Open Goldberg Variations director Robert Douglass, pianist Kimiko Ishizaka, and music notation company MuseScore have been invited to demonstrate a unique score-following technology at the Classical:NEXT conference in Munich at the end of May. In addition, Robert Douglass will be speaking on a panel discussing crowdfunding music projects.

This score-following technology, developed by SampleSumo and MuseScore, recognises the music as it is being performed and follows the score accordingly, allowing the audience to see every note being played. This development will, for the first time, bring the score to the forefront of the audience’s experience of a live concert.

The demonstration will consist of Kimiko Ishizaka playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations, with all members of the conference following the score in real-time, on their own computers, phones, or tablets, thanks to MuseScore’s technology.

Robert Douglass, the founder and director of the Open Goldberg Variations project, will also be speaking on a panel discussing the crowd-funding of music projects. The aim of the Open Goldberg Variations project is to provide a new public domain recording and score of the Goldberg Variations for anybody to listen to, copy, and use, however they like. Over 400 fans donated money towards the project via the crowd-funding website Kickstarter. The Goldberg Variations recording, made by pianist Kimiko Ishizaka, will be available as a free download for everyone in the summer.

For more information on the Open Goldberg Variations Project, please visit: http://www.opengoldbergvariations.org/

For more information on MuseScore please visit: http://musescore.com

For more information on SampleSumo please visit: http://www.samplesumo.com/

For more information on the Classical:NEXT conference please visit: http://www.classicalnext.com/

(Written on March 20, 2012 )

Guardian

March Of The Women: Discovering Classical Music’s Forgotten Voices.

The Southbank Centre’s Women of the World festival is shining a light on lost composers from Amy Beach to Lili Boulanger – and proving you have to look back to look forward.

The Telegraph

Student Laura Wright Sings Queen’s Jubilee Anthem.

Soprano Laura Wright sings her Queen’s Jubilee song Stronger as One in front of the Royal family at Westminster Abbey.

Financial Times

Let There Be Light.

After years of self-imposed seclusion, composer George Benjamin emerges with a new opera and a retrospective.

Gramophone

Seiji Ozawa To Take A Year Off.

Japanese conductor steps away from the podium to recover from ill health.

BBC Music Magazine

Violin Strings Spun From Spider Silk.

5000 strands wound together to create strings for a violin.

JDCMB

Fate is… a counter tenor?

Jessica Duchen on the UK premiere of Judith Weir’s new opera Miss Fortune.

Intermezzo

Munich audience boo silence

More booing at the opera, this time in Munich where the audience did not enjoy the silent tap dance preceding the final act.

(Written on March 13, 2012 )

English conductor Ivor Bolton triumphs at the Bavarian State Opera with his rendering of Simone Giovanni Mayr’s forgotten masterpiece ‘Medea in Corinto’ (1821), in a new production by German director Hans Neuenfels. Premiered on Monday 7 June in Munich, the production features German soprano Nadja Michael as Medea. Ramón Vargas (Giasone), Alasdair Miles (Creonte), Alek Shrader (Egeo) and Elena Tsallagova (Creusa) complete the strong cast. Whilst critics differ in their opinions of Neuenfels’ vision of Mayr’s work, Ivor Bolton’s interpretation of and commitment to this wrongly forgotten score had amazed and delighted reviewers. Reinhard J. Brembeck from the Süddeutsche Zeitung describes Ivor Bolton and the Bavarian State Orchestra as “the great delight of this three-hour-long evening”, whilst the Augsburger Allgemeine notes that Ivor Bolton was “enthusiastically acclaimed by the audience” and “deservedly won the laurels of the night”. Critics note the “remarkable intimacy” (Frankfurter Rundschau) of Ivor Bolton’s “dedicated and vital interpretation” (Nürnberger Zeitung), his sensitivity in “elaborating the harmonic and instrumental facets of the score, which renders thrilling dramatic moments as convincingly as coaxing belcanto melodies” (Klassikinfo). Ivor Bolton’s passion for lesser known works and his expertise in opera from the baroque and classical periods, was obvious – “Ivor Bolton extracted the maximum possible from the piece” (Kultiversum). Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich from the Frankfurter Rundschau writes: “It is delightful how this music manages to deeply move the listener, when it is presented with such instantaneous power and (…) performed in the most lively manner by the choruses and the orchestra. There is no doubt, Simon Mayr’s ‘Medea’ has found its way into the repertoire.” For a conductor who actively seeks to attract the attention of a larger audience to hidden operatic gems, which more beautiful compliment could there be?

(Written on June 14, 2010 )