Early Music America Spring 2014 - (Page 5)

soundbytes Arion Baroque Orchestra Compiled by Mark Longaker Awards & Grants The Arion Baroque Orchestra, conductor Alexander Weimann, and soprano Karina Gauvin won the 2013 Félix Award as Classical/Vocal Album of the Year for Prima Donna! The ATMA CD celebrates Baroque diva Anna Maria Strada del Pò and features Gauvin in works by Vinci, Vivaldi, and Handel. The CD also Juno and ADISQ awards in 2013. San Francisco Renaissance Voices, directed by Todd Jolly, recently received a $3,500 grant from the Bernard Osher Foundation and a $3,000 grant from Taube Philanthropies to support production of its current season, "Kol Israel: The Inﬂuence of Judaism in Early Music." In March, the group will begin a crowd- funding campaign for the U.S. premiere of Cristiano Lidarti's opera/oratorio Esther on its upcoming "Opera Early and Ancient" series. New York service organization Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS) was awarded a grant from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs to support activities that include concert services, GEMS Live! booking agency, The Play of Daniel, and the Midtown Concert Series. The group also received a grant of $5,000 from the Reed Foundation to support its Midtown Concert Series. The Department of Economic and Community Development in Connecticut awarded a $3,847.47 Supporting Arts in Place grant to the Connecticut Early Music Six Groups Win NEA Grants In its annual round of fall grants, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Art Works grants to six early music groups. Boston Baroque, directed by Martin Pearlman, garnered $15,000 to support a new production and recording of Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, planned for the group's 40th-anniversary season. New York's Clarion Music Society, directed by Steven Fox, received $10,000 to support the Clarion Collegium Week and Concert. The April event will feature free master classes in Baroque and Classical performance practices and culminate in a performance of Brazilian composer Nunes Garcia's rarely heard 18th-century Requiem. Directed by Harry Christophers, the Boston-based Handel & Haydn Society was awarded $22,500 to help fund its performances of Handel's oratorio Samson, a radio broadcast, and related activities. Opera Lafayette, directed by Ryan Brown in Washington, DC, was given $15,000 to support performances of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Les Fetes de l'Hymen at de l'Amour...ou Les Dieux d'Egypte, to be presented as a semi-staged opera with dance. Piffaro, a Renaissance band based in Philadelphia and co-directed by Joan Kimball and Bob Wiemken, garnered $10,000 to support the "Dresden Vespers 1619" project in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York. The project is a collaboration with Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, directed by Scott Metcalfe in Boston. Jordan Sramek's Saint Paul, MN-based Rose Ensemble received $10,000 in aid of its "Saint Martin of Tours" project of performances and educational programming. Society in December through its Arts Catalyze Placemaking program. Directed by Jacques Ogg, the Lyra Baroque Orchestra was awarded two $10,000 grants recently. One, a St. Paul Cultural Star grant in December from the city of St. Paul, MN, will support the orchestra's 2013-14 St. Paul concerts. The other, an Organizational Support grant in November from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council in the Twin Cities, will go toward revitalizing the group's online presence. This year's Grammy nominations include four early music recordings. Best Opera Recording: Vinci: Artaserse, with conductor Diego Fasolis, Concerto Köln, and vocal soloists in the 1730 work by Italian composer Leonardo Vinci. Listen to samples of the Virgin Classics three-CD set at http://tinyurl.com/pngey9s. Best Choral Performance: Palestrina: Volume 3, with Harry Christophers conducting The Sixteen. Listen to a clip of the Coro CD at http://tinyurl.com/pkokqje. Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance: Times go by Turns, featuring New York Polyphony in masses by English Renaissance composers Thomas Tallis and William Byrd and English Medieval composer John Plummer. Hear tracks of the BIS Records disk at http://tinyurl.com/q9xo38e. Best Classical Vocal Solo: Mission with soprano Cecilia Bartoli and countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, conductor Diego Fasolis, and I Barocchisti on Decca; Drama Queens with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, conductor Alan Curtis, and Il Complesso Barocco in royal arias from the 17th and 18th centuries. Listen to samples of the Virgin Classics CD at http://tinyurl.com/opxvvlg. Comings & Goings The Boston Early Music Festival recently announced two new appointments to its artistic leadership team, headed by artistic directors Paul O'Dette and Steven Stubbs. Gilbert Blin was given the newly created position of opera director, after having served for six years as stage director in residence. Robert Mealy, a 20-year veteran of the BEMF Orchestra and its most frequent concertmaster since 2005, was appointed orchestra director. Boston's Handel and Haydn Society announced that chorusmaster and associate conductor John Finney will be ending his quarter-century tenure with the organization Early Music America Spring 2014 5 http://www.tinyurl.com/q9xo38e http://www.tinyurl.com/opxvvlg http://www.tinyurl.com/pngey9s http://www.tinyurl.com/pkokqje

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Early Music America Spring 2014

Editor's Note
Reader Forum
Sound Bytes
Musings: My No Early Music Dream
Profile: Choral Conductor Amelia LeClair
Recording Reviews
Donors ex machina
Three Small Nails
Early Music Is a Capital Idea
Composing Electronic Music for Baroque Instruments
2014 Guide: Workshops & Festivals
Book Reviews
Ad Index
In Conclusion: 4,568 Pages Ago

Early Music America Spring 2014