Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Meet the Musician: Úna O'Riordan, Cellist
If the name Úna Fionnuala O'Riordan doesn't tip you off that the DSO's newest cellist is Irish through and through, her bright blue eyes and thick mane of wavy red hair should certainly do the trick. O'Riordan is, in fact, a first generation Irish-American whose parents moved to the United States when her father, an engineer, was transferred from Ireland to Chicago. Although she was born here, O'Riordan still has deep roots in her parents' homeland."My mother has 10 siblings, and I have about 35 first cousins in Ireland," she said. "I've visited a number of times over the years. Usually at family get-togethers there's a lot of storytelling and music-making going on, and everyone ends up participating in one way or another. I'm grateful when there's a cello around, because singing is definitely not my strong suit!"
O'Riordan began playing the cello at age 4 after hearing a string instrument demonstration in her kindergarten class. When her family relocated to the Washington, D.C. area when she was 9, she continued her musical education. She went on to attend the Interlochen Arts Camp in 1992 as an Emerson Scholar and returned for the next two summers. There, she took a master class with DSO cellist Paul Wingert, and as a member of the camp's World Youth Symphony, she was partnered with another DSO cellist, Marcy Chanteaux, when the DSO played a side-by-side concert with the youth ensemble.
O'Riordan received a Bachelor of Music with Distinction from the Eastman School of Music where she was named an Arts Leadership Scholar. She continued her studies as a graduate student at the Northwestern University School of Music as a recipient of the Eckstein Grant, a two-year, full-ride fellowship. During her time at Northwestern, she was a winner of the school's concerto competition and performed as a soloist with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra. At the same time, she was co-principal cellist of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago under the batons of Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez.
After graduating, O'Riordan won positions with the Sarasota Orchestra (assistant principal cellist), the Sarasota Opera (principal cellist) and the Oregon Symphony. While in Oregon, she also had the unique opportunity to play with two acts that were far removed from the symphony world: Michigan native and award-winning indie rocker Sufjan Stevens and Pink Martini, the "little orchestra" from Portland, Or. that melds jazz, Latin and multiple ethnic influences to create what might be described as "world lounge" music. O'Riordan continued her relationship with Pink Martini and performed with the ensemble in Los Angeles' Walt Disney Hall on New Year's Eve, 2003, soon after it opened. She was also a guest artist on Pink Martini's album, Hey, Eugene, recorded in 2007.
In 2001, while living in Florida, O'Riordan was invited to perform as a last-minute substitute cellist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on their 12-city European tour. "The tour began in Ireland, and we landed in Dublin the morning of my birthday. There were even a few of my aunts waiting at the airport to greet me…it was such a great birthday present. Joining the tour was a great professional opportunity, and seeing family I hadn't seen in over 5 years was icing on the cake." O'Riordan won her coveted section position in December 2006, and earned her tenure a year later. She loves working with the DSO which she says has a great sense of camaraderie that is not always found in professional symphonies. She also feels proud to play in the historic Orchestra Hall and is extremely excited about having Leonard Slatkin as the new Music Director. "There was just an immediate chemistry with him," she said. "The orchestra sounds fantastic when he's on the podium."
Outside of her work with the DSO, O'Riordan can be heard playing with various musicians in the Detroit area. Upcoming performances include a duo recital with Principal Cellist Robert DeMaine, chamber recitals with Sharon Sparrow, and collaborations with members of New Music Detroit. She recently worked as a cello coach with actress Lake Bell for her role as a jazz cellist in the upcoming film "Little Murder," which was filmed in Detroit. In addition to her private teaching studio, she is a faculty member for the DSO's Power of Dreams String Project.
In her free time, she does pilates and yoga to stay strong and recently started salsa lessons with DSO oboe fellow Geoffrey Johnson. "Our goal is to hold our own on the dance floor in Miami at the end of the upcoming Florida tour next February!"
O'Riordan lives in Plymouth and has become very fond of her adopted home. "Detroit has a rich cultural history, but it also has a vibrant community of artists and musicians who are defining and shaping the Detroit of tomorrow, and I'm proud to be a part of it."
