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Your result for "Alsop" from 01/01/2000 to 11/29/2008 in Interviews/Features
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Interviews & Features |
October 13, 2008 |
By Susan Delson, Forbes Magazine
When she took the helm of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra last fall, Marin Alsop made history as the first female music director of a major American orchestra. From the opening selection of her first concert--contemporary composer John Adams's "Fearful Symmetries"--it was clear that the maestra, as she's called, had made it her mission to jolt the BSO and its audiences into the 21st century.
Click here to read more.
http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/10/13/0929_FLEW062.html
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Interviews & Features |
October 13, 2008 |
Anniversary Celebrations: Lenny Happy Returns
BBC Magazine
Leonard Bernstein's 90th birthday would have fallen on 25 August, and New York's music community will spend much of the autumn season honouring it. A total of 30 events are planned through December, including panel discussions, film screenings, and concerts, among the most anticipated of which is Bernstein's 1971 Mass. Protégée Marin Alsop conducts the Baltimore Symphony, soloists and a cast that includes 500 school children, on 25 October. Lenny would have loved it.
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Interviews & Features |
October 12, 2008 |
Marin Alsop celebrates her mentor's take on liturgical music in 'Mass'
By Tim Smith | Baltimore Sun reporter
When Leonard Bernstein undertook to create a work for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, it was inevitable that he would think big. Very big.
The result was Mass, subtitled A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers.
There has never been, and probably never will be, anything quite like it.
Since its premiere Sept. 8, 1971, it has generated mixed reactions, from ecstatic to dismissive.
Among those in the strongly positive camp is Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director Marin Alsop, perhaps the most ardent champion Mass has had since Bernstein himself. Over the past dozen years, she has conducted it in collaborations with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and others.
"I don't think there's one weak moment in it," Alsop says of the two-hour work. "It's just brilliant." She is about to lead the BSO, Morgan State University Choir and Marching Band, Peabody Children's Chorus, soloist Jubilant Sykes and others -- more than 250 performers -- in a semi-staged production at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall that will be recorded for a CD to be released on the Naxos label.
Mass then moves to New York's Carnegie Hall and United Palace Theater (with local student performers), as part of "Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds," a citywide festival marking what would have been the composer's 90th birthday. A final performance will be at the Kennedy Center.
"When I first heard snippets of it, I thought, what's that? The sound was kind of like 'Kumbaya,' very '60s folk-song in a way," Alsop says. "Then I got really curious about it when I started to get to know Bernstein." Alsop was one of Bernstein's favorite students; she received a conducting fellowship to work with him at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts in the late 1980s, a couple of years before he died.
"I had a feeling there was something a bit raw about the subject of Mass for him," Alsop says. "I wanted to know more about the piece and its history, and why it was a sore spot. But whenever I brought it up, he would say, 'I don't want to talk about it.' Then, of course, I got really into it, and I read some of the critics." The larger-than-life Bernstein took as his starting point the liturgy of the Mass, a nod to Kennedy's distinction as the first Catholic president. But he was not about to restrict himself to writing music merely for the five passages traditionally treated by composers, the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. He envisioned something much more extensive, something closer to an actual service.
Interspersed with the liturgical texts are lyrics by Bernstein and Stephen Schwartz, as well as a few provocative lines offered by Paul Simon. In this way, Bernstein could explore all of his passionate feelings about religion, war, government, authority, individuality, community.
And Bernstein set out to do this not in one cohesive musical voice, but a whole prism of musical styles, including heavy and light classical, rock, folk, jazz, blues, Broadway -- a sonic catholicity.
Although a few reviewers voiced praise, and audiences responded with exceptional fervor, most of the press was cool to hostile. Mass was branded as vulgar, confused, pretentious.
"Originally, it must have been difficult for some people to deal with," Alsop says. "They must have felt, 'Look at him, he's just trying to be so hip. He's too cool for words.' " That striving for coolness is unmistakable in Mass, and it can come across as labored. But each diverse element in the score serves the big picture that Bernstein is after, an examination of what binds us together, what prompts and soothes crises of faith.
