This Week in Classical Music-August 2, 2009

August 02, 2009

Michael Steinberg

( Phoenix, AZ )
•Cleveland Piano Competition goes hi-tech
•Schwartz, composer of Broadway Hit Wicked,writes Opera
•Michael Steinberg Dies at 80

This Week in Classical Music 8/2/09

It’s “This Week in Classical Music”—an update on what’s happening in the classical music world; I’m Randy Kinkel.

The Cleveland International Piano Competition is using all kinds of new technology to bring more of the contestants’ performances to more people than ever before; the competition, now in its 18th edition, began last Tuesday and will have its finals this week and announces winners next weekend. Organizers plan to have live streaming of the first and second round performances available on their website, and audio of each performance will be available for download on Instant Encore. The Competition has also hired a videographer who will film a documentary using backstage footage and performance video that will be available on the Competition website in the fall. Winners of the Cleveland competition will tap into one of the largest prize purses in the field. The champion takes home $50,000, a recording deal with Naxos, two years of management service and a string of guaranteed concert engagements worth an estimated $100,000. Also this year, one lucky player will walk away with an additional $1,000 prize, determined by a vote from the audience during final-round concerts. For more go to their website, www.clevelandpiano.org.
The Oscar and Grammy-award winning composer Stephen Schwartz, Writer of “Pippin” and “Wicked” which just finished a sold-out run at ASU’s Gammage Auditorium, has announced his first foray into Opera, to be titled, “Séance on a Wet Afternoon”, which will have it’s premiere on September 26th in Santa Barbara, CA with Opera Santa Barbara. Schwartz wrote both the music and libretto for "Séance," a psychological thriller about a medium, her husband and the spirit of their deceased 11-year-old son. The production is to be directed by Schwartz's son, Scott.
Writer and critic Michael Stenberg has died from Cancer. He was 80. Steinberg worked as a teacher of music history at several colleges, spent time as the Music Critic for the Boston Globe and wrote program notes for The Boston Symphony and The San Francisco Symphony, for which he was also the artistic adviser, and the New York Philharmonic. His notes were published as three books, The Symphony, The Concerto, and Choral Masterworks.
For more on these and other items and events, go to the website, kbaq.org; be listening each week at this time for another update; and join me every weekday at noon for an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries; I’m Randy Kinkel for “This Week in Classical Music” on 89.5 KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.