Nicholas Kitchen and the Borromeo String Quartet, Conductors in the News, and More
A Note from the North
by Marvin J. Ward
Durham native violinist Nicholas Kitchen was the featured soloist with the Pioneer Valley Symphony in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto in the “Northampton 350” concert on Saturday, February 7, in the John M. Greene Hall on the Smith College campus in Northampton, MA. The concert was one in a series of events celebrating the 350th anniversary of the founding of the city of 30,000.
Kitchen, who lives in Boston, returned with his colleagues of the Borromeo Quartet – William Fedkenheuer, violin, Mai Motobuchi, viola, and Yeesun Kim (a.k.a., Ms. Kitchen), cello – on February 14, for an all-day quartet workshop at the Northampton Community Music Center, whose president is cellist Sally Bagg, mother of Ciompi Quartet violist Jonathan Bagg. Throughout the day, the members of the Borromeo coached six groups of students who came from the Northampton area, including UMass in Amherst, and from Connecticut, Vermont, and New York. In the late afternoon, the quartet held a kind of open rehearsal for about an hour, during which they also fielded questions from the audience related to their history and repertoire selection. They then played a “short” hour-long recital consisting of Oswaldo Golijov’s “Yiddishbukk” and Johannes Brahms’ Quartet in A Minor, Op. 51/2. Their fatigue did not show, the music revitalizing and re-energizing them. As always, their playing was well thought-out, committed, and superb, easily showing why they are one of the pre-eminent younger quartets of our time. The student audience was impressed and inspired, saying that the day was a truly wonderful experience, and requesting a repeat next year.
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NC Symphony Associate Conductor (and former Interim Artistic Planning Advisor) William Henry Curry is one of five candidates for Music Director of the Shreveport (LA) Symphony Orchestra. The Maestro will conduct the orchestra in Shreveport on February 12. The announcement, which includes the names of the other conductors under consideration, is at http://www.shreveportsymphony.com/news.cfm [inactive 7/04].
New York City Ballet Music Director Andrea Quinn, who was among the “final” candidates for MD of the NCS, and who conducted in Raleigh earlier this month, is one of four finalists for MD of the Stamford Symphony Orchestra, in Stamford, CT.
Charlotte Symphony Music Director Christof Perick debuted with the Pacific Symphony in early February, earning a glowing review in the Los Angeles Times . The Maestro will conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra in an all-Mozart program at Tanglewood on August 8. Tickets go on sale March 14.
Richard S. Townley, Director of Music Ministries and of the Concerts at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Durham, has accepted a call to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, TN, effective April 2004. He will also serve as Artistic Director of the Memphis Boychoir.
Charlotte’s Arts & Science Council hopes to raise $10.3M in its annual fund drive, according to a report in Philanthropy Journal . To put this into perspective, the Queen City goal is nearly eighteen times that of the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County – and Charlotte aims to raise its money in the span of six weeks , instead of taking months and months…..
Naxos is placing its entire catalog of CDs, including its Marco Polo series, online , making over 75,000 tracks available for searching and playing on the web. The service is intended for music professionals – educators, orchestras, ballet companies, journalists and retailers – but individuals may subscribe, for $15/month or $150/year. For details and instructions for obtaining a trial password, see the subscription page at http://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/ .
Rhonda Peters, whose background includes fundraising and marketing for the Naples (FL) Botanical Garden and service at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum, has been appointed Executive Director of the Contemporary Art Museum [inactive 11/09], Chairman Frank Thompson announced on 2/13/04. While this news item does not relate directly to the performing arts, CAM used to present concerts in its old Moore Square facility, and CAM served CVNC – and thus its readers and supporters – by acting as our fiscal agent until we obtained our own 501(c)(3) certificate. The announcement says that Peters and the CAM board will “focus… efforts on those activities that are directly related to moving into [its] building on West Martin Street, in Raleigh’s warehouse district.”
Carrboro’s ArtsCenter terminated its ArtSchool Director, Mary Ruth, in January. Details are in a 2/7/04 Chapel Hill News article, available online at http://www.chapelhillnews.com/front/story/980664p-6965530c.html [inactive 9/06].
News items compiled by John W. Lambert