Clashes between tonality and dissonance provide a telling symbol of all this, as when a pre-recorded tape of a vocal quartet negotiating a cacophonous Kyrie is halted by the Celebrant inviting his congregation to "sing God a simple song." ("The music is never simple, even if it sounds simple," Alsop says.) Many other conflicts erupt in Mass, musical and verbal. The congregation always seems to be in a volatile state, easily turning cynical or threatening. The Celebrant, an exceptionally demanding baritone role, eventually loses control of his flock.
"He's a good guy who means well," says Sykes, the Celebrant for the BSO. "He loves people. He loves, or likes, God, but he's more into being connected with his friends and his congregation. When they begin to turn on him and doubt their faith, he has no strength. It brings up his own fears and doubts." Alsop describes the Celebrant's crisis as "one of the greatest mad scenes in all of music. Lenny was the most wonderful storyteller, and Mass is a terrific story about self-discovery," she says. "The Celebrant talks about good deeds, but there comes a moment when there has to be sacrifice." May this sacrifice, which has made our peace with you, advance the peace ... of all the world.
--from Eucharistic Prayer III, Roman Catholic Mass It's hard not see Bernstein himself as the Celebrant.
The composer often addressed questions of faith in his works, notably the 1963 Kaddish Symphony.
He may never have fully resolved his own issues, but he could not leave the pivotal figure of his Mass devoid of hope and direction.
The liturgy provided the composer with an ideal solution, the part in the Mass when the priest encourages the congregation to exchange a "sign of peace." In Mass, after the Celebrant's breakdown, a solo flute is heard, not so distantly related to the one that provides a transition from conflict to the "Resurrection Ode" at the end of Mahler's Symphony No. 2.
Here, it leads to the pure sound of a boy soprano, whose haunting melody, resonant of the Celebrant's simple song, is gradually picked up by the full complement of singers.
During this Pax: Communion, which includes some of the most radiant and affecting music Bernstein ever wrote, those onstage exchange signs of peace and pass them along to the audience.
"I think that's the part Lenny liked the best," Alsop says. "He wanted people to give each other a kiss of peace all over the theater. He loved to kiss everyone." The Celebrant shares in this return to community and hope, this union of innocence and maturity.
Faith is now possible again, and so, Bernstein seems to say, is peace, if only the desire is strong enough.
Jamie Bernstein, the composer's daughter, tracks the origins of her father's own personal crisis of faith to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Mass, she says, was her father's way of responding to lingering aftereffects of that death, as well as the Vietnam War and the 1968 election of "the very antithesis of John F. Kennedy," Richard Nixon.
Not surprisingly, Nixon did not attend the premiere of Mass. Its loaded political implications ("We wait in silent treason until reason is restored. ... Give us peace that we don't keep on breaking.") would hardly have gone over well.
"There is distance enough from the events of that time," Alsop says. "Mass doesn't seem to have so much of a political agenda now, but it is still apropos today. Iraq comes to mind, of course. And what's happening on Wall Street." Adds Kevin Newbury, who is directing the BSO presentation: "A crisis of faith is always interesting -- and relevant." "In mercy and love unite all your children. ... Remember those who take part in this offering ... and all who seek you with a sincere heart." -- from Eucharistic Prayers III and IV, Roman Catholic Mass The sheer dimensions of Mass help to explain, perhaps more than any lingering doubts as to its quality, why it is so infrequently produced.
"One of the biggest challenges is the amount of space we have to move the masses -- no pun intended," says Newbury, who is staging Mass for the first time. "It is not meant to be a stand-and-sing concert.
It would be fun to have a set, but there's something nice about the economy of this. And there will be lighting." The 1971 premiere at the Kennedy Center Opera House was quite theatrical; having an orchestra pit freed up the stage for a lot of action, including choreography.
There won't be room for dancing at Meyerhoff, but "there will be so many bodies onstage that it will feel like there's a choreographic dimension to it," Alsop says. "You'll have a sense of motion." Gathering the performers has been "like casting for a Broadway show," Alsop says. The vocal soloists and singers for one of the several choruses involved were auditioned and rehearsed initially in New York.
Sykes has already sung the Celebrant for two productions led by Alsop in Los Angeles and London.
"Personally, there are certain things I think are great about Mass, including the whole idea of it, and some things I don't," he says. "After the performances I've done, I've heard everything from 'What in the world was that?' to 'That was the most beautiful thing I ever heard,' and everything in the middle." Newbury, too, has harbored some reservations.
