BACKCity of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra announces 2019-20 centenary season
CBSO has launched the first season of a two-year-long centenary celebration, with events, commissions and initiatives inspired by the orchestra’s history and its hopes for the future.
Highlights include:
- 40 commissions – 20 from established composers and 20 encores from composers under the age of 30, with a commitment to a 50:50 gender split
- A focus on choral masterpieces associated with Birmingham, including Britten’s War Requiem, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and more
- The Friday Night Classics series, which includes three world premieres of new symphonic suites by Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Elgar’s Cello Concerto with Sheku Kanneh-Mason, performed in Symphony Hall Birmingham, the BBC Proms and on tour internationally
- Extensive touring plans including a music festival at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, residencies at the Musikverein in Vienna and the Dortmund Konzerthaus.
- Guest artists including Alison Balsom, Nicola Benedetti, Leila Josefowicz, and Benjamin Grosvenor
- Over 30 concerts for children and young people, and provision of discounted tickets from just £6
- A new book by Richard Bratby on the CBSO’s history
Wigmore Hall International Song Competition announces competitors
The Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera International Song Competition (ISC) has announced its shortlist for 2019. In total 27 singer-piano duos have been selected to take part, representing eighteen different nationalities.
Established in 1997, ISC seeks out the best interpreters of song and lied from all over the world. Past winners include baritone Marcus Farnsworth, tenor Robin Tritschler and pianist James Baillieu.
This year the jury is led by Wigmore Hall director John Gilhooly.
The top prize for singers is £10,000 (€11,600), while the highest pianist prize is £5,000. Other prizes include the Meikle Prize for the best Duo, Richard Tauber Prize for best interpretation of Schubert Lieder, Vaughan Williams Prize for the best interpretation of songs in English by a British composer and the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme Prize.
Competitors will also benefit from workshops, talks and masterclasses from industry leaders including Judith Weir, John Mark Ainsley, Iain Burnside and Graham Johnson.
Die Komponistin Maria de Alvear: „Alle Musik ist religiös“
Maria de Alvear hat eine große Affinität zu spirituellen Praktiken. Die dramatisch-theatralischen Werke haben oft selbst rituellen Charakter. Die spanisch-deutsche Komponistin feiert die Menschheitsgeschichte als Wunder.
Seit jeher arbeitet sich die 1960 in Madrid geborene Maria de Alvear an der Conditio Humana ab. In ihren Werken und Performances thematisiert die ehemalige Kagel-Schülerin die Gebundenheit des Menschen an Liebe, Lust und Sexualität.
Oft spielen in ihren Arbeiten anthropologische und kulturhistorische Phänomene eine zentrale Rolle. De Alvear, die eine Zeitlang unter indigenen Völkern lebte, beschäftigt sich leidenschaftlich mit Paläontologie, Archäologie und Linguistik.
Maria de Alvear has a great affinity to spiritual practices. The dramatically theatrical works often have a ritual character of their own. The Spanish-German composer celebrates human history as a miracle.
Maria de Alvear, who was born in Madrid in 1960, has always worked on the Human Condition. In her works and performances, the former Kagel student addresses man’s interest in love, lust and sexuality.
Anthropological and cultural-historical phenomena often play a central role in her work. De Alvear is passionate about paleontology, archeology and linguistics.