Labels: Meet the Musician, Noteworthy
posted by Detroit Symphony Orchestra at
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Improved Subscriber Benefit for iPhone Users
DSO classical subscribers* now have the ability to access the Naxos music library via iPhone or iTouch.Beginning 12 November 2009, Naxos Music Library-the world's largest collection of streaming classical, jazz, wind band, choral, and world music-owned by the world's leading classical label-announced a new iPhone Application which will allow subscribers remote access to their personal and account playlists. To read the entire Naxos release click here.
To set the Naxos music library app up:
- Go to, http://www.detroitsymphony.com/naxos
- Enter your DSO username and password and click login.
- Click the link displayed on our website to enter the Naxos music library.
- On the menu bar select Playlists.
- If you have not registered to set up your own playlist select Sign up on the right hand side of the of the screen.
- Fill out your information and register for a new account.
- To activate your account check your email and click the link provided for activation.
- You can now begin building your playlists and login in on your iPhone or iTouch to listen to the Naxos music library on the go!
Labels: Noteworthy
posted by Detroit Symphony Orchestra at
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Klezmer and Classical? Why not.
by Jim BoyleOver the years as Jewish immigrants left Eastern Europe for American cities like Detroit, with them came their rich traditions. Musically, this often meant Klezmer, the sort of Eastern European, traditional folk-jazz sound that's some times associated with Fiddler on the Roof and Jewish weddings.
With roots that harken back to biblical times, Klezmer's popularity in the United States has waned and resurged in pulsating increments since the arrival of European settlers. One noted downturn was after World War II and the Holocaust, as immigrating Jews anxious to adjust to American culture sought a less "ethnic" musical direction. However, as with many great traditions, Klezmer was rediscovered by subsequent generations of musicians (both in the U.S. and elsewhere) searching for their own cultural identities and inspiration. Today, wisps of its influence can be heard all around us - from jazz to world-music to indie rock.
But can Klezmer work in the classical world? Mashing the two might be a stretch for some. But, just as Gershwin brought jazz out of the clubs and into the orchestra pit with his ever-popular Rhapsody in Blue (including the very Klezmer-esque opening clarinet), so might Klezmer be received in the classical sphere. Fresh. Insightful. New.
Judge for yourself on on December 10th and 11th when Leonard Slatkin brings us a truly rare world premiere - concerto for Klezmer and Orchestra - composed by the inventive Wlad Marhulets. With his classical training and Jewish heritage it's a nature fit and perfectly aligned with his lean towards the experimental. It's certainly shaping up to be a special I-was-there night.
Labels: Noteworthy
posted by Detroit Symphony Orchestra at
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Friday, October 2, 2009
DSO to Tour Florida in February 2010
Six-day tour to bring DSO to Vero Beach, West Palm Beach, Naples, Longwood, Sarasota and MiamiThe DSO, Music Director Leonard Slatkin and acclaimed cellist Sol Gabetta will embark upon a tour in southern Florida from Tues., Feb. 9 to Sun., Feb. 14, 2010.
Tour venues will include:
- Indian River Symphonic Association at Vero Beach Community Church on Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m.
- Kravis Center for the Performing Arts of West Palm Beach on Feb. 10 at 8:00 p.m.
- Philharmonic Center of Naples on Feb. 11 at 8:00 p.m.
- Northland, A Church Distributed of Longwood on Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
- Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall of Sarasota on Feb. 13 at 8:00 p.m.
- Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami on Feb. 14 at 4:00 p.m.
Performances will include Brahms' Symphony No. 2, Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, Berlioz's Le Corsaire, Op. 21 as well as Barber's Cello Concerto in honor of the composer's 100th birthday, and Peter Mennin's Concertato for Orchestra, "Moby Dick."
"Florida has always been a welcoming state on any major orchestra's touring agenda," says Slatkin. "I am pleased to have my very first tour with the Detroit Symphony take place in this very sophisticated musical community."
The orchestra previously toured Florida in 2001 with guest artist and violinist Joshua Bell under the direction of then music director Neeme Jarvi.
Born to Russian-French parents in Cordoba, Argentina in 1981, the charismatic cellist Sol Gabetta is forging an impressive career; she has a recording contract with SonyBMG, directs her own festival, and has invitations from major orchestras all over the world. Winner of the 2007 Echo Klassik Award and a 2007 Grammy Award nominee, Sol Gabetta has worked this season with orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra and has toured with the Basel Chamber Orchestra. Recitals have led her to many major venues and festivals in Europe and Asia, including the Vienna Musikverein, the Luxembourg Philharmonie and the Louvre in Paris.
