Innova and Naxos

Congrats to the American Composers Forum, whose excellent Innova Recordings label -- make that innova (lower case!) -- will now be distributed by Naxos. Its a good sign that the little label that truly puts music ahead of marketing (it's a non-profit), will be around for some time to come. That's good news to music lovers like me that count on innova to bring us off the beaten path material and a pipeline for contemporary composers (esp. those who haven't made it big). Here is the presser:

innova Recordings® Signs Distribution Agreement
with Naxos of America, Inc.

John Nuechterlein, President and CEO of the American Composers Forum, announced today that the Forum has finalized an agreement with Nashville-based Naxos of America to distribute innova Recordings. Under the terms of the agreement, Naxos will be responsible for both physical and digital distribution of recordings on the label, as well as representing the entire catalog in its streaming library service starting in October, 2009. Physical distribution will begin on January 1, 2010, with digital distribution beginning on March 1, 2010.

The American Composers Forum (ACF) is a national service organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Among the many ACF programs and services for composers, innova fills a niche unlike any other: putting quality recordings of notable new music into the global marketplace. The business model is artist-friendly in that 100% of the income from sales is returned directly to the artists and they retain all rights to their product.

According to Nuechterlein, “The agreement with Naxos demonstrates that innova Recordings has clearly become a significant label for new work. We are providing a critical link for composers by helping them distribute directly to their audience in the widest possible ways.”

innova Recordings was founded in 1982 as a way to document work by the composes who received a McKnight Fellowship Award. During the early years, innova produced several sampler LPs featuring the works of a range of Minnesota composers and performing ensembles.

In 1994, innova expanded operations to include recordings by a wider range of artists. Today, innova produces more than 25 CDs per year and has amassed a catalog in excess of 300 titles representing a diverse mix of musical genres encompassing experimental, electro-acoustic, jazz, world music, and contemporary classical titles.  innova releases have received wide acclaim and are prominent in radio, media, and charts. The partnership with Naxos is the latest example of the success of the label.

“We are delighted to put ground-breaking new music in front of a global audience,” says label director Philip Blackburn.  “It will counter some of the invisibility felt by makers of new music; their labors become a little less underground now.  We are proud to have established a reputation as one of the most challenging and catholic labels in the field.”

Founded in 1987, Naxos has become the world's leading producer of classical music,
releasing more new classical recordings than any other company. Naxos has subsidiaries in most major music markets around the world and has been an industry pioneer in online sales, licensing, and distribution of their recordings. innova Recordings will be one of a select handful of labels included under their distribution wing.

“The Naxos of America team is thrilled to be working so closely with such an important label for American music and artists. We look forward to a wonderful partnership with the folks at innova,” said Naxos CEO Jim Selby.

Local chorister is golden

Come again:Last year I reported here about a chorister from Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside winning a Gold Award from the Royal School of Church Music in America. Well, it has happened again.

Emma Lee Schauf, 16, of Wilkinsburg, also a chorister there, became the sixth singer in the nation to earn the Gold Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Royal School. She has been a part of the Calvary music program since Kindergarten, and earlier won the Royal School's Bronze and Silver Awards. Schauf took the exam in August in North Carolina, with Richard Rhoads of St. Andrew on the Sound in Wilmington, N.C., as
her accompianist and Jon Erik Schreiber as her voice coach.

 Congrats to Emma!

Thoughts on Honeck and PSO from a German critic

There's always foreign press at Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concerts on tour, but I don't always get to grab one. The European critics are always zipping off for some extra interview or meeting or meal or drink or whatever. But Jim Cunningham of WQED and I happened to sit next to a music critic from the South German Newspaper (Sud Deutches Zeitung), Helmut Mauro, who was in town primarily to do an interview with Manfred Honeck. We cornered him after the concert to hear his opinion on Honeck and the PSO. Here is the interview.

Maazel's father dies

I have not seen the obituary notice since I am in Europe, but I am informed by an editor that Lincoln Maazel died Sept. 15. He is the father of former Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra music director Lorin Maazel. Lincoln was 106.

 Our hearts go out to Lorin and his family at this time. 

PSO on Lake Lucerne and soon heading home

After and afternoon that saw many Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians take boat rides on the lakes near Luceren, the PSO is floating in air after a final concert here in Lucerne, Switzerland, tonight. It was the Bruckner Symphony No. 4 and Strauss "Four Last Songs" (with Christine Schafer) program, and it did the trick. I am not going to review this concert, but trust me, it was more of the same from the night before, with Honeck taking full advantage of the hall's excellent acoustics.

