Interviews

All the Seen and Heard Interviews

Alisa Weilerstein in conversation with Harvey Steiman about FRAGMENTS, her fresh approach to Bach’s cello suites

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Cellist Alisa Weilerstein in conversation with Harvey Steiman

Alisa Weilerstein walked onto the stage Monday morning at Harris Concert Hall in Aspen, picked up her cello and played for a select audience who were there to provide feedback on her new idea for a concert experience.

Alisa Weilerstein © Graham Northrup/Northrup Studios

For the project, called FRAGMENTS, Weilerstein had commissioned short pieces from 27 living classical composers to intersperse between the 36 movements of Johann Sebastian Bach’s six suites for unaccompanied cello. The audience got no printed program and knew only that she was going to play all of the first cello suite and music from five contemporary composers. There would be a stage set and lighting.

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Previewing the Festival de Música dos Capuchos 2022 with artistic director Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro

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Festival de Música dos Capuchos 2022 Beginning in 1980 the Festival de Música dos Capuchos was a major event on the international landscape. After a silence of two decades, the Festival was reborn in 2021 in a beautiful monastery in Almada across the Tagus River from Lisbon, with the hall at the University of Lisbon’s … Read more

Eamonn Quinn previews the 2022 Louth Contemporary Music Festival with Robert Beattie

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The 2022 Louth Contemporary Music Festival Every year, the Louth Contemporary Music Society runs a mid-summer Festival in Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland which is dedicated to contemporary Classical music. The Festival returns to in-person performances this year on 17 and 18 June, after a 3-year gap and an online iteration last year. The … Read more

András Keller, the Music Director of Concerto Budapest, in conversation with Gregor Tassie

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András Keller answers Gregor Tassie’s questions Gregor Tassie: The last two years have been intensely difficult for musicians worldwide, how did the pandemic affect your musicians and what did you do to bring music to your audiences? András Keller: In the first three months of the pandemic, we remained partially silent, as I’m not a … Read more

Northern Irish composer Greg Caffrey in conversation with Robert Beattie

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Contemporary music composer and founder of the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble, Greg Caffrey, interviewed by Robert Beattie Northern Irish composer, Greg Caffrey, has won a number of awards for his compositions including First Prize at the Concorso, Counterpoint, Italy in May 2012, the Taukay Edizioni Musicali International Composition Prize in 2012 and the Musica Domani International … Read more

Peter Oundjian, new Principal Conductor of the Colorado Symphony, in conversation with Laurence Vittes

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On 15 February, the Colorado Symphony Association announced the appointment of Peter Oundjian as Principal Conductor. In addition to conducting six Classics performances each season, Oundjian, who served as the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor from 2003 to 2006, will take a leading role in ‘reimagining’ the traditional symphonic model and positioning the Colorado Symphony as … Read more

CONDUCTOR DANIEL GROSSMANN IN CONVERSATION WITH ANTOINE LÉVY-LEBOYER

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Interview with Daniel Grossmann, founder, conductor and artistic director of the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich Antoine Lévy-Leboyer (ALL): How did you start the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich? Daniel Grossmann (DG): So, I had this idea in 1999. I was 21 years old. I grew up in Munich and did not like the way the Jewish … Read more