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Articles by John Fleming
Touring U.S., London SO Parades British Classics (With Bernstein, Mahler)
NAPLES, Fla. – In his first season as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano is emphasizing homegrown music, programming works of Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Walton, Bax, and other British composers. In September, his tenure began at the Barbican Centre in London with a program featuring the world premiere of a concerto for orchestra by Scottish composer James MacMillan.
After Opening Plaudits, Future Can Be Unsure Even For Best Operas
PERSPECTIVE — What comes after the great reviews and awards? That question came to mind in July when the Music Critics Association of North America announced its Best New Opera Award, which the organization has given out annually since 2017. As Rene Orth, composer of this year’s winner, 10 Days in a Madhouse, said in an interview: “Awards and positive reviews are a gratifying pat on the back, but the ultimate goal is to have a bigger impact and more performances.
Top 10 Pandemic Pivot No. 9: Tulsa Opera Plays Ball with
Tobias Picker is one of the leading opera composers of his generation – his An American Tragedy premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 2005 – and for the past four years he has been artistic director of Tulsa Opera. But for all his accomplishments, Picker never dreamed that one day he would be producing an opera in a baseball stadium. Then came the pandemic and Tulsa Opera’s remarkable effort to find a way to perform Rigoletto for a live, in-person audience at the city’s downtown ONEOK Field.
Top 10 Pandemic Pivots, No. 2:
Since last March, when California first went into lockdown because of the coronavirus, “Keeping Live Music Alive” has been the theme of Mainly Mozart in San Diego. Forced to cancel its annual orchestra festival in June, as well as a chamber music series and youth orchestra programs, MM shifted activity online. But CEO Nancy Laturno has been determined to find a way to get back to live, in-person music. [This is the second in our year-end Pandemic Pivots series.
MusicalAmerica - Anthony Davis's
DETROIT – Why did it take so long for X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X to receive its first major revival? After all, the opera on the iconic Nation of Islam (NOI) civil rights leader, with pulsating music by Anthony Davis and a libretto by his cousin, poet Thulani Davis, played to sold-out audiences and got good notices for its 1986 world premiere by New York City Opera. Davis went on to compose seven more stage works, including The Central Park Five, which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in music.
Top 10 Pandemic Pivot No. 5:
The catalyst for Long Beach Opera’s inventive pandemic pivot was the need to raise funds. "We’ve always been an unconventional company, but until last year we had been doing very conventional galas, where you ask people to purchase a table for a dinner, and then after the expenses are covered, there’s a donation,” said Jennifer Rivera, executive director and CEO since 2018.
Top 10 Pandemic Pivot No. 7: The NY Phil Bandwagon
In June, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and Deborah Borda, president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic, got together over Zoom to chat, and their conversation turned to an idea Costanzo had about musicians giving concerts from the back of a truck.
Classical, Jazz Orbits Cross In Visionary Art Of Mary Lou Williams
MIAMI — Slowly but surely, the music of jazz pianist-arranger-composer Mary Lou Williams is inching its way into the American classical canon.
From dawn till dusk: Time-adaptive bayesian optimization for neurostimulation
Loading metrics Open Access Peer-reviewed Research Article Citation: Fleming JE, Pont Sanchis I, Lemmens O, Denison-Smith A, West TO, Denison T, et al. (2023) From dawn till dusk: Time-adaptive bayesian optimization for neurostimulation. PLoS Comput Biol 19(12): e1011674. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011674 Editor: Daniele Marinazzo, Ghent University, BELGIUM Received: June 9, 2023; Accepted: November 9, 2023; Published: December 13, 2023 Copyright: © 2023 Fleming et al.
Biden’s Direct Air Capture Plan Only Delays Meaningful Climate Action
A historic tropical storm in California, the deadliest U.S. wildfire in over a century in Maui and wave after wave of extreme heat all show with punishing clarity that fossil-fueled climate chaos is here. Yet, the Biden administration’s recent announcement of a $1.2 billion award for two direct air capture projects shows just how far our government will apparently go to avoid needed measures to end the oil, gas and coal causing this crisis.
Ukraine Will Need Our Help Dealing With the Remnants of War
As I write this, I am speeding westward on a train across the fertile plains of Ukraine, on a long journey back home from a business trip to Kyiv. We’re heading to the Polish border town of Przemyśl and from there, back to the U.S. As the Ukrainian countryside flashes by, and in the absence of WiFi to pull me into work on my laptop, I have time to reflect on things I’ve seen during this trip to Ukraine, and to start drawing comparisons and contrasts to my many years in the CIA.
Ukrainian Orchestra Spreads Cultural Spirit In Extensive U.S. Tour
AVON PARK, Fla. — When the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine had just embarked on its almost two-month U.S. tour, which began in mid-January with seven concerts in seven days in seven venues scattered around Florida, the musicians got bad news from back home. On Jan. 14, a Russian missile demolished part of a large apartment complex in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine, and killed more than 45 residents, including children.
The Lure Of Barcelona’s Architecture Leads To Musical Treasure Trove
BARCELONA — Music was not what I expected to experience so vividly when I made my first visit to Barcelona.
