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20 (Plus) Questions with…composer and pianist Jake Heggie
Jake Heggie’s opera Dead Man Walking, a collaboration with librettist Terrance McNally, is a milestone in contemporary opera. Since its premiere in 2000, the work has become one of the opera world’s most performed new works. In addition to his other operas, the San Francisco-based Heggie is a prolific songwriter whose works have been performed and recorded by some of the most beloved singers of our time, most notably Frederica von Stade, Susan Graham, Audra McDonald, Patti LuPone and Joyce DiDonato. As a pianist he has accompanied several of these same singers in recital. Though best known for his richly nuanced and emotionally resonant vocal works, he has also composed many chamber and orchestral works. He is currently at work with librettist Gene Scheer on a truly epic project: an opera based on Melville’s Moby Dick, commissioned by Dallas Opera for its inaugural season in the Winspear Opera House in April 2010. The great Canadian tenor Ben Heppner will star as the obsessed whale hunter Captain Ahab.
Continue reading...20 (Plus) Questions with…composer Ricky Ian Gordon
31. July 2008
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Ricky Ian Gordon’s Green Sneakersrecently premiered at Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival to enthusiastic acclaim. His “Orpheus and Euridice”(OBIE Award) has been touring the country, and his hugely successful opera of Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath, (written with librettist Michael Korie) is touring the country with stops in Pittsburgh in November, and Opera Pacific in [...]
Continue reading...20 (Plus) Questions with…pianist David Greilsammer
23. June 2008
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The Jerusalem-born pianist David Greilsammer will be living with Mozart in Summer 2008, playing all 18 of the composer’s piano sonatas in an all-day marathon in Paris (July 5) and in six-concerts at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland (July 19 – 31). He records exclusively for the naïve label, which will re-issue his acclaimed recording of Mozart’s three earliest piano concerts in July (France on July 8; Europe soon after; August or September in the US). Admired for his innovative, sometimes startling recital programs, Greilsammer was named the “Revelation of the Year” at France’s “Victoires de la Musique Classique.” His debut release for naïve, “fantasie_fantasme,” was named Record of the Year” by the London Times.
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12. September 2008
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