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Handel’s Messiah: a Christmas tradition as predictable as Aunt Mildred’s fruitcake. But what if this year, you could ditch the hushed reverence and experience the “Hallelujah” chorus with a shot of pure gospel soul? BBC Four’s Hallelujah: The Gospel Messiah promises exactly that, offering a vibrant reimagining of the Baroque classic. Conductor Marin Alsop, renowned […]

Hallelujah: The Gospel Messiah...

The 2025 Southbank Centre season begins with visionary pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard joining the Philharmonia, conducted by Manfred Honeck, for a programme spanning the Romantic period. Pierre-Laurent Aimard has earned a reputation as one of the most respected interpreters of Beethoven’s music and on 2 February (3pm) he treats us to a performance of the Third Piano Concerto. The programme also features Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’ and the overture to Weber’s Der Freischütz (The Marksman).

Guest Conductor Marin Alsop leads the orchestra in a Latin American flavoured Valentine’s Day evening that features the world’s leading classical accordionist, Ksenija Sidorova, and 2023 UK Tango Champions Iro Davlanti-Lo and Adrien Bariki-Alaoui. Including Gershwin’s Cuban Overture and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, the all Piazzolla second half includes Aconcagua Concerto before Tanti Anni Prima for solo accordion and tango dancers and the famous Libertango unites...

Arriving in the wake of Tár, Maestra reaches an audience primed to see the dark side of the classical music world. And while Cate Blanchett’s Lydia Tár stands out for her abusive behavior, she also represents one common fact: Very few conductors of major orchestras are women.

Maggie Contreras’ likeable, informative Tribeca documentary follows an event created in 2018 to address that inequity. Every two years, women in the early stages of their conducting careers join the La Maestra competition in Paris, vying to win attention and professional help. They need all the help they can get. Marin Alsop, a competition judge and perhaps the most famous female conductor in the world, says in the film that when she told her childhood violin teacher she wanted to conduct, she was told, “Girls can’t do that.” Deborah Borda, the head of La Maestra’s jury and CEO of the New York Philharmonic,...

New York, NY — February 15, 2023 — The 92nd Street Y, New York (92Ny), one of New York’s leading cultural venues, presents Benjamin Grosvenor, piano, plays Schumann, Prokofiev, and more, on March 16, 2023 at 7:30pm Et at the Kaufmann Concert Hall. The concert will also be available for viewing online for 72 hours from time of broadcast. Tickets for both the in-person and livestream options start at $25 and are available at 92ny.org/event/benjamin-grosvenor-piano.

Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor returns to 92Ny following a 2017 debut, opening his program with Busoni’s transcription of Bach’s Chaconne before Schumann’s C-Major Fantasie. This program’s second half begins with more Ravel with his Baroque homage in modern colors, Le tombeau de Couperin, and closes with Prokofiev’s B-Flat Major Sonata.

Program:

Bach, Chaconne in D Minor (arr. Busoni)

R. Schumann, Fantasie in C Major, Op. 17

Ravel, Le tombeau de Couperin

Prokofiev, Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major,...

Cate Blanchett has issued a staunch defence of films and TV shows that explore controversial figures.

The Australian actor is currently up for the Oscar and Bafta awards for Best Actress, thanks to her performance as a fictional, world-famous but narcissistic conductor in Tár.

In the film, Blanchett’s character Lydia Tár finds herself at the centre of a debate about the power given to successful artists after she is accused of preying on and abusing young musicians.

Tár has been viewed as controversial by some due to the behaviour of its protagonist, with one real-life conductor accusing it of being “anti-woman”.

However, Blanchett has now argued that it is important to continue studying the works of artists and other historical figures, regardless of whether they might be deemed controversial or “problematic” today.

“If you don’t read older books that are slightly offensive because of what they say in a historical context,...

Genius conductor. Illustrious composer. Author. Professor. The magnificent (and very much fictional) Lydia Tár — the tricky virtuoso at the center of Todd Field’s masterful psychodrama “TÁR” — is all of those things and then some, dwelling in the wealthy and privileged corners of the international classical music community with impeccable style, both understated and powerful.