The DSO Florida Tour is made possible in part by a grant from the Marjorie S. Fisher Fund and sponsorship by the Forbes Company. In addition to our appreciation of a variety of generous individual gifts, we also wish to gratefully acknowledge the following donors for leadership contributions: Cecilia Benner, Herman & Sharon Frankel, Dr. Deanna & Mr. David B. Holtzman, David & Valerie McCammon.
The DSO is offering a Florida Patron Tour for those who wish to join the orchestra on this tour. Information on purchasing tickets to see the DSO on its Florida tour can be obtained by visiting www.detroitsymphony.com/fl
Labels: Noteworthy
posted by Detroit Symphony Orchestra at
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Thursday, September 17, 2009
Meet the Musician: Dennis Nulty, Principal Tuba
Joining the DSO this season is Principal Tuba Dennis J. Nulty who received his appointment while completing his graduate studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.Born in upstate New York, Dennis began his musical studies in third grade on cello. In fifth grade he left the orchestra for the band, where he started on trumpet, at which he claims he was "terrible."
"I was relegated to the baritone/euphonium after only a couple of weeks with the trumpet," said Dennis. "I picked up the tuba in sixth grade only because I was on the football team and was the biggest kid in the band at that time, and there were no other tuba players!"
Dennis completed his undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music, earning a Performers Certificate, one of only a handful of tuba players to do so. He then joined the New World Symphony in Miami where he was a fellow for three years.
Dennis has performed extensively with the Boston Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic and Syracuse Symphony. He also plays with a variety of ensembles such as brass quintets, marching bands, jazz groups and period instrument ensembles, including the New Sousa Band with which he toured Florida. He has performed frequently at historic Fenway Park, including at the opening ceremonies for game one of the 2007 World Series, and most recently has been recording a CD/DVD with trumpeter Chris Botti and the Boston Pops.
In addition to music, Dennis is most passionate about photography, reading and biking.
Labels: Meet the Musician, Noteworthy
posted by Detroit Symphony Orchestra at
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
Samuel Barber: A Centennial Tribute
by Marilou CarlinAmerican music has always enjoyed a place of pride in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's classical repertoire, and will again in the 2009-2010 season, the first to be fully programmed by Music Director Leonard Slatkin. But among the many American composers that the DSO has championed over the years, none is more important than Samuel Barber.
Barber figured prominently in the DSO's award-winning "American Series" recordings in the 1990s, appearing on four different releases. Importantly, his works have also been performed regularly on the DSO's classical series.
Meanwhile, Leonard Slatkin, one of the country's most ardent promoters of American composers, has also had a long affinity for Barber. He recorded a dozen Barber compositions with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and also conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a recording of Vanessa, the composer's most successful opera.
So it is entirely fitting that the DSO should join with many other American orchestras this year to celebrate Samuel Barber's centennial with a season-long tribute. These performances offer audiences a unique opportunity to enjoy and explore the contributions of one of our country's greatest composers.
"Perhaps no other American composer was as misunderstood as Samuel Barber," said Leonard Slatkin. "In many ways a throwback to the 19th century, his musical language seemed at odds with the time in which he lived. However, during the past decade, we now regard him as a true individualist with a distinctive voice and prodigious musical gifts."
Born on Mar. 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Samuel Barber was one of the first students to study at the Curtis Institute of Music, which he was enrolled in at the age of 14 and where he studied composition, voice and piano. He went on to win the Prix de Rome as well as two Pulitzer Prizes, and many of his works have since become part of the core classical repertoire. Hailed for the rich lyricism and melodic beauty of his music, his compositions are most often characterized as deeply emotive and exquisitely crafted.
Still, Barber's enduring legacy was not a foregone conclusion during his life. At a time when American composers were more often being lauded for breaking away from European tradition, Barber unabashedly built upon that tradition, particularly the Romantic aesthetic. His music was sometimes labeled "anachronistic" and critics unfavorably compared him to some of his more groundbreaking contemporaries such as Aaron Copland, Roger Sessions, Virgil Thomson and Elliott Carter.
