Orchestra & Ensemble Event Reviews

This past Friday night was a truly special one for Calgary’s new music community and a milestone for the city’s arts community as a whole. Land’s End Ensemble hosted internationally-renowned percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie its 20th Anniversary Celebration at the Bella Concert Hall, Mount Royal University, in a wrap-up recital of epic proportions capping off the new hall’s exciting début … Read More

The biggest drama of the night came with the return of soloist Evelyn Glennie to perform Michael Daugherty’s percussion concerto “Dreamachine.” By now, Daugherty’s music is familiar, yet it remains charming and explosive. Think of turning the pages in a favorite action hero comic book series. The flow of panels offers a pleasing balance of dark shadows and lively colors. … Read More

Instead of Vienna Waltzes and marches the Bremen Philharmoniker presented a wonderful programme alla Havana & Buenos Aries flair for their New Year’s concerts 2016 in the sold out concert hall at the Glocke concert hall in Bremen. After a wonderful introduction from the orchestra under the direction of Marko Letonja the start of the concert with George Gershwins “Cuban … Read More

The concert’s second half was devoted to Canadian-Chinese composer Vincent Ho’s The Shaman (2011), the percussion concerto that starred Glennie. Sporting waist-long silver locks, she looked the part of its eponymous title as she gracefully glided through her battery of percussion. Its three connected movements were a veritable playground for the barefoot virtuosa, with unpitched percussion (drums, cymbals, bowls and … Read More

(Translated from Swedish) [Hugo Ticciati’s] festival O/Modernt at Confidencen […] spun off in a chamber music series [where] one does not choose between either contemporary or classical music. Instead, they entwine the program showing how they are interrelated, from Pérotin’s Gregorian singing with organ […] to modern minimalism. […] In Áskell Másson’s “Prim” […] the outstanding Evelyn Glennie showed how to get a … Read More

In perhaps the most unusual piece of the season, percussionist Evelyn Glennie performed John Corigliano’s “Conjurer: Concerto for Percussion” on an array of instruments crossing the entire length of the stage. By one count, Glennie played 33 instruments, or types of instruments, some in multiples and often more than one at a time. […] Although the strings-only orchestra came in … Read More

Henley Symphony Orchestra’s spring concert at The Hexagon in Reading last Sunday offered the prospect of a rare encounter with the world’s pre-eminent percussionist, Dame Evelyn Glennie, under HSO’s latest guest conductor, Jacques Cohen. Neither disappointed in an enticing amalgam of the unknown and the familiar, including Konzertstück for Snare Drum and Orchestra by Áskell Másson, Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra by Eric … Read More

An unexpected highlight of this program was the U.S. debut of a new percussion instrument, the aluphone, a series of aluminum bells of varying sizes and pitches on a stand six to eight feet in length.   […] Anders Koppel‘s […] Concerto for Aluphone [is] a three movement work which also included a marimba, presumably added for more tonal variety.  Both were played by … Read More

Petite, with bubbly friendliness and bright red socks (profoundly deaf since childhood, the percussionist hears vibrations through her entire body, including feet onstage), Glennie swept through O’Boyle’s concerto like a graceful whirlwind. From the circular bell melody of the opening over a shimmery string cushion, through the unbelievably fast bell part in the jig, to thundering bass drum and scarily … Read More