MA Top 30 Professional: Jennifer Bowman
Director of Community and Learning Houston Grand Opera Jennifer Bowman is learning that you can go home again. Twenty-four years ago, she left her hometown of Houston to go away to school, first to Dartmouth College to major in music and Peabody Conservatory to study voice and arts administration, and then to take arts management jobs on the East Coast. They included several positions at the John F.
MA Top 30 Professional: Brian Goldstein
Partner GG Arts Law Arts and entertainment lawyer Brian Goldstein hears one question repeatedly from U.S. clients who want to engage foreign artists.
MA Top 30 Professional: Liz Player
Founder, Executive and Artistic Director Harlem Chamber Players For Liz Player, it was a “huge disappointment” in 2020 when Covid shut down the Harlem Chamber Players’s largest planned undertaking, a production of R. Nathaniel Dett’s rarely performed 1937 oratorio The Ordering of Moses.
MA Top 30 Professional: Gil Rose
Artistic Director, Boston Modern Orchestra Project Artistic Director/Conductor, Odyssey Opera Gil Rose founded the Boston Modern Orchestra Project 26 years ago with a business model focused on performing contemporary works and making top-level recordings of them. Rose has conducted more than 100 recordings with BMOP and Odyssey Opera, which he also founded, mostly for his independent record label, BMOP/sound.
MA Top 30 Professional: Andre Dowell
Chief of Artistic Engagement Sphinx Organization One of Andre Dowell’s duties with the Sphinx Organization is to manage the Sphinx Virtuosi, a professional chamber orchestra of Black and Latinx musicians. His approach to booking the group has changed over the years.
MA Top 30 Professional: danah bella
Professor and Chair of Dance Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University When Covid hit in 2020, danah bella was in the second school year of leading a new BFA program as chair of dance at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Suddenly, all the students went home and classes were online.
MA Top 30 Professional: Andrea Kalyn
President New England Conservatory Andrea Kalyn came out of the pandemic feeling optimistic. “In the worst of circumstances, we learned that we can create change,” said Kalyn, a musicologist and pianist. Kalyn is the 17th and first female president of the New England Conservatory, founded in Boston in 1867. Her tenure began in 2019. “I think the theme since March 13, 2020—a date I’ll never forget, when we sent everybody home—is change on every front,” she said.
MA Top 30 Professional: James M. Kendrick
Attorney Alter, Kendrick & Baron In his long career, Jim Kendrick has worn many a musical hat. He was an oboist who studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School, where he played in Aaron Copland’s 75th-birthday concert in 1975. After receiving a law degree from Rutgers University in 1983, he became an authority on intellectual property, with an emphasis on music. In addition to practicing law, he has been a top-level executive with Boosey & Hawkes and other music publishers.
MA Top 30 Professional: Portia Dunkley
Founder, Music of the Unsung America, New Canon Chamber Collective Owner, Teeny Violini Portia Dunkley is a double bass player, strings instructor, owner of a mobile music education program for children, called Teeny Violini, and founder of the South Florida concert series Music of the Unsung America that celebrates Black composers. In 2021, she founded the New Canon Chamber Collective, an orchestral and choral ensemble made up of musicians of color.
MA Top 30 Professional: Christina Jensen
Founder and President Jensen Artists Christina Jensen’s public relations firm was founded in 2007 to promote classical musicians, and eight years later she expanded its scope to include artist management services, an addition that turned out to be valuable during the pandemic.
MA Top 30 Professional: Robert Moir
Founder Robert Moir Artistic Strategies Robert Moir has been deeply involved in his share of music director searches. As a top-level executive with the Pittsburgh Symphony for 26 years, he was a key figure in bringing the orchestra a pair of eminently successful artistic leaders, Mariss Jansons and current Music Director Manfred Honeck.
MA Top 30 Professional: Anthony Davis
Composer Distinguished Professor of Music, University of California, San Diego Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X drew good notices for its 1986 premiere by New York City Opera. But it was not staged again in full until last May, when Detroit Opera mounted a newly revised version by the composer and his cousin, librettist Thulani Davis. With Davóne Tines in the title role, the company gave three powerful, nearly sold-out performances in the 2,700-seat Detroit Opera House.
MA Top 30 Professional: Matthew Shilvock
General Director San Francisco Opera In September, San Francisco Opera opened its 100th-anniversary season with the premiere of John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra, his setting of the Shakespeare tragedy. But during the previous two years and more of the pandemic there had been many times that it looked like the historic season might not take place as planned.
MA Top 30 Professional: Harriet Stubbs
Concert Pianist In June, British pianist Harriet Stubbs was named on Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honors List, recognized for “services to the community in West London during COVID-19.” Her services entailed playing 250 brief concerts, heard every evening through the open window of her apartment by neighbors and people gathered on the street. “I’m so glad my British Empire Medal came from her,” Stubbs said.