Despite the critics, Barber developed a following and was championed by many of the 20th century's most celebrated conductors and musicians. Some of his greatest successes came early, such as the Overture to the School for Scandal (1931) and the Adagio for Strings (1936), both of which will be performed in the first DSO Barber program of this season (Oct. 1-3) under Slatkin's direction.
The Adagio for Strings is perhaps Barber’s most well known work. It is an orchestral arrangement of the slow movement of his String Quartet No. 1. The renowned conductor Arturo Toscanini, who was acquainted with and impressed by Barber's work, requested a short piece to play on tour with the NBC Symphony, the resultbeing the Adagio. It had its premiere in 1938 with Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony in a nationally broadcast radio concert heard by millions, bringing greater fame to the composer and instant popularity for the work.
Although Barber insisted that it was "just music," the achingly beautiful piece, infused with a sense of tragedy, resonates on a deep emotional level with nearly all who hear it. Featured on numerous soundtracks, it has added eloquent gravitas to such films as Platoon, The Elephant Man, El Norte and Lorenzo's Oil. It has also come to be performed regularly on solemn occasions, including the funerals of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prince Rainier of Monaco. In fact, Leonard Slatkin conducted the BBC Orchestra in the Adagio just four days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 in a live televised performance filmed in tribute to the victims and heroes of those tragedies.
Barber's Adagio had its premiere when he was just 26, and scholars have noted that the composer "found himself" as an artist at a very early age. But while this and other early pieces established his career, works that he wrote in middle age earned him the highest honors, namely the Pulitzer Prize. His first Pulitzer was awarded for the 1957 opera Vanessa, the libretto of which was written by Gian Carlo Menotti, Barber's lifelong personal and professional partner. His second Pulitzer came in 1962 for his Piano Concerto. Barber died all too young in 1981, at the age of 71.
According to those who knew him well, Samuel Barber was urbane, sophisticated, witty, melancholy and brilliant. He was also an uncompromising and meticulous artist who firmly and unequivocally established the validity of the American composer. According to the musical scholar Paul Wittke, "The taste and refinement of the America that gave us a Samuel Barber is rapidly disappearing – but it is there in his music if we but listen."
Labels: Noteworthy
posted by Detroit Symphony Orchestra at
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Tuesday, August 25, 2009
DSO Recordings Available Now in the DSO Shop
August 25th marks the release of two new recordings by the DSO.First, E1 Music will release the new compact disc The Melody of Rhythm: Triple Concerto and Music for Trio. Recorded live in Orchestra Hall in Jan. 2009, this disc features the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and Music Director Leonard Slatkin, along with internationally-renowned virtuosi and composers Bela Fleck, banjo; Edgar Meyer, double bass; and Zakir Hussain, tabla.
The centerpiece and catalyst for the album, featuring the DSO and Slatkin, is The Melody of Rhythm: Concerto, a beautiful and haunting three-movement composition for banjo, double bass and tabla, which melds Indian classical music with rhythmic American roots-derived melodies. A composition created for three such disparate instruments as banjo, double bass and tabla (a pair of drums of North India) occupies a unique position in the classical repertoire. Also featured on this disc are Bahar, Out Of The Blue, Bubbles, Cadence, In Conclusion and Then Again.
Then, the DSO makes its recording debut on the Naxos label with Michael Daugherty's Fire & Blood. Led by Music Director Emeritus Neeme Jarvi and highlighting guest violinist Ida Kavafian as well as percussionist Brian Jones, this recording celebrates three works commissioned and premiered by the DSO during Daugherty's four years as Composer-in-Residence, including Fire & Blood (2003) for violin and orchestra, MotorCity Triptch (2002) and Raise the Roof (2003) for timpani and orchestra.
Fire & Blood was inspired by the Mexican modernist artist Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry murals, commissioned in 1932 by Edsel Ford. Rivera, who came to Detroit with his wife Frida Kahlo, spent two years creating murals that eventually spanned four large walls of the inner courtyard at the Detroit Institute of the Arts.
To place an order for these recordings for pick up at the DSO shop, please contact Paul Yee at (313)576-5115 or pyee@dso.org.
Labels: Noteworthy
posted by Detroit Symphony Orchestra at
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