Played by a haunting Cate Blanchett, Tár inhabits an exclusive intersection of art, expertise, and intellectualism that is rooted in Berlin but spans continents, one that the film’s renowned costume designer Bina Daigeler and production designer Marco Bittner Rosser bring to life with upscale finesse, through the glories and fault lines of the problematic master’s legacy as she falls from grace.

To Daigeler, minimalism was one of the vital keywords of Tár’s wardrobe, a quality she put front and center, contrasting some of the dazzlingly maximalist work she’s made her name with,...

Ahead of the release of the David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream, details of the film’s soundtrack have been revealed, with the companion collection boasting unreleased live versions, album cuts, interview excerpts, orchestral performances, and film-specific remixes of classic Bowie tracks.

As a preview of the soundtrack’s exclusive “Moonage Daydream” mixes, the Bowie estate shared the version of “Modern Love” that features in director Brett Morgen’s doc:

“This version is a unique mix starting with the isolated piano motif from the track, building up into the chorus before...

Conductor Marin Alsop, the first woman to lead a major American symphony orchestra, in a scene from the documentary The Conductor. Courtesy of St. Louis Jewish Film Festival.

Joyful is a good word for Bernadette Wegenstein’s delightful, inspiring biographical documentary The Conductor, about Marin Alsop, the first woman conductor of a major American orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. It is still an exceedingly rare thing, even in the 21st century, for a woman to lead a major American orchestra, rarer even than a woman leading nations.

The Conductor is part of the 2022 St. Louis Jewish Film Festival, which is virtual again this year, meaning all films can be streamed through the festival website through March 13. For tickets and more information, visit their website https://jccstl.com/arts-ideas/st-louis-jewish-film-festival.

The documentary, one of the featured films at the 2022 St. Louis Jewish Film Festival, spotlights the career and life of Marin Alsop.

The annual St. Louis Jewish Film Festival has returned, again in a virtual format, March 6 -13 but shifted to a new spring season instead of its previous summer slot. Being virtual means all the exciting lineup of films, including documentaries on an array of subjects plus comedy and drama narrative films, are available to view anytime during the festival, through March 13, from the comfort of your own home. For tickets and more information, visit their website https://jccstl.com/arts-ideas/st-louis-jewish-film-festival.

The 27th annual festival, which is virtual like the last two, has an array of 13 international and U.S. films with Jewish themes, with five outstanding documentaries on varied topics, and eight engrossing narrative features including dramas, comedies, historical films and thrillers, plus a trio of enticing discussions and a pre-festival bonus short film, “Touch the Sky,” which is available to stream starting Jan. 17.

Countries represented include Israel, France,...

The Conductor Nylon Films Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Bernadette Wegenstein Writer: Bernadette Wegenstein, Stefan Fauland Cast: Marin Alsop, Christanne de Bruijn, Benjamin Wainwright, Scott Turner Schofield, Seumas F. Sargent, Annet Malherbe Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 6/10/21 Opens: June 15, 2021 Even some feminists understand that […]

The post The Conductor Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

"Being the first is a tough job, and I think this is why she is fighting so much for us. A festival promo trailer has debuted for an indie documentary film titled The Conductor, made by Austrian filmmaker Bernadette Wegenstein. It is premiering at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival coming up very soon, and is still looking to confirm distribution before any release is set. Told she couldn't become a music conductor because she was a girl, Marin Alsop persisted – until, against all odds, she broke through and became one of the world's most renowned classical music conductors. The Conductor takes us on her journey, born and raised in New York City, her tenacity and hard work took her from childhood days attending concerts at Lincoln Center to conducting symphonies in Baltimore, Såo Paolo, and even Vienna. "It's a triumphant film about overcoming discrimination and realizing one’s talent against all odds.

Exclusive: Cargo Film & Releasing has acquired sales rights to The Conductor and Father of the Cyborgs, a pair of documentary features premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in June.

Directed by Bernadette Wegenstein, and produced by Annette Porter of Nylon Films, The Conductor tells the overdue story of world-renowned conductor Marin Alsop, who was the first woman to serve as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as well as the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. After years of overcoming various obstacles and proving naysayers wrong, we see how Marin was able to succeed against all odds, and break the glass ceiling for women conductors around the world. The film notably utilizes stirring musical segments conducted by Alsop herself, to accentuate the highs and lows of her life, and reflect for the audience her inner world.

Marking the directorial debut of award-winning filmmaker David Burke,...

The shutdown of production was devastating to Los Angeles’ music community, just as it has been for every aspect of TV- and movie-making. But creative thinking is putting some studio musicians back to work.

John Acosta, president of Local 47 of the American Federation of Musicians, projects that lost wages due to the cancellation of live performances and studio recording dates could range from $2 million to $4 million, “just for the month of March.” Scuttled scoring dates amounted to half of that total, with last-minute cancellations of music for Fox’s “Family Guy,” Netflix’s “Umbrella Academy” and Peacock’s upcoming “Brave New World,” among others, prompting the Warner Bros., Sony and Fox scoring stages to close their doors within days of the city’s mandate that all nonessential businesses do so.

“Everything ground to a total standstill,” says composer Fil Eisler, who was gearing up to score the four remaining...

Having given the history of the "New World" in Part I, it seems wise to preface Part II with some words about how the symphony is constructed. The movements are:

I. Adagio; Allegro molto II. Largo III. Scherzo: Molto vivace IV. Allegro con fuoco

Unusually, every movement starts with an introduction. The first movement's is the most famous: starts with a striking slow introduction that establishes the current of nostalgia for, or homesickness for, the composer's native Bohemia. Another reminder of this comes with the famotus flute solo -- or does it? Some have remarked on its similarity to "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," but this is not so much a quote as a paraphrase, so to speak; small bits of "Chariot" are elided into something new that mingles many flavors: African-America spiritual, yes, but also Native American music and Bohemian folk music, which share a pentatonic flavor.

Note that the...

Soprano Marni Nixon speaks about her not-so-secret roles in some of Hollywood's best-known musicals

Long before another Nixon got mixed up with a secret recording in Washington, Marni Nixon was one of the best-loved voices nobody knew. While stars like Deborah Kerr, Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Wood received the applause and record royalties for their work in musicals such as The King and I, My Fair Lady and West Side Story, it was Nixon's soprano who sang their songs uncredited, often after signing a contract never to disclose the ruse.

Years ago, the secret got out and Nixon became kind of a byword for behind-the-scenes vocal stand-ins, of the type that is used less today. But they still are used, says Nixon, 83. "They just have a cleverer way to do it."

Nixon was speaking by phone from New York before she recently travelled to Maryland to discuss her clandestine work,...

From The Times March 13, 2010 - Ginny Dougary His daughter Nina tells Ginny Dougary about the joys and traumas of life with one of music's greats Had you been fortunate enough to be in the company of the most charismatic American conductor-composer- teacher-broadcaster of all time for long enough, it is likely that you would have heard this explosion at regular intervals in living rooms and auditoriums across the world: "That's Stein!" whenever someone affronted the late, great Leonard Bernstein by introducing him incorrectly as "BernSTEEN." His youngest child, Nina, now 48, is talking to me about her father, whose life and art is being celebrated all year at the Southbank Centre. It's a tantalising and illuminating process attempting to channel such an exuberantly talented man through the women who were close to him (I also speak to Marin Alsop, the...

Nominees announced Wednesday in top categories for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards:Record of the Year: "Halo," Beyonce; "I Gotta Feeling," The Black Eyed Peas; "Use Somebody," Kings Of Leon; "Poker Face," Lady Gaga; "You Belong With Me," Taylor Swift.Album of the Year: "I Am Sasha Fierce," Beyonce; "The E.N.D.," The Black Eyed Peas; "The Fame," Lady Gaga; "Big Whiskey And The Groogrux King," Dave Matthews Band; "Fearless," Taylor Swift.Song of the Year: "Poker Face," Lady Gaga and RedOne, songwriters (Lady Gaga); "Pretty Wings," Hod David and Musze, songwriters (Maxwell); "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)," Thaddis Harrell, Beyonce Knowles, Terius Nash & Christopher Stewart, songwriters (Beyonce); "Use Somebody," Caleb Followill, Jared Followill, Matthew Followill and Nathan Followill,...