint Needham’s Southern Air, and traveled to somewhere in the Wild West for Copland’s Rodeo before meeting up with George Gershwin in New York. [Read more…]

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