Interviews

All the Seen and Heard Interviews

Melissa Smey, Executive Director of Columbia University’s Miller Theater, in conversation with Daniele Sahr

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Executive Director of Columbia University’s Miller Theater Melissa Smey talks to Daniele Sahr

Melissa Smey, Executive Director of Miller Theater © Adrienne Stortz

Melissa Smey, the Executive Director of Miller Theater at Columbia University, brings her collaborative spirit and production expertise to putting on some of the best music series in New York City. It might take listeners a few extra subway stops to make it uptown, but the artistic excellence they will find cannot be overstated. I got to speak to Melissa Smey in this 26th season of their signature series, ‘Composer Portraits’, about the curatorial process and her take on what makes contemporary music welcoming to audiences.

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Illustrator and animator Grégoire Pont in conversation with Gregor Tassie

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Gregor Tassie talks to visual artist Grégoire Pont

Grégoire Pont © Ugo Ponte

One of the unexpected highlights of the George Enescu International Festival was a Sunday matinee concert of French music for children at the charming Odeon Hall (review here). If the music by Poulenc and Ravel was well known, the artwork by the French illustrator Grégoire Pont was a pleasant surprise.

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Mark Jordan in conversation with conductor Dalia Stasevska about her return to the Cleveland Orchestra

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Questions on the road for conductor Dalia Stasevska

Dalia Stasevska © Veikko Kahkonen

Ukrainian-born Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska (currently principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra) will be returning to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra 20-23 November in a program that features Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony and La Noche de los Mayas by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. Busy schedules prohibited the conductor and Seen and Heard International critic Mark Sebastian Jordan from finding an ideal time to speak in person, so they devised a correspondence interview that would allow Stasevska to work on her answers whenever she found a stray moment between family, study, rehearsals, performances and travel.

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Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero in conversation with Gregor Tassie

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Gregor Tassie talks to conductor Giancarlo Guerrero about Shostakovich and his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District 

Giancarlo Guerrero © Lukasz Rajchert

From my review of a recent performance of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District: ‘Guerrero’s masterly analysis of the score and his authority in guiding this excellent orchestra of Romanian Radio was at the centre of the evening – the orchestra unveiled world class virtuosity with the brass group in particular evincing the often ribald brutality of Shostakovich’s orchestration, with the woodwind matching them with the quirky intonation of the composer’s frequently piquant and satirical score. At significantly dramatic moments, Guerrero brought out the expressive passages on the violas which was another eloquent and impassioned element of Shostakovich’s orchestration.’

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Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green in conversation with Harvey Steiman

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Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green on the Ring road to Wotan

Ryan Speedo Green © Jiyang Chen

In the nine years since a book about Ryan Speedo Green told his story of a troubled African-American youth redeemed by opera, the bass-baritone has risen from short opera roles to a career that has made him a star at the Metropolitan Opera. His latest triumph is an astonishingly mature portrayal of Wotan in Wagner’s Die Walküre at Santa Fe Opera [click here].

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