Sarah Kirkland Snider in 2020: Navigating lockdown, releasing a recording and composing an opera
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Composer Alexey Shor in conversation with Colin Clarke
It is an exciting time for composer Alexey Shor. I personally first came across his music on a Delos release entitled Classical Music Stars in Malta in which four of his chamber pieces (Farewell Nocturne; Addio; King Matt the First; Coming of Age) shared disc space with music by Ilya Dimov, Khachaturian, Joseph Vella, and the fabulous Handel/Halvorsen Passacaglia. Then, the superstar violinist Maxim Vengerov, no less, performed Shor’s St. Elmo Barcarolle at the Barbican in January this year under the baton of a conductor who is a tireless champion of Shor’s music, Sergey Smbatyan (review); and Vengerov’s encore, after Bruch’s First Violin Concerto and Ravel’s Tzigane, was another work by Shor: his Elegy for violin and orchestra.
Members of the public needed for Lost in Song and join a study to evaluate mood and general well-being
Call for participants for a study into the effects of virtual choral singing on mood and well-being
Brought to you by Limina Immersive, NHS Arden & GEM and Ex Cathedra, Lost in Song is a web-based application that has been specifically developed to lift spirits and provide an opportunity to experience the joys of choral singing from the comfort and safety of your own home. With songs arranged and performed by award-winning Birmingham-based choir Ex Cathedra, Lost in Song allows you to sing along with a choir, while enjoying 360 degree footage of natural landscapes from around the UK.
Pianist Leon McCawley in conversation with Robert Beattie
Leon McCawley is one of the UK’s leading concert pianists. He has forged a highly successful career since winning first prize in the 1993 International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna and second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition the same year. Since then, his concert performances and extensive discography have established him as a … Read more
Glyndebourne 2020 – A little brightness in all the pandemic doom and gloom
Like all arts organisations during these gloomy times of the Covid-19 pandemic, Glyndebourne was forced to cancel their Festival 2020 and faced with a financial struggle. Unlike most, however, the Glyndebourne opera house is set in the middle of the Sussex countryside, with beautiful grounds, pleasant gardens and the lovely backdrop of the old country … Read more
Two more evenings of opera and ballet, live from the Covent Garden stage and available online
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Fundraising for our future –
Royal Opera House announces Autumn Opera and Ballet Concerts
The Royal Opera House is delighted to announce two packed evenings of opera and ballet, live from our stage in Covent Garden and available to view wherever you are in the world online.
A Truth in Art: Aubrey Beardsley at Tate Britain
A truth in art, said Oscar Wilde, is one whose opposite is also true. Aubrey Beardsley’s same friend also said, one should either be a work of art or wear a work of art. That is Dandyism for you. These men would sometimes spend hours tying a cravat. Whichever way you look at Beardsley there are contradictions. It is comic while being tragic. Lightweight while being ponderous. Intense while being relaxed. Dismissive while being possessive. Comic while being tragic. Knowing while being unknowing. Gilbert and Sullivan were Beardsley’s exact contemporaries. See my recent Seen and Heard piece on G&S topsy-turveydom (click here).