I will try to get some audio up soon, first of a critic who had high praise for Honeck and some of the musicians below (but I didn't account for the wind on the boat, so it didn't really work well). For now, it is time for the PSO to head back home, with a trail of excellent concerts behind it!

Violinists David Gillis, Shanshan Yao and Albert Tan of PSO on Lake Lucerne, the the concert hall they played in, with the Lucerne Culture and Convention Center (KKL) behind them in the distance. They were some of several PSO musicians who took to the quaint boats that traverse Lake Lucerne and other surrounding lakes, an experience which is really the definition of "pleasant" on a clear day like today.

New voices at Pittsburgh Opera

Robert Croan had a chance to hear some new voices from the Pittsburgh Opera Center, er, Residents Artists of ...

Here his thoughts: 

Pittsburgh Opera has renamed its training program, formerly the Pittsburgh Opera Center, as the Resident Artists of Pittsburgh Opera, and the young singers will have a greater presence in the company’s main stage productions, along with an annual production in CAPA Theater downtown. Saturday evening in the Opera’s 25^th Street Headquarters, the 2009-10 “Rising Stars” gave a free concert in a simulated audition format: each singer first performed an aria of his or her choice, followed by a second chosen by Hahn from their submitted list.

“This is how they got here,” general director Christopher Hahn explained at the start.

Three of this season’s eight singers were returning from last year. Mezzo-soprano Katherine Drago (above left) was fresh from a summer in Santa Fe, where as an apprentice she understudied the role of Zerlina in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” As it happened, the originally scheduled singer experienced an accident and Drago got to sing the remainder of the run. Sounding more soprano than mezzo, she gave a delightfully rambunctious delivery of Zerlina’s aria, “Batti, batti.”

Soprano Danielle Pastin, who had a lead in last year’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” chose the exquisite “Depuis le jour,” from Charpentier’s “Louise,” showing off her opulent timbre and shimmering high notes here and also in an aria from Puccini’s “La Rondine. Hers is one of most beautiful voices to be heard in Pittsburgh in recent years.

Bass Liam Moran gave a preview of the upcoming “Eugene Onegin” with the aria of Prince Gremin, a role for which he is the understudy.

Among the newcomers, the knockout was Lindsay Ammann, a genuine contralto, whose deep tones and sensuous presence were assets in arias from “Samson et Dalila” and “Carmen.” Shannon Kessler Dooley took over the stratosphere with silvery high notes punctuating the presentation of the rose from Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier.”

There are two new tenors. Noah Baetge, a recent Metropolitan Opera Auditions finalist, began with an impressive aria from “Lucia di Lammermoor,” while the more lyrical James Flora gave a second glimpse of this year’s opening production with Lenski’s aria from “Eugene Onegin.” Baritone Dan Kempson filled out the roster with light-voiced, Broadway-ish renditions from Korngold’s “The Dead City” and Britten’s “Billy Budd.”

From classmates to roomies

Two new members (or relatively new in Kim's case) of the PSO's first violin section, Sylvia Kim and Shanshan Yao, joined me for a slightly ill-fated interview in Lucerne, Switzerland (the Town Hall, or Rathaus, is right).

I decided to give it to you pretty raw, to get a sense of the moment and what your poor music critic has to go through at times.. At first, which you can't see obviously, Sylvia started making faces at me when I was introducing them and setting the scene, then a train rolled by (I had not seen the tracks and had thought I had found a relatively quiet area on the street away from the PSO musicians rolling off the buses and into the hotel!). That threw me off the whole interview (and brought much mirth to the two violinists). Kim is as good-natured as they come in this business, and Yao, her roomate in Pittsburgh and her friend from the Curtis Institute of Music, is a willing accomplice on tour.

Here is the lively interview. 

Happy Birthday, Manfred Honeck

"Alles gute zum Geburtstag" makes more since since we are in Switzerland now!

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra music director turns 51 today and his family will visit him here from his nearby home in Western Austria for a small celebration (and surely he won't tell them to sing pianissimo as he is asking the PSO here in this photo!). He is getting plenty of well-wishers from the orchestra, as well.

PSO in Essen

I had the pleasure of catching up with someone in Essen who, and everyone in the Pittsburgh Symphony, knew in a different capacity for so many years. Rachel Smoliar was for so long the good-natured daughter of PSO English horn player Harold Smoliar, and she still is! But she also is now a professional violinist, with a full-time job in Florida and subbing on this tour. Great to see her and find out what life is like on the other side, as I did backstage.

On the left is the Essen Philharmonie, with a cool sign...

David Garrett is fast

To go with my story today on crossover violinist David Garrett is this video worth a look of him setting the World Record for fastest playing of "Flight of a Bumblebee." Cheesy, yes, but still a show of his artistry along with virtuosity.