"The first time I heard it, there were things I couldn't wrap my head around," the director says.
"But I've completely fallen in love with it. I think the way to approach it is to embrace the hybrid nature of the piece, to embrace the many different styles." Neither Newbury nor Sykes is Catholic; both have attended Catholic services for research. For her part, Alsop can draw on a closer connection.
"My father is from a large Mormon family and my mother is from a large Roman Catholic family," she says, adding with a laugh, "so I'm still trying to recover from everything." Alsop is "not big on organized religion" today. "I don't find Mass a particularly religious piece, but maybe I'm projecting my own feelings," she says.
"I'm happy when people see their own personal beliefs in it, or when they disagree with certain aspects.
You can end up feeling hopeful or questioning, with a sense of possibility or trepidation. It depends on where you are in your life," Alsop says. "Great art is not prescriptive; it offers possibility."
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/music/bal-mass1012,0,2467480.story?page=1
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Interviews & Features |
October 4, 2008 |
By Mona Molarsky, New York City Life Examiner
Actor Alec Baldwin will team up with conductor Marin Alsop on Friday, October 10 to present Inside the Music: Dvorák's New World Symphony at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.
Just a year ago, Marin Alsop made history as the first woman to head a major American orchestra, when she was appointed music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
A native New Yorker, Alsop was born into a musical Manhattan family in 1956. Her parents played violin and cello in the NYC Ballet Orchestra. When she was two, Alsop started to play piano; at five she began violin. She was studying at Julliard by the age of seven. But it wasn’t until later that Alsop heard Leonard Bernstein conduct the New York Philharmonic and set her heart on becoming a conductor. She was nine at the time.
Forty-five years later, Alsop is at the top of her game and finally getting to call the shots. By presenting Dvorák's 35-minute work as part of the New York Philharmonic’s Insights Series, Alsop—with Alec Baldwin’s help—will introduce the New World Symphony to an audience that’s broader than the usual classical crowd.
Baldwin will kick off Friday’s performance by narrating a multi-media presentation that highlights Czech composer Antonín Dvorák's visit to America. It was during this 1892 sojourn that Dvorák became inspired by African-American and Native American music and wrote what would become known as the New World Symphony. It premiered at Carnegie Hall the following year to tumultuous acclaim. Following Baldwin’s introduction, Alsop will lead the New York Philharmonic in a performance of the work.
Breaking down the barriers that separate classical music from the rest of musical experience has long been part of Alsop’s agenda. Besides conducting and playing classical violin, she also plays jazz. Since 1984 she’s had a 10-piece swing band of her own called String Fever.
But it is as a conductor that she has broken the greatest barriers. And as a conductor, she inevitably wins raves all around. “Alsop has again packed the houses, and made her orchestra play like there was no tomorrow,” crowed The Times of London when Alsop fever was sweeping Europe not long ago. Her recordings of music by Dvorák and Brahms from the Naxos label are hits there. Now that she’s back on American soil, we can expect more of the same.
In addition to the October 10 program with Baldwin, Alsop will conduct Dvorák's symphony and other works with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall on October 7 and 11. She’ll also be at Carnegie Hall on October 25, conducting the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in The Bernstein Mass Project.
http://www.examiner.com/x-907-New-York-City-Life-Examiner~y2008m10d4-Baldwin--Alsop-to-Bring-New-World-to-Life
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Interviews & Features |
September 11, 2008 |
MUSIC: Powerhouse programs
By T. L. Ponick, Washington Times
Under the baton of Marin Alsop, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has increasingly become a major presence in Montgomery County's beautiful Strathmore facility. Miss Alsop has been a champion of new and relatively new American music. She will emphasize that predilection as she revives Leonard Bernstein's still controversial "Mass" on Oct. 26 at the Kennedy Center's Concert Hall, in the same building where it debuted some 37 years ago. (It also will be performed in Baltimore and at Carnegie Hall.) Commissioned as part of the Kennedy Center's grand opening, "Mass" is an exuberant extravaganza featuring musicians, players, dancers and, frankly, anyone else Mr. Bernstein could think to include.
Based loosely on the Catholic Mass, Mr. Bernstein's vision more closely resembles a production of "Jesus Christ, Superstar" as re-imagined by P.T. Barnum. While the work has its partisans, it was not a success in its debut, in part because of its peculiar liberation-theology message and the liberties it took with the Roman liturgy. It will be interesting to see a live performance of this work freed by the passage of time from its late-1960s social context.
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Interviews & Features |
September 11, 2008 |
Press Release
Carnegie Hall will present the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra led by Maestra Marin Alsop in two performances of Bernstein’s Mass, as part of the Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds festival this fall on Friday, October 24 at 8:00 p.m. at Carnegie Hall and on Saturday, October 25 at 3:00 p.m. at the United Palace Theater in Upper Manhattan.
Leonard Bernstein’s monumental Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers, was originally created for a large orchestra, two choruses, a Broadway-sized cast, a rock band, and even a marching band. Directed by Kevin Newbury, Carnegie Hall’s semi-staged performances of this rarely performed work, including costuming and musical movement, will feature hundreds of artists, including baritone Jubilant Sykes (Celebrant), the Morgan State University Choir, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, a marching band, and a “Street Chorus” performing in collaboration with the BSO. On Saturday, October 25, these performers will be joined by approximately 500 New York City public school students for an afternoon presentation of the Mass at the United Palace Theater, part of The Bernstein Mass Project, created by The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall.
Commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Mass was created for the opening of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on September 8, 1971. The piece poses questions about the role of religion and the church during this turbulent time in history and focuses on the themes of faith, doubt, tolerance, and renewal of tradition. It also provides listeners with an eclectic mix of musical genres, including rock, jazz, Broadway, blues, opera, and hymns. Bernstein, who was Jewish, had long been fascinated by Catholicism and its rituals, and thus chose the traditional Roman Catholic Mass to commemorate John F. Kennedy, the country’s first and only Catholic president and a close friend of Bernstein. Though overtly religious, the work was also intended as an anti-war piece and with its political undertones, some viewed Mass as a veiled critique of the Nixon administration. Despite the controversy that Bernstein created with Mass, audiences loved the piece and it remains the best-selling classical multi-disc set ever produced. The original performance was directed by Gordon Davidson with texts by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Schwartz (with four lines written by Paul Simon), sets by Oliver Smith, costumes by Frank Thompson, and choreography by Alvin Ailey.
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director Marin Alsop, a Bernstein protégée who has conducted Mass five times, said, “Leonard Bernstein, for me, was the greatest risk-taker in 20th-century classical music. He thrived on conflict, and this is nowhere more evident than in his most controversial composition, Mass. Even the response to Mass was divisive: the public loved it but most of the critics hated it. The vitriolic reaction to the 1971 premiere caused him great heartache, because this work, more than any other, contains the essence of this complex man and artist.”
Prior to the October 24 and October 25 performances in New York, the BSO will perform Bernstein’s Mass at Baltimore’s Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on October 16–18. Following the New York performances, the BSO will travel to Washington, D.C. to perform Mass at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, October 26 at 4:00 p.m., marking the fourth time the work has been presented there since its 1971 premiere. All performances will be directed by Kevin Newbury.
About the Artists
Hailed as one of the world’s leading conductors for her artistic vision and commitment to accessibility in classical music, Marin Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. With her inaugural concerts in September 2007, she became the first woman to head a major American orchestra. She also holds the title of Conductor Emeritus at Bournemouth Symphony in the United Kingdom, where she served as the Principal Conductor from 2002–2008. In 2005, Maestra Alsop was named a MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor ever to receive this prestigious award. In 2007, she was honored with a European Women of Achievement Award, and in 2008 she was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Maestra Alsop is a regular guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. She also appears frequently as a guest conductor with many distinguished orchestras worldwide. After a highly successful 12-year tenure as music director of the Colorado Symphony, Ms. Alsop continues her association as conductor laureate; she also continues as music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California. Marin Alsop attended Yale University and received her master’s degree from The Juilliard School. In 1989, her conducting career was launched when she became a prize winner at the Leopold Stokowski International Conducting Competition in New York, and in the same year was awarded the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at the Tanglewood Music Center.
[Read more at the link below.]
http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/press/press_release/110734.html
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