GREAT ROMANTICS FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES SCHEDULE
GREETINGS
Dear Friends and Music Lovers,
It is a pleasure to invite you to join us for our fourteenth annual Great Romantics Festival,
a celebration in music, words, and song, of some of the outstanding composers of musical history.
Fourteen years! That is a long time, and we are proud to have built up such a large and
enthusiastic following for an artistic event that has been described as "one of the important
vistas in the cultural landscape of Ontario." By calling our musical offering this year
‘The Titans’, we are drawing attention to those enduring qualities in the music of
Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky, which compel us to return to
their works time and again - no matter how familiar they are to us. That is surely one
of the defining characteristics of the term ‘masterpiece’ - music which cannot be consumed through use.
Like the peaks of some distant mountain-range, the further these composers recede, the greater
their stature seems to become. Whenever their compositions are played, they confirm
the truth of Nietzsche’s famous aphorism: "Without music life would be a mistake".
The music of Johannes Brahms is brought to the forefront in this year’s festival.
Four of our leading concert-pianists will appear in the ever-popular Piano-Gala,
which will be devoted in its entirety to his piano music. And we will also hear
some of Brahms’s organ music, and his Lieder as well.
An internationally recognized cast of artists has once more been assembled for the Festival,
and we anticipate some music-making of a high order. We are particularly proud to continue
our association with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, a connection of many years’
standing, and the orchestra will continue the tradition of opening the Great Romantics Festival
under the baton of Maestro Horst Förster, from Leipzig.
Do join us for this important event, and we look forward to welcoming you
to our weekend of music-making!
ALAN WALKER
Festival Director
Yes, Dr. Alan Walker cordially invites you to
attend the Great Romantics Festival, which will take place October 9 - 11,
2008 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The preliminary schedule has just been
released by Festival Coordinator Jacqui Templeton Muir. An abbreviated schedule
follows:
Thursday evening, October 9: Symphony concert at Hamilton Place
Horst Foerster, conductor, with Kaori Yamagami, cellist, in the Schumann
Cello Concerto in A Minor
Friday afternoon, October 10: Organ recital of music by Brahms and Reger,
with the brilliant Canadian organist, Christiaan Teeuwsen, followed by Tea
and Meet the Artist (the location for this and all Saturday events will
be at MacNab Presbyterian Church, a noteworthy and historically interesting
venue)
Friday evening, October 10: Hilton Head Prizewinner Yelena Beriyeva, in
recital at McMaster's Convocation Hall, followed as usual by the President's
Reception
Saturday morning, October 11: Lieder Recital with John Fanning and Valerie
Tryon, followed by a lecture on "Brahms and The Piano" by William Wright
of Ayr, Scotland
Saturday afternoon: Piano Gala and an "Homage to Johannes Brahms," featuring
pianists William Aide, Valerie Tryon, Yelena Beriyeva, and Louis Nagel
Saturday evening: The Festival will conclude
with The Great Romantics Candlelight Banquet at The Hamilton Convention Centre
Please go to the GRF
website for more information.
The Sheraton in Hamilton has a special website for GRF guests:
Great Romantic Festival Reservations, or phone 905/317-4531. You may also visit
The Crowne Plaza website, or
phone 888/528-3451 or 905/528-3451.
JAMES CONLON ACCEPTS MEDAL OF THE AMERICAN LISZT SOCIETY
On
Friday afternoon, May 30, 2008 at 5:00 pm, conductor James Conlon, Music
Director of the Los Angeles Opera and Cincinnati May Festival, was awarded
the Medal of the American Liszt Society. The ceremony took place in Coolidge
Auditorium of the Jefferson Building at the United States Library of Congress
on the first day of the American Liszt Society's three-day annual festival.
"The American Liszt Society is pleased to present this award to an individual
whose interest in and commitment to the interaction and relationship of
the arts so resembles the all embracing spirit of Liszt. The theme of this
year's festival, "Liszt, Literature and Painting," explored this same spirit,"
stated Dr. Thomas Mastroianni, President of the American Liszt Society.
Conlon remarked that he was exceedingly pleased and honored to have been
chosen to receive the medal. His acceptance speech, presented via DVD, was
recorded in Florence, Italy, where he was rehearsing Shostakovich's Lady
Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Italy's famous
May Festival. Jennifer Ringo, the highly regarded American soprano and wife
of the acclaimed conductor, accepted the medal on behalf of her husband.
The Medal of the American Liszt Society (engraved and die struck in solid
silver) is awarded to an individual who has achieved international distinction
in performance, writing, and/or scholarship. Outstanding administrators
and teachers are also considered. Recipients must be particularly associated
with Franz Liszt. Some past recipients include Claudio Arrau, Jorge Bolet,
Alfred Brendel, Maria Eckhardt, Klara Hamburger, Maurice Hinson, Fernando
Laires, and Alan Walker.
2008 CONFERENCE IN
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Thanks
to all who made the 2008 ALS Conference in Washington such a great success!!
Be watching this website for details as they develop concerning the 2008
Great Romantics Festival in October 2008, hosted by Dr. Alan Walker, and
the ALS Conference in April 2009 at the University of Kansas, hosted by
Dr. Steven Spooner.
FOUR
NEW CHAPTERS WELCOMED AT 2008 ALS FESTIVAL IN WASHINGTON, D.C.!!!
At its meeting on Thursday,
May 29, the American Liszt Society Board of Directors voted to accept applications
requesting the establishment of four new capters of the Society. The new
chapters include:
Iowa: Kesnia Nosikova, President
Kansas: Steven Spooner, President
Italy: Michele Campanella, president
Mid-Hudson (New York): Tammy Lum, President
Congratulations to these newest chapters of the American Liszt Society. With
these additions, the Society has fourteen chapters, its largest number in
history. If you are interested in forming a chapter, please contact ALS President
Thomas Mastroianni
JALS HONORED BY ERIH
The European Reference Index for the Humanities
(ERIH) has recently listed the Journal of the American Liszt Society
on its list of composed-oriented standard international journals "with a
good reputation among researchers of the field in different countries."
Among the criteria for inclusion is the selection of articles, which must
be based on an objective review policy. Quality control is normally to be
achieved through peer review. The journal must also fulfil basic publishing
standards. This is a first for JALS and certainly a feather in the
cap of the American Liszt Society! Congratulations to Editor Rena Charnin
Mueller on this accomplishment - BRAVISSIMA!!
UPCOMING EVENTS
NEW INFORMATION!!! The Summer/Fall 2008 issue of the ALS
Newsletter will go to press in late August or early September and will be available
approximately September 15. The deadline for submission of material has been moved to August 15, 2008.
Please send information for publication via e-mail to erath@illinois.edu. Only e-mail submissions
by attachment in MS Word or WordPerfect will be accepted. Photography and artwork should be
sent as hi-res jpeg files attached to e-mail. Thank you!
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