by Stephen Brophy

Last night the folks at the Handel and Haydn Society put together a sweet little package of Monteverdi and madrigals, spiced up with some Shakespearean wit, to help us celebrate Valentine’s Day. This show, Zest for Love, will be repeated tomorrow at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, at 3 p.m.

The Society called back Laurence Cummings, who had previously conducted Monteverdi’s Orfeo for them, to put this confection together. He called on some of the core members of the H&H chorus, including Paul Guttry (whose bass voice stood out particularly for this listener), and 5 players of stringed instruments (including a theorbo) for a program that moved back and forth from the lachrymose to the playful, touching on most other love-inspired emotions along the way. This group was joined by a pair of actors, Nikkole Salter and Lee Aaron Rosen, who delivered the Shakespeare (sonnets, soliloquoys, and one duet from Taming of the Shrew).

Cummings challenged the audience soon after the start of the proceedings to forego their usual part of the ritual – applause – until the end of each half. This turns out to be more difficult than it sounds, because musical performances so often raise us to a state of emotional stimulation that can only be released by vigorously slapping our hands against each other. But we managed.

The period represented by the music chosen, mid-1500s to mid-1600s, falls outside of the Baroque/Classical realm on which the Society usually focuses its energy, The concert location, in Jordan Hall, contributed to the relative intimacy that the musical selections and the pared-down ensemble successfully established with its audience. And the informational notes in the program, composed by Teresa Neff, provided enough contextual information to make anyone who read them feel more completely a part of the whole event. All in all, an evening that any music lover would deem a success.

[Watch for an interview with H&H Musicologist Teresa Neff to be posted here in the next few days.]

Handel & Haydn Society Music
Director Harry Christopher,
feeling welcomed. Image by
Stu Rosner

HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY’S 156TH ANNUAL PERFORMANCE OF HANDEL’S MESSIAH WILL BE BROADCAST LOCALLY AND NATIONALLY

December 14, 2009 (Boston, Mass.) — The Handel and Haydn Society’s 156th annual performances of Handel Messiah (December 4-6, 2009), marking Harry Christophers’ first appearance this season as conductor during his inaugural year as Artistic Director, was recorded and will be broadcast in its entirety on WGBH All Classical 99.5 FM on December 20, 2009 at 2pm local time (www.wgbh.org/995; “Listen Live”). This continues a tradition that started in 1978, when WGBH Radio locally broadcast the Handel and Haydn Society’s Messiah for the first time. Radio host Brian Bell’s interview with Christophers will also air.

On December 21, American Public Media (APM) will broadcast excerpts from the Society’s Messiah, along with a conversation between APM radio producer Suzanne Schaffer and Harry Christophers on Performance Today (http://performancetoday.publicradio.org/), one of America’s most popular classical music radio programs, with more than 1.2 million weekly listeners on 237 stations around the country (See the Performance Today national schedule.). In mid-December, both Messiah and interview excerpts will also air on the nationally syndicated program Classical 24 (http://classical24.publicradio.org/) that reaches 250 stations and 2.5 million weekly listeners.

Handel and Haydn’s 156th performance of Messiah featured the Society returns of acclaimed countertenor Daniel Taylor and charismatic tenor Tom Randle, along with the debut appearances of celebrated artists soprano Suzie LeBlanc and bass-baritone Matthew Brook. Christophers plans to conduct Messiah throughout his tenure as Artistic Director with the Handel and Haydn Society. The Society first performed Messiah selections on December 25, 1815. In 1818, the Society premiered its complete performance of Messiah, and since 1854 has performed the work in its entirety every year, establishing an annual Boston tradition.

Photo by Petr Metlicka

by Tracey Cusick

Like an updated Shakespeare play, BalletRox’s Urban Nutcracker puts a familiar story in a different setting. The story follows the same outline as the “traditional” Nutcracker story: a fancy party, the gift of a nutcracker, a young girl dreaming, and the nutcracker coming to life in the dream. The Urban Nutcracker takes place in a city brownstone rather than in a winter palace, the party hosts and guests are upper middle class rather than nobility, and the settings are late 20th century American rather than 19th century Russian. There’s not a ballroom to be seen, the presentation of the nutcracker takes place in a living room familiar to most modern Americans: it has a television and sofa along with the Christmas tree.

The dream sequence includes children on Hoppity Hops and hula hoop twirling dancers. Most of the dance is ballet, but tap, hip hop, and swing are also included. This production has the traditional music of Tchaikovsky from the original, but also features Duke Ellington. The cast members, especially the younger children, were terrific dancers and exuberant, there’s much energy in this show. Even the costumes are vibrant.

I was fortunate to be able to attend the final dress rehearsal. The working out of a few final kinks slowed the show a few times, but it was fun to see cast members watching the performance when they were not on stage themselves. Because it was a dress rehearsal, those of us in the audience entered by way of the stage door. We got to see piles of Hoppity Hops, hula hoops and boxing gloves, and wonder how these items would be incorporated into the performance. It all worked!

See the Urban Nutcracker on Dec. 12, 18 & 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 13, 19, & 20 at 1:30 p.m. at John Hancock Hall, 180 Berkeley St. It is accessible via the Green Line to Arlington Station or Orange Line to Back Bay Station.

Tracey Cusick lives in the East Fenway.

The VGO at work. Photo by
Nick Balkin

By Meena Ramakrishnan

Instead of a traditional classical offering, the Video Game Orchestra (VGO) played popular video game theme tunes from Super Mario Brothers and Final Fantasy to a crowd of cheering video game fans. In VGO’s second concert at the Berklee Performance Center, they performed before a full house on Saturday, December 5, 2009.

The VGO was created in April 2008 by Producer and Music Director Shota Nakama, who encouraged the concert goers to cheer and make noise for the musicians. “This is not a typical classical concert. It’s a rock concert,” he told the audience. Unlike traditional orchestras, VGO has its own rock band that was used in some of the sets.

The orchestra is an ensemble of student musicians from Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory, New England Conservatory and local professional musicians. The VGO has played five concerts and received much acclaim, according to the press release. At their last performance at the 2009 Anime Boston Convention, they drew more than 5,000 listeners

The concert opened with the “Dragon Quest 4 Overture” and led into the “Super Mario Brothers Medley” that fans requested to be played at the concert. The audience swayed to plucked violin strings and a jazzy trombone. The orchestra’s rock band played riffs in songs like “Theme of Laura” from the video game “Silent Hill,” and the song “Snake Eater” from the game “Metal Gear Solid 3.” Violins furiously accompanied the electric guitar shredding. From the press release, Nakama said, “The music is epic—especially when fighting huge bosses!”

In the second set, the orchestra shrank to a quartet, and Nakama himself stepped in with an acoustic guitar to play “Unstolen Gem” from the game “Chrono Trigger.” The original version is with a guitar and a soloist. The third set featured special guest Conductor Wataru Hokoyama, who composed the complicated “AFRIKA” piece that the VGO requested to play. The orchestra returned with the Berklee Chamber Choir Club to play songs from “Video Games Live” and the suite from video game “Final Fantasy VII.”

Q & A with Producer and Music Director Shota Nakama

FN: How did VGO come about?
SN: Initially I made an orchestral arrangement a piece from a video game
and took it to some school orchestras in Boston to possibly perform it
or at least read it. They all refused to play it! So for my pure
love and passion for video game music, I decided to do it on my own.

FN: Since VGO started in 2008, how has it grown?
SN: It actually has grown to something I really did not imagine in the
beginning. We started with like 26-27 piece chamber orchestra and
performed in a small chapel. But thanks to all the staff & musicians
who have been involved in the project, we have been enjoying
consistent increase in the number of the audience per show. Now we
are able to pack a hall like Berklee Performance Center, and the
orchestra itself has about 90 members.

FN: What kind of audience do you have?
SN: We actually have a lot of different age groups coming to our shows.
Of course we do have a bigger proportion for younger people who grew
up playing games, yet we do have people who just like music in
general. It is really cool to have diversity in our show.

FN: How does VGO decide which music to play as an orchestra?
SN: I usually decide the music based on what direction I would like the
group to go to musically. The second factor is the requests I get
from all over the world on our website. I like featuring what people
would like to listen to, and it is always nice to play the music that
does not get performed very often.

FN: Which video games have inspired VGO?
SN: I must say the music from Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross, and Afrika are
the ones really got me going with this. The music from those games
is just so amazing. This whole thing started because I like the
music from those and wanted to play them live anyway.

FN: Your orchestra is different from the traditional orchestra. How do
you incorporate instruments like the electric guitar into VGO?
SN: Yes we are actually very different from typical orchestras. We have a
chamber orchestra, a choir, and a rock band. That hugely increases
the musical flexibility of the group. We can do the symphonic style,
jazz/swing, rock/metal, and etc. I grew up listening to rock bands
like Deep Purple, Yngwie Malmsteen, Angra, and Stratovarius, so this
“a rock band with an orchestra” concept definitely comes from that. I
have always loved the sound of symphonic rock/neo classical metal, so
this idea to integrate a band came to me naturally.

FN: What kind of requests does VGO get from fans?
SN: We get a lot of requests to add more music from games like Grandia,
the Tales series, and many others, usually more band oriented
scores since we have a band.

FN: How was VGO’s last concert at Anime Boston?
SN: That was one amazing show. We had a lot of fun performing for a few
thousand people screaming! I would definitely love to do it again.

FN: Has VGO contributed to the video game industry’s popularity?
SN: I think so. One of our objectives is to gain more musical respect for
the industry so people don’t look down on the music part, and that of
course simultaneously helps promoting the games. I think we have been
doing a pretty good job for that especially among the students and the
people around the Boston area.

FN: What has it been like for VGO to collaborate with professional game
music composers?
SN: That actually gives benefits for both sides. We get to perform their
music with those guys present, which is a great experience for all the
players. Also we can promote and spread out how good the composers
are in the live concert setting rather than a game console playing
their music. All our guests have been extremely nice to us, and we
would like to continue featuring more people in the future.

FN: What music will you play in the next concert?
SN: This next concert will feature AFRIKA Suite composed by the guest
Wataru Hokoyama. It is an incredible piece that all of us have so
much fun playing. He will be guest conducting also! We will be
playing our well known repertoire like Metal Gear Solid as well as
newly arranged Final Fantasy VII Suite which features 10 pieces from
the game.

FN: What’s in store for VGO’s future?
SN: We will definitely try to bring much bigger concerts and expand
outside of Boston so we can provide such great music to more people.
We love doing this, and I would love to share our passion with more
people.

Meena Ramakrishnan is studying journalism at Northeastern.

Mark O’Connor. Image provided
by Ashmont Media

The following announcement is posted for the Berklee Performance Center:

The 2009/2010 Music Series at Berklee continues with master fiddler and American roots music icon Mark O’Connor, along with Berklee faculty member Matt Glaser, plus student bluegrass groups and a full orchestra on Thursday, Dec. 10, at 8:15 p.m., at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston. General admission tickets are $20 – 25, and available at the Berklee Performance Center box office, at Ticketmaster.com or by calling (617) 931-2000. For information, call 617-747-2261 or visit www.berkleebpc.com.

Like other Series artists, O’Connor will spend the week leading up to the concert as artist-in-residence at Berklee. He’ll teach master classes during the day. In the evening, he and Glaser will rehearse top student vocalists and instrumentalists who will perform with the pair at the concert.

O’Connor’s concert introduces Berklee’s new American Roots Music Program, directed by Glaser. Reflecting violinist Glaser’s own eclectic tastes and journeys, the American Roots Music Program explores America’s musical and cultural heritage, and creates a focus on the styles from which contemporary sounds originate. Students will delve into blues, gospel, folk, country, bluegrass, Cajun, Western swing, polka, Tex-Mex, and other sounds. Glaser will design the curriculum, promote nontraditional improvisation, develop faculty programs, and host visiting artists, concerts and symposiums. Top contemporary performers, writers, and producers who are carrying on the American roots traditions constitute the board of advisors to the Roots Music Program, including Ricky Skaggs, Bela Fleck, Leo Kottke, Charlie Haden, Edgar Meyer, David Grisman, Lloyd Maines, Liz Carroll, and Doug Wamble.

Called by The Los Angeles Times One of the most talented and imaginative artists working in music — any music – today.” Mark O’Connor is a product of America’s rich aural folk tradition as well as classical and flamenco music. Between these musical extremes, O’Connor has absorbed knowledge and influence from the multitude of musical styles and genres he studied, shaping these influences into a new American classical music, and a vision of an entirely American school of string playing. His first recording for Sony Classical, Appalachia Waltz, was a collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer.

His follow-up release, Appalachian Journey, won a Grammy in 2001. His first full length orchestral score, Fiddle Concerto has become the most-performed modern violin concerto. O’Connor has also formed a piano trio to perform his Johnny Cash-inspired “Poets and Prophets” composition, which he often performs Cash’s daughter, Rosanne. O’Connor has recently formed other ensembles including a String Quartet concert entitled Evening of Strings with chamber music legends Ida Kavafian, Paul Neubauer and Matt Haimovitz, and he recently brought back to the stage his solo recital, a one-man unaccompanied violin concert which features his six caprices and three improvisations as the centerpieces of the tour de force
performance. O’Connor lives in New York.

Matt Glaser has performed with such giants as Yo-Yo Ma, Bob Dylan, Ralph Stanley, Stephane Grappelli, Gunther Schuller and David Grisman. He is also featured on the Grammy-winning soundtrack for Ken Burns’s The Civil War, and served as an advisor for the celebrated documentarian’s Jazz. He lives in Somerville.

About Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle that the best way to prepare students for careers in music was through the study and practice of contemporary music. For more than 60 years, the college has evolved constantly to reflect the state of the art of music and the music business. With over a dozen performance and nonperformance majors, a diverse and talented student body representing over 70 countries, and a music industry “who’s who” of alumni, Berklee is the world’s premier learning lab for the music of today — and tomorrow.

The Boston Conservatory Percussion Ensemble, with directors Keith Aleo and Samuel Z. Solomon, performs on Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. at 1260 Boylston Street, presenting a varied and adventurous program of contemporary works for percussion. For more information call the event line at (617) 912-9240. FREE.

PROGRAM
STEVE REICH: Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ
JOSEPH CELLI: Snare Drum for Camus
LANE HARDER: Circus Plenus Clamor Ingens Ianuae Tensae
ECKHARD KOPETZKI: Exploration of Time
NICHOLAS PAPADOR: Summons

About Samuel Z. Solomon
A member of The Boston Conservatory faculty, Solomon is responsible for dozens of world premieres of solo and small ensemble works. He authored How to Write for Percussion, a comprehensive guide for composers that received critical acclaim. Solomon performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician; he is co-founder of the Yesaroun’ Duo (saxophone and percussion) and the Line C3 percussion group, as well as a member of the new music ensemble White Rabbit and a timpanist of the Amici New York chamber orchestra. He can be heard performing the music of Björk on the soundtrack to Matthew Barney’s Drawing Restraint 9. Solomon is president of the Massachusetts chapter of the Percussive Arts Society. He is also on faculty at Boston University.

About Keith A. Aleo
Another member of the faculty of The Boston Conservatory, Aleo also serves on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan and is a regular member of the New Bedford and Indian Hill Symphony orchestras. He recently performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Semyon Bychkov conducting, and has presented clinics and judged international competitions at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Austin, Texas; the Giornate della Percussione in Fermo, Italy; and the Music Academy of the West Orchestral Institute. He serves as director of education and orchestral activities at Zildjian and is a member of the Percussive Arts Society’s board of directors. His book, Advanced Etudes for Snare Drum, has received critical acclaim.

About The Boston Conservatory
The Boston Conservatory trains exceptional young performing artists for careers that enrich and transform the human experience. Known for its intimate and supportive multi-disciplinary environment, The Boston Conservatory offers fully accredited graduate and undergraduate programs in music, dance and theater, and presents more than 200 performances each year by students, faculty and guest artists. Since its founding in 1867, The Boston Conservatory has shared its talent and creativity with the city of Boston, the region and the nation, and continues to grow today as a vibrant community of artists and educators. For more information, visit www.bostonconservatory.edu.