Latest news with #conductor
Associated Press
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Acclaimed conductor Roger Norrington dead at age 91
Roger Norrington, a conductor acclaimed for historically informed performances during more than a half-century leading orchestras in Europe and the United States, has died. He was 91. Norrington died Friday at his home, his son Tom said Saturday. Norrington lived outside Exeter, England. Norrington conducted both period-instruments and modern orchestras, asking both types to play without vibrato and usually at faster tempi than modern practice. 'He was an extraordinary dramatist. He made things happen emotionally,' Myron Lutzke, an Orchestra of St. Luke's cellist who helped persuade Norrington to become music director, said Saturday. 'He had his detractors, certainly, and some of them were some of my best friends. But for me, he got the music off the page. He made the concert experience transformative.' Born on March 16, 1934, Norrington was the son of Arthur, president of Trinity College, Oxford, and the former Edith Carver. A violinist and boy soprano in his youth, Roger attended The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Dragon School, Westminster School, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music, where he studied under conductor Adrian Boult. In 1962, Norrington founded the Schütz Choir, originally dedicated to the works of Heinrich Schütz. He became music director of Kent Opera from 1969-84, the Bournemouth Sinfonietta from 1985-89 and New York's Orchestra of St. Luke's from 1990-94. He was principal conductor of Camerata Salzburg from 1997 to 2006, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1998 to 2011 and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra from 2011-16. 'Orchestras didn't generally use vibrato until the 1930s,' Norrington told The Guardian in 2007. 'It is a fashion, like smoking, which came in at about the same time. Smoking is now going, so maybe vibrato will too. ... I have discovered, all the way from Monteverdi to Mahler, is that when music is played as it should be, the sound is wonderful, the expression is wonderful and the instruments match together.' Norrington was nominated for four Grammy Awards and won in 2001 for a recording of Nicholas Maw's Violin Concerto with Joshua Bell and the London Philharmonic. Norrington retired after conducting the Royal Northern Sinfonia in an all-Hadyn concert on Nov. 18, 2021. 'I have enjoyed every minute of over 50 years of making music with some of the most wonderful and talented musicians in the world,' he said in a statement. 'The time has come to step off the podium.' His first marriage, to Susan McLean May, ended in a divorce in 1982. He married the choreographer Kay Lawrence in the mid-1980s; she died last year. Norrington was made a Knight Bachelor in 1997. He is survived by Tom and two children from his first marriage, Ben and Amy.
The Guardian
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Pioneering period instrument performances: Five key Roger Norrington recordings
It's hard to think of another conductor of recent times who has polarised opinion more sharply than Roger Norrington. On one side were those who admired his indefatigable research into 18th- and 19th-century performance practice, and the ways in which he deployed the results in his work with the period instruments of the London Classical Players, often extending the idea of historically informed performance beyond its then restricted field of the classical era into the orchestral music of Schumann, Berlioz, Brahms and Wagner. On the other side were those who viewed Norrington's 'experiments' as at best eccentric and at worst as profoundly destructive, especially when he carried over those ideas, such as his hatred of string vibrato, into his work with the many traditional symphony orchestras that he conducted throughout his career. Both those aspects of his conducting life are well represented in the many recordings – well over 100 - that Norrington made. Another significant aspect of his work, as an opera conductor (especially in the 1970s and early 1980s with Britain's first regional opera company, Kent Opera, of which he was the founding music director) is less well represented however and in this selection of Norrington's recordings, the Don Giovanni, a later product, has to stand for that important contribution. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony – London Classical Players (1987) Norrington's cycle of Beethoven's symphonies, overtures and concertos, all recorded on the period instruments of the London Classical Players is perhaps the best known of all his recording ventures. Wagner Overtures - London Classical Players (1990) Even today period-instrument performances of Wagner, Bruckner and Mahler are not exactly commonplace, but when Norrington made his pioneering recordings in the 1990s they really were unexplored territory. Mozart's Don Giovanni – London Classical Players (1993) Norrington's two Mozart sets with the London Classical Players – this Don Giovanni and a Zauberflöte released the following year, were very much trail-blazers when they were recorded over three decades ago. Vaughan Williams's London Symphony – London Philharmonic Orchestra (2000) British music was another of Norrington's enthusiasms, and his cycle of the Vaughan Williams symphonies, as well as recordings of Elgar, were much admired. Mahler's Symphony No 5 – SWR Radio Symphony Stuttgart (2006) From 1998 to 2011 Norrington was principal conductor of the Stuttgart Radio orchestra, and made a whole range of recordings of mainstream repertoire with it, including a complete Mahler cycle. Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique – Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (2013) The London Classical Players were dissolved in 1997 and its dates taken over by the OAE, with which Norrington continued to appear occasionally until he retired in 2021.
The Independent
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Czech Philharmonic says Jakub Hrůša will become chief conductor in 2028
The Czech Philharmonic announced Monday that Jakub Hrůša has been selected to become its new chief conductor and music director and will assume full duties in 2028 for an initial five year-term. He will replace Semyon Bychkov, who took over at the start of the 2018-19 season. He said in a statement he was 'overjoyed and deeply honored.' The 43-year-old Hrůša is currently chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony in Germany and is set to become the music director of the Royal Opera House in London in September this year. Hrůša has been a regular guest conductor with the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and others. He has been a principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic since 2018. Hrůša was named Opus Klassik's conductor of the year in 2023.
Associated Press
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Czech Philharmonic says Jakub Hrůša will become chief conductor in 2028
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) — The Czech Philharmonic announced Monday that Jakub Hrůša has been selected to become its new chief conductor and music director and will assume full duties in 2028 for an initial five year-term. He will replace Semyon Bychkov, who took over at the start of the 2018-19 season. He said in a statement he was 'overjoyed and deeply honored.' The 43-year-old Hrůša is currently chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony in Germany and is set to become the music director of the Royal Opera House in London in September this year. Hrůša has been a regular guest conductor with the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and others. He has been a principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic since 2018. Hrůša was named Opus Klassik's conductor of the year in 2023.
Washington Post
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Carnegie honors 20 'Great Immigrants,' including composer Tania León, for 20th anniversary
Tania León , the noted composer and conductor who also co-founded Dance Theatre of Harlem, never planned on emigrating to the United States. She wanted to move to Paris. When León received the opportunity to leave Cuba on a resettlement flight to Miami in 1967, she took it, thinking she would eventually end up settling in France where she would join the Conservatoire de Paris and become a concert pianist. Instead, she moved to New York and within months met Arthur Mitchell , the New York City Ballet dancer who achieved international acclaim and integrated the art form as its first Black star.
