Mar 18 Blog REVIEW: Louisville Orchestra Looks For Jazz In Festival Of American Music Visiting conductors and composers often bring up the Louisville Orchestra’s legendary First Edition commissioning and recording days in the mid-20th century. The First Edition project put Louisville on lots of maps. The Louisville Orchestra has tried to reclaim some of that history since a youthful Teddy Abrams became music director in 2014. His appointment was […] By Daniel Gilliam Mar 18 Blog REVIEW: Louisville Orchestra Looks For Jazz In Festival Of American Music By Daniel Gilliam
Jan 09 Blog Review: Mester’s Final Concerts with the Louisville Orchestra Colorful and Lyrical (Photo credit: Louisville Orchestra) The first Louisville Orchestra concert of 2016 also represented Jorge Mester’s penultimate concert as director emeritus of the Louisville Orchestra. Before the concert, Brad Broecker (LO CEO 2006-2009), who was crucial in securing the Maestro’s return to Louisville as music director following several tumultuous years, honored Mester’s two terms as music […] By Daniel Gilliam Jan 09 Blog Review: Mester’s Final Concerts with the Louisville Orchestra Colorful and Lyrical By Daniel Gilliam
May 16 Blog Review: Kentucky Opera’s “A Woman in Morocco” Complex and Challenging Kentucky Opera concludes its 2014-15 season with a new production of the 2014 opera “A Woman in Morocco,” by composer Daron Hagen and librettist Barbara Grecki, as part of its Composer Workshop series. In partnership with the University of Louisville, the workshop series showcases new operas in early stages of development, giving composers a chance […] By Daniel Gilliam May 16 Blog Review: Kentucky Opera’s “A Woman in Morocco” Complex and Challenging By Daniel Gilliam
Apr 24 Blog Review: Louisville Orchestra Closes 2014-15 Season with Time for Three (Photo credit LeAnn Mueller) The Louisville Orchestra concludes its 2014-2015 season this week featuring Time for Three, John Williams’ The Cowboys overture and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Op. 67. The Cowboys overture is everything you want from a western film score and John Williams: driving string melodies, brass fanfares, evocative percussion and folksy woodwind tunes. […] By Daniel Gilliam Apr 24 Blog Review: Louisville Orchestra Closes 2014-15 Season with Time for Three By Daniel Gilliam
Apr 13 Blog Review: Emerson String Quartet at Comstock Hall (Photo credit: Lisa Mazzucco) The celebrated Emerson String Quartet returned to Louisville on Sunday for their second performance in as many years, this time as part of the Chamber Music Society of Louisville’s concert series at Comstock Hall (their last performance was with the Louisville Orchestra). The first two movements of Mozart’s Quartet in G […] By Daniel Gilliam Apr 13 Blog Review: Emerson String Quartet at Comstock Hall By Daniel Gilliam
Apr 10 Blog Review: Louisville Orchestra Highlights Russian Masterworks Review: Louisville Orchestra Highlights Russian Masterworks Thursday morning, on the eve of his 80th birthday, Jorge Mester conducted his penultimate concert of the 2014-2015 Louisville Orchestra season with two major Russian works. To open the concert, the orchestra played Berlioz’s Roman Carnival with vigor and excitement, with some beautiful moments from the violas, and a […] By Daniel Gilliam Apr 10 Blog Review: Louisville Orchestra Highlights Russian Masterworks By Daniel Gilliam
Mar 09 Blog Review: Louisville Orchestra Offers Discovery in the Old and New Teddy Abrams continues to show that orchestra concerts don’t have to be formulaic, and that discovery manifest in different ways. This past Friday and Saturday evening, we discovered, for example, that a conductor doesn’t have to wear a tuxedo or black socks. We discovered that hearing a 5-7 minute harpsichord improvisation could be interesting and […] By Daniel Gilliam Mar 09 Blog Review: Louisville Orchestra Offers Discovery in the Old and New By Daniel Gilliam