Julia Davids News
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2024-04-24
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2022-04-16 09:20:18
From the Shenandoah Valley to Kensington Gardens: I chat to Ella Marchment about her new role at Shenandoah Conservatory & directing the UK premiere of Mark Adamo's Little Women
[…] She comments that apart from meeting a friend at Heathrow (both were in transit), she has not been in the UK since 2020!Further ahead, she will be taking over as artistic director of an American organisation, another job that Ella is able to work into her schedule as Shenandoah Conservatory. And at the conservatory they are planning a project called Native American Inspirations, which will include new music by the Native American composer Brent Michael Davids, alongside that of other Native American composers, Russell Wallace, Louis Ballard (1931-2007), Dawn leriho:kwats Avery and Jennifer Stevens. A group of students will be taking the project to the Venice Biennale in the Autumn (20 September 2022). She also plans to bring Opera Harmony out of hibernation. She has been working with an artistic director from Kyiv and selected a Ukrainian opera to record; excerpts will be recorded around the world. This […]
2022-04-06 08:27:54
Alertness and vivacity: Geoffroy Jourdain and Les Cris de Paris in Heinrich Schütz
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) - David & Salomon; works from Psalmen Davids sampt etlichen Moteten und Concerten, Op. 2 (1619), Cantiones sacræ, Op. 4 (1625), and Symphoniæ sacræ I, Op. 6 (1629)Les Cris de Paris, Geoffroy Jourdain; HARMONIA MUNDIReviewed: 4 April 2022, (★★★★) We don't hear anything like enough Schütz, a large part of his richly imaginative output remains largely unexplored; I don't mean that it is unrecorded, just that there are simply not enough performances given the sheer quality and imagination of the music. This new disc from Geoffroy Jourdain and Les Cris de Paris on Harmonia Mundi, David et Salomon, brings together works from Psalmen Davids sampt etlichen Moteten und Concerten, Op. 2 (1619), Cantiones sacræ, Op. 4 (1625), and Symphoniæ sacræ I, Op. 6 (1629). Jourdain uses a vocal ensemble of 22 singers, who also provide the solo singers, plus 23 instrumentalists, a sort of proto-orchestra that includes harp, theorbo/guitar, harpsichord and organ. And Jourdain […]
2021-05-17 00:24:00
TheSPCO.org: "Songs of Sorrow, Songs of Hope" streams 9 PM CT May 22, 2021 with "Molto Adagio from String Quartet No. 1," "Lyric" of George Walker
George Walker (1922-2018) Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Songs of Sorrow, Songs of Hope Saturday, May 22, at 9:00 pm CT Live Stream Inspired by sacred music, this program looks toward a brighter tomorrow after a year filled with uncertainty. Stirring selections from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s piano compositions and George Walker’s First String Quartet lead the program, along with the world premiere performance of American Indian composer Brent Michael Davids’ new work for solo flute. We will conclude with Franz Joseph Haydn’s series of seven musical meditations on Christ’s final words. We dedicate this program to the memory of George Floyd.
2021-01-18 07:41:21
Sacred Ayres: Psalms, Hymns and Spirituals Songs by contemporary composer Paul Ayres from the chapel choir of Selwyn College on Regent Records
Sacred Ayres: Paul Ayres - Psalms, Hymns, Spiritual Songs; the chapel choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge, Sarah MacDonald; Regent Records Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 16 January 2021The contemporary composer Paul Ayres in sacred mode, lyrical and engaging music from hymn arrangements to anthems and spirituals There is a balance to creating recording programmes devoted to a single, contemporary composer, particularly one that is not well represented in the recording catalogues. Composers want to include their best, their favourite, their unrecorded works, the performers need pieces which are performable in the time available, and the producer wants to keep costs down and not include anything too exotic. There is also the limitation of what the composer has actually written, a busy young composer with a number of other strings to their bow can find that their back catalogue is full of useful pieces, which do not always […]