MA Top 30 Professional: Benjamin K. Roe
President & CEO Heifetz International Music Institute “The pandemic hasn’t been a story of one crazy season and then getting back to normal,” said Ben Roe, who has headed the Heifetz International Music Institute for young string players since 2014. “We’ve had three wildly different seasons in the last three years. We were virtual in 2020, a hybrid program in 2021, and for the most part fully in-person in 2022.
MA Top 30 Professional: Howard Watkins
Assistant Conductor, Metropolitan Opera Vocal Arts Faculty, The Juilliard School Graduate Vocal Arts Faculty, Bard College Conservatory of Music Howard Watkins is used to working behind the scenes at the Metropolitan Opera as an assistant conductor, whose job is to assist in the musical preparation of productions, which primarily entails coaching singers. He plays piano for rehearsals and sometimes as part of the Met orchestra.
MA Top 30 Professional: Polly van der Linde
Director/Owner Sonatina Piano Camps Two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, piano teacher Polly van der Linde and some of her students met online to share their thoughts about doing something in support of the Ukrainian people. “I try to cultivate community with my piano family, and our discussion led to a special event,” said van der Linde, proprietor of the 53-year-old Sonatina Piano Camps in Bennington, VT.
To Celebrate SF Opera’s Centenary, John Adams Turned To Shakespeare
SAN FRANCISCO — To celebrate its 100th anniversary, San Francisco Opera will open the 2022-23 season on Sept. 10 with the world premiere of John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra, his setting of the Shakespeare tragedy. “It was really the first thing we locked in for the centennial season,” said Matthew Shilvock, the company’s general director, recalling a lunch he had with Adams a month before his previous opera, Girls of the Golden West, received its world premiere in San Francisco in 2017.
Puts’ Spacey ‘Contact’ Is A Close Encounter For Trio And Orchestra
Time for Three — Charles Yang, from left, Ranaan Meyer, and Nick Kendall — performed the premiere of Kevin Puts’ triple concerto ‘Contact’ with the Florida Orchestra, Daniel Black conducting. (Concert photos: JM Lennon) ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As an opera composer, Kevin Puts tells stories with his music, but the storytelling instinct also extends to his latest work for symphony orchestra, a triple concerto called Contact that he wrote for the crossover string trio Time for Three (TF3).
How to repair the world’s broken carbon offset market
[This article originally was published on Yale Environment360.] In the wake of the Glasgow climate summit, governments must now return to the daunting challenge of making good on their emissions-reductions pledges, which at this point remain insufficient to hold warming below 2 or even 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels.
MA Top 30 Professional of the Year: David Snead
President and CEO Handel and Haydn Society David Snead faced a huge challenge as chief executive of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society in the summer of 2020. Because of COVID, Massachusetts officials had prohibited choral singing in the state, and Symphony Hall, the home venue of H+H, was not going to allow concerts with audiences for the foreseeable future.
MA Top 30 Professional of the Year: Heather Noonan
Vice President, Advocacy League of American Orchestras As the League of American Orchestras’ longtime advocate in Washington, D.C., Heather Noonan has been an indispensable guide through the maze of federal COVID-related emergency funding initiatives, most of which she was instrumental in convincing Congress to pass in the first place. These included the SBA Paycheck Protection Program, Shuttered Venues Operating Grants, and the IRS Employee Retention Tax Credits program.
MA Top 30 Professional of the Year: Cerise Lim Jacobs
Founder, Executive Producer, Librettist White Snake Projects As head of the opera company White Snake Projects, Cerise Lim Jacobs addressed the COVID crisis by creating what came to be known as the Pandemic Trilogy. “To think that I produced three operas in less than a year is just frightening,” said Jacobs, a lawyer turned librettist who founded the Boston-based company in 2005.
MA Top 30 Professional of the Year: Martha Gilmer
Chief Executive Officer San Diego Symphony When Martha Gilmer reflects on how the San Diego Symphony Orchestra met the challenges of COVID, she points to two sources of inspiration: Music Director Rafael Payare and construction of the Rady Shell, the orchestra’s open-air venue on the shore of San Diego Bay. “There were two constants,” said Gilmer, who became chief executive in 2014.
MA Top 30 Professional of the Year: Lawrence Edelson
Artistic and General Director American Lyric Theater The pandemic and the racial reckoning spawned by the police murders of George Floyd and others came together for American Lyric Theater in an unexpected way. “We’ve always considered diversity a core value, and I’m proud that we were doing work around the issue before Black Lives Matter,” said Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson, who founded the company in 2005 to cultivate new work and its creators.
MA Top 30 Professional of the Year: Lara Downes
Pianist Host and Resident Artist, USC Radio Group During the pandemic, Lara Downes put her itinerant life as a concert pianist on pause and largely stayed home in California. That shutdown spawned a burst of new projects by her.
MA Top 30 Professional of the Year: Lorna Aizlewood
Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel HarrisonParrott When Lorna Aizlewood assumed her top-level post with the venerable London-based artist management firm HarrisonParrott in 2018, she brought impressive experience as a corporate lawyer and executive with IMG Artists and EMI Classics. But nothing prepared her for what was to come